Socionom eller student? En studie av socionomstudenters upplevelse av sin roll under den verksamhetsförlagda utbildningen

The field education is an important part of social work education programmes. In spite of the importance of field education, research on the subject is limited, specifically in a Swedish context. The purpose of this study has thus been to examine social work students' experience of their role during field education. This is to contribute to a broader understanding and to highlight the topic for further research. In order to fulfill the purpose of this study and to answer its questions, five semi-structured interviews were conducted, the first of which was a pilot interview. The interviews were conducted with students from Malmö University who completed their field education during the spring of 2019 at one of the Swedish government's social service's executive agencies. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed. The results of the study's empirical material were then presented and analyzed in the light of both national and international research as well as the basis of the study's theoretical framework; role theory and socialization. The results from this study showed that all students perceived the trainee role as similar at the beginning of the field education period. At first, the trainee role was characterized by passivity and observation. During the course of the field education period, some of the students found that the trainee role became clearer, while others felt that their role became increasingly more inexplicit. Furthermore, some of the students felt that they were participant, that they had responsibilities and that the field education was an important learning experience, while others felt the exact opposite. The results also showed that the students had different experiences regarding their role as students in relation to their role as future social workers. Some of the students perceived their student role as more prominent during the field education, while others felt that they could identify more with the role of future social workers. Furthermore, the results showed that the students experienced the support from their field supervisors to develop their professional role differently. Some of the students even saw their supervisors as role-models while others did not. This was also reflected in the students' expression of whether they felt like they were ready to start working as social workers after the field education or not. Some of the students described the field education as the beginning of their professional career, while others ended the field education with a sense of uncertainty and a need for more education