A Pragmatic Approach to Social Work

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 455-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Kolly
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Way

In this article, my professional practice and participative observation form a basis to examine the way views are formed on the process of domination and stigmatisation of youths. How can we move from a known consensual fact – that youths of immigrant origin are stigmatised – to a formulation of the problem that reveals the dissenter potential of these young people and the way they challenge the social workers’ own sense of belonging? The pragmatic approach aims to restore the principle of equality to its true role and to formulate the issues so that they may lead to potentials for action.

Reconfiguring professional autonomy? The case of social work in the UK

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Chandler ◽  
Elisabeth Berg ◽  
Marion Ellison ◽  
Jim Barry
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Professional Autonomy ◽  
The Third ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk

This chapter discusses the contemporary position of social work in the United Kingdom, and in particular the challenges to what is seen as a managerial-technicist version of social work. The chapter begins with focus on the situation from the 1990s to the present day in which this version of social work takes root and flourishes. The discussion then concentrates on three different routes away from a managerial-technicist social work: the first, reconfiguring professional practice in the direction of evaluation in practice, the second ‘reclaiming social work’ on the Hackney relationship-based model and the third ‘reclaiming social work’ in a more radical, highly politicised way. Special attention is devoted to a discussion about how much autonomy the social workers have in different models, but also what kind of autonomy and for what purpose.

Clients Toward Whom a Social Worker Feels Attraction

2021 ◽  
pp. 149-169
Author(s):  
Joseph Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
Good Thing ◽  
Working Relationship ◽  
The Social ◽  
Positive Feelings ◽  
The Way

The broad nature of the social work profession offers opportunities for practitioners to work with diverse clients. While committed to the welfare of all clients, social workers tend to be drawn to some clients more than others, due in part to their abilities to connect with them. A social worker’s positive feelings about his or her clients is a good thing, but it is possible that at times he or she will experience a special fondness or attraction for a client that can create biases that get in the way of a constructive working relationship. The purposes of this chapter are to explore the circumstances in which positive feelings about clients develop and to suggest ways for social workers to manage those feelings in a way that keeps their focus on the client’s welfare.

The emerging concepts of participation and belonging in social pedagogy

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-33
Author(s):  
Martin Molin
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Institutional Practice ◽  
Social Pedagogy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Categorical Group ◽  
Disability Research

During the last few decades, the concepts of participation and belonging has frequently been used within the social welfare field in general, and within the field of disability research specifically. Additionally, in Scandinavia the concept of participation has become increasingly used in social work and social pedagogy programmes at universities. However, there’s rather little known about how participation can be understood and related to social pedagogy, since the concept has a broad range of meanings, e.g. a sense of belonging. This paper aims to identify and discuss understandings of participation and belonging with relevance for social work and social pedagogy. Empirical illustrations have been gathered with ethnographical methods and analysed in accordance with an interpretive tradition. It is argued that the concept of participation can be attributed to different meanings in different ideological, theoretical, and institutional practice contexts (e.g. schools that offer special needs programmes, the transition to working life, online social networking). Consequently, it’s a challenge to provide adequate definitions of the concept. The inference drawn is that the aspect of belonging as it relates to social participation can be attributed to its particular importance for social pedagogy. An implication for professional practice is the need to pay attention to alternative identifications that are not based on notions of a stable, constant sense of belonging to a categorical group.

Constructions of young migrants’ situations in kinship care in a Swedish suburb by social workers in a non-governmental organisation mentoring programme

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 901-916
Author(s):  
Maria Moberg Stephenson ◽  
Åsa Källström
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Kinship Care ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
The Social ◽  
Youth Centre

Young migrants defined as ‘unaccompanied’ tend to be constructed as a homogeneous group with specific vulnerabilities and strengths in social work practice. ‘Unaccompanied’ young migrants placed in kinship care in Sweden are constructed with further vulnerabilities. Such constructions of these young people and their situations may have consequences for how social support for them is designed. The aim of this study is to explore how the social workers employed at a non-governmental organisation mentoring programme construct young migrants’ situations in kinship care in a Swedish suburb, and if and how these constructions change during the course of the programme. Methods used are semi-structured interviews with the social workers at the youth centre where the mentoring work takes place and analysis of the non-governmental organisation’s policy documents. The results consist of three constructions of situations the young people are in: (1) loneliness and (a lack of) support in the kinship homes; (2) alienation in the local neighbourhood and the kinship home and (3) social, cultural and family contexts creating a sense of safety. The results show variation in how the mentors describe each situation with both vulnerabilities and strengths. This highlights a complexity in the constructions that contests the image of young migrants in kinship care as merely vulnerable. These results reveal consideration of individual differences and contexts, and are used to discuss how people’s struggles and resources can be dealt with in social work.

scholarly journals Selected aspects of shaping the adulthood attributes of clients in social work

2021 ◽  
Vol XII (2(35)) ◽  
pp. 115-129
Author(s):  
Joanna Kluczyńska
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
Dysfunctional Families ◽  
Mutual Relationship ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Way

The article presents the elements of social work, which are important for shaping the aspects of clients' adulthood. The methods, techniques and forms of help should mobilize the client to be active and independent. In the process of help, it is important to build a mutual relationship between a social worker and a client based on the treating as a subject, showing respect and listening. Such an attitude towards the assisted person is aimed at strengthening him/her on the way to regain control over his/her own life, to build a faith in his/her own possibilities and  to take responsibility for his/her own fate and the fate of people dependent on the client. The social worker participates also in the process of empowering young people, who are brought up in foster care, and in the case of children from dysfunctional families, the social worker makes sure that they are not overwhelmed by the challenges of adulthood.

Integrating Social Workers’ Christian Faith in Social Work: A National Survey

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-74
Author(s):  
Holly K. Oxhandler ◽  
Rick Chamiec-Case ◽  
Terry Wolfer ◽  
Julianna Marraccino
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
National Survey ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Work Integration

Over the past few decades, researchers have focused considerable attention on religion, spirituality, and faith (RSF) in social work. However, most of this research has been focused on the RSF of clients rather than on RSF of social workers themselves. This study used the Social Worker’s Integration of their Faith – Christian (SWIF-C; Author, 2019) to explore efforts by NACSW members (n = 486) to integrate their Christian faith and social work. Overall, participants reported high levels of faith and social work integration—with both faith and social work influencing the other—and also noted some experience of conflict in their effort to integrate their faith and social work. With a goal of developing sustained ethical and competent professional practice, the paper concludes with recommendations for helping students and supervisees integrate their own faith and social work.

Using Psychodrama in the Field of Social Work

2021 ◽  
pp. 560-575
Author(s):  
Emre Kol ◽  
Seda Topgül
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Social Service ◽  
The Other ◽  
Welfare Recipients ◽  
Therapeutic Role ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practice Skills

Psychodrama is a systematic re-living conducted through utilizing spontaneous theater. This research aims to reveal the use of psychodrama in social work. Within the scope of the study, the research was carried out using the literature review method based on the following question framework: How and in which areas psychodrama is used in social work? As a result of the study, it has been found that psychodrama has an improving role in professional practice skills of the social workers along with the restorative and educative role for themselves. On the other hand, as for welfare recipients, it helps them to become self-sufficient. In this sense, it has been concluded that while psychodrama plays a therapeutic role for the individuals in need of social service, it will be effective for the social workers to overcome the potential difficulties and burnouts they may face in their inner worlds.

Social resilience: Transformation in two Australian communities facing chronic adversity

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 843-856
Author(s):  
Natalie Bolzan ◽  
Fran Gale
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Resilience ◽  
The Social ◽  
Chronic Adversity ◽  
Direct Threat ◽  
Social Threats

Resilience has predominantly been investigated as an individual’s response to adversity and, at the level of the collective, how communities respond to a direct threat. The social work literature investigating social resilience as a response to the challenge of subtle, pervasive and divisive social threats is limited. This article presents the findings of research conducted in two Australian communities with young people who experienced marginalisation; it investigated how sustained social resilience could be evoked in response to the disadvantage they experienced. Six themes that reflect the expression of social resilience emerged from the data and provide insights for social workers practising with communities facing chronic adversity.

scholarly journals Role of Narrative and Social Networks in Thwarting Violence and Sexual Abuse in Young People’s Lives

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (7) ◽  
pp. 2172-2190
Author(s):  
Margareta Hydén ◽  
David Gadd ◽  
Thomas Grund
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Young People ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Sexually Abused ◽  
Her Family ◽  
The Social ◽  
Work Intervention

Abstract Combining narrative analysis with social network analysis, this article analyses the case of a young Swedish female who had been physically and sexually abused. We show how she became trapped in an abusive relationship at the age of fourteen years following social work intervention in her family home, and how she ultimately escaped from this abuse aged nineteen years. The analysis illustrates the significance of responses to interpersonal violence from the social networks that surround young people; responses that can both entrap them in abusive relationships by blaming them for their problems and enable them to escape abuse by recognising their strengths and facilitating their choices. The article argues that the case for social work approaches that envision young people’s social networks after protective interventions have been implemented. The article explains that such an approach has the potential to reconcile the competing challenges of being responsive to young people’s needs while anticipating the heightened risk of being exposed to sexual abuse young people face when estranged from their families or after their trust in professionals has been eroded.

Satisfaction with the Social Work Profession: A Ten-Year Analysis of Undergraduate Students' Perceptions

1997 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 835-838 ◽  
Author(s):  
James G. Hanson ◽  
James G. McCullagh
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Career Choice ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Perceived Satisfaction ◽  
High Satisfaction ◽  
The Social

A 10-yr. study of 746 social work undergraduates' perceived satisfaction with seven factors related to their career choice suggested high satisfaction with social work as a career; with the purposes and functions of social work, and the students' initial volunteer experience. There were no significant changes in satisfaction over the 10-yr. period, which findings parallel those of other studies in which similar methods have been used with practicing social workers.

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