Addressing the essential skills competency in teaching among social work educators in Malaysian public universities

Abstract

The article derives data from a qualitative study conducted to address the essential skills competency in teaching among social work educators in Malaysian public universities. The study conducted in-depth case interviews with selected lecturers who teach social work education in public universities in Malaysia. The results showed that social work educators believe in communication skills, cognitive skills, analytical skills, hands-on practice and continuous training for quality social work education; nevertheless, they do not all possess such skills efficiently as per skills competency standards in Malaysia. The findings would be important guidelines for social work educators and policy makers in Malaysia.

Keywords

Competency Malaysia skills social work education social work educators training

Introduction

Social work educators refer to an individual who has a core foundation of social work knowledge in teaching social work programmes to provide the right knowledge and skills to the social work students. They are the faculty members in the social work department at universities who teach and supervise social work students in the field/agency. Competent social work educators are imperative in building the core foundation of social work education towards developing quality social workers in the future. Well-trained social work educators can facilitate learning for students throughout the entire teaching course. Universities will produce high-quality graduates at the end of the programmes by having competent educators to guide students throughout the learning process. Students’ exposure to social work theories and practice guide them towards being qualified social workers in the future. As a social worker, educators used the education channel for knowledge transmission in carrying out their responsibilities (Costin and Bran, 2016). Both social work academics and fieldworkers are equally essential to train students in social work practice.

In terms of formal education, social work education was introduced in Malaysia in the last five decades. Since then, there are growing numbers of Malaysian public universities that offer social work programmes and subjects. There are currently 70 active social work educators in Malaysian public universities, according to a search of the public universities’ websites’ department profiles. The total numbers showed an increase in Malaysian public universities compared with previous years. The department profiles also show that most social work educators have an essential social work background or at least one of their degrees in social work. Some of them have earned the minimum qualification of a master’s degree in social work to teach social work programmes.

However, there are some arguments about the competency of social work educators in teaching the programme. First, there is a lack of well-trained social work educators in teaching social work in Malaysia (Baba, 2002). Second, there is no specific regulation of social work education and practice, despite its development for more than 60 years in Malaysia (Hatta et al., 2014). The situation then raises the question of professional accountability, ethics and social workers’ competency in Malaysia. Third, the Code of Ethics mentions that social work values such as service, social justice, dignity and worth of a person, importance of human relationships, integrity and competence (National Association of Social Workers [NASW], 2017) among the social work educators are less focused on in the teaching context due to insufficient time in the entire curriculum or lack of social work educators’ expertise. Social work educators have to comply with the right teaching method and allocate sufficient time in delivering information during teaching and learning sessions. This is a professional course where students need to be provided with more excellent knowledge and skills to apply all theories into practice. To cater to this demand, public universities in Malaysia have started to offer social work programmes to produce competent social work practitioners and medical social workers. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) was the first university that offered a social work programme in 1975 then followed by other public universities such as Universiti Malaya (UM), University Kebbangsan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UNISZA) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).

Literature review

Social work education in Malaysia

Local social workers’ needs were acknowledged as early as Malaya’s (Malaysia, then) pre-independence, when it started with the training programme. The social work training programme was held in the London School of Economics, and the training emphasized basic skills, industrial workers and rural welfare (Shaffie, 2000). After that, the UM, at that particular time based in Singapore, offered a programme in social work known as the Diploma in Social Studies. A mutual agreement on the general policy was also drawn between the Department of Social Welfare and the Department of Social Studies, UM, for training social caseworkers. The training aimed to equip social workers with a broad and general training programme that would equip the respective graduates to deal with the many different kinds of social issues. The Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) then became the pioneer university to offer social work as an academic programme in 1975. Over time, the number of public universities offering social work as an academic programme has increased. Two decades later, two other public listed universities, UM and UNIMAS, introduced the social work programme in their syllabuses in 1992 and 1993 respectively. The list of public universities offering social work programmes continued, to include the UUM in 1997, UPM in 1999, the UKM and UMS in 2000, and recently UNISZA in 2014. Through reviewing the university websites, we found that most of the universities have undergraduate, master’s and PhD programmes in social work and the curricula are more or less similar but different universities focus on different practice fields. For example, University of Malaya highlights social administration, UKM community development and USW psychology and mental health.

The Malaysian Association of Social Workers (MASW) was formed on the 3 March 1973 and registered with the Societies’ Registrar on the 28 March 1974 (ROS 1387 Selangor). Before this, the medical social workers had formed the Malayan Association of Almoners in 1954, which was later re-named the Malaysian Association of Medical Social Workers (MAMSW) in 1965. According to the decision of this Department, the MAMSW was dissolved. Its members were absorbed into the Malaysian Association of Professional Social Workers (MAPSW) and became effective on the 16 May 1975. In 1989, MAPSW further updated its name to become the MASW. MASW aims to enhance the professional competency of social work practice, education and research. The MASW (2020) defined social work as a profession guided by a body of knowledge, values and skills, utilizing a bio-psycho-social approach to facilitate optimal social functioning of individuals, families, groups and communities. Social workers uphold a code of ethics and conduct based on human rights and social justice values. The profession also contributes towards social development and social change through the enhancement of social policies, legislation, programmes and services, appropriate to the needs of Malaysia’s diverse socio-cultural population for a better quality of life. The MASW follows the code of ethics of the NASW that includes respect for persons, social justice, professional integrity, and practice competency, except ‘service’ and ‘the importance of the human relationship’ (Malaysian Association of Social Workers, 2020).

Social work competency and skills competency in Malaysia

Competency is an overall quality needed for effective job performance. Many fields of study use competency as a performance measuring indicator. Social work views competency as a set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes or values that are apparent in the behaviour where social workers perform their roles within their scope of practice (Kane, 1999), which has been explicitly formalized by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (Drisko, 2014). Nessipbayeva (2012) believes that competency is beyond knowledge and skills. Competency is about an individual’s capability to use psychosocial resources, including skills and attitudes, in meeting the complex demands of a particular context. Competency is about capability or ability (Boyatzis, 2008), and it can be developed through the components of education, training and experience (Trinder, 2008).

The competency skills discussed in this article are interpersonal, cognitive, analytical, hands-on practices, and training and development. Interpersonal skills development contributes to improving communication among social workers. It enhances mutual interactions between two parties in reaching the desired solutions (Long, 2011). It also strengthens relationships in managing difficult situations, whether among individuals, at work, or in various social surroundings (Lindsey and Rice, 2015). It helps expose students to various components of interpersonal skills like listening, negotiating, compromising, agreeing, disagreeing, dealing with conflicts and so on, so that they can empower their career and profession. Communication is part of the interpersonal skills set to convey messages to others. Communication skill is a necessary skill required by social workers. Communication skill plays an essential role in many studies (Hardjati and Fenrianita, 2019) in which to promote better interactions of educators and students. Hence, communication skill is significant among social work educators and practitioners in mastering the delivery of services efficiently. With strong communication skills, a social worker will be able to serve his or her client efficiently as he or she can take control of their respective emotions, such as anger, sadness, and frustration, and so on in delivering their services. A social worker with good communication skills practice would advise his or her clients professionally in any circumstances.

Cognitive skills such as literacy and numeracy refer to understanding complex ideas, adapting effectively to the environment, learning from experience, and reason (World Bank, 2017). There are two types of cognitive skills, which are known as fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Hilger et al. (2015) defined cognitive skills as skills related to intelligence and the ability to nurture the firm foundation of new skills. The cognitive skills emphasized in critical thinking include interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation and self-regulation (Facione, 2015). Critical thinking involves the concepts of reasoning, decision-making, and learning how to teach (Celuch et al., 2009). Simultaneously, this skill enables the students, whether in the classroom or fieldwork setting, to apply all the theories that require critical judgement. It also promotes and enhances the quality of teaching and learning (Setyowati et al., 2018). Analytical skill is ‘ . . . to clarify existing information by examining parts and relationships . . . identify and distinguish components, attributes, claims, assumptions, or reasons . . .’ (Marzano et al., 1988). The right approach in teaching a social work programme is to have analytical skills because the social work educators can clearly define the elements involved in the social work field. Hands-on practice practically means conducting cases in the field. Social work is known as a profession that consists of theory and practical components. Social work education is derived from the theoretical perspectives learnt in the classroom, while fieldwork is applying the theories during a reasonable period (Dhemba, 2012). The integration of both theory and hands-on practice is crucial in social work education because students need to apply them to their practice (Bogo, 2015).

Bogo et al. (2013) developed a holistic competence approach that consisted of two inter-related dimensions: meta-competence and procedural competence. The interpersonal and personal/professional nature of the work includes students’ cognitive, critical and self-reflective capacities. Based on psychoanalytical and social theories of the body and senses, Ferguson (2018) investigated how reflective practice helps educators think clearly and critically. He mentioned this as a core concept in social work and applied professions of teaching, health and social care. However, procedural competence is the performance and ability to use procedures in various stages of the helping process. It includes forming a collaborative relationship, carrying out an assessment and implementing interventions with clients and systems.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has clarified that social work practice consists of professional application of social work values, principles and techniques to one or more of the following ends: helping people obtain tangible services, counselling and psychotherapy with individuals, families and groups, helping communities or groups provide or improve social and health services, and participating in legislative processes (NASW, 2019). The organization also states that social work practice requires knowledge of human development and behaviour, social, economic and cultural institutions, and the interaction of all these factors. The International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW, 2020) mentions nine core points for all social work educators in schools and programmes of social work, which include number and qualification, decision-making process, equity-based policy, recruitment and promotions based on labour legislation, workload and conflict, transparency and fairness. The Task Force or Technical Committee on the enhancement of the practice of social work has started the drafting of the Social Workers Bill since 2010 that emphasizes six core areas, such as to establish a regulatory body by the name of the Malaysian Social Work Council that would undertake related tasks, eligibility of social workers, determination of the qualification of social workers, issuing licences and certificates, and guidelines of tertiary education (Hua and Shafie, 2017). From social work educators’ perspective, they need to immerse themselves in practice to deeply understand the real problems of individuals, families and groups to apply the right intervention to solve the problems. Currently, the MASW identifies the following six professional competencies for social work practice which are considered as practice competencies (MASW, 2020):

Providing professionally accountable and ethical assessment, planning, intervention and evaluation of issues raised;

Being cognizant of, and sensitive to, socio-cultural diversities;

Practising within the boundaries of their competence;

Improving professional proficiency through continuing education and training;

Seeking regular professional supervision and appropriate consultation where required;

Developing and contributing new professional knowledge through research and teaching.

Method

Research approach and design

A qualitative study was conducted to address social work educators’ competency level in Malaysian public universities. The qualitative approach’s application is appealing as it permits the researchers to explore the research issue more in-depth. In the context of this study, the researchers collect diverse perspectives and opinions from social work educators about their skills, training and development competencies. This study employed a case study design that attempted to include different perspectives and contextual aspects of the competency skills, training and development that the social work educators followed and their experiences in detail.

Data collection technique and research instruments

An in-depth case interview technique was employed to gather detailed information from social work educators. The researchers also had a chance to probe for valuable information from the participants. The researchers approached the identified social work educators via email and also telephone calls. Further details on the venue, date and time of the interview were proposed as convenient to the participants. Several phone calls (at least 3–4 times) were made as a follow-up to reconfirm their acceptance of the email invitation sent earlier. An interview protocol was developed in light of the study objectives to conduct the interviews. The interview protocol consists of three main sections: level of competency (interpersonal, cognitive, analytical, hands-on practices, and training and development), factors in competency deficits (based on the level of competency, i.e. limitations and challenges) and training and development strategies to overcome these deficits to increase competency skills.

Sampling procedure and participants’ profile

This study adopted the purposive maximal variation sampling technique to select 20 social work educators from seven public universities in Malaysia that offer a social work degree programme. Then, the researchers secured the list of lecturers involved in the teaching of the social work programme from the respective universities’ websites and selected 70 social work educators. The researchers decided to select three lecturers (3 lecturers from each university and altogether 21 participants from seven public universities that offer a social work programme). The inclusion criteria to qualify for selection were that their master’s or PhD degree must be in social work. The researchers then contacted the social work lecturers who met the inclusion criteria via email to invite them to be the study participants. Only 20 identified lecturers agreed to participate, which is a high response rate. Moreover, the data reached saturation point among these 20 participants and thus additional in-depth interviews were not needed. This saturation criterion was determined as per ‘personal lens’ given by Fusch and Ness (2015) when in there is enough information to replicate the study to obtain additional new information has been attained in qualitative research. Most of the interview sessions took between 1.5 and 2 hours.

Out of 20 social work educators, 35 percent were males and 65 percent females. Forty-five percent had 11–20 years of teaching experience, followed by 30 percent with 21–30 years of experience. The remaining 25 percent had 1–10 years of teaching experience. With regard to their educational background (Table 1), only 25 percent of them had social work bachelor’s degree, while 75 percent had a degree in various social sciences and humanities studies. It shows that 60 percent enrolled in master’s in social work and medical social work programmes, and the other 40 percent pursued their master’s degree in other social science programmes. Out of 19 participants, 11 had a PhD in social work followed by three in medical social work, and the rest had various allied courses in social sciences. Forty percent of them were in generalist social work, followed by 20 percent in social work-related courses, 15 percent in medical social work and children and family, respectively, and 10 percent specialized in the community development area (Table 2).

Table 1.

Education background of the participants.

Education background	Bachelor	Master’s	PhD
Social Work	5	10	11
Medical Social Work	–	2	3
Psychology	4	1
Anthropology and Sociology	2	1	1
Social Policy	–	2	1
Social Administration	1	–	1
Management	1	1	–
Human Development	4	–	–
Community Development		1	1
Other fields (Biotechnology and Management, Health Education, Housing Planning, Art Regional Science, Science Administration)	3	2	1
Total	20	20	19

One social work educator is currently undertaking a PhD.

Table 2.

Area of expertise related to social work of the participants.

Area of expertise	Percentage
Generalist social work	40
Clinical/medical social work	15
Community development	10
Children and family	15
Social work-related courses	20
Total	100

Data analysis techniques

This study followed a thematic analysis approach and the entire narrative data were assembled into themes and sub-themes, and then inductively coded. Next, thematic data were interpreted through thick description. Direct/verbatim quotations have been used in the article to illustrate the findings.

Reliability and validity

First, the researchers conducted the in-depth interviews, where they took notes, and the full interviews were recorded and compared with the written notes. Second, they wrote up the individual in-depth case interviews daily immediately after finishing the interviews. As a result, they could include any recollections and contexts to their report. Third, the researchers used five themes for data presentation: communication skills, analytical skills, cognitive skills, hands-on practice and continuous training.

Research ethics

This study was approved by the University of Malaya Research Ethics Committee (UMREC) (UM. TNC2/UMREC-436). Our initial contact started over the telephone, and then, we sent a formal letter to the Head of the Social Work Department at the seven selected public universities. The participants were informed clearly about the research objectives and benefits of their participation before data collection. The researchers obtained written consent from all of the social work educators who voluntarily participated in the study.

Results

Theme 1: Communication skills

All participants agreed that good communication skills help to interpret and deliver information precisely to the students. This kind of skill helps them to achieve a mutual understanding with their students. This skill is crucial to know students’ level of perception and understanding. Half of the participants mentioned that in some cases, informal communication outside the classes, such as extra-curricular activities or individual talk with the students, helped them to understand their contextual and individual matters. All of the participants also agreed that the capacity to convey a message depends on the educators’ experience. Besides that, good communication skills can further guide the students in reaching mutual agreement or understanding in dealing with clients in the future. One participant’s opinion was

Communication skill is very important. The way I deliver is also important. When I deliver my course, I use case examples so that my students can understand better. I should not be so much theoretical until my students do not understand what I am talking about. It would be good if we give some practice-based examples of our social work organisations. This kind of examples should be cited frequently in the classes and this helps to decrease the theory and practice gaps among the students.

All of the participants shared the perception voiced in the above statement. They further added that excellent communication skills involved dynamic interactions between educators and students. One of the participants mentioned,

To me, an important skill is communication. Communication is not only coming from the lecturer, but it involves two-way communication. So, if there is any question or opinion from the students, they can point out their ideas, and we can discuss.

Some participants agreed that social work educators should acquire excellent communication skills including foreign language proficiency, although they could achieve this efficiently as per requirement. One participant’s argument was

Yes, it is compulsory to include the skills (analytical, cognitive, and communication) in the teaching and learning process, though it was not specifically mentioned in our competency guideline. For instance, since most of the students are Malay, so they need to know how to communicate with clients who are from different background[s] and races such as Chinese, Indian and Aboriginal. We also bring the students to fieldwork which is a community-based rehabilitation and they need to deal with the clients. So, these students need to have communication and cognitive skills so that they can deal with their surroundings.

Theme 2: Analytical skills

All of the social work educators agreed on the importance of analytical skills and they are relatively more important to them as they provide practice-based teaching and learning. Half of them reported that analytical skills help them in problem-solving critically. One-third of them added that this skill is instrumental in understanding how their students’ information is related to their learning from various sources and in linking how these are constituted. The students can recognize the actions needed to solve the problems by citing the various resources available. One participant mentioned,

. . . [the] skill that is required is analytical. I have to think about what is in front of me, what is happening? I think that is the most important thing . . .

This study, nonetheless, recorded a bit of a different kind of information. Some participants mentioned that in their experiences, in some cases, students were unable to catch up with the learning session in class if the lecturers were too analytical. One participant argued,

Analytical skill is important, but we sometimes miss that we [are] hardly aware about the diversity of the contents of [the] curricula and the subject that we teach. Sometimes students are unable to understand the message conveyed to them as it is too analytical.

One participant highlighted that it is crucial to teach students analytical skills to train them to have critical thinking in higher education including cognitive and analytical skills as per the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015–2025. One participant told,

Of course, we need to include analytical skill in the teaching process even though we are social work educators and we are bound by the current development of higher education.

Theme 3: Cognitive skills

All of the social work educators agreed on the importance of cognitive skills to deliver their lectures successfully. They mentioned that educators play an indispensable role in enhancing students’ cognitive skills by triggering their thoughtful abilities in solving problems. They argued that students must attain and practise these skills in a lifelong learning process and continue to develop them throughout their lives. As these two educators noted:

. . . very important . . . cognitive skill means the way we think. It means not only giving one common issue. Supposedly they can think out of the box as well . . .

Of course, it is very important. Cognitive is about how we think or how we define the concept of knowledge . . . but we do not learn and practise this.

Five of the participants talked about different aspects of cognitive skills. The summary of their opinions are as follows:

One of our main teaching [areas] and practice of social work focuses on early childhood learning and autism where several aspects are important such as play, advanced language skills, self-regulation, and rule-governed behaviour. There are some aspects such as learning of infant attachment, fear, empathy, child behavioural disorders (autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder). We are not good in this regard; we should give more focus on these issues so that the students can successfully practise these areas in the agencies related to child learning.

Theme 4: Hands-on practice

All of the social work educators agreed that hands-on-practice skills are essential for them. They have to undergo practice in a real setting or fieldwork to expose themselves to applying the intervention in solving real-life cases. They further added that social work is contextual and they need to know problem-solving skills; each case requires a different solution, thus exposing them to multiple cases. Based on their previous teaching experiences, they are lacking hands-on practice especially in handling cases. They suggested having more hands-on practice in the current teaching content to improve their competency. Hands-on practice, hands-on learning and hands-on activities refer to conducting practice in a real-life setting or a physical setting to gain new experiences. Hands-on practice encourages thinking critically in problem-solving in dealing with individuals, groups and communities in the physical setting. Half of the participants argued that if social work educators had experience in hands-on practice, they would be able to explain in detail to the students the right techniques to apply to solve problems. In this regard, the study recorded a critical voice from one participant:

In my opinion, it is an advantage if [the] social work educator has experience in social work practice because we can explain thoroughly on the real hands-on practice while giving a lecture in the lecture hall or tutorial class . . .

One educator added that social work educators always emphasize undergoing hands-on practice to better polish their skills and share this with students so that they can learn the real techniques and procedures to deal with the clients/cases. The participant offers her justification as below:

We need to increase our knowledge and skills about how the students will deal with the clients/cases. We tell the students where and when the problem is . . .

One of the participants also mentioned that social work educators indeed get the idea of conducting cases mainly from books and different websites. He gave examples – the MASW, British Association of Social Workers (BASW), IFSW and Asia and Pacific Association for Social Work Education (APASWE). Other participants concurred with his idea by mentioning that there are indeed some gaps between theories and practices as well as country context. He said,

In my opinion, the skills needed among social work educators are theory and hands-on practice. Hands-on practice means that social work educators can provide an example to the students based on the real experience from the field, not from reading books.

Moreover, social work educators also must get exposure to real fieldwork. They need to know the appropriate manner of conducting real-life cases. Hands-on practice would naturally offer more authentic knowledge and more practical skills development. This aspect is not accessible or available in classrooms and books. We quote one of the participant’s feedback:

Social work educators need to conduct hands-on practice beside teaching. Practice will help educators during lecture sessions. Educators need to practise to enhance their skills and knowledge in social work.

Theme 5: Continuous training

From the participants’ perception, continuous training is crucial. It helps to polish their existing skills and later convey them to the students. This continuous training creates an opportunity to learn a new technique or intervention and new emerging teaching skills that would enhance their teaching capacity. Nearly half of the participants firmly agreed that they would be happy to learn some new areas beyond their existing expertise if they get this kind of training opportunity. One of the participants said,

Training is very important for social work educators because they need to upgrade and update their knowledge. Because even a PhD holder does not know everything. S/he might know his/her field only; for example, in my case, I only know my field. If you ask me beyond my knowledge, I am sure I cannot provide a comprehensive and detailed answer about this new topic.

A participant mentioned that training facilitates the exchange of new ideas among junior and senior educators. For example, practitioners of the Department of Social Welfare can share their ideas with community workers. Such engagements can promote their capacity to work with a multidisciplinary approach that is currently very important. The study recorded three quotes about this continuous training:

Training, get together, and exchange ideas among the social work educators, especially among the senior and junior. They need to get engaged with the relevant stakeholders. Then everyone can see the relevance of what s/he understands with the real needs of the stakeholders.

We need training and it should be continuous training . . . We need to attend training so that we are always keeping up to date with current knowledge and skills.

I think it should be continuous training. I think, to keep up with the current issues, you need to learn the different expectations about social work because social problems keep on changing.

Discussion

Based on a qualitative in-depth case study, this article indicates that social work educators’ competencies are crucial for delivering quality teaching and learning in social work education. From the participants’ overall views, it was found that social work educators have an insufficiency of these skills. This article concludes that they need to emphasize communication, analytical and cognitive skills throughout the learning process to demonstrate the importance of having those essential social work practices. The study also acknowledges that there are some other factors such as educators’ extracurricular activities (i.e. volunteering, part-time involvement at social service organizations, etc.), and participation in dialogue with external sources that have an important role in the quality of future practice. There is a clear difference between the perception of the respondents and how they are practising the skills competency in social work education. Furthermore, there is a certain level of variation between the theoretical explanation of the skills competency and how the educators are practising these competencies. This kind of finding is similar to Deni et al. (2014), who argued that educators need to obtain new knowledge and acquire new skills and competencies in teaching large numbers of students in their classrooms, such as using technology, which can enhance teaching. At the same time, educators also need to ensure that their students receive the relevant knowledge and skills to be marketable in the working environment. That is why Boudersa (2016) emphasized that teachers were required to have excellent knowledge and skills in teaching and assessment practices to provide higher quality and better education standards. From the above critical analysis, we can assume that the current skills competency among the educators in Malaysia fails to train efficient social workers.

From a theme-wise examination of skills competency, this study observes that the social work educators in Malaysia are far behind on communication skills, analytical skills, cognitive skills, hands-on practice and continuous training. Alike, overall skills competency, the theme-wise skills competency and practices among social work educators are not as sufficient as they should be. Several authors propose some important aspects that need to be acquired to improve communication skills. For example, Srinivasan et al. (2011) argued that social work educators should have the ability to adapt to the respective individuals, families, groups, and communities during specific interactions. Bassham (2011) argued that good communication skills improve their ability to deal with critical problems. As a result, students can also carry out their tasks more efficiently in society and their workplace (Fadhlullah and Ahmad, 2017).

This study further found that though the social work educators in Malaysia recognized that communication, analytical and cognitive skills are very important, their current competencies in these three areas are not sufficient. Social work is a practice-oriented discipline where the students carry out their tasks more efficiently in society and their workplace (Fadhlullah and Ahmad, 2017) and their critical thinking would enhance their ability to deal with critical problems (Bassham, 2011). The more exposed the students are to using their cognitive skills to analyse, assess, evaluate, and be critical, the better they are at making fast decisions in solving critical situations during interventions. King (2009) argued that cognitive skill is crucial to educators and students because it can develop and encourage intelligence, scientific problem-solving, metacognition, motivation to learn, learning styles and brain research. This skill actively constructs and organizes their experience. However, educators’ critical analysis helps to polish their students to become better communicators, but they also inspire their students to be better individuals who can analyse well, think critically and be better at solving problems.

Two other competency skills such as hands-on practice and continuous training are crucial for social work educators, but the study revealed that all of the educators were not completely contented with the scope and opportunity of the current social practice and training. In line with this finding, Hua and Shafie (2017) found two limitations behind the lack of these skills. First, there is no significant difference in the registration for social workers – social workers with social work qualification and those without relevant qualifications but who are employed to deliver social work service – in Malaysia. Second, social work training according to the competency standards has only just started and it will require some time to deliver the training of trainers (TOT) and training of competency standards nationwide.

Limitations of the study

While conducting the study, the researchers encountered several limitations (Islam et al., 2014). The procedural level limitations include the reliability and validity issue, complexity and diversity. The researchers selected a small number of respondents through purposive maximal variation sampling. However, the reliability and validity of the findings may raise a question in terms of their generalizability. This study’s subject matter was complex and diverse as this study explored the competency of social work educators, their perception and opinions on different aspects of competency skills. This research did not consider technological skills, which are now considered as important competency skills in social work education. In many cases, ethical issues such as their self-responsibility to their duties and integrity may raise reluctance to express their level of competencies. However, other limitations and challenges include a lack of trust about the research findings and subjective sensitivity. The subjective sensitivity was a prime challenge when the study asked the educators about their competencies. In many cases, the respondents did not mention their lack of competencies and the institutional barriers they are facing.

Conclusion

This article concludes that social work educators need to accelerate the essential skills to enhance their competency levels to deliver better practical teaching approaches to their students. All the essential skills depicted are relevant to social work educators, which need to be emphasized during teaching and learning. The successful practice of all the skills needed would undoubtedly improve the quality of the country’s social work education. Findings clearly noted that though the educators believe that these skills are important in many cases their level of understanding and use of these skills are insufficient. The MASW can take further initiative to consider some aspects so that the educators can improve their skills and utilize them efficiently in their teaching and student handling. Without a doubt, better quality professional social workers can be produced only if the right skills and knowledge are instilled among the students by the social work educators from the beginning.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Malaysia.

ORCID iDs

Siti Nur Edlyn Nadia

M Rezaul Islam

Author biographies

Siti Nur Edlyn Nadia is a PhD Fellow at the Department of Social Administration and Justice in the University of Malaya, Malaysia.

M Rezaul Islam, PhD, is Post Doc Fellow at the Center for Family and Child Studies, Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and Professor at the Institute of Social Welfare & Research, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research area is focused on social work, international migration and poverty and social inequality.

Siti Hajar Abu Bakar Ah, PhD, is Professor at the Department of Social Administration and Justice in the University of Malaya, Malaysia. Her research interests focus on child welfare and social policy.

Noralina Omar, PhD, is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Administration and Justice in the University of Malaya, Malaysia. Her research interests include poverty, social welfare and social policy (child well-being).

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