A Qualitative Study of School Social Workers’ Practice and Case Management Process in Preparatory Schools in Erbil City

Abstract

This study investigated the status of school social workers in preparatory schools in Erbil city in managing students’ problems, as a case management process. It is also focused on the school social workers in empowering, strengthening, and solving the daily problems in which students face. Additionally, the level of student’s trust and reliance on the capacity and skills of the school social workers were illustrated in overcoming their problems. The study looked at the reasons behind the lack of school social workers and the supervision procedures by the Ministry of Education for school social workers. Furthermore, discussing prepared guidelines for school social workers to rely on by Ministry of Education.  Methodologically, semi-structured Interviews have been used with school social workers as a tool to obtain the necessary information and data. interview has been referred to as a “conversation with a purpose. Aside from interviews, focus group FGD tool applied with students to obtain in-depth and accurate data. 
The conclusion of the study was that school social workers have no knowledge of the case management process and procedure. and most of the school social workers are graduates of sociology; a small number of graduates were from psychology, and some schools have social workers who have graduated from different specialties.