SWDE Summer Support Series | June Conversation Continues
Let's learn from each other.
Our June meeting surfaced some great conversations on remote placements, neurodiverse students, gatekeeping, and what it really means to support a struggling student without lowering the bar. We want to keep that momentum going.
Pick one topic (or all of them) and share your thoughts below 👇
🖥️ Remote Placements: Workaround or Legitimate Modality?
Is anyone in your program treating remote practicum as a first-choice option not just a fallback? What does that actually look like in practice? Drop a checklist, form, or policy in the comments if you have one that's helped.
🧠 Neurodiversity in Practicum: Where Does It Get Hardest?
- Where does it break down for your program, placement matching, mid-placement support, or evaluation?
- How are you navigating the tension between student privacy around disclosure and giving agencies enough information to actually help?
- Is anyone doing proactive agency training on neurodiversity before a student is even placed?
And here's a new question for the community: We discussed creating a neurodiversity education handout specifically for field instructors. We want it to be accessible, practical, and grounded in social work values. Has your program developed anything like this? What would you want it to include? What have you learned about what field instructors actually need to know?
💪 Supporting Struggling Students Without Lowering the Bar
Think of a student who was really struggling in practicum. What's the most effective thing your program did to support them and how did you hold the line on standards at the same time?
- How do you distinguish between a barrier to remove and a performance concern to address?
- What does accountability actually look like in your program when a student isn't meeting expectations walk us through the process
⚖️ Gatekeeping: Rigorous and Equitable
What language or framework has helped your program approach gatekeeping in a way that's both rigorous and fair?
- Has your program ever looked at whether gatekeeping decisions have fallen disproportionately on students from minoritized backgrounds?
- How do you make sure your evaluation rubrics are measuring competency not cultural style?
- Has anyone had a situation where the placement itself turned out to be the poor fit, not the student? Share it.
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Christie Moore
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