Marion Bogo

• O.C.
• Professor (Full) at University of Toronto

The field education component of social work education is critical to the overall development of social work students’ readiness for practice. Field instructors assume great responsibility for the emotional, theoretical, administrative, and clinical development of students who enter field education at either the undergraduate or graduate levels of...

This mixed-methods study examined the training needs of Canadian fi eld instructors (N = 58), their perceived barriers to training, and their most pressing supervision challenges. Field instructors responded to an online survey sent through placement coordinators at English-language schools of social work across Canada. Participants reported feelin...

Reflection is a key component of practice, supporting social workers to learn from past experiences and navigate the uncertainty and ambiguity that is common within our work. While the benefits of reflective practice are well documented, there remains considerable debate as to how it is taught and evaluated, with variability across the health and s...

A wide range of professions use professional competence frameworks to articulate the fundamental dimensions of the particular occupation. While many schools of social work have developed such frameworks, concerns are also expressed. This chapter will review the conceptual underpinnings of competence models and the critique of this approach. Based o...

The integration of informal information and communication technologies (ICTs) has transformed social work practice, yet the use of ICTs in practice is not commonly discussed in supervision. The aim of this sequential mixed methods study was to understand the factors associated with social workers’ discussion of informal ICT use in supervision, and...

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected all aspects of social work education, including field education. The Transforming the Field Education Landscape (TFEL) partnership conducted two national online surveys to determine the impacts of the pandemic on social work field education. The first survey explored the perspectives of students and...

COVID-19 changed the context for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use globally. With face-to-face practice restricted, almost all communication with clients shifted to ICTs. Starting in April 2019, we conducted semi-structured interviews with social workers from four agencies serving diverse populations in a large urban centre, with t...

There have been longstanding debates about Master of Social Work (MSW) Advanced Standing programs. Many schools of social work offer Advanced Standing status to students with a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) that allows students to enter directly into a concentrated and specialized second year of the MSW program. There are arguments that BSW program...

Social workers and other professionals providing mental health services are regularly required to make high-stakes decisions in situations characterised by conflicting demands. To better understand the factors that drive clinical decision making in situations of risk and uncertainty, we used a design-based research framework to pilot a new approach...

Knowledge for clinical social work practice is ever evolving and consists of underlying explanatory concepts, practice models, and intervention skills. Conceptualization and identification of competencies for practice provides a bridge from knowledge and understanding to actual skills needed in clinical sessions. Articulating competencies also guid...

Mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect highlights the challenges between the ethical and legal obligations of social workers and the need to maintain the therapeutic relationship with the client. The ability to bridge this tension is paramount to ensure continued psychosocial treatment and the well-being of children. This paper di...

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) permeated social work practice before coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In addition to ICT-based formal services (e.g. e-counselling), social workers used ICTs informally as an adjunct to face-to-face practice. Building on our previous research, our cross-sectional online survey examined social w...

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have transformed social realms and professional fields of practice including social work. Research is lacking on informal ICT use and its impact on clinical social work. The purpose of the current study was to examine social workers’ informal ICT use with clients between sessions as an adjunct to fa...

Recognizing that despite what has been termed a ‘crisis’ in field education or practice learning, there exists a robust contemporary empirical literature illuminating a range of issues related to offering quality educational experiences to students in agency and community settings. The aim of this scoping review was to offer an overview and underst...

Teaching students about culture and diversity in social work practice is a complex and important task for social work educators. In this study, we assessed students’ conceptualization of culture and diversity factors follow-ing a simulated interview. Participants (N = 57 MSW students) completed areflection questionnaire post-simulation and we conduc...

Social workers play a critical role in assessing and treating individuals and families with mental health and addiction concerns. Although social workers are key professionals in the mental health workforce, there are gaps in the training and education of mental health, addictions, and suicide, and many students are inadequately prepared for field...

Integrating contextual competency frameworks into health social work education and practice can bolster student training and staff supervision strategies. This article describes the iterative development of a Health Social Work Competency Rating Scale (HSWCRS), generated using a competency framework tested through simulation and an iterative resear...

Social workers engage with and hold the emotional context of clients, while managing their own cognitive and affective reactions. As such, the importance of attending to social work students’ emotional reactions in the classroom to effectively prepare them for field education and practice has been recognized. A greater understanding of cognitive an...

Purpose: This article presents a scoping review that synthesized empirical studies on simulation in social work (SW) education. The review maps the research examining characteristics of simulation studies in SW education and emerging best practices. Methods: Using Arksey and O’Malley’s scoping review framework to develop the methodology and followi...

Field Education faces a number of challenges, not least in terms of the supply and sustaining of quality field education sites. At the same time, questions have been raised about preparation and levels of competence of new graduates. This chapter focusses on the latter concern. It provides an overview of how issues of leadership are conceptualized...

As future mandated reporters, social work students face the dual challenge of rendering accurate reporting decisions while concurrently maintaining the therapeutic relationship in an effort to decrease future child abuse and neglect. To address the paucity of training in this regard, 42 bachelor of social work (n=18) and master of social work (n=24...

Simulation-based learning (SBL) is an innovative experiential teaching method where students and instructors interact with a simulated client to foster students’ holistic competence in practice. Considering the context of North America where social workers are the largest service provider in the field of mental health, it is critical for educators...

Feedback is an important mechanism that enhances student learning in supervision and field education. Constructive feedback that is specific, timely, and based on observations, bridges theory and practice, enhances self-awareness, and builds holistic competence in social work students. There is scant social work research examining how this teaching...

Two Special Issues of the Clinical Social Work Journal have been dedicated to building on the social work discipline’s tradition and commitment to the supervision of staff and field education of students. The first issue included papers on the supervision of professional social work staff. The focus of this issue is field education of students, the...

Epistemic injustice occurs when therapists implicitly and explicitly impose professional and institutional power onto clients. When clients have a diagnosis of schizophrenia, this very fact further complicates and highlights the power disparity within the helping relationship. Inspired by the work of critical philosopher Miranda Fricker on epistemi...

Two Special Issues of the Clinical Social Work Journal have been dedicated to building on the social work discipline’s tradition and commitment to the supervision of staff and field education of students. These issues bring together contemporary theorizing, clinical supervisory and field education practice experience and wisdom, and research studie...

This article explores how multiple contexts – professional knowledge (e.g. case management), institutional practices (e.g. New Public Management), and mental health policies and legislations (e.g. Mental Health Act) – under neoliberal governance (re)produce ways social workers interact with their clients in moment-to-moment interactions. It is part...

Ruptures, including racial microaggressions, are inevitable in therapy. Because they are subtle and subject to alternative explanations, identifying and illustrating racial microaggressions have been challenging. To critically reflect on such ruptures and ultimately repair the alliance with clients, scholars urge the significance of studying “how”...

Simulation, the use of trained actors as simulated clients, has gained empiri- cal support as an effective teaching and assessment method in social work education. The associated costs involving the use of live simulation, however, often pose a barrier and prevent less resourced schools from implementing this pedagogical approach in the classroom....

There has been a call for social work programs to better prepare students for field education. This qualitative study examined an innovation titled “Practice Fridays” developed to enhance competence in MSW students in a classroom setting. Students (N = 57) described what they learned through this simulation-based learning activity and the processes...

Although the use of human simulation has recently gained much attention in social work education, many schools continue to rely on peer role-plays as a predominant teaching method. This qualitative study examined BSW students' perceptions of simulation versus role-play when learning interviewing skills. Individual interviews were conducted with sec...

There has been a call for professional programs to better integrate cultural competencies in education and professional training. There have also been concerns that a cultural competency framework does not capture the complex, multidimensional, pervasive, and influential concept of culture adequately and there is a need for pedagogical approaches t...

Simulation-based learning (SBL) is a powerful tool for social work education, preparing students to practice in integrated health care settings. In an educational environment addressing patient health using an integrated care model, there is growing emphasis on students developing clinical competencies prior to entering clinical placements or clini...

This article examines graduating students' conceptualizations of their generalist social work practice and their views for future skill development. Twenty 4th-year BSW students underwent an objective structured clinical examination that involved interviewing a simulated client and then responding to reflection questions. Reflections were analyzed...

To strengthen students’ preparation for engaging in field learning, an innovation was implemented to teach and assess foundation-year students’ performance prior to entering field education. An Objective Structured Clinical Examination informed the final evaluation of students’ performance in two companion courses on practice theory and skills. The...

With increasing diversity in therapeutic dyads, there has been renewed attention to the process of ‘joining’ in cross‐cultural encounters. Inspired by discourse analysis, we conducted a close reading of therapy transcripts between a Pakistani immigrant mother‐daughter dyad and a Canadian white female therapist in an outpatient clinic. Our findings...

One of the most challenging aspects of my role as editor in chief has been writing editorials that I thought would be of interest to the readers of this journal. Over the past four years I have written about a variety of topics including transitions, scholarship, competency-based education, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual...

The Routledge International Handbook of Social Work Education provides an authoritative overview of current understanding through coverage of key debates, exploring the state of play in particular social work education fields and reflecting on where the future might be taking us. The overall aim of the Handbook is to further develop pedagogic resea...

Confidence has been identified as both a positive outcome of social work education and as a factor which in excess (defined as overconfidence) can lead to diagnostic error. This study sought to better understand the nature of professional confidence and investigate factors that might be associated with confidence in performance in a clinical interv...

This study aimed to examine field instructors’ perceptions of foundation year students’ readiness to engage in field education in a delayed entry field model. Eighteen field instructors were interviewed and an additional 68 field instructors responded to an online survey about information they received about students’ performance in simulated situa...

Field education is arguably the most significant component of the social work curriculum in preparing competent, effective, and ethical clinical social workers. Students and alumni characterize it as such, and national accrediting bodies, both in the United States and internationally, recognize its crucial impact on the quality of social work servi...

Suicide risk assessment is a critical component of mental health practice for which the stakes are high and the outcomes uncertain. This research examines the consistency with which clinicians make determinations of suicide risk and factors influencing clinical confidence. Seventy-one social workers interviewed two standardized patients performing...

Professional judgment in complex clinical situations such as the assessment of suicide risk encompasses a multifaceted cognitive understanding of the substantive issues, technical expertise, and emotional awareness. This experimental design study investigated the degree to which the previous work-related experiences of clinicians and their preexist...

Few studies have examined social work students reflections on and experiences working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and questioning persons and addressing the intersection of race/ethnicity and sexuality within practice. This study explored current masters of social work student (n = 11) and recent graduate (n = 7) reflections on conducting a...

Although neglect is a common form of child maltreatment, it can be difficult to detect within a clinical interview between a social work clinician and client for the purpose of assessment and intervention, leading to a failure to act and secure a child's safety. This Canadian study utilized the objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) to assess so...

Accompanying the multiple benefits and innovations of social media are the complex ethical and pedagogical issues that challenge social work educators. Without a clear understanding of the blurred boundaries between public and private, the potentially limitless and unintended audiences, as well as the permanency of the information shared online, so...

The digital age has revolutionized how individuals interact. The number of computer users has increased exponentially, along with expanding local and global networks and opportunities for learning, entertainment, and support. Most recently, cyber communication is becoming an important part of face-to-face social work practice as an administrative a...

This study examines the reliability and validity of a measure to evaluate student field performance. Results demonstrated a consistent factor structure with excellent internal consistency, however, there was inadequate consistency between ratings of individual students in their first and second field education experiences. The measure had some pred...

Simulation-based training is often used to prepare health practitioners and is increasingly employed to train child welfare workers. This scoping review systematically searched the published and grey literature for studies that evaluated training for child welfare practitioners and used simulation methods that included standardized actors. Three st...

Recent studies have suggested that the career interests of many social work students are inconsistent with the traditionally defined concept of social work identity. The current study conceptualized, operationalized, and developed measures of the prevalence of various interests, preferred activities, and self-identifications associated with social...

Pre-practicum student reflections were studied using an Objective Standard Clinical Examination adapted for social work. One hundred and nine students conducted simulated interviews and immediately wrote answers to reflective questions. Reflections were studied using descriptive qualitative methodology. Three patterns emerged: students rely primari...

The purpose of this study was to further understanding of group supervision in field education. The goal was to illuminate factors that students identified as important for a group climate that facilitated learning. A qualitative interview methodology was used to explore the experiences of 18 MSW students who received group supervision as the prima...

Government plans to reform social work in England, led by the Social Work Reform Board, have resulted in far-reaching changes to social work education. These include establishment of The College of Social Work and adoption of its Professional Capability Framework, and transfer of regulation to the Health and Care Professions Council whose Standards...

Cyber counseling is a new and growing medium for offering mental health services to children and youth. However, there is a lack of identification of the core competencies required to provide effective online counseling. A school of social work, in partnership with a national service agency providing online counseling to children and youth, develop...

The ascendancy of the cyber world has led to increasing client demand for online counseling and a dramatic growth in cyber counseling, a trend that is expected to continue in the coming years. Recognizing the need for social workers who can competently utilize communication technology in their practice, we developed a 4-year pilot project as a prac...

To explore the influence of social work education on students' professional identification and practice interests (and to examine recent concern that students' career goals no longer match social work's traditional mission), authors of this study surveyed 180 graduate students at one school of social work at the beginning and end of the 1991-92 aca...

The aim of this paper is to develop a better understanding of the concept of meta-competence as it applies in social work. Eighteen social work students took part in a five-scenario Objective Structured Clinical Examination adapted for social work consisting of a 15-minute interview followed by a 15-minute reflective dialogue following structured q...

Reliable and valid methods to evaluate student competence are needed in social work education, and practice examinations with standardized clients may hold promise for social work. The authors conducted a critical appraisal of standardized client simulations used in social work education to assess their effectiveness for teaching and for evaluating...

Objectives: This study developed and validated the Cyber-Counseling Objective Structured Clinical Examination (COSCE), a method and tool used to assess the competence level of trainees and professionals who practice cyber-counseling. Method: The COSCE’s development involved the creation of a cyber-counseling performance rating scale and two simulat...

Background and Purpose: There has been a radical increase over the past decade in the use of cyber technologies. College students in particular use the Internet, instant messaging and blogging at higher rates than individuals from other generations (Jones & Fox, 2009; Junco & Cotten, 2010). Cyber counseling is a response to this cultural shift, pro...

This article focuses on the culture of human interchange, which is included as a component of the implicit curriculum in the current EPAS. It presents the use of the implicit curriculum concept in teacher and medical education as a context for its application to social work education. The authors argue that professional behaviors taught in the expl...

Today’s generation of youth and adults relies on communication technologies for entertainment, information, and social connections and more and more, for personal help and advice. With cyber technology having permeated the ways in which individuals seek support for a wide range of issues, the purpose of this paper is to report on a study that exami...

Objectives: To evaluate an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) adapted for social work in a lab course and examine the degree to which it predicts competence in the practicum. Method: 125 Masters students participated in a one-scenario OSCE and wrote responses to standardized reflection questions. OSCE performance and reflections were...

The assessment of children at risk of abuse and neglect is a critical societal function performed by child protection workers in situations of acute stress and conflict. Despite efforts to improve the reliability of risk assessments through standardized measures, available tools continue to rely on subjective judgment. The goal of this study was to...

Although a growing literature examines competencies in clinical practice, competencies of students in macro social work practice have received comparatively little attention. A grounded-theory methodology was used to elicit field instructor views of student competencies in community, organization, and policy contexts. Competencies described by fiel...

This article outlines the development of an evaluation tool for measuring student competency in macrolevel social work practice. Researchers followed a multistage process that incorporated the wisdom of experienced field instructors in identifying key competencies for practice, ranking performance levels in each competency, and evaluating the relia...

With the ascendancy of the cyber world, client demand for online counselling has increased and is expected to continue to increase dramatically in the coming years. The purpose of this article is to describe an innovative pilot practicum project in which social work graduate interns offered cyber counselling within a university to undergraduate stu...

This paper describes the development and successful pilot of rotational placements by the social work faculty of a large Canadian university. Modifications required for the pilot are discussed, particularly related to recruiting settings, enlisting field instructors and students, developing new field materials, training field instructors in the mod...

Objective: This paper describes the development of a practice-based evaluation (PBE) tool that allows instructors to represent their student’s clinical performance in a way that is sufficiently authentic to resonate with both instructors and students, is psychometrically sound, and is feasible in the context of real practice. Method: A new online e...

This study explores the experiences and perceptions of clinicians from a range of professions to articulate general principles for clinical supervision in mental health. Seventy-seven volunteer clinicians participated in 14 focus groups in 2008–2009. They discussed their perceptions about clinical supervision, facilitators, and barriers. Discussion...

Based on a larger process-outcome study on cross-cultural clinical practice, this report focuses on the client-practitioner engagement process during the first session in cross-cultural therapy. Nine cases with complete pre- and post-treatment measures, process measures, and verbatim session transcripts were selected. The cases represent a wide var...

The concepts of reflection and reflective practice, introduced by Schon, have been widely adopted in social work education where students are expected to demonstrate reflection in practice as a learning outcome. This brief paper reports on the development and testing of a tool for assessment of students' reflections on their practice following thei...

Substantial organizational change in many health institutions has eliminated profession-based departments and replaced them with program management structures. This article aims to explore practitioners' perceptions of their professional work in a large urban centre for addiction and mental health that has undergone such change. Seventy-six practit...

The development of standardized, valid, and reliable methods for assessment of students' practice competence continues to be a challenge for social work educators. In this study, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), originally used in medicine to assess performance through simulated interviews, was adapted for social work to includ...

The profession of social work is becoming increasingly both research-based and multicultural in its orientation. In this context, it is crucial for social work researchers to recognize, and grapple with, the conceptual and methodological challenges of conducting quantitative research with subjects from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. This paper ac...

Objective: Child welfare agencies have moved toward standardized risk assessment measures to improve the reliability with which child’s risk of abuse is predicted. Nevertheless, these tools require a degree of subjective judgment. Research to date has not substantially investigated the influence of specific context and worker characteristics on pro...

Field education is considered by social workers to be the most crucial part of their professional preparation, as it allows students to engage with communities, apply theoretical concepts, and develop their skill sets. In Achieving Competence in Social Work Through Field Education, Marion Bogo synthesizes current and emerging knowledge on field edu...

In its EPAS, CSWE (2008) identifies field education as the signature pedagogy (Shulman, 2005b) of social work education. This article analyzes the field education—signature pedagogy fit. It finds congruence in selected organizational arrangements that are pervasive and routine, and disparities with respect to expectations about public student perfo...

Research has identified high levels of trauma exposure and PTSD in professionals responsible for assessing children at risk for abuse. An important question arising is the influence of stress and trauma on professional judgment. This study examined the association between critical incident exposure, PTSD and workers' judgments of child risk. Ninety...

An exploratory study using qualitative methodology was undertaken with recent MSW graduates (N=12) from 2 graduate social work programs to identify and describe the students' emotional reactions to experiences in field education. Significant and interrelated themes emerged including the subjective and unique definitions of emotionally charged event...

Purpose: Social work educators need standardized, valid, and reliable outcome assessments of students' practice competence. This study aimed to establish the reliability and construct validity of an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), already used in other health professions and adapted for social work. Methods: In an OSCE, performa...

Background and Purpose: Schools of social work rely heavily on field instructor ratings to determine students' competence to practice, but evidence for the reliability and validity of these ratings is weak at best. Concerns include the inability of scales to differentiate between students, as demonstrated by low variability of scores and universa...

The purpose of this study was to explore field instructors' experiences and insights in working with lesbian and gay MSW students. In-depth 1-to 1.5-hour interviews were conducted with 8 field instructors selected using purposive sampling. Data were analyzed using narrative thematic analysis and a constant comparative method. One set of themes emer...

This study contributes to the emerging knowledge base of child welfare supervision. An exploratory study examined the beliefs, practices, and experiences of 51 child welfare supervisors in Ontario, Canada. Eight focus groups were held with supervisors from a range of settings cross the province. The study identified a number of interwoven factors a...

Purpose: In an effort to improve the ability of child welfare agencies and individual workers within these agencies to accurately identify children at risk of harm, child welfare services throughout the world are moving towards highly standardized risk assessment tools. The assumption of these models is that uniform measures and training will resul...

In-depth interviews were conducted with lesbian and gay recent MSW graduates (n = 6) and experienced field instructors (n = 8) to explore sexual orientation–related challenges in social work field education. Data were analyzed using techniques from grounded theory and NVivo qualitative software. Self-disclosure emerged as a central theme in the est...

Studied the influence of educational methodologies and group factors on new field instructors' perception of the training helpfulness provided by 1 school of social work. Ss were 65 participants in a 12-session training program, of which 49 Ss returned completed and usable questionnaires. Results are discussed in terms of perceptions of helpfulness...