Developing Macro Practice Skills in Students: A Critical Aspect of Professional Identity

Background and Purpose:

As students develop their professional identity as a generalist social worker, it is essential they are competent in macro-level practice skills and knowledge. However, the anxiety and disinterest many undergraduate students feel about macro practice may inhibit this aspect of their professional identity development. Smith (1997) and Miehls (2001) have noted social workers’ professional identity development can be enriched when they embrace their anxiety.

Service learning, which combines community service with academic content to develop critical thinking and civic engagement in students (Prentice & Robinson, 2010), can be a potential bridge for embracing uncertainty and anxiety with challenging concepts. Furthermore, Sather et al. (2007) found that social work instructors who integrated service learning in their courses discovered students experienced a shift in their enthusiasm, professional goals, and a deeper understanding of macro practice.

The objective of this research was to explore student social workers’ understanding of the role and purpose of a macro practitioner and the development of their professional identity. Specifically, our research question was: How does using service learning in a social work macro practice course contribute to students’ professional identity development as a generalist social worker?

Methods:

Two sections of a macro practice course partnered with a local agency for a service learning project. Students were placed in teams (i.e., Community Forum, Fundraising, Advocacy), with each team developing a project to support their respective partner agency.

Sample: The sample consisted of thirty-one students from two sections of a macro practice course in an urban social work program.

Data Collection: Data were collected through ten weekly journals as a reflection strategy to better understand students’ learning experience and journey of professional identity development. Journal prompts were developed based on a definition of professional identity, and included student attitudes, values, knowledge, beliefs, and skills relating to macro practice. Each week, after a new service learning component was introduced and implemented, students were prompted to thoughtfully respond and react to their connection and experience with the work they completed for that week.

Methods: Qualitative data from the journal entries were analyzed using NVivo 10 and included artifacts from the student projects created during their service learning. Two researchers independently analyzed the data using grounded theory techniques to form open codes, axial codes, and overall themes.

Results:

Three themes emerged from the analysis including: (1) identity as a future social worker, (2) macro practitioner self-efficacy, and (3) skills gained through service learning. Students’ anxiety decreased over the semester, many found an enthusiasm for macro practice, and all reported the acquisition of new skills and knowledge through their service learning experience.

Conclusions and Implications:

Utilizing a service-learning project in a macro social work practice course provided an opportunity for students to address their anxieties and develop an expanded professional identity that includes acting as macro practitioners. Students’ new appreciation for and self-efficacy in macro social work practice will enable them to be more effective generalist practitioners and to more fully represent the totality of the social work profession.