Challenges and Prospects of Establishing School Social Work Profession in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Hsiu-Feng Lai, 賴秀鳳
• Other Authors: Yu-Chia Chen
• Format: Others
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/18904576482310258497

碩士 === 國立東華大學 === 民族發展與社會工作學系 === 101 === This research investigated the challenges and prospects of school social work after the amendment of Article 10 of Compulsory Education Law from the view of ecology system. According to the amended Article 10 of Compulsory Education Law, Municipality /City/County governments must hire a full-time professional and volunteer counselors, and elementary and junior high schools depending on needs . In addition, according to Regulations on Elementary/Junior High Schools and Municipality /City/County Governments Hiring Full-time Professional Counselors amended in August 2011, elementary and junior high schools should employ clinical psychologists or counsel psychologists or social workers with licenses as full-time professional counselors. Other related regulations includes Directions for Ministry of Education Subsidizing Municipality / City / County Governments and Elementary / Junior High Schools for Hiring Full-time Professional Counselors, Directions for Ministry of Education Subsidizing Municipality / City / County Governments for Hiring Full-time Professional Counselors and Directions for K-12 Education Administration of Ministry of Education Subsidizing Establishment of Student Counsel Center by Municipality / City / County Governments which is amended after reorganization of Central Government in 2013. This research probed into the breakthrough of the requires of school social works and their expectation future by Article 10 of Compulsory Education Law amended in 2011 and designated and revised the methods and main points in 2013. The research methods include literature review, population projection and interviews. This paper reviews the history of school social work and its human resources ratio among Taiwan, Hong Kong and the U.S. At the macro-system level, the appropriateness of school social workers for welfare and the possibility of funding sources, and human resource distribution were discussed based on the law for public policy. As for population projection, secondary analysis data was analyzed to calculate the demand of school social workers based on the regulated numbers of classes and school. In addition, the demand of school social workers for preschool up to college in 2013-2030 is also estimated. Research participants include senior college students of school social work, current school social workers and directors, and relevant authorities and professionals. Lastly, a qualitative method including in-depth interview, survey and participant observation was used. A meso-system was used to discuss the interdisciplinary cooperation between school social workers and other professional teams; a micro-system was used to reflect the value and position of school social workers. This research for findings and conclusions: 1. With a large gap between the supply and demand for the school social workers estimation. 2. With a large gap for professional school social workers. 3. Have to reference to education priority areas concept and the amount of social and political bulletin for the human resource of school social workers. 4. Short of supervisors. Supervisors system should execute indeed. 5. Due to short of the human resource of school social workers, they cannot take care of the service users well. 6. Have to overcome the obstacles for the human resource and finance, they should concern the service users first and joint nonprofit organizations to create a model for with one social worker for each school. Based on the analysis and discussion couples of conclusions and suggestions are proposed: First, for the policy: (1) It demands immediate attention to legislate correlate school social work laws for secure of the rights of school social worker and to settle the rules for rural and exceptional conditions; (2) Including social work into administration system and bringing social workers into the human resource. It must adversely affect their service quality that if school social workers were not included in the mission of education; (3) School social works should extend their service into the kindergarten since the compulsory education; (4) Modes and grants of school social work should stand on the demand of regions. Second, for the Ministry of Education and Department of Education: (1) Schools have the demand of more social workers serving for dropouts, which is serious in junior high school, and students’ deviation behaviors; (2) Assembling school counseling centers and social worker system in every county and building a supervisory system which conducts the cooperation; (3) Assigning appropriate number of social workers in accordance with the population differences between rural and city areas. Third, for schools: (1) Professional counselors need to be named of school social workers; (2) Well coordinating the reporting system of the first and secondary stage to set the assessment for screening divisional system and announce the notice of each case; (3) Supporting and providing opportunities to students who dropout and being not able to adapt to school learning and bringing them back to school.