Meet Professor Silvana Castaneda: Director of Field Education and Associate Professor of Practice
One of the unique aspects of the SocialWork@Simmons program is how it blends online learning with hands-on-experience in the field. Field education consists of agency-based courses in which you get to apply what you’ve learned in a supervised, real-world environment. In addition to gaining supervised clinical experience, field education provides you an opportunity to become familiar with the many roles social workers play in your community.
Professor Silvana Castaneda, MSW, LICSW, is the director of field education for SocialWork@Simmons. She joined Simmons School of Social Work in 2010 as a field coordinator, her primary role being to mentor students and work to ensure quality learning experiences.
A Simmons MSW alumna, Silvana graduated in 1987. She spent 20 years building her career as a family and couples therapist, working largely in community-based settings to help immigrant families impacted by separation and reunification. In addition to her position at Simmons, Silvana is an associate at the Family-Centered Services Project in Watertown, Massachusetts, where she provides training and organizational consulting to mental health and social services centers and health care agencies.
In a recent interview with OnlineMSWPrograms, Silvana discussed why field education is so important and how it is integrated into the SocialWork@Simmons online MSW program.
What follows are highlights from her interview.
Field education is a major component of MSW programs and a requirement for graduation. Can you talk about the role it plays in the SocialWork@Simmons curriculum?
Field education is an integral part of the School of Social Work curriculum. Under the supervision of an on-site professional who is either a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) or LICSW-eligible, students engage in direct clinical practice with individuals, families, couples, groups and larger systems, or a combination of these.
Through field education, students develop the ability to practice in a self-directed manner and develop self-awareness.
- Foundation Year students will use interpersonal skills to cultivate effective working relationships and assess their clients’ strengths and challenges to determine a mutually agreed-upon focus of work and desired outcomes.
- Advanced Year students are expected to broaden and deepen their assessment and intervention skills and move toward greater integration and analysis of theory and practice as well as a more conscious use of self and increased autonomy.
Students are expected to critically evaluate their own practice learning and understanding of the change process. In both years, the field education curriculum underscores social work values and ethics, including a commitment to social and economic justice, multicultural practice, promotion of diversity in organizations, the emancipation of oppressed people, and social action. Students acquire skills in identifying and addressing oppression and injustice affecting client systems.
For students who are just starting to research online MSW programs, can you give a brief overview of how field education works at Simmons?
With the exception of students who begin in the Extended Program, full-time students are enrolled in classroom courses and field practice simultaneously.
Foundation Year students first take the field seminar. Taught by a field liaison, the seminar is an opportunity to talk about their field experiences and explore ways to maximize the supervisory relationship as a source of learning.
In placement, students are supervised by their assigned field instructor. Field instructors are responsible for their students’ education and professional development. Students work collaboratively with their field instructors to complete learning plans and evaluations each semester. Two formal virtual field visits are conducted per semester with the field instructor and student to evaluate the student’s progress.
Each student is also assigned a field liaison. A field liaison is a Simmons faculty member whose role is to ensure that the student’s learning needs are being met in field placement. Field liaisons also provide supportive relationships for students, offering the opportunity to discuss questions or concerns related to their field placement as well as exploring educational and career goals.
An academic advisor is also assigned to each student and provides advising and support related to the student’s academics. Students enrolled in the Simmons online program benefit from additional online support services that specifically target the unique needs of online students and help ensure their success in our program.