MSW Student Guide
Section 3.03.00: Roles and Responsibilities
There will be several people involved in teaching your field courses over the course of the time that you're in the program.
U-M SSW Field Faculty
First is your University of Michigan's School of Social Work field faculty. This person is the faculty instructor for all of your field courses and works in the School of Social Work Office of Field Education. This individual will act as the liaison between the school and the field site, and will be there to guide you every step of the way throughout your field experience. They will monitor your learning, and be the ones that will assign the grades for all of your field courses. Your field faculty is dedicated to helping you develop the fundamental skills and competencies of the social work profession, so please don't hesitate to reach out to them and tap into their knowledge and expertise often.
Field Instructors
The second person you'll be dealing with is your field instructor. This person is typically, but not always, an employee at the field site. They will supervise your learning while you're at the field site, and your field instructor will also typically be a licensed MSW who is volunteering their time to provide you regular supervision. They will work with you and your School of Social Work field faculty to establish learning goals and assignments and activities during each semester that you're in field education.
Your UM SSW field faculty and your field instructor will meet with you together at least one time each term to review your learning progress. We call this a site visit. These site visits are a requirement of each field education course and may be conducted in-person, via Zoom or by phone, with the goal of at least one in-person visit during the students field education experience.
Your field instructor will also complete an end of term evaluation of your learning and performance that will be submitted to the field faculty and will be one of the sources of information used to determine the students’ final grade in the field education course for that term. Students will also complete a self-evaluation as a part of this process.
The U-M SSW field faculty is the course instructor and will make the final determination of the grade that you receive for your field education course and based on the evaluation from your field instructor and completion of other field education course requirements.
Task Supervisor
Finally, depending on the field site, students may also be assigned a task supervisor who provides day-to-day oversight of their learning. Typically, the task supervisor is not a licensed social worker and may even be someone from another professional discipline, but is very familiar with the work at the field site. This person will have regular contact both with the field instructor and the field faculty to help evaluate student learning and to think about learning goals and responsibilities.
U-M SSW Field Faculty
First is your University of Michigan's School of Social Work field faculty. This person is the faculty instructor for all of your field courses and works in the School of Social Work Office of Field Education. This individual will act as the liaison between the school and the field site, and will be there to guide you every step of the way throughout your field experience. They will monitor your learning, and be the ones that will assign the grades for all of your field courses. Your field faculty is dedicated to helping you develop the fundamental skills and competencies of the social work profession, so please don't hesitate to reach out to them and tap into their knowledge and expertise often.
Field Instructors
The second person you'll be dealing with is your field instructor. This person is typically, but not always, an employee at the field site. They will supervise your learning while you're at the field site, and your field instructor will also typically be a licensed MSW who is volunteering their time to provide you regular supervision. They will work with you and your School of Social Work field faculty to establish learning goals and assignments and activities during each semester that you're in field education.
Your UM SSW field faculty and your field instructor will meet with you together at least one time each term to review your learning progress. We call this a site visit. These site visits are a requirement of each field education course and may be conducted in-person, via Zoom or by phone, with the goal of at least one in-person visit during the students field education experience.
Your field instructor will also complete an end of term evaluation of your learning and performance that will be submitted to the field faculty and will be one of the sources of information used to determine the students’ final grade in the field education course for that term. Students will also complete a self-evaluation as a part of this process.
The U-M SSW field faculty is the course instructor and will make the final determination of the grade that you receive for your field education course and based on the evaluation from your field instructor and completion of other field education course requirements.
Task Supervisor
Finally, depending on the field site, students may also be assigned a task supervisor who provides day-to-day oversight of their learning. Typically, the task supervisor is not a licensed social worker and may even be someone from another professional discipline, but is very familiar with the work at the field site. This person will have regular contact both with the field instructor and the field faculty to help evaluate student learning and to think about learning goals and responsibilities.