Discipline Of Social Work Research Articles

Gender-based harassment in cyberspace. The case of Pikara magazine

The internet has brought about a radical change in the way people communicate and relate to each other. Widespread use of this new system of communication has resulted in a shift in conventional attitudes in human relations. Some of its features are anonymity, virality or disinhibition, which in turn determine norms of interaction. This paper offers an analysis of gender-based harassment on the internet, using the case of Pikara Magazine (a Spanish feminist electronic magazine). The comments posted on this online magazine during 2015 have been analysed from a qualitative perspective (using grounded theory methodology), focusing on discovering the major discursive categories related to harassment behaviours, as well as the different strategies of response and resistance. The categories identified make up a system to be contrasted on future analysis. Finally, different ways of tackling this phenomenon through the social work discipline are also considered.

Objektivikasi Islam dalam Tema-Tema Pekerjaan Sosial (Konkretisasi Nilai-nilai Islam dalam Praktik Pekerjaan Sosial)

The metamorphosis of Islamic Education Institution such as IAIN into UIN has brought consequences, i. e. objectification of social sciences to Islamic value. This includes themes in social work discipline; as a science or as a profession. This article argues that prophetic institutionalization is crucial and significant in adjusting with challenges regarding not only as academic but also as practical purposes. Through a qualitative approach, several Islamic basic principles found that may serve as a guiding principle of general and specific themes in social work science, among general aspects are rahmatan lil ‘alamin, al-‘Amal al-Shalih, al-Ikhlas, empowerment of vurnerable group (mustadh’afin), while the specific consists of ta’awwun, tawashshou, amr ma’ruf nahi munkar, sadaqa, covering one’s ‘aib and tawakkal. Keywords: Objectivation, Islam and Social Work

Comparing Student and Instructor Perspectives on Writing: Empirical Results from the Social Work Discipline

Comparing Student and Instructor Perspectives on Writing: Empirical Results from the Social Work Discipline

How social workers add value to the perinatal team. Hospital de la santa creu i sant pau

Pregnancy and childbirth are much more than biological processes. They are fundamental events in the life of a woman and her family. It is therefore essential to care for pregnant women and their families in a holistic manner, taking their personal, cultural, social, and family constraints into account.With this concept in mind, in 2000, the Fetal Medicine Unit and the Neonatal Unit at Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau established a Working Group of Perinatal Medicine. When the Working Group was first formed, weekly meetings were held with neonatologists and obstetricians. However, other healthcare professionals soon joined the team. In 2007, a hospital social worker was invited to participate to promote awareness among the members about social difficulties that could interfere with the welfare of a mother and her unborn child.The aim of this presentation is to show the benefits of including a social worker on the interdisciplinary perinatal team at a tertiary hospital. The Working Group now consists of pediatricians, neonatologists, obstetricians, midwives, prenatal nurses, psychologists, social workers, and other professional specialists if the case requires.The Group’s perinatal team focuses on an early approach to monitoring pregnant women and unborn children who require additional attention due to medical conditions, past and present pregnancy complications or fetal abnormalities, and it provides biopsychosocial care of pregnant women from both disciplines.The social intervention and assessment are recorded in the patient’s clinical history through the ETC (Clinical Work Station). This platform is used by all team members for data collection and clinical history. The social worker now plays an active role in all cases where pregnancy gives rise to social difficulties and in cases that present social risk. Since the team was established we have observed greater fluency in coordination with the institutions of child protection and community resources. We have also observed improvements in communication among professionals, and in agility and optimization when dealing with situations of social risk in pregnant women. The establishment of a multidisciplinary team has facilitated fluid communication among the different health care professionals and enabled an individualised approach to each case.As a sign of team involvement in these situations of social risk and how the participation of the discipline of Social Work has created a greater awareness of the professionals who care for these pregnant women , the Social Work Unit has conducted a research during 2014 and 2015.The results of the research, centred on the 107 cases handled by the social worker in these two years, conclude that the interdisciplinary early intervention supposes a minimization of the intervention by agents of child protection and reduction of the need of taking drastic measures in benefit of the empowerment of women as an active part of their process of change and resolution of their conflicts. While the 77.57 % of the treated cases have been referred to primary attention devices, only a 22.43 % have required the intervention of a child protection service.

Australian social work academics’ perceptions of their teaching roles within higher education

ABSTRACTThe marketisation of higher education (HE) has created a number of tensions and ideological dilemmas that may influence how academics see their roles and teaching practices. This paper explores how academics in the discipline of social work (who were also in leadership roles) perceive their roles and identities and manage the tensions and dilemmas that arise for them as teachers in the current HE environment. Unless the tensions and dilemmas are articulated, it is not possible to understand and manage their impact on academics. This may lead to the loss of quality learning experiences for students and lower workplace satisfaction. This paper addresses the research question: were there ideological dilemmas experienced by social work academics in the current environment and if so, what subject positions did they adopt in response to these? A discursive psychology approach was used to answer this question. Data showed a range of ideological dilemmas represented by each of the different subject positions adopted. The paper concludes with questions for readers to consider, generating ideas for transferring understanding of these ideological dilemmas into positive action within the workplace.

Unprecedented Move

In this issue, Dr. Venkat Pulla, Coordinator, Social Work Discipline & Senior Lecturer, Australian Catholic University, Australia (Brisbane Campus), writes the editorial on denominations by Modi Government to deal the pervasive corruption in India.

Operationalizing Social Work Science Through Research–Practice Partnerships

Recent efforts to identify and promote a distinct science for the discipline of social work have led to an ongoing debate regarding the nature and function of such a science. Central to this debate is a lack of consensus as to how to operationalize a social work science. Drawing from the field of implementation science and its application in reducing the gap between research and practice in child welfare and child mental health, this article examines the role of research–practice partnerships in creating and advancing social work science. Through the exercise of cultural exchanges among researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and other stakeholders, such partnerships offer the potential to integrate different disciplinary approaches to understanding why populations experience inequity or disadvantage and what to do about it as well as different perspectives on the nature and use of research evidence to achieve such understanding.

Diverse students and literacy in social work education: pedagogies for a new tertiary landscape

In the Western policy landscape, students from diverse cultural, linguistic, economic and other backgrounds are increasingly represented in an expanded tertiary education system. Structural and technological changes have challenged traditional pedagogies designed for more elite cohorts, and shifted the boundaries of textual practices in both universities and professional worlds. In spite of these momentous trends, university literacies often remain tacit and inaccessible to those new to them, and pedagogies rarely explicitly engage with the complexities of these shifting boundaries. University students unfamiliar with these tacit literacies can become marginalised and ultimately struggle with the literacy demands of their academic and professional worlds. This is problematic in social work education, as professional practice demands complex written and oral communication, with potentially significant social and legal repercussions. This paper reports on pedagogies initiated by action research in a Bachelor of Social Work programme in an Australian University. Pedagogies were introduced to make elite codes explicit, use students’ literacies as assets for learning and encourage ‘code switching’ between literacy practices to resist colonising into more powerful literacies. Students’ capacities in academic and professional literacies were significantly enhanced by these practices, and their cultural inheritances valorised, encouraging their contribution to the social work discipline.

Women’s social movements and social development: Opportunities for social work in Tanzania

Social work in Africa faces major challenges due to factors such as lack of resources, insufficient training schools and adequate curricula. In this situation, the actions of women’s social movements can be defined as social development, more in line with the needs of the local population. This article presents, through Tanzania’s case, how the actions of women’s social movements, where the discipline of social work is weakened, follow different models of social development. Their actions should be reckoned as an opportunity to overcome some of the challenges of the professional education and practice of social work in the continent.

Rejecting ‘the child’, embracing ‘childhood’: Conceptual and methodological considerations for social work research with young people

This article examines how the social studies of childhood can inform social work research. The first half of the article considers how notions of ‘childhood’ as a social construction diverge from normative, uniform and universal ideas of what might otherwise constitute ‘the child’. The second half then considers this discussion in regards to social work research. It considers the extent to which childhood scholarship has been used within the discipline of social work and illustrates this point by drawing upon recent empirical contributions to the foster care literature in the UK.

Innovación social comunitaria: miradas a una experiencia de ocupación de vivienda

Con este trabajo se busca reflexionar acerca del concepto de innovación social, interpelando su capacidad explicativa para la disciplina del Trabajo Social; para ello se pretende poner en diálogo algunos de los debates existentes en torno a este concepto y ofrecer unas dimensiones mínimas que permitan analizar las estrategias de innovación social que desarrollan ciertos colectivos afectados para responder a las necesidades sociales. Se trata de construir unas ‘gafas’ que permitan una mirada analítica a nuevas realidades y a las estrategias que desarrollan algunos colectivos sociales para resolver situaciones de vulnerabilidad severa. Finalmente se presenta un estudio de caso: una estrategia colectiva que pretende dar respuesta a problemas habitacionales severos y que se viene desarrollando en la ciudad de Sevilla, la Corrala Utopía. El artículo pone de relieve los elementos de innovación social comunitaria que produce la experiencia estudiada.

Theory and social work: A conceptual review of the literature

This article presents a conceptual review of the literature concerning social work and theory. Based on analysis of 93 research studies, drawn from literature in English published between 1968 and 2016, the review considers the many ways that theory is conceptualised in the literature, and asks meta‐theoretical questions about how and why different conceptualisations arise. The article examines definitional questions and ambiguities concerning the use of theory, extant research on the use of theory by social workers in practice, hostility expressed regarding theory in social work, the theory/practice divide and perspectives that emphasise theory's utility or functionality. The article points at some methodological and ethical limitations concerning current research, and summarises dominant, as well as less prominent, versions of what counts as theory within the social work discipline, before finally suggesting that further meta‐theoretical research is needed.

Teaching About Faith-Based Organizations in the Social Work Curriculum: Perspectives of Social Work Educators

ABSTRACTFaith-based organizations (FBOs) have an important presence in contemporary civil society and have gained further prominence through their repertoire of social welfare and services. This study engaged social work educators (n = 316) across nine countries to examine their perceptions of including discourses on faith and FBOs in the social work curriculum. Findings are discussed in terms of intercountry variations on whether FBOs should form a part of the social work curriculum, the curriculum objectives, content, and positioning, and whether the curricular orientation should promote partnerships/collaborations/synergies between FBOs and the discipline of social work.

Ką apie socialinio darbo discipliną pasako žurnalas STEPP?

Straipsnyje siekiama aptarti, ką apie socialinio darbo discipliną Vilniaus universitete gali pasakyti mokslo žurnalo STEPP (Socialinė teorija, empirija, politika ir praktika) raida. Pirmoje straipsnio dalyje pagrindžiama mokslo žurnalo ir disciplinos sąsajos tezė. Teigiama, kad žurnalo vertė yra tiesiogiai susijusi su akademinės disciplinos verte. Antroje straipsnio dalyje aptariami žurnalo vertės rodikliai. Skiriami dviejų tipų žurnalo vertės rodikliai: žurnalo turinio ir žurnalą apibūdinantys rodikliai. Trečioje straipsnio dalyje remiantis išskirtais antro tipo rodikliais yra analizuojama mokslo žurnalo STEPP raida. Gauti rezultatai leidžia teigti, kad tiek žurnalo STEPP, tiek socialinio darbo disciplinos vertės didėja.

El paradigma de la complejidad y la transdisciplinariedad: implicaciones para el Trabajo Social y su ley reguladora en Puerto Rico

The paper discusses the theoretical concepts related to the paradigm of complexity and transdisciplinarity associated to the organization of scientific knowledge. Starting from several previous writings, it proceeds to examine the implications of these theories for the discipline of social work. Furthermore, by examining the various proposals for the revision of the law governing the practice of social work in Puerto Rico, it provides an example of the conflicts between the paradigms of simplicity and complexity in addressing the practice of social work in the country. Finally, recommendations to integrate the principles of the paradigm of complexity in the legal statutes regulating the profession in Puerto Rico are articulated.

A missing ethical competency? A review of critical reflection in health promotion.

There is increasing emphasis in the health promotion literature on the ethical imperative for the profession to move towards critical practice. A key challenge for health promotion is that critical practice appears both under-developed and under-practiced. This is evident in the omission of critical reflection from Australian and international competencies for health promotion practitioners. A narrative literature review was undertaken to explore the current use of critical reflection in health promotion. Critical reflection models relevant to health promotion were identified and critiqued. There was a dearth of literature on critical reflection within health promotion, despite recognition of its potential to support critical practice. The discipline of critical social work provided literature on the use, effect and outcome of critical reflection in practice. The interdisciplinary critical reflection model was identified as the model most applicable to health promotion. Underpinned by critical theory, this model emphasises both critical and ethical practice. Critical reflection is a core competency for health promotion practitioners to address the ethical imperative to move towards critical practice. There is a need to explore the application of a critical reflection model in health promotion to determine how it may support critical and ethical practice. So what? If health promotion is to meet its ethical responsibilities, then critical reflection needs to be articulated as a core health promotion competency and a model for its application in health promotion developed.

Changing identities, changing realities: Social work research in a cold climate

The potential of a researcher development initiative (RDI) programme to develop capacity within the social work discipline will be explored from my personal perspective as a former participant in one of the earlier RDI programmes. Having undertaken the programme after entering an academic post from practice, I hope to illustrate some of the challenges that new academics face and how such programmes can provide support in the transition from practitioner to academic, both as a lecturer/teacher and a researcher. The strengths and limitations of such programmes will be explored, including measures to address systemic weakness in social science research in the UK. I will argue that, although such programmes cannot change the everyday realities of insufficient time and dwindling research funding, they can provide a genuinely welcoming and supportive introduction to the world of social work research that helps new academics and early career researchers to negotiate these realities with increased knowledge, skills and confidence.

Embedding peer support using social work values

Purpose – The employment of mental health consumers as peer support workers (PSWs) to provide support to other consumers is gaining momentum around the world. The purpose of this paper is to explore the tensions and dilemmas for a social worker in developing a peer support programme at an inpatient psychiatric service in Australia. The author draws on her experience of embedding a peer support programme providing an insight into the difficulties experienced and strategies used which supported the embedding of PSWs. The discipline of social work has complimentary values to the philosophy of peer support as well as the skills to manage the broad range of activities and tasks associated with developing a new programme. Due to the profession’s underlying knowledges and values social work is able to act as a bridge between mental health professionals such as doctors and nurses and PSWs giving social workers the ability to “interpret” the divergent languages, values, beliefs and practices. Design/methodology/approach – A retrospective analysis of peer support programme implementation using social work values as a point of reference. Findings – The author draws on her experience of embedding a peer support programme providing an insight into the difficulties experienced and strategies used which supported the embedding of PSWs. Due to the profession’s underlying knowledges and values social work is able to act as a bridge between mental health professionals such as doctors and nurses and PSWs giving social workers the ability to “interpret” the divergent languages, values, beliefs and practices. Social implications – This paper arose out of a conference presentation and author’s Master’s Dissertation, for which she received honours marks. During the period she was implementing the peer support programme, there was a dearth of local (Australian) literature about peer support programme development; this paper is a response to that need as the author would have greatly appreciated some local wisdom about embedding peer support programmes. Originality/value – The authors believe this is a unique approach to a journal paper; certainly the authors have not discovered anything of its ilk previously. There is a lot of material available now about peer support, its benefits and challenges, and many are written by social work, psychology, psychiatric and nursing academics but without overt statement of the professional values which inform their practice.

Sudarshan Kriya of the Art of Living Foundation: Applications to Social Work Practice

This paper draws from the experiences of 1099 participants of the Sudarshan Kriya technique of the Art of Living Foundation. The randomly drawn sample of participants had successfully completed the Sudarshan Kriya part 1 and 2 and/or the Sahaj Samadhi Meditation courses in the city of Mumbai, India. Sudarshan Kriya was largely perceived to be effective for a general feeling of peace and well-being. The analysis brings out differentials in the perceived efficacy by socio-demographic profiles, health status and self-practice/follow up attendance through the multiple linear regression model. Logistic regression analysis showed that apart from certain other factors like being currently married, better qualified and in service/employment, self-practice and regular follow up attendance were crucial predictors for the efficacy of Sudarshan Kriya. Further, the paper builds a frame for applications of Sudarshan Kriya to social work containing aspects of: episteme, practical steps and possible efficacy parameters. The hegemonic propensities of promoting such a technique within the social work discipline have also been discussed. In the conclusion, perceived efficacy of Sudarshan Kriya technique and what it implies for social work has been discussed through some relevant literature.

The help system and its reflection theory: a sociological observation of social work

The relation between sociology and social work is analysed in this article as a relation between observer and object of observation. As a theoretical framework, we use Luhmannian systems theory, according to which modern society is characterised by functional differentiation, that is a horizontal structure of function systems such as polity, economy, education, science, law, etc. Each of these fulfils a particular function for society. One such system is the help system, referring to social services and their practice. Its societal function is the management of inclusion/exclusion and social integration. Function systems contain what Luhmann calls ‘reflection theories’, which are associated with specific academic disciplines (such as the political system/political theory/political science or the education system/pedagogical theory/educational science). Although their basic operations are linked to science (research, theories and methods, publications), reflection theories are part of their system; their function is to reflect on the unity and meaning of the function system. This article argues that the discipline of social work serves as the reflection theory for the help system. A solid reflection theory in the help system is important in order to define guiding criteria for professional ethics to be used in social services. The lack of an adequate reflection theory can lead to the intrusion of ideologies that are inappropriate to the logic of the help system, such as New Public Management or administrative technocracy, which might threaten the integrity of the help system.