scholarly journals The “Undeserving” Narrative in Child and Family Social Work and How It Is Perpetuated by “Progressive Neoliberalism”: Ideas for Social Work Education

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Jane Fenton
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Unemployed People ◽  
Generational Changes ◽  
Work Education

“Progressive neoliberalism” is the current hegemonic approach to understanding social justice in Western liberal democracies. “Progressive neoliberalism” also resurrects the “deserving” vs. “undeserving” narrative that can lead to punitive and pathologising approaches to poor and unemployed people—the demographic comprising the majority of child and family social work service users. Indeed, research suggests that social workers’ attitudes towards families in poverty are strikingly congruent with “progressive neoliberalism.” This article suggests that generational changes and the particular form of group-based identity, postmodern social justice ideology often taught in social work education have unwittingly conspired to create this concerning picture. This article suggests that the resurrection of radical social work, with attention to economic inequality, is one way to counteract this trend.

President's Address 2016: Trafficking in Hope

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-116
Author(s):  
V. Duwayne Battle
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Compassionate Care ◽  
Conference Theme ◽  
Work Education

This message is the president's address at the 2016 Annual Conference of the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Directors (BPD). “Trafficking in Hope” is presented as a personal motif that describes one social worker's approach to social work education and leadership. The author examines his own journey into the field of social work and the person who best modeled for him the compassionate care and consideration of others. Building on the 2016 BPD conference theme, Promoting Excellence in Undergraduate Social Work Through Education and Leadership, social workers are asked to think about who we are at BPD and what makes us so unique. We have the opportunity to raise awareness about who we are, what we do, and the profile of BSW education. Social workers are also challenged to raise our voices and make some noise as we identify with our profession and respond to important social work and social justice issues.

scholarly journals Will someone knock on my door? COVID-19 and social work education

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 116-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bharati Sethi
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Community Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
Community Belonging ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Work Education

Guided by a person-in-environment framework and aspirations to advance social justice, the social work profession is concerned with intervening at the individual and society level. In this essay, the author reflects on individualism-collectivism, loneliness, and community belonging in the context of her lived experiences and the COVID-19 outbreak. She maintains that the micro-macro fragmentation is problematic to social work's quest for social justice. Social work must examine the place of ‘community practice' in its professional curriculum to equip students with tools to fully comprehend the changing and increasingly complex social workers' role.

scholarly journals Redefining Borders between Communities and the Classroom: How Community-based Social Activists can Transform Social Work Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori Chambers ◽  
Sheila Cranmer-Byng ◽  
May Friedman ◽  
Meaghan Ross ◽  
Warimu Njoroge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Work Education

In the context of service restructuring that has gravely impacted quality of life for social workers and the people with whom they work, this paper considers the ways that social work education can better support social justice-based social work practices in urban communities in Canada. The paper’s authors attended a fall 2013 Ryerson University forum that brought together critical social work educators and community-based activist social workers struggling to bring social justice-based practices to their work within restructured social services. Examples of social service restructuring include cuts to services, labour intensification, and increased managerialism, processes known as neoliberalism that have shifted discourses away from quality of life toward a focus on economic markers and efficiencies. The purpose of our forum was to explore ways in which social work curricula and pedagogical practices can be challenged and redefined in order to better support those efforts by social workers to resist such processes and to enhance social worker and client quality of life. Our paper presents the findings of this forum, including the presentation and discussion of a series of recommendations to reconfigure social work education so that it is more congruent with the needs of social justice-based practice in social work.

Discrimination and injustice against older people in Uganda: Implications for social work practice

2019 ◽  
pp. 002087281985874
Author(s):  
Charles Kiiza Wamara ◽  
Maria Irene Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Older People ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Professional Regulation ◽  
Work Education

This article highlights how older people in Uganda experience discrimination and injustice. It discusses the legal framework for their protection, while acknowledging that not all professionals are aware of or have access to the legal mechanisms meant to safeguard older people’s interests. It also discusses the role social work can play in protecting older people’s rights. It further recommends that social workers work to increase solidarity between generations and bring about social justice and respect for diversity. It concludes by highlighting the need to bring anti-discriminatory social work into mainstream social work education and the professional regulation of social work.

scholarly journals The Intrepid Elective

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 708-729
Author(s):  
Alexis Jemal ◽  
Jenna Frasier
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Critical Social Work ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Critical Social

The field of social work has a professional and ethical commitment to social justice. However, scholars have identified potential dangers that may threaten that commitment. To transform dangers into opportunities that strengthen social justice service, schools of social work could incorporate critical pedagogy within the Master of Social Work (MSW) curriculum. By training future social workers in critical social work practice, social work education becomes an advocate for marginalized populations. If not educated from an anti-oppressive framework, social workers have the potential to harm, oppress, and control rather than support and serve. The weight of this responsibility and firsthand social work education experiences led to the development and implementation of an elective course in critical social work informed by the Critical Transformative Potential Development (CTPD) Framework. The course follows a method that puts the CTPD theory into practice to bridge the micro-macro divide by engaging students in actively dismantling ideologies and practices of dominance. The course aims to produce anti-oppressive social workers who can better navigate social justice terrain. A student’s perspective on the course highlights strengths and areas for improvement. Future iterations of this class or similar courses of study could be adapted by and adopted for other social work education institutions. Because social work education is fertile ground to plant seeds that will grow social workers rooted in anti-racism and anti-White supremacy, there is the opportunity, with a radical education, to transform the field in a critical direction, better prepared to overcome the social justice challenges of the era.

scholarly journals Woke Disrupter

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 1045-1063
Author(s):  
Jessica Donohue-Dioh ◽  
Jacqueline Wilson ◽  
Stephani-Nicole Leota
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Practice Skills ◽  
White Social Workers

This article examines one of the most dangerous personifications of white supremacy, the Woke Vigilante - the “liberal do-gooder” and the social work profession’s role in their creation. White supremacy is frequently named to identify overt racism and discrimination by hate groups, ultra conservatives and increasingly throughout the government. There is another breed of white supremacy which lies beneath the surface and believes itself to be an ally, this is the Woke Vigilante. Unexamined social work education provides the right ingredients with the moral authority to turn white social workers into Woke Vigilantes. This conceptual article highlights the ways in which social work education currently addresses competencies of diversity and difference, as well as social justice. The authors then present a persuasive argument for white academic social workers to alter course and promote teaching and practice skills which incorporate social justice skills at all levels of practice, in other words social justice meta-practice skills. The danger of white supremacy when it is disguised as the Woke Vigilante may be best captured by Malcolm X when he spoke of the white liberals who disguise themselves as friends to the Black man only as a means to benefit their own self-interest without genuinely asking or listening to that which the Black community actually wants (X, 1963). Social work is all too familiar with the white liberal and must consider this a call to action, as well as a forewarning against further perpetuation of white hegemonic societal structures giving license to white do-gooders eager to go into Black communities and effect change. Authors present a resolve for white social workers to adopt the role of the Woke Disrupter.

scholarly journals Better together: comprehensive social work education in England

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Hanley
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Fast Track ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Training Programmes ◽  
Work Education

Prospective social workers in England are increasingly being segregated into different qualification routes. While the justification for this segregation relates to either academic achievement or the vocational nature of the course, students also end up segregated based on prior advantage, personal circumstances, context and experience. This article examines the three main routes into contemporary social work in England: fast-track training programmes, apprenticeships and mainstream programmes. It is shown that each of these approaches arguably have advantages and disadvantages, but that ultimately it is the segregation itself is doing the most damage to the profession. An alternative approach is suggested, based on comprehensive and social justice values, where the focus is on bringing students together, rather than splitting them apart.

Sexuality Social Justice and Social Work: Implications for Social Work Education

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayleen Galarza ◽  
Becky Anthony
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Future Practice

This article focuses on reviewing the existing peer- reviewed literature to offer a working definition of the term sexuality social justice and explore how sexuality social justice is currently understood and applied in social work education. The authors recommend that given the recent increased visibility and discussion of sexuality- related issues in society, it is imperative for social workers to apply a social justice lens when addressing sexuality issues in bachelor's- level programs and classrooms. Given the limited studies and literature that are focused specifically on the topic of sexuality social justice as applied to social work practice as well as on undergraduate social work education, implications for future practice and education are presented and elaborated on.

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