The Resurgence of Moral Basis in Social Work Field Education: The Experience of Field Instructors in Hong Kong

Social work education comprises the core component of the practicum, internship, or fieldwork, as revealed in curricula of social work degree programs all over the world. Field instructors work with students at the site of practice, which is filled with uncertainty and complicated human interactions. According to Tsang (2013), field instructors may face built-in tensions and multiple demands resulting from different roles and responsibilities.Limitations of technical rationality for making sense of humanity in the context of social work practice have aroused extensive discussion over a reflective paradigm, referred to as practice wisdom. Practice wisdom is practical moral knowledge that gives particular attention to moral reasoning and may better accommodate the nature of social work practice. There is a limited amount of discussion in the literature about the exercise of practice wisdom specifically in field instruction. In order to discover how practice wisdom can be utilized in field, the author needed to properly define "practice wisdom" and how it can be recognized. Based on extensive scholarly reviews, the author conceptualized four features of practice wisdom: the dialectical interplay of moral reasoning and cognitive knowledge, the agential nature of knowledge, the interactive process of knowledge generation, and the fluid status of knowledge. These principles guided an investigation into how field instructors exercise them in teaching, hence, how they employ pedagogical practice wisdom. Here, the terms field instructor and field instruction are equivalent to practice teacher and practice teaching.The Misplaced Technological Mode in Social Work PracticeSocial work practice deals with the complexity of human conditions and moral affairs. It is a form of practical and moral engagement and not primarily a matter of technocratic practice for achieving certain ends (Chu & Tsui, 2008; Whan, 1986; Yuen, 2010; Zhu, 2000). The dominance of positivism, however, is found in the current social work education, which mismatches the practical moral and judgment-based nature of social work practice.The Practical Moral and Judgment-Based Nature of Social Work PracticeSocial work is concerned with personal meaning (Goldstein, 1990) and dealing with human relationships, social problems, and psychosocial issues (Taylor & White, 2006; Tsang, 2014). The majority of practice is characterized by indeterminacy (Kwong, 2004; Schon, 1987; Taylor & White, 2006; Tsang, 2014). Kwong (1996) denoted formal theories as "experience-distant" and "decontextualized," a classification that would not be immediately applicable in practice situations where practitioners have to deliberate on what to do in the immediate moment under the specific context. Polkinghorne (2004) noted that judgment-based social work practice involve unique, particular, and uncertain practice scenarios. Social workers do not only need theoretical knowledge or skills to handle day-to-day practice, but also the moral perspective for the good of clients.The Misplaced Technical-Rational Oriented Approach in Social Work EducationDespite the judgment-based and moral engagement of social work practice, social work education tends to put more emphasis on formal theories and skills that are assumed to be sufficient for tackling the uncertain terrain of practice. For instance, a field practicum, under the supervision of field instructors, usually follows the teaching of "basic theories. " According to Tsang (1999), this approach reflects a kind of positivist-designed curriculum, which assumes that a body of objective knowledge exists that can be applied deductively in handling individual and social behavior. This positivistic epistemology is found in social work fieldwork assessment and curriculum design in Hong Kong. According to W. T. Chui (2005), local institutes largely use externally determined and assessment-based field education and learning, which has denied other forms of knowledge. …