Reflection And Critical Self-Awareness In Social Work

You will reflect on your lived experiences, values, personal beliefs and their connection to your growing professional identity as a social worker. The purpose is to develop a critical self-awareness through reflection. The other aim is to identify visible and invisible forms of oppressions and privilege that shape our values and approaches to issues of racial and ethnic oppression, social and economic disadvantage, gender and disability.

Though this task is reflective you are expected to locate your arguments within broader concepts of intersectionality, privilege, critical reflexivity, critical reflection and oppression covered in the course readings. I expect that you will use up to 15-20 peer-reviewed references.

See below some questions/themes that can guide you in the writing of the essay:
1. Your efforts to locate yourself personally and professionally in the context of social work and consider the realities of the world of practice.
2. How are your values reflected in social work?
3. How has the practice of reflection assisted in the development of personal growth?
4. Your social location and identity gender, age, ethnicity, culture/faith, sexuality, class or any other characteristic that is of significance to you.
5. Consider key aspects of your identity.
6. How does your awareness of ‘self’ influence your practice? 

The Importance of Reflection in Social Work

Refection or composition of self-reflective writing can become extremely helpful in any aspect or field of study. Due to the capability of reflection writing, it is increasingly being used to any form of study or learning (Van Manen, 2016). Social workers use it as a tool that lets us explore our qualities, capabilities, and potentials which is in many ways form a central part of social work education and practices. It is specifically crucial for social workers while they get into working in new settings. Reflection helps us understand ourselves with the opportunity for exploring our thought process. The opportunity lets us review our perspective of situations and decision making. Social workers do not have any concrete boundaries apart from the ethics when it comes to social practices which makes it essential for social workers to be aware of their own strengths, weakness, and limitation (Redmond, 2017). A reflection is a form of critical reflective practice that helps in reflecting on past experiences and understanding the behavior patterns. There have been decidedly fewer researches that actually focused on the way reflection can help. However, several social workers use this method too and explore the possibilities and limits in every aspect such as approach, results and other areas. In this essay, I will discuss one of my lived experience, personal beliefs, values, and their connections to my growing professional identity as a social worker. The refection will help me develop a critical self-awareness. The essay will also aim to identify visible and invisible forms of oppression and privilege that shapes our values. Also, the essay will be inclusive of approaches to issues of racial and ethnic oppression, social and economic disadvantage, gender and disability.

Cultural competency: Social work is a form of career that involves working with a diverse population. It is one of the main characteristic of this particular field and therefore it is essential to have a broader spectrum of cultural diversity (Mareno & Hart, 2014). Cultural competence can be defined as the process through which people and groups effectively respond to the people belonging to another cultural background with respect and affirmation. People across the world belong to a different culture, classes, races, ethnic backgrounds, religions and speaking different languages (Isaacson, 2014). It is vital to ensure people despite their cultural background to be treated equally with the protection and preservation of dignity. It is an essential element for the social workers while delivering service to be aware and make it a priority. When a social worker respects, honor, and values diversity in theory and practice, cultural competency occur in social work (Bailey, 2015). As a social worker, I would require the same to have within me in order to deliver my best services. To be sensitive to their values which are indeed different than mine is the kind of behavior that is required in my field. There are incidents that I have come across in my past which have let me understand the importance of cultural competency.

Cultural Competency in Social Work

Reflecting on my experience: My hometown is in a nation that has diverse ethnic groups and communities. There are several diverse ethnic groups. As a part of the nation and being brought up in the country that is multicultural by characteristic, I have had the scope of broadening my thinking about people from different culture and get the idea of understanding their perspective. I have grown up with people from different cultural background however there were no profound discrimination. Although it could be due to being limited to a small society. While I was working with a healthcare institute in one of the cities in my nation I was able to witness situations that showed concepts we only learn theoretically. As I was the part of those situations, it added valuable experiences to my career. While I was working in the healthcare institution as an assistant teacher, several parents of the children I taught would visit doctors. Although the doctors were there to help the financially weak parents often, their behavior would differ. I would often get to listen to the problem faced by the parents when they visited the doctors in my class. It was a bothersome practice that was going on in the healthcare institution. I began noting down the issues that were faced by the parents when I discovered that it was only a section that mainly met the problems. It was not surprising that the obstacles they faced were in reality discrimination. It was primarily the aboriginal female mothers who would face such discrimination. On various grounds, discrimination was made, and treatment to the poor children’s parents was provided on the basis of their race, gender, ethnicity, cultural background and the region they belonged. The entire experience was common and only very few people were concerned about it. When the matter would go to the higher administrative department, the most common answer would be related to their social position and cultural background. The surprising part was the way we can see the powerful people, powerful in the aspect of wealth and position, can act in an arbitrary way to ensure their positions.

The experience of a few months has thought me several concepts of society with examples. Therefore, reflecting on this particular experience, I can explain the concepts it becomes easy to explain the concepts that are perceived in society.

Privilege: the term privilege can be explained as an exclusive right or advantage that is granted to only a specific person or group (Letwin, 2013). The unique advantage lets the person or group enjoy that may not be available to other section of the society. In this particular context, the granting of a privilege can be noted to the doctors. The doctors who are in a dominant position and the people visiting the doctors are the people are oppressed section. It was not hard to find the cause of mistreatment. The term ‘privilege’ is well associated with oppression (Cho, Crenshaw & McCall, 2013). Not necessarily the oppression has to be with consciousness and willfully. The oppression of the weaker section can be overt, convert, deliberate as well as unconscious. There are different forms of privilege in the society experienced by various groups, however in this particular experience it was the doctors who were from the dominant culture seemed to oppress the suppressed group unconsciously.

Reflecting on Personal Experience: Oppression and Privilege

Oppression: Various types of oppression can be noted in the society, and they are institutionalized and internal. Institutionalized oppression is when a person acts or policy is enacted unjustly against an individual or to a specific group (Omi & Winant, 2014). Internal oppression is when the majority of the group tend to believe and act the way the dominant group has portrayed values and lifeways as the best form despite reality. Internal oppression deals with self-hate, self-censorship, shame and cultural realities. Internal oppression occurs when the dominant group continues practices an act until it is generalized (David & Derthick, 2014). In the same way, the women who were repeatedly ignored and not treated by the doctors on the very first visit believed that by belonging to the low-class families they were supposed to be treated in that way. Continuous avoidance, mistreatment, and ill-treatment were considered normal by those women.

Racism: A very common practice in many places where people are treated and respected on basis of their ethnicity, color or cultural background. It is the most common cause of social inequality noted in the place where I have been practicing my teaching assistants (Cloward & Ohlin, 2013). Since the women belong to aboriginal sources, they were seen as a group who are meant to lack behind. Not only in healthcare, but in every aspect they are faced with challenges. The discriminations were not addressed by the healthcare, and the women who belonged from aboriginal background faced discrimination. They faced longer days of awaiting, higher prices of medicines that were often not affordable or even not allowed to visit doctors on first appointments (Bailey et al., 2017).

Whiteness: this is an invisible factor that has been normalized in society for the most number of days. Whiteness is a factor that is deeply enrooted as the factor of dominance tendency. Whiteness is the permanence skin color that is presumed as a mark of superiority (Noble, 2013). For years it has been seen as a salient feature of power and position, especially in the regions where people with different skin color existed. The definition provided by Walter for whiteness is a norm that is invisible and works against the ‘other’ races. It has aided in the construction of identity, representation, subjectivity, nationalism and the law (Habibis et al., 2016). The perception of this superiority is still implemented implicitly in many places, and people with different skin color are deprived of their fundamental human rights. The similar discrimination has been observed in the behavior of the healthcare workers who were responsible for providing treatment top the mothers of the children. A sense of oppression and discrimination could be easily understood when the priority of their treatment was given to the non-aboriginal mothers.

Intersectionality: the argument of intersectionality presents that every individual and their lives are impacted and defined by the status that they hold. The way an individual lives his or her life is highly influenced by his or her statuses in society. Also, his or identity has a significant part to play in it (Carastathis, 2014). A person can face challenges only for the reason of holding just a specific position in society that other people may not encounter (King, 2016). A good example would be a working woman who is faced with gender and economic discrimination. When there are cumulative disadvantages of one’s identity, it is referred to as intersectionality.

Understanding Privilege and Oppression

Reflecting on my experience, the women who were faced with discriminations had several social positions related to their identity that society makes it a reason for discrimination. Looking at the women, it was prominent that the profound discriminations were based on race, gender, and economic status. The skin color was a determinant based on which discrimination is made. Belonging from lower economic classes they are also suppressed under the dominant group. Also, the gender discrimination is a major social issue that is observed in this specific experience. Combining the three aspects, the situation is hard to deal and make differences. People suffering are faced with several challenges resulting from discrimination, including education, healthcare and financial.

The ways reflecting on my experience has helped me: The experience with the underprivileged children and interaction with their mother have certainly given an insight into the aboriginal’s life and the challenges they face on a daily basis. Working in that atmosphere, I developed the respect for the people with other cultural traits and cultural practices. Values and norms from different culture helped me understand that the way I grew up amidst multicultural society, it should be in the same way. Although I grew up among people belonging to different backgrounds, I was not aware of the discrimination and challenges they go through. Also, the discrimination reaches to a great extent leading to severe social issues that need immediate attention. Looking at the experience, I was able to use my skills of getting along with people quickly. Since I was already familiar with people from different culture, there was no scope for me to experience culture shock. However, there was more learning. I developed a system of looking at situations from different perspectives. In a better way, the experience has built the ability to utilize and acquire values, knowledge, and skills in the means through which diversity can be made a competent practice. A system of feeling, acting and thinking that opens the door in order to actively seek knowledge and develop values consistent in identifying and addresses issues that are sensitive in nature. Also, the experience has developed within me the interest to integrate new ideas which might be uncomfortable however much needed. To be a true professional by giving up my comfort zone was one of the hard work that I learned and now feel comfortable performing it. Often it is necessary to reach out and learn things that are required even when it is not within my professional area. I have learned that it is essential to the same in order to be better and do increase my limit of capabilities.

Moreover, I have gained the ability to solve and work out people’s problems. There are a couple of ways one can learn several things while helping people solve a problem. Since every individual is different from one another. Dealing with people with different cultural background has given me the opportunity of exploring my capabilities of understanding people’s psychology to a great extent. Before the experience, I was a person with some degree, knowledge, and skills however the chance of implementing those knowledge was only when I was into the field working with the underprivileged children. The sight of discrimination taught me the need to become a social worker and encourage more people to do so as well. The social issue of racial discrimination is not something that appeared within a few years. The injustice has been occurring since a very long period, and the damage is too significant to be controlled in few years. The experiences have given me the clarity that I want to make a difference in the world, especially for the aboriginals of the state.

Types of Oppression in Society

There is a need for professionals to develop their skills and practices continuously. Reflection is a method through which social workers can learn from their own experiences. It is now a universally stated goal that social workers will need to use reflection to learn and develop their practice. There have been decidedly fewer researches that actually focused on the way reflection can help. However, as stated above, several social workers use this method too and explore the possibilities and limits in every aspect such as approach, results and other areas. Reflection is a way of evaluating own minds. The experience that I have discussed above helps me to figure out the benefits of practicing reflection. Social work is a kind of career that involves working with a diverse population. It is one of the main characteristic of this particular field and therefore it is essential. The practices I have performed, the interaction I had with several people during that time has let me implement my theories into practice. Also, reflecting on it gives me a better understanding of situations. If there is any way that could have produced a better result is what the aim of reflection writing. In the end, I can conclude that the reflection writing of past experience is undoubtedly one of the best tools of evolving as a social worker. It is also a way to explore an individual's capabilities and potentials.

References:

Bailey, M. L. (2015). Cultural competency and the practice of public administration. In Diversity and Public Administration(pp. 179-196). Routledge.

Bailey, Z. D., Krieger, N., Agénor, M., Graves, J., Linos, N., & Bassett, M. T. (2017). Structural racism and health inequities in the USA: evidence and interventions. The Lancet, 389(10077), 1453-1463.

Carastathis, A. (2014). The concept of intersectionality in feminist theory. Philosophy Compass, 9(5), 304-314.

Cho, S., Crenshaw, K. W., & McCall, L. (2013). Toward a field of intersectionality studies: Theory, applications, and praxis. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 38(4), 785-810.

Cloward, R. A., & Ohlin, L. E. (2013). Delinquency and opportunity: A study of delinquent gangs. Routledge.

David, E. J. R., & Derthick, A. O. (2014). What is internalized oppression, and so what. Internalized oppression: The psychology of marginalized groups, 1-30.

Habibis, D., Taylor, P., Walter, M., & Elder, C. (2016). Repositioning the racial gaze: Aboriginal perspectives on race, race relations and governance. Social Inclusion, 4(1), 57-67.

Isaacson, M. (2014). Clarifying concepts: Cultural humility or competency. Journal of Professional Nursing, 30(3), 251-258.

King, D. K. (2016). Multiple jeopardy, multiple consciousness: The context of a Black feminist ideology. In Race, Gender and Class (pp. 36-57). Routledge.

Letwin, W. (2013). The origins of scientific economics. Routledge.

Mareno, N., & Hart, P. L. (2014). Cultural competency among nurses with undergraduate and graduate degrees: implications for nursing education. Nursing Education Perspectives, 35(2), 83-88.

Noble, S. U. (2013). Google search: Hyper-visibility as a means of rendering black women and girls invisible. InVisible Culture, 19, 1-23.

Omi, M., & Winant, H. (2014). Racial formation in the United States. Routledge.

Redmond, B. (2017). Reflection in action: Developing reflective practice in health and social services. Routledge.

Van Manen, M. (2016). Phenomenology of practice: Meaning-giving methods in phenomenological research and writing. Routledge.