Connecting theory, practice, and generations

A formative experience in field education

Scott Wilkes called his field director from a phone booth on Broadway Avenue in uptown New York, not far from the Columbia University campus where he was getting his MSW. He was struggling in his field placement at Misericordia Hospital in the Bronx. “My field instructor was Cheryl Ascendio. She was the director of field education, and she was a powerhouse and intimidated the crap out of me. I was scared to death of her,” he recalls.

Wilkes had called her from that payphone to try to talk his way out of his field placement. “And her level of compassion in that phone call was a side that I had never seen before, and how encouraging she was, and how empathetic she was! … She was able to figure out what I needed most when I needed it and to adjust and provide me that support, which then really helped shape my career.”

While that experience was decades ago, Wilkes remembers it in detail—from the location of the payphone to the spelling of his instructor’s name. For him, that conversation with Ascendio not only righted his path in his internship, it also illustrates the importance of field education in social work.

“There’s something about shaping your professional identity that happens in field education. You learn who you are as a practitioner. You learn what your values are. You learn what are the skills that you need to develop and the strengths that you bring. … Who we are, ultimately, as supervisors, is [reflected in] how we were supervised and directed. There’s a connection there.”

There's something about shaping your professional identity that happens in field education. You learn who you are as a practitioner.

One foot in practice, one foot in academia

After more than twenty years in program development and agency management, Wilkes decided to pursue his Ph.D. in social work, with an eye towards an academic career. His previous work had moved him to Cleveland, so he enrolled as a Ph.D. student at Case Western University’s Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.

While completing his degree, he started working as a faculty advisor in the field education department. “I loved it because it gave me one foot in the practice realm and one foot in academia.”

“I was a practitioner making a transition to academia,” Wilkes explained. “So [field education] kept me connected to what was happening in real life, real practice, and how important it is for our student population to have real-world experience, which is what our students say all the time.”

Field education is described as the “signature pedagogy” of social work, and Wilkes sees the importance of concurrent learning in both classroom and internship placements. “Those two things have to happen simultaneously in order for you to really understand it.”

Field education helps students translate theory into practice, Wilkes says. “We can talk about it in class all the time,” he says. “We can simulate it in ways that don’t quite get at it. But to actually do it and to see the real impact that it has on clients and families and communities… I think it’s just an exciting time for students.”

“I also love the mentoring aspect,” he continues, “that we have experienced, licensed practitioners who are willing to give up their time to mentor the younger generation and show them the ropes.”

“I love that lineage and legacy that carries through our profession,” he says. Students in internships learn from their field educators and from the social workers at the placement site. “Ideally, as seasoned practitioners, many years removed from their education, [those students] then come back and serve as field instructors.”

Varied career path

Wilkes now serves as the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs at the Mendel School. He still teaches social policy and supervision courses, and he has developed and taught courses on legal issues in social work, as well as research. He’s also serving his second term on the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage & Family Therapist Board, and writes exam questions for the social work licensing exams.

“Everyone’s pathway is different,” he says. He tells his students “what you can do is just be as prepared as you can for the inevitability of the twists and turns of your career, but you can’t plan it.”

Remembering that call to Cheryl Ascendio, decades ago, reminds him of his social work lineage. “That lineage of learning from the past, and then carrying that on, you’re going to then influence the next generation,” Wilkes says. “We’re all in this never-ending stream. I think field education [connects social workers] more so than any other aspect of social work in terms of how we learn and how we become who we are.”