what is a dominant discourse in social work

asserts that discourses, in Fou- cault's work, are ways of constituting knowledge, together with the social practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations. On reflection, she sees that the opposition excludes aspects which both discursive positions require the inclusion of protection. Critical discourse analysis (or discourse analysis) is a research method for studying written or spoken language in relation to its social context. This desire is subjected to the strange twists and turns of which take place inside the institutions of practice. Maxines client, for example, comes to Canada seeking greater opportunity: opportunity that originated over two hundred years ago when my ancestors on the coast of Rhode Island traded with the Caribbean for goods produced by slave labour thus giving birth to the very American capitalism that created the need for Maxines and Ms. Ms migration in search of opportunity. In this hope for practice as justice, the responsibility of social work is shifted from change at the more discreet levels of individuals, families, groups, communities, to the social determinants that produce private troubles. 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. Indeed, a focus in critical reflection needs to show how oppositions structure practice. Another example of a dominant discourse is the discourse around climate change. Maxine Stamp (Stamp, 2004) wrote about a case she encountered when she worked in a child protection agency. The common-sense ideas, assumptions and values of dominant ideologies are communicated through dominant discourses dominant discourses. Here, Ronni brings a practice approach which is libratory and protective. Cole, Nicki Lisa, Ph.D. "Introduction to Discourse in Sociology." 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. Ronnis approach had an explicitly political agenda: she opposed prevention discourses as ways of silencing female desire. It is important to consider the role of opposition here. Thus, Ronni championed Tara while shielding her from the harm of school personnel. Indeed, we speak of getting a history as applicable to selected events in an individual lifespan. My students came to class as failed heroes. Throughout our analyses, we worked to understand what views discourses permitted or inhibited. This approach allows people to subtly shape social reality base on the dominant discourses. Dominant Ideology Definition. Narrative therapy is a style of therapy that helps people becomeand embrace beingan expert in their own lives. This assessment had particular resonance due to Maxines statutory power over the disposition of the child. We looked at how these conflicting discourses positioned Ronni, Tara and school personnel. Pregnant with possibility: Reducing ethical trespasses in social work practice with young single mothers. These were oppositional discourses. When I read the case studies, I was taken aback to find that students chose to write about stories of pain and distress in their practice contexts. Many times our investigations pointed to opposing discourses - discourses that counteract each other. knowledge is not simply a resource to deploy in practice. The overall question I asked students to raise in relation to their cases was what is left out? Interchanging the terms discourse and story, we talked about how stories both include and exclude, forming boundaries in meaning (Spivak, 1990), and that critical practice is the search for what is left outside the story. We administer welfare policies that cement poverty. 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. Critical social work helps people to understand the dominant ideology discourse and relocate subjectively in to that discourse. 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. 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. Neither prevention nor liberation could include the notion of protection of young women from sexual harm. . 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. (1992). Assessing the impact and implications for social workers of an innovative children's services programme aimed to support workforce reform and integrated working. Critical Social Work, 2(1). In J. Butler & J. Scott (Eds. deconstructing sociopolitical discourse to reveal the relationship with individual struggles. A historical perspective, unavailable in attachment discourses and child welfare practices, allowed new possibilities of an ethics of practice to emerge. 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. 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. 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). Stamp, M. (2004). Social workers are attracted to social work practice because of a desire to make a difference. Mainstream media typically adopt the dominant state-sanctioned discourse and showcases it by giving airtime and print space to authority figures from those institutions. A discourse of criminality, when usedto discuss protestors, or those struggling to survive theaftermath of a disaster, like Hurricane Katrina in 2004, structures beliefs about right and wrong, and in doing so, sanctions certain kinds of behavior. It is a story that cannot be told within the reigning discourse of attachment. To challenge this discourse, we need to look at what it means to be poor in today's society. Biomedicine is a dominant and pervasive model in health care settings and there are strengths and limitations in working within the this discourse. The second case study (Gorman, 2004) takes place during a practicum in a school setting. . The hold of possessive individualism in the helping professions means that the target of practice is the individual, community, or family in the present . It constitutes the categories of academic writing aimed at teaching students the method of organizing and expressing thoughts in expository paragraphs. Discourse refers to how we think and communicate about people, things, the social organization of society, and the relationships among and between all three. 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. Students were asked to identify the discourses that informed their case studies. 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. Because discourse has so much meaning and deeply powerful implications in society, it is often the site of conflict and struggle. New Discourses Commentary. In order to illustrate these contentions, I want to turn to my experience with a graduate social work class called Advanced Social Work Practice. Healy, K. (2000). https://www.thoughtco.com/discourse-definition-3026070 (accessed March 2, 2023). 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. Maxine was routinely assigned cases involving immigrant people of colour because she herself is an immigrant woman of colour. People with mental illnesses are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, and discourses concerning the medical model, criminalization, and criminality dominate the intervention . Michel Foucault. Goodreads. A discourse is a system of words, actions, rules, and beliefs that share common values. Foucault adopted the term 'discourse' to denote a historically contingent social system that produces knowledge and meaning. Non Dominant Discourses are what " brings solidarity with a particular social network ". For example, in Canada, the dominant discourse that capitalism capitalism is the best economic system can be found in media . Taking the case of racially charged events in Ferguson, MO, and Baltimore, MD that played out from 2014 through 2015, we can also see Foucaults articulation of the discursive concept at play. Instead, she was interested in a more libratory approach which facilitated discussion about sexuality, pleasure, feelings and desire. An ideology is defined as a system of beliefs and values that not only seek to describe the world but also to transform it. 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. Cole, Nicki Lisa, Ph.D. (2020, August 28). In particular, dominant structures are subject to question because of the ways in which meanings are constructed on oppositional lines (p. 203). It focuses specifically on participant . 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. Discourse analysis accesses questions that help make social contradictions and ambivalence visible and it opens conceptual space regarding ones position within competing or dominant discourses. Such interventions are aimed at delaying sexual activity until appropriate ages and also educating around the risks of sexuality. 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. Dominant discourse demonstrates how reality has been socially constructed. In J. Butler & J. Scott (Eds. Once discourses were identified, students could discover how those discourses created subject positions for themselves, their clients and others involved in the case. Crucially, it is underpinned by a critical . . 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 materials counter the dominant discourse on GBV, whereby violence against woman is normalised through the ways in which the message is framed, and the language used, as . In the book of abstracts, our abstract was 115 of 119. (1992). We know all too well the struggles of the child protection workers, welfare workers, and hospital workers who find it difficult to face the fate of their ideals within the construction of their practice. New York: Routledge. Unpublished Ph.D., University of Toronto, Toronto. Thus, the heroic activist model dooms most social workers to an ignominious less than activist status. Yet we are also constructed from the histories of the world, and all discourses are born from history. 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.

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