Author Archive

A Guide for Interprofessional Collaboration Edited by Aidyn Iachini, Laura Bronstein, and Elizabeth Mellin would make a great textbook for any course on social work, which is a course that anyone who cares for individuals, families, or communities should take. The complex needs people face cannot be served by any one profession, which is why collaboration is essential. This book also belongs in any well-stocked professional development library.

Part I: Foundations

1. Relevant Contexts for Interprofessional Collaboration in the 21st Century: Social Issues, Settings, and policies

• Social work comes with many complex challenges. Addressing them cannot usually be achieved by social workers alone. Therefore, the social work profession is increasingly emphasizing interprofessional collaboration. Other professionals included are psychologists, counselors, doctors, educators, nurses, pharmacists, child welfare workers, and law enforcement among others. Bringing teams together often falls on the social worker. Collaboration is challenging, which is why many universities are now offering courses in interprofessional collaboration.

2. Exploring Definitions and Models of Interprofessional Collaboration

• There is a spectrum that extends from cooperation to coordination to collaboration. It goes from increasing levels of interdependance, structure, commitment, and risk. At the highest collaboration level services are co-located with multiple professions contributing to treatment.
• A second continuum goes from interprofessional to interdisciplinary. Multidisciplinary collaboration happens when professionals with similar backgrounds engage in mutual work. Mental health assessments are often multidisciplinary. Interdisciplinary collaboration occurs when boundaries between knowledge and expertise are blurred. Transdisciplinary collaboration occurs when boundaries are crossed, knowledge is exchanged and transformed into something new.
• The remainder of the chapter summarizes models that deal with the inputs, processes, and outputs of services.

3. A Model for Interprofessional Collaboration (MIC)

• The model used for the rest of the book is Bronstein’s Model for Interprofessional Collaboration (MIC). It contains five constructs. Interdependence involves people relying on each other to reach agreed upon goals. Everyone needs to understand everyone’s role and area of expertise. Newly Created Professional Activities are those that occur unexpectedly and are often thought of as synergy. Flexibility is necessary when rolls are blurred. Collective Ownership of Goals should involve everyone participating in goal setting, implementation, and evaluation. Reflection Process should take place thoughtfully and regularly.
• Beyond the five constraints, there are four things that influence the process. 1.Professional Role: Everyone needs to articulate their expertise and contributions. This will help avoid turf wars. 2. Structural characteristics deal with having time, space, and administrative support for collaboration. 3. Personal characteristics are important as collaborators need to like and trust each other. 4. History of Collaboration: Having a history of positive collaboration is important. This is why it needs to be a focus of classroom work and internships.

Part II: Putting the Model Into Action: Interprofessional Collaboration Across Settings and Populations

4. Education

• This chapter takes a look at a specific project where the team used the model from chapter 3. The project was called closing the broadband gap (CBBG). It was a university-school developed partnership aimed at addressing 1. using technology to engage students and enhance learning, 2. engaging parents in student learning, and 3. addressing the broadband access gap. The collaborators were social workers, the technology coach, teachers, administrators, business professionals, and parent engagement coordinators.
• As you read on you first encounter the five constructs followed by the four influencers. You are taken step by step through the project’s creation and implementation. You get to learn from the obstacles the team encountered. You learn that like many collaborations, the social worker is the link that holds the project together. By traversing this exemplar, you will better understand this important model that is worth using if you wish to collaborate on a meaningful project.

5. Criminal Justice

• This area brings courts, prisons, jails, and probation officers into the mix while keeping everyone else in play. Again, the social worker is at the center of the action. Here the MIC model follows the path of a young woman involved in the crimes of drug use and possession, shop lifting, and prostitution. This case is further complicated by having two children out of wedlock and a stressed relationship with her mother who has custody of the children. Many incarcerated people have multiple issues with things like drugs, mental health, economic insecurity, and employment. Employment is the key to getting these clients back in the game, but all of their other issues, including lack of education and skills get in the way.
• A key concept here is that the client has to buy into the plan, which means that the client must be involved in making the plan. It’s common for the clients to feel like a child as multiple collaborators are more or less telling them what to do. Further tension arises when the client fails to comply with the plan, often drug relapse, and the social worker shifts from advocator to law enforcer.

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School-Linked Services: Promoting Equity for Children, Families, and Communities by Laura Bronstein and Susan Mason contains extensive advice for anyone interested in linking a school with one or more other service providers in their community. It offers summaries of successful programs and demonstrates how schools with linkages out perform schools with similar demographics that lack linkages in many ways. This is a must-read for leaders of any organization that serves schools.

Introduction

• This book consolidates the available literature on this topic along with a wide range of conversations with diverse key informants. In doing so it illustrates how partnerships between schools and communities support educational success. It covers a wide range of types of school-linked services and how they can break the cycle of poverty.
• They aim to provide enrichment activities that are often only available at schools serving wealthier populations. The services include after-school and summer programs, early childhood education, health and mental health services, family engagement, youth leadership programs, and others.

1. Making the Case for School-Linked Services

• A teacher’s ability to teach can clearly be hampered by issues outside their control. We must not view a student’s academic struggles in isolation from external factors. Low academic achievement is highly correlated with poverty. Distracted, hungry, worried, and ill children have a more difficult time learning. Absenteeism and mobility add to these problems. Partnerships must be fruitful, as schools cannot afford to spend resources just to have a partner.
• The Center for Disease Control has a model called Coordinated School Health (CSH) that integrates health promotion efforts across: health education, physical education, health and nutrition services, counseling, psychological and social services, safe school environments, staff wellness, and family and community involvement. These partnerships are progressive as they aim to do more for students who need more.

2. The School

• Although state aid to schools serves to reduce unequal funding, the decentralized system in the US results in kids in poor school districts having fewer resources, less experienced teachers, and greater teacher turnover. While teachers and other school personnel are trained to teach and do other jobs, they are not trained to deal with issues that children face beyond school. This needs to be part of their professional development. Administrator vision is vital.
• Since students are the ones with the most to gain or lose, their voices should be heard when it comes to decisions that will reform what schools do. If you are a school leader, you need to do what you can to create trust with poor and minority families. (Doug: I did this by hiring as many Black people as I could, especially for support staff positions.) Make sure that all of your families know that their input is welcome. Kids only spend about 10% of their time from birth to age 18 in school.

3. School-Linked Services Today

• The authors start by discussing the nature of school-based health centers, family resource centers, partnerships with businesses, expanded school mental health services, and finally, full-service community schools, which offer all of the other services. Such full-service schools can grow out of nonprofit organizations, school/city districts, or counties. In all cases, it is necessary to rethink how a school is managed, funded, and staffed. It’s important to see community members as customers and to involve students in community projects. Businesses are usually involved as well.
• The rest of the chapter (64 pages) contains details of three nonprofit initiatives, three school district/city-lead initiatives, and one county-wide initiative. Anyone thinking of starting or expanding a full-service school can draw on this information for ideas and guidance. As each of these exemplars are different from each other, so you should expect yours to be different as well as you strive to meet the unique needs of your community. Flexibility should also act as a guidepost. I suggest you start by reading each of the brief overviews and funding sources for ideas.

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Bad at Math: Dismantling Harmful Beliefs That Hinder Equitable Mathematics Education by Lidia Gonzalez points out the fact that most people in our society are comfortable at saying they are bad at math. This certainly implies that there is something wrong with how we present and teach math in general. She also points out that the math achievement gap between poor and minority kids and wealthier children is likely an opportunity gap that perpetuates the problem. While you may not be able to solve this problem, you should do your part by starting conversations with parents, teachers, administrators, and policy makers and by sharing this important book.

Introduction

• It is somewhat alarming that most of our population is comfortable admitting publicly that they are bad at math. This behavior is also accepted by our culture and the media. This tells us that the way we conceptualize and teach math has to fundamentally change. What is needed is a growth mindset that tells you that you can get better at anything with effort. It’s vital that teachers have growth mindsets. This chapter will help.
• It is clear that existing reforms have fallen short. We also know that Black and Hispanic students struggle more with math than their white and Asian counterparts. This feeds and extends existing inequalities. It is important, therefore, to improve the mathematical experience of typically marginalized students. The main goal of this book is to tell us how to do this.

1. What Does It Mean to Be Good at Math?

• Many teachers are quick to assume a student is bad at math after one poor test score. They then view the student as not being good at math and act accordingly. Closed problems have one solution and only one way to be solved. Open problems have multiple solutions and be solved multiple ways. Open-middle problems have one solution but can be solved multiple ways. Research shows that students who routinely work on open problems do better in school and beyond. Open problems tend to take time and result in struggle, which students need to view as beneficial. Lidia provides resources for open problems here.
• Be sure to see my summary of “Dan Meyer: Math Class Needs a Makeover.” See my summary of Mindset by Carol Dweck.
  

  2. Beyond Numbers and Equations: What is Mathematics?

  • Ask students what math is and most will tell you that it deals with numbers, equations, and formulas. That is because most school math curricula put those things first and leave other topics at the end where they may never be covered. We need to broaden math teaching to include more geometry, probability, statistics, financial math, discrete math, and data science.
  • Increasingly complex visual data displays are showing up in media aimed at the public. Although algebra is important, we should urge our leaders to add more real-world math to the curriculum. Many students don’t take math in their senior year in high school. This means that they will have more difficulty with college math and it virtually rules out a career in a STEM discipline. Poor kids and students of color are more likely to be left behind and have less access to AP Calculus and Statistics.

  3. Mathematicians and Mathematicians in Training

  • Most of us think that math discoveries have mostly been made by white males. The stereotype for a mathematician, is an awkward white guy who probably lacks social skills. Historically, white men have had privileged access to math education, which explains why they dominate more recent discoveries. There are examples of women and minorities who have made discoveries in math and we need to expose students to them. Invite local women and people of color with math jobs to meet with your students as early as possible. Also, ask students to seek them out and report to the class.
  • Access to higher math in high schools starts with early decisions as to who gets tracked into higher math classes. Studies show that teacher recommendations favor whites and males beyond the advantage they would have if universal testing were in place. This is often considered too expensive even though studies show it to be racist. Fight for policies that give all students a chance to experience as much math as possible.

  4. We Are All Math People

  • One can make a case that we are all math people and there is lots of math involved in everyday life. If math is all about patterns, we are dealing with patterns a lot. From planning a route to sports and music we are encountering math. Be sure to ask students to hunt for the math around them. Be it math or reading, students will be more engaged if there is a context of interest.
  • It’s important to help kids see themselves as math people, and to see math around them. Teachers, therefore, have to create these opportunities. Connect to contexts that hold meaning for students.
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