what is a dominant discourse in social work

Truth and method (J. W. a. D. G. Marshall, Trans. Gramsci developed the concept in an attempt to answer the question of why people would vote against their . 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. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 70(2), 150-161. 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. In our class, discourse analysis helped illuminate the production of feelings of individual shame and apology as responses to practice. A Sociological Definition. Social Identities A social identity is both internally constructed and externally applied, occurring simultaneously. Indeed, more how tos could only add to their apology stance. Following her immigration, she lived only for a short time with her mother, from whom she had been separated for most of her childhood. Openness to questions about the constitution of practice iscritical practice. 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. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Corporation. Discourse may be classified into the following varieties: descriptive, narrative, expository. 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. How did some discursive positions conflict with their own self-knowledge? By the medical intervention, Agnes transformed into a woman physically within a social discourse and Agnes needed to manage to transform into a woman physiologically in terms of a social discourse of femininity. In the book of abstracts, our abstract was 115 of 119. These discourses arguably create dominant understandings and representations, fairytales of what an "ideal" childhood should and can be. Such interventions are aimed at delaying sexual activity until appropriate ages and also educating around the risks of sexuality. Its evident that discourse is the compilation of particular ideologies and beliefs concerning a certain bracket in the society. 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. 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, power, and knowledge are intimately connected, and work together to create hierarchies. The knowledge she is expected to deploy is based on attachment theory the personality damage that results from interrupted early attachment. O'Brien, C.-A. The case involved a single mother originally from the Caribbean. . 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). Work in social psychology has shown that the stereotype of blacks as violent and criminal is alive and well in American society (Eberhardt, Goff, Purdie, & In A. Chambon & A. Irving & L. Epstein (Eds. No wonder we cling to the fantasy of the smooth trajectory of practice. (1992). 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. Contested territory: Sexualities and social work. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/discourse-definition-3026070. It was clear to me that the emotions described in these cases could only be exacerbated by introducing newer and improved practice theories, as if the proper application of such theories could have achieved different outcomes, thus alleviating individual failure. Institutions organize knowledge-producing communities and shape the production of discourse and knowledge, all of which is framed and prodded along by ideology. This discourse holds that permanent psychological injury results from interruption of the early attachment relationship between child and caregiver. Some discourses come to dominate the mainstream (dominant discourses), and are considered truthful, normal, and right, while others are marginalized and stigmatized, and considered wrong, extreme, and even dangerous. Mezirow, J. 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. Students were asked to identify the discourses that informed their case studies. Flax, J. When people wish to make social change, how we talk about people and their place in society cannot be left out of the process. How did particular discourses position them in relation to their client, to their organization and to their own identities? 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. 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. We acknowledge a knowledge-based economy while making tuition unaffordable. The hold of possessive individualism in the helping professions means that the target of practice is the individual, community, or family in the present . Neither prevention nor liberation could include the notion of protection of young women from sexual harm. We separate those who deserve help from those who dont while believing in fair redistribution of resources. Stamp, M. (2004). This intellectual interest can be found in the ways we re-experience value commitments through openness to the question at the heart of critical social work: What does social work have to do with justice? Narrative therapy is a style of therapy that helps people becomeand embrace beingan expert in their own lives. An ideology is defined as a system of beliefs and values that not only seek to describe the world but also to transform it. For example, Tonkiss considered different explanations of juvenile crime constructed within discourses Discourses facilitate the process by which certain information comes to be accepted as unquestionable truth. As Ronni says The realization that actually contradicting this discipline would not abolish this discipline did not cross my mind (Gorman, 2004), p. 16). The With the achievement of this necessary distance Ronni was able to formulate new possibilities for practice. Gee's definition of Discourse is a theory that explains how language works in society. She has taught and researched at institutions including the University of California-Santa Barbara, Pomona College, and University of York. In the ensuing months, Ronni developed a close, supportive relationship with Tara. Discourses which augment the power of elites are called dominant or official discourses by poststructuralists. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities are central to social work. 16, Issue. The summer of 2020 was a season of racial reckoning for journalism in the United States. ThoughtCo. In J. Butler & J. Scott (Eds. One of the strengths of working within this model, it allows you to work within . Marston, G. (2004), Social Policy and Discourse Analysis: Policy Change in Public Housing, Aldershot: Ashgate. . Ronni discussed it with her supervisor who felt obliged to inform other school personnel, to Ronnis dismay. 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 . These theories contain values that are supposed to dovetail with practice. The words that dominated a 2011 Republican presidential debate hosted by Fox News. Social workers were critiqued as being a part of the problem by choosing to emphasize casework as a model of practice, an approach . Geography. When we look outside the boundaries of discourses, we may discover practice questions which help us reflect on power and possibility. Critical case study: My experience with Tara .Unpublished manuscript, Toronto. Cole, Nicki Lisa, Ph.D. "Introduction to Discourse in Sociology." Discourse theorists disagree on which parts of our world are real. 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. Critical discourse analysis (or discourse analysis) is a research method for studying written or spoken language in relation to its social context. As one of us, she is expected to deploy white, Western knowledge with her Caribbean clients - clients she is given because of her special knowledge. In other words, she embodies the contradiction between professional expectations to deploy Eurocentric knowledge while also being positioned to deliver service to those who are an exception to that knowledge. Despite Maxines best efforts, this troubled relationship ended in separation when the daughter moved in permanently with a relative. Thus, the heroic activist model dooms most social workers to an ignominious less than activist status. Yet hegemonic discourses are never all-dominant but rather remain partial and open to challenge in the face of oppositional discourses (Williams 1 977: 113; Bonilla-Silva 201 3:9). On Critical Reflection. A conflict occurred between Ronnis perspective and that of school personnel when Tara disclosed her pregnancy to Ronni. 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). Take, for example, the relationship between mainstream media (an institution) and the anti-immigrant discourse that pervades U.S. society. We can raise questions about practices that may be outside such reproduction. In particular she called for educators to consider alliance with youth based on respect for youths own construction of their realities. The . Another example of a dominant discourse is the discourse around climate change. But how do we scrutinize knowledge claims? Innocence lost and suspicion found: Do we educate for or against social work? If ideology is a worldview, discourse is how we organize and express that worldview in thought and language. . It is important to understand how the opposition itself locks out practice opportunities. We administer welfare policies that cement poverty. The discourse, which spoke to girls sexuality, was born as political resistance to the heterosexist and patriarchal norms of the prevention efforts. This paper explores dominant discourses underpinning the social worker visit to children and families and their impact on their purpose, content and focus. Case study: Lady Caribbean. ), Feminists theorize the political (pp. This understanding allows us to assess our own construction in power and language. He wrote and lectured on the interactions between discourse analysis and social relationships in social work. We dont know how to know social work as a constructed place, and ourselves as constructed subjectivities within that political space (Rossiter, 2000). It thus shapes what we are able to think and know any point in time. One of the strengths of working within this model, it allows you to work within . Discourse is not a neutral entity, but is the social construction of ideas based on culture, values and beliefs which are entrenched in practices such as ordinary narratives. 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. Joan Scott (Scott, 1992), in her effort to call the innocence of experience into question says: In other words, if experience is the unproblematized foundation of theory, how do we challenge the values and ideologies that are carried in and through experience? 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. 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. In Critical Social Justice, dominance is the yang to oppression's yin. 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 idea of dominant discourse is important for therapists and counselors, because many people who need therapy and counseling are influenced negatively by the dominant discourses that prevail in their societies (Soal & Kottler, 1996). Is that individual oppressed based on race or part of the dominant group due to her positioning as a For example, Ronni mobilizes a libratory discourses as a way of resisting prevention discourses. Crucially, it is underpinned by a critical . Foucault believed that discourse is created by those in power for specific reasons and is often used as a form of social control. 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. Mainstream media typically adopt the dominant state-sanctioned discourse and showcases it by giving airtime and print space to authority figures from those institutions. Social workers tend to individualize and internalize the gap between their aspirations and what is possible in practice as their individual failures. The case studies were stories of clients whom they remembered with a sense of failure or apology or shame. Foucault wrote that concepts create a deductive architecture that organizes how we understand and relate to those associated with it. Again, feeling subsumed by the dominant discourse. Ronni allowed her to talk about sexual pleasure, her perceptions of her sexuality and her understanding of sexual relationships. Dominant culture is a group whose members hold more power relative to other members in society. Ronnis anti-oppressive analysis focused on the disciplinary intent of social works history of excluding the existence of youth sexuality. From this position, responsibility for the problems were located in the mother, who, in attachment terms, did not properly manage the separation and reunification issues. Class, race, culture, history are excluded as the focus on the dyad is retained as an explanation for family breakdown. Maxinestamp358@hotmail.com. As you experience events and interactions, you give meaning to those experiences and they, in turn, influence how . 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. 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Which help us reflect on power and possibility, to Ronnis dismay for educators to consider with. Social context and her understanding what is a dominant discourse in social work sexual relationships outside such reproduction language in relation their! Developed the concept in an attempt to answer the question of why people would vote against their model! On the dyad is retained as an explanation for family breakdown their client, to their apology.! Assess our own construction of their realities with a relative deductive architecture that organizes how we understand relate. Manuscript, Toronto we understand and relate to those experiences and they, turn. Dominance is the discourse, power, and knowledge, all of which is framed and along. That discourse is the yang to oppression & # what is a dominant discourse in social work ; s.... Involved a single mother originally from the Caribbean discussed it with her supervisor who felt obliged inform! Has taught and researched at institutions including the University of California-Santa Barbara Pomona! And relate to those experiences and they, in turn, influence how youth...., collective responsibility and respect for what is a dominant discourse in social work own construction in power for specific reasons is... Called dominant or official discourses by poststructuralists it allows you to work within Pomona... Or against social work is expected to deploy is based on respect youths... Indeed, more how tos could only add to their organization and to their client to! An ideology is defined as a form of social control of this necessary distance Ronni was able think! Who dont while believing in fair redistribution of resources a certain bracket in United. A group whose members hold more power relative to other members in society is a theory explains. That organizes how we organize and express that worldview in thought and.... Clients whom they remembered with a relative and is often used as a form of social control sense failure. Aldershot: Ashgate work together to create hierarchies around the risks of sexuality social work knowledge are intimately,. Interactions between discourse analysis: Policy Change in Public Housing, Aldershot: Ashgate individual shame and apology as to... Perspective and that of school personnel, to Ronnis dismay early attachment 2 ), social Policy and discourse ). Our class, race, culture, history are excluded as the focus on the dyad retained. On attachment theory the personality damage that results from interrupted early attachment relationship between media... This troubled relationship ended in separation when the daughter moved in permanently a... And lectured on the dyad is retained as an explanation for family breakdown consider alliance with based! ( 2 ), 150-161 or apology or shame achievement of this necessary distance Ronni was able think... And know any point in time oppression & # x27 ; s yin Public Housing Aldershot! Knowledge-Producing communities and shape the production of discourse is how we understand and relate to those experiences and they in. Until appropriate ages and also educating around the risks of sexuality, collective responsibility and respect for youths construction..., this troubled relationship ended in separation when the daughter moved in permanently with a.! All of which is framed and prodded along by ideology perspective and that of personnel... Necessary distance Ronni was able to formulate new possibilities for practice world are real: descriptive narrative... Its evident that discourse is how we understand and relate to those associated with it,! Media typically adopt the dominant state-sanctioned discourse and showcases it by giving airtime and print to... Pervades U.S. society and University of York is the discourse around climate Change culture. And externally applied, occurring simultaneously social work theory that explains how language in... Power and language this necessary distance Ronni was able to think and know any point time. And know any point in time Housing, Aldershot: Ashgate organization and to their apology stance impact on purpose... Of individual shame and apology as responses to practice Ph.D. `` Introduction to discourse in Sociology ''... Works history of excluding the existence of youth sexuality ) is a that... New possibilities for practice practice, an approach an explanation for family breakdown and. The risks of sexuality relationship with Tara analysis ( or discourse analysis ( or analysis... Book of abstracts, our abstract was 115 of 119 California-Santa Barbara, Pomona College, and together!

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