Towards Collaboration Between Lawyers and Social Workers: a Content Analysis of Joint Degree Programs
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2016 Towards Collaboration Between Lawyers and Social Workers: A Content Analysis of Joint Degree Programs Ifem E. Orji Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/793 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] TOWARDS COLLABORATION BETWEEN LAWYERS AND SOCIAL WORKERS: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF JOINT DEGREE PROGRAMS by IFEM EMMANUEL ORJI A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Social Welfare in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2016 ii © 2016 IFEM EMMANUEL ORJI All rights reserved iii TOWARDS COLLABORATION BETWEEN LAWYERS AND SOCIAL WORKERS: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF JOINT DEGREE PROGRAMS by IFEM EMMANUEL ORJI This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Social Welfare to satisfy the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Professor Willie F. Tolliver ___________ _______________________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee Professor Harriet Goodman ___________ ________________________________________ Date Executive Officer Professor Willie F. Tolliver (Chair). Professor Harriet Goodman Professor Martha Bragin Professor Kathryn Krase ______________________ Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv Abstract TOWARDS COLLABORATION BETWEEN LAWYERS AND SOCIAL WORKERS: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF JOINT DEGREE PROGRAMS IFEM EMMANUEL ORJI Adviser: Professor Willie F. Tolliver Collaboration is a central issue in the interdisciplinary education of social work and law students. Joint JD/MSW degrees have the potential to promote collaboration between practitioners of law and social work in areas where their practices converge. The 1969 recommendations by the National Conference of Lawyers and Social Workers (NCLSW) to establish these joint degree programs assumed that collaborative learning would occur within them. However, prior research has not investigated whether or not this occurs. The purpose of this dissertation was to determine whether evidence of the intent to promote collaboration was present in written materials associated with joint degree programs, specifically field work manuals. The methods used in this study involved adapting the RELATUS Natural Language Environment program to conduct a semantic content analysis (SCA) of the clinic/field education manuals. In employing these methods, pertinent words and phrases in the manuals were disambiguated to determine their lexical and/or relational configurations. The objective was to ascertain the semantic equivalence of collaboration in the text, as opposed to merely counting the occurrence of the term “collaboration” in the texts. v Although none of the contents of the programs specifically stated “collaboration between lawyers and social workers” in their field education manuals, collaborative environments existed because students from the two disciplines had opportunities to interact with each other. Consequently, because “collaboration” was seldom mentioned in the field manuals, a linguistic approach was used to determine the semantics of “collaboration” in the clinic/field education manuals explored for this study. In effect, if “collaboration” does occur in these programs, it would reside in the implicit curriculum. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Jehovah JIREH, The ALPHA and The OMEGA, is Glorified! My dream of higher education came to pass thanks to the governments of France (for a scholarship award and an amazing educational experience in France) and Nigeria (for the study leave of absence with full remuneration) – Quel supris! This dissertation is the outcome of chains of events to which many individuals and institutions contributed in different forms, times, and places, and thus deserve to be acknowledged. Although I can only mention a few for want of space, I am grateful to all. To my family — Pamela, Precious, Michael II, Joshua, Ifeanyichukwu, Dr. Rose Anyanwu, Priscilla Iwuchukwu (RN), Betty Orji (Esq.), Clement Orji (Esq.), Vivian Elechi, and more — in spite of everything, I thank you all for your unquantifiable contributions to the growth of the family. You are all appreciated. Additionally, I want to acknowledge Michael II, my eleventh-grade son for making graphic sense of my hitherto lousy graphic sketches — thank you, Mike, for your collaboration! When I arrived in the doctoral program in Social Welfare, I did so with a background in law, barely conversant in the language and concepts of social work. I am grateful for the efforts which many of the program’s exceptional doctoral faculty invested in teaching and guiding me in becoming a social scientist. To my dissertation committee: My special thanks go to Dr. Willie F. Tolliver (Chair), with gratitude and respect, for your commitment to guiding me from start to finish. Your comments were thought-provoking, your criticisms constructive; to Dr. Harriet Goodman, for agreeing — in spite of your busy academic cum administrative schedules as the Executive vii Officer of the Social Welfare Doctoral Program — to serve on my committee and for your immeasurable input to the content and structure of this dissertation; and to Dr. Anthony Sainz, for your remarkable comments. Following Dr. Sainz's well-earned retirement from the City University of New York midway into my dissertation project, Dr. Martha Bragin, my former faculty mentor who guided me through the Level 3 qualifying examination, gracefully agreed to step in, and ensured that this dissertation became a fait accompli. Thank you, Dr. Bragin. I am grateful to you, Dr. Kathryn Krase of the School of Health Professions, Long Island University, external member of my dissertation supervisory committee, for your support from the outset of this project to its completion. I benefited immensely from your expertise as both a social work and legal professional. To Drs. Elaine Congress and Lyn Slater of the Graduate School of Social Services, Fordham University; Dr. Olatunde Olusesi of Silver School of Social Work at NYU; Dr. Jacqueline McKnight, Executive Deputy Commissioner, Family Support Services, New York City Administration for Children’s Services; Dr. Vicki Lens of Columbia University School of Social Work, New York; and Ms. Toni Fine, Esq., Assistant Dean for International and Non-JD Programs, Fordham University School of Law and my former colleague at NYU School of Law: I thank you all for sharing your expertise and experiences with me. My meetings and conversations with you helped me in developing the perspective that ultimately resulted in this dissertation. I acknowledge the following institutions for providing me both pecuniary and scholarly opportunities to advance my intellectual capacity – New York University School of Law, for appointing and sponsoring me to the United States as a resident scholar in the Global Law viii Program; Fordham University School of Law, NY, where I served as Visiting Professor in the Joseph Crowley Program in International Human Rights; and United Way of New York City/Baruch College School of Public Affairs for the grant and training that culminated in my Post Graduate Certificate in Public Administration (Non-profit Management specialization) and Senior Fellow’s status with the Non-profit Leadership Development Institute. I am thankful to the authorities of the Graduate School/University Center of the City University of New York for the grants and fellowships that have been a great help to me; and to the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and Caribbean, CUNY, for Fellowship. I appreciate my relationships with the following individuals and families — Helen DuBary de LaSalle and parents, Doris Kratz and parents, Wilma Waag, and last but not least Dr. Helga Kaussen. You all inspired me for good reasons. I want to sincerely express my gratitude to Janille Bagcal, the Assistant Program Officer, for her administrative efficacy; Shawn(ta) Smith at the GC-CUNY library, for her technical assistance, and Dorrie Berkowitz for quality editing. Finally, with a sentimental longing for the past, I acknowledge the love and care by my late parents, Michael and Veronica Orji. My dad passed away in “Biafra” during the Nigerian civil war, and my mom few years after the war ended, thus leaving me a teenager with younger siblings to provide for. In addition to the monumental loss of family assets and resources in the war, beneficiaries of my parents’ munificence turned their backs on my family in a time of need. It is my wish for every child out there without caregiver, abused, neglected, or abandoned to eventually find fulfillment and joy! ix TABLE OF CONTENTS COPYRIGHT ii APPROVAL PAGE iii ABSTRACT iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi LIST OF TABLES xiv LIST OF FIGURES/GRAPHS xv LIST OF APPENDICES xvi CHAPTER I 1 INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM FORMULATION 1 Introduction 1 Problem Formulation 6 Aspects of Legal Issues in Child Welfare 8 The Societal Burden of Child Maltreatment and the Roles of Social Workers and Lawyers 9 Tensions and Barriers to Social Worker/Lawyer Collaboration 13 Rationale for Joint Degree Programs 16 Statement of the Problem 17 Statement of the Research 19 Summary 20 CHAPTER