Christian Philipp NixdorfGekonnte Beliebigkeit – Möglichkeiten und Herausforderungen des professionellen Handelns in der Schulsozialarbeit

About this book deutschenglish

Due to diverse funding, school social work, which has undergone a continuous expansion since the 1970s, experienced a kind of ‘second spring’ in the last decade in Germany. Today, school social work is one of the most intensively researched areas in child and youth services. Its importance in regard to successful youth development und enculturation is highlighted not only by school social workers, but also by teachers and politicians. However, the positive connotation of school social work does not indicate clarity about what school social work encompasses. As a result of diverse statutory provisions, conflicting priorities and local needs, the field is very heterogeneous. What school social workers do seems to be quite arbitrary. It does, however, not serve school social workers right to interpret this as a naive reluctance of specification or as misconduct on their part. In fact, quite the opposite may be true. Based on the analysis of qualitative inter-views with school social workers conducted via using the Critical Incident Technique, it is shown in the research work at hand, that the actions of school social workers can be described as a skillful arbitrariness. To act skillfully arbitrarily may help to successfully face the many challenges in the school social work profession. That is because challenges in the field are often complex and even paradoxical. They pose various opportunities and risk, whereas it would be too simplistic to schematically classify them as positive or negative. They can be both. skillful arbitrariness allows school social workers to act adequately in a paradoxical setting. It enables them to manage contradictive demands and creates room for creative self-experimentation. The crux of the matter is, however, that by being (or seeming) arbitrary, it is difficult to proclaim a unique area of expertise and to be recognized as an expert. The lack of clarity is accompanied by a lack of certainty. All in all, the work in hand recapitulates what school social workers define as professionalism and what they do to skillfully accept and enact the challenges in their opaque field of expertise.

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