Zuchowski, Ines, and Pascoe, Katheryn Margaret (2025) Professional development needs of Australian social work field education supervisors. Australian Social Work. (In Press)

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Abstract

The centrality of field education in social work education is widely recognised. Past research findings highlight the role of placement supervision to support students’ professional growth, navigation of ethical dilemmas, integration of theory, and competence to practice within professional standards. The role of the social worker supervising these placements (field educators) is essential and they must have a range of knowledge and skills including an understanding of adult learning theory, assessment and supervision methods, and managing conflict. This mixed methods research used an online survey to gather perspectives from Australian social work field educators to better understand the training and support received in preparation for their role, and how confident they felt in their ability to support student effectively. Invitation to participate in the survey was distributed via Australian tertiary social work programs. One hundred supervisors completed the survey. Results identify various models of supervision, desired topics for training, and the knowledge ranked as essential to their roles. Although some respondents received an induction and had sought additional training, there was a mixed level of satisfaction with the training available. These results highlight the importance of higher education providers working with the field to provide ongoing development opportunities for supervisors.

Implication statement • Supervisors of social work placements are motivated to take on this important role, but need and request further training to support them in this work. • It is vital to ensure that induction training include more than a basic focus on processes and expectations. • Supervisors need to receive adequate workload relief, particularly in light of field education is a workforce development strategy.

Item ID:	85953
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	0312-407X
Keywords:	Field Education; Placement; Student Supervision; Training; Supervision Competencies; Work Integrated Learning; WIL.
Copyright Information:	© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Date Deposited:	14 Jul 2025 03:58
FoR Codes:	44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4409 Social work > 440901 Clinical social work practice @ 10% 44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4409 Social work > 440999 Social work not elsewhere classified @ 40% 39 EDUCATION > 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy > 390115 Work integrated learning (incl. internships) @ 50%
SEO Codes:	16 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 1601 Learner and learning > 160102 Higher education @ 50% 16 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 1601 Learner and learning > 160104 Professional development and adult education @ 50%
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