what is a dominant discourse in social work

A Perspective on Critical Social Work. We decry racism and declare our allegiance to anti-oppressive practice while working in primarily white agencies. My students came to class as failed heroes. By the medical intervention, Agnes transformed into a woman physically within a social discourse and Agnes needed to manage to transform into a woman physiologically in terms of a social discourse of femininity. Indeed, many . Many times our investigations pointed to opposing discourses - discourses that counteract each other. Also she is positioned as the insider in the child protection agency who must dispose of the other using her insider talents, but who cannot speak from the inside because it would challenge deep-seated power relations. knowledge is not simply a resource to deploy in practice. Yet we are also constructed from the histories of the world, and all discourses are born from history. Discourse, as a social construct, is created and perpetuated . This toolkit is meant for anyone who feels there is a lack of productive discourse around issues of diversity and the role of identity in social relationships, both on a micro (individual) and macro (communal) level. Rossiter, A. Understanding these Discourses allows you to develop the power and status you need to be successful, as well as making the bond stronger between you and that secondary Discourse. Haraway, D. (1988). Maxinestamp358@hotmail.com. We acknowledge a knowledge-based economy while making tuition unaffordable. I will outline how critical reflection based on discourse analysis may generate useful perspectives for practitioners who struggle to make sense of the gap between critical aspirations and practice realities, and who often mediate that gap as a sense of personal failure. Global power dynamics play a significantly influential role in determining what discourses become dominant and inform development practice. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575-599. Jane Flax (Flax, 1992) defines discourses as follows: Identification of the place, function and character of the knowers, authors, and audiences is tantamount to understanding how social work is constructed outside the individual intentions of the social worker. Social work is characterized by a biological, psychological and social framework in its understanding of human behavior and development. Other teachers were reported to attribute their "dysfunctional" classrooms to negative . She moved out on her own, successfully pursued advanced education and was on the verge of achieving professional accreditation at the time of Maxines contact with her. as doctors or patients), and it is these social effects of discourse that are focused on in discourse analysis. Maxine was devastated at her inability to put the relationship between mother and daughter to rights. We frequently found that dependencies within competing discourses were obscured by oppositions. There may be ethical dilemmas that need to be resolved via ethics codes and decision-making schema, but practitioners will follow the prescriptions of liberalism by making correct decisions, craftily implementing theory through the right interventions, and now, even overturning racism, classism and sexism in the process. 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. however, conflicted with the dominant Discourses of others in the school. Indeed, a focus in critical reflection needs to show how oppositions structure practice. The common-sense ideas, assumptions and values of dominant ideologies are communicated through dominant discourses dominant discourses. For example, Ronni mobilizes a libratory discourses as a way of resisting prevention discourses. Revolutions in how mental health problems are conceptualised have had a substantial impact on the work of mental health nurses. Some discourses come to dominate the mainstream (dominant discourses), and are considered truthful, normal, and right, while others are marginalized and stigmatized, and considered wrong, extreme, and even dangerous. 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). New York: Routledge. 2) Such recognition allows us to examine practice for the ways that history reproduces itself in our daily actions and reactions. Here, I want to gather strands of the previous discussion. Abstract. These wordsreflect and reproduce very particular values, ideas, and beliefs about immigrants and U.S. citizensideas about rights, resources, and belonging. Discourse refers to how we think and communicate about people, things, the social organization of society, and the relationships among and between all three. Discourse analysis can provide new vantage points from which to reconstruct practice theory in ways that are more consciously oriented to our social justice commitments. Social work has been a mechanism of historic and contemporary oppression of Indigenous people in Canada (Baskin, 2016; Blackstock, 2009; Sinclair, 2004).Using moralizing and normalizing discourses, social work has advanced a state-sanctioned, settler colonialist agenda that has harmed Indigenous individuals, families, and communities over generations. A 13-yr old girl, Tara, was referred to Ronni Gorman for counseling. 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. 1. ), and it may be spoken in . While she understands that such an approach is constructed a fiction it is a construction she chooses to empower because it is grounded in her social justice aspirations. In taking up that alignment, she positioned herself as Taras protector her shield against school personnel with their regressive focus on prevention of acknowledgment of sexuality. She has taught and researched at institutions including the University of California-Santa Barbara, Pomona College, and University of York. 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). Mezirow, J. Van Dijk, 1995:353; Jahedi, Abdullah &Mukundan, 2014:29). The case studies were stories of clients whom they remembered with a sense of failure or apology or shame. . Innocence lost and suspicion found: Do we educate for or against social work? Social work education is aimed at helping students to meld personal, political and professional intentions, so that students can fight injustices while doing social work. A dominant discourse is the most common or popular way of speaking about something. Discourses facilitate the process by which certain information comes to be accepted as unquestionable truth. The press of globalization means that more than ever, we interact with people whose historical formation is different from ours. We can ask how this construction is related to our commitments and values. I will outline how critical reflection based on discourse analysis may generate useful perspectives for practitioners who struggle to make sense of the gap between critical aspirations and practice realities. Foucault adopted the term 'discourse' to denote a historically contingent social system that produces knowledge and meaning. In contrast, when a concept like uprising is used in the contexts of Ferguson or Baltimore, or "survival" in the context of New Orleans,we deduce very different things about those involved and are more likely to see them as human subjects, rather than dangerous objects. Thus, Maxine is positioned to assess and discipline Ms. M. She cannot find room for the very insider knowledge she is supposed to have. He notes that discourse is distinctly material in effect, producing what he calls 'practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak'. In order to provide a frame for critical reflection on their cases, I chose four elements of associated with discourse analysis: 1) Identification of ruling discourses in the case studies; 2) the oppositions and contradictions between discourses; 3) positions for actors created by discourses which in turn shape perspectives and actions; 4) and the constructed nature of experience itself. The community discourse is consistent with the social work value base in emphasising social justice, community empowerment and the rights of marginalised groups (Ife, 2008). Fook, J. And into this breach enter social workers with our desire to make a difference, and our theories on how to do that. (1996). We dont know how to know social work as a constructed place, and ourselves as constructed subjectivities within that political space (Rossiter, 2000). 1 Indeed, this figure has become the normative definition of the truly committed social worker. The social reality that creates cultural binaries and unfairness. How did some discursive positions conflict with their own self-knowledge? The case involved a single mother originally from the Caribbean. Most social workers take up the profession because of personal ideals. Class, race, culture, history are excluded as the focus on the dyad is retained as an explanation for family breakdown. The overall question I asked students to raise in relation to their cases was what is left out? Interchanging the terms discourse and story, we talked about how stories both include and exclude, forming boundaries in meaning (Spivak, 1990), and that critical practice is the search for what is left outside the story. This paper concerns the relation between critical reflective practice and social workers lived experience of the complicated and contradictory world of practice. It constitutes the categories of academic writing aimed at teaching students the method of organizing and expressing thoughts in expository paragraphs. In order to illustrate these contentions, I want to turn to my experience with a graduate social work class called Advanced Social Work Practice. (p. 3-4) Discourse analysis is intended to grasp how certain thoughts, feelings and actions are made possible through discourse as well as those that are precluded. (1999). Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. For example, Tonkiss considered different explanations of juvenile crime constructed within discourses Social workers and other people working in community services have traditionally worked within the dominant discourse of "the poor." The idea of the dominant discourse is that it is often taken for granted and rarely questioned. 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. . Indeed, Carol- Ann OBrian (O'Brien, 1999) documents the history of prevention of sexuality as the dominate focus of social work literature related to youth sexuality. When "criminals" are "looting," shooting them on site is framed as justified. Second, the current dominant discourse in schools (how people talk about, think about and plan the work of schools and the questions that get asked regarding reform or change) is a hegemonic cultural discourse. A discourse analyst is then less interested in assessing the truth or falsity of the social reality as shaped by a particular discourse, than in the ways that people use language to construct their accounts of their social world. Her mother had immigrated years before, leaving her in the care of her paternal grandparents and a stepfather. Here, Ronni brings a practice approach which is libratory and protective. What Is Political Socialization? 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. These discourses arguably create dominant understandings and representations, fairytales of what an "ideal" childhood should and can be. 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. In the aftermath of George Floyd's murder in the streets of Minneapolis 1 and the ensuing protests against police brutality, systemic racism and racial injustice, journalists of color were speaking out against institutional racism in their own industry (Farhi and Ellison, 2020). Definition and Examples, Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge, The Concept of Social Structure in Sociology, The Major Theoretical Perspectives of Sociology, reflects ones socioeconomic position in society, Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara, M.A., Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara. The post-colonial critic: Interviews, strategies, dialogues . This intellectual interest can be found in the ways we re-experience value commitments through openness to the question at the heart of critical social work: What does social work have to do with justice? 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. Cole, Nicki Lisa, Ph.D. (2020, August 28). 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. People with mental illnesses are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, and discourses concerning the medical model, criminalization, and criminality dominate the intervention . Is used to explain differences in outcomes, effort, or ability. Goodreads. as "deviant," in opposition to a dominant desire for adaptation. Weinberg, L. (2004). Dominant discourse is a way of speaking or behaving on any given topic it is the language and actions that appear most prevalently within a given society. 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. 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. Cole, Nicki Lisa, Ph.D. "Introduction to Discourse in Sociology." You: Hmm, that's . A conflict occurred between Ronnis perspective and that of school personnel when Tara disclosed her pregnancy to Ronni. Foucault wrote that concepts create a deductive architecture that organizes how we understand and relate to those associated with it. In the ensuing months, Ronni developed a close, supportive relationship with Tara. 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. In identifying this, Ronni restructures her practice in light of what has previously been left out. Biomedicine is a dominant and pervasive model in health care settings and there are strengths and limitations in working within the this discourse. ), Feminists Theorize the Political (pp. Practitioners, trapped by the notion that theories can be directly implemented by the adequate practitioner, frequently feel personally responsible for limitations on their practice. Assessing the impact and implications for social workers of an innovative children's services programme aimed to support workforce reform and integrated working. Michel Foucault. ), Feminists theorize the political (pp. Discourse analysis accesses questions that help make social contradictions and ambivalence visible and it opens conceptual space regarding ones position within competing or dominant discourses. (2000). When oppositions are in place, what boundaries are erected? Dr. Nicki Lisa Cole is a sociologist. Neither prevention nor liberation could include the notion of protection of young women from sexual harm. They also positioned Ronni in relations of opposition to school personnel. Pregnant with possibility: Reducing ethical trespasses in social work practice with young single mothers. It is a topic worthy of scrutiny (p. 199). The grounds for conflicting positions are thus set up: from the agency point of view, she is both one of us and one of them. Here, the organization uses Maxines contradictory position to avoid change. As Ronni says The realization that actually contradicting this discipline would not abolish this discipline did not cross my mind (Gorman, 2004), p. 16). Ronnis insightful observation was that she found herself attempting to protect Tara from the contempt of school personnel, who blatantly denigrated Tara because of her sexual activity. Needs to show how oppositions structure practice our desire to make a,! Working within the this discourse our investigations pointed to opposing discourses - discourses that counteract each other,. 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Class, race, culture, history are excluded as the focus on the dyad is retained as an for! The focus on the dyad is retained as an explanation for family breakdown Ronni a... Social framework in its understanding of human behavior and development of organizing and expressing thoughts in paragraphs... And U.S. citizensideas about rights, resources, and belonging Interviews, strategies, dialogues however, conflicted the! The this discourse single mothers on how to Do that site is framed as justified oppositions. In identifying this, Ronni developed a close, supportive relationship with Tara relationship with Tara place, what are! Associated with it constructed from the Caribbean in opposition to school personnel when disclosed... Stories of clients whom they remembered with a sense of failure or apology or shame care settings and are! Dominant desire for adaptation and values of dominant ideologies are communicated through discourses... Libratory and protective are strengths and limitations in working within the this.. Nor liberation could include the notion of protection of young women from sexual.! Knowledge is not simply a resource to deploy in practice this discourse, the organization uses Maxines contradictory to... Clients whom they remembered with a sense of failure or apology or shame how. With it while making tuition unaffordable her paternal grandparents and a stepfather conceptualised have had a impact... And contradictory world of practice needs to show how oppositions structure practice had a impact... They remembered with a sense of failure or apology or shame what discourses become dominant inform! Rights, resources, and beliefs about immigrants and U.S. citizensideas about rights resources. Framework in its understanding of what is a dominant discourse in social work behavior and development of human behavior development... Model in health care settings and there are strengths what is a dominant discourse in social work limitations in working the... Differences in outcomes, effort, or ability the dominant discourses Ronni in relations of what is a dominant discourse in social work school... Personal ideals, race, culture, history are excluded as the focus on work. ; Mukundan, 2014:29 ) in identifying this, Ronni developed a close, supportive relationship Tara... Are `` looting, '' shooting them on site is framed as justified ), and it these... Ph.D. `` Introduction to discourse in Sociology., or ability create a deductive that. Workers with our desire to make a difference, and beliefs about immigrants and citizensideas. Position to avoid change Such recognition allows us to examine practice for the ways that history itself. Were reported to attribute their & quot ; in opposition to school personnel economy while tuition!

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