published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

<p><font size="3"> <p>The significant increase of social problems experienced by youth such as, teenage pregnancy, child abuse, child sexual offenses, substance abuse and violence impacted adversely on optimal development including learning, retention and throughput within the school context. These social and psychological barriers to learning are commonly addressed by social workers in the course of their work with individuals, families and communities. Therefore it was a natural progression to consider the appointment of social workers in the Western Cape Education System to address the challenges presented by these problems. The practice of school social work has subsequently become essential within the Department of Education. Service delivery in the Western Cape Education Department is centralized and school social workers fall under the auspices of circuit teams with school psychologists, learning support advisors, curriculum advisors and other education officials. This multidisciplinary team is managed by circuit team managers who do not necessarily have training in the disciplines of the respective professionals in their team. This system is called the matrix management system and implies a dual management approach in which health professionals e.g. school social workers, also report to the Head of Specialized Learner and Educator Support (HSLES). The dual or matrix management of school social workers includes a circuit team manager and an &quot / acting senior school social worker.&quot / This study focused on assessing the realities of school social workers being managed under this system and sought to develop guidelines for the management of school social workers. To this end, the present study was conceptualized as Intervention Research within a modified Design and Development model. This form of applied research is used to design and develop interventions to improve social problems using participatory methods. The modification entailed four phases where each phase consisted of operational steps. The first phase focused on project planning that included problem analysis and information gathering as operational steps. This phase aimed to formulate the core problem or focus of the research through rigorous contextualization within the current body of literature on School Social Work and empirical validation using key informants including school social workers. Subsequently document analysis of literature and policies / as well as thematic analysis of interviews and focus groups were conducted. The results informed the core problem or focus for the research. The resultant finding was that dual management impacted negatively on staff morale, professional development, coordination of services, effective service delivery and more broadly posed ethical dilemmas where practices were not aligned to statutory requirements and policy prescriptions of the South Africa Council of Social Workers. The second phase, Design and development, focused on developing a set of management guidelines that would address the problems reported in the experiences of school social workers, specifically related to the dual or matrix management. During this phase data collection included a survey of SSWs, and interviews to inform the management guidelines along with the findings from Phase one. The third phase, Development and Evaluation, focused on testing the proposed guidelines for feasibility and relevance to the problems encountered in a focus group with SSWs. The core findings suggested that SSWs welcomed the statutory base for their work or scope and the explicit recommendations for line management. The participants also responded favorably to the intention, content and recommendations included in the draft guidelines. Clear recommendations were made that were incorporated into a revision of the management guidelines. The evaluation was participatory and resulted in valuable feedback that refined and modified the management guidelines for school social workers. The fourth phase, Dissemination, focused on presenting the iterative process of the research and how the core findings in each phase culminated in the management guidelines. For the purposes of the thesis, dissemination entails the formalized presentation of the development and evaluation process of the guidelines in the form of a doctoral dissertation. Appropriate summative comments are made with clear recommendations for the possible adoption of the guidelines in practice that would enable advanced evaluation in field testing.</p> </font></p>

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This diploma thesis is focused on aspects of education at Waldorf schools. It deals marginally with some general aspects of Waldorf pedagogy, on the other hand, the Waldorf school teaching plan, especially in chemistry teaching context is described and discussed in detail. Educational approaches and procedures at Czech Waldorf schools (especially Prague schools) are described and discussed, based on a personal experience. The second part of the thesis is focused on evaluation of key competences through the Waldorf portfolio work. Many inspirations to chemistry teaching on Waldorf schools (and common schools) are included, which are mostly verified in my praxis. Appendix includes examples of students portfolio works and methodical commentaries to chemistry teaching at Waldorf schools of secondary level.

This phenomenological study documented the influences of a high school career exploration program, Experience-Based Career Education (E.B.C.E.), on the professional lives of nine adults who are former program participants. E.B.C.E. was an experiencebased, student-centered program that helped students develop long-term career goals and then reassessed those goals based on community-based, externship experiences. The findings in this study indicate that the utilization of John Dewey’s experiencebased, student-centered philosophy, the basis for E.B.C.E., effectively enhanced the learning process. The study's data, which was gathered exclusively through an Internet focus group session and follow-up email questions, documented the long-term influence of E.B.C.E. on program participants at Ellen Martin High School, a school that admitted only honors students in a large city in the South. E.B.C.E. participants from Ellen Martin High School participated in the Program for the last two years of high school. Program participants discovered their career interests and researched their career options while learning job skills and life skills during their junior year of E.B.C.E. Their non-paid externships, during their senior year of E.B.C.E., helped students learn how they might fit into the adult work world. Study participants developed life guides/philosophies, such as the importance of responsibility, commitment, dedication, and hard work. Adult mentors played an important role in the lives of the E.B.C.E. students, both personally and professionally and several study participants have maintained contact with their former E.B.C.E. mentors. These mentoring experiences helped E.B.C.E. participants develop a sense of confidence about their abilities in the adult world. They have maintained this sense of confidence in their present profession. Most of the study's participants experienced flow, a condition linking high challenges to feelings of enjoyment, self-worth, and ongoing development, based on their successfully meeting challenges. Some of these challenges were purposely placed in the paths of students to test them while they participated in E.B.C.E. The positive feelings about overcoming challenges, in the adult work world led E.B.C.E. students to seek higher level challenges and this recursively upward pattern of seeking higher challenges has led them to continue seeking higher challenges in their professional lives.

A report on a research study presented to The Department of Social Work School of Human and Community Development Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Occupational Social Work March, 2016 / Due to the lack of direct access to Human Resource (HR) offices, most public schools are usually neglected with regards to issues of health and occupational services. Teachers are faced with occupational challenges, such as stress, physical and mental health issues, increased work load, long working hours, unrealistic deadlines, inadequate remuneration, HIV/AIDS, poor personal financial management and relationship problems. Therefore, this requires teachers to have access to professional occupational services which aim to support and enhance their wellbeing when required. The research study explored on occupational services rendered at rural public high schools for teachers in Limpopo. The qualitative research approach and a case study research design were utilised. A type of non-probability sampling, purposive sampling also known as a judgemental sampling was used to select the research participants. The sample consisted of 19 teachers from two public high schools, who participated in three focus groups. With the various findings from the study and identifying challenges in the various schools, it is evident that the Department of Education, Limpopo needs to prioritise the provision of occupational health services to teachers in the rural areas. Such services are anticipated to enhance the wellbeing of teachers, which is further hoped, that learners will benefit from quality education as provided by teachers, impacting positively on the year end outcomes. / MT2017

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:15:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thalita Giovanna Bull.pdf: 7594362 bytes, checksum: bf79da3f588afa7afd540461e7c32ae9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-12-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This essay seeks to show the working process of social workers in the sector of School Social Work, including the historical path by which these professionals achieved the Municipal Department of Education and have started to build an experience that has gained recognition and visibility. Based in an interview with the coordinator of the department, which followed this process from the beginning, we reconstruct this path by identifying the way in which the determinations have affected it. Through the application of a questionnaire we draw a profile on the main personal and professional characteristics of social workers in the team. We have presented the tasks of social workers in this sector as well as the major projects conducted during the 13 years in which this experience has been built. Based on the theoretical framework supported by authors from the Marxist tradition field, particularly in the specific context of Social Work, as well as professional experience in the industry built School of Social Work, this researcher considers education an important field of disputes on hegemony, where social workers can and should contribute to build a working class culture, which allows a break with the forms of domination and exploitation present in the capitalist society, to build an "education beyond the capital". (MÉSZÁROS, 2005) / Esta dissertação busca evidenciar o processo de trabalho dos assistentes sociais do setor de Serviço Social Escolar, compreendendo a trajetória histórica pela qual esses profissionais chegaram à Secretaria Municipal da Educação e ali passaram a construir uma experiência que vem conquistando reconhecimento e visibilidade. A partir da realização de entrevista com a coordenadora do setor, que acompanhou esse processo desde o início, buscamos reconstruir tal trajetória, identificando a forma pela qual as determinações conjunturais nele repercutiram. Por meio da aplicação de um questionário, buscamos traçar um perfil acerca das principais características pessoais e profissionais dos assistentes sociais que compõem a equipe. São apresentadas as atribuições dos assistentes sociais do setor, bem como os principais projetos realizados durante os 13 anos em que essa experiência vem sendo construída. Com base no referencial teórico sustentado por autores do campo da tradição marxista e, particularmente, no âmbito específico do Serviço Social, bem como na experiência profissional construída no setor de Serviço Social Escolar, esta pesquisadora considera a educação um importante campo de disputas em torno da hegemonia, onde os assistentes sociais podem e devem contribuir com a construção de uma cultura própria da classe trabalhadora, que possibilite a ruptura com as formas de dominação e exploração presentes na sociedade capitalista, no sentido de construção de uma educação para além do capital . (MÉSZÁROS, 2005)