Rami Benbenishty - Böcker

Professionals in child welfare and protection are often required to make decisions--fraught with many difficulties and shortcomings--that have crucial implications for children and families. There are many indications that these decisions are frequently unreliable and involve unavoidable errors in judgement due to the uncertainties. Despite the central role of judgements in the field, child welfare and protection training and research programs pay limited attention to leveraging the human factors aspect of practice.Although extensive research exists in relevant areas--such as medicine, psychology, business administration, and economics--little has been done to help develop, transfer, and translate scientific knowledge to the child welfare arena. Decision-Making and Judgeent in Child Welfare and Protection pulls together the best internationally sourced expertise and makes it accessibly available and applicable to scholars, educators, practitioners, students, and policymakers--the key stakeholders in child protective services and child welfare.

Students change schools for a variety of reasons, and some students change more often than others -- a reality that can leave them feeling emotionally disconnected and often academically at risk. Welcoming Practices summarizes the research on school transition and makes a case for why schools need to do a better job of welcoming new children and families and following up with them over time. Arriving at a moment in history in which schools are increasing attention on students' social and emotional development, this book captures the innovative practices that some institutions are using to connect with new students and provides practical strategies that all schools can use to make both students and parents feel a part of the school and community. The book discusses how to use technology to improve families' experiences in their new schools, provides strategies appropriate at the school and district levels, and gives schools suggestions for practices that are best suited for younger students as well as for those at middle and high school levels.

Addressing School Bullying, Safety, Climate, and Social-Emotional Learning through Monitoring and Mapping is a guidebook for district and school education leaders and professionals to reduce incidents of violence and bullying and enhance students' well-being. Written in a step-by-step format, the text is designed to assist in collecting and making better use of data on non-academic issues in schools, such as reports of victimization, weapon and drug possession, theft of personal property, suicide ideation, and other areas. The authors advocate an ongoing monitoring approach that involves collecting information from multiple audiences about what is taking place in and around schools. One part of this process is mapping, which gives school leaders, students, and staff members a visual record of areas of the campus considered safe, alongside those that students view to be places where they might encounter bullying, harm, or trouble. Other common parts of such systems are surveys among students, educators, and parents. The authors include practical examples of how to design such a system, gather current information, analyze and display the data, share it with different audiences, and use it to find solutions. Ultimately, this timely guidebook is a must-have for social workers, psychologists, counselors, nurses, and others working to improve safety in schools.

Images, threats, and experiences of political violence daily confront school children in the Middle East. Previous studies into school violence, which sought to forge a strong connection between the external environment and the level of violence in schools, would lead us to believe that political violence is a leading cause of school violence. Here, though, Benbenishty and Astor making striking use the geopolitical climate of the Middle East to model school violence in terms of its context within as well as outside of the school site. The book's approach is unique in that the authors use empirical data to show which variables and factors are similar across different cultures and which variables appear unique to different cultures. This empirical contrast of universal with culturally specific patterns is sorely needed in the school violence literature. Crucially, the authors expand the paradigm of understanding school violence to encompass the intersection of cultural, ethnic, neighborhood, and family characteristics with intra-school factors such as teacher-student dynamics, anti-violence policies, student participation, grade level, and religious and gender divisions. It is only by understanding the multiple contexts of school violence, the authors argue, that truly effective prevention programs, interventions, research agendas, and policies can be implemented. Drawing on the only major study ever conducted comparing Jewish and Arab-Israeli students, in conjunction with census and police data on neighborhood characteristics, Astor and Benbenishty explore and differentiate the many manifestations of victimization in schools, providing a new model for understanding school violence. Their innovative research maps the contours of verbal, social, physical, and sexual victimization as well as weapons possession, presenting some startling findings along the way. When comparing schools in Israel with schools in California, the authors demonstrate for the first time that for the most violent events the pattern of violent behaviors have strong cultural influences. They reveal, for example, how Arab boys encounter much more boy-to-boy sexual harassment than their Jewish peers, and that teacher-initiated victimization of students constitutes a significant and often overlooked type of school violence.

The information age is upon us and, with it, a new era of human services has emerged. The terms 'Evidence-Based,' 'evidence-informed,' 'best practice', and 'effective' have become ubiquitous in scholarly and professional publications, government documents, funding applications, and training institutions across the world. Yet despite this avalanche of words, there is substantial disagreement with respect to the definition of evidence and how it should be used to improve the lives of children and youth. This book builds on the burgeoning evidence-informed practice movement in social welfare that evolved from evidence-based medicine some twenty years ago. Key insights from an internationally recognized group of scholars representing several child welfare systems promotes a nuanced understanding of evidence in all its forms; makes a strong case for understanding the role of context in generating, interpreting, and employing evidence; and provides guidance for integrating evidence and context in the provision of child welfare services.The book begins with an introduction to evidence-informed practice and a broad overview of the different types of evidence that can be useful in guiding difficult decisions under uncertain conditions. This is followed by a decision-making framework that incorporates the use of evidence within the context of a complex child protection system. Next, empirically supported programs and treatments are evaluated with respect to their transportability across contexts, with sometimes surprising results. Two revolutionary approaches to the delivery of effective services, common factors and common elements, are then introduced and followed by a treatise on the importance of implementation in child welfare settings. Embracing different types of evidence used for different questions, the role of randomized controlled trials, epidemiology, administrative and survey data are then explored. Finally, the context of service provision within an agency is explored through an overview of the structure, function, and culture of human services organizations; the role of universities in training staff and conducting relevant practice and policy research; and an applied example involving a partnership between a major university and a large child welfare agency.

While it is true that children from military families live unique and interesting lives, it is also true that they face many challenges and special circumstances that civilian children and families don't experience. These can include gaps in school attendance and learning due to frequent moves, being separated from a parent who has been deployed, and a sense of isolation in the midst of a civilian community. This comprehensive and evidence-informed guide introduces pre- and inservice teachers to this population and provides essential tools to help minimize the impact of military life on student learning. Written in an engaging style by experts in the field, this guide provides strategies and classroom practices to support these students and address issues such as:Frequent transitions between schoolsGaps in academic progressSocial adjustmentParental deploymentsTrauma or tragedyIt shows how practices already being used in your school can be adapted to ease the transition for military students, and it also introduces original strategies, such as:A ""Hero Wall"" honoring members of the militaryFriendship or memory gardens Military Appreciation eventsWriting letters or making care packages for deployed service membersTeachers College Press also publishes guides written specifically for administrators, pupil personnel, and parents. All royalties from the sale of these books are being donated to military children's educational causes.

While it is true that children from military families live unique and interesting lives, it is also true that they face many challenges and special circumstances that civilian children and families don't experience. These can include gaps in school attendance and learning due to frequent moves, being separated from a parent who has been deployed, and a sense of isolation in the midst of a civilian community. This evidence-informed guide introduces school administrators to this population and offers tools to help them implement school-wide programs that will support military students' learning.Written in an engaging style by experts in the field, this practical guide includes:Profiles of principals who have created welcoming school environments for military children and parentsLessons learning from the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schoolsA chapter on using data to improve school culture for military studentsA chapter on education policies that can improve circumstances for military childrenResearch highlighting how frequent school transitions and parental deployments affect the education of military childrenTeachers College Press also publishes guides written specifically for teachers, pupil personnel, and parents. All royalties from the sale of these books are being donated to military children's educational causes.