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This phenomenological study explored the experiences of students in a macro practice social work elective, which integrated critical service-learning and creative placemaking. In a community-university partnership, twenty-four students from a variety of disciplines worked with a university Artist in Residence and social work professor to create a participatory mosaic mural in an ethnically diverse and rapidly gentrifying area. Of the 21 students in the class, eight participated in the study and completed hour-long semi-structured interviews. Analysis revealed three primary themes: (1) role and power of art, (2) importance of relationships, and (3) impact of this community engagement class. The findings support the importance of art and community- embedded learning in engaging students. Especially relevant to social work education, student learning focused on cultivating communication and collaboration skills across individuals, groups, and communities. This paper will contribute to the growing body of literature which supports the value of critical service-learning, creative placemaking, and community-based collaborations in social work education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing recognition that social work educators must do more to ensure that social work students transitioning into the profession are prepared to engage in adept self-care practices. However, documented curricular efforts targeted at meeting this aim are few. This paper documents the impact of a credit-bearing self-care course on student (N = 40) competency about self-care. The course occurred in a social work education program at a large public institution in the United States. The researcher used a pre-experimental (e.g. pre/post) design to assess course outcomes. Results indicate significant improvements in student knowledge about self-care, skills related to engaging in self-care practices, and value related to self-care. After a review literature, this paper will provide a foundational overview of the course, delineate outcome variables and measures, explicate evaluative findings, and discuss salient implications derived from this endeavor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work practice faculty have an important role in socializing MSW students to the field and practice of social work. This study, based on interviews with 15 faculty teaching an advanced clinical practice course in the United States, examines how faculty conceptualize teaching and learning. Faculty were asked about the theories or frameworks that guided their teaching, their own journeys to teaching and the resources that support their teaching. The study found that participants drew largely on their own experiences as student learners and social work practitioners and did not have much formal training in teaching and student learning. Furthermore, while half of the participants were able to identify a learning theory that guided their teaching, the other half were not. Finally, while participants articulated the need for support regarding their own teaching, many of the schools did not have formal faculty development opportunities. The paper ends with recommendations for supporting current and new faculty regarding teaching and student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the UK, government is both concerned with improving the performance of public services, including higher education, and with ensuring that the public is aware of improvements in services, to convince the public of the effectiveness of the current regime. Success is both an effect of and a dynamic in the process of evaluating performance, and increasingly 'excellence' is established as a performance outcome. Drawing on a critical review of relevant theory and research, primarily from the UK, Australia and the USA, and illustrated by the author's experience of winning a National Teaching Fellowship, this paper examines teaching excellence in the context of two recent schemes: the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme and the Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. The performance culture in the public sector and the use of excellence as a success criterion are critically analysed. Assumptions about the transfer of excellent practice are explored. Questions about the interaction of competition and equalities issues are raised. The paper ends with arguing that if excellence schemes are to be an established feature of public sector systems, then we must develop strategies to enable them to be implemented equitably, transparently and fit for purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After reviewing the major changes taking place in American higher education, the present paper discusses a select number of challenges confronting US social work education. These challenges are broadly characterized as those of rigor and relevance. The paper presents the author's reflections on the best ways to meet these challenges and stresses the promotion of research and social innovations as important foci for social work education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International social work (ISW) has gained traction across the USA with a number of schools taking the lead in promoting the values of social work through exchange programs, service learning, and volunteerism. The internalization of campus through the proactive action of institutions to incorporate global perspectives into teaching, learning, and research in order to build intercultural competence among students, faculty, and staff has received little attention. This paper assesses the level of interest of social work students at a large urban university in the southwestern USA in embracing ISW and how they conceptualized their learning needs. Using a self-administered web-based survey offered to a total of 1,500 social work students with 18% respondent rate, the research determined through a chi-square test that students in Bachelor of Social Work, Master of Social Work, and PhD programs had a significant difference in preferences in areas of interests (χ2 = 153,p ≤ 0.000). Overall, students demonstrated interest in direct practice (74.3%) and community and administrative practice (16.6%). Students also differed in their level of interest in participating in international exchange programs (χ2 = 9.6,p = 0.047). Discussions address specific and unique interests categorized broadly as ‘globalized social worker,’ ‘humanitarian social worker,’ and ‘policy social worker,’ each of which requires specific skillsets and advanced behavior skills. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

MSW students may experience considerable stress during graduate school due to multiple life demands and the challenges of social work curricula, which often involves exposure to distressing client situations. Students' quality of life may be negatively impacted without sufficient tools to manage these stressful experiences. This paper presents evaluative findings of a course/module designed to enable MSW students in a university in the Southwestern United States to increase their quality of life and build stress coping abilities by incorporating mindfulness into their daily self care routines. Findings reveal that after completing the course/module, students reported increased quality of life even though perceived stress levels did not improve. Accordingly, mindfulness holds significant promise for bolstering students' ability to cope with the challenges of graduate school and preparing for professional practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was part of qualitative research that sought to explore motivations of Masters-level students (n = 53) in taking an elective course in international social work at a large public university in the Southeastern US. A review of the literature includes the foundational aspects of globalization and its relationship with social work education. Through content analysis, results show comportment of students' stated motivations for taking the course and the contemporaneous literature on globalization. Themes expressed are the historical context of globalization, concern about global inequalities, and the varying impacts of globalization around the world. Discussion is directed towards exploring ways of effectively infusing globalization content in the social work curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Given two million deaths annually in the U. S., social work education and training have been cited as woefully inadequate in end-of-life care. In response, two of the authors developed two post-Masters programs in end-of-life care for social work. This paper describes their curricula and the methods used to evaluate both programs, including measurements of the participants' self-efficacy before and after the programs. The analysis of evaluative data from the classroom and first-year field experiences of each program shows that participants increased their levels of skill, knowledge, values, and self-efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aging of the U.S. population is creating a growing need for well-trained social workers to serve aging clients and their families. The needs of these clients are often multidimensional, requiring practitioners who are well trained in understanding and applying complex theory, research findings, and practice approaches. Unfortunately, several factors impede best case scenarios in geriatric social work education. These include limited opportunities to study or specialize in aging, a smaller than optimal proportion of social work students seeking such training, and students' frequent fearfulness of research courses and their first practicum field experience. This paper suggests that we can more effectively train social work practitioners (as well as researchers and administrators) by modifying the common practice of teaching research and practice in distinct and separate courses. Specifically, we advocate the addition of an applied research component to the field work portion of students' training. The systematic approach to problem study and explanation, which is the cornerstone of research training, should also be applied to real world practice complexities that students encounter during their field work training and practitioners face in their careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undergraduate academic performance as a principal criterion guiding admission to graduate social work education may result in the exclusion of otherwise strong candidates for involvement in graduate education. This paper presents seven strategies for strengthening the admission status of nontraditional students, that is, those students who do not possess adequate undergraduate grade point averages to justify admission. These strategies are particularly important in the United States given the elimination or substantial limitation of affirmative action policies in higher education. Schools of social work, like other educational institutions, must become more creative and proactive to ensure that candidates for graduate education who can make important and substantive contributions to the profession gain entry. Using adult learning theory, the authors offer a rationale that underscores the need to look at an individual's vocational background and professional experience as well as professional commitment to serving vulnerable populations in order to assess readiness for admission. And, the authors identify the importance of offering opportunities to these individuals to strengthen their post-undergraduate academic records in order to be more competitive in the applicant pool. Each of the seven strategies is discussed in terms of its key processes and outcomes in relationship to developing these individuals as viable candidates who can compete in the admission process. The strategies are based on the logic of empowerment theory and they underscore the necessity of building on the strengths and assets that these individuals bring to graduate social work education. The authors illustrate the inclusion of these strategies into the admissions process of a school of social work in the United States and suggest that the use of these strategies can facilitate 'affirmative access' to social work education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]