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Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Child Welfare Practice and Social Work Education.

Social work in the field of child welfare is complex and full of challenges. In British Columbia Canada, the Ministry of Children and Family Development, which is the main employer of social workers, entered a partnership with universities to educate baccalaureate social work students in a child wel...

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Published in:Social Work Education Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 3 - 17
Main Authors: Bellefeuille, Gerard, Schmidt, Glen
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Feb2006
Subjects:
Canada
Child welfare
Social work education
Computer assisted instruction
Online education
Social services
Educational technology
Educational innovations
Instructional systems
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Summary:Social work in the field of child welfare is complex and full of challenges. In British Columbia Canada, the Ministry of Children and Family Development, which is the main employer of social workers, entered a partnership with universities to educate baccalaureate social work students in a child welfare specialization. This paper examines an instructional approach to child welfare education at the University of Northern British Columbia. The geography of the university region as well as the need to maintain a critical standpoint presented challenges in the delivery of a child welfare specialization course. The development of an online child welfare practice course assisted the university in meeting the challenges. This paper describes the practice context for social workers in British Columbia as well as the design of the online course offered to social work students at the University of Northern British Columbia.