The initiative to explore the topic of interinstitutional cooperation stems from my
experiences during an internship at both the Social Work Center and an elementary
school. At the time, I perceived the collaboration between the two institutions as
ineffective and unequal. School representatives often appeared passive in the
collaboration, mostly agreeing to the suggestions of the Social Work Center
professionals, while at times it seemed that the participants were not on the same
page. Moreover, I frequently heard remarks during my studies that schools tend to
avoid cooperation because it would mean additional work for them. On the other
hand, from the perspective of the schools, I noticed that due to the Social Work
Center’s overburdening, school counselors often take on very complex problems,
significantly increasing their workload. Based on these observations, my master's
thesis investigates interinstitutional cooperation between school counseling
services and the Social Work Center, focusing on both perspectives—the Social
Work Center professionals as well as school counselors.
In the theoretical part, I first present the social work profession and the functioning
of the Social Work Center, describing its powers, tasks, and the role of social work
within this institution. I then focus on school counseling, where I similarly describe
their duties, areas of operation, and objectives in detail, particularly highlighting
the role of social work in school counseling services. Subsequently, I examine
interinstitutional cooperation between elementary schools and the Social Work
Center, outlining the relevant legislation that governs this cooperation and pointing
out the advantages and shortcomings of such collaboration. Finally, I provide a
detailed description of teamwork.
In the research section, I conduct a qualitative study using interviews with a non
random convenience sample of seven professionals employed at the Social Work
Center unit under investigation and nine school counselors working in elementary
schools that fall under the same unit of Social Work Center. The results, obtained
through qualitative analysis, answer questions regarding the reasons for cooperation
and the understanding of the roles of each institution. The study also offers insights
into specific cooperation experiences, collaboration among professionals with
different profiles, and their preparedness for interinstitutional cooperation,
including training on this topic. The conclusion of the study presents numerous
suggestions for improving interinstitutional cooperation between schools and the
Social Work Center.
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