Van Dijk, 1995:353; Jahedi, Abdullah &Mukundan, 2014:29). Discourse typically emerges out of social institutionslike media and politics (among others), and by virtue of giving structure and order to language and thought, it structures and orders our lives, relationships with others, and society. As such, individuals bear the weight of individual responsibility for such histories and contexts, thus obscuring a greater range of accountability. Once discourses were identified, students could discover how those discourses created subject positions for themselves, their clients and others involved in the case. Gorman, R. (2004). 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. 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. Lastly, dominant and nondominant fall under a secondary Discourse. 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. That is to say, most people speak about children as if they're innocent (not evil). 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. Dominant discourses can be found in propaganda, cultural messages, and mass media. Social Work and Social Sciences Review, Vol. 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. 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. One of the advantages of identifying discourses-in-use in practice is that we gain access to how we are positioned within discourses. (1992). This paper explores dominant discourses underpinning the social worker visit to children and families and their impact on their purpose, content and focus. This discourse holds that permanent psychological injury results from interruption of the early attachment relationship between child and caregiver. Discourse Markers 'Discourse markers' is the term linguists give to the little words like 'well', 'oh', 'but', and 'and' that break our speech up into parts and show the relation between parts. Understanding our perspectives as contingent enables us to understand our own complicated construction within a field of multiple stories giving rise to multiple perspectives. (1999). Gadamer, H.-G. (1992). 131-155). Indeed, we speak of getting a history as applicable to selected events in an individual lifespan. It is a topic worthy of scrutiny (p. 199). As Ronni says The realization that actually contradicting this discipline would not abolish this discipline did not cross my mind (Gorman, 2004), p. 16). Weinberg, L. (2004). Another example of a dominant discourse is the discourse around climate change. In J. Butler & J. Scott (Eds. 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. This is because Critical Social Justice separates the world into these two diametrically opposing positions with respect to systemic power, which is its central object of interest. 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. 445-463). These concepts reveal the way that power enables believers to control the data released and discussed, as well as what is acceptable and what is not acceptable within the . In our class, discourse analysis helped illuminate the production of feelings of individual shame and apology as responses to practice. Finally, what does discourse analysis as critical reflection leave us with? 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. We worked to identify oppositions between competing discourses. Such interventions are aimed at delaying sexual activity until appropriate ages and also educating around the risks of sexuality. 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. Michel Foucault. We then asked what was left out when discourses were set in opposition. Is that individual oppressed based on race or part of the dominant group due to her positioning as a Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/discourse-definition-3026070. 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. 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). Yet, as Linda Weinberg (Weinberg, 2004), in her work on the construction of practice judgments, notes that to locate ethics within the actions of individual practitioners, as if they were free to make decisions irrespective of the broader environment in which they work, is to neglect the significant ways that structures shape those constructions and to erect an impossible standard for those embodies practitioners mired in institutional regimes, working with finite resources and conflicting requirements and expectations (Weinberg, 2004, p.204). I am arguing that social work, because of its focus on marginalized people, is a concentrated site of social, political and cultural ambivalence and contradiction. Deconstructing dominant discourse in therapy and counseling . 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. Despite the impacts of contemporary discourses, social work across the . 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. 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. We frequently found that dependencies within competing discourses were obscured by oppositions. As such, discourse is imbued with attitudes and . Ronnis approach had an explicitly political agenda: she opposed prevention discourses as ways of silencing female desire. Scott, J. Social workers are attracted to social work practice because of a desire to make a difference. Discourse may be classified into the following varieties: descriptive, narrative, expository. Class, race, culture, history are excluded as the focus on the dyad is retained as an explanation for family breakdown. Despite Maxines best efforts, this troubled relationship ended in separation when the daughter moved in permanently with a relative. These students either had significant work experience, or experience in a previous practicum to draw from. One of the strengths of working within this model, it allows you to work within . Social workers tend to individualize and internalize the gap between their aspirations and what is possible in practice as their individual failures. One of the strengths of working within this model, it allows you to work within . Maxine Stamp (Stamp, 2004) wrote about a case she encountered when she worked in a child protection agency. Adult Education Quarterly, 48 (3), 185-198. 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. In contrast, the dominant view in social work is that there is an objective reality or truth. It is the place where larger cultural and social conflicts and contradictions regarding independence and dependence, deserving and undeserving, institutional and residual, difference and sameness, individualism and collectivism, authority and freedom meet unresolved but expressed through the contradictions that inhere in practice. Ronnis practice with Tara was situated within her values about the need for libratory discourses of sexuality for girls. Ronnis anti-oppressive analysis focused on the disciplinary intent of social works history of excluding the existence of youth sexuality. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. however, conflicted with the dominant Discourses of others in the school. In identifying this, Ronni restructures her practice in light of what has previously been left out. Conflicts between discursive fields can position practitioners in, for example, good/bad or radical/conservative kinds of splits that freeze subject positions, thus prefiguring relationships. When oppositions are in place, what boundaries are erected? 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. We dont know how to know social work as a constructed place, and ourselves as constructed subjectivities within that political space (Rossiter, 2000). 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. This paper concerns the relation between critical reflective practice and social workers lived experience of the complicated and contradictory world of practice. How did particular discourses position them in relation to their client, to their organization and to their own identities? Discourse is a coherently-arranged, serious and systematic treatment of a topic in spoken or written language. With trepidation, I began the class by asking students to submit a case study from their practice experience that they would like to study collectively using a form of discourse analysis. Lets take a closer look at the relationships between institutions and discourse. (French social theorist Michel Foucaultwrote prolifically about institutions, power, and discourse. 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. knowledge is not simply a resource to deploy in practice. In particular, dominant structures are subject to question because of the ways in which meanings are constructed on oppositional lines (p. 203). It is important to understand how the opposition itself locks out practice opportunities. 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. What is discourse in social work? Thus, Maxine is positioned to assess and discipline Ms. M. She cannot find room for the very insider knowledge she is supposed to have. The common-sense ideas, assumptions and values of dominant ideologies are communicated through dominant discourses dominant discourses. How did some discursive positions conflict with their own self-knowledge? We needed instead, a process of understanding the construction of pain, apology and failure in social work practice - a process that allowed them to be the heroes they were by virtue of their willingness to think, self-reflect, and ultimately, be brave enough to uphold the primacy of question over answer while rejecting paralysis. In this hope for practice as justice, the responsibility of social work is shifted from change at the more discreet levels of individuals, families, groups, communities, to the social determinants that produce private troubles. Critical social work practice may also vary depending on the discourses that are dominant within an institutional contextthe possibilities for and modalities of critical social work practice within a large non-profit agency, for example, will likely look very different than within a small organization that is committed to radical practice . . We struggled to understand how subject positions were created by opposing discourses, and how such oppositions excluded consideration of protection with respect to sexual vulnerability. Maxinestamp358@hotmail.com. The data analysed are social media posts and materials created to challenge and reject GBV and the way it is understood and portrayed in popular, dominant discourse. John J. Rodger: John J. Rodger was a professor of sociology at Paisley College and has his doctorate in sociology from Edinburgh University. The strength of dominant discourses lies in their ability to shut out other options or opinions to the extent that thinking . So we could say that the 'dominant discourse' about children is that they're innocent. 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. In doing so, we increase our choices or at least, our awareness regarding how we participate in the creation of culture. 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. We want to use our work as a contribution, as something of value to the world. Peer specialists with incarceration histories constructed new identities through their training and peer work by valuing experiential knowledge. Ronni discussed it with her supervisor who felt obliged to inform other school personnel, to Ronnis dismay. 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. 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. Her mother had immigrated years before, leaving her in the care of her paternal grandparents and a stepfather. As a profession, we refuse to accept this, as seen in our constant efforts to define ourselves, clarify the meaning of social work, and hang on definitions of work only social workers can do. Our vagueness is decried as a threat to the existence of the profession which we combat with ever-greater aspirations to professionalism. 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. 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. Instead, she was interested in a more libratory approach which facilitated discussion about sexuality, pleasure, feelings and desire. Crucially, it is underpinned by a critical . Identifying this discourse enabled Maxine to begin to assess her position within the discourse: She was positioned as a professional whose responsibility was to act as a critic of the mother/child attachment failure. In this new discourse, Ronni herself shifts from relations of opposition to relations of collaboration in promoting open and respectful discussion of girls sexuality, where girls are best protected by helping them develop language which values and supports their growing experiences of sexuality. Understanding our constructed place in social work depends on identifying how language creates templates of shared understandings. Discourse theorists disagree on which parts of our world are real. 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. This understanding allows us to assess our own construction in power and language. The power of discourse lies in its ability to provide legitimacy for certain kinds of knowledge while undermining others; and, in its ability to create subject positions, and, to turn people into objects that that can be controlled. Thus, Ronni championed Tara while shielding her from the harm of school personnel. Social work practices: Contemporary perspectives on change. For example, Tonkiss considered different explanations of juvenile crime constructed within discourses transformed, its participation in the reproduction of long-term unequal social arrangements must be eliminated. (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. With the increasing prevalence of neo-conservative and managerial discourses, it is argued that a dominant focus on individualism diminishes the understanding of how the social context can impact on people's lives (Houston, 2016) and moves away from collectivist values . Further, they suggest that reflexivity is not simply an augmentation of practice by individual professionals, but a profession-wide responsibility. Foucault adopted the term 'discourse' to denote a historically contingent social system that produces knowledge and meaning. For example, in Canada, the dominant discourse that capitalism capitalism is the best economic system can be found in media . third bridge between discourses, the dominant discourse of economic rationalism and the quieter discourses about upholding rights was described but not named. Critical reflectivity in education and practice. 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. 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. You: Hmm, that's . In this case, the dominant discourse on immigration that comes out of institutions like law enforcement and the legal system is given legitimacy and superiority by their roots in the state. ), Transforming social work practice: Postmodern critical perspectives. . Ms. M had immigrated to Canada when she was an adolescent. These ideas challenge dominant discourses and emphasise a process of active engagement with communities to counter in- . 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.
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