The master's thesis seeks to explore how the working relationship between students, teachers, parents, and counselors is formed in the school system. The main attention is paid to the application of the concepts of modern social work in these relationships. It is based on the interpretations of everyone involved – students, parents, teachers, and counselors – who are a part of or work with the school system. The thesis focuses on understanding the establishment of a working relationship through key aspects: exploring the interpretation of the working relationship, exploring the way the cooperation agreement flows, the way of defining the problem and finding a solution, the way the counselor is personally engaged, the interpretation of the understanding of involvement in the process, the way of dealing with the present, the way of conveying the knowledge of the counselor, and working from a power perspective.
The findings reveal a diversity of opinion arising from individual epistemological positions. Teachers and counselors understand the concepts better, while parents and students often remain at an experiential level, where these elements are not so pronounced. Counseling procedures mostly follow the traditional problem-solving model, although there are indications of shifts towards a more modern approach. However, originality, cooperation with users, and cooperation with their social environment are not used enough. The power perspective is expressed mainly towards students, and less towards parents, which indicates a lack of systemic orientation, since parents and the family system also need support.
Different understandings especially occur in the ethics of participation: teachers and counselors strive for equality, but parents and students often experience the dominance of teachers, which reflects the influence of social macro-narratives. Counselors have more difficulties establishing personal contact with older individuals than with students, which is also reflected in finding solutions. Teachers emphasize cooperation, but parents and students feel insufficiently involved, as they only hear the problems, rather than co-create the solutions. The agreement on cooperation and the definition of the working relationship also reveals differences in the perception of relationships, where hermeneutic communications are chosen for a deeper mutual understanding.
The thesis explores the need to strengthen modern approaches in school counseling work, which would be based on equal co-creation and hermeneutic communication, as only in this way can the working relationship become a space of genuine cooperation, which, with the perspective of all participants, contributes to the overall support of the school community.
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