2003 Volume 3 Pages 133-148
The purpose of the present study is to examine ways to improve school social work practice for students who refuse to attend school. The interview record data of two groups was compared using the method of qualitative analysis developed by Strauss and Corbin (1990, 1998). One group consisted of 10 students who had begun attending school again. The other group consisted of 10 students who continued their absence from school. The results showed that the factors of "friendships" and "future goals" positively influenced school re-attendance by students who had formerly refused to attend school. That is, students who had rebuilt friendships showed positive behavior to attend school again. The present results suggest the effectiveness of group work practice for students who absent themselves from school. In particular, Schwartz's (1977) "Interactional model" is important because the perspective of this practice model is not only to tackle building social skills of clients through human relationships in groups, but also improving the environment of clients. Therefore, group work with school non-attenders, following Schwartz's practice model, aims at improving their school environment, human relationships, and goal-oriented behavior.
