Social Work - Theses
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ItemSchool social work in the state of Victoria, Australia: 65 years of student wellbeing and learning support( 2014)School social work is one of the earliest fields of professional social work practice in Australia. Despite the lack of accessible literature to document it, successive Victorian practitioners have perpetuated an unbroken tradition of practice, supporting students to achieve their potential through education. The research used professional narratives and documents retrieved from private and public archives to consider the organisational, theoretical and practice developments of school social work in the State of Victoria. The findings represent the first broad picture over 65 years of school social work as professional practice. State education department school social workers, employed within multidisciplinary teams delivering visiting services, have frequently experienced organisational reconfiguration, often associated with newly elected State governments, changing social and educational policies, and the restructuring of successive departments of education. In particular eras, a much smaller number of school social workers has been appointed by individual schools as members of staff. Since the 1973 publication of an Australian Government report into schooling, Commonwealth and Victorian State Government policies have increasingly focussed on concepts such access, equity and excellence for all students, inclusive of individual difference, socio-economic background and cultural diversity. Professional identity was found to be based on dynamic school social worker interaction with the changing context of practice, but fundamentally founded on values, knowledge and methods for intervention. School social work was embedded within the ethical base of social work, with particular emphases that identified it as specialist practice. School social workers were driven to focus particularly on the student in the learning environment, in order to facilitate children’s rights to education, and support social justice outcomes. School social work was integrated into the policies, practices and programmes of the school as host setting, with the purpose of improving student potential, through minimising the effects of inequities and removing impediments to best learning outcomes. School social workers primarily used an ecological-systems approach, and an eclectic repertoire of theories and methods, to work at the interface of multiple environments around the student. While prevention and early intervention were the preferred levels of practice, most time has been allocated to more complex casework intervention. School social workers needed generalist and school-specific expertise including: counselling and supporting children, young people and their families; teacher consultation and professional development; small group and whole class work; facilitating school policy and practice change; and building school-family-community relationships. It was by way of the acquisition of specialist knowledge and skills for school-specific methods of practice that practitioners were able to narrate school social worker professional identity at individual and communal levels. The research proposes that “the tradition of practice” is the stream of continuity of shared professional identity, where meaningful connections are made with past, current and imagined future narratives essential to the profession. Finally, the study proposes multiple areas for further consideration and research into school social work in Australia, including its effectiveness in facilitating school engagement and learning, the impediments faced by students and young people, and comparative studies with international settings.
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ItemYoung men speak: a study of mid-adolescence and masculinity( 1999)This study investigated the effect of dominant notions of masculinity in the lives of mid-adolescent males. A qualitative research design, based on the analysis of transcripts of in-depth interviews with eight sixteen and seventeen year-old young men, confirmed the existence of a harsh masculine culture that impinged significantly on their behaviour and attitudes. The findings are identified a possible turning point in young men’s lives, where they begin to develop highly valued close relationships with a small group of friends or mates, with whom they share and emotional bond, and around whom they feel less pressure to prove their manliness. While they described the possibility of sharing thoughts, and feelings and experiences, there were nevertheless limits to what was allowed to be spoken even between the closest of friends. These restrictions were attributable to the sanctions that operated to maintain an environment significantly influenced by dominant notion of masculinity, and in which these friendship groups were embedded. The young men conformed to the tacit restrictions on intimacy, from fear of exposing themselves as weak or poorly skilled. Nevertheless, participants demonstrated a developmental readiness for intimacy, and were beginning to experience emotional engagement with male or female peers. The study suggests the need for a new concept that values and acknowledges a sense of emotional connectedness in the absence of sharing verbalised thoughts and feelings. With intimacy constrained, and little discussion of personal issues, young men had inadequate knowledge of the complexity of problems that might confront them, and few models of coping strategies. Consequently, they risked feeling isolated and unresourced in times of stress. Similarly, while they recognised signs of stress in others, they had few helping skills. In any case, dominant masculinity required that young men handle their own problems, without showing any vulnerability. Counselling was seen as an ultimate failure of manliness. There were indications of intergender rivalry, and despite attempts to be fair and equitable, an underlying belief that men should be in control in families and relationships. Rock music was clearly a potent positive element in the lives of young men, and served a variety of purposes. Alcohol gave individual and group release from the debilitating restrictions of masculinity, removing the need for self-control and allowing greater intimacy. The young men showed they were able to discriminate between “real life” and media or sporting images of masculinity, and had independently identified personal role models from within their own family or friendships circles. This study has shown the importance of understanding the adolescent male world from his own perspective. In particular, it demonstrates the degree to which masculinity impacts on the adolescent behaviour and attitudes, and highlights the necessity for Social Work practitioners to factor the masculine code of behaviour into case and programme planning. Moreover, it is suggested that Social Workers take a proactive approach to teaching young men the language and skills to understand masculinity, and to pursue identity formation and the establishment of positive relationships despite its impact on their lives.