Making Supervision Part of the Professional Culture: Challenges in Malaysia. Prof. Dr. Ismail Baba Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)

Transcription

1 Making Supervision Part of the Professional Culture: Challenges in Malaysia Prof. Dr. Ismail Baba Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) Thank you very much, Gill, for that very kind introduction. My fellow colleagues, ladies, and gentlemen, first, I would like to take this opportunity to thank UNIMAS for inviting me here today and for organizing this very meaningful and educational conference. I am also happy to see old and new friends, ex-students, and excolleagues. Dear friends & Colleagues, Introduction A field placement is the place where social work students demonstrate their social work skills, and enhance their knowledge and social work values. This is where students are exposed to many different practice areas which involve working with the individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. By making supervision a part of the professional culture, I strongly believe that social work students should have opportunities to be supervised by experienced and trained social workers. They should have opportunities to integrate what they have learned in the classroom and apply it to the real world, and that is the social work agency where they are assigned. However, the opportunity to have experiential learning, which is conducive and holistic, is very difficult, particularly with the current social work situation in Malaysia. Looking at this situation, universities that have a social work program in Malaysia as well as the social work agencies must work closely together to support each other for the development of the social work profession in this country. I have divided my presentation into three parts. In the first part, I would like to reflect back on how I became interested in social work in this country. I am sure all of us have our own stories regarding how they became social workers. In social

2 work classes, we have always taught how to reflect on our own experiences. Reflection is an exercise that has played a role in helping us to reshape our own values towards the things that we consider right and wrong. In Part II of my presentation, I would like to touch on my own socialization process into the profession, and what are the challenges that I have faced as a student, supervisor, academician, and as someone who has headed several NGOs here in this country. Part III of my presentation will focus on the challengers that are facing us now in Malaysia, and how we can move forward to make it better for all parties involved in social work as a reputable profession, as well as how we can make supervision part of the professional culture. Part I (Reflections on Social Work) I grew up in a family of 12 children; my dad was a policeman and my mum was a housewife. I remember, as a child, I already questioned myself: why did my parents need to have so many children? I did not realize then that they perhaps wanted to start a country, but that was obviously a funny way of doing it (I am still here in Malaysia and there is no such country). Right then I already understood the meaning of having a family and the need to be equipped and ready to start a family in all senses economically, socially, psychologically, and physically. My mum and my elder siblings told me that I was very naughty and rebellious when I was a child. Well, I am still naughty and rebellious today. Being naughty and rebellious and brought up in a family that was socially disadvantage have helped me to do a lot of thinking and reflecting. Socially and psychologically, I began to be more sensitive and more aware of the needs of individuals, families, groups, and communities. Today, I have about 45 nephews and nieces and dozens of grandchildren from my own siblings. I actually do not have to go very far to understand the social problems in Malaysia because I have my own social work lab at home. You just name the social problems, and we have them all. So I guess, I used my own life experiences and used my own reflections on how to understand human issues or problems. (A word of caution: never, never, never

3 conduct a social work intervention with your own family members. It will never work. Trust me) Part II (Socialization Process in the Social Work Profession) I have about 33 years working experience in social work. During those years, I have worked as a medical social worker, I have served as a field instructor (a term used to describe a staff member who is involved in supervising students while they are doing their field work), a field advisor to practicum agencies (a term that is used to describe the social work faculty member who provides a direct link between the field practicum and social work program), I was involved as an instructor of practicum seminars, and also served as a program chair of a social work program several times at USM. I have also formed an NGO and run several other NGOs in this country. In these NGOs we also provide field practicum for our social work students. Academically, I have also been invited to be an assessor for many of the social work programs in Malaysia. I have served as an executive member to the Malaysian Association of Social Workers. I have been a member of the North America of Social Work Association (NASW). I am also a member of APASWE and IASSW. And along with my colleagues at USM, we have formed the National Joint Consultative Committee on Social Work Education in Malaysia in the year Academically, I am also involved in producing many undergraduate and master students; not to forget a dozen Ph.D students in social work. I presented all this information not to brag but to reflect and share with you my own involvement in social work in this country. I am sure many of my own colleagues in this room would also have similar stories to tell. My intention is to reflect and to reaffirm that it is not impossible to enhance our own professional growth and development, especially in the environment lacking so many experts and skilled persons in the field of social work. I guess I am lucky in that I have been trained from reputable social work programs in North America and had received very good experiential learning from those institutions. All these experiences have helped me to become a better person; have helped me to

4 reshape my own prejudices and weaknesses. Those experiences have helped me to become a confident social work educator and practitioner. But the truth is, I still have a lot to learn and will always be willing to learn from my colleagues, from my students, and even from my own clients. Over the last 33 years, I have also had the opportunity to observe how social work education has evolved in Malaysia. I have experienced pain, frustration, anger and disillusionment when watching some of these social work programs develop without sound rationales or goals. The establishment of the National Joint Consultative Committee on Social Work Education in Malaysia was a turning point for me, at least in bringing together all of the social work programs at the higher learning institutions in Malaysia. And also, reducing some of the pain and frustration that I have experienced regarding social work education in this country. Over the past 33 years I have also witnessed many students who were annoyed, frustrated, disillusioned, and unmotivated concerning their field placements. I cannot blame them for feeling that way. Because of our own limitations, we have failed to provide them with sufficient learning opportunities, or perhaps some of them were unable to make good use of the opportunities that we have provided for them. Because of the limitations that we are facing in Malaysia (that could be due to lack of trained field advisors, field instructors, or even the right field placements), some students managed to integrate theory and practice of social work while others struggle, unable to gain meaningful learning from their field placements. We still have a long way to go concerning how to make supervision a part of the professional culture in Malaysia. At present, we have about seven universities in Malaysia involved in producing trained social workers. Some universities are quite well equipped with infrastructure, while others are still struggling. I heard recently that at least three more universities are planning to introduce social work programs in the near future. The good news is that we are in the process of introducing social work acts in this country, so that eventually all universities will

5 have to comply with these standards that we are going to put forward regarding social work education in Malaysia. Part III (Moving Forward) Looking at these challengers, as social work educators, we need to work within our own limitations. We should not use these limitations as reasons to fail to achieve the kind of quality that we are looking for, and we should not use these limitations as excuses for not achieving the professional culture that we are here for. I have listed some suggestions that perhaps we may want to consider to make supervision a part of our professional culture. I am sure some of these suggestions have already been implemented, but it is good to reinforce them again. We should: a. Take supervision seriously. If possible, appoint someone to become field advisors. Field advisor should be someone who is trained in social work and who knows the community well in order to link the social work program and the agency. b. Encourage every social work program to have a fieldwork manual that includes a learning agreement between the school and social work agency. c. Have field advisors who work closely with the agency; helping the agency personnel to learn about the school s expectations of students, the social work curriculum, and the objectives of the practicum. d. Have a field advisor who meets with the agency regularly to discuss the practicum and the students progress. e. Ensure that students are supervised only by those who are trained in social work. f. Ensure that supervision should include an evaluative feedback on students work. g. Ask the National Joint Consultative Committee on Social Work Education (NJCCSWE) to organize workshops on supervision and to help social work educators and field supervisors integrate social work theory and practice.

6 h. Request that field supervisor should engage in all forms of supervision, such as individual supervision, group supervision, peer supervision, formal case presentations, ad-hoc supervision, and virtual supervision. i. Have regular seminars or conferences like the ones that UNIMAS is doing on supervision to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. j. Encourage that all social work programs plan in-service training to make supervision part of the professional culture. With that note, thank very much, and I wish all of you a happy conference.