Key competencies in public -child welfare: A comparison of the priorities of social -work faculty and public-child -welfare supervisors.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to explore the level of support for the key child-welfare competencies developed by California Social Work Education Center (Cal SWEC) between public-child-welfare supervisors and social-work faculty throughout California. The study was based on the theories of competency-based learning and transfer of learning. The assumption was made that effective transfer of learning from social-work education to child-welfare practice requires that the competencies emphasized in by social-work educators are the competencies valued by public-child-welfare supervisors.;Ratings of the 91 Cal SWEC competencies were gathered using online and paper-and-pencil survey instruments. Demographic information including county size, education level of respondent, years of child-welfare experience, and years of experience was included in the surveys. Respondents were asked to rate each competency on a 5-level scale from 1 (not at all important competency) to 5 (essential competency).;All California social-work faculty members at state universities and all public-child-welfare supervisors were invited to participate. Useable surveys were returned by 118 public-child-welfare supervisors from 41 of 58 counties and 49 social-work faculty members representing 10 of 11 state-university social-work education programs. The ratings for each competency section including ethnic sensitive and multicultural practice, core child-welfare skills, social-work skills and methods, human behavior and the social environment, workplace management, and policy, planning, and administration were compared between the public-child-welfare supervisors and social-work faculty members. Within-group comparison of ratings by demographics was also considered.;Overall support of the competencies was very high for both public-child-welfare supervisors and social-work faculty members, although social-work faculty members were more likely to rate competencies essential. There were medium to large effect sizes in difference of proportion (h) for approximately 30% of all competencies. The majority of the large differences were in the workplace-management and policy, planning, and administration sections. Ratings did not vary according to demographics with the exception that public-child-welfare supervisors with Master of Social Work (MSW) degrees rated most competencies lower than supervisors with other educational backgrounds.;The results demonstrated a potential need for clearer communication and collaboration between social-work educators and public-child-welfare supervisors.