In my master's thesis, I researched the public image of social work and social workers in the Republic of Slovenia. Firstly, I presented the definitions of social work and the areas and tasks it deals with. I then focused on social workers as representatives of the profession. I briefly presented the educational system of social workers in the Republic of Slovenia and the tasks, roles and skills which social workers need in their work. Lastly, I presented the theory about the actual image of social work and more specifically about the image of social work in the media.
In the empirical part, I was interested in the image of social work and social workers in Republic of Slovenia and what influences it the most. The survey, in which 421 people participated, showed a slightly positive opinion prevailing about both social work and social workers. The comparison showed that the opinion about the profession of social work is more positive than the opinion about social workers. Despite a slightly positive opinion, only half of the participants trust the professional decisions of social workers in cases that appear in the media. According to the respondents, their opinion is mostly influenced by personal experiences they had with social workers. The research also showed that people with personal experience have a worse opinion of social workers than those who have not yet had personal experience so far.
|