School Social Work as a Profession

Despite this expansion and the increased importance of school social work in the public perception, the practice and the specialist political discussion are characterised by a variety of discourses that particularly address the question of the professionalisation of this field of work. School social work is generally regarded as one of the most demanding fields of work in child and youth welfare, but as the youngest service provider within the biopsychosocial school support system, it faces the challenge of establishing itself as a profession. The extent to which this succeeds is a question of professionalisation, which has not yet been the focus of research.

Against the background of the lack of theoretical and empirical studies for Austria, this research project, commissioned by the Ministry of Education, therefore locates school social work in terms of professional theory and analyses the degree of professionalisation of Austrian school social work in an international context in order to derive implications for a professional profile of school social work in Austria. The research project is scheduled to run for two years and is divided into five consecutive modules, the first three of which have been completed. The results were discussed and compared with school social work practice in workshops, conferences and networking meetings and are available in the form of research reports.