ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN CHOICES FOR INITIAL SOCIAL WORK FIELD PLACEMENT EXPERIENCE

Choice of social work as a career can be profoundly affected by experiences students have in an initial field placement. This choice is primarily made by personal factors of influence such as, individual characteristics, perceived prestige of the profession, work opportunities and altruistic values. A paucity of research has focused on the social work student’s choice of organization for their first field placement experience as it relates to race and ethnicity. This study addresses this limited research with a survey of 220 students, whose responses were collected through six university semesters of the initial undergraduate field placement course in social work. Findings suggest that students of color as a group appear to differ significantly in their decision process and choice of field placement, whereas their white counterparts as a group share similarities in what motivates their choice of field placement. In response to the results, this presentation discusses the implications for social work field education.