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student?”
by ICSW
Thirty percent of the 10 interviewed participants noted only “coursework,” “direct
clinical field placements,” and the “relationship with the field instructor” as most
valuable in learning how to be a social worker. Thirty percent responded with “direct
clinical field placement. ” CSWE competencies was only chosen when a part of the “all
of the above” response.
Figure 20. Interviewed participants’ responses to “How do you understand your role with
your student?”
One hundred percent of the 10 interviewed participants responded “all of the
above” in understanding their role for the student is to “provide supervision in a practice
setting,” “teach concrete skills,” “modeling” and “provide mentoring.”
Parallel to the various conceptual frameworks clinicians can hold overall with all
the respondents, the interviewed participants had a mix of responses and chose a variety
of options. Sixty percent noted “psychodynamic or psychoanalytic,” 50% noted
“neurobiology of attachment and trauma,” and 80% noted “eclectic or multi-frameworks
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Provide supervision in a practice setting Teach concrete skills Modeling how to be a professional social worker
Provide mentoring All of the above
depending on the situation.” None of the interviewed participants specifically chose
“behavioral.”
10 8 6 4 2 0 Interviewed Participants' Responses to "What Conceptual Framework do You Most Align Within Your Clinical Work?" N=10
Behavioral Cognitive… CtFocused, Pt-… Neurobiology of… Psychodynamic… Eclectic or…
Figure 21. Interview participants’ responses to “What conceptual framework do you most
align within your clinical work?”
Having reviewed the quantitative data of the overall participants, outliers,
excluded and those interviewed, next is a review of the survey response of the
participants who were not interviewed.
Summary of Non-Interviewed Participant Responses
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15
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Non-Interviewed Survey Participants' Demographics Age - Gender - Race - Employment - Years Supervise N=26
3 0 8 1 4 5 1 3 6 4 6 4 5 + 6 m a l e F e a l e M
- … n o r / N d e n s g e a n T r i a n A s a n r i c A m e a t i v e N a n r i c A m e a r i c A f k / l a c B i t e W h i c a n i s p / H o a t i n L r e n d s l a I i c i f a c P i a l a c R l t i u i / M B e t i c a c P t r r i v a t e P l n t a m e r n o v e G f i t r o p n o N m i a e a d A c
Figure 22. Non-interviewed survey participant demographics.
Of the non-interviewed survey participants, most were “white” (n=21), “female”
(n=19), in age range of “31-45” (n=20), and employed in a “non-profit” agency (n=15).
Of the non-interviewed survey participants, 22 of the 26 reported the most
valuable in learning how to be a social worker was “direct clinical field placements.”
Only 1 non-interviewed survey participants chose specifically “CSWE competencies”
along with other options where others only chose “CSWE competencies” when part of
“all of the above.”
2 t o 1 5 t o 3 0 1 t o 6 0 + 1
Figure 23. Non-interviewed survey participants' Responses to “What do You Find to be
Most Valuable for Your Learning in Becoming a Professional Social Worker?”
Figure 24. Non-interviewed survey participants’ responses to “How do you understand
your role with your student?”
Lastly, 88.46% of the non-interviewed survey participants’(23 of the 26) replied
“all of the above” in understanding their role for the student was to “provide supervision
in a practice setting,” “teach concrete skills,” “modeling,” and “provide mentoring.”
25 20 15 10 5 0 Non-Interviewed Survey Participants' Responses to "What do you Find to be Most Valuable for Your Learning in Becoming a Professional Social Worker?" N=26
Coursework Direct cinical field placements Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) competencies Relationship with the field instructor All of the above
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15
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Provide supervision in a practice setting Teach concrete skills Modeling how to be a professional social worker
Provide mentoring All of the above
Interestingly, 4 of the non-interviewed participants chose all of the options in addition to
then choosing “all for the above.” Again, providing survey participants with a “select all
that apply” option along with an “all of the above” option will be discussed more in
Chapter 5.
Summary of the Insights from the Survey and Interview Responses
Comparing the quantitative and the qualitative data reveals similar trends. All
participants felt that social workers learn how to be a social worker through various
means primarily through direct clinical field placement, but also through coursework, the
supervisory relationship, and the CSWE competencies. Overall, what is most valuable in
learning how to be a social worker is the direct clinical field placement which came
through in both the quantitative survey and in the qualitative interviews. However, when
we look at the role the field instructor plays in the development of a social worker, both
quantitatively and qualitatively, there are multiple factors involved in providing
supervision, teaching skills, modeling, and mentoring. Similarly, for conceptual
framework, both quantitatively and qualitatively, participants mostly responded eclectic
or multiple frameworks.
The nuances that came from the qualitative results are discussed in Chapter 5
through the lens of Sarnat’s (2016) relational supervision model. The overall meaning
from the qualitative results in the use of the supervisory relationship parallels the use of
forming a secure base (Bowlby, 1988), the potential space (Winnicott, 1971),
internalization (Buechler, 2017; Casement, 1985, 2002, 2006, 2019; McWilliams, 2021;
Schafer, 1968), and theory of learning through relationships by the zone of proximal
development and scaffolding (Coles et al., 1978; Wood et al., 1976). These theoretical
considerations will be discussed further in depth in Chapter 5.
Chapter V
Findings
In this chapter, the findings as related to the research questions are discussed.
Consistent with Thematic Analysis (TA), the participants’ narratives were analyzed
related to the four research questions and various themes and sub-themes were derived.
Table 2 summarizes those themes and sub-themes. The themes and sub-themes from the
interviews allow us to examine the lived experiences of field instructors in order to
understand their shared social constructed reality. Using this mixed method approach
allowed for a comparison between how these field instructors conceptualize their role
(per their responses to the quantitative survey questions), and what they actually do in
their work with their students (as heard through their narrative stories of their
relationships with their students). A mixed method data analysis allowed for an
integration of both data sets.
