scholarly journals RAISING AWARENESS OF SCHOOL SOCIAL WORK IN SLOVAKIA

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Šimonová ◽  
Miroslav Tvrdoň
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
School Environment ◽  
School Social Work ◽  
Professional Staff ◽  
Social Risk ◽  
Social Risk Factors ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Staff Members

The objective of the present study was to point out the current perception of the roles of school social workers and other professional staff members in secondary schools from the perspective of school managers. In conducting the research, the authors focused on interrelationships between social work and education. In using the qualitative method of semi-structured interviews, the authors analysed the current state in the school environment from the perspective of school managers in secondary schools in the Nitra Region. There were 16 respondents included in the study. According to the respondents, the school environment is able to recruit professional staff members, and thus reflect the increasing need for professional interventions in dealing with increasing social risk factors. According to our findings, the most acceptable form is employing a school social worker directly by the school. In the present, however, there is insufficient funding, legislative anchoring of school social work, and specialised education for social workers.

AN ASSESSMENT OF PROVISION, FUNCTIONALITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF SCHOOL LIBRARIES IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ODO-OTIN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
John O. Oyekale
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
National Policy ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
Professional Staff ◽  
Local Government Area ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Inadequate Information

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the provision, functionality and accessibility of School Libraries in public secondary schools in Odo-Otin Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria.Methodology: A qualitative research method was adopted. Evidence was gathered through semi-structured interviews with principals, staff members, teachers in charge of the library, as well as students in all the 17 public schools being investigated. A Local Inspector of Education was also interviewed at Okuku, the headquarters of the Local Government are, who gave further insight into the issues and challenges faced by public school libraries. Observations were made and recorded on a checklist as to how the libraries in schools visited were resourced and laid out. The checklist was created according to the resources one would expect to find in a well-resourced library as described in the literature. It was used to indicate the type of resources available in the library. No attempt was made to count the number of resources that were available; it was only used to determine if the resource was present. All the seventeen (17) public secondary schools in Local Government were visited and data was collected over a period of one month in 2017. Data collected was analysed using frequency counts and simple percentages. The findings were presented tabulated according to the research objectives.Findings: The study revealed that school libraries are not provided in most schools in Odo-Otin Local Government Area. It also revealed that the few libraries that existed are majorly housed in converted classrooms, with no certified professional staff, inadequate furniture, and grossly inadequate information resources; and that accessibility to the few libraries that exist depends on the staff members that equally use them as their staff rooms. It also revealed that two schools in the Odo-Otin had benefited from Federal Government of Nigeria’s SchoolUnique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study revealed that a tier of Government in the Country is not fully implementing the National Policy on Education (2004); and that the learning environment in public secondary schools in Odo-otin is breach of Nigeria constitution on right to quality education.  

scholarly journals Modelling Positive Behaviour: A Vital Strategy in Instilling Positive Discipline Among Secondary School Learners

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
Lwazi Sibanda ◽  
Joyce Mathwasa
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
School Environment ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Positive Discipline ◽  
School Counsellors ◽  
Development Committee ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
School Heads

This qualitative study, guided by interpretive paradigm, explored how secondary schools use modelling positive behaviour strategy to instil positive discipline among learners in Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, Zimbabwe. The study was enthused by the abolition of corporal punishment, exclusion due to delinquent behaviour and adoption of positive, inclusive discipline strategies to maintain order in schools. A case study design purposively sampled four schools in which four school heads, twenty members of the disciplinary committee, four school counsellors, two education officers, four School Development Committee chairpersons and forty prefects participated. Data collected through focus group interviews, semi-structured interviews and document analysis were thematically analysed. The results indicated that secondary schools adopted the modelling positive behaviour strategy to instil positive discipline among learners. New staff members’ orientation focused on conduct, modelling of positive behaviour whenever teachers, learners and parents interact as they perform various activities in the school environment. The study also established that prefects as role models were afforded opportunity to lead assembly sessions. The study concluded that in spite of a few cases of misconduct, it is evident that modelling positive behaviour strategy produced affirmative outcomes in schools understudy. The study recommends further research that explores other strategies that could be adopted by schools to maintain positive discipline particularly in rural schools.

scholarly journals “It’s about the most needy children”: A Foucauldian analysis of school social workers’ responses to need in post-earthquake Canterbury

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raewyn Tudor
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
School Social Work ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
School Social Workers ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Social ◽  
Foucauldian Analysis

INTRODUCTION: After the 2011 Canterbury earthquake, the provision of school social work was extended into a larger number of schools in the greater Christchurch region to support discussions of their practice priorities and responses in post-earthquake schools.FINDINGS: Two main interpretations of need are reflected in the school social workers’ accounts of their work with children and families. Firstly, hardship-focused need, which represented children as adversely influenced by their home circumstances; the interventions were primarily with parents. These families were mainly from schools in low socioeconomic areas. Secondly, anxiety-based need, a newer practice response, which emphasised children who were considered particularly susceptible to the impacts of the disaster event. This article considers how these practitioners conceptualised and responded to the needs of the children and their families in this context.METHOD: A qualitative study examining recovery policy and school social work practice following the earthquakes including 12 semi-structured interviews with school social workers. This article provides a Foucauldian analysis of the social worker participants’ perspectives on emotional and psychological issues for children, particularly those from middle-class families; the main interventions were direct therapeutic work with children themselves. Embedded within these practice accounts are moments in which the social workers contested the predominant, individualising conceptualisations of need to enable more open-ended, negotiable, interconnected relationships in post-earthquake schools.IMPLICATIONS: In the aftermath of disasters, school social workers can reflect on their preferred practice responses and institutional influences in schools to offer children and families opportunities to reject the prevalent norms of risk and vulnerability.

scholarly journals Practice in a Pandemic: School Social Workers’ Adaptations and Experiences During the 2020 COVID-19 School Disruptions

2021 ◽  
pp. 104438942110098
Author(s):  
Michael S. Kelly ◽  
Rami Benbenishty ◽  
Gordon Capp ◽  
Kate Watson ◽  
Ron Astor
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
School Social Work ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Virtual School ◽  
School Social Workers ◽  
Traditional Practice

In March 2020, as American PreK-12 schools shut down and moved into online learning in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, there was little information about how school social workers (SSWs) were responding to the crisis. This study used a national online survey to understand how SSWs ( N = 1,275) adapted their school practice during the initial 2020 COVID-19 crisis. Findings from this study indicate that SSWs made swift and (relatively) smooth adaptations of their traditional practice role to the new context, though not without reporting considerable professional stress and personal challenges doing so. SSWs reported significant concerns about their ability to deliver effective virtual school social work services given their students’ low motivation and lack of engagement with online learning, as well as significant worries about how their students were faring during the first months of the pandemic. Implications for school social work practice, policy, and research are discussed.

Purchasing Power and Self-Determination: Social Worker Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Bailey ◽  
Debbie Plath ◽  
Alankaar Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Purchasing Power ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Management Approaches

Abstract The international policy trend towards personalised budgets, which is designed to offer people with disabilities purchasing power to choose services that suit them, is exemplified in the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This article examines how the ‘purchasing power’ afforded to service users through individualised budgets impacts on social work practice and the choice and self-determination of NDIS service users. Social workers’ views were sought on the alignment between the NDIS principles of choice and control and social work principles of participation and self-determination and how their social work practice has changed in order to facilitate client access to supports through NDIS budgets and meaningful participation in decision-making. A survey was completed by forty-five social workers, and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with five of these participants. The findings identify how social workers have responded to the shortfalls of the NDIS by the following: interpreting information for clients; assisting service users to navigate complex service provision systems; supporting clients through goal setting, decision-making and implementation of action plans; and adopting case management approaches. The incorporation of social work services into the NDIS service model is proposed in order to facilitate meaningful choice and self-determination associated with purchasing power.

scholarly journals Social work support for employment of people with learning disabilities: Findings from the English Jobs First demonstration sites

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Stevens ◽  
Jess Harris
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Active Labour Market Policy ◽  
Case Record ◽  
Wide Range

Summary This article brings together two key themes in recent public policy in England affecting social work practice: the value of having a paid job for social inclusion and increasing self-worth, and the personalisation of public services. The article draws on a mixed method evaluation of Jobs First, which was a government-funded demonstration site project that aimed to show how personal budgets (a key mechanism for personalisation) could be used by people with learning disabilities, often with their families, to purchase employment support. The evaluation involved secondary analysis of case record data and 142 semi-structured interviews with a wide range of participants (we mainly draw on 79 interviews with professionals for this article). Jobs First is placed within the frame of Active Labour Market Policy. Findings The attitudes of social workers to Jobs First were broadly positive, which was an important factor supporting employment outcomes. However, social workers’ involvement was often limited to a coordinating role, undertaking basic assessments linked to resource allocation and ensuring that support plans, which had often been developed by non-social work practitioners, were ‘signed off’ or agreed by the local authority. Applications The study points to important elements of the role of social workers in this new field of practice and explores potential tensions that might emerge. It highlights a continuing theme that social workers are playing more of a coordinating, managing role, rather than working directly with individuals to support their choices.

scholarly journals The Use of Metaphor as an Important Tool for Understanding Oppression

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Hillock
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Written Assignments ◽  
Systems Of Domination

Using an anti-oppressive practice (AOP) theoretical framework and an exploratory qualitative research design, featuring semi-structured interviews and written assignments, a group of ten social workers were asked to describe their understandings of the concept of oppression. The study found that, in the case of these particular social workers, they used metaphor as a key conceptualization process to more vividly describe and understand the concept of oppression within their social work practice. This article analyzes eight categories of metaphor themes the participants used to explain their understanding of oppression: (a) pressure; (b) earth; (c) quest; (d) nature of society;  (e) seeing; (f) building; (g) dancing; and (h) water. The research findings are intended to open up dialogue and thinking about the concept of oppression, increase our knowledge base and understandings of oppression within social work practice, and assist the social work profession to build a stronger conceptual framework for understanding and naming oppression with the end goal of assisting social workers to better respond to and resist systems of domination.

scholarly journals The Impacts of Socioeconomic Crisis in Portugal on Social Protection and Social Work Practices

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 13198
Author(s):  
Inês Casquilho-Martins
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Social Intervention ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Structured Interviews

The effects of the international crisis brought economic and financial risks, as well as consequences for human, social and sustainable development. This study aims to analyse the effects of social intervention with families since the 2008 crisis in Portugal. Through a qualitative approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with social workers (23), to identify the main impacts of the crisis and the adopted social intervention practices. We highlight a new increase in social problems and the growth of vulnerable groups facing an unprepared social protection system. The Portuguese case reveals that the effects of austerity have shown a decline in the welfare and benefits system, leading to worsened social problems, such as increased poverty and unemployment, as well as social inequalities. Social Work was required to respond to these consequences, although organisational contexts and austerity measures constrained practitioners’ autonomy. By reflecting on this critical period, we seek to contribute to better social protection and assistance models in the face of the current and future crisis. In this sense, Social Work practice ensures a means to guarantee fundamental rights and social justice, preparing social workers and social intervention for new challenges in crisis contexts.

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