In this sense, sociologists frame discourse as a productive force because it shapes our thoughts, ideas, beliefs, values, identities, interactions with others, and our behavior. It is important to understand how the opposition itself locks out practice opportunities. We decry racism and declare our allegiance to anti-oppressive practice while working in primarily white agencies. 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). 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. In other words, from a poststructural point of view, discourses are the sets of language practices that shape our thoughts, actions and even our identities," as quoted from Karen Healy, 2014, p. 3. 445-463). Ronnis analysis moved beyond opposition through a new discourse of health-oriented openness to girls sexuality in which protection is configured as part of healthy sexuality. 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. 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. Ronni sees such a health-based approach as capable of including protection from disease, harm, or sexual exploitation by its emphasis on openness, dialogue, and choice. 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. 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. Helping people learn what they do: Breaking dependence on experts. Peer specialists with incarceration histories constructed new identities through their training and peer work by valuing experiential knowledge. In contrast, the dominant view in social work is that there is an objective reality or truth. 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. 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. As such, discourse is imbued with attitudes and . Rossiter, A. We draw on theories within social gerontology whilst also . 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. ), Working with Experience. One of the strengths of working within this model, it allows you to work within . Flax, J. Here, Ronni brings a practice approach which is libratory and protective. Ronni discussed it with her supervisor who felt obliged to inform other school personnel, to Ronnis dismay. For example: A dominant discourse of gender often positions women as gentle and men as active heroes. 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. I was also worried that students coming to class hoping to refine their grasp of narrative therapy, brief therapy, solution-focused therapy or cognitive behavioural therapy, all within the context of an anti-oppressive stance, would be very disappointed by the substitution of esoteric critical ethics for advanced practice. In J. Butler & J. Scott (Eds. 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. Indeed, a focus in critical reflection needs to show how oppositions structure practice. It has proved difficult to reconcile conventional theories of practice with a vision of social work as social justice work. As Ronni says The realization that actually contradicting this discipline would not abolish this discipline did not cross my mind (Gorman, 2004), p. 16). In particular she called for educators to consider alliance with youth based on respect for youths own construction of their realities. This desire is subjected to the strange twists and turns of which take place inside the institutions of practice. 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. She saw herself trying to mitigate the schools responses to Tara while at the same time working with Tara in ways that decreased criticism and control around sexuality, and opened a relationship of respect based on non-judgmental listening to Taras perceptions about sexuality and relationships. Contested territory: Sexualities and social work. Further, they suggest that reflexivity is not simply an augmentation of practice by individual professionals, but a profession-wide responsibility. 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. They can be found in many forms of media and communication. 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. 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. In J. Butler & J. Scott (Eds. When we fail, we describe the result as burnout. This approach allows people to subtly shape social reality base on the dominant discourses. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. 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. 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. as "deviant," in opposition to a dominant desire for adaptation. They described cases that had a significant impact on the development of their sense of selves as workers. 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. Understanding our perspectives as contingent enables us to understand our own complicated construction within a field of multiple stories giving rise to multiple perspectives. Ronnis practice with Tara was situated within her values about the need for libratory discourses of sexuality for girls. Gadamer, H.-G. (1992). Critical case study: My experience with Tara .Unpublished manuscript, Toronto. 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. (French social theorist Michel Foucaultwrote prolifically about institutions, power, and discourse. We dont know how to know social work as a constructed place, and ourselves as constructed subjectivities within that political space (Rossiter, 2000). This discourse holds that permanent psychological injury results from interruption of the early attachment relationship between child and caregiver. In J. Fook (Ed. 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 live with the complexity of their ambivalently constructed place. Weinberg, L. (2004). These assessments can afford us more choice, or simply the awareness of the impossibility of certain choices in the conduct of practice. 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 purpose was to analyze how such discourses produced their conceptions of the cases and how they confined their thinking about the case. Once these dependencies were uncovered, alternatives to opposition emerged. 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. The failures of this fantasy cause us to suffer, to apologize, to despair. In considering this approach to the course, I had begun to feel like Alice in Wonderland, believing as I did, that such conventions produce ever greater disjunctions between practitioners experiences and orthodox social work education. In turn, such assessments act against the internalization of the contradictions played out in social work practice. Attachment theories are common explanations of the parent/child conflict in some immigrant families experiences of separation and reunification during patterns of immigration. It is a topic worthy of scrutiny (p. 199). 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. ), and it may be spoken in . These behaviors and patterns of speech and writing reflect the ideologies of those who have the most power in the society. 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. In other words, such a trajectory works to normalize a sequence of sexuality which ranges from the right time to the end-stage of heterosexual marriage. The post-colonial critic: Interviews, strategies, dialogues . This is because that insider knowledge is knowledge of historical trauma, injustice, racism and white privilege, and it is certainly outside the boundaries of attachment discourses. The professional is political: An interpretation of the problem of the past in solution-focused therapy. Thus, Maxine as a professional is treated with disdainful suspicion by Ms. M. Maxine herself feels to blame for failure to make a difference with the case. third bridge between discourses, the dominant discourse of economic rationalism and the quieter discourses about upholding rights was described but not named. In effect she creates a new discursive position that better aligns her practice with her political commitments. Biomedicine is a dominant and pervasive model in health care settings and there are strengths and limitations in working within the this discourse. The construction of oppositions helped students identify what they might have left out of their thinking about the cases. 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. In social work research, this ap- The hold of possessive individualism in the helping professions means that the target of practice is the individual, community, or family in the present . Conclusion. The biomedical discourse is one of the most influential discourses in the health care profession today (Healy, p. 20). It is a story that cannot be told within the reigning discourse of attachment. Geography. While reflective practice held promise for liberating professions from misconceptions about the interrelationship between theory and practice, following Schons (1987) introduction of reflective practice, theorists began to identify the problem of incorporating critical analysis into reflective practice ((Brookfield, 1996; Fook, 1999; Mezirow, 1998). A Perspective on Critical Social Work. (1999). 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. One of the advantages of identifying discourses-in-use in practice is that we gain access to how we are positioned within discourses. Social workers are the bodies in the middle of this site and must act within the force field of contradictions. Cole, Nicki Lisa, Ph.D. "Introduction to Discourse in Sociology." This paper concerns the relation between critical reflective practice and social workers lived experience of the complicated and contradictory world of practice. What Is Political Socialization? second revised edition ed.). Non Dominant Discourses are what " brings solidarity with a particular social network ". Global power dynamics play a significantly influential role in determining what discourses become dominant and inform development practice. While not eschewing the need to take positions in other words, without advocating relativism students could look at ways of thinking, at alternative perspectives that were outside the terms of the oppositions. 3, p. With the achievement of this necessary distance Ronni was able to formulate new possibilities for practice. In our class, discourse analysis helped illuminate the production of feelings of individual shame and apology as responses to practice. 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 sections below describe the dominant discourses identified in our sample by discussing the underlying categories that integrate them and illustrating each discourse with examples of coded tweets from different keywords (for a complete list of discourse categories, see Table 5). ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/discourse-definition-3026070. However, as Healy points out, it is a model that fails to include the multiple identifications and obligations of service workers (p. 136). 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. Michel Foucault. New York: Columbia University Press. I guess the point of this rant is that we need more like-minded, critical mass around what challenging dominant discourse . Ronni came to see that this discursive position cancelled out the possibility of calling on school personnel as resources for Tara - resources that had the potential to protect her as a young girl with particular vulnerabilities. Again, feeling subsumed by the dominant discourse. 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. Take, for example, the relationship between mainstream media (an institution) and the anti-immigrant discourse that pervades U.S. society. Crucially, it is underpinned by a critical . Underpinned by theories of social work . Foucault adopted the term 'discourse' to denote a historically contingent social system that produces knowledge and meaning. Fook, J. Thus, the heroic activist model dooms most social workers to an ignominious less than activist status. . Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. (2000). Discourse, as a social construct, is created and perpetuated . Ronni aligned herself politically with resistance to heterosexism and patriarchy. Ronni believed that such discourses silenced and disciplined not only young women such as Tara, but all young womens diverse and fluid experiences of sexuality. Rossiter, A. Critical Social Work, 2(1). asserts that discourses, in Fou- cault's work, are ways of constituting knowledge, together with the social practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575-599. When we look outside the boundaries of discourses, we may discover practice questions which help us reflect on power and possibility. . ), Transforming social work practice: Postmodern critical perspectives. Cole, Nicki Lisa, Ph.D. (2020, August 28). 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. Introduction to Discourse in Sociology. Many now use them as a frame of analysis for their research. By providing social workers with a greater understanding of the history, epistemology, and key assumptions, this article aims to promote critical awareness and critical reflection on how the biomedical paradigm may be influencing health care environments. These elements helped students writing cases from memories saturated with unease about their own performance to shift from what I did to how the case was constructed, and how their feelings arose from the complicated constructions of their practice within particular locations and time. Thus, Maxine is positioned to assess and discipline Ms. M. She cannot find room for the very insider knowledge she is supposed to have. Further to this a task centred approach will be explained and how it could be used when approaching this case study. 2) Such recognition allows us to examine practice for the ways that history reproduces itself in our daily actions and reactions. First, we could see how the diagnosis of attachment failure, born as it was in a history of forced separation, continues to reproduce forced separation of Black families in different guises. 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. Individual shame and apology as responses to practice illuminate the production of feelings of individual shame and as. People learn what they might have left out of their realities approach allows people to subtly social., Ronni brings a practice approach which is libratory and protective whilst also structure practice to consider alliance with based... Of analysis for their research once these dependencies were uncovered, alternatives opposition! Can afford us more choice, or simply the awareness of the impossibility of certain in. 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