SOSV3101 Social Work Pratice in School Settings Course description

The school is a significant arena for children and youth, and students' well-being is crucial for their academic learning. As an institution, the school is a central preventive arena where children and youth gain relational experiences that can influence their further development. Research shows that the number of students with various socio-emotional challenges is increasing in Norwegian schools and that schools perpetuate or exacerbate existing social inequalities. Social work in schools can contribute to promoting students' psychosocial development, preventing absenteeism and dropout, supporting the school-home relationship, and fostering collaboration between different professional groups in the school and other external partners such as child welfare service, the Educational and Psychological Counselling Service and the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinic.

The course addresses how interdisciplinary competence in schools can achieve a more inclusive environment that accommodates and values the diversity of the student body, how social work in schools can help create equal opportunities for all students, and how social work expertise is relevant in the school context.

The student must have passed all exams in the first and second year of the programme. 

After completing the course, the student should have the following overall learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student:

• Has knowledge of relevant theories and concepts significant for social work in schools
• Has an understanding of the social worker’s relational work in a school context
• Is familiar with the current Education Act and relevant public documents pertaining to social work in schools
• Can identify the different phases of group processes in schools

Skills

The student can

• Apply their knowledge of group processes in collaboration with school staff
• Utilize their social work expertise in collaboration with students, parents, school staff, and other partners
• Conduct systematic observations as a basis for intervention to understand how social work is practiced in schools

General competence

The student:

• Possesses both theoretical and practical knowledge of how social work expertise is relevant in the school context
• Can highlight collaboration at the individual, group, and systemic levels
• Is familiar with the school as an arena for preventing social exclusion

The teaching takes place with physical attendance on campus, and is based on student-centered learning methods and alternates between lectures, group work, discussion and reflection tasks, as well as preparation, implementation, and analysis of the students' fieldwork.

To be eligible to take the exam, the student must have the following coursework/mandatory activity approved by the specified deadline:

• Coursework 1.Fieldwork

Completion of 4 hours of fieldwork in a school after the research question has been approved.

Each student is responsible for registering for and attending the fieldwork, as well as staying informed about the meeting time and contact person. If the fieldwork is not completed, an extensive alternative assignment will be required as compensation for the absence. Failure to fulfill the required coursework will result in the student losing the right to take the exam.

The exam in the course is an individual written home exam over 48 hours. The scope of the answer must be 8-10 pages long. Font and size: Calibri 12 pt. Line spacing: 1.5. The approved APA reference style for academic writing must be followed.

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with. 

Grade scale A-F. 

All exam papers are assessed by one internal and one external examiner.

Carolina Helena Ohls and Marianne Buen Sommerfeldt