Abolish the Unpaid Practicum: Justice in Education
- por: University of Calgary Social Work Student Union
- destinatário: Canadian Association of Social Work Education and Affiliate Faculties
Abolishing the Unpaid Practicum: Justice in Education and Work
We, the undersigned, are calling on the Canadian Association of Social Work Education and its affiliate faculties to discontinue unpaid practicum placements as part of social work curriculum. The unpaid practicum is a barrier to accessible education and has the potential to depress wages and benefits for paid social service workers.
The average post-secondary debt upon graduation, per student, increased from $8,000 in 1990 to $25,000 in 1998 [1]. This tripling of debt in an eight-year period reflects government restructuring, including the increased withdrawal of funding for public goods. The situation continues to worsen with average tuition fees increasing from $2,500 in 1995 to $4,500 in 2007 [2]. Social work programs must examine their curricula to ensure that they do not contribute to the increasing inaccessibility of education. Research shows that enrolment patterns by socioeconomic background tended to change more substantially in provinces that saw larger increases in tuition fees [3]. It is plausible that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are responsive to all financial costs associated with a program and not tuition fees alone. The inclusion of unpaid practica arguably results in working class and other marginalized groups self-selecting out of the profession, given that the curriculum augments the financial costs of an already burdensome educational system.
Social work has historically been dominated by white, middle- and upper-class women. In the dominant discourse, women%u2019s caring work is essentialized by framing it as intrinsically rewarding. Financial reward is viewed as a secondary consideration; advocating for fair financial remuneration is seen as self-serving and incongruent [4]. It is troubling to note that students in law, medicine and engineering are not required to provide their services without financial remuneration, while students in female-dominated professions such as social work and nursing are expected to fill unpaid practica as a mandatory aspect of their academic requirements [5].
We should be skeptical of the extent to which practica serve student learning. Indeed, some would argue that the exploitation of students%u2019 labour is a means for coping with declining public spending on social services [6]. Equally troubling is that that subsidizing eroding public services with unpaid student labour may undermine the profession and depress wages. Moreover, the unpaid practicum reflects a troubling trend in the human services sector in which workers are expected to volunteer unpaid labour in addition to their paid labour. This unwaged work is coerced; it is work performed by workers who fear that their education or employment will be jeopardized if they refuse to participate [7].
We, the undersigned, are calling for the discontinuation of the unpaid practicum. We recognize the value of accessible education and the need for the human services sector to use effective strategies for coping with cuts to funding of public services. Let us begin with a commitment to solidarity between students and workers.
Abolishing the Unpaid Practicum: Justice in Education and Work
We, the undersigned, are calling on the Canadian Association of Social Work Education and its affiliate faculties to discontinue unpaid practicum placements as part of social work curriculum. The unpaid practicum is a barrier to accessible education and has the potential to depress wages and benefits for paid social service workers.
The average post-secondary debt upon graduation, per student, increased from $8,000 in 1990 to $25,000 in 1998 [1]. This tripling of debt in an eight-year period reflects government restructuring, including the increased withdrawal of funding for public goods. The situation continues to worsen with average tuition fees increasing from $2,500 in 1995 to $4,500 in 2007 [2]. Social work programs must examine their curricula to ensure that they do not contribute to the increasing inaccessibility of education. Research shows that enrolment patterns by socioeconomic background tended to change more substantially in provinces that saw larger increases in tuition fees [3]. It is plausible that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are responsive to all financial costs associated with a program and not tuition fees alone. The inclusion of unpaid practica arguably results in working class and other marginalized groups self-selecting out of the profession, given that the curriculum augments the financial costs of an already burdensome educational system.
Social work has historically been dominated by white, middle- and upper-class women. In the dominant discourse, women%u2019s caring work is essentialized by framing it as intrinsically rewarding. Financial reward is viewed as a secondary consideration; advocating for fair financial remuneration is seen as self-serving and incongruent [4]. It is troubling to note that students in law, medicine and engineering are not required to provide their services without financial remuneration, while students in female-dominated professions such as social work and nursing are expected to fill unpaid practica as a mandatory aspect of their academic requirements [5].
We should be skeptical of the extent to which practica serve student learning. Indeed, some would argue that the exploitation of students%u2019 labour is a means for coping with declining public spending on social services [6]. Equally troubling is that that subsidizing eroding public services with unpaid student labour may undermine the profession and depress wages. Moreover, the unpaid practicum reflects a troubling trend in the human services sector in which workers are expected to volunteer unpaid labour in addition to their paid labour. This unwaged work is coerced; it is work performed by workers who fear that their education or employment will be jeopardized if they refuse to participate [7].
We, the undersigned, are calling for the discontinuation of the unpaid practicum. We recognize the value of accessible education and the need for the human services sector to use effective strategies for coping with cuts to funding of public services. Let us begin with a commitment to solidarity between students and workers.
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