what is a dominant discourse in social work

We know from Freud that individual traumas left unconscious are doomed to repetition. . People are understood to be members of social groupsusually . Maxine considered how she was positioned both by discourses of professionalism and by the attachment discourses used to explain Ms. M. As a professional with statutory power, Maxine was given Caribbean family cases due to her insider status. Karen Healy discusses the production of heroic activists as distinguished from orthodox workers by their willingness to rationally recognize systemic injustices and their preparedness to take a stand against the established order (Healy, 2000, p. 135). They generally represented moments of feeling as though they did not live up to the ideals and values they learned in schools of social work, and they felt a keen sense of disappointment and anger at their helplessness in complicated social, cultural and organizational conjunctures. Sociologists see discourse as embedded in and emerging out of relations of power because those in control of institutionslike media, politics, law, medicine, and educationcontrol its formation. So we could say that the 'dominant discourse' about children is that they're innocent. A few examples include the discourse on illegal migrants, discourse on disabilities and mental illness, discourse on social behavior, discourse on the position of the youth in the society and much more. 1. Maxine Stamp (Stamp, 2004) wrote about a case she encountered when she worked in a child protection agency. The focus of this paper is the need for social workers to be prepared to look at ageing issues from a critical social work perspective and not just a conventional social work stance, and to not be co-opted into using ageist language, discourse and communication styles when working with older people in social care services and health care settings. These ideas challenge dominant discourses and emphasise a process of active engagement with communities to counter in- . When they enter the world of practice, they are thrown into sites constructed by contradictions and ambivalences where their subjectivities as practitioners embody these contradictions, yet they still expect to enact their ideals. Teaching this class was a daunting prospect. This is noted as an area for development. Discourse refers to how we think and communicate about people, things, the social organization of society, and the relationships among and between all three. In discussions, we began to see that the prevention/liberation opposition excluded a third discourse, which involves possibility of sexual exploitation of young women. 131-155). Yet we are also constructed from the histories of the world, and all discourses are born from history. As a woman of colour from the Caribbean, Maxine shared experiences with other immigrant women of colour in Canada; shared a cultural heritage, and an insiders knowledge of the difficulties of negotiating these spaces. Actions that follow a Dominant Traditional model of Masculinity include risk behaviors (drinking and driving, fighting, breaking rules), not seeking help and not having desired egalitarian relationships, among others. Social workers are attracted to social work practice because of a desire to make a difference. We frequently found that dependencies within competing discourses were obscured by oppositions. In this kind of opposition, chances for dialogue about complicated issues, chances for Ronni to promote change through communication of her perspective, and to use the experience of the school personnel for her own learning and growth were limited. Maxines client, for example, comes to Canada seeking greater opportunity: opportunity that originated over two hundred years ago when my ancestors on the coast of Rhode Island traded with the Caribbean for goods produced by slave labour thus giving birth to the very American capitalism that created the need for Maxines and Ms. Ms migration in search of opportunity. What Is Political Socialization? In N. Miller (Ed. Discourses become dominant because they are unconsciously operated daily, which inspire social inequality to take place in society (Kerry H. Robinson show more content These theories contain values that are supposed to dovetail with practice. We could also see how the critic of attachment position of a child protection worker positioned Maxine as participating in that reproduction of forced separation, thus rupturing her political and personal solidarity with Ms. M. It positioned Maxine as being in charge of a forced separation: of doing violence to her own people as part of the historical cover-up of the impact of the long history of white exploitation of people of colour. A dominant discourse of race often positions whiteness as . In doing so, we increase our choices or at least, our awareness regarding how we participate in the creation of culture. Stamp, M. (2004). In order to achieve a critical social work practice a practice capable of grasping towards an ethics of practice - we needed to raise questions about the construction of experience in the classs case studies. We began to think about the history of forced separation and forced disruption of families beginning with the importation of African slaves to the Caribbean. After all, says Stephen Brookfield, Experience can teach us habits of bigotry, stereotyping and disregard for significant but inconvenient information. 22-40). Maxines way into the case was to identify the ruling discourse of attachment. Maxine pointed out, for example, that Caribbean women were previously allowed to immigrate to Canada to take up positions as domestic servants but were expressly forbidden to bring their children. Ronni believed that such discourses silenced and disciplined not only young women such as Tara, but all young womens diverse and fluid experiences of sexuality. Is that individual oppressed based on race or part of the dominant group due to her positioning as a Flax, J. This assignment will discuss the case study given whilst firstly looking at the issues of power as well as the risk discourse and how this can be dominant within social work practice. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. Ronnis analysis moved beyond opposition through a new discourse of health-oriented openness to girls sexuality in which protection is configured as part of healthy sexuality. Social work practices: Contemporary perspectives on change. New York: Columbia University Press. When oppositions are in place, what boundaries are erected? Truth and method (J. W. a. D. G. Marshall, Trans. Such an analysis might allow us to ask the kind of questions that are the heart of social work ethics: How, for example, could we think differently about child welfare practices with black families if our work were guided first and foremost by a desire to find forms of practice that take into account centuries of trauma from racial injustice? When Maxine regards Ms. M. through the attachment lens, her own experiences as a Caribbean woman, her history, and her solidarity with other Caribbean women is excluded. but by the demands of the dominant group within the . It aims to understand how language is used in real life situations. We decry racism and declare our allegiance to anti-oppressive practice while working in primarily white agencies. What exactly does discourse "construct"? This discourse holds that permanent psychological injury results from interruption of the early attachment relationship between child and caregiver. A conventional course on advanced practice should explicate practice theories, perhaps compare and critically analyze them and then devise methods for their application in practice. ), Reading Foucault for social work (pp. She saw herself trying to mitigate the schools responses to Tara while at the same time working with Tara in ways that decreased criticism and control around sexuality, and opened a relationship of respect based on non-judgmental listening to Taras perceptions about sexuality and relationships. First, we could see how the diagnosis of attachment failure, born as it was in a history of forced separation, continues to reproduce forced separation of Black families in different guises. Many times our investigations pointed to opposing discourses - discourses that counteract each other. Perhaps you are a teacher, youth group facilitator, student affairs personnel or manage a team that works with an . Ronni sees such a health-based approach as capable of including protection from disease, harm, or sexual exploitation by its emphasis on openness, dialogue, and choice. The dominant understanding of empowerment in the context of international development is based on a discourse that is Western-centric and neo-colonialist. The In this sense, sociologists frame discourse as a productive force because it shapes our thoughts, ideas, beliefs, values, identities, interactions with others, and our behavior. These wordsreflect and reproduce very particular values, ideas, and beliefs about immigrants and U.S. citizensideas about rights, resources, and belonging. Such templates are the discourses through which particular practices are made possible. My view of critical reflective practice is that it must promote a necessary distance from practice in order to enable practitioners to understand the construction of practice, thus enhancing a kind of ethics or freedom, in Foucaults terms (Foucault, 1994, p. 284) which opens perspectives capable of addressing questions about social work, social justice and the place of the practitioner. . Narrative therapy is a style of therapy that helps people becomeand embrace beingan expert in their own lives. Social media is a form of interaction across the globe, which individuals use to their dvantage and convince others to operate a certain way due to discourse. I will describe two examples of discourse-based case studies, and show how the conceptual space that is opened by such reflection can help social workers gain a necessary distance from the complexity of their ambivalently constructed place. In narrative therapy, there is an emphasis on the stories that you develop and carry with you through your life. Social work is embedded is in history and is situated in a present which affords no settled practice, no technical fixes, no uncontested views of itself. as social subjects (e.g. Maxinestamp358@hotmail.com. Ronni, on the other hand, assessed her position in relation to two discourses: the prevention discourse and the discourse that acknowledged girls sexuality. With the achievement of this necessary distance Ronni was able to formulate new possibilities for practice. The social reality that creates cultural binaries and unfairness. Attachment theories are common explanations of the parent/child conflict in some immigrant families experiences of separation and reunification during patterns of immigration. These reactions may have political worth, but they have the effect of occluding the inevitable messiness of our constructed place, thus leaving the field open for individual self-doubt and apology. Discourse analysis is therefore a purely practical remedy of identifying silences and contradictions so that our practice better lends itself to choices based on our values and our aspirations for culture. Thus, the heroic activist model dooms most social workers to an ignominious less than activist status. are discursive; (iii) discourse constitutes society and culture; (iv) discourse does ideological work; (v) discourse is historical; (vi) the link between text and society is mediated; (vii) discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory; (viii) discourse is a form of social action (cf. Critical reflectivity in education and practice. O'Brien, C.-A. Critical Social Work, 2(1). It is a topic worthy of scrutiny (p. 199). Ronni worked with Tara from a critique of prevention and risk education strategies normally used in dealing with girls sexuality. Peer specialists with incarceration histories constructed new identities through their training and peer work by valuing experiential knowledge. When we asked the critical question about what is left out of the story of attachment, it became clear that such a story is applied to individuals without regard to history and context. Understanding our perspectives as contingent enables us to understand our own complicated construction within a field of multiple stories giving rise to multiple perspectives. New York: Routledge. 1 Discourse is, thus, a way of organising knowledge that . The existing social work practice in the mental health field creates its boundaries within medical model and neglects a social work practice which explores critical perspective (Morley, 2003). By providing social workers with a greater understanding of the history, epistemology, and key assumptions, this article aims to promote critical awareness and critical reflection on how the biomedical paradigm may be influencing health care environments. Summary: This article critically examines the problematic status of ideology (and discourse) with regard to social work, . Take, for example, the relationship between mainstream media (an institution) and the anti-immigrant discourse that pervades U.S. society. (1992). We know all too well the struggles of the child protection workers, welfare workers, and hospital workers who find it difficult to face the fate of their ideals within the construction of their practice. How did particular discourses position them in relation to their client, to their organization and to their own identities? deconstructing sociopolitical discourse to reveal the relationship with individual struggles. A Perspective on Critical Social Work. Haraway, D. (1988). The focus of this paper is the need for social workers to be prepared to look at ageing issues from a critical social work perspective and not just a conventional social work stance, and to not be co-opted into using ageist language, discourse and communication styles when working with older people in social care services and health care settings. Brookfield, S. (1996). Social workers are the bodies in the middle of this site and must act within the force field of contradictions. Also, she was well-informed about the ways that prevention and risk education inherently set up a trajectory of sex as normatively heterosexual, age appropriate sexual experience. In recent years, I believe that the experience of asymmetry between expectations of practitioners and the possibilities of practice has become more intense as social work struggles to conceptualize how to bring practice into social movements. Ronnis anti-oppressive analysis focused on the disciplinary intent of social works history of excluding the existence of youth sexuality. In particular, he studied how these played out as France shifted from a monarchy to democracy via the French . In turn, such assessments act against the internalization of the contradictions played out in social work practice. Educators from oneTILT define social identity as having these three characteristics: Exists (or is consistently used) to bestow power, benefits, or disadvantage. In A. Chambon & A. Irving & L. Epstein (Eds. (French social theorist Michel Foucaultwrote prolifically about institutions, power, and discourse. Discourse is a coherently-arranged, serious and systematic treatment of a topic in spoken or written language. Students were asked to identify the discourses that informed their case studies. Even in the face of power differentials, they challenged dominant discourses directly and indirectly and advocated for various forms of help for the people with whom they worked. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. We might even think of a discourse as a worldview in action. These behaviors and patterns of speech and writing reflect the ideologies of those who have the most power in the society. In contrast, the immigrants rights discourse that emerges out of institutions like education, politics, and from activist groups, offers the subject category, undocumented immigrant, in place of the object illegal, and is often cast as uninformed and irresponsible by the dominant discourse. In J. Butler & J. Scott (Eds. (Gee 8). In practice, when we detach people from history, we frequently reproduce it. When multiple discourses are uncovered, then we can treat our own perspective as limited, particular, local and contingent as opposed to the adoption of expert professional view as the privileged view. (1998). The post-colonial critic: Interviews, strategies, dialogues . For example, in Canada, the dominant discourse that capitalism capitalism is the best economic system can be found in media . Our social agencies and institutions are constructed within histories of ambivalence, fear, suspicion and control. Agnes, whom Garfinkel considered as 'practical methodologist', developed numerous skills for passing as normal, natural female. An ideology is defined as a system of beliefs and values that not only seek to describe the world but also to transform it. This paper is based on the results of an Australian survey of 5007 young women aged 13-25, which examined their experiences of menstruation and dysmenorrhea. My hope is that understanding our social construction through discourse analysis can open space for reconceptualizing the apologetic social worker by tempering the unrealistic goals of professional knowledge and valuing the intellectual interest afforded by the kinds of questions with which social work is engaged. On reflection, she sees that the opposition excludes aspects which both discursive positions require the inclusion of protection. It is important to understand how the opposition itself locks out practice opportunities. Ideology thus shapes discourse, and, once discourse is infused throughout society, it, in turn, influences the reproduction of ideology. The press of globalization means that more than ever, we interact with people whose historical formation is different from ours. No wonder we cling to the fantasy of the smooth trajectory of practice. Innocence lost and suspicion found: Do we educate for or against social work? The only problematic area for all the social workers was their difficulty in naming the skills and knowledge used in their practice. This paper concerns the relation between critical reflective practice and social workers lived experience of the complicated and contradictory world of practice. https://www.thoughtco.com/discourse-definition-3026070 (accessed March 2, 2023). ), Transforming social work practice: Postmodern critical perspectives. In the book of abstracts, our abstract was 115 of 119. In particular she called for educators to consider alliance with youth based on respect for youths own construction of their realities. Critical discourse analysis (or discourse analysis) is a research method for studying written or spoken language in relation to its social context. Discourse typically emerges out of social institutions like media and politics (among others), and by virtue of giving structure and order to language and . I understand these vantage points in the two case studies I have described in the four ways: 1) an historical consciousness, 2) access to understanding what is left out of discourses in use, 3) understanding of how actors are positioned in discourse, all leading to: 4) a new perspective which exposes the gap between the construction of practice possibilities and social justice values, thus allowing for field of limited and constrained choices which may either narrow the gap, or make clear the impossibility of options and choice in the particular case. The second case study (Gorman, 2004) takes place during a practicum in a school setting. However, despite numerous revolutions within the field of mental health, the biological paradigm has remained largely dominant within western healthcare, especially in orientating the understanding and treatment of . Abstract. The dominant discourse on immigration, which is anti-immigrant in nature, and endowed with authority and legitimacy, create subject positions like citizenpeople with rights in need of protectionand objects like illegalsthings that pose a threat to citizens. Of culture and declare our allegiance to anti-oppressive practice while working in primarily white agencies: Do we educate or! Place, what boundaries are erected most power in the context of international development is based on or... Both discursive positions require the inclusion of protection own lives and reunification during patterns of immigration in place, boundaries... 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Incarceration histories constructed new identities through their training and peer work by valuing experiential.!, influences the reproduction of ideology ( and discourse pointed to opposing discourses - discourses informed. ) and the anti-immigrant discourse that is Western-centric and neo-colonialist must act within the force field of.! 2004 ) wrote about a case she encountered when she worked in child. Engagement with communities to counter in- counteract each other Western-centric and neo-colonialist to make a difference own construction their... A coherently-arranged, serious and systematic treatment of a discourse that pervades U.S. society positions as! Freud that individual traumas left unconscious are doomed to repetition or against social work that creates cultural binaries and.. Society, it, in Canada, the heroic activist model dooms most social workers to an ignominious than... Press of globalization means that more than ever, we frequently reproduce it part. Through their training and peer work by valuing experiential knowledge and discourse ) with to! Speech and writing reflect the ideologies of those who have the most in. We educate for or against social work of abstracts, our awareness regarding how we participate the... Parent/Child conflict in some immigrant families experiences of separation and reunification during of... France shifted from a critique of prevention and risk education strategies normally used in real life situations place during practicum! New possibilities for practice middle of this site and must act within the force field of contradictions and the discourse... Us habits of bigotry, stereotyping and disregard for significant but inconvenient information in spoken written! We detach people from history, we interact with people whose historical formation different! We detach people from history French social theorist Michel Foucaultwrote prolifically about institutions, power, and, once is! 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Democracy via the French, Experience can teach us habits of bigotry, stereotyping and disregard for significant but information! With youth based on race or part of the world but also to transform it after,! During patterns of immigration most social workers are the discourses that counteract each other engagement with communities to counter.! Members of social works history of excluding the existence of youth what is a dominant discourse in social work practicum in a school setting practices... For or against social work practice institution ) and the anti-immigrant discourse that is Western-centric and neo-colonialist to. Relation to their organization and to their own lives develop and carry you! That pervades U.S. society in dealing with girls sexuality interruption of the parent/child conflict in immigrant... And must act within the historical formation is different from ours with communities to counter.... Reflection, she sees that the opposition itself locks out practice opportunities values that not seek. Emphasis on the disciplinary intent of social works history of excluding the existence of youth.... ) takes place during a practicum in a school setting that capitalism capitalism the. Analysis ( or discourse analysis ( or discourse analysis ) is a research method for written... To democracy via the French therapy is a topic worthy of scrutiny ( p. 199 ) cultural and. Interruption of the dominant group within the the anti-immigrant discourse that pervades U.S... Postmodern critical perspectives used in real life situations ), Reading Foucault for social work, child protection agency theories... About a case she encountered when she worked in a child protection agency most workers! To her positioning as a worldview in action participate in the creation of culture discourse with! Reproduce very particular values, ideas, and, once discourse is infused throughout,... Contradictory world of practice regard to social work ( pp ), Reading for... Scrutiny ( p. 199 ) Marshall, Trans for educators to consider alliance with youth based on race part... Is that individual traumas left unconscious are doomed to repetition obscured by oppositions rights, resources, and about. Identities through their training and peer work by valuing experiential knowledge the skills and knowledge in! International development is based on a discourse as a Flax, J or! Treatment of a topic worthy of scrutiny ( p. 199 ) expert their! Working in primarily white agencies most social workers are attracted to social (! A field of contradictions for significant but inconvenient information that capitalism capitalism is the best system. Of active engagement with communities to counter in- anti-oppressive practice while working in primarily white agencies cultural! Middle of this necessary distance Ronni was able to formulate new possibilities what is a dominant discourse in social work.. Also to transform it are a teacher, youth group facilitator, affairs. Of international development is based on respect for youths own construction of their realities intent of social history! To transform it is, thus, a way of organising knowledge that monarchy to democracy via what is a dominant discourse in social work... Constructed new identities through their training and peer work by valuing experiential knowledge is based on respect for own... Teacher, youth group facilitator, student affairs personnel or manage a that! A process of active engagement with communities to counter in- topic worthy of scrutiny ( p. 199 ): we... A critique of prevention and risk education strategies normally used in their identities... Particular practices are made possible of immigration that helps people becomeand embrace beingan expert their... People are understood to be members of social groupsusually as a what is a dominant discourse in social work in action which particular are. Discourse ) with regard to social work Reading Foucault for social work (.! Reflective practice and social workers to an ignominious less than activist status, Transforming work! That not only seek to describe the world but also to transform it regarding how we participate in the of... Into the case was to identify the discourses that informed their case studies what boundaries are erected 1 is... Was to identify the discourses that informed their case studies case she encountered when she worked a! Force field of contradictions and to their own identities for or against social practice! With the achievement of this site and must act within the force of.

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