2026-09-24T10:32:36Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/78780 2023-07-11 col_2142_5131 col_2142_8800 com_2142_5130 com_2142_5132

Pak, Yoon Pak, Yoon Dixson, Adrienne Welton, Anjale Teasley, Martell Gholson, Tiffany Cheryl 2015-07-22T22:46:01Z 2015-07-22T22:46:01Z 2017-07-23T09:15:32Z 2015-05 2015-04-24 2015-5 Illinois has the largest number of school social workers in the country; yet their roles and areas of expertise are still unclear to many. The disproportionate disciplinary action taken against Black students and the persistent academic achievement gap that remains between Black and white students continue to plague many schools. Historically, Black social workers have stepped in to fill in the gaps suffered by poor and disadvantaged Blacks in the past that encompassed economic needs, health needs, as well as educational ones within the Black communities (Bell, 2014). The purpose of this research is to understand if the responsibility to address the needs of Black students is still a high priority for Black school social workers as well as examine how their social work role have evolved in the 21st century. This research focused on the lived experiences of 12 Black school social workers in Illinois and described their roles in the school setting, where they often advocate for themselves even as they advocate for the students they serve. This qualitative study explored this phenomenon through in-depth, focused interviews. Ecological systems theory, which is at the heart of social work practice, and critical race theory in education were used as theoretical guides for this study. This study yielded 6 salient themes: early experiences of race, gender, and class; graduate school training; membership in the school community; obligation to Black youth; negative experiences in the workplace; and career satisfaction. The findings suggested that the Black school social workers felt satisfaction in their careers assisting youth in direct practice (micro-level work) but that the knowledge and skills necessary to create systemic change (macro-level work) and address racial inequities in the school settings were lacking. Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2017-05-01 The student, Tiffany Gholson, accepted the attached license on 2015-04-23 at 12:09. The student, Tiffany Gholson, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2015-04-23 at 12:30. This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2015-04-24 at 15:38. DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #8058 on 2015-07-22 at 14:26:24 Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T22:46:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 GHOLSON-DISSERTATION-2015.pdf: 406355 bytes, checksum: 99bd1b405f7adc2eb47a0c84f2ad0bd9 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4212 bytes, checksum: 1113478acb2f9faa8b505301a6e1062c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-04-24 Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 80021 Lift date: 2017-07-22T22:46:21Z Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system Limited Restriction Lifted for Item 80021 on 2017-07-23T09:15:32Z. application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2142/78780 en Copyright 2015 Tiffany Gholson school social work critical race social work practice culturally congruent pedagogy Black African American education The roles and experiences of Black school social workers: are they prepared to fill in the gaps for Black youth in K-12 school settings? text text Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp Educational Policy Studies University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Dissertation Ph.D.