Student’s perspectives of supervisory relationship during fieldwork work practice at the institutions of higher learning in Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

Fieldwork placement is a critical component of the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) curriculum. During fieldwork placement, the students’ learning is facilitated by fieldwork supervisor and the development of healthy relationship between the students and the supervisor makes learning easy for students. This qualitative study explored the student-supervisor relationship from the two rural-based universities, in South Africa. The findings revealed that students had varied experiences of relationship with their supervisors, with the majority reporting to have had good and outstanding relationship with their supervisors, while few reported undesirable relationships with their supervisors. It is therefore recommended that consideration should be made by supervisors to improve how they academically relate with their students so as to improve their outcome