“Melq'ilwiye” Coming Together: Reflections on the journey towards Indigenous social work field education

Abstract

This article shares the reflections, based on exploratory research and practice in the Interior of British Columbia (BC), Canada, of social work and human service field education coordinators on reconciling field education programs. Drawn from a larger study, the authors present the findings from in-depth interviews, using an Indigenous intersectional storytelling approach to understand the experiences of Indigenous and non-Indigenous field coordinators in moving towards an Indigenous field education model. There is limited research on Indigenous field education and few publications on the experiences of field education coordinators about this important area of practice. This article draws from the study's previous publications and focuses specifically on the narratives of field education coordinators in order to contribute to the development of new literature on the process of reconciling field education practices. The findings of the study call for a transformation of field education policies and practices in order to support Indigenous intersectional and culturally safe field education.