Abstract
Social work educators are charged with preparing the next generation of clinical practitioners, since social workers provide the majority of the nation’s mental health services. Yet little is known about the “soil” onto which instruction falls—the ideas about mental disorder that MSW students bring to their clinical assessment courses. Without understanding the concepts that students already have, it is difficult to know how material is actually assimilated and translated into practice. Thus, a survey was conducted of MSW students (N = 388) at three graduate programs in the Northeastern U.S. Responses to open-ended questions were analyzed by iterative thematic analysis. Differences among response patterns at the three sites, corresponding to demographic differences among the students, suggest that both personal and work experience profoundly affect students’ views of disorder; specifically, the experiences of race and privilege may be crucial to the development of MSW students’ thinking about the nature of mental disorder and clinical knowledge. Implications for teaching and learning are offered.
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Probst, B., Balletto, C. & Wofford, N. What They Bring: How MSW Students Think About Mental Disorder and Clinical Knowledge. Clin Soc Work J 43, 419–430 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-015-0517-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-015-0517-6