Social Justice Roots Research Articles

Exploring the Role of Occupational Therapy and Forced Migration in Canada.

Background. In response to increasing forced migration across the globe, Canadian occupational therapists are returning to the profession's social justice roots by exploring this emergent area of practice. Purpose. This research explores occupational therapy practices with forced migrants in a Canadian context. Method. Grounded in critical epistemologies, the researchers conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with occupational therapists, students, and researchers connected to displacement. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings. Four themes describe current occupational therapy practices related to forced migration: 1) engaging clients in new environments, 2) translating the everyday, 3) connecting and networking, and 4) advocating for occupational justice. Implications. This research contributes to the advancement of occupational therapy and forced migration by documenting the diverse and fluid nature of occupational therapy roles. Further, the paper outlines promising reflexive practices while forwarding advocacy priorities for (occupational) justice.

Returning to the Profession's Roots: Social Justice in Nursing Education for the 21st Century.

This article reviews the history of social justice in nursing and argues that education needs to be redesigned to allow nurses to return to the profession's social justice roots. A review of social justice literature in nursing practice and education was conducted. Although social justice is a recurring theme in the literature, definitions are abstract, calls to action are ambiguous, and theoretical frameworks continue to emphasize the individual nurse-patient dyad. Nursing education needs to be redesigned to incorporate social justice concepts throughout the entire curriculum. By educating the current and future nursing workforce, the profession can return to its roots of social justice to address structural inequalities and social injustices that manifest as health inequities in the United States.

Reflecting on the 64th Annual AAACE Conference

The 64th Annual American Association for and Continuing Education (AAACE) meeting in Oklahoma City showcased the theme Evolutions and Revolutions. The keynote speakers bookending this conference illuminated their sociocultural experiences through powerful stories. In my work with life stories, I have come believe, as Carter (1993) suggested, to understand thinking, it is necessary find the story that structures an individual's model or theory of events (p. 7). My personal experience at this conference--listening colleagues and speakers and touring a local memorial with a family member--strengthened my intention better understand story literacy and its application in adult education. This kind of literacy, which involves the skills of telling, listening, responding, and interpreting stories, has become imperative in our technological and globalized world. For example, stories, particularly of civility and humanity, help us cope in complex and dangerous situations (Moon, 2010). Here is what I heard and saw in Oklahoma and some implications. On Wednesday, Dr. Katarina Popovic opened the conference by walking the audience through a brief history of social movements, illuminating political upheavals in Eastern Europe and the Arab Spring. She is the newly appointed Secretary General of the International Council for Education and professor at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and was previously vice president of the European Association for the Education of Adults. Midway through the talk, Dr. Popovic projected a picture of herself standing with several women and a young Afghan girl who spoke surprisingly good English. When asked how she came speak English so well, the girl explained she attended English class before the Taliban shut down her school. When the teacher offered continue language classes in one of the girl's home, they secretly met, hiding textbooks in their Korans and reciting English cross-legged on the floor. One day, the Taliban came the home, but the girls had warning, so hid the texts beneath blankets laid across their laps and began reading aloud from their Korans. The Taliban left; had the girls and their teacher been caught, the punishment would have been unspeakable. Dr. Popovic shared this story of quiet revolution as a reminder of adult education's social justice roots carefully nurtured by Freire, Horton, hooks, and many others. Throughout the talk, she wondered aloud, Are we asking the wrong questions in a world that needs values not skills? This question evokes Briton's (1996) concern two decades ago: Adult education is a sociohistorical and political practice, not a range of techniques and instructional methodologies devoid of human interest (p. 116). Dr. Popovic's call for adult education's return practices built on humanitarian foundations might be considered revolutionary, from the Latin word revolutio meaning a turn around. Revolutionary change, while not always sudden or quick, tends occur over a shorter time period. In contrast, deep and lasting changes in culture may evolve slowly as complex interactions and understandings replace simple dictates. The next story demonstrates such slow, mature evolution in attitudes and behaviors over time. On Friday, Dr. Michael Fire closed the conference by sharing stories of growing up as a member of one of the most marginalized cultures in America. He is a Cheyenne and Arapaho Elder, is a registered nurse, and holds numerous degrees including a PhD in Health Care Administration. Growing up as a Native American in the 1940s and 1950s, Dr. Fire shared many stories of hardship, told with a delightful sense of humor, including when the U.S. government delivered crop seed and machinery the family's plot of land but no information on how farm. In addition, the delivery of livestock arrived at the homestead without instruction. The stories described cold Oklahoma winters with no indoor plumbing, treasured winter coats stolen from classroom hooks, and blatant incidents of discrimination in the military and higher education. …

Embedding Social Justice within Micro Social Work Curricula

ABSTRACTSocial work struggles with the dichotomy between social and economic justice and micro practice. A large percentage of United States social workers (65%) practice in micro practice settings, yet the profession is challenged to commit to its social justice roots. This article reviews the history of social and economic justice within the social work profession, examines the role of distributive justice, and outlines strategies to integrate social and economic justice into micro social work courses. The article details implications for strengthening a social and economic justice perspective in micro curricula.

A Countercultural Heritage: Rediscovering the Relationship-Centered and Social Justice Roots of Family Medicine-A Perspective from the Keystone IV Conference.

The 2015 G. Gayle Stephens Keystone conference convened a cohort of primary care professionals to discuss what promises personal physicians will make to their patients going forward. New physicians were prompted to rediscover the foundational values of and historic context for family medicine. At the heart of this rediscovery was learning of the writings and teachings of Dr. G. Gayle Stephens, a founder of family medicine who emphasized the essentiality of relationship-centered care and social justice to the new specialty. Dr. Stephens viewed family medicine as being in a countercultural relationship to mainstream medicine, as family medicine fought for justice and equity in an inequitable and fragmented health care system. Here we argue that by reaffirming and renewing this countercultural heritage the new generation of family physicians will have better clarity in approaching the many challenges in health care today. Particularly for trainees and new physicians, the historic lens offered by Dr. Stephens's writing and other foundational documents allows us to better see ourselves in a trajectory of ongoing health care reform.

Encouraging outrage in social work: Palestine and Ebola

ABSTRACTBy advocating the universality of human rights, as in support for Palestinians’ entitlement to self-determination and the need for generous responses to the Ebola epidemic, social workers can improve their advocacy of social justice issues closer to home. By participating in the world-wide, non-violent Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign to end Israel's brutal occupation of Palestinian lands, social workers could enhance their political understanding and skills; they could live and love the notion that the personal is the political. Engagement in such campaigns contributes to an identity of confident self-respect. This, said French human rights’ advocate Stephane Hessel, is achieved by outrage over injustice because such a reaction makes connections to a common humanity. The alternative to such outrage is indifference. By taking stands on human rights issues, social work educators and practitioners would be confronting those key questions, ‘what do you stand for, what do you believe in ?’ Their answers could re-activate the social justice roots of their profession and could enable them better to confront the selfishness of social policies in Australia. Their jobs would become more vibrant, their lives more interesting. Who could resist that?

Two Birds, One Stone: Unintended Consequences and a Potential Solution for Problems With Recovery in Mental Health.

Recovery began as a social justice movement. In more recent years, professionals have joined the movement, unintentionally co-opting and mainstreaming the more radical goals of these earlier activist consumer movements. The goals of the patient-centered care movement in general medical care are similar to those of "professional recovery." If mental health professionals instead adopted the language and goals of patient-centered care as a first step toward joining the two movements, the recovery movement could reclaim its social justice roots, and progress would be made toward reducing the duality between physical and mental health care systems. Professionals should return the recovery movement to those with lived experience, adopt the unified language of patient-centered care, and align professional transformation efforts under one holistic movement.

The Social Justice Roots of the Mentors in Violence Prevention Model and Its Application in a High School Setting

The social justice roots and theory of the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) model is presented, followed by an empirical study examining the influence of MVP in high school settings. Findings reveal students exposed to the MVP model are more likely to see forms of violence as being wrong and are more likely to take actions to intervene than students not exposed to the program. Findings support the premises on which MVP is founded.

The Roots of Social Justice in Group Work

This article revisits the history of group work, highlighting elements of empowerment and advocacy in the work of some key figures, and noting events and movements that nourished group work's social justice roots.

Revisiting our social justice roots in population health intervention research.

ublic health has its roots in social justice. Descriptions of public health work in the early 20 th century reveal the appalling living conditions of the poor and the inequities that were predominant at the time. Class distinctions were apparent in life expectancy, and in differential rates of access to sanitation, clean water, education, food and adequate housing. Although there have been many improvements in the overall health of Canadians during the past century, substantial inequities remain. Canadian and international reports 1,2 have implored us to take action on these inequities. In this knowledge age, when we are working to build population health interventions on a solid foundation of theory and rigorous methods, it is important to revisit the social justice roots of population health interventions and consider why, as practitioners and scientists, we have sometimes deviated from these values. Historical accounts indicate several important eras for population health interventions in Canada. The early part of the 20 th century was a period when many basic public health regulations were being put into place to improve sanitation, safely preserve food, and reduce communicable disease transmission. 3 Community health workers, who were primarily nurses, were particularly active in school settings and in conducting home visits in poor and underserved communities. 3,4 Efforts to address deplorable social living and working conditions among vulnerable populations are prominent in descriptions of these early public health programs. Early descriptive epidemiological studies documented important socio-economic differences in health status, but did not consistently interrogate underlying issues of class and power. Post World War II marked the beginning of an information era. Health education efforts were reinforced with the production of communication materials that could reach all Canadians. 5 Lt. Col.

Revisiting our Social Justice Roots in Population Health Intervention Research

Revisiting our Social Justice Roots in Population Health Intervention Research

The roots of social justice: The personal journey of a human rights advocate

The roots of social justice: The personal journey of a human rights advocate

Reclaiming Our Social Justice Roots: How Links between Spirituality and Adult Education Can Help Us

This paper explores the spiritual roots of such social justice educators as Freire (1970), Yeaxlee (1925) , and Coady (1939) and examines the common social justice strand within recent qualitative research studies ( English, 2001 ; Groen, 2002 ; & Tisdell, 2000 ) that focus on adult educators and spirituality. This historical exploration and review of these qualitative research studies will serve as the basis for a discussion of how we can re‐awaken and reclaim our social justice roots by focusing on a spirituality that is engaged within the world.

Teaching Social Justice: Reviving Geography's Neglected Tradition

American students are encouraged to become globally competitive. I argue that in a world plagued by social inequality and environmental mismanagement, students should become globally cooperative. But this position is not new. Nineteenth century geographers such as Peter Kropotkin argued that geographic education should promote cooperation and tolerance of others. This article explores why geographers cast aside this progressive vision for geographic education. It hypothesizes that geography's pursuit of academic and scientific legitimacy prompted it to spurn “value-laden” methods. The article concludes by suggesting that geographers return to their social justice roots by adopting constructivist pedagogical methods of Paulo Freire.