Resistance as a coping strategy: an exploration of strategies employed by social work students to manage study and other commitments during placement
Date
2025
Authors
Clarke, J.
Morley, C.
Hodge, L.
McIntyre, H.
Briese, J.
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Journal article
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Social Work Education, online, 2025; online(8):1-16
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Resilience is widely viewed as integral to social work practice because of the emphasis on strengths-based approaches with clients and their ability to overcome challenges. However, it is crucial to recognize that resilience is not solely an individual issue but is deeply intertwined with broader structural inequalities and disadvantages. As academics working in field education, we understand that social work students often face significant challenges, including the financial and emotional strain of completing long, mostly unpaid placements. This article highlights the strategies employed by social work students to cope with these challenges. Drawing on data from 409 social work students across five universities, students reported relying on support from educators and family, enabling them to problem solve during placement. Despite these efforts, many students admitted to struggling and feeling overwhelmed and had to sacrifice their wellness to meet placement requirements. From a critical social work perspective, the findings underscore the difficulties students face in managing their competing demands whilst on placement in the current economic climate and questions the usefulness of measuring resilience in this context. Social work students instead focused on resistance as a strategy to cope with their study and other commitments during placement which has resulted in collective action and lobbying for change.
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Copyright 2025 The author(s) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Access Condition Notes: This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License