The Relationship Between Technology Content in a Masters of Social Work Curriculum and Technology Use in Social Work Practice: A Qualitative Research Study

In the past several years, Masters of Social Work (MSW) programs around the nation (USA) have been adding technology courses to their curriculums, suggesting the need for more technology education in MSW programs. Literature reviews of attitudes of social work faculty and social workers indicate a historic trend of resistance to use of technology in the field. In order to better understand the purpose of technology content in MSW curriculums and how it relates to social workers' use of technology in the field, this research project does a qualitative study among faculty and MSW graduates working at local human service agencies to answer the following exploratory research questions: (1) What is the technology content of an MSW Curriculum? (2) What is the purpose of the technology content in an MSW Curriculum? (3) What is the amount of technology use in human service agencies by MSWs? (4) When MSWs first come to human service agencies, do they have the technological competence needed? (5) What skills are they lacking (if any?) This exploratory study used three series of interviews and a syllabi and job description review in its methodology. The first set of interviews was with human service agency administrators who hire MSWs. The second set of interviews was with human service agency staff members who graduated with an MSW degree. The third set of interviews was with select faculty members in order to find out what the technology content and purpose is for MSWs. Syllabi from technology classes were analyzed. Job application descriptions from human service offices were also analyzed. To ensure the validity of the data, interviews with all sets of interviewees were tape-recorded. (C) 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.