Field Instruction: A Relational Model to Promote A Positive Professional Identity for Social Work Students

ABSTRACT The development of a social work professional identity is an element of social work education. It is not clear how students in social work programs develop this identity; its development seems to be dependent on the integration of various learning experiences and exposure to curriculum content in the classroom, and in the fieldwork assignments. Teachers and field instructors play important roles in this process. In this paper, the authors argue that a positive professional social work identity can be fostered through the relationship with instructors in fieldwork supervision. Using Kohut’s theory of Self Psychology, the authors present a model that highlights the application of the concept of self-object needs to the field instructor-student relationship. One of the central premises of his theory is that individuals from childhood and throughout adulthood internalize the experiences provided by self-objects to meet the emotional needs of the self. The authors propose that field instructors provide self-object experiences that can sustain and foster the development of a positive professional identity for social work students in training. The application of this model underscores students’ affective changes associated with students’ professional development in social work programs.