3 Roles and responsibilities of the practice educator

Learning in social work practice

Social work practice learning takes place in diverse places and with varying configurations in team structure. For example, some learners will have an on-site practice educator within their team or placement agency, whereas others will have an external or offsite practice educator and a workplace supervisor in place.

It is always essential to negotiate a robust learning agreement that shows what the different roles and responsibilities of those in the practice learning team will be. Your role as practice educator is central to the support, development and, importantly, the assessment of learners in practice. You have already explored some of the important skills and knowledge that you can bring to the role in Activity 2.

As a practice educator, your role in supporting social work learners is a complex process. You are required to work with learners in increasingly diverse services and contexts. For example, social workers work with people across the lifespan and in different focused services and integrated teams. The tasks of social work can be notoriously hard to articulate (Moriarty et al., 2015; Ferguson and Sicat, 2024) which means that supporting learners is also complex.

Understanding what it is like to learn as a social worker in direct practice involves recognising the unique and extraordinary work of the profession (Ferguson, 2022). Figure 1 shows the intricate web of physical and emotional elements that social workers navigate in places, spaces and tasks whilst in the workplace (Ferguson, 2021).

Figure 1 Learning in the workplace as a complex web (Ferguson, 2021, p. 154)

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Learning experiences as a complex web

The diagram shows 7 circles linked with black arrows on a background of a spider's web. The first circle shows an icon of a figure walking with a stick and backpack. The text Journey of the self is shown under the circle. The second circle shows a silhouette image of a maze. The words Navigating landscape and place are shown below the circle. The third circle shows 4 jigsaw pieces, three which are joined up with the fourth set apart. The words Navigating tasks is shown underneath. The fourth circle shows an icon of a person's upper body linked to 5 circle nodes. The words Learning through the body are shown underneath. The fifth circle shows 3 icon figures of people heads and shoulders. The words Learning through others is shown underneath. The sixth circle shows a blank signpost pointing in two different directions. The words Practices and conceptions of learning is shown underneath. The final circle shows dice underneath another dice, both faces showing six dots. The words Learning by chance are shown underneath.

Figure 1 Learning in the workplace as a complex web (Ferguson, 2021, p. 154)

Irrespective of setting, social work practice learning must equip learners for working in dynamic contexts and develop their capacity to undertake statutory tasks.

Social Work England sets the requirements for practice learning in qualifying education programmes and there are several that are of importance to you as a practice educator. You will look at these in more detail in Activity 3.