Document Type

Article

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Publication Details

European Journal of Social Work

Abstract

The field placement is core to the education of social care practitioners and practice teachers’ behaviours influence the learning and development of future practitioners. However the practice teacher role is complex with responsibilities to the agency, clients and the student (Davys & Beddoe, 2000). Twenty practice teachers were interviewed individually about their views of their role, in particular what they saw as most and least important. Inductive thematic analysis resulted in the identification of five themes 1) the nature of the work; 2) acceptance of individuality; 3) commonality and differences from staff; 4) focus on positives and 5) practice involves planning, doing and reflecting. Although resilience was not specifically mentioned the findings indicate that supervisors focus on ways of working with students that proactively encourages resilience in line with Grotberg’s (1995) model, sending students messages in relation to I am (respected and respectful of others), I have (support; skills and strengths), I can (contribute). This study expands on the literature by informing us how practice teachers interact with students to promote resilience. It is suggested that Grotberg’s model forms the basis of a new paradigm to ensure the development of future resilient practitioners.

DOI

10.1080/13691457.2017.1366428


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