Welcome to the second issue of the Field Educator! In our first six months, we are pleased to have begun to fulfill our mission to promote knowledge exchange within the social work field education community. Many people have read not only the first issue of the journal, but also the regularly updated blog and news reports and we have had many enthusiastic responses. We have made outreach to field educators in other countries and to other professionals whose training involves internships. In this issue, we have representation in the “Practice Digest” section from field educators from social work schools and from their affiliated agencies. There are articles about special populations in field placements: veterans, bilingual students and students with mental health disabilities. Different forms of supervision will be described, including online field instruction and motivational interviewing in supervision. There are also descriptions of competencies in a macro setting for the LGBT community and a field placement in a large hospital. The “Students Speak” section includes an article about the intern’s “first impression” in an agency, and one about a “perfect placement” in a dialysis unit.
The interview in “Conversations” is an interview about online field education with field directors from the University of New England and from the University of Southern California’s Virtual Academic Center. News and resources will also be presented, including an important update from the Council on Social Work Education’s Field Council, with information on how to join the Council.
We currently have three submissions under review for the “Field Scholar” section of the journal. If field education is to live up to its definition as the “signature pedagogy” of social work education, we need a body of evidence to investigate field issues and support field practice. The Field Educator is committed not only to promoting communication among field educators, but also to promoting scholarship, especially research. For this reason we are offering the $1000 Excellence in Field Education Research Award; description of the award and guidelines for submission to the Field Scholar section follow this editorial. The award will be announced at the Council on Social Work Education’s Annual Program Meeting in Washington, DC and in the fall edition of this journal, so please submit your manuscripts now!