ORAL PRESENTATION
1. Child & Adolescent Issues/Parenting
Moderator: Darius Skowronski
Oct. 23, Saturday [12:30 ~ 14:00]
OP 1-3The process of building a cooperative relationship between school and family by schoolsocial workers
AUTHOR(S)Midori Nide(Heian Jogakuin University Junior College, Japan)
ABSTRACT
Objective: In recent years, many issues surrounding children, such as school refusal, bullying, anddelinquency, have been addressed. Children’s problems are often complicated by issues in thefamily system and the school system, and it is significant to treat the school in the same way as thefamily in school settings where all children attend. I believe that it is important for social workers
to work with both systems.
In this study, School Social Workers (hereinafter referred to as “ SSWs “) will focus on families andschools to clarify the process of solving children’s problems and demonstrate that approachingboth families and schools from a structural perspective can help children’s difficult situations,solve problems early, and prevent recurrence.
Through qualitative analysis of the interview data, we aim to clarify the process of how SSWs
connect the uncooperative families and schools, and how SSWs bring about changes and solutionsin the family and school systems.
Methods: From June 2017 to March 2019, we conducted an interview survey (semi-structuredinterview) with 9 SSWs who have a structural perspective and are working with their families
and schools. The main questions were: 1) who and how did you work with in order to build
relationships with schools and families, 2) what did you focus on and how did you work withfamilies and schools in difficult cases, and 3) what points did you think led to solutions, etc.
Analysis was performed by the qualitative data analysis method of Sato (2008) using MAXQDA11(Release 11.11).

The 7th Annual Conference of Asian Academy of Family Therapy, Seoul 2020/2021

44

ORAL PRESENTATION

Ethical considerations: Approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Department of Social
Welfare, Graduate School of Human Sociology, Osaka Prefecture University. Specifically, I informed
them of the purpose and intent of the study, and explained that cooperation with the survey wasvoluntary, that they could withdraw while the study, and that there would be no disadvantage indoing so. In addition, personal information obtained from the survey was anonymized so that it
could not be identified, and consideration was given to protecting privacy, such as not using thedata for purposes other than research, and consent was obtained.
Results:The first is to [promote what SSWs can do] what is beneficial to schools and families sothat they can understand SSW itself. Since each worker has different strengths, self-awarenesswill be required. SSWs can help students quickly understand that they are part of the schooland family. It is possible to build a trusting relationship at an early stage by [tuning] in the initialinterview, such as performing the same actions at the same time.
[Focusing the solution] to the family and the school means asking questions that can imagine thegoal and << telling the prospect of improvement >> (image of the completed drawing).
“Being a member of both” means that SSWs are also considered as a part of each system,and on
the surface, it may seem that SSWs are not neutral, as they can be on the side of the school or
the family but having the objectivity to be on both sides is essential for coordinating relationships
between children, families, and schools.
With an awareness of connecting both the family and the school, the concept of “exaggeratingthe feelings” was put forward to connect the family, the school, and the family and the school.
“XX talked about each other’s strength in this way, “and so on, by “expressing his feelings
exaggeratedly”, he used the method of telling both parties with a little addition.
In difficult cases, there is a gap between the family and the school, and the gap deepens as themisunderstanding between the two parties increases. To bridge the gap, it is an important roleof SSWs to “interpret the gap” and “interpret the thoughts of each person” by intervening in thethoughts of each person, and to resolve the misunderstanding.
There was also a concept of setting small goals together with children, families, and schools, andcommunicating the goals to both sides so that they would face the same direction, such as “schooland family share the same goals” to break the vicious circle. Furthermore, sharing the same goals
between the school and the family will strengthen the collaborative relationship and lead to trustin both parties. In the meantime, it is important for SSWs to have the same school goals and family
goals and to keep pace.

The 7th Annual Conference of Asian Academy of Family Therapy, Seoul 2020/2021

45

ORAL PRESENTATION

Conclusion: To connect families and schools, SSWs see each issue as part of a whole system, andto make a change in the situation described as a problem, they look at where and how to work tomake the system work. They started with the places that seemed easy to get into and approachedthose that seemed to work. It is only SSWs to embody and visualize the invisible and become partof the school system and family system.
The 9 SSWs interviewed encountered various difficult cases. In difficult cases, there are many
complex problems, which creates a vicious cycle and sometimes it is difficult to get out of it. SSWs
first organized the difficulties one by one, and repeated dialogues with family and school, such as
disclosing oneself so that the problem could be viewed objectively. In the dialogue, SSWs finds thestrengths of the school and the family, focuses on the strengths, and works together as a partner
to set goals so that they can exert their strengths.
By accumulating these, the school / family can grasp what is the focus of the problem, think
together with SSWs, organize each issue, and work together. Families and schools can find value
and meaning in the experience. By intervening between the two and sharing that value, SSWs
creates new value, changes the system, and the case goes to a solution.
SSWs can transform a vicious cycle into a virtuous cycle in any case by firmly building thestructure of the school system and family system, valuing the hardships, and supporting them tofunction from there.
The limitation of this research is mainly the subject of qualitative research. Specifically, thenumber of research collaborators is as small as 9. As a future research topic, it is necessary toexpand the scope of the survey, such as SSWs without a structural perspective, schools, andfamilies, and analyze and compare them. Furthermore, further research is required, such as
conducting quantitative research based on the concepts generated in this research.
Keywords:School social work, family system, school system

The 7th Annual Conference of Asian Academy of Family Therapy, Seoul 2020/2021

46