The need to apply social work in school contexts: A research about school councilors' opinions on social work

Purpose: The purpose of the research is to investigate the school counselors' opinions on school social work. Methodology: Using a quantitative research design, 100 school counselors were chosen from districts of İzmir as the participants of the study using random sampling. A structured was used to collect data. Data of the study were gathered through face to face interviews. SPSS version 15.0 was used to interpret the data through Chi-square test. Findings: Results of the item analysis show that 65% of the participants are familiar with the discipline of social work and 67% think that social workers can be effective in solving school age problems. Between the fact that the guidance counselors felt themselves inadequate against the problems and the need for social work discipline and between the fact the guidance counselors felt themselves inadequate against the problems and thought that social workers can help them for these problem's solution a significant difference was found. Results: School councilors deal with several problems at school and it was found out that they need a social worker to help them overcome these problems. It is very important that they should be informed more about what is social work since they don't have enough knowledge about it. Key Words: School Social Work, Social Worker, Counselor, Counseling Service