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Practical support as “professional dirt work” in school social work with newly arrived young migrants
Halmstad University, School of Health and Welfare. Halmstad University. (Socialt arbete)ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7616-9644
Halmstad University, School of Health and Welfare. Halmstad University. (Socialt arbete)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9458-5489
Halmstad University, School of Health and Welfare. Halmstad University. (Socialt arbete)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5232-2525
2024 (English)In: Social Work as Emancipatory Practice: Creating Pathways towards Social Justice Book of Abstracts, 2024, p. 73-74Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Social work practice is characterized by contradictions, such as support versus control and the fact that social interventions usually aim at individual change, while clients to a greater extent request practical support and social security. At the same time, social work practice is characterized by status hierarchies and professionals seem to have an adversarial relation to providing practical support. The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of status hierarchies in school social work through analysis of how school counselors’ reason about their role and task working with newly arrived young migrants.

The study is based on qualitative interviews with 15 school counselors. The interviews have been analyzed using a qualitative thematic analysis.  

The study shows that the school counselors work with newly arrived minors is perceived as quite practically oriented. The school counselors describe that they spend a considerable amount of time helping with practical issues such as finances and translate letters from authorities. This kind of practically oriented tasks are referred to in previous research as "professional dirt work" and ends up far down in the status hierarchy.  These tasks are not perceived as uncontroversial and are subject to negotiation. Among the school counselors in the study there is both an outspoken desire that someone else should be responsible for this work to make time for more important counselor tasks, but there are also those who perceive this work as an important part of school social work that underpins the relationships with the pupils.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2024. p. 73-74
Keywords [en]
social work, newly arrived young migrants, school social work, professional boundary work, status hierarchies
National Category
Social Work
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-54827OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hh-54827DiVA, id: diva2:1910174
Conference
Social Work as Emancipatory Practice, Creating Pathways towards Social Justice, Gothenburg, Sweden, June 17th-19th, 2024
Available from: 2024-11-04 Created: 2024-11-04 Last updated: 2024-11-29Bibliographically approved

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Helmersson, SaraEriksson, HelenaHögdin, Sara

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
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