Equity for government school students: Reclaiming social work services in New South Wales

In Australia, school education is largely a state government responsibility, hence there are varying responses across Australia to the welfare needs of school students. The present study explores the basis for the provision of social work services within schools, particularly the special needs of rural schools, and suggests that NSW school students are disadvantaged by not having access to social work services that might help them overcome some of the educational barriers that they face. The nature of educational barriers is examined and literature on the role of school social workers is reviewed. The authors find that the social justice rhetoric of State and Commonwealth educational agencies is incongruent with NSW school practice.     

An evaluation of school district guidance and counseling programs: Procedures and results

This evaluation examines the administrative history, staffing levels, and content of school district guidance and counseling activities. Case studies were made in a 50% random sample of a district's 45 elementary schools. Eight hundred teachers, parents, and students were interviewed. All school plans were reviewed. Five-year staffing patterns and staff changes were studied. All district staff with guidance and counseling responsibilities recorded characteristics of guidance and counseling contacts for 15 days. Schools with and without counselors were studied to estimate differences in who receives services and what is provided. Results show systematic differences in the level and kind of services provided secondary and elementary students. Approximately one-third of the schools studied had stable programs. Schools with stable programs provided a broader range of services and distributed them in a more equitable manner.     

Subjectivation,agency and the schooling of raced and dis/abled asylum-seeking children in the Italian context

Abstract

This paper intends to address the challenges that the Italian education system is facing in terms of policies and practices relating to dis/abled asylum-seeking and refugee children, in order to make sense of the politics of daily life inside schools and the network of social services for forced migrants, and to pay renewed attention to the notion of ‘social and educational integration’. The starting point of this paper is the idea that the current model of schooling for asylum-seeking and refugee children is implicated in the making of particular sorts of ‘subjects’, as well as the creation of educational and social exclusions and inequalities. Schools, refugee organisations as well as the work of educators and social workers can be important sites of ‘counter-politics’. Borrowing from the theoretical tools offered by Dis/Ability Critical Race Studies (Dis/Crit) framework and engaging with Judith Butler’s understanding of processes of subjectivation, the paper explores how asylum-seeking and refugee students can be rendered subjects outside the educational endeavour, or indeed outside studenthood. Data from an ongoing constructivist grounded theory doctoral research project, interviews with asylum-seeking children and with professionals working in different refugee services in Rome, are offered to substantiate the argument presented in this paper.     

Teaching Elementary School Social Studies Methods under edTPA

This article reports a self-study that analyzes my experience as a teacher educator navigating a turbulent educational landscape with the advent of edTPA. The data consist of my journal entries, the syllabi, handouts, work submitted by my students, and course evaluations. Data were analyzed by using an inductive process to describe how the edTPA compounds my work of teaching future elementary teachers for social studies for social justice. I discuss challenges associated with my teaching and the ways that I have grappled with these challenges. Implications for teacher educators are discussed, because we all must deal with important issues in the current era of accountability and testing.     

‘The Bad People Go and Speak to Her’: Young People’s Choice and Agency when Accessing Mental Health Support in School

Concerns about the mental health and well‐being of children and young people have been articulated in health and education policy fields as a call for closer working between schools and providers of mental health support services. Drawing from a Scottish study, this article explores issues of access, when mental health initiatives are sited in formal educational settings. In particular, it focuses on the implications for the agency of children and young people seeking support from those services when and how they choose. The study argues that over‐reliance on teachers as the main referral route to service influences what is deemed to be a problem, who is thought to need support and how the interventions are viewed by the children and young people. Alternative approaches are discussed, which offer opportunities for children and young people to explore the available services and make their own choices about their level of engagement.     

Teaching Note—Diversity and Difference Through a Rural Lens

This teaching note demonstrates how the PEN-3 cultural model provides an opportunity to address, embrace, and achieve cultural competence among social work programs. By facilitating a more complex and nuanced understanding of diversity and difference, the PEN-3 model allows social work students and practitioners alike to move beyond a historic understanding of diversity and difference to an awareness that truly addresses the intersectionality of the multiple dimensions of diversity, including place diversity. This teaching note particularly focuses on the importance of understanding how place diversity, or the unique social and environmental context where individuals, families, and communities are embedded, influences the interactions and individual experiences among rural individuals and their subsequent health outcomes.     

You Have to Start from Scratch and You Need Someone by Your Side”: Perspectives of Parents and Teachers on Immigrant Students’ Adaptation to School

This article analyses the issue of immigrant students’ adaptation in Israeli schools, as perceived by their parents and teachers. The study integrates data from two qualitative, phenomenological studies: one explored immigrant parents’ perceptions of Israeli education and their children’s adaptation in school, while the other studied teachers’ perceptions of immigrant students’ education and their practices in the field. The data was gathered from in‐depth interviews with 17 parents and 20 teachers. The analysis yielded a list of themes related to parents’ and teachers’ views of the children’s adjustment, and their own roles in this process: their personal experiences in the field, the challenges and difficulties in interpersonal interactions between parents and teachers, and policy issues related to the educational integration of immigrant students. Findings emphasize the vital importance of parent‐teacher collaboration, clarification and better implementation of existing policy, and teachers’ qualifications for the successful educational integration of immigrant students.     

Competing Cultural Narratives: Gender and the Representation of US K–12 Teachers in Contemporary School Reform Policies

Cultural narratives about the proper scope and focus of teaching are embedded in contemporary school reform policies. This review examines literature related to two competing cultural narratives about US primary and secondary teachers: that “good teachers” are autonomous saviors, defined by their abilities to act independently and against great odds to improve academic outcomes for low‐income and minority students, and that “good teachers” are disempowered technicians who follow the guidance of externally‐recognized experts in their efforts to reduce educational inequalities. A review of literature critiquing these narratives finds that scholars have often analyzed these narratives using theoretical frameworks associated with race, class, and/or neoliberalism. This review examines what historians of education and feminist scholars can contribute to a critical analysis of the representation of US teachers in political speech and popular culture. It demonstrates that gender, as part of an intersectional approach, is important to understanding how White middle‐class women teachers can be positioned simultaneously as “autonomous saviors” and as “disempowered technicians” and how these narratives influence the professional status and autonomy associated with the work of teaching.     

Visibility,Immobility and Stigma: Young People's Use of Sexual Health Services in Rural Areas†

Teenage pregnancy has become a major policy issue, for which young people are often publicly held solely responsible. However, a combination of factors substantially increases the risks of conception faced by young people engaging in early sexual activity. This article reports the main findings of a study of teenage pregnancy in linked seaside and rural areas, focusing on the experiences and perceptions of young people living in rural localities. They identify the issues of immobility, visibility and attitudes of stigma as affecting their ability to access sexual health services. The young people highlighted issues for service and policy development and the behaviour of professionals, both within schools and from sexual health services. Education, social and health services and the voluntary sector have important roles to play in responding to their needs.     

Sociology and High School Teaching

Teaching opportunities for sociolgy majors have traditionally been oriented to the college or university. There is, however, a clear need for qualified sociolgy teachers at the high school level. Such teachers could generate interest in the sociological imagination among precollege students. By doing so these teachers could provide skills for those students entering the workforce and encourage enrollments among those students opting to attend college. The American Sociological Association is aware of this opportunity and has addressed it in a variety of ways over the past thirty years. There has been renewed commitment by the ASA in the 1900s to develop programs that can enhance high school sociolgy. This article suggest that the state sociological association may be in a strategic position to assess the needs of high school sociolgy teachers, to address their resource needs as well as the concerns of teacher certification and competency. Jan Rienerth, teaching interests are in women's issues, applied sociology, and experiential learning. Her research has focused on women and the elderly in prison. Paul Lindsay, most recent teaching and research interests are in the areas of the sociology of education, educational policy and conflict resolution. Michael Wise, recent teaching and research is in the area of deviant behavior.     

Social Control and Intersectionality: A Multilevel Analysis of School Misconduct,Location, Race,Ethnicity, and Sex

Adolescent violence and misconduct, especially within schools, is a top sociological and educational concern because of the detrimental effects on adolescent physical health, emotional well-being, and educational progress. Concurrently, public schools in the United States are in the midst of a demographic transformation. More importantly, prior research suggests contextual characteristics are associated with rates of deviant behavior particularly in urban areas where racial and ethnic minorities reside. What remains uncertain, however, is the relationship between social control, intersectionality, and school misconduct. This study utilizes data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 and incorporates multilevel modeling techniques to examine how the link between social control and adolescent school misconduct may differ by race, ethnicity, and biological sex in urban, rural, and suburban locations. The results suggest intersectionality may matter when understanding the associations between social control and school misconduct. The implications of how intersectionality may matter in social control are discussed.     

The Role of Social Capital in Educational Aspirations of Rural Youth*

Drawing on a recent national survey of rural high school students, this study investigated the relationship between social capital and educational aspirations of rural youth. Results showed that various process features of family and school social capital were important for predicting rural youths' educational aspirations beyond sociodemographic background. In particular, parents' and teachers' educational expectations for their child and student, respectively, were positively related to educational aspirations of rural youth. In addition, discussion with parents about college was positively related to educational aspirations of rural youth. On the other hand, there was little evidence to suggest that number of siblings and school proportions of students eligible for free lunch and minority students are related to educational aspirations of rural youth, after controlling for the other variables. We highlight unique features of rural families, schools, and communities that may combine to explain the complexity of the role of social capital in shaping educational aspirations of rural youth.     

School Social Work in Australia

Abstract

This study explores the current state of social work services in Australian schools. A total of 65 social workers participated in the survey. The majority of respondents had permanent positions and over half of them were working part time. The number of schools serviced was wide ranging and the median was six schools. The major funding source was state governments, the primary referral sources were school staff, and the primary reasons for referral were behavioural and mental health problems. Respondents reported good support from employers and high levels of work efficacy and satisfaction. A large proportion of their hours were spent on counselling, paperwork, case management, and consultations. The major barriers to their work were lack of time, lack of resources, and lack of recognition given to social work perspectives and roles. Given the paucity of literature, findings from this study are expected to lay a foundation for future studies.     

An Empowerment Approach in Teaching a Class about Autism for Social Work Students

Social workers are being asked to respond to the rapidly increasing number of individuals and families affected by Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). However, the curricula in schools of social work have limited content on disabilities. This article describes a course which prepares social work students for work with individuals with ASD through an empowerment approach in an ever-changing socio-cultural and political environment. This approach changes the focus of disabilities from a narrow perspective on particular services and rehabilitation to a broader concern with human rights, social inclusion and quality of life. The article describes the development of the course in collaboration with a university disability program, the areas of emphasis for the course (family focused, interdisciplinary, lifespan) and the multiple modes of delivery. The implications of teaching the course as an elective or as integrating it further into the curriculum are discussed.     

Le travail enseignant en lycée professionnel et ses paradoxes

The paradoxes in the work of teaching in French vocational education stem from the “symbolic closure” of these secondary schools. The latter, given the mass enrollment in general secondary schools, receive students marked by their failure in middle school. This has created a distance with the students' social and family environment and with firms, even though the latter are supposed to be the destination where these students are bound. The work of these teachers is strongly marked by “subjective ordeals” related to their subordinate position in the school system, to a concern for keeping peace in the schools and to doubts about integrating students in the world of work. Might the work of these teachers not lead paradoxically to reasserting the “weight of the educational form” by including therein actions that are supposed to help students “mature” and develop an “appropriate school identity”? In this case, the purpose of this work is the academic socialization and rehabilitation of young people as much as their vocational training as such.     

Schools,Their Spatial Distribution and Characteristics,and Fertility Limitation*

This article investigates the complex relationship between various dimensions of women's educational context and their contraceptive use later in life. Using data from rural Nepal on all the schools that ever existed in one community, I create geographically weighted measures of school characteristics—specifically teacher and student characteristics—that capture exposure to the complete array of schools and investigate the direct relationship between these dimensions of school characteristics and contraceptive use. These analyses provide new information on the broader issue of how social context influences the adoption of innovative behaviors by exploring the wide-reaching effects of school characteristics on individuals. Findings show that the gender of teachers, the gender of other students, and the level of teacher education are all related to women's use of contraception; that increased exposure to these school characteristics throughout the study area, but not necessarily at the closest school, is related to higher rates of contraceptive use; and that school characteristics early in the life course can have long-term consequences for individual behavior.     

The School Success Profile Online

SUMMARY

This article provides an overview of the purposes, development, and implementation of the School Success Profile Online (SSP)–a computerized, self-report survey for middle and high school students. The SSP takes advantage of World Wide Web technology and the increasing access of public schools to computers and the Internet to assess students' perceptions of their neighborhoods, schools, peers, and families, as well as their own psychological and physical health and school performance. The individual and group profiles generated by the SSP can help school social workers identify areas of concern, plan their interventions with students, and evaluate the impact of their efforts at the end of interventions.