Arts-Based Methodology for Knowledge Co-Production in Social Work

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 1277-1294
Author(s):  
Dorit Segal-Engelchin ◽  
Ephrat Huss ◽  
Najlaa Massry
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Diagnostic Tool ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Fine Art ◽  
Life Situation ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Critical Dialogue ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
The Arts

Abstract In this article, we aim to describe and demonstrate the use of a methodology for using arts-based techniques to co-produce knowledge with community members, thus making it accessible at both the theoretical and practice levels for social workers and social work educators. In this methodology, the arts are used not as a diagnostic tool or as fine art, but rather as a trigger for a reflective and socially critical dialogue with community members, with the aim of understanding how they experience their life situation. The proposed methodology includes three central compositional elements of art analyses: the inter-relationship between figure and background within a composition, the recourses and obstacles included in the picture background and the use of symbols and metaphors. The present manuscript illustrates this innovative analytical prism, providing examples of images and explanatory narratives of engaged and married young Muslim women in Israel, as self-defined by the participants rather than as an external anthropology. We further outline the implications of this methodology for other cases.

Beyond the Code of Ethics, Part II: Dual Relationships Revisited

2002 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 483-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Freud ◽  
Stefan Krug
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Dual Relationships ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Social Work Practitioners

The authors, both social work educators, serve on an ethics call line committee that provides insights on how the provisions of the (United States) National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics (NASW, 1996) interface with the ethical dilemmas encountered by the social work community. In this paper, the authors highlight aspects of social work practice that they consider ethical, yet not easily accommodated by the provisions of the current Code. They also question the 1996 introduction of the concept of dual relationships into the Code and suggest that the Code adopt the less ambiguous term of boundary violations. Also recognized by the authors is the need for clear boundaries for the protection of clients against temptations that might arise in a fiduciary relationship, and for the legal protection of social workers. But, the authors argue, social work practitioners in certain settings, with particular populations, and in certain roles, inevitably face multiple relationships as an integral aspect of their work. The authors conclude that social work's adoption of the psychoanalytic constrains of anonymity, neutrality, and abstinence has detoured the profession from its original double focus on individuals and their society.

Still doing what we do: Defining social work in the 21st century

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Staniforth ◽  
Christa Fouché ◽  
Michael O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Work ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Organizations ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Work Education

• Summary: Members of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) were asked to provide their definition of social work. Over 300 responses were analysed thematically in order to determine if practitioner views corresponded to recent shifts in social work education and theory which emphasized the importance of social change, strengths based perspectives and the importance of local and indigenous contexts. • Findings: The findings demonstrate that while there was some recognition of social change and strengths-based perspectives in the definitions of social work provided, that those working in the field remain focused on ‘helping individuals, families and groups’ engage in change. Respondents did not, for the most part, acknowledge local or indigenous perspectives in their definitions. • Applications: Results from this study may be useful for social work professional organizations, and social work educators, students and future researchers who are interested in the definition of social work and its scopes of practice.

scholarly journals What Social Workers Should Know About Ethics: Understanding and Resolving Ethical Dilemmas

10.18060/124 ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine P. Congress
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Sexual Relationships ◽  
Dual Relationships ◽  
Personal Agency ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Social Work Practitioners

Recognizing ethical issues and dilemmas that arise in professional practice is crucial for social work practitioners, educators, and students. After a discussion about the limited, although growing, literature on social work ethics, the ten main tenets form the most current NASW Code of Ethics are presented. These topics include limits to confidentiality, confidentiality and technology, confidentiality in family and group work, managed care, cultural competence, dual relationships, sexual relationships, impairment and incompetence of colleagues, application to administrators and relevance to social work educators. In addition to understanding the Code of Ethics, social workers can use the ETHIC model of decision making for resolving ethical dilemmas. This easy to use five step process includes examining personal, agency, client, and professional values, thinking about ethical standards and relevant laws, hypothesizing about consequences, identifying the most vulnerable, and consulting with supervisors and colleagues. A case example involving confidentiality, HIV/AIDS and family therapy demonstrates how social workers can use the ETHIC model.

The Application of Para Social Work Training in Physically and Sexually Abused Girls Under 18 Years of Age in Tanzania: A Case Study of Temeke Municipality, Dar es Salaam Region

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Leah Natujwa Omari
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Sexually Abused ◽  
Dar Es Salaam ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Young Girls ◽  
Social Work Training ◽  
Work Training ◽  
The Social ◽  
Community Volunteers

The article presents a case of Para Social work training which basically aim at explaining how this training is essential in providing care and support to young Girls who are physically and sexually abused in Tanzania. It attempts to explain how the victims’ families with the help of Para Social workers can be linked to much-needed services. The objective of this study was to examine the application of Para Social work training in physically and sexually abused girls in Temeke Municipal, Dar es Salaam region. The study was also set to explore possible measure used to reduce the risk of physically and sexually abuse among young girls in addition to Para Social work training in Temeke Municipal, Dar es Salaam region. A major framework of sociological theory was used. The symbolic interactionism was employed in this study to explore symbolic meanings that community members developed and used in the process of social interaction. The family members of abused girls would interpret the behaviour of the young girls and therefore form the social bond which later was used to inform the community members about the problem that they were facing. This theoretical perspective helped the Para Social worker to make sense of the life experiences of young girls’ and understand their coping strategies including the increasing capacity of Para Social workers to access resources for improving care for young girls and their families. Further the theory increased capacity to understand how Para Social workers could generate the Eight (8) Years Plan for Development which was used in protecting young girls against physical and sexual abuse within their community. The theory enlightens community volunteers and Para Social workers in planning for various interventions in violence against children in Tanzania. Further, the study confirmed that community volunteers and Para Social workers suggested on the use of National Plan of Action for their interventions especially in emerging issues that needed their attention especially in reducing the problem of violence against children in their communities. This perspective helped to capture the behaviour of young girls and how they symbolically navigate their lives. The meaning and significance of young girls and the effect of abuse enable us to capture the social reality of those who dealt with the abuse and the measurement to reduce the problem using their own perspectives. This study used qualitative approach which included in-depth Interview and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Also purposive sampling was used whereby 50 informants were selected as a sample size of this study. The informants came from Temeke district in Dar es Salaam region.The Findings revealed that, since the development of Para Social work trainings in 2006, most vulnerable children especially young girls have enabled Para Social workers to be fully equipped and be able to apply relevant social policies effectively. Such policies include Sexual Offences Provisional Act of 1988(SOSPA), Child Development Policy of 2008 and the Law of the Child Act number 21 of 2009. Furthermore the Para Social work training has facilitated the process of identifying young girls who is abused. Thereafter Para Social workers have helped the girls’ families to develop and implement a plan of support.The study recommends to Para Social workers that young girls need to be understood in terms of situation and be protected from hazardous condition including physical and sexual abuse within their communities. Further the study recommends that it is important to strengthen child protection systems so that all kinds of abuse are addressed and worked on clearly in their communities. As for policy makers and law makers’ young girls have to be in their agenda for change. Para Social workers participation in this training is important as there are no enough staffs at the ward and village levels who could work for social workers. The availability of Para Social workers will facilitate linkages to available resources which are important for young girls’ growth and development. The attitude and perceptions towards using Para Social workers to help community members including the parents and other family members of young girls need to be changed for the benefit of the community members they serve.

scholarly journals Use of Innovative Technologies in Training of Future Social Workers

2021 ◽  
Vol 100 ◽  
pp. 04006
Author(s):  
Valentyna Sanzharovets ◽  
Tetyana Petrenko ◽  
Iveta Mietule ◽  
Larysa Platash ◽  
Liubov Kostyk
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
Life Situation ◽  
Actual Problem ◽  
Innovative Technologies

The article considers the actual problem of using the innovative technologies during the educational process in higher education institutions for training of future social workers. Professionalism in the activities of a social worker is in constant motion. Actions that take place in a society require constant professional changes in methods and technologies of social work. Social work is inseparable from society as a whole and is aimed at the population. Designing in social work is a constructive, complex, creative activity, the essence of which is in advanced reflection of reality in order to transform the personality of oneself, own life situation and the surrounding world with the help of a social worker. Social work refers to the category of innovative, creative technologies, because it involves a change of reality. It is based on the existing life situation, which can be unified, mastered and refined. A social worker is the initiator of innovation, the purpose of which is to create, modernize or maintain in a changed environment material or spiritual value of people, recognized as positive in its social value.

Reflexivity, Ethics, and Divergent Perspectives: A Transformational Journey of Social Work Educators

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-109
Author(s):  
Heather Howard ◽  
Mary LeCloux ◽  
Dana E. Prescott ◽  
Katherine Walbam
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
National Association ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Minority View

Using classroom vignettes, this article portrays the experiences of four White social work educators with minority-view inclusion and conflict management that is a result of divergent perspectives in the classroom. The use of reflexivity is explored as a strategy for understanding educators' biases and assumptions in teaching. In addition, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics is applied as it refers to helping social work students learn to think critically to meet the needs and rights of clients and to address social inequalities, diversity, privilege, and oppression. The authors provide recommendations based on their experiences and reflections.

Neoliberalism and Australian social work: Accommodation or resistance?

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Wallace ◽  
Bob Pease
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Western World ◽  
Everyday Activity ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
Critical Social Work ◽  
State Regime ◽  
New Institutions ◽  
The Impact

• Summary: Since the mid-1970s the Australian welfare state has faced a continuing crisis of resourcing and legitimation. Social work as a central entity within the welfare state has been challenged in terms of to its value base and relevance. As with much of the Western world, this challenge has been heightened with the rise of neoliberalism, which has pervaded most aspects of Australian society. Neoliberalism has consequently had a profound effect upon Australian social workers. The challenges to the Australian welfare state and social work are from without and within, by neoliberal ideas and its practices. • Findings: While neoliberalism’s relationship to social work as a broad theme is explored in the literature, the complexity of marketization and inclusive aspects have not been considered in any detail in relation to social work. The evidence in the Australian context is even slimmer, and as a consequence the particularity of the Australian welfare state and its relationship to neoliberalism, and the consequences for Australian social work, remains largely untested. Furthermore, while there are some indications of the day to day impact on social work in the context of a post-welfare state regime, little work has been conducted on the capacity of neoliberalism to infiltrate social work through its new institutions of the social and thus become embedded in social work. • Application: This article lays the foundations for a research project to examine the extent to which neoliberalism has become embedded in Australian social work and how social workers and social work educators are responding to these hegemonic influences. What are the ways in which social workers have become complicit in neoliberalism? Is Australian social work part of the neoliberal project to the point where neoliberalism has become part of its understandings and everyday activity? It is hoped that through this research, a more sophisticated understanding of the impact of neoliberalism on social work will contribute to the revitalization of critical social work in Australia and forms of resistance to the neoliberal project.

scholarly journals Black social workers: Identity, racism, invisibility/hypervisibility at work

2021 ◽  
pp. 146801732110081
Author(s):  
Chijioke Obasi
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
The North ◽  
Work Spaces ◽  
Black Social Workers

Summary This article provides a reflexive account of qualitative research with Black female social workers in the North of England. It uses ‘Africanist Sista-hood in Britain’ as the theoretical framework guiding the research. The data are gathered from six semi-structured interviews and two focus groups. Data were analysed via thematic analysis. Participant data are used to discuss issues of identity, race and racism as they contribute to positions of visibility, invisibility and hypervisibility within the social work spaces discussed. The article challenges Western forms of knowledge production as the dominant discourse in social work research, practice, education and training and links this to wider issues of power, privilege and suppression of marginalised voices. Findings The findings section reveals examples of racism, marginality, invisibility and hypervisibility as part of the lived experiences of Black female social workers in the study. It includes discussions of ‘collective strategic projection’ as a consequence of the development of the ‘race taboo’ often present in these work environments. Applications The article calls for social work educators, practitioners and the wider academic field to do more to centralise anti-racist approaches in an attempt to challenge racism in social work.

scholarly journals Inclusion of Children as Active Citizens and Social Work Intervention with Community in Sri Lanka

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-101
Author(s):  
Varathagowry Vasudevan
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Development Interventions ◽  
Full Participation ◽  
Work Intervention ◽  
Social Work Interventions

Children as citizens are born with civil, political, social and economic rights. Children are considered as active and autonomous individuals, despite the fact that they remain objects of protection and are less visible. Their reduced visibility, is generally seen in activities organized purportedly as events for children’s participation achieving other outcomes. Such initiatives proved to be non-events in the case of children’s rights. These events underscored the necessity to intervene to establish children’s inclusionary position in society. This study therefore addresses the outcomes of social work interventions in communities involving children. The interventions were specifically designed to address issues of active participation of children that promote inclusionary citizenship. In this process attempts were made to promote and inculcate active citizenship values and to create awareness on inclusion policies not only among the younger generation but particularly among the influential, `opinion making’ older members in the community The paper argues that to achieve the full participation of children for their development, interventions from professional social workers are essential. Professionally qualified social workers with wide field experiences play important roles in the promotion of inclusionary policies among community members especially with children. As illustrations, the study uses two community work projects that identify and underscore very clearly instances wherein professional social workers play important roles to revitalize communities for citizenship practices inclusive of children in Sri Lanka.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document