Social work has never been an easy task. Fraught with uncertainty, social workers are charged with making sense of the present and predicting the futures of people, places and events that represent perpetual possibility. As aspects of perception come into view, their appearance is shaped by structures and status states of individual and collective creation that afford security, yet limit and restrict. This conceptual paper explores the act of 'knowing', considering it to be an active process, shaped by emotion and bound by contingent and expectant contexts that limit the possibilities of the future, through the collective selfimposition of ideas of knowing and of how the world works. It is suggested that emancipation from limited understandings and subjugated positions lies in an acceptance of that which cannot be known, together with an enhanced connection with who we are, enabled and supported by social work's core values. The paper's intent is to stimulate debate of an alternate future that enables and emboldens us to reach beyond organisational and selfimposed limitations that serve to reproduce disadvantage and social injustice. In doing so, it takes a reflective, psycho-social approach that offers a space for critical and transformative thought -the starting point for transformative, value-based, practice.
It is widely acknowledged that emotion is a potent force in social work practice and practice education which can have a significant impact on both practice and practitioner experience.So too, is the recognition that social work students may face higher levels of stress than their qualified colleagues -social work itself, one of the professions where workers often experience higher levels of emotional demand than do other occupational groups. In terms of professional training courses for students entering the 'helping professions', there is a visible theme of heightened student pressure that relates, in some way, to the practicum aspect of their qualifying course. Relatedly, there is a clear consensus that the quality of the student-Practice Educator relationship is a key determinant of student learning and student experience. This article presents the findings of a small-scale qualitative research study, investigating how conversations about emotion are enabled within supervision, from a sample of final year qualifying students (n=4) and Practice Educators (n=5). It intends to make a contribution to the literature concerned with the development of good practice in this area, with a particular focus on the facilitative approaches of Practice Educators and the preparation of students for professional practice.
Abstract:As an interpersonal profession, operating within and between a myriad of nebulous psychosocial worlds, a significant proportion of social work's currency resides in emotion, providing impetus for action or omission. This paper asserts that due diligence must be exercised towards emotion within social work training and practice, giving consideration to the journey towards qualification, fraught as it can be; emphasising the need to bring emotion out of the shadows and into the light. This is not simply a 'how did that make you feel?' task, rather one of acknowledgement and acceptance, which lends itself to an exploration of the layered interface where emotion comes into being, prodded and poked, twisted and contorted, by the powerful forces of politics, sensationalism and reductionism, which seek to orchestrate simplicity and control.
This article focuses on the injustices experienced by already marginalised groups when they are excluded from participation in society, specifically within the realms of knowledge production and transfer. In this sense they are wronged as 'knowers' and experience epistemic injustice, either as a consequence of perceived credibility deficits or due to a lack of understanding of their situation. As a result, their marginalisation and exclusion grows.This article argues that a values orientation of acceptance, awareness and virtue, combined with an analytical framework provided by critical realism, can better equip social work practitioners and policy makers in identifying and understanding sites of epistemic injustice.
Revisiting research from an autoethnographic perspective can yield insights into researcher subjectivity, as attempts are made to consider one's subject position and situate the whole self within the research. In this article, the researcher revisits a piece of previous research, embarking on a reflective journey which documents the learning from what became a reflexive process, informed and framed by psychosocial thinking. In exploring the subject of vulnerability, the researcher is led to interpretations of their own biography. This initially leads to an unsettled self, before culminating in a greater sense of self-awareness. In exploring a site of reflective resistance linked to the author's sexuality, the article considers issues of identity and power, attendant to the effects of social discourse in terms of hegemonic masculinity.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.