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. When people wish to make social change, how we talk about people and their place in society cannot be left out of the process. (French social theorist Michel Foucaultwrote prolifically about institutions, power, and discourse. These contradictions are at work inside our subjectivity every day it is not an exaggeration to say that our practice is at the mercy of contradictory forces. When we reflect on what is left out of the discursive construction of our practice, we are stepping back from our immersion in such discourses as reality in order to examine whether our practice is being shaped in ways that contradict or constrain our commitments to social justice. She had two teen-aged daughters who had been left in the country of origin as very young children while Ms. M established herself in Canada. The second case study (Gorman, 2004) takes place during a practicum in a school setting. As such, discourse, power, and knowledge are intimately connected, and work together to create hierarchies. 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. 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. Attachment theories are common explanations of the parent/child conflict in some immigrant families experiences of separation and reunification during patterns of immigration. How did some discursive positions conflict with their own self-knowledge? St. Leonards NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Discourses which augment the power of elites are called dominant or official discourses by poststructuralists. I suggest that this question is a practical practice question which recognizes that our cherished fantasy that practice emanates from theory is rather grandiose in the face of the complex social and historical constructions that produce the moment of practice. Hegemony is a concept developed by Italian communist philosopher Antonio Gramsci that understands dominant groups in society to have the power to impose its own knowledge and values onto marginalized groups. Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and historian interested in the construction of knowledge and power through discourse. but by the demands of the dominant group within the . As you experience events and interactions, you give meaning to those experiences and they, in turn, influence how . The sense of the multiple stories at play helped relocate the notion of experience as brute reality carrying authority by virtue of being real to a notion of experience as constructed, contingent, and always interpreted. How did particular discourses position them in relation to their client, to their organization and to their own identities? Ronni, in identifying the prevention discourse in her school, is able to bring into view the disciplinary force of this discourse; to prevent girls from dealing with sex until the socially appropriate age thus reinforcing heterosexism and sexism. 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. Introduction. Our constructed location is often a painful one. In our case, the class project was to scrutinize the knowledge claims embedded in cases and to understand the implication of such claims for their affective relationship to practice as well as on the experience of their clients. 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. In discussions of immigration reform, the most frequently spoken word was illegal, followed by immigrants, country, border, illegals, and citizens.. ), Transforming social work practice: Postmodern critical perspectives. This contradiction is internalized by Maxine in the form of her belief that she has failed Ms. M and that her monumental efforts did not make a difference in this case. Thus, ideologies have both a theoretical . The . Ms. M had immigrated to Canada when she was an adolescent. 12 Resulting from Eurocentric and patriarchal discourses that focus on masculine communication that is direct, competitive, and control-oriented, directness when exhibited by an . 16, Issue. (1996). Such interventions are aimed at delaying sexual activity until appropriate ages and also educating around the risks of sexuality. Gorman, R. (2004). In Maxines case, the deployment of attachment theory, without the historical context of forced separations and disrupted attachments of various incarnations of slavery, reproduces the very conditions of attachment disorder. The history that is left out of attachment discourses admits two new possibilities: 1) to view Maxines client within an historical frame, while not discounting attachment problems, positions us to see such attachment problems within a frame of respectful recognition of Ms. M. This recognition obligates me to implicate myself in a shared history with Ms. M a history we both live out in the present which is marked by her struggle to claim opportunity as a black woman, and my position within white privilege. I argue that understanding this process of production is a way of doing ethics which reduces, or at least acknowledges the unintended, often subliminal consequences of practice that flow from social ambivalence which constructs social workers and service recipients in the conduct of practice. These discourses are effects of power, usually when an opposing discourse is mobilized to resist another. Innocence lost and suspicion found: Do we educate for or against social work? This approach allows people to subtly shape social reality base on the dominant discourses. I understand these vantage points in the case studies I will describe as: 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 set of questions which expose the gap between the construction of practice possibilities and social justice values, thus allowing for a new understanding of the limitations, constraints and possibilities within the context of the practice problem. Such questioning opens up as social workers attempt to account for their own social construction within the cultural construct of social work. Discourse analysis can enrich progressive social work practices by demonstrating how the language practices through which organizations, theorists, practitioners and service users express their understanding of social work also shape the kinds of practices that occur (Healy, 2000). ThoughtCo. As one of us, she is expected to deploy white, Western knowledge with her Caribbean clients - clients she is given because of her special knowledge. In other words, she embodies the contradiction between professional expectations to deploy Eurocentric knowledge while also being positioned to deliver service to those who are an exception to that knowledge. It focuses specifically on participant . Critical discourse analysis (or discourse analysis) is a research method for studying written or spoken language in relation to its social context. . Finally the strengths perspective will be . An ideology is defined as a system of beliefs and values that not only seek to describe the world but also to transform it. We worked to identify oppositions between competing discourses. In social work, critical practice is crucial because social work is a nexus where social contradictions are manifest. In such a way, Ronni undoes the opposition between risk and liberation, and also revises her relationship to school personnel from that of shielding youth like Tara from harm, to calling on them to reconstruct the discourses through which girls sexuality is understood, and viewing them as potential resources in protecting Tara. 14) through which certain social phenomena, such as 'need', 'knowledge' and 'intervention', are constructed. Discourses delineate what can be said within a given set of ideas so that critical practice is exercised when we try to look at what is excluded by a particular discourse in order to alternative viewpoints. Contested territory: Sexualities and social work. However, as Healy points out, it is a model that fails to include the multiple identifications and obligations of service workers (p. 136). Carolyn Taylor and Susan White make a distinction between reflection and reflexivity where the latter adds a critical dimension by calling taken-for-granted assumptions into questions (Taylor & White, 2000). Further, they suggest that reflexivity is not simply an augmentation of practice by individual professionals, but a profession-wide responsibility. New York: Routledge. Discourse, as a social construct, is created and perpetuated . In A. Chambon & A. Irving & L. Epstein (Eds. Although ageism is prevalent in many forms, one significant manifestation is in and through common discourse. 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. Work in social psychology has shown that the stereotype of blacks as violent and criminal is alive and well in American society (Eberhardt, Goff, Purdie, & 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. Rossiter, A. Abstract. 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. 22-40). She engaged in low level self-mutilation and in sexual activity. Understanding our perspectives as contingent enables us to understand our own complicated construction within a field of multiple stories giving rise to multiple perspectives. The failures of this fantasy cause us to suffer, to apologize, to despair. Critical reflectivity in education and practice. 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. Discourse is not a neutral entity, but is the social construction of ideas based on culture, values and beliefs which are entrenched in practices such as ordinary narratives. A Sociological Definition. The end of innocence. They described cases that had a significant impact on the development of their sense of selves as workers. This discursive position effectively disallowed a subject position of another sort: solidarity with her client. 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