Petronela Polixenia Nistor’s scientific contributions

The main purpose of this article is to theoretically present a perspective for social work and the field of education regarding psychoeducation, as a way to ensure an inclusive approach to quality education in university studies for disabled students. The approach of the research topic is a theoretical one, based on the fact that psychoeducation is a new method of psychosocial intervention; its role is to support various categories of beneficiaries, aiding medical professionals, psychotherapists and social workers. The discussions part of our research concentrate on the fact that psychoeducation focuses on the educational methods that can be used to facilitate the acquisition of information and skills by a person or their relatives, when there are incidents of various psycho-cognitive or behavioral illnesses that raise medical, social, psychological difficulties for the integration of the person in a family, community, inter and intra-personal level, with the aim of medically and socially rehabilitate the beneficiary in all aspects of their existence. Psychoeducation involves a series of direct interventions, which are focused on the education of the participants and on the support and development of their adaptation skills to the social context in which they live. The conclusions chapter emphasizes on the issue that psychoeducation has become a common technique in social work practice since the 1970s, as it involves educating participants about the significant challenges of the client's illness, helping them develop their social skills, personal resources, and ability to manage existing or new challenges they face.

This article aims to analyse the cultural importance of integrating Roma within society in the context of the continuous increase in the number of members of this minority in Romania's communities. The global community is increasingly open to cultural inclusion. Some forms of discrimination based on criteria such as religious affiliation, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, disability, nationality, marital status and physical appearance seem to subside in intensity. The tolerance of individuals has increased considerably, and diversity is accepted, supported, encouraged and sometimes even imposed in order to build a globalized and inclusive society that respects diversity and provides equal opportunities for all, regardless of gender, race or socioeconomic status. However, the Roma remains a social category that hardly adapts to the majority's rules. In addition, Roma rights and freedoms are much less emphasized than the rights of other minorities in the European public discourse by politicians and social influencers. Thus, in this paper, we aim to emphasize the importance of integrating the Roma population within society, but also analyse one of the ways that would make this desideratum possible - launching a positive mass media campaign to highlight the cultural heritage of the Roma ethnic group.

When a foreign group that wants to relocate comes into contact with the culture of the host group, the process of intercultural adaptation of both groups is set in motion. The process starts and continues through communication, regardless of its form. During this process, individuals undergo a certain degree of intercultural transformation, corresponding to the degree of communication they have had. Transformation is bilateral and occurs naturally and inevitably, even when foreigners do not seek to adapt and want to maintain their individuality, even if they do not have a proactive attitude in order for adaptation to occur, even when there is no desire to effectively participate in communicative activities with the hosts and the foreigners choose to mainly become implicated in superficial contacts with the natives. Even in extreme conflictual situations, such as war or the crisis of refugees, the individuals who came into contact with the culture of the states where they took refuge, upon returning to their own country, no longer have the same cultural traits as when they left their native country. The purpose of this article is to theoretically analyze the psychological mechanisms that are of interest in the field of social work regarding the process of intercultural transformation that takes place through communication between the host group and the foreign group in the clash of two different cultures.

The validity and credibility of scientific research are determined by the strictness of planning and elaborating each stage of the research, by correlating the purpose of the research with the chosen research method, by avoiding methodological planning errors, as well as by carrying out each research stage in a manner that excludes errors in data collection, processing and interpretation. In the field of social work, par excellence, the value of an empirical research is conferred, among other things, by the possibility of extrapolating the conclusions of that research to similar situations in the practical activity of social workers, in case work with the beneficiaries of social work services. Due to the close connection between research and practice in this field of social sciences, the methodological design must be transparent and convincing, so as to give practitioners a high degree of confidence in the conclusions of the scientific study, as well as the possibility to capitalize on its informative benefits. So, methodological errors of research projects carried out in the field of social work can have a much wider and more tangible negative impact than in the case of other fields of science, at least from a pragmatic point of view, when theory is translated to practical applicability, and the scientific study is implemented in case work performed with the beneficiaries. This study aims to analyze the questionnaire survey in social work, by highlighting the main methodological errors that can affect the validity of such an empirical study, in order to identify the optimal solutions for a correct planning and methodological development of the scientific study.

Meeting face-to-face with the beneficiaries of social work services and having a discussion with them, in order to diagnose the beneficiary's problem and identify the context of the case-by-case intervention, is the basic form of performing a social worker’s activity. That is precisely why, although the interview, as a research technique, is a method specific to sociological research, this technique has been taken up on a large scale in social work, not only for case intervention, but also as a research method. In general, the beneficiaries of assistential services, who are most often the subjects of scientific research in this field, are vulnerable people, so the interview poses two main challenges as a research technique. The first is organizing the framework in which the interview is carried out and the manner of conducting it by the researcher, in order to create the psychological context that favors the interviewee's communication with the researcher. The second is the way data is analyzed after collection, in order to minimize the influence of subjective interpretations on the part of the researcher. The purpose of this article is to analyze the way methodological errors can be avoided, in order to achieve a research that draws scientific conclusions with a high degree of validity and credibility.

Considering the set of key competencies supported by social work organizations in the development of the social work profession at the global level, we aim to analyze from a theoretical point of view those competencies that presuppose the involvement in professional practice of attitudes and behaviors that support non-discrimination, cultural diversity, equity and inclusion in the training of social work students. The student in the field of social work here can be both the one who benefits from training and continuing education, and the one who in turn perpetuates future practices and balanced client-professional relationships, after being integrated into specific social work organizations. The analysis starts from how the professionalization of future social workers is correlated with their guidance and involvement in practices based on anti-racism/non-discrimination, equity, equal opportunities, cultural diversity and inclusion. The objective of this paper is to draw, at a theoretical level, lines of connection between professionalization practices at the international level - as formulated by the Boston University School of Social Work in agreement with the Council on Social Work Education, the national association that represents education of social work from the United States, with Romanian national norms - adopted from European and international practices - the National College of Social Workers in Romania (NCSWR/ CNASR - the acronym in Romanian language), in agreement with UNICEF and ISCO.

This paper theoretically approaches the role of psychoeducation and professional social work services within the Romanian Orthodox Church in the prevention of domestic violence, as a contemporary social phenomenon. Domestic violence is not a new social problem, as social history demonstrates, but due to its recent worrying frequency, it can be considered a phenomenon that can be thought of as a form of contemporary social pathology, on the one hand, or a social anomaly, as the recrudescence of violent acts currently increases significantly compared to the previous periods in history. The intervention of the Church within the family or society in the prevention of family violence is oriented towards the three dimensions of psychoeducation: the spiritual-pedagogical dimension, the psychological dimension, and the behavioural dimension, which aim to change the perspective on the purpose and existence in life, the reduction of aggressive behaviours and promotion of respectful and nonviolent conduct in interpersonal relationships. The objective of this paper is to analyze the connection between psychoeducation and social work from a socio-spiritual perspective, by taking into account the specificity of this activity within the professionalised social work services provided by the Romanian Orthodox Church, to see if there are systemic differences in the approach to cases of family violence in religiously infused assistential services compared to secular services.

Social work, as a model of welfare practice in contemporary society, is based on the mutual aid principle of those in need or in a situation of vulnerability. Its historical foundations can be identified from the ancient writings, including the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testaments. This paper brings to the attention of the students from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology, the Social Work specialization, but also of those concerned with a deep social-theological knowledge, the perspective of a theoretical analysis, but also that of a good practice model for contemporary social work based on the examples existing in Holy Scripture. Also, the focus is on developing, through study, professional skills that provide for the projection and elaboration of a discourse based on sacred texts (verbal and written exposure), but also the correct statement of the doctrine of the Church and the means transmitted by it for the perfecting of the person and of the world in the context of a constantly changing society. Thus, through this comprehensive analysis, the paper highlights the relevance and sustainable impact of the teachings and practices of social work in the Old and New Testaments on contemporary issues solvable through social justice, christian love, solidarity and community responsibility.

Current sociological and psychological research tends to consider fear as an essential feature of recent times, an omnipresent phenomenon of contemporary society that influences individual and collective behaviors in different fields. This theoretical analysis explores the various aspects of fear in modern society, with a focus on key concepts such as fear culture, fear sociology, liquid fear, terrorist threat, and fear of freedom. The main objective of this theoretical analysis/research/documentation is to become the theoretical framework for further research on fears and threats in a modern society.

Worldwide professional agencies or associations define school social worker as the professional that assists students with socio-emotional challenges and makes a linkage between school, home, and community services. A school counsellor is different than a school social worker, by guiding students in academic, career, and personal development, supporting those in navigating school-related challenges, but also helps them planning their future. In Romanian school environment the school counsellor somehow supplies the school social worker’s attributes, as within the schooling institutions organizational chart there is no specific place for the school social worker’s job. In an attempt to diagnose a current situation of what the school social worker represents as a professional in connection with Romanian educational system, we developed a brief analysis of the professional grounding of the domain, starting from key concepts such as “school social work”, the “educational role of the social worker”. The results of the search for such keywords showed us that there is a lack of data on this subject in the Romanian background. What we identify at the level of schooling units is the school counsellor. The purpose of this work is to bring a better theoretical knowledge of the need for the professionalization of the school social worker in the Romanian public educational sphere. Moreover, the article may be the start of an empirical larger research on the topic, in order to bring to public awareness the usefulness of a social worker at the level of each educational institution. The analysis is of a theoretical nature and is based on the educational-welfare practice models from Romania and USA.