The Professional Is Political

Abstract

I understood from teachers in those segregated schools that work of any teacher committed to full self realization of students was necessarily and fundamentally radical, that ideas were not neutral, that to teach in a way that liberates, that expands consciousness, that awakens, is to challenge domination at its very core. bell hooks, 1989, p. 50 For almost two decades, has been enthusiastically embraced as a highly valued goal of social work practice. Sparked by publication of Barbara Solomon's (1976) Black Empowerment: Work in Oppressed Communities, empowerment became primary stated objective in practice with disadvantaged and oppressed groups. social work literature was replete with articles extolling of clients through social work practice. In fact, has been assumed to be a part of most practice. As we have embraced this ideal, it may be that we have not really examined dilemmas that emerge and choices to be made when a profession adopts as a mission. It may be that exists more in our professional discourse than in actual practice. There are many forces--institutional, economic, political, ideological, and historical--that continue to be obstacles to achievement of a truly empowering practice. dilemmas implicit in a profession's commitment to client are not new. These dilemmas have challenged profession, although perhaps in different words, since we attempted to separate ourselves from our early beginnings rooted in moral superiority, noblesse oblige, and social control. profession attempted that separation by adopting value of client self-determination, precursor to empowerment. Self-determination was defined as clients' right to make their own choices, to define their own destiny. But for many, self-determination was a hollow promise sharply limited by lack of access to resources, to opportunity, to power. Self-determination, colored by American individualism, was too often simply right to be left alone. Social workers' ability to put principle of self-determination into practice ... is affected and determined by level of exploitation, oppression, and lack of available opportunities that clients confront (Freedberg, 1989, p. 34). These limitations challenged social workers to turn to social action, to advocacy, and eventually to client so that inequalities could be addressed, opportunities made available, and client self-determination realized. language of has added new dimensions to self-determination. It envisions a more vigorous, more active stance. It implies that people have not only right to self-determination, but also right to power, ability, and authority to achieve self-determination. The ability to act in behalf of oneself is a function of factors such as critical consciousness, sense of entitlement, knowledge, resources, competency, skills, and self respect (Staples, 1990, p. 33). In discourse on empowerment, we have primarily focused on oppression, marginalization, deprivation, and disempowerment of clients by large social forces, by society, by the system. We have rarely examined power dynamics as they exist in worker-client relationship (Pinderhughes, 1989). We have been less ready to own that we, as professionals, are part of the system and to examine implications of our position of power. We have been reluctant to speculate that perhaps if our clients are to truly become empowered, we must learn to shed some power (Hoffman, 1985). Sources of Power Perhaps average social worker, constrained by resource limitations, policies, time, knowledge, and skill deficits, does not experience herself or himself as powerful, but in worker-client relationship, in our accustomed models of professional practice, power belongs to us. …