Intervention Group Work Behavior Improvement Of Children Of Migrant Workers

In recent years, a growing number of families have moved into cities from rural areas. As a result there has been an increase of the floating population’s children in the cities. Far away from home, most of these families live in the suburb areas where the quality of education is low. This situation has caused a series of problems, and presented a challenge to the current education system, social structure, and government administration. The migrant workers’children usually attend schools specifically established for them. Due to the lack of schools’educational resources, the limit of the teachers’ability and the insufficiency of family education, misbehaviors and even delinquencies are observed among many migrant workers’children.This paper is a case study of the social group work by "Yangguang Guidance" Program. This program is a part the New Citizen Project for the development of floating children in Beijing. The social group work method was introduced to the school for migrant workers’children, in order to serve these children who lack the external recourses. Through field work, it was found that misbehaviors existed to a certain degree among the migrant workers’children. These misbehaviors included degrading others, refuting others, mocking others (e.g. being ironic, making fun of others, and being harsh on others). There are also non-verbal misbehaviors, such as frowning, inpatient expressions, unfriendly attitude. With these misbehaviors in mind, the author provided a three-month-long six-session professional service for the migrant workers’ children who participated in this program. The results of the participants’ performance demonstrated that the group social work method played a positive role in the improvement of their behaviors.It is feasible to involve group social work into the education of migrant workers’children. In terms of its functions, group social work can help the participants establish new abilities, and correct bad behaviors and values. It can also help with the participants’socialization as well as problem solving skills. All these functions cannot be provided by the schools although they are quite necessary for these children. The social group work was realized in various forms, including interest group, social network group, education group, growth group, therapy group, etc. The various forms can appeal to different students. Meanwhile various groups also enable the participants to change themselves together with those from similar background.