Family therapy educators are currently challenged to teach their students in ways that facilitate competencies, but that are also meaningful to students. In this qualitative study, which serves as the second article of this dissertation, twelve award-winning family therapy educators were interviewed about how they facilitate educational practices that family therapy students have defined as meaningful to them. A thematic analysis of the interviews revealed seven primary themes: 1) relationship building, 2) attending to student development, 3) relevance, 4) actively engaging students in the process, 5) enthusiasm and curiosity, 6) providing and receiving honest feedback, and 7) transparency. The implications of these findings are discussed to support meaningful family therapy teaching practices as well as to offer specific suggestions for how family therapy educators can more deeply engage with their students. / Ph. D. / This dissertation consists of two manuscripts. The first manuscript outlines the current state of research in the topic area of family therapy education. After reviewing thirteen studies from the past twenty-seven years, I provide a summary of trends and findings within this area of research. In addition, I review and critique the various methods that have elicited such findings. Finally, I hypothesize about why this area of research is suffering in quality and quanitity and provide recommendations for how future research on this topic could be conducted.
For the second manuscript, I interviewed award-winning family therapy educators about their teaching methods. I asked them how to facilitate meaningful learning experiences for students so that current and future instructors could strengthen their own teaching. I use the findings from these interviews to provide the following recommendations: 1) get to know students personally, 2) recognize education as a developmental process, 3) make topics and examples relevant to students, 4) learn with, but also from studentsm 5) use student-led presentations sparingly or not at all, 6) be open to giving and receiving honest feedback, and 7) share enthusiasm. I also list implications and directions for future research related to how to teach family therapy in meaningful ways.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/77948 |
| Date | 07 June 2017 |
| Creators | Earl, Ryan Michael |
| Contributors | Human Development, Piercy, Fred P., Milewski Hertlein, Katherine Anne, Breunlin, Douglas C., Grafsky, Erika L., Case Pease, Jenene |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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