This article presents the findings of a qualitative study of the effects of an innovative arts project on incarcerated female juvenile offenders. In this project, a professional artist engages and guides the detainees in the creation of individual and collaborative artistic works. The works of art are produced for museum display to enhance the development of the young women's self-identity and to draw public attention to the incarceration of young women in the juvenile justice system. The findings of this study are corroborated and supported by relational-cultural and self-efficacy theoretical perspectives.
Social work educators who identify as feminists often find themselves feeling isolated in the academy and longing for connection. Connection is emphasized in Relational Cultural Theory (RCT), a theory of human development that emphasizes the perspective that individuals grow in relationship with one another. The authors apply RCT to membership on the Council on the Role and Status of Women in Social Work Education (Women’s Council), within the Council on Social Work Education. This perspective has explanatory value and can be used to help plan for and facilitate beneficial mentoring experiences. Implications for research and for use in other contexts are considered.
Interviews with 21 women in a rural Colorado county yielded personal descriptions of isolation and the feelings and strategies that exist in response to isolating events and circumstances. Isolation emerged as three distinct categories of relational disconnection: from specific individuals; from nonspecific others, such as groups or the larger community; or as a combination of both. Factors affecting relational disconnection were choice, control, and duration. Women who had the support of significant others and those who connected with themselves through self-talk or the achievement of goals were often able to move beyond the isolating situation and successfully reconnect.Social workers and other human services professionals who attempt to address the specific needs of rural women can expect to encounter a scarcity of literature in this area. In lamenting the near absence of investigations into the experiences of rural women, Cheitman (1981) stated: &dquo;The worst kind of oppression and inequality occurs to groups that are, in effect, 'invisible.' If no one has identified rural women as an oppressed class and is asking questions about them, whence will come the solutions to problems?&dquo; (p. 19). In addition to the lack of focus upon rural women, rurality is often stereotyped negatively and labeled as isolating (Cheitman, 1981). As students and a faculty member in a graduate social work program with a rural community
This qualitative study documents the contributions of 21 Hispanic women who were identified as being active in the community. Through the use of the grounded theory approach to data collection and analysis, being active in the community emerged as a dynamic system of making a difference, defined as promoting changes to improve circumstances for people; creating, providing, and maintaining tangible human services; developing and sustaining individual and collective approaches to assuming responsibility for the well-being of self and community; promoting ethnic appreciation within one's own culture and among other cultures; and continuing change efforts. The integrative theme in this article concurs with primary components of self-in-relation theory. Because the research was exploratory, the findings point to a broad range of topics for further study related to social work education, knowledge, ethics, and practice.
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