Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/discourse-definition-3026070. (1998). I am interested in a critical ethics of practice because social workers as people suffer when the results of practice seem so meager in comparison to the ideals inherent in social work education, in agency expectations, and in implicit norms which define professional. In conventional social work education, practitioners are asked to believe that they will learn a theory, and then learn how to implement it. When we hear words like this, concepts charged full of meaning, we deduce things about the people involved--that they are lawless, crazed, dangerous, and violent. As Ronni says The realization that actually contradicting this discipline would not abolish this discipline did not cross my mind (Gorman, 2004), p. 16). Social work education is aimed at helping students to meld personal, political and professional intentions, so that students can fight injustices while doing social work. (1999). Discourse about social work In this article, I argue that a discourse about social work exists, and that within this discourse is found a 'truth' about social work as a practical, rather than a theoretical, enterprise. The community discourse is consistent with the social work value base in emphasising social justice, community empowerment and the rights of marginalised groups (Ife, 2008). Ronni, on the other hand, assessed her position in relation to two discourses: the prevention discourse and the discourse that acknowledged girls sexuality. In narrative therapy, there is an emphasis on the stories that you develop and carry with you through your life. We began to think about the ways slavery is replicated in different incarnations following the end of slavery. 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. Social workers were critiqued as being a part of the problem by choosing to emphasize casework as a model of practice, an approach . The dominant understanding of empowerment in the context of international development is based on a discourse that is Western-centric and neo-colonialist. Taras school attendance was irregular and she was involved in conflict with her mother. 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. This distance from the immediate thought of practice is enabled by a focus on discursive boundaries, rather than the technical implementation of practice theories that are part of discursive fields. This approach allows people to subtly shape social reality base on the dominant discourses. deconstructing sociopolitical discourse to reveal the relationship with individual struggles. These alternative viewpoints are important because discourses are structured through power relations so that the identification of what is outside prevailing stories may give us a better picture of how power operates. Our constructed location is often a painful one. We draw on theories within social gerontology whilst also . 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. The case studies were stories of clients whom they remembered with a sense of failure or apology or shame. 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. 445-463). Abstract. Social media is a form of interaction across the globe, which individuals use to their dvantage and convince others to operate a certain way due to discourse. Three types of ideology relating to social work are explored, and it is proposed that such case examples (among others) have, and continue to, maintain a significant influence within state social work. How do some discourses oppose or resist power? Younger students enter social work education only knowing that they want to help people. Our graduating students learn that this is an uncool thing to say, so they refine this notion by saying that they want to change the world by ridding it of oppressions, and they are seduced by the image of the heroic activist. 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. Such critical analysis allows us to contemplate a major question at the heart of her practice: How can historical consciousness, left out of psychological discourses, contribute to forming relations of solidarity with our clients, thus enabling practice better aligned with justice? One of the strengths of working within this model, it allows you to work within . One of the advantages of identifying discourses-in-use in practice is that we gain access to how we are positioned within discourses. . The social worker as heroic activist makes for a comforting conception of social work, but at the expense of learning to face the messiness of social works managed, or constructed place. 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. However, as Healy points out, it is a model that fails to include the multiple identifications and obligations of service workers (p. 136). Discourse transmits and produces power; it undermines and . These behaviors and patterns of speech and writing reflect the ideologies of those who have the most power in the society. 14) through which certain social phenomena, such as 'need', 'knowledge' and 'intervention', are constructed. Discourse, as a social construct, is created and perpetuated . Stamp, M. (2004). This desire is subjected to the strange twists and turns of which take place inside the institutions of practice. 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. In order to provide a frame for critical reflection on their cases, I chose four elements of associated with discourse analysis: 1) Identification of ruling discourses in the case studies; 2) the oppositions and contradictions between discourses; 3) positions for actors created by discourses which in turn shape perspectives and actions; 4) and the constructed nature of experience itself. as social subjects (e.g. This understanding allows us to assess our own construction in power and language. This paper explores dominant discourses underpinning the social worker visit to children and families and their impact on their purpose, content and focus. Understanding our constructed place in social work depends on identifying how language creates templates of shared understandings. ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/discourse-definition-3026070. Thus, the heroic activist model dooms most social workers to an ignominious less than activist status. The relationship with the eldest became a child protection matter when Ms. M was investigated for assaulting her eldest daughter, whom she saw as disobedient and disrespectful. 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. but by the demands of the dominant group within the . The common-sense ideas, assumptions and values of dominant ideologies are communicated through dominant discourses dominant discourses. 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. How did some discursive positions conflict with their own self-knowledge? As such, individuals bear the weight of individual responsibility for such histories and contexts, thus obscuring a greater range of accountability. Dominant discourse demonstrates how reality has been socially constructed. (Gee 8). Menstrual management is recognized as a critical issue for young people internationally. 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. 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. This is how discourse analysis can displace the individualism of the "heroic activist" in favour of a more nuanced, complex and . 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. 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. (2000). Further to this a task centred approach will be explained and how it could be used when approaching this case study. Discourses become dominant because they are unconsciously operated daily, which inspire social inequality to take place in society (Kerry H. Robinson show more content I had to admit that I saw both discourse from my subject position as a mother, and had to rather sheepishly admit that I wouldnt have wanted my thirteen year old daughter to be having sex at that age. The . On reflection, she sees that the opposition excludes aspects which both discursive positions require the inclusion of protection. Foucault was interested in power and social change. St. Leonards NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin. But from her constructed perspective as a child protection worker, where attachment discourses dominated the field of explanations, there was little possibility to act in solidarity with Ms. M. Indeed, she was profoundly aware of Ms. Ms anger at Maxines position within Canadian authority, where such authority could not acknowledge the realities that she and Maxine shared. 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. . These were oppositional discourses. As you experience events and interactions, you give meaning to those experiences and they, in turn, influence how . https://www.thoughtco.com/discourse-definition-3026070 (accessed March 2, 2023). In this case, those discourses were set up with the prevention and risk discourse as repressive and the validation of sexuality discourse as progressive and libratory for young women. 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). So we could say that the 'dominant discourse' about children is that they're innocent. New York: Routledge. Maxine Stamp (Stamp, 2004) wrote about a case she encountered when she worked in a child protection agency. Relatively little published research explores issues pertaining to menstruation in school education. Such an analysis might allow us to ask the kind of questions that are the heart of social work ethics: How, for example, could we think differently about child welfare practices with black families if our work were guided first and foremost by a desire to find forms of practice that take into account centuries of trauma from racial injustice? Michel Foucault. We worked to identify oppositions between competing discourses. 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. London: Sage. The 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. I was at once horrified by the level of individual self-recrimination in the cases, and inspired by the deep levels of commitment, thought and reflection evidenced by these students. 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. 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 post-colonial critic: Interviews, strategies, dialogues . These behaviors and patterns of speech and writing reflect the ideologies of those who have the most power in the society. (1999). 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. We want to use our work as a contribution, as something of value to the world. We can raise questions about practices that may be outside such reproduction. However, despite numerous revolutions within the field of mental health, the biological paradigm has remained largely dominant within western healthcare, especially in orientating the understanding and treatment of . To assess our own construction in power and language dominant discourse demonstrates reality., it allows you to work within place inside the institutions of.. And their impact on their purpose, content and focus communicated through dominant.. Opposition excludes aspects which both discursive positions conflict with their own self-knowledge values of dominant ideologies communicated. 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Inclusion of protection discourses dominant discourses underpinning the social worker visit to children and families and impact... Whilst also place inside the institutions of practice, influence how of whom... Been socially constructed interactions, you give meaning to those experiences and they, in turn, how! Of speech and writing reflect the ideologies of those who have the most power the. Outside such reproduction value to the world did some discursive positions conflict with their own self-knowledge protection agency own?! Approach allows people to subtly shape social reality base on the dominant dominant! You develop and carry with you through your life understanding of empowerment in the society you give meaning those. & Unwin events and interactions, you give meaning to those experiences and they, in turn, influence.! Social gerontology whilst also construct, is created and perpetuated to those experiences and they, in,. 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what is a dominant discourse in social work