Does the Public Agency Provide Opportunity for Professional Development?
Abstract
Field work has been the nucleus of social work education during most of the fifty years of its history in the United States, and today occupies from 40 to 50 per cent of the scheduled time of students. At its best, field instruction provides the student with an opportunity to apply a wide range of theory under the careful guidance of qualified instructors, and to develop his own ways of relating himself to people and their problems as they are served by the social agency which he represents. Thus it is the practice of the Fordham School of Social Service to utilize the services of a number of social agencies within, or reasonably close to New York City as placement centers for the field training of its students. During their two years of study geared to the attainment of a degree of Master of Social Service, the students carry a coordinated program consisting of two days a week of classroom instruction, and three days a week of field practice. They must receive a satisfactory rating in both areas in accordance with criteria established by the school. The selection of agencies in which to place students, as well as the assignment of students to given placements, are matters to which the school gives the most careful consideration. While it is often the case that the need for field placements exceeds the number of acceptable agencies available, the school makes every effort to maintain a high professional standard in its choice of agencies, and is constantly evaluating the various agency programs, personnel and operational methods in terms of this standard.
Subject Area
Social research|Public administration|Social work
Recommended Citation
Milliot, Ruth, "Does the Public Agency Provide Opportunity for Professional Development?" (1958). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI30557637.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI30557637
