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Exploring Managers' and Administrators' Retrospective Perceptions of their MSW Fieldwork Experience: A National Study
Abstract
Social work education has historically focused on clinical practice
& community organization, rather than on the development of
management skills, & research documenting the macro practice field
experiences of social work students is scarce. A national
retrospective study of the fieldwork experiences of social work
managers was conducted based on competencies established by the
National Network for Social Work Managers (NNSWM). The 200 respondents
(63% response rate) were managers & administrators with an average
of 20 years post-master's experience. Results of hierarchical
regressions indicate that macro practice focus & years of
experience were the only significant correlates of the participants'
retrospective perceptions of both quality & intensity of their
field experience as related to management competencies. A factor
analysis of the competencies revealed three underlying
factors-internal experiences, external experiences & evaluation
experiences, accounting for 73% of the variance in the data. While
this is the first national study of its kind, the limitations of
retrospective evaluations with respect to faulty or distorted memories
are acknowledged. Implications for educating future managers & for
future research are discussed. 6 Tables, 29 References. Adapted from
the source document.
Journal
(2004)
vol28
no1
pages21-44
Categories
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Education and Training
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Social Work Education
