ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book aims to give voice to the lived experience of the various subjectivities that inhabit the school environment, from administrators, to teachers, to students, to the social workers themselves, who are writing the case narratives. It explores the school social worker's role in understanding and managing social and emotional struggles. The book examines the difficulties of conducting mental health services in a "host setting", because the mission of a school does not always align with the goals of a clinical social worker. Students of school social work will no doubt be interested in the lived experience of the individual social worker. The self-reflexivity that is demanded by the phenomenological perspective and the narrative case study writing offers such insight into the mind of the writer, thus conveying the importance of understanding and empathizing with all who inhabit the school environment.
