The Influence of Field Education on Social Work Values and Ethical Conduct

Background and Purpose:  In the United States, over 22,000 social workers graduated from MSW programs in 2013 poised to enter professional practice. Schools of social work are tasked with producing competent professionals able to respond to complex situations through skill development based on theory, empirical evidence, and practice wisdom while reflecting the values of the profession.  NASW’s six core values differentiate social work from other disciplines and serve as a cornerstone of social workers’ professional education, identity, and practice.   

As the signature pedagogy of social work education, field education instructs students along three fundamental dimensions, ‘to think, to perform, and to act with integrity’, highlighting the importance of field education’s ability to teach the values delineated in the NASW Code of Ethics.        

Despite the pivotal role of values in social work practice and education, research on values is scant, dated, and inconclusive.  Empirical findings on the ability of social work education to increase social work values are inconsistent in results, inadequate in scope, and questionable in conceptualization.  Values have taken a back seat to the more measurable areas of knowledge and skills in the age of evidence-based practice.

Research question: For MSW graduates, how do their field education experiences contribute to the integration of social work values that guide ethical conduct?

Methods: Field education relies on intellectual learning through social interaction and the cognitive processing thereof.  It is experiential; students learn by doing, which maximizes the potential for values integration toward ethical conduct.  An inductive qualitative research design utilized grounded theory methodology and was guided by a constructivist paradigm with post positivist elements as it identifies core social work values.  The purposive sample included 12 participants from the 2010 to 2012 graduating classes of one school of social work. This time since graduation allowed the field education experience to be recent enough to be recalled, but distant enough to allow for social work values integration and ethical development.

The researcher conducted face-to-face, audio-recorded interviews using a semi-structured interview guide, developed from the literature and personal and professional experience.  It explored relationships between and among field education experiences, social work values, and ethical conduct. Data was managed using ATLASti software and constant comparison analysis was used to uncover codes, categories, and core concepts moving toward a mid level theory of values integration and ethical development through field education experiences.     

Results: Findings fell into three main categories: 1. The development of the professional self includes the integration of values into practice and behavior.  2. Field education was identified as the most important part of social work education in development of the professional self. 3. The ultimate reward of social work is enriched relationships.

Conclusions: This qualitative study engaged with a topic neglected in the research arena, providing insight into the field education experiences that contribute to values development and ethical conduct.  This knowledge will facilitate further development of the implicit curriculum within field education that influences the integration of values and ethical behavior and may inspire future research on social work values.