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This winter break, GSSWSR Assistant Professor David S. Byers is joining colleagues Anan Fareed and Khalid Hreish of Al-Quds University in the Palestinian West Bank. The group is conducting a large qualitative study examining experiences and perspectives of Palestinian social work supervisors who train students in clinics and agencies throughout the occupied territory. Byers explained that supervisors in the region take their role as educators and leaders of the emergent profession extremely seriously. Participants in the study practice in a range of social work settings, providing psychotherapy, case management, programming, and advocacy to children and adults experiencing acute and chronic trauma, incarceration and state violence, loss of homes and land, lack of mobility, child abuse, and violence against women, minorities, and stigmatized groups. These supervisors face imminent personal and professional dangers from all sides as they engage with the complexities of social work in the region and mentor students to join them in the field. The study is ongoing, with follow up interviews scheduled for summer 2018.

Byers said the research has helped to develop his thinking about the ways social justice work and clinical practice are often integrally related in social work. He has also joined with GSSWSR Dean Janet Shapiro, Director of Field Beth Lewis, and Professor Leslie Alexander to conduct a comparative study about experiences of social work supervisors in the Philadelphia area.
 

Dr. Byers will complete this portion of the Palestine study and return to the U.S. in time for the Society for Social Work Research (SSWR) conference in Washington D.C. in mid-January. At the conference, he will present findings from the group’s previous study focused on experiences of social work students. His paper is titled, “Too Close for Comfort: Palestinian Students Grounding Clinical Conceptualization in Community Trauma.”