MASTER OF SOCIAL WORK STUDENT COMPETENCY IN SPANISH SKILLS AND THE SUPPORT THEY RECEIVE

• Main Authors: Sanchez, Giselle, Guerrero, Shizatiz Gioconda
• Format: Others
• Published: CSUSB ScholarWorks 2018
• Subjects: Master of Social Work bilingual students; Spanish skills; competency; monolingual clients; MSW program support; field placement support; Social Work
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/697; https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1733&context=etd

With the growth of the Latino population in the United States on the rise and the limited number of bilingual Spanish social workers, it is critical to explore the Master of Social Work student’s self-perceived competency in Spanish skills and the support they receive. These are the emerging professionals that will be interacting and providing services for Latinos in our communities. Exploring and understanding the challenges students encounter, their self-perceived competency, and how students can be supported, will be beneficial not only to them but also to Latino clients seeking services in Spanish. Providing appropriate services in Spanish may alleviate the language barrier that many Latinos are concerned about when seeking services. This research utilized a mixed methods design with self-administered surveys and interviews conducted and analyzed with SPSS and transcriptions. The study findings suggest that bilingual Spanish-speaking Masters of Social Work students are not provided with adequate training, resources, and support from their MSW program or their field placements in order to provide high quality services to the Latino population. The study findings also suggest that not all bilingual individuals are comfortable with working with monolingual Spanish-speaking clients.