Constance A. Barlow

‘What about Feelings?’: A Study of Emotion and Tension in Social Work Field Education

Seventy students and field instructors were interviewed in an attempt to identify and understand how upsetting field events were perceived and managed by urban, undergraduate Canadian social work students. The study reports on the emotional impact of the field experience and identifies major sources of tension for students and between field instructors and students.

Violence and Subjectivity in Teacher Education

Caught between the demands of the normative (what they believe they ought to be and value) and normalisation (what professional others tell them that they should be and value), teacher candidates often experience themselves as belated even though they are newcomers to the profession—simultaneously heirs to a history and new to it. In this paper we illustrate and explore the tensions that result between ‘new’ and ‘old’ in teacher education. Drawing on Lyotards concept of the différend, we examine the narratives of a practicum triad—one student teacher and his two mentors—as they each attempt to make sense of their irreconcilable differences. We conclude by discussing how the profession might fulfill its obligation to judge the adequacy of new teachers while remaining hospitable to the difference they introduce.

An Evaluation of a Suicide Bereavement Peer Support Program

Peer support, a cornerstone in recovery programs for mental illness and addiction, has not been widely applied to service programs for survivors of suicide. In 2004–2006 Canadian Mental Health Association Suicide Services in Calgary, Alberta, introduced the Peer Support Program for adults, an adjunct to conventional individual and group intervention. This article reports on a mixed-methods evaluation of the Peer Support Program. Hogans Grief Response Checklist and the qualitative data tracked positive outcomes for both the peer supporters and the clients. This study challenges the unspoken assumption that survivors of suicide, due to their vulnerability, require the services of highly skilled professionals and would not be in a position to offer unsupervised support to peers. Rather it supports an intervention protocol that consists of peer supporters and professionals working collaboratively to offer cost-effective, client-centered services.

Canadian and EU social work students in a cross-cultural program: What they learned from the experience

A four-year student exchange project took place between Canadian and EU universities that engaged in a reciprocal agreement between social work students, social service agencies and universities. Sixty-four students completed their practicum through this program. The article gives an account of the students’ learning experiences and their evaluation of this program. It concludes with a discussion of their learning experiences in cross-cultural exchanges and future recommendations for enhancing international social work field exchanges.

The Healing Alliance: How Families Use Social Support after a Suicide

This article is based on a study that investigated family responses to suicide using a qualitative methodology. The intent of the study was to expand our understanding of family responses to suicide by asking the question, “What changes do families experience after a suicide?” One aspect of the data revealed how families use social support to integrate the death into its history. It was found that healing alliances created within and outside the family sustained its members as they engaged in the painful process of personal re-definition and family transformation.

Challenging Traditions: The Field Education Experiences of Students in Workplace Practica

Consonant with an ongoing commitment to increase access to social work educational opportunities, this paper presents the results of an evaluation of a pilot project by a Canadian university that supported workplace practica for undergraduate social work students. Often adopted in social work programs with high proportions of economically marginalized students, workplace practica are field education experiences situated in the students regular place of employment. This paper summarizes the findings of an evaluative project which compares the learning experiences and academic outcomes achieved by students who have completed workplace practica to those who completed traditional unpaid practica. In contrast to the views of some field educators, student performance and experiences in workplace practica were found to equal or exceed those in traditional practica. Perceived benefits cited by students include the financial advantages associated with maintaining employment, enhanced accessibility to practicum opportunities, expediting degree completion and a deeper practicum experience. Students also confirmed concerns observed in the literature when they were expected to juggle a portion or all of their normal work roles with a new role. Implications of these findings in relation to the offering of workplace practicum are also discussed.

Virginia: A Story of Conflict in Social Work Field Education

This article considers the case of Virginia, a social work practicum student who experienced conflict in her field placement, in light of Heilbruns notion of liminality—that is, being poised on uncertain ground, leaving one condition or self and entering another. In addition, Virginias experience is explored within the complex web of power and resistance that characterized her relationship with the field instructor, the agency director, and the school.This article considers the case of Virginia, a social work practicum student who experienced conflict in her field placement, in light of Heilbruns notion of liminality—that is, being poised on uncertain ground, leaving one condition or self and entering another. In addition, Virginias experience is explored within the complex web of power and resistance that characterized her relationship with the field instructor, the agency director, and the school.

Preparing students for international exchanges: Canadian/EU experiences

Utilizing pre- and post-departure student evaluations and data derived from exchange coordinators in Canada and the European Union, this paper documents and evaluates formal and informal preparation of students for an international social work practicum. While students felt that completing an international practicum was a rich learning experience, good preparation is essential. Differences between the Canadian and European students’ thoughts about the preparation they received are highlighted. It concludes with implications for social work international field education.

Group Meeting Dynamics in a Community-Based Participatory Research Photovoice Project with Exited Sex Trade Workers

This article is based on a secondary analysis of transcripts from a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project that sought to represent through photovoice the lived experience of five exited sex trade workers. The focus of the secondary thematic transcript analysis was to discern group processes and describe group dynamics of six two-hour group meetings. Creating and maintaining an environment of safety emerged as a primary theme. The group processes resembled mutual aid groups, which are characterized by people offering assistance to each other in an interpersonal forum that demands personal reflection. Group dynamics revealed that an important aspect of CBPR photovoice research is the collaborative creation of a safe place for showing photographs and storytelling.

Falls the shadow and the light: liminality and natality in social work field education

This article is situated within an experience of conflict for Tina, a social work student, who is caught between her beliefs about the virtues of social work practice, and her disillusioning encounter with the schools administration. In this paper, we interpret Tinas experience of conflict by drawing on the central concepts of liminality and natality, and how she moves through disillusionment to illumination, thereby generating new self-understandings and meanings of social work practice. We conclude with the pedagogical implications for students, and educators, and that as messy and complex as the liminal is, it is also vital to the creation of new understandings and regeneration of meaning in professional education.