“Little Girls” and “Bitching Up”

Affilia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Margaret Newberry-Koroluk
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Early Career ◽  
First Year ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Education Practice ◽  
Workplace Experiences ◽  
Bachelor Of Social Work ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Work Education

This article explores the ways in which age and gender intersect to shape the workplace experiences of first-year Canadian social workers. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with nine early-career (0.6–3.7 years post-bachelor of social work [BSW]), young adult (aged 23.9–32.9) social workers in Alberta, Canada, to understand their experiences in the first year of practice after completing the BSW; this article addresses the themes relating to age and gender. The methodology used in the study was hermeneutic phenomenology. Findings include negative conceptualizations of young social workers, meanings related to age and gender, use of evocative language to communicate positionality and practice values (“little girls” and “bitching up”), and feminized constructions of social work. Implications for social work education, practice, and research are discussed.

The Unsettling Feminism(s) Unconference

Affilia ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bharati Sethi
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Doctoral Student ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Education Practice ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Intellectual Creativity ◽  
Academic Conferences

In this article, the author shares her experiences as a doctoral student at the Unsettling Feminism(s) conference in Chicago. She argues that this unconference forced her to question how the academy conceives of “academic conferences” as venues of student–professional development. From the perspective of a racialized woman, an immigrant, a scholar, and a person with a disability, such professional gatherings that honor social workers’ and researchers’ multiple identities and offer valued spaces for marginalized stories to be told and heard can be personally and professionally transformative. The author uses the metaphor of an elephant in the room to argue that even though it may be unsettling, the academy must be willing to risk uncomfortable dialogues to advance social work education, practice, and research and to enhance students’ intellectual creativity.

scholarly journals De-Centering Whiteness Through Revisualizing Theory in Social Work Education, Practice, and Scholarship

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 654-671
Author(s):  
Chandra Crudup ◽  
Chris Fike ◽  
Claire McLoone
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Master Narrative ◽  
White Supremacist ◽  
Education Practice ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
Work Education

Institutions that frame social work education and prepare future practitioners are firmly rooted in hegemonic philosophies and practices that perpetuate colonization, oppression, and white supremacy. In recognizing that white supremacy is a mechanism of social control, that our current social structure is grounded in liberal-patriarchal capitalism, and that social work conforms to prevailing social norms, we, as social workers, must acknowledge our complicity in perpetuating a white supremacist master narrative (Pewewardy & Almeida, 2014). The white supremacist ideology inherent within Western social work literature, teaching methodologies, and practice strategies only serves to perpetuate an oppressive system. This structure does not envision social workers as agents of change, but rather as essential cogs of the status quo who foster client dependence on a system that is inherently marginalizing. One mechanism for disrupting the white supremacy that has become a master narrative in social work is to create a counter-narrative (Pewewardy & Almeida, 2014). This paper creates a counter-narrative by using the pyramid of white supremacy framework (Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence, 2008; Tuzzolo, 2016) to critique social work and deconstruct post-racial fallacies ascendant within the profession, and re-visualizes ecological systems framework as a mechanism for de-centering whiteness in social work scholarship, practice, and education.

scholarly journals “When we talk about intimate partner violence we talk in an adult way” – Social workers’ descriptions of intimate partner violence between teenagers

2021 ◽  
pp. 147332502110028
Author(s):  
Emmy Högström Tagesson ◽  
Carina Gallo
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Treatment Quality ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender

This article examines how seven social workers within the Swedish social services describe intimate partner violence between teenagers (IPV-BT). The article adds to the literature by examining IPV-BT outside a U.S. context, where most studies have been conducted. Based on semistructured qualitative interviews, the authors analyze descriptions of IPV-BT in relation to Charles Tilly’s notion of category making through transfer, encounter, negotiation, and imposition. They also analyze how the social workers’ descriptions of IPV-BT relate to the intersection between age and gender. The results show that the social workers mostly described IPV-BT by referring to encounters with teenagers and by transferring knowledge and theoretical definitions from their specialized working areas, primarily intimate partner violence between adults (IPV-BA) and troubled youth. More rarely, the social workers based their definitions of IPV-BT upon negotiating dialogues with teenagers. Also, those who worked in teams specialized on IPV had the mandate to impose their definitions of IPV-BT to other professionals and teenagers. When taking age and gender hierarchies in consideration, the results show IPV-BT risks being subordinate IPV-BA on a theoretical level, a practical level and in terms of treatment quality. The study suggests that social work with IPV-BT needs to be sensitive to the double subordinations of the teenage girl and of the teenagers who do not follow gender expectations.

Political Social Work: An Essential Component of the Profession

2021 ◽  
pp. 359-381
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Social Work Faculty ◽  
Field Placements ◽  
High Level ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Work Knowledge ◽  
Initial Results

Social workers have played a key role in political settings from the profession’s historic roots to present day. Their knowledge, skills and values position social workers to practice in political settings. Social work faculty and students were interviewed to assess a) how field placements in legislative offices and participation in Campaign School and NASW-sponsored Legislative Education and Advocacy Day (LEAD) impacted students’ professional development and perspectives on political social work, and b) social work faculties’ perception of these activities in students’ social work education and necessary political social work knowledge and skills. Initial results demonstrate a high level of support for these activities among faculty and students with opportunities to further include them in the explicit and implicit social work curriculum.

Social work education in action: How studying for the profession facilitates the adaptation of internationally educated social workers in Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-127
Author(s):  
Annie Pullen Sansfaçon ◽  
Marion Brown
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Work Skills ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theory Project ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Adaptation Processes ◽  
Depth Interviews

This article presents the results and theorization of a 4-year Grounded Theory project that sought to understand the processes and dynamics involved in the professional adaptation of internationally educated social workers now practicing in Canada. In-depth interviews with 66 participants, who undertook social work education outside of Canada and have subsequently settled to practice in the country, were conducted. Results highlight that the social work educational background of the professionals not only offers key conceptual, theoretical, and analytical foundations needed to adapt knowledge and skills to practice abroad, but also provides tools to navigate and negotiate professional adaptation processes as a whole. We conclude that ultimately, social workers may adapt well to their new work contexts because of the transferability of social work skills, knowledge, and values to new practice settings, thus facilitating interventions with services users and also their own process of professional adaptation.

A complicated welcome: social workers navigate policy, organisational contexts and sociocultural dynamics following migration to Canada

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Brown ◽  
Annie Pullen Sansfaçon ◽  
Stephanie Éthier ◽  
Amy Fulton
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Better Life Index ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
Natural Beauty ◽  
The World ◽  
Work Education

Canada is promoted as a land of opportunity, with its natural beauty purportedly matched by the generosity of its people. Since 1994, Canada has been ranked in the top 10 places to live in the world, and in 2013 it placed third in the global ‘better life index’, recognised for its comfortable standard of living, low mortality rate, solid education and health systems, and low crime rate (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2013). It is a promising option for migrant professionals looking to leave their home countries for a variety of reasons related to social, political and economic conditions. This chapter reports on the experiences of 44 social workers who undertook their social work education outside Canada and migrated to Canada with the intent of continuing to practise social work. We bring analysis to three key areas experienced as problematic: policy, including immigration, recognition of foreign credentials, and registration with the licensing body; organisational context, including issues related to the search for employment and process of hiring; and socio-cultural dynamics, the more subtle relations required to ‘fit in’ and feelings of ‘difference’ in relation to one’s colleagues. The findings for each of these are discussed in detail below, drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986).

scholarly journals Practising social work

Social Work ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 97-114
Author(s):  
Guy Shennan
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Science Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Interviews ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Work Knowledge

The chapter considers changes and developments in the content of social work education under the three headings of social science disciplines, understanding human development and relationships, and theories, approaches and methods for practice. At the start of the period under review, social science knowledge (primarily from sociology and social policy) and human development theories predominated, but as their research base and published literature have expanded, theories and methods for practice have become more prominent. The contribution to knowledge from research conducted by social workers themselves is acknowledged, as is the contribution made by experts by experience, both directly and through research interviews. The prominence of sequences on law for social workers is noted. The chapter concludes by asserting that the broad partnership of interests which should determine the content of the social work knowledge base is threatened by Government's much-expanded role, but that most social work programmes continue to ensure a balanced curriculum.

scholarly journals Incorporating community development into social work practice within the neoliberal environment

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Aimers ◽  
Peter Walker
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Community Development ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Community Work ◽  
Core Subject ◽  
Work Education

Community development is a core subject in social work education, yet social work discourse often places community development at its margins (Mendes, 2009). This article considers the location of community development and community work within the current neoliberal environment in New Zealand and how such practice can be sustained by social workers in the community and voluntary sector. Community development is a way of working with communities that has a ‘bottom up’ approach as an alternative to State (top down) development. Over recent years, however, successive New Zealand governments have embraced neoliberal social policies that have marginalised community development. In addition the term ‘community work’ has been used to describe activities that have little to do with a bottom up approach thereby making it difficult to define both community development and community work. By applying a ‘knowledge intersections’ schema to two New Zealand community and voluntary organi- sations we identify where community development and social work intersect. From this basis we challenge social workers to consider ways in which community development can be embedded within their practice. 

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