Anti-oppressive Framework Research Articles

The Efficacy of an Antioppression Curriculum for Health Professionals.

Health professionals increasingly recognize the role that social determinants play in health disparities. However, little focus is placed on how health care professionals themselves contribute to disparities through biased care. We have developed a curriculum based on an antioppression framework which encourages health professionals to evaluate their biases and combat health care disparities through an active process of allyship. Teaching methods emphasize skill building and include lectures, guided reflections, and facilitated discussions. Pre- and postsurveys were administered to assess participants' confidence level to recognize unconscious bias and to be an ally to colleagues, patients, and staff. In total, we conducted 20 workshops with a total of 468 participants across multiple disciplines. The survey response rate was 80%. Using a paired t-test, the mean difference in the pre- and postsurveys revealed a statistically significant improvement across all measures. Participants showed the greatest improvements (large effect size d>0.8) in their understanding of the process of allyship, their ability to describe strategies to address, assess, and recognize unconscious bias, and their knowledge of managing situations in which prejudice, power, and privilege are involved. Results show that an antioppression curriculum can enhance health professionals' confidence in addressing bias in health care through allyship. For those who value social justice and equity, moving from the role of bystander to a place of awareness and solidarity allows for one's behaviors to mirror these values. Allyship is an accessible tool that all health professionals can use in order to facilitate this process.

I, MABEL HAMPTON, POLITICAL POWER AND THE ARCHIVE

Abstract The relationship between the historical production of the archive and the construction of social bodies enforced patriarchal authority in many state archives. The cultural implications of the archive and the edifice of the social body, particularly for queer, gendered and racialized bodies are explored as a duality between oppressive laws and social change. The queer archive, gathered over time through multifarious processes evokes both a sense of loss and recuperation. As a location for memory that historically has been entrenched in erasure, this essay considers how historical violence can be reorganized through anti-oppressive frameworks, where the counter-archive has agency to speak for itself. Theoretical models such as the ‘gathering together’ of data that consigns subjectivity and unifies concepts of social knowledge (Derrida, Archive Fever) is explored through a suspicion of archival logic that historically advanced social control and violence (Rancière, Politics, Identification, and Subjectivization; Sekula, The Body and The Archive). The case study is Mabel Hampton, an African-American lesbian, whose legacy is preserved at the Lesbian Herstory Archive (LHA). Hampton donated her large collection to LHA as a politicized act of queer remembrance. While, I argue the social body was a triumph for the bourgeois order, where political economy was entwined into capitalism and imperialism, and sexual conduct was converted into political behavior, Mabel Hampton demonstrates that axiomatic domination of paternal state violence can be ruptured. In her own words, her story is entrenched in systematic violence of poverty, incarceration and rape, and is a collection of exile and refusal as well as persistence and survival (Love, Feeling Backward).

Experiences of Violence and Head Injury Among Women and Transgender Women Sex Workers

Women and transgender women sex workers have similar experiences of housing instability, childhood trauma, and victimization to populations with high rates of traumatic brain injury (TBI), such as people experiencing homelessness and incarceration; yet, there is little research on TBI among sex workers. We conducted a mixed method study using qualitative interviews and the Ohio State University TBI Identification Method to understand experiences of violence and head injury with 10 participants recruited from Elizabeth Fry Toronto. Head injuries which resulted in loss of consciousness, or a change in conscious state, a report of feeling dazed or a gap in memory, were classified as traumatic brain injuries. All other injuries to the head which did not meet these criteria were classified as head injuries. Ninety percent of participants reported at least one lifetime TBI, and all participants reported at least one head injury related to violence in sex work. Findings indicate the need to educate sex workers on the seriousness of head injuries and the importance of treatment. Participants spoke of widespread stigma and discrimination as barriers to care, which may be mitigated by enhanced training with an anti-oppressive framework in the health care sector and in law enforcement. Participants felt that peer support workers could best deliver education and create awareness of TBI among people involved in sex work. The magnitude of violence and TBI in this population indicates the need for future research to determine actual prevalence of TBI and appropriate screening tools combined with educational programs.

The Anti-oppressive Value of Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality in Social Movement Study

Social movements can be important mechanisms of social change for vulnerable populations as the formal mechanisms of policy and legislation tend to be in the hands of the powerful in society. Academic scholarship can play an important role in challenging or reinforcing social power dynamics. This reality makes it important to critically interrogate social movement knowledge production and use anti-oppressive frameworks for social movement scholarship. Sociology has contributed greatly to social movement literature, and the American Sociological Association (ASA), especially the section of Collective Behavior and Social Movements (CBSM), is a central site of academic credibility and scholarship. This examination draws on critical race theory and intersectionality to analyze 10 years of award-winning books from the CBSM, specifically recipients of the Charles Tilly Award for Best Book. These books are prominently positioned with respect to the production of knowledge, as well as the study of social movements. This analysis shows the absence of critical race theory and intersectionality in core of social movement scholarship and identifies a pattern of erasure and marginalization of vulnerable populations in the award-winning books.

Radical Visions, Structural Constraints

Based on a qualitative study of two feminist organizations located in Ontario, Canada, this article considers the tensions that state-funded organizations must negotiate in their efforts to engage in anti-oppressive (AO) practice. The rise of neoliberalism and neoconservatism in Canada has produced a political climate that threatens feminist organizations’ social justice mandates. This climate undermines feminist organizations’ efforts to advocate for their communities, to create inclusive organizations, and to provide compassionate service informed by AO principles. However, to argue that feminist service organizations are depoliticized through their relationship with state funding agencies simplifies the complexity of state-social movement relations. This article illustrates the contradictory influence state funding has on AO practice in feminist organizations and examines the ways organizations navigate challenges presented by their political climate. Despite the structural constraints facing AO practice in feminist organizations, I argue that AO frameworks can provide organizations with a renewed focus on their social justice mandates.

The Opposition

ABSTRACTAlthough social workers have an ethical and professional mandate to address inequity, theoretical and treatment approaches usually fail to address historical and structural contexts. In opposition, radical social work bridges individual and community practice by acknowledging that macro forces have micro consequences; micro practices are reflective of macro socio-political processes; and, by opposing the socio-structural forces underlying individual problems. By adopting transformative, anti-oppressive frameworks and practices, radical social workers make visible the invisible social-ecological factors that hurt people, including institutionalized white privilege; transform systems to help individuals rather than helping individuals cope with oppressive systems by reinforcing marginalized roles in accordance with inferior treatment; and develop transformative potential in self and others.

Educating on anti-oppressive practice with gender and sexual minority elders: Nursing and social work perspectives

INTRODUCTION: This article relates a common dilemma in professional education out of which developed a collaboration between two health disciplines at a regional Australian university. In a literature review across the two disciplines, the authors drew from social work’s teaching knowledge base in an attempt to strengthen the nursing skill base. The intention was to provide students working in the health sector with a consistent theoretical approach and practical tools when working with sexual and gender minorities.METHOD: As associate professors in social work and nursing, the authors argue on the basis of the teaching and the literature review, for an explicitly anti-oppressive approach to be applied to the education of professionals who work with elders identifying with gender and sexual minorities. Working within an anti-oppressive framework, beginning practitioners in social work and nursing in degree-level education programmes were encouraged to explore their own attitudes including taken-for-granted assumptions often unexplored in the prevailing medical models of care. How different demographics within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer (LGBTQIA) community experience the health industry is a current issue for educators. There have been increasing challenges expressed by transgender individuals and their concerns over their specific health needs/stigma in rest-home-care facilities, for example.CONCLUSION: By embedding anti-oppressive principles in our teaching practice, relating to gender and sexual minorities, we acknowledge and open the debate to some of the possibilities/practicalities/difficulties of advocating for this within a broader multi-disciplinary in small town, rural contexts. The implications for social work and nursing education are discussed.

Social Work Practice in an Economic Downturn: Understanding Austerity Through an Anti-oppressive Framework

Human rights and social justice have been the traditional mission of social work. In 2008, social workers in Ireland began operating within the greatest period of economic recession since the 1930s. This recession poses a serious threat to the human rights of conventional social work clientele. Simultaneously, a dearth of articles has been published which address the topic. The present paper provides a focused commentary on the literature through the application of an anti-oppressive framework (AOF). The tripartite framework is constructed based upon demarcationist, incorporationist and egalitarian agendas, and was selected for its capacity to address the multifaceted nature of social oppression as identified within the literature. The paper begins with an overview of the impact of the recession on social work practice and its conventional clientele. It then provides a justification and explanation of the elected AOF. Each agenda within the framework is critically evaluated in terms of its broader expression both during and post recession. This evaluation is then used to inform a critical discussion on what lessons may be learned for social work policy and practice moving forward.

Making schools safer in South Africa: An antihomophobic bullying educational resource

ABSTRACTThe limited research indicates that homophobia is widespread in South African schools and that schools are ill-prepared to challenge homophobic bullying. In this context, using Kumashiro's antioppressive educational framework, the author outlines the process of developing an antihomophobic educational resource for use in South African schools, its theoretical grounding, and the social and cultural complexities involved. Factors influencing the development of the materials were linguistic diversity; crisis in education, inequality, and violence; and religion and culture arguments. This groundbreaking initiative fits with the broad focus in South African educational policy on transformation, social justice, and inclusion in the postapartheid context that is increasingly understood to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex identities.

(Re)Valuing Relationships in Child Protection Practice

Relationship-based social work practice with Australian Indigenous families, within an anti-oppressive framework, is considered effective in child protection work. However, procedural and legalistic approaches to child protection, as well as limited cultural competence, can limit the capacity of workers to develop relationships and take action that empowers vulnerable Indigenous families and communities to care safely for their children. This qualitative study, conducted in Australia, examines the inter-relationships between practitioners, agencies, families and community members expressed in day-to-day child protection practice with Indigenous families. There were tensions and constraints on relationship-building between practitioners and clients, between Indigenous and non-indigenous practitioners, and between government and non-government agencies. The findings support arguments to re-value and strengthen the concept of relationship-building as a foundation for practice. All practitioners must have greater support to build the culturally respectful relationships required for positive change, and more scope to work in partnership with families.

Feminism Within Domestic Violence Coalitions

This article investigated the frequency with which feminist identity and constructs are evident in the missions of state domestic violence coalitions in the United States. Findings from the analysis yielded low frequencies of feminist constructs present in the documents analyzed. Less than 10% of coalitions explicitly self-identified as feminist organizations in their materials, while fewer than 10% of coalitions acknowledged the relationship between patriarchy (9.8%) and gender inequality (7.8%) with violence against women. Coalitions more frequently employed the de-gendered language of empowerment and anti-oppressive frameworks rather than explicitly feminist perspectives. Implications of these findings for feminist informed advocacy are provided.

Ian's Story: His Right to Self-determination

This paper provides an examination into a student's placement experience in a homeless unit and the challenges encountered. The analysis illustrates the importance of theoretical and philosophical ideas in the resolution of ethical situations. Ethical issues are discussed within the context of the individual's right to be self-determining. Anti-oppressive frameworks are also explored in relation to the philosophical ideas of Kant and utilitarianism.

An Anti-Oppression (AO) Framework for Child Welfare in Ontario, Canada: Possibilities for Systemic Change

This article presents the development and potential use of a method of bringing systemic change to a mandated institution such as the Children's Aid Society in Ontario, Canada, while taking into account the many challenges to realising progressive change in child welfare practice. The authors explore whether systemic change is possible given contemporary child welfare's manifold standardised procedures, including risk and safety assessment and legal reporting requirements. The second author discusses his viewpoint and experiences as a member of the Anti-Oppression Roundtable, and outlines its work as a catalyst for critical review of practices and processes. The authors describe the genesis and development of the Anti-Oppression Framework for Child Welfare in Ontario and provide an example to show how it can be used as an important strategic tool to try to bring systemic change to the child welfare system. The article concludes by reviewing some of the challenges in choosing to take this path of implementing an AO framework in the face of increasing criticism directed to child welfare agencies.

Is Anti-Oppression Teaching in Canadian Social Work Classrooms a Form of Neo-Liberalism?

This paper explores how the anti-oppression framework in the curriculum of schools of social work in Canada is co-opted into the neo-liberal and post-colonial structures of the wider society. First, the authors critically examine why an element of oppression either becomes essentialized as an autonomous site, that is, de-historicized, or understood in binary or dichotomous ways (i.e. black/white, gay/not gay) within the anti-oppressive framework. Second, the authors show how forms of safe knowledge are produced in the academy as faculty draw on their privileged social locations of teaching, while engaging in critical and progressive social change work that reflects their scholarship interest areas. Third, the authors suggest ways in which the anti-oppression framework itself can be challenged to make it a more viable and useful approach in social work classrooms.

Critical reflection in the secondary classroom: incorporating indigenous content in an anti-oppression framework

This paper presents the major findings of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at Lakehead University (Stock, 2011).1 An anti-oppressive pedagogical approach in a secondary classroom in Northwest Ontario was used to incorporate Indigenous rights education into the existing Civics curriculum. This research was modeled after a participatory action research framework allowing flexibility and input from participants. A curriculum unit based on the UNDRIPs was developed and implemented in the Civics classroom. The research findings support the integration of Indigenous content in the Ontario public school system at the ministry, board, teacher education, and school levels.(Baskin 2008) (Bishop 2002)

Evolving on purpose: Results of a qualitative study to explore how public youth system reform advocates apply anti-oppressive practice frameworks in a collaborative training and action process

The anti-oppressive practice (AOP) framework focuses on structural inequity and power relations, employing liberatory methods toward social justice goals. This article reports on a national training initiative in AOP and an associated participatory action research project to determine the transformative impact of the training on staff, services and the system itself. The setting of this study is among service providers in youth justice and treatment services, where racial disparities are pronounced. The project involved both skills development and application of AOP in ways that would promote systems reform. Participants found the experience to be valuable, relevant and energizing, and skill sets in AOP were developed. The course requirement to develop site-based projects in participants’ local settings created changes in the ways services were delivered. Participants valued the creation of ‘safe spaces’ to discuss their experiences of racism and oppression in the various youth service systems. Transformative learning theory is utilized as a backdrop to the experience of interpreting participant reactions and learning experiences. Results suggest that AOP is a useful framework for organizing renewed efforts to reduce disparities in justice and other service delivery systems. Participant projects, an overview of implications for the field, and suggested future research are discussed.

Using an Anti-Oppressive Framework in Social Work Practice with Lesbians

Anti-oppressive (AOP) social work practice addresses the whole person and the practitioner relates to the client in the client's social context. AOP considers personal, institutional, cultural, and economic issues and considers how these influence individuals' behaviors and their opportunities to grow into their full potential as persons living within these oppressive contexts. Lesbians live in a world that is dominated by oppression and heterosexism that can lead to a deep sense of shame regarding their sexuality. Anti-oppressive social work involves taking and supporting action to advance both individual and structural change to improve the lives of lesbian clients.

Rekindling the Sacred: Toward a Decolonizing Pedagogy in Higher Education

Introduction Spirituality has been contentious topic in education, much like flame that gets blown in different directions. Within the academy it has sometimes been repressed an extent where the flame nearly invisible, yet still burns steadfastly. As Dillard, Abdur-Rashid, and Tyson (2000) contend, the silence around the topic of spirituality in the academy is increasingly being drowned out by the emphatic chorus of those whose underlying versions of truth cry out 'We are spiritual people!' (p. 448). This steadfast burning flame also apparent with the recent resurgence of spirituality discourse in the literature. When addressed, most literature on spirituality and schooling has focused on the issues of incorporating spirituality in primary and secondary or the issues surrounding the integration of spirituality into teacher training (see for examples Elton-Chalcraft, 2002; Holzer, 2002; Miller, 1996). Recently, issues of spirituality in the context of higher have emerged in the literature (see Astin & Astin, 1999; Hoppe & Speck, 2005; Love, 2001; Manning, 2001; Rendon, 2005; Tisdell, 2003). However, scant literature addresses how spirituality may be integrated into teaching for anti-oppression in the context of higher (some exceptions include: Denton & Ashton, 2004; Dillard et al., 2000; Graveline, 1998; hooks, 2003; Orr, 2002; Shahjahan, 2004; Tisdell, 2003; Wane & Waterfall, 2005). As Tisdell (2007) argues, has been paucity of attention the explicit connection of spirituality ... dealing with diversity issues in higher education (p. 532). This article will contribute this latter body of literature, in an effort further explore how we may teach about equity and social justice issues within an anti-oppression framework. We also believe that the discussion around spirituality in the academy central politics/act of decolonization. (1) Hence, our goal in this article explore the following questions: (1) what are the challenges or tensions of evoking spirituality as an academic discourse and practice? and (2) what strategies may be useful in integrating spirituality into teaching in higher education? Rather than conforming traditional academic practices, we have chosen present our theorizing in the form of an interactive dialogue, explicate the process through which our thinking has developed. We intend this be part of the countercurrent of resistance dominant hegemonic forces in the world (Graveline, 1998, p. 35). We have deliberately chosen actively resist the traditional Eurocentric format of an essay for this article. Instead, we have chosen display our theorization outside hegemonic norms for reporting, gesturing toward an alternative that itself embedded in spiritual worldview (Dillard et al., 2000, p. 452). To this end, we offer our dialogue as Graveline (1998) has suggested, as a narrative of emancipation and enlightenment. In its strongest form, it narrative of integration, not separation (p. 35). Furthermore, this dialogue format provides us with an opportunity to borrow voices from each (Mayuzumi, Motobyashi, Nagayama & Takeuchi, 2007, p. 584) To begin, however, we offer working definition of what we mean by the term 'spirituality.' For our discussion, we borrow broad conceptualization of spirituality from Tisdell (2007) who states: [S]pirituality ... about: (1) connection what discussed as the Life-force, God, higher power or purpose, Great Mystery; (2) ultimate meaning-making and sense of wholeness, healing, and the interconnectedness of all things; (3) the ongoing development of one's identity (including one's cultural identity) moving toward ... greater authenticity; (4) how people construct knowledge through largely unconscious and symbolic processes ..., manifested in image, symbol, music, and other expressions of creativity which are often cultural; (5) in addition, spirituality not the same as religion, though for some people who are religious, there are elements in spirituality that overlap with religion; (6) spirituality always present though often unacknowledged in the learning environment. …

Defining Health and the Physician’s Social Responsibility

Defining Health and the Physician’s Social Responsibility

Sexual aggression, diversity and the challenge of anti-oppressive practice

This paper explores the relevance and applicability of ‘anti-oppressive practice’ in work with sexual abusers. The context is that perspectives on diversity have not yet been adequately integrated into the orthodoxy of theory and practice in the sex offender field. The barriers to, and dilemmas in, making use of an anti-oppressive framework are discussed. There is a specific focus on the development of appropriate responses to sexual abusers from minority groups and a model for anti-oppressive practice is outlined. The author suggests ways in which practitioners can prepare for anti-oppressive practice in sex offender work.