Mapping the Ecology of School Social Work Practice: National, State, and Theoretical Perspectives

School social work has evolved into a complex and specialized practice field. There is a pressing need for school social work scholars to assemble the core knowledge of this practice field and to create an agenda for future research directions. To this end, this roundtable offers an initial overview of the 2008 National School Social Work Survey (N=1,515), conducted by the roundtable organizers. Survey findings will be used as a starting point from which to assess the state of school social work practice and factors which shape practice. Participants will discuss findings in light of (1) prior state-level research on school social work practice and (2) historical and school organizational factors hypothesized to shape practice. The over-arching goal of this roundtable will be to discuss and distill a set of critical research questions to be addressed in future research on school social work practice.

School social work scholars have levelled multiple critiques of student-focused casework methods that they argue are not grounded in any specific empirical method or approach. Few of these discussions, however, have moved the field to find new ways to conceptualize practice to integrate evidence-based practices into the work of school social workers by offering methodological solutions for studying school social work practice in the context of schools.

The three presentations in this roundtable suggest that this “drift” to casework is also shaped by a limited scholarly knowledge base that only partially captures the actual complexity of the practice field. The first presentation will summarize preliminary findings from the 2008 National School Social Work Survey, a collaborative effort between the researchers and the School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA) and school social work leaders in all 50 states. This survey (N=1,515) is the first major one to describe school practice in the wake of the changes caused by the No Child Left Behind legislation and the Response to Intervention (RTI) and Positive Behavioral Supports (PBS) programs underway in schools nationwide. The second presentation will contrast the findings of the national survey with two other recent surveys and focus groups conducted by the researchers in Ohio and Illinois with a specific focus on the professional development needs identified to help practitioners stay current in the field (Kelly, 2008). The final presentation will argue that historical and organizational theories are central to identifying variables that shape practice in light of these findings.

Implications for practice, research, and professional development will be discussed in detail throughout all three presentations. Ultimately, this roundtable will suggest that historical, contemporary, and school organizational factors represent potentially important explanatory mechanisms that can help map the ecology of school social work practice. The researchers will articulate how schools and school-related processes must be understood as central mechanisms shaping school social work practitioners and their practice choices.