School social work

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

School social work is professionally performed social work in a school and with the people who learn and work there .

Beginnings

The roots of this field of work lie in the 1920s and 1930s, when committed women in the USA volunteered in schools to support children from disadvantaged families in their school career. This offer included the provision of food and support with homework and games outside of class. The beginning of the comprehensive school movement at the end of the 1960s can be cited as the beginning of today's professional form of school social work in the Federal Republic of Germany - from the Paukschule to the socio-pedagogical school , that was the goal at that time. As part of a model program, school social work was first funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Science in the 1970s. However, most of the models soon stopped working. In addition to the increase in socio-pedagogically relevant problem areas in the school context, the initiation of projects in East Germany after the transformation process and the introduction of the KJHG in 1990 were of fundamental importance for a renewed discussion in the early 1990s . The tenth report on children and young people of the Federal Government also points out that the historically evolved decoupling of the educational fields of work from school and youth welfare is no longer fair and that both school and youth welfare increasingly have to be systematically referred to one another. For some years now, interest in school social work has been growing again - numerous new positions are being created. Many forms of cooperation between school and youth welfare have developed in the process: In addition to classic school social work (dominant collective term), there is school-related youth social work, school youth work, school social pedagogy, youth work and school, school children's house . There are many terms, projects and funding programs, so that the situation in the federal system is confusing. What the different approaches have in common is the goal of giving adolescents the chance of an educational qualification .

There have always been various forms of sponsorship, the social pedagogues and social workers are usually employed by the federal states, municipalities or by recognized independent youth welfare organizations - sometimes in cooperation projects of various kinds.

Framework conditions and areas of activity

The work areas and offers are specially designed for the respective school; For example, a primary school has different demands on school social work than a comprehensive school . Each school sets its own priorities, taking into account the framework conditions. The framework conditions include the cooperation with the respective provider, the financial resources for school social work by the municipality, the specific location of the school, spatial possibilities and socio-cultural backgrounds of the students. The legal basis for school social work as an offer of youth welfare is usually seen in SGB ​​VIII § 13 : "Youth social work". This section describes the promotion of school and vocational training, integration into the world of work and social integration as a requirement of young people who are more dependent on support to compensate for social disadvantages or to overcome individual handicaps. School social work as such is not explicitly mentioned. In recent years, in some federal states (e.g. Brandenburg), an approach has been adopted that regards school social work as a socio-educational offer for all children and young people at a school, which includes various services from the spectrum of §§ 11-14 SGB VIII ( Child and youth work, youth social work, educational child and youth protection). The school social worker is usually the public or free carrier , in which he is employed, subject to directives. The addressees of school social work are the student body and the teaching staff of the school as well as the parents. The following areas of activity can be at the core of today's school social work:

  • Advice and individual help
  • Socio-educational group work
  • Projects and open offers
  • Networking and community work
  • Parental work
  • Prevention work
  • Crisis intervention
  • Support in the transition from school to work

Successful school social work is made possible by

  • personal continuity,
  • full-time employed studied socio-educational specialists ( BA , MA , Dipl. ),
  • Cooperation with the teachers at eye level,
  • Appropriate conceptual anchoring (also in the school program),
  • own and good spatial equipment (conference table, modern office and IT equipment, use of group and classrooms),
  • continuous group work (in small groups and classes),
  • prompt intervention (for example, if you are tired from school or in critical life situations),
  • easy accessibility for parents, students and teachers (in school during class time),
  • Sustainable cooperation structures with institutions (e.g. youth welfare offices, educational counseling centers, school psychologists, etc.) and people in the school environment,
  • innovative, including experiential educational projects that increase the sense of togetherness in classes and the school community,
  • Offers on topics such as addiction prevention and intervention , violence prevention , sex education , communication training, career orientation , school medical services and mediation ,
  • Leisure education offers with different goals in fixed working groups and open student clubs.

Problems

Many difficulties arise in all schools and vary in intensity. Often the problems begin with the spatial accommodation, which is only guaranteed in a few schools. Furthermore, there is a risk that school social workers will have to take over the tasks of the teachers, such as help with homework or substitute hours, so that they cannot carry out their actual, varied activities. In addition, school social workers are often only hired after problems - such as violence - have already occurred. In such cases one can no longer speak of prevention, because only specific difficulties are resolved. This also has to do with the fact that school social workers are often only part-time workers. There is not enough time for preparation and follow-up, as well as getting to know the children and their environment intensively , because new topics have already arisen by then. The problem directly at hand has been resolved, but it does not help the young people because the reason for the behavior remains undetected due to lack of time. Another consequence is that the children can hardly build up trust due to the lack of personal continuity (temporary positions) and thus a more in-depth analysis of the difficulties is prevented. Internal problems often arise because the areas of responsibility are not clear. There is a conflict of skills and competition between teachers and social workers as well as youth welfare offices and social workers. The teachers, students and especially the parents are often not sufficiently informed about the tasks the social workers take on. Such misunderstandings show that the lack of a clear concept needs to be addressed. In this way, not only the confusion in the areas of responsibility, but also the division of tasks and "abuse" of the social workers as emergency workers could be prevented.

Use

It is seen as positive that the offer is easy and directly accessible. The young people do not have to go to an office and ask for help there, but can go directly to school social work in their school. The fear of official institutions can thus be avoided. There are also reports of positive changes in terms of communication and the climate in the school. The pupils are not only more learners, but also people living in school with needs and different social relationships.

Current developments

In view of the increasing complexity of upbringing and education in the school context, the demand for an expansion of school social work has been and is being voiced more and more frequently both in the media and in specialist circles. The increasing public awareness of difficulties or behavioral problems and the pluralization of life situations over the past few years has revived the interest in school social work, which had declined since the beginning of school social work in the 1970s. In the meantime, school social work as the most intensive form of cooperation between youth welfare and school has become an important part of modern youth welfare.

Germany and federal states

In addition to the establishment of school social work in comprehensive schools for 40 years, permanent positions have also been set up in other types of school for some time : in addition to secondary schools in secondary schools, high schools, elementary schools and special schools, where professional psychosocial care is currently being developed . However, this development process is by no means comprehensive; there are also a large number of school-related, socio-educational projects with different names, definitions, carrier constellations and thematic priorities and objectives.

In Thuringia , school social work (“school-related youth social work”) is offered at regular schools (secondary and secondary school branches). The first experiences show that there is a great need for professional socio-educational support.

The first school social work projects established themselves in Saxony in 1993 as a new field of activity for child and youth welfare, primarily at “hot spot schools”. In 1995, Saxony was a pioneer in organization and networking with the establishment of the regional school social work group. In 2008, there were 96 school social work projects in Saxony at 59 secondary schools, 29 special schools, 5 primary schools, two vocational schools and one grammar school at around 1,500 general schools. From 2011 to 2014 the state funded ten additional school social work projects under the title "Education with equal opportunities". In addition, school social work is financed through municipal funds. At the same time, there are social projects at schools that are funded by ESF funds, but they are not run as school social work. The diversity of sponsorship and funding leads to a confusing field, which is why current and exact figures are not available. In 2015 it was reported that the expiry of EU funding programs will reduce the number of projects from 224 to 161.

According to the 2008 state decree, school social work is possible in all types of school in North Rhine-Westphalia . It is most established in comprehensive schools, where everyone has at least one permanent position for school social work. Due to the heterogeneity of the students, socio-educational support was a prerequisite for the establishment of comprehensive schools. Since 2003, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia has been increasingly involved in secondary schools, but school social work is also increasingly being installed in special schools, secondary schools and grammar schools. The school conferences of the individual schools have decided to convert teaching positions (A12 positions) into social workers positions (according to TVL 10 or TVöD 10 or S 15-S 16). The state government is currently planning to hire additional school psychologists who are to be deployed flexibly, i.e. not assigned to a specific school.

Since March 2007 there has been a project center for school social and youth work set up by the Demmin parish in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . In November 2006, the state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania signed a cooperation agreement between school and church in the Altentreptow region at the newly established cooperative comprehensive school with upper secondary school.

School social work has also been anchored in the Schleswig-Holstein School Act since 2009 . The development in the last few years is encouraging, school social work is finding its way into more and more schools. The specialist group of vocational school social workers in Schleswig-Holstein has developed standards for school social work at vocational schools in Schleswig-Holstein.

In Switzerland

In Switzerland, the field of school social work is showing enormous growth rates. In 2006 there were 77 full-time jobs in the canton of Zurich alone. On the basis of calculation of an average of 750 primary school students (including kindergarten) per 100% school social work position, the government council expects a possible further expansion to 140 full-time positions. It is currently assumed that there will be around 400 school social workers at over 1000 schools in German-speaking Switzerland (cf. Baier 2008). In the meantime, the school social work group of the AvenirSocial professional association has developed the first quality guidelines and framework recommendations for school social work and different conceptual approaches can already be identified in the discourse on school social work: Gschwind / Gabriel-Schärer / Hafen (2008) conceive school social work as an instrument for early detection, prevention and treatment Baier (2007; 2008) understands school social work with reference to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as a field of activity in which it is important to implement children's rights and to promote educational and development opportunities outside of the classroom using different methods of action. The website schulsozialarbeit.ch is a central information platform .

In Austria

School social work in Austria now has a 20-year tradition, an increased expansion and an intensive examination of professional quality standards have been taking place for about 10 years, as it was recognized in society as well as in the educational landscape what potential professional social work can bring to schools. Fundamental experiences from the developments in school social work in Austria are reflected in various forms of organization on behalf of municipal bodies and the Austrian federal states: in private associations for child and youth welfare or the federal government, in public child and youth welfare or in the private school system.

In many cases, school social work is still understood as a flexible auxiliary instrument in acute cases, as a beacon of hope for the creation of functionality for the pupils or as a contractor for school location-related services. Since school social work is increasingly being implemented regionally, it needs to be positioned as an independent specialist offer of social work in schools. Associated with this is not only the incident-related fire brigade function in the event of violence in schools or dealing with school absenteeism or dropout prophylaxis, but also a differentiated range of offers for all students to accompany and manage their living environments and places of education. The pupils are the target group of school social work and all other direct - (teachers, parents) or indirect school actors (networks of a school location for problem and conflict intervention) are to be seen as cooperation partners.

A target-oriented anchoring and (further) development of school social work in Austria must start at different levels: political security, teacher training, the focus on the study of social work, the financing of evidence-based research and the professional presentation of school social work on the web-based sites of Ministry of Education and Education Directorates. In order to promote the technical requirement of professional foundation and positioning throughout Austria, the Working Group AG School Social Work was founded in 2013 under the sponsorship of the Austrian Society for Social Work (OGSA). The working group sees itself as a networking platform for managers of school social worker organizations, school social workers from the practical field and subject-specific teachers at universities of applied sciences for social work in Austria. Since then, the sharpening of current topics and the elaboration of statements has been a common focus for professional development in this committee. The continuous exchange with the working bodies for school social work in the German-speaking educational area (DGSA, SGSA) is beneficial for this. As an essential quality feature for this field of social work, there is a consensus among the national supporting organizations that the offers are only provided by professionals of this professional group (graduates of a social academy or a university of applied sciences degree in social work / social work).

Between 2010 and 2017, the Austrian Ministry of Education commissioned research projects for the professional development of school social work. This means that Austria has an important basis for implementation and evaluation, for technical standards and for professionalising the field of work (cf. LBI 2013, FHCW / BMBWF 2017). A complete and clear listing of the research reports is missing, however, which makes access to the evidence-based further development difficult. At the same time, the highest education authority set up a website (www.schul-sozialarbeit.at), an important undertaking for professional exchange, which, however, would require continuous further development. The regional sponsoring organizations in the federal states have been making a significant contribution to the expansion and increasing professionalism for about 10 years. Differentiated performance agreements were drawn up with the schools and school-running municipalities, documentation systems and evaluation instruments for identifying the performance profile were developed, professional standards were differentiated for this field of work, and the public's perception of effectiveness was increased.

The conceptual framework of Austrian school social work is based on the following professional self-image:

• Social work sees itself as a profession that contributes to increasing equal opportunities, social cohesion and equality. Child welfare and children's rights (including the right to education, participation, non-discrimination) are the focus of school social work.

• School social work is an independent field of activity of the social work profession and defines its self-image as a “connecting link” on several levels: to existing help and support offers, including helper systems in the respective educational region / in the social area, to tried and tested offers and / or social resources in the school system as well as in the family system, to the young people or their “youth spaces” such as those of the peers or the virtual world.

• Children and young people who want to come into contact with school social work themselves can do so independently - without prior clarification or referral by adults.

• School social work provides support in crisis situations and sees itself as a general development and socialization aid to support all children and young people. However, it is neither to be seen exclusively as a crisis instrument nor to be used for a specific social or disadvantaged group, as it could directly stigmatize users.

School social work in Austria is based on the following objectives:

• Promotion of a successful, holistic approach to social and school challenges through preventive, early warning and intervening offers, also in the field of health promotion, above all by means of constructive cooperation with teachers and parents / guardians, including the social space

• Strengthening the opportunities for participation and increasing equal opportunities for children and young people

• Recognition of diversity and reduction of disadvantages

• Early detection of social problems through regular contact with students, teachers, legal guardians and other people within and outside of school

• Improving the social climate in school as a place of learning and living for children and young people by strengthening social interaction - also in terms of conflict management

• Support of children and young people in developing and designing educational spaces and opportunities and

• Support of the school in the implementation of an extended educational mandate u. a. in promoting the autonomy and participation of children and young people


In order to ensure sustainable quality development and assurance of school social work in Austria, the following demands are currently being discussed:

• Regular (also interdisciplinary) team meetings at the school location, supervision, evaluation, standardized further training, networking and intervision with colleagues from the professional field

• Regional and supraregional exchange for reflection, self-evaluation and broadening of expertise as well as sharpening of professional and ethical standards

• A meaningful documentation and transparent evaluation for continuous securing of results

• The financing of basic research which goes beyond selective contract research

• Ensuring professional standards: As an area of ​​activity in social work, it is carried out by qualified social work specialists (BA / Mag.a (FH) / DSA) and is based on adequate technical framework conditions, which above all includes the supervision key (350 students on 1st FTE), own office, adequate infrastructure.

• Orientation towards a professional framework concept: The basis of the site-specific work is a framework concept for professional school social work that is adapted to the specific needs of the respective school sites.

• Definition of the place of work: The place of work is directly at the school. In addition, school social work can also act in the social environment of the children and adolescents, especially in the respective social area, whereby it takes on an interface function to the extracurricular life worlds.

Studies, further education and training

Usually school social workers have studied social work / social pedagogy at universities of applied sciences or educational science at universities. A direct specialization in school social work is only rarely possible because there are only individual courses at individual universities that offer corresponding courses and courses. This is increasingly criticized because the current training does not meet the very high professional requirements profile. Against this background and the insight that schools and youth welfare increasingly have to work together, appropriate study opportunities are being developed for school social workers. Here are v. a. Masters courses make sense.

Study options (selection):

  • University of Coburg (FH), accompanying study of early childhood education and school social work, as part of the BA study of social work, from the 5th semester
  • University of Siegen, BA course "Education: Development and Inclusion"
  • Technical University of Regensburg, Bachelor course “Social Work - Social Services in Schools”.

It is to be expected that universities and technical colleges will develop further courses.

In addition to the study options, there is now also a large number of different training courses on school social work.

See also

literature

  • Wilma Aden-Grossmann: History of the socio-educational work in schools. Development and perspectives of school social work. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-10042-1
  • Wilma Aden-Grossmann: School social work: Cinderella in everyday school life - history and concepts. 2013 [Kindle Edition]
  • Heinz Abels : School Social Work. A contribution to compensate for socialization deficits. In: social world. 21/22, 1971, ISSN  0038-6073 , pp. 347-359.
  • Josef Bakic, Johanna Coulin-Kuglitsch (Ed.) (2012) Focus: School Social Work in Austria. Vienna: Löcker
  • Florian Baier, Ulrich Deinet (Hrsg.): Practice book school social work. Methods, attitudes and action orientations for professional practice. 2nd expanded edition. Budrich, Opladen et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-86649-396-4 .
  • Florian Baier, Rahel Heeg: Practice and evaluation of school social work. Secondary analysis of research data from Switzerland. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-17323-8 .
  • Herbert Bassarak (ed.): Lexicon of school social work . Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2017, ISBN 978-3-8487-1594-7 .
  • Sigmund Gastiger, Benjamin Lachat (Ed.): "School social work. Social work in the school." Lambertus-Verlag, Freiburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7841-2095-9 .
  • Erich Hollenstein, Frank Nieslony (Ed.): Field of action school social work. Profession and quality. Schneider Verlag Hohengehren, Badmannsweiler 2012, ISBN 978-3-8340-1109-1 .
  • Michaela Marterer (Ed.): School social work in Austria . Documentation of the nationwide conference on May 9th. 2017. Vienna: STVG, FHCW,
  • Barbara Schörner, Christine, Würfl (2017): School social work as a profession. International comparative country analysis of school social work: BMB, FHCW
  • Barbara Schörner, Christine, Würfl (2011): Task and competence profile of school social work: Delimitation and synergy with school support systems. Vienna: BMUKK
  • Barbara Schörner, Christine, Würfl (2013): On the task and competence profile of school social work in Austria. In: Social Capital - scientific journal of Austrian technical college courses in Social Work 10, at: http://soziales-kapital.at/index.php/sozialeskapital/article/view/288
  • Karsten Speck (ed.): School social work. An introduction Reinhardt-Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-8252-2929-0 .
  • Karsten Speck, Thomas Olk (Hrsg.): Research on school social work. Stand and prospects. Juventa, Weinheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-7799-2238-4 .
  • Anke Spies, Nicole Pötter: Social work in schools. Introduction to the field of school social work. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-16346-8 ( contributions to social work in schools 1).
  • STVG, BMBF (Ed.): Scientific positions on “School Social Work in Austria”. Graz, Vienna, at: http://schul-sozialarbeit.at/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Wwissenschaftliche-Positionen-Vol.1_FINAL1.pdf
  • Monika Vyslouzil, Markus Weißensteiner (Eds.) (N.d.): School social work in Austria - projects with a future. Vienna: Verlag des ÖGB

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Leipziger Volkszeitung July 14, 2015
  2. ↑ Link to the standards of the BSA-SH
  3. ↑ K. Gschwind, P. Gabriel-Schärer, M. Hafen: One discipline - many tasks. School social work between prevention, early detection and treatment . In: SozialAktuell 1, p. 46, 2008
  4. ↑ AG Schulsozialarbeit on ogsa.at