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Application: SAGE/CSWE 2014 Award for Innovative Teaching in Social Work Education

Now Closed: Online Application for 2014 Award Cycle
Submission Receipt Deadline was 11:59 pm (USA ET) on Wednesday, July 9, 2014

A. Overview

The annual SAGE/CSWE Award for Innovative Teaching in Social Work Education is presented by SAGE, working in collaboration with the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). This award was established in February 2012 to honor and recognize innovative teaching in social work education. The award's purpose is to

  • promote innovative teaching in social work by highlighting it as it emerges, and
  • recognize the individuals who have played significant roles in bringing it about.

For the 2014 award cycle applications will be submitted online at SAGE/CSWE 2014 Award; both a completed application form (MS Word) and submitter vita will be uploaded as part of the submission process to be considered for the 2014 award. Two recipients (or teams) will be awarded and recognized each year for outstanding contributions to social work education. Learn more about the previous recipients of these awards at SAGE/CSWE 2012 Award for Innovative Teaching and SAGE/CSWE 2013 Award for Innovative Teaching.

B. Applicants

Any individuals currently engaged in social work education at the undergraduate, graduate, and/or continuing professional education levels may apply. The awards are intended to recognize individuals, working alone or in concert, in social work or interdisciplinary and interprofessional where social work is present in those settings.

C. Thematic Foci

The three themes identified for the 2014 awards follow. Applicants will be required to select one of them during the online application submission process.

  1. Educating Social Work Students for Behavioral Health and/or the Changing Environment of Health Care:The integration of mental health and behavioral health policies, programs, and services is transforming the way in which social workers practice in the mental health and substance abuse fields. Applicants for this award should demonstrate how their methods of educating social work students prepare them to be effective professionals in this dynamic new practice arena. Alternatively, applications will be considered that demonstrate how their approach to teaching social work prepares students in the rapidly changing health care field (health promotion and prevention, primary care, integrative care, and hospital-based social work).
  2. Education for Practice With Vulnerable and Marginalized Populations: Today's social workers are challenged more than ever to develop and deliver effective and responsive services for populations that endure social exclusion and marginalization. These groups include men and women in military service and veterans and their families; formerly incarcerated individuals; the elderly poor; and at-risk children and youth. Applicants for this award should demonstrate how their teaching innovations (in content or method) prepare social work students to engage more effectively with these hard-to-reach and often underserved individuals and families.
  3. Teaching Students to be Effective Research Consumers and Researchers: New fiscal, political, and demographic realities require social workers to demonstrate that their practice is based on the best available interdisciplinary and interprofessional research. Applicants for this award should clearly demonstrate innovative ways of teaching social work research to BSW and foundation level MSW students in a manner that excites them about using research effectively and conducting research in the future. [Note: The emphasis of applications must be on the teaching of research, not on a research project.]

D. Selection Criteria

Three criteria will be used in selecting award recipients:

  1. Effectiveness
  2. Transferability
  3. Significance

Effectiveness criteria will be used to measure the innovation-in-teaching’s impact on the learners, the institution in which it takes place, or both. Transferability refers to the extent to which the innovation can be extended to other settings (e.g., from one course or institution to another or from the classroom to the field). Significance refers to the importance or consequence of the innovation to be social work education and to social work practice.

E. The Award--More Than a Ceremony

Two recipients will be announced by August 8, 2014, and presented at the CSWE 2014 Annual Program Meeting (APM) prior to the Special Plenary Session on October 24, 2014. Recipients will be encouraged to present their innovations in one of two workshop formats during that same APM.
These workshops will bring together awardees and other nominees to exchange ideas on innovations in social work education that lead to innovations in social work practice. They will be scheduled to enable the award winners to demonstrate how their innovations work and engage participants in related activities.
Awardeess will receive a complimentary registration to APM (one per individual award or up to two per team award provided by CSWE), and travel and lodging will be paid for up to $1,500 per individual or team by SAGE Publications. In addition, the awardees will receive $500 worth of SAGE books or journals.

F. Questions

Please direct questions about this award to the APM mailbox and they will be forwarded to the appropriate staff contact.