Good Morning to my social work fam.

I've been thinking a lot about field education and I wanted to share some of those thoughts with y'all.1/

Often, when folks talk about increasing equity in field education, they talk about paying students.
I'm not against the idea, but if there are funds available for field education, there's someone else who I think deserves compensation first.

Field Instructors. 2/

All of social work education is propped up, supported, and made possible because social workers in the field VOLUNTEER their time, energy, and resources to our students. Often, these INSTRUCTORS are paid in CEUs and a pizza party. 3/

Field courses are courses like all other courses, only the learning occurs in the community v. in the classroom.
Field instructors design learning opportunities for the students that meet the course competencies, coach , provide feedback, and evaluate students. FOR FREE! 4/

Could you imagine a professor teaching any other practice course for the promise of CEUs?

Before we look at paying the students in the course, we need to pay the instructors of the courses. 5/

We need to increase access to social work education and field is a barrier. I understand and agree that paying students would help.

What I'm resistant to, is language that describes field as work v. class and learning. 6/

I often hear field described as "free labor."
I view field as a gift to the student from their (future) colleagues and community. Students are being gifted the opportunity to practice their learning on people's lives.
The agency and clients are yielding students space to try. 7/

I know there are "bad" field placements out there and "bad" field instructors. Too many students feel like an employee at their field agencies and not like a student.

I think lack of compensation is part of the reason for this. 8/

Conclusion:
We need to find ways to compensate field instructors.
Field is a class, not a job. 9/9

Bonus: If SW programs cannot compensate/ support all of their course instructors, are they financially healthy? Ethical?

Why is SW education dependent on free labor?