Attentive to learning? Supporting social workers’ monitoring of learning skills in children placed in foster care

Background: There is a high and increasing awareness in the Nordic countries of the disadvantaged educational positions of children placed in out-of-home care. Accompanied by a political quest for solutions, this has had an impact on social workers’ responsibilities, widening their primary focus on wellbeing to include learning. However, social workers in Denmark do not have a strong tradition of monitoring learning for children placed in out-of-home care, nor are they trained in methods of assessing educational performance. Objective: In this article we evaluate the practical use of an academic screening tool introduced as part of social workers’ routine follow-up of children placed in foster care, examining the extent to which the screening is beneficial for their task of monitoring learning. As part of this we evaluate what the screening tool tells us about the children's academic challenges and to what extent the screening seems to impact subsequent choice of action. Method: The combined use of screening for wellbeing and learning was tested in a large feasibility study involving 72 social workers in eight Danish municipalities. To evaluate the use of screening in routine follow-ups we gathered quantitative data on screening results and actions taken after follow-up meetings, conducted semi structured interviews with social workers and foster families, and observed social workers’ meetings. Mixed-method analysis from a pragmatic perspective followed and shed light on the implications of screening for social work practice while mirroring the findings in Dewey's concept of intelligent action. Results: Children in foster care are a group at high risk of falling behind in learning and academic skills. Consequently, a tool is required that stimulates action, and screening for learning is valued for its usefulness in that respect by the foster parents and social workers in our study. Screening for learning makes children's academic challenges a more explicit topic at school meetings, it supports a dialogue between foster parents and teachers on more equal terms as both parties have provided evaluation, and it tends to ‘push’ reluctant school systems as well as social workers to take action when a child is in need of further academic support. Many social workers in this study managed to integrate screening into their ordinary work, thereby making it a tool that supported them in turning their follow-up meetings into sessions characterizable as intelligent action.