Fieldwork Training in Social Work

This volume is a definitive manual for students and practitioners involved in learning and developing essential theories and models for fieldwork practicum in social work education. It addresses various functional issues in field practicum, delineates proper guidelines for students and supervisors, discusses criteria of supervision and evaluation, and explores the concerns facing South Asian field practitioners. The volume focuses on traditional and non-traditional components and aspects of fieldwork and training, such as: • The value and use of educational camps and skill development workshops. • The contemporary field-level needs and strategies in social work practicum. • Formulating alternative practice theories that will allow social work practitioners to respond to the critical social problems unique to India and South Asia. The book provides multiple frameworks for teaching and learning fieldwork that integrate theory and practice and create an environment where students can develop intervention strategies using their knowledge, skills, and techniques. The volume will be indispensable reading for undergraduate and post-graduate students of social work. It will also be useful for scholars of sociology, anthropology, and development studies, and practitioners engaged in various non-governmental and international organizations.

Table of Contents:
Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgements. List of contributors. 1. Procedural Aspects of Field Work POONAM GULALIA 2. Orientation Programme to Fieldwork: Relevance and Modalities ARCHANA KAUSHIK 3. Field Work Report- A Pragmatic Exercise SHEEBA JOSEPH 4. Transformative Learning in Social Work Education in India: Role of Social Work Camps RAMESH B 5. Essential Guidelines for Successful Field Work Supervision AKILESWARI S 6. Essential Guidelines and Techniques for Assessment and Evaluation in Field Work NITA KUMARI 7. Contemporary Field Level Needs and Essential Strategies in Social Work Practicum ASOK KUMAR SARKAR and INDRANIL SARKAR 8. Strengthening ‘Field’ in Field Education: Structural and Functional Issues in South Asian Social Work BALA RAJU NIKKU, BISHNU MOHAN DASH, ZIA ULLAH AKHUNZADA 9. Eight Decades of Field Work Training in India: Identifying the Gaps and Missing Links SANJOY ROY and BISHNU MOHAN DASH 10. Learning Social Work Practice Skills: Reflections from Communities, NGOs and Universities SWAPAN GARAIN 11. Non-Institutional and Community Based Field Placement in Social Work: Experiments with Inquiry Based Learning and Participatory Action Research BIPIN JOJO and RONALD YESUDHAS 12. Developing Social Work Practice Theories: Some Alternatives Ideas and Approaches INDRAJIT GOSWAMI 13. Essential Skills for Field Work Practice in Social Work SAYANTANI GUIN 14. Using Grounded Theory Approach in Field Work Education in India BINOD KUMAR 15. Essence of Communication skills in fieldwork SAUMYA Index

About the Author :
Bishnu Mohan Dash is an academician and a researcher in Social Work engaged in spearheading the movement for Bharatiyakaran of social work education in India. He is an Assistant Professor in Social Work at Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, University of Delhi, India. Sanjoy Roy is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Work, University of Delhi, India. He has published more than 45 articles and research papers in different journals and books, and 11 books related to women’s development, fieldwork practice in social work education, and rural development.

Review :
‘This book provides an interesting contribution to our understanding of the importance of the student placement during the social work education program in the Indian and South Asian contexts. The contributing authors offer culturally specific suggestions as to how the placement experience can be theorized and utilized. I would recommend this book for those interested in social work education from this region of the world.’ — Dr Michael Wallengren Lynch, Lecturer, Department of Social Work, Gothenburg University, Sweden ‘This book is an essential step forward towards the indigenization of field education in India. I urge administrators and faculty at the over 600 schools of social work in India to relieve field education from its place at the margins of the profession and give it the importance it deserves as the signature pedagogy of social work. I congratulate the editors and authors, who each bring a unique emphasis to the development of a field education model with a Bharatiya curriculum.’ —Laura Gibson, PhD, LCSW, MSW Program Director, Brescia University, USA ‘This substantial work breaks new ground in its wide-ranging account of social work theory and practice in the Indian sub-continent. Practitioners and academics will welcome the variety of content and the lively analysis of different fieldwork settings. Equally important is how this book suggests new paradigms for social work. The authors provide a timely challenge to Eurocentric pedagogical and fieldwork models; social workers and academics from across the globe will find much to learn from the important insights in this volume.’ —Alison Higgs, Open University, UK ‘This book provides an interesting contribution to our understanding of the importance of the student placement during the social work education program in the Indian and South Asian contexts. The contributing authors offer culturally specific suggestions as to how the placement experience can be theorized and utilized. I would recommend this book for those interested in social work education from this region of the world.’ — Dr. Michael Wallengren Lynch, Lecturer, Department of Social Work, Gothenburg University, Sweden. ‘This book is an essential step forward towards the indigenization of field education in India. I urge administrators and faculty at the over 600 schools of social work in India to relieve field education from its place at the margins of the profession and give it the importance it deserves as the signature pedagogy of social work. I congratulate the editors and authors, who each bring a unique emphasis to the development of a field education model with a Bharatiya curriculum.’ —Laura Gibson, PhD, LCSW, MSW Program Director – Brescia University ‘This substantial work breaks new ground in its wide-ranging account of social work theory and practice in the Indian sub-continent. Practitioners and academics will welcome the variety of content and the lively analysis of different fieldwork settings. Equally important is how this book suggests new paradigms for social work. The authors provide a timely challenge to Eurocentric pedagogical and fieldwork models; social workers and academics from across the globe will find much to learn from the important insights in this volume.’ —Alison Higgs, Open University, UK