Michelle Gravolin, Brenda Bartlett, Maree Higgins, Mim Fox, Jenny Rose, and Michelle Gilad

Student Educators in Health Network NSW/ACT Combined Universities Field Education Group

NSW/ACT ‘CUFEG’

Partnership and project What do we mean by literacy? Outline issues Overview of literature Theoretical frameworks and values Concluding comments Where to from here?

Final placement student

Generally doing well ◦ Interpersonal skills ◦ Assessment, counselling, team work ◦ Integration of theory and practice

Poor written skills ◦ Consistent issues with spelling, grammar, sentence structure ◦ Impacts on communication/advocacy ◦ Field educator spending significant time editing basic language

Progress ◦ Accepting of feedback ◦ Making effort to address issue ◦ Still needs all documents significantly edited at end of placement

Student Educators ◦ Large hospital or community health service ◦ Run student education program ◦ Supervise individual students, student groups, and

field educators/supervisors ◦ Point of contact with universities

Student Educators Network ◦ Meets quarterly ◦ Promotes and supports quality placements ◦ Provides education, research and advocacy

University staff interested in promoting Field

Education from New South Wales Social Work and Welfare programs from 1996 including: University of New South Wales University of Sydney Australian Catholic University (Canberra, and then *Strathfield ) Charles Sturt University University of Western Sydney University of Newcastle *University of New England *Southern Cross University * joined group after 1996

• promotes quality social work field education • builds relationships • promotes good understanding of field

education • provides education and support • responds to barriers in field education • works to respond to barriers, and the needs

of agencies and sectors • works collaboratively on projects

Meets 4 times per year in person or via teleconference Rotates meeting venues at various Universities Promotes field education issues and share information and resources Shares strategies for dealing with challenges Develops joint training sessions for field teachers Organises yearly colloquium/conferences Conducts research together Liaises with the sector, invites guests to update Universities on changes

in policy in the Human Services Sector Receives updates from members actively involved in AASW regarding

field education matters Lobbies (AASW, Heads of School of Social Work, AASWWE) on matters

relevant to field education Has worked on streamlining processes for ClinConnect Placements,

evaluation documents and Health Workforce Australia (HWA).

Ongoing discussions in Student Educators Network meetings

Raised with CUFEG in joint meeting early 2013 Roundtable at CUFEG Field Education Symposium Joint project proposed Separate and joint discussion of issues (Collingwood 2005)

Early literature review

Basic writing skills: ◦ Spelling ◦ Grammar ◦ Sentence structure ◦ Accurate word usage ◦ Writing structure ◦ Vocabulary

Not professional social work writing skills: ◦ Clinical reports ◦ Medical records ◦ Submissions ◦ Questionnaires ◦ Research reports ◦ Use of objective language

Professional writing is seen as part of university and field learning

Basic writing skills are foundational for professional writing

Poor secondary education outcomes ◦ Low socio-economic status ◦ Health issues ◦ Family issues

Change in primary & secondary teaching ◦ General decrease in writing skills across population?

Linguistic background ◦ Australian student ◦ Overseas student ◦ Refugee background

Learning disability

Technology ◦ Autocorrect

Mix of issues/concurrent with other issues

Written communication seen as fundamental to effective practice ◦ Conveying message accurately in professional/legal context ◦ Efficacy of advocacy ◦ Impacts on success of placement

Basic writing skills are seen by FE’s as an assumed skill ◦ Pre-requisite for placement

Teaching basic writing skills not seen as FE role ◦ A different area of knowledge and skills

Time issue ◦ Spending time correcting documents – necessary, but often not helpful ◦ Takes time away from teaching SW specific skills and other agency roles

Student well into degree before issue identified ◦ Hard to address in placement timeframe

Impact on students ◦ Demoralising ◦ General loss of confidence ◦ Fear of failure ◦ Barriers to other learning opportunities

Impact on Field Educators ◦ Negative experience ◦ Often lots of effort goes into helping student ◦ Awareness that contributing factors usually part of picture of disadvantage ◦ Feel torn between student’s needs and needs of student’s future clients ◦ Uncomfortable with outcome – recommending either pass or fail ◦ Fear of being seen as ‘racist’ , ‘middleclass’ or ‘old fashioned’ for raising issue ◦ Some feel issue has been minimised by university staff ◦ Can lead to reluctance to take future students

What is ‘good enough’ for effective practice? How could students with literacy issues be identified and

supported to address issues earlier? How do we respond to literacy issues when they do arise on

placement?

Obligation to offer placements to students who have completed prerequisites even if ‘not ready’

Pressures to pass students Internationalisation and Globalisation policies International and fee paying students (eg MSWQ) Pressure to enrol and graduate more students from low SES backgrounds Students’ visa and financial pressures Industries Skills Council Reduced number of assessments in units to reduce schools’ casual budgets reduction in the amount of time students spend in the classroom with some

changes due to promotion of blended learning strategies Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards (ASWEAS) Social Work Practice Standards Health Workforce Australia Increasing numbers of social work courses and students in NSW and finite

number of placements in the field.

The importance of writing as a social work skill

Diversity of practice settings and the focus on written

communication in those

Literacy is one of many issues for students on placement

Practice writing is very different to university writing

Low Socioeconomic status (SES) students having an impact on quality of written skills in general.

Inclusive education is a core social work value

Value of multiculturalism in our social work courses

Inclusion (Pease 2010; MacIntosh 2009)

Cross-cultural practice (Briskman 2009)

Anti-oppression ◦ incorporating inclusion & exclusion (Vasta 2004;

Dominelli 2008) Human rights (Ife 2001)

Resisting binaries (Fook 2002; Healy 2005)

Collaboration (Baker 2013)

1) Respect for persons -social work profession respects the inherent dignity, worth, and autonomy of every person.

2) Social justice -social work profession holds that societies should strive to afford protection and provide maximum benefit for all their members.

3) Professional integrity -social work profession values honesty, transparency, reliability, empathy, reflective self-awareness, discernment, competence and commitment.

Fundamental values underpinning social work practice are ‘driven by a mission of social justice and change to balance inequalities and to create a more enabling society’ (Fook 2000, cited in Harm 2007)

Source: AASW Code of Ethics, 2010 pp 12-13.

Collingwood, P, 2005 ‘Integrating Theory and Practice: The Three-Stage Theory Framework’ in Journal of Practice Teaching, Vol 6, No 1, pp6-23

Daddow, A, Moraitis, P, & Carr, A, 2012 ‘Non-traditional Students in tertiary education: inter-disciplinary collaboration in curriculum and pedagogy in community services education in Australia, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 31 May, pp1-10

Fook, J. 2002, Social Work; Critical theory and practice, Sage Publications, London

Harms, L 2007, Working with people: communication skills for reflective practice, South Melbourne, Oxford University Press.

Rai, L, 2004, Exploring literacy in Social Work Education: a social practices approach to student writing, in Social Work Education: The International Journal, Vol 23, No 2, pp149-162

Wache, D & Zufferey, C, 2013, Connecting with students from new and emerging communities in social work education, Advances in Social Work & Welfare Education, Vol 15, No1, pp 79-90

Waller, M, 2000, Addressing Student writing Problems: Applying Composition theory to Social Work Education, the Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work, Vol 5, No 2, pp161-166

Seen as a shared issue

Embedded in context

Experienced by and impacts on ◦ students ◦ universities ◦ field educators ◦ employers ◦ clients

Both challenge & opportunity ◦ Collaboration ◦ Clarifying expectations ◦ Developing strategies that promote inclusion

Project ◦ Expression of Interest across fields of practice/universities ◦ Map issues ◦ Identify strategies to address issues

What are your experiences and thoughts on this?

Do you have strategies or tools to share?