GROUP WORK ASSIGNMENT ON: - ANTI-OPPRESSIVE PRACTICE
Name – KOUSHIK MAHATO
Enrolment No. - M2015CJ010
Course Teacher - Prof. BIPIN JOJO
INTRODUCTION
‘Anti-Oppressive Practice’- is an umbrella term that encircles radical, structural, critical, feminist, liberal, anti-racist framework practice approaches. But it is not limited within those approaches. Anti-Oppressive social work is a practice represents the theories and approaches of social justice. Anti-Oppressive Practice (AOP) is reflecting deferent types of views and theories in a practice approach. According to Baines.D (2007, p.4) : ‘Rather than a single approach, aop is an umbrella term for a number of social justice-oriented approaches to social work, including feminist, Marxist, postmodernist, Indigenous, poststructuralist, critical constructionist, anti-colonial, and anti-racist. These approaches draw on social activism and collective organizing as well as a sense that social services can and should be provided in ways that integrate liberatory understandings of social problems and human behaviour. As part of larger movements for social change, aop is constantly refining its theory and practice to address new tensions and social problems as well as underlying structural factors.’ Other hand AOP is providing social justice in structural inequalities, social division, social status, and social power. The feminist social work thinker Dominelli, L. (1998,p.24) said that –“
Within this essay the areas in which discrimination and oppression occur will be highlighted and then evaluated to show how ‘good’ anti oppressive/ discriminative practice within social work can ‘aid’ and empower service users who are in groups that experience oppression and discrimination to overcome their problems. Gil (1994) states that “the conditions that cause people to seek help from social services are usually direct or indirect consequences of social, economic, and political institutions, and... the profession of social work is ethically committed to promote social justice. Insights into oppression and social
Social work is based on respect for the inherent worth and dignity of all people as expressed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights(1948) It is therefore of paramount importance that a social work professional should work towards promoting the best interests of individuals and groups in society. I very much recognize the contribution that social work brings to inclusion having worked alongside social workers during the course of my shadowing placement. I possess a real commitment to promote equality which I have had the pleasure of doing in a multitude of different roles. From academic journals as well as my lecture notes I now appreciate the central importance of using the fundamental principles of human rights and equality to underpin my practice, and the inherent need to promote justice in relation with the people I will work.
1 Anti-Discriminatory Practice in Counselling identifies the ease with which individuals can be disadvantaged merely on the basis of their gender, race, culture, age, sexuality or ability.
In relation to social work diversity does not simply mean difference in race and gender but also the unnoticeable differences such as values, religion, social background, economic wellbeing and political beliefs. It is important to acknowledge and understand diversity in social work as there have been matters of holding assumptions and prejudices about an individual or group in the manner they are treated and the services they receive. The issue with making assumptions and prejudices is acknowledged in the Social Work Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) as domain 3 explains that diversity is multi-dimensional, diversity can effect an individual’s life experience in a positive or negative way. This is due to the issues that occur with differences such as oppression, marginalisation and alienation as well as the positive side which includes privilege, power and acclaim (Capabilities within the PCF, 2014). “Anti- oppressive practice
Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.
Anti-oppressive groupwork theory remains focused on ending socioeconomic oppression while valuing empowerment, diversity and accountability for the powerful (Adams, Dominelli & Payne 2002). Anti-oppressive practice involves reflecting on power, listening to the oppressed, and challenging oppression while connecting and collaborating with the people experiencing oppression (Rogers 2012). It includes identifying issues as well as joining with people to challenge and instigate change (Rogers 2012). Anti-oppressive principles will become the foundation for my practice to minimise power differences and become agents of change and promote social justice.
In order to achieve their goals, the social service providers who engage in AOP try to link two crucial tenets within the AOP; providing personal and individual help to people categorized as disempowered and also engaging with social movements that are connected or working together with the disempowered people. This way, the social service providers have succeeded in illuminating private problems as public problems and rousing public concern (Hick S.F., 2002).
The purpose of anti-oppressive models is to promote equality and social justice, whilst stopping oppression; these are supported by the Equality Act 2010. These models and theories were not perfect such as the Systems Theory which suggests that people are not individuals but operate together as a system, this can create difficulties if the person does not fit in the system and can be seen as an outsider and this theory does not explain why things happen or suggest how change can be made or challenge oppression. Another is he Task Centred Approach, this is a mental approach focusing on beliefs and works on a strict time limit to motivate people and make them more committed, this however may not be useful in long term mental issues and oversimplifies
This chapter focuses on anti-oppression and anti-discrimination practice. We will be looking at what is meant by these terms and the law which underpins them. We will explore the different ways people are affected by oppression and how to combat it. Evaluate society’s stereotypical images of groups of people in society and the principles of positive action and anti-oppression.
IntroductionThis paper discusses and explores both case studies in order to find the powers and duties a social worker acting in a statutory capacity might exercise in these cases, how might they be exercised and how might wider principles of welfare law impact on their decision making? It also analyses the tensions and dilemmas that may exist, referring to specific legislative provisions, and identify how anti-oppressive practice might influence the resolution of these case studies. It also demonstrates an ability to study relevant law in social work practice and have a critical and analytical understanding of the service delivery standards and powers and duties of social workers, demonstrate a working knowledge and understanding of key
A Social Worker’s reflection on Power, Privilege and Oppression, this is the title of Michael Spence’s article, but what really does that mean? Spence talks about his personal experiences in life that dealt with all three of these aspects, power, privilege and oppression. In this paper this writer will also talk about power, privilege and oppression in regard to Spence’s outlook on the topic. What is power? How does it relate to Social Workers and social situations? Is privilege really something that can be given to you just based on race and where you grew up, or how you were raised? Lastly Oppression, what causes one type of social group to be oppressed?
However, resistance, alternatives, and social justice should be encouraged to social workers to maintain hope that even little changes can have a big impact. In my own way I hope to do this through my MSW thesis research by focusing on organizational culture values and comparing and contrasting to those found within social justice. This paper will build off of themes and ideas raised in my reflection paper for my MSW course Social Work 701: Social Policy: Critical Frameworks (please see appendix A). In particular I will look at the conditions (political, social, cognitive, and cultural) on which resistance, alternatives, and
As Sellick, Delaney & Brownlee state in the article The deconstruction of Professional Knowledge: Accountability without Authority as social workers we need to be accountable for what we do and a say to service users, and they mention that if we are not able to critique and deconstruct our own knowledge we are not able to pass it on to others. We need to be able to see how it is problematic, and make sure that it is not associated with domination and control, if it is then we are doing the exact same thing as society has done to service users as we try and put them in the “other” category and make them feel less worthy. We must show that we are non-threating in a sense and that we do not want to be too authoritative where and individual just see you as another person who is perpetuating the power relations on to them (2002). This also fits into the article The contours of Anti-Black Racism: Engaging Anti-Oppression from Embodied Spaces as it relates to the same message with knowing that anti-oppressive practice is completely different and everyone goes about it different and puts their own spin on things but the main thing we need to understand that it is always going to be different. We must always do a critical-reflection and make sure that we are not imposing our views and beliefs onto others, and we should always be willing to critique our own practice to improve it, in anyway we can and making sure those power relations are not there (Kumsa et al.,2014). Sellick et al.
Shariah literally means path or way to place the water in the desert. It is because many Arabs who lived during the time of the Prophet (PBUH) is influenced by the ways of the desert. Water and direction where the water is come is important for their lives. Shariah is like the direction to go to something good and useful for our good.
Ultranationalists represent an extreme version of nationalism, as one’s supreme loyalty towards their nation is held with an emotional bond as well as, held by a sense of danger, fearing that their way of living is at risk, which results in a lack of tolerance towards those deemed ‘foreign.’ Through analysis of various ultranationalist ads and videos, I will employ critical thinking in order to identify the deeper meaning within each example. Through analysis, I will examine the background through the US history of racist treatment of non-white populations with the goal of coming to a conclusion about the effects of racial attitudes. Thus, I will begin by analyzing the European examples of ultranationalism and neo-nazism.