Fieldwork Practicum as Perceived by Social Work Students with Special Reference to Madurai

Abstract

In the scholarly world Social Work is viewed as a practice-oriented discipline. Social work education comprises of a theoretical component taught in the classroom and field- based education involving integration of the academic aspect and practice. Fieldwork practicum is the hallmark of Social Work. Fieldwork, which is also known as field instruction6, field placement, field education, practicum or internship is therefore an integral component of social work education. The perception of students about Field Work program was studied by adopting a qualitative technique called Focused Group Discussion (FGD) with three groups of final year Social Work Postgraduate students at a particular college in Madurai, to find meaningful insights. An Explanatory Research Design was adopted for the study. Student’s perception on three broad areas such as (i) Training at Fieldwork agency, (ii) Faculty guidance and (iii) Practical application of theories were studied. Students perceived certain fieldwork agencies with wider scope to practice the methods of Social Work but there were also fieldwork agencies, where the scope for social work practices was low due to lack of Social work professionals. It was found that Fieldwork enables students to come in contact with needy people, their problems, their reactions to the problems and their attitude towards social workers and thus the students discovered their ability to help. Students perceived fieldwork as a supervised social work practice that provides opportunities for them to match theory and practice. Thus Fieldwork enabled Social work student trainees to develop their knowledge, skills through practical application.

Keywords: Field Work, practical application, student perception, Social Work