How Becoming an Adjunct Improved My Social Work Practice
Editor’s Note: Christa McCrorie (she/her), LICSW-PIP, is an adjunct instructor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a social worker with a private practice, Creative Therapeutic Solutions, LLC, where she specializes in queer needs and trauma processing. In this blog post, she shares how her time as an adjunct instructor has improved her own social work practice and offers reflection prompts for those interested in adjunct teaching as a social worker. You can reach her through her practice at https://creativetherapeutic.solutions/
As someone with almost ten years of experience as a social worker, I had already branched into independent roles; I was leading my own private practice, was providing supervision to master’s level social workers, and was frequently asked to consult for publications in niche mental health topics such as stress management for teens, and queer education. I enjoyed all of it, but one of my personal goals has been to shift into a teaching role, and contributing as an adjunct professor for the local university’s social work educational program seemed like a great fit. After seeking this position for several years, I finally found an opportunity in 2022 and was signed up for my first class!
Excited about the opportunity ahead of me, I started to share the news with other social work professionals and was surprised at the confused looks I received. Reason after reason about why teaching was a waste of my time at this level in my career washed over me by my colleagues. The most common concerns I received were: 1)the amount of pay for teaching could easily be surpassed in another project that took less time; 2) the responsibilities and locked-in schedule took away from the freedom of private practice; and 3) there was a lack of benefits, like insurance, that accompanied this job as opposed to other part-time jobs that could be pursued. While these worries have some validity, such as the low pay and lack of formal benefits, after completing my first year as an adjunct professor, I believe this experience, out of all my other extraneous roles, has been the most impactful towards making me a stronger social worker, and here is why.
First, I had to learn how to teach the basics of the social work framework, which has made me a better social worker. As I prepared the course material for my undergraduate-level social work class, I realized that throughout my career, I had picked up some habits from practice settings, work environments, and other experiences that did not exactly follow the standard social work method. As I reacquainted myself with the basics of the social work perspective to teach my students, I also found myself realigning with social work best practices, which helped me reconnect my original passions to pursue social work as a career. Further, I was reminded of more efficient practice methods to use when working with my clients, something that my role as an independent practitioner did not always reinforce.
For example, in teaching the strengths-based perspective to my students, I was reminded of all the profiling, stereotyping, and hopeless comments made about clients and their prospects by burnt-out supervisors and coworkers in my past agency environments. While I enjoy working with my clients in private practice and the difference between working with voluntary clients versus involuntary clients, I realized that the mindsets role modeled to me by previous agency workers had trickled into my own coping with clients I had deemed were “stuck.” I examined this fact and realized it was an attempt to distance myself from the client and my disappointment in them not fulfilling their potential while also removing myself from my professional obligation to join with the client and continue to work with them to succeed. By reminding myself that every client has strengths by teaching my students this fundamental social work mindset, I was also shown by the fresh, helping-hearted upcoming social workers that they believed in their clients and that people could make the best choices with the right support.
At the same time, I also realized just how much progress I had made in my social work career. Building relationships with my undergraduate social work students, I realized just how little they knew about the social work profession and the realities of a career in social work. As we discussed the personal and professional skills that would be required, I reflected on my own journey through my career and how I got to my current standing. As a social worker is often required to work with multiple layers of colleagues and neighboring agencies, it is easy to forget your own professional growth amongst the sea of diversity in your clients and workplace.
I also shifted from the scarcity mindset that often comes from working hard for not much pay, as many social workers do, to recognize the value of the nonfinancial benefits of teaching in my social work career. Because my work as an independent social worker has more than met my financial needs, I was able to relax and fully enjoy the intangible assets of teaching, such as networking, exploring additional resources and opportunities within the university, and most of all, the internal reward of helping my students get excited and prepared to change the world. It is an incredible feeling to meet a social worker student for the first time and hear their aspirations of opening a group home, fighting for indigenous rights, or protecting battered spouses from domestic violence, and then be the one to give them the tools they will use for the rest of their lives to help countless others. It is also inspiring to go to coffee with an experienced educator and hear the multiple lives they have lived as a social worker in the field, to managerial duty, to academia, and still believe they have more to learn to be the best they can be.
While I still get disbelieving remarks from other social workers in private practice about the value of adjunct teaching, I often list these benefits, and it (almost) makes them change their minds. Because I would highly recommend this experience to supercharge your personal and professional experience as a social worker, here are some questions to ask yourself as you think about the nonfinancial possibilities of adjunct teaching:
- Where has my social work practice stagnated?
- What social work course do I wish I could take over? Or what was my favorite social work course in college?
- What are my areas of expertise? What do I want to learn more about as a social worker?
- What do I know about adjunct teaching?
- Where can I learn more about adjunct teaching opportunities in social work education?
I offer these prompts to help you reflect on possibilities for professional growth through adjunct teaching.
What do you think? Have you tried adjunct teaching? What other benefits did you see, or what difficulties did you face in making this decision? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below. I would like to hear from you.
How to cite:
McCrorie, C. (2023, April 19). How becoming an adjunct improved my social work practice. Teaching and Learning in Social Work Blog. https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2023/04/19/how-becoming-an-adjunct-improved-my-social-work-practice/
