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Simmons College Launches Academic Journal Focused on Field Education

Addressing a growing interest in scholarly research on social work field education, the Simmons College School of Social Work recently announced the launch of a new online journal, the Field Educator. The Field Educator is the first academic social work journal in the nation focused entirely on field education—the merging of theory and practice in real-world settings, such as clinics, prisons, hospitals, and human welfare agencies.
 
“We’re absolutely thrilled about the launch of the Field Educator,” says Suzanne Sankar, MSW, a professor and assistant dean of student affairs at the Simmons School of Social Work. “There’s a wealth of knowledge held by field educators and we want to give people a forum to discuss and share information within the social work community.”
 
Identified by the Council on Social Work Education as the signature pedagogy of social work, field education is growing in popularity among social work educators. The Field Educator is designed to promote the exchange of knowledge between field educators in academia and those in the practice community. Each issue of the journal will include scholarly articles on theory, practice, and research, as well as a “Practice Digest” section with descriptions of dilemmas and developments in field education.
 
The journal will focus on innovation in social work field education, methods of evaluating student performance, and the transition from classroom to field placement. Content is available for free online at fieldeducator.org.
 
— Source: Simmons College