ABSTRACT

Effective engagement in policy practice is a critical component in achieving social justice. Field education settings provide important opportunities for students to learn policy practice skills. This paper describes an initiative aimed at building policy competencies for all foundation students in field education by targeting supports for field instructors to provide guidance to students. Evaluation of the project used three sources of secondary data: (1) student competency ratings by field instructors, (2) student reports of their projects, and (3) review of student products completed as a result of the initiative. Quantitative data indicate that thus far there has been little overall effect on student competency in policy practice. Bivariate analysis found an association between highly rated student projects and higher competency rating. Qualitative descriptions of project activities and students’ assessments of them provide some indications of progress toward competency, facilitators and barriers of policy learning, and additional considerations for furthering the project aims over the long term.

摘要

有效参与政策实践是实现社会正义的关键组成部分。实地教育环境为学生学习政策实践技能提供了重要机会。本文介绍了一项旨在通过支持实地教员为学生提供指导来为所有基础学生在实地教育中建立政策能力的举措。该项目的评估使用了三个二手数据来源：(1) 现场教师对学生能力的评价，(2) 学生对其项目的报告，以及 (3) 对作为该倡议的结果而完成的学生产品的审查。定量数据表明，到目前为止，政策实践对学生能力的总体影响很小。双变量分析发现高评价的学生项目和较高的能力评价之间存在关联。