School of Social Work

School of Social Work
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5354 USA
(269) 387-3180

Field Manuals

The social work wheel with images and text including emotional maturity, empathy, ethical responsibility, communication, problem solving, stress, adovocacy

The School of Social Work at Western Michigan University is proud to offer quality field education opportunities to BSW and MSW students. The field office is committed to making sure that field education is one of the highlights of their social work educational experience as they navigate execution of competence across the nine (9) CSWE EPAS Competencies. Additionally, through WMU's Social Work Field Education program, it is our goal that students receive the student's they need as they navigate the Student Development Process.

Student development model

Field education involves coordination among four key groups of people to provide a high-quality field placement learning experience: 

  • The student is the central focus of the learning experience.
  • The field education coordinator is the person in charge of the field education office at each campus site. Depending upon the campus site, the field education coordinator may have graduate assistants or staff.
  • The field instructor is the social worker at the field placement who will oversee learning at the agency and provide professional supervision.
  • The faculty liaison is the university instructor of record for the field education course.