A study of select factors that influence the perceptions of school social workers' levels of satisfaction with their professional practice, 2018
Turner, Cynthia Simmons
2010-2019
The purpose of this study was to ascertain the perception of school social workers levels of satisfaction and ways it is impacted by one or more of the following factors: the level of decision making, workload management, professional development, collaboration, and advocacy. Specifically, this study sought to determine if school social workers are satisfied with their roles in the school system and daily practice. The 130 participants of the study were district presidents who reached out to all Georgia school social workers and members of the states School Social Workers Association (SSWAG) which is the states charter of the larger national organizationSchool Social Workers Association of America (SSWAA). All respondents participated in the study voluntarily. The data analysis was conducted on two levels: descriptive findings and analytical procedures. The first section presented descriptive findings associated with demographic variables, the social work practice experience, and school social work settings results. The second level of the analysis tested the hypotheses under study. This section used Spearmans Correlation Coefficient to test the strength of the relationship between the dependent variableoverall levels of satisfaction in professional practiceand each of the independent variables: perceived level of decision making, workload management, professional development, collaboration, and advocacy. The researcher found that there was a moderately strong positive correlation between the overall levels of satisfaction with professional practice and perceived level of decision making and workload management. There was a strong positive correlation with the perceived level of professional development. The perceived level of collaboration resulted in a weak positive correlation and a moderate positive correlation was found in the perceived level of advocacy. The conclusions drawn from the findings suggest that all five independent variables showed a correlation with the dependent variable. These study findings may be useful not only for school social workers but also for support staff (school psychologist, counselors, etc.) and school administrators. KEY TERMS: Administrators, Advocacy, Collaboration, Workload, Decision Making, Social Work, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research, Educational Leadership, Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education, Social Statistics, Social Work, Teacher Education and Professional Development
text
application/pdf
2018-08-08
dissertation
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Clark Atlanta University
Social Work
White, Gerry Lyle, Richard Downs, Benjamin
Georgia--Atlanta
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:2018_turner_cynthia_simmons
