Critical Practice in a Changing Context

This research study explored the perspectives of social work students (n = 118) in the final semester of their studies regarding the implementation of critical social work in their future practices. Using performance ethnographies to collect data, students were asked to share their perspectives about implementing critical social work both in individual interventions and as a way to change the practice of mainstream social work organisations. Research ethnographies were analysed using a descriptive phenomenological approach, in an attempt to describe the shared essential experience of participants. Results demonstrated that students are influenced by several lines of thinking that come into direct conflict with one another: (i) they feel that critical social work is essential for individual interventions while also feeling that critical social work is not a priority for individual interventions and (ii) they feel that critical social work should and could change mainstream social work organisations while also feeling that critical social work should not and could not change mainstream social work organisations. These results contribute to a better understanding of the barriers in implementing critical social work, as well as the dilemmas and questions that should be addressed in social work education. Implications for social work education are outlined.

Co-designing with service users is an increasingly common practice in social and community service organizations and one that graduate social workers are likely to encounter. The potential benefits of using co-design for social work are that service users become active participants in problem solving and develop creative solutions to social issues that may not be achieved by more traditional methods of intervention. However, co-design in social work education is considered a novel approach to working with diverse stakeholders to address issues of mutual concern. Therefore, graduates may not be equipped to engage with co-design and other forms of design thinking are through a critical lens. Herein lies a challenge. How might social work academics equip students with co-design skills in ways that complement critical social work ethics, practices and values? This paper analyzes the alignment of critical social work with the problem-solving focus of co-design and examines the implications for social work academics when preparing graduates to work in critical and creative ways within organizations employing social workers. This article makes an original contribution to the emerging literature on social work education and co-design in neoliberal contexts.

For this chapter, critical social work in wealthy welfare state contexts is oriented as a disciplinary formation shaped by its scholars and educators, subject to shifts in the role of the university and embedded in broader geopolitical contexts. My point of departure is the question of “passing on,” of reproducing, critical social work from one generation to the next through the pedagogical and scholarly channels of a university discipline. Grounded in feminist traditions, my founding premise is that standpoints—perspectives, orientations, vantage points, lenses, attunements—are shared rather than individual. Moreover, shared standpoints, such as those signalled by a “critical social work,” must be built and rebuilt over time and place. I therefore conceptualise social work as a worldmaking project that exceeds the state, university, or profession, or indeed, any one generation’s sense of the possible and the desirable, and I identify and discuss two major generational shifts requiring greater consideration in critical iterations of professional social work.

Although critical social work (CSW) is an important framework for addressing racism and oppression within social work, few studies have examined CSW education. This study assessed CSW educational opportunities, student attitudes, and the effect of CSW exposure on student learning via a survey administered to undergraduate and graduate social work students (N=191). Findings suggest that students have a strong interest in CSW, but that classroom and field placement opportunities are inconsistent. Linear regression model results demonstrate that student knowledge of and interest in CSW are significant predictors of higher scores on the Diversity and Oppression Scale (Windsor et al., 2015). Based on the study findings, recommendations regarding curriculum development and field placement policies for social work educators are discussed.

It has been categorically asserted that Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy, dwelling on accepting responsibility for the ‘Other’, can be used to bolster the theorisation of ‘critical social work’. Furthermore, a number of social work academics maintain that his complex contributions create a new framework for working across ‘differences’. In contrast, this article will challenge these assertions, shedding light on an array of deeply problematic aspects of Levinas’s philosophy and politics. These have so far been omitted in the way he has been presented to a social work readership. Particular attention will be paid to Levinas’s self-proclaimed Euro-centrism and racist condescension toward those beyond Europe. The discussion will then turn to explore his ethnic nationalism which functions to conceptually misrecognise, disrespect and discursively delete Palestinians.

This chapter provides a concise overview of the life and career of Jacques Derrida, exploring how his substantive philosophical writing could be relevant to a critical social work pedagogy and practice. Derrida was a leading philosopher of what is commonly known as deconstruction, and while never explicitly writing to social work, his later work became more overtly political, and hence of relevance. Following a biographical sketch, the ‘traces’ of some key elements of his work (the ‘trace’ used in a specific Derridean way) are outlined, foregrounding three key threads, all equally important, all interlinked: Deconstruction as ‘opening up’ texts, programmes and institutions; The ‘passion of not knowing’ – on alterity, the ‘other’ and hospitality; The hauntology of justice, the imperative to activism. Overall, these three threads summons an ethics of learning. From this ethics of learning several signposts are offered for a critical and deconstructive social work pedagogy and practice, with a particular focus on what it could mean for students to respond to the summons of the learning moment, and the obligation to listen (and read) critically in a particular way recognising that a deconstructive hermeneutic always is an intervention, an interruption, a disruption – an ‘encounter’ summonsing action.

INTRODUCTION: The practice and teaching of western social work is shaped within the institutional context of a predominately managerial higher education sector and neoliberal societal context that valorises the individual. Critical feminist social work educators face constraints and challenges when trying to imagine, co-construct, enact and improve ways to engage in the communal relationality of critical feminist pedagogy.APPROACH: In this article, the authors draw upon the literature and use a reflective, inductive approach to explore and analyse observations made about efforts to engage with a subversive pedagogy whilst surviving in the neoliberal academy.CONCLUSION: While the article draws on experiences of social work teaching and research in a regional Australian university, the matters explored are likely to have resonance for social work education in other parts of the world. A tentative outline for thinking about the processes involved in co-creating a critical feminist pedagogical practice is offered.

This piece shares a practical participation assignment that emphasizes community-building, activism, collective learning, and contributions. Grounded in critical and inclusive pedagogical approaches, this assignment strives to create and model critical social work practices that require learners to be thoughtful and intentional about their engagement with the community both within and beyond the borders of the virtual classroom. We included this participation assignment in asynchronous online critical social work courses and continue to develop the assignment based on student experiences and feedback. We share the strengths of the assignment, for example, community-building, mutual peer support, countering the isolation that is commonly experienced in online learning, critical self-reflection and self-evaluation, opportunities for student choice, and encouragement of social justice activism outside of the course, and bringing this back into the course in meaningful ways. We also indicate contradictions and challenges of the assignment, for instance, individualistic expectations of participation, resistance from learners to non-traditional assignments, unsettling dominance in curriculum, and the corresponding implications on student evaluations. Lastly, we share our hopeful roadmap for support and implementation of critical and inclusive pedagogical approaches for online social work education and creative assignments that build community inside and outside our learning and teaching contexts.

Introduction: critical social work and why we need it Part One - Theory and Context: Critical social work: theory and concepts Critical social work in the neoliberal world: challenging times Part Two - Practice considerations: Child protection and looked-after children Children in need and those with mental health issues Young offenders and youth justice Asylum-seeking and refugee children and families Disabled children and families Conclusion: critical social work and its future

This chapter considers the steady turn away from social theory within social work generally, and the unintended consequences of this for critical social work specifically. Historically, social theoretical concepts and forms of argumentation have played a decisive role in shaping the ideational and normative agenda of critical social work. The chapter argues that that the advancement of critical social work must be understood as part of a wider turn away from social theory within social work, in particular as realized by the steady decline in the perceived value, applicability and relevance of the former for the latter. It discusses the changing relations between social work, sociology and social theory, in particular the steady separating out of each from the other over time. The chapter suggests that the breakdown in the triadic relationship between sociology, social theory and social work, in part concerns the steady separating out of each from the other.

This performance ethnography presents a multi-vocal dialog of a group of social workers and social work students dealing with personal and professional issues of critical social work. Performance ethnography is an innovative qualitative research method that uses a dramatic medium to bridge between theory and personal experiences and between research, teaching, and learning. Through personal writing and a discussion of an intervention story, we present our experience with critical social work. The play-like structure presents the group dialog as an important medium for encouraging critical reflexivity and for reviving theoretical critical social work concepts with personal and practical meanings.

The article stresses the continuing significance of keyword-anchored theorising in critical social work. Paying particular attention to England and Wales, the focus is on care as a keyword. Care is central within a range of discourses impinging on social work and social policy in connection with the evolution of community care, the long-term care of the increasing proportions of older people, the treatment of children and young people in the public care system, and debates about unpaid carers. While not claiming to be exhaustive, the article maintains that dwelling on care, as a keyword, can illuminate how, at least, three connected dimensions are significant: care and neoliberal globalism; care and neoliberal labour processes; and care, commodification and corruption.

We begin the introductory chapter by reviewing the current state of knowledge about care in social work. The historical and current concerns about the dangers of paternalistic and colonialist forms of care in social work are presented. This involves engaging with the critique that the contemporary discussions about care reflect a Western bias that ignores Indigenous and inter-cultural framings of care. We also interrogate the gender dimensions of care, moving away from essentialist views that posit natural differences between men’s and women’s ways of thinking. Drawing from wider interdisciplinary discussions and international research that focuses on creating critical and political forms of care, we develop a conceptual framework for new ways of thinking about and doing care in critical social work. We take a consistently anti-colonialist and intersectional approach to the development of a critical ethic of care in social work. The chapter concludes with a substantive guide to the reader in which we synthesise the contributions of the book’s authors, demonstrating what a critical ethic of care means in specific contexts and with specific forms of practice.

Social work is uniquely positioned as a profession concerned with people in their environments, social justice, the intersection of mental and physical health, food insecurity, poverty, inequity, racism, and the ongoing impact of trauma and traumatic events. As a profession we recognize growing eco-anxiety, eco-guilt, and climate grief in response to escalating climate change, global warming, environmental disasters, and the destruction of finite resources. People, young people especially, are feeling more hopeless, overwhelmed, and helpless in the face of daily alerts about the state of the planet. It is becoming harder to simultaneously hold space for grief and hope, or indeed to know what to do with intense feelings and worries. Anxiety and depression in young people are an epidemic and climate grief has a significant role to play in the growth of mental health concerns. Climate grief, much like grief in general, is not well understood, nor is it often addressed in social work education, clinical practice or in grief groups dealing primarily with individual losses while many in attendance may simultaneously be carrying mourning for a home that is in dire straits. The calls for grief activism, resilience, action, and hope can lead to less sense of personal, or collective power, and not more, as people struggle to find ways to contribute to the fight to halt the speeding train of climate change and global warming. Pro-environmental behaviors are gaining acceptance and increasingly being adopted, following role models, embracing minimalism and simplicity, being more mindful of veganism and vegetarianism, the tiny home movement, reducing reliance on coal and oil, sustainability efforts, reaffirming Indigenous worldviews and ways of being, managing pollution and carbon emissions, a return to bartering, creating, upcycling, reusing, and recycling all help. Accelerated efforts to reforest, consume energy mindfully, substitute green products, promote electric vehicles, and push back against rampant consumerism and untethered capitalism have made inroads. However, even these seem inadequate when they are not taken up by large segments of the population or are directly scoffed at by climate change deniers. As a result, critical social work, environmental social work, eco-social work and those skilled in grief and bereavement work have attempted to push back against an individualistic worldview that allows for the ongoing destruction of our home. Social work can teach about grief, loss, ritual, and community in ways that address the growing despair we are all feeling. This talk will outline climate grief and ecoanxiety and detail ways we as social workers can support, educate, and inform ourselves, our colleagues, students, friends, families, and clients. Discussion and problem solving will be welcomed wholeheartedly.

The systematic dehumanization of people with disabilities in peaceful times is magnified in times of war and during post-war periods, especially in regions and countries with prevalent medical-pathological approaches towards individuals with disabilities. This discussion combines historical, current, and anticipated impacts and integrates the experiences of practitioners and communities. Using critical social work and critical disability studies perspectives, we have questioned what we need to attend to in social work to ensure that, in war, we do not overlook people with impairments. We also ask how the lives of people living in long-term institutions have been affected and what has changed since the outbreak of war. Their rights have long been overlooked. The war zone in Ukraine provides a critical case study intended to increase sensitivity and understanding among academics and social work professionals about the needs and rights of people with disabilities, and about the multi-dimensional barriers and hazards, visible and invisible, that they experience in times of armed conflict and its aftermath. It is argued that this is a global and mainstream concern, not a marginal topic. New emphasis is given to social work's potential and shared responsibilities to contribute to the realization of the rights of people with disabilities in a war context, through training, research, practice, and policy.