Roundtable on Reflective Practice to Ensure Healthy Development of Children: Preparing Social Work Students for Effective Practice with Children and Families

Schools of social work are tasked with providing their students with the foundations of knowledge and skills necessary to work effectively with children and families. Students are introduced to the concepts of reflective and reflexive practices in preparation for field practice and, ultimately, practice as professionals. However, engaging in reflective and reflexive practices are life-long processes made easier through experience but more difficult by the clients, circumstances, and interactions with which practitioners are engaged. The purpose of this roundtable is open a dialogue about the use of theoretically grounded tools that social work students (and seasoned clinicians) can use to guide and facilitate effective work with children and families from diverse populations utilizing reflective and reflexive processes. Three presentations provide examples of theoretically grounded tools used in the classroom with social work students that have been utilized by practitioners who work with children and families

Presenter 1 briefly discusses an integrated theoretical framework based on General Systems Theory (GST) and the Bioecological Model of Human Development (BMHD) and demonstrates the use of the ecological systems cognitive mapping (ESCM) exercise. This framework was utilized as the foundation for the Human Behavior in Social Environment course to orient incoming social work students to understanding and engaging with diverse populations. The ESCM exercise was developed to help students operationalize theoretical understanding of GST principles and BMHD concepts. As a developmental model, the ESCM encourages client-centered, relationship-based, contextualized engagement and assessment that is sensitive to all aspects of human diversity.

Presenter 2 presents an engagement facilitation tool being utilized around the country in early childhood education programs and organizations that encourages and assists social work practitioners to remain regulated and client-centered, taking the clients lead while attending to their own internal state. Based on the concept of attunement, and the seminal nature of the holding environment, the Facilitating Attuned INteractions (FAN) model closely simulates the engagement skills social work students are taught for building rapport and the therapeutic alliance for new practitioners, as well as a theory of change that is facilitated through the interaction for more advanced practitioners.

Presenter 3 introduces key concepts and a basic framework for reflective supervision that can be modeled in the classroom and developed in the practicum setting. Reflective supervision asks supervisors to attend to the themes supervisees bring to the supervision session and to explore potential deeper meanings, emotions, and changes in the supervisee’s relationships; this is a developmental process and will vary depending on the level of development of both supervisor and supervisee. This process helps students focus on the goal of their work at hand and maintain their role boundaries while dealing with emotionally challenging material. Reflective supervision allows supervisees to become more aware of their emotional states and structure their practice to anticipate and work through potential problems while gaining insight and critical thinking ability about their work. This presentation concludes by suggesting reflective supervision as an especially helpful teaching philosophy for social work education and other forms of relational formation.