The perceptions of selected Mississippi public secondary school principals, teachers, and counselors related to the need for the skills of baccalaureate social workers in their schools.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences among the perceptions of selected Mississippi public secondary school principals, teachers, and counselors related to the need for the skills of baccalaureate social workers in their schools. The population for this study was Mississippi public secondary school principals, teachers, and counselors. Using a stratified random sampling, 529 principals, teachers, and counselors were chosen as the sample for this study, and 136 returned their surveys. A School Social Work Skills Survey was developed and consisted of 21 questions related to the skills used by school social workers in performing their tasks. The skills used in the survey were taken from the Standards for School Social Work Services developed by the National Association of Social Workers. The principals, teachers, and counselors were asked to identify the degree to which they believed the skills were needed in their schools using a Likert scale. On the Likert scale, the response to each question ranged from 1 to 4, with 4 = strongly agree, 3 = agree, 2 = disagree, and 1 = strongly disagree. The responses on each survey were then summed to obtain a score between 21 and 84 which represented each respondent's perception of the need for baccalaureate school social workers. The Statistical Program for the Social Sciences was used to analyze the data and the descriptive statistics. A one-way analysis of variance was the second procedure used, with the dependent variable being the perception of the principals, teachers, and counselors and the independent variable, the role of the respondents (principal, teacher, counselor).; Findings of the study indicated that: (1) the mean perception scores of the principals, teachers and counselors were all high perception of need scores; (2) there were no significant differences among the mean perception scores of the principals, teachers, and counselors related to the need for the skills of baccalaureate social workers in their schools; (3) there were significant differences among the mean perception scores based upon school size; (4) there were no significant differences among the mean perception scores of the principals, teachers, and counselors compared to years of experience in their current positions; and (5) there were significant differences among their perceptions depending on whether or not there was a school social worker employed in the school or within the district.; Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made: (1) these findings should be shared with the Mississippi Department of Education staff so that they can demonstrate need for social workers in public secondary schools statewide; (2) the Mississippi Department of Education should use NASW's Standards for School Social Work Services as a guide for determining the number of school social workers to employ in schools based on school size; (3) school personnel in schools with a student population of between 751 and 1250 should be targeted by social workers for education about the role of social workers since they had the lower mean perception of need scores; (4) school social workers, who are employed in schools, should be used as models by schools that will employ school social workers in the future.