All-Day Schools and Social Work: A Swiss Case Study

Abstract

All-day schools are becoming more widespread in Switzerland. They enable pupils to participate in lunchtime and extracurricular activities organized and supervised mostly by social workers. Qualitative data were collected for a project on newly implemented area-wide all-day schools in Zurich, Switzerland’s largest city. The research was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Findings indicate that the resulting structural, pedagogical, spatial, and staff changes significantly impact the social work setting. The importance and potential of social work needs to be better communicated to the all-day school community.

No More Homework? Negotiations of Parental Engagement in All-Day Schools

“…This fact does not meet the claim of increased educational equity by all-day schooling (Holtappels, 2009) as the cultural distance between school and family plays a crucial role in social and cultural reproduction (see Silva, 2016). At the same time, this is an aspect of promoting educational equity alongside others, such as attending extra-curricular activities or outreached family work (Chiapparini, Scholian, Schuler Braunschweig, & Kappler, 2018). One imminent challenge newly built all-day schools are facing is an adapted arrangement that respects the parents' need for engagement in children's learning at home and at the same time keeps in mind the ideal of equal educational opportunities for every child.…”