Field education as signature pedagogy - insights for Australian social work

Field education has been identified as the signature pedagogy of the profession. Field education is also being said to be in crisis. The attribution of signature pedagogy status is contested as there is limited research where Shulman’s 2005 framework has been applied in its entirety either in the United States or Australia. A review of the literature concerning signature pedagogy in social work highlights an absence of Australian perspectives and contexts. This makes it unclear whether field education is signature pedagogy for the profession in Australia. Further research and professional reflection is required to identify congruence with signature pedagogy status and explore ways in which the curriculum design and pedagogical decision making for schools of social work are responding to pedagogical inertia or are being responsive to the needs of the 21st century and the field.