Experiences of Discrimination and Oppression in Social Work Practice

Task

What experiences of discrimination and oppression do individuals in your chosen service user potentially face?

How can we promote ethical and value based social work practice in our work with this group?

You will need to make explicit reference to social work values, drawn from the BASW Code of Ethics and discuss them critically on the basis of relevant and diverse literature.

Content/critical analysis

The essay asks you to focus on one particular service user or carer group and on the one hand identify experiences of discrimination and oppressionthey potentially face in society (i.e. stigma, structural barriers leading to poverty, exclusion, compromised life opportunities, etc.). On the other hand, you will need to discuss how social work can address some of these challenges and how our practice can be ethical and value led.

Choosing a group/area for the essay: existing knowledge (e.g., domestic violence) could give you an advantage.

Experiences of discrimination and oppression: I have gone with this to stress the social injustice and unequal power relations existing in society (so linked to learning outcomes 4 and 5). It is important that you show your understanding of these, locating them not just at the individual level but also the Cultural and Structural (Thompson). However, it is important to stress that service user also have many achievements, strengths, contributions- so the essay brief is somewhat problematic in focusing only on ‘what is negative in their lives’ approach. Show that you understand this and write about it!  

To showcase experiences of discrimination and oppression you can- for example- discuss how language and public attitudes create stereotypes and stigma, how this can dehumanise individuals; use statistics to show inequalities (i.e. in health outcomes, education, access to resources etc.). Use user-led research and literature to capture perspectives and lived experience.

How can we promote ethical and value based social work practice in our work with this group? This is where you can discuss values and ethical principles. It could work well to focus on one principle (i.e. promoting the right to participation) to show how complex this can be. This might help focus your writing- but it is OK to write more broadly on our ethical code. What counts is that you show awareness of the professional value base and its complexities (learning outcomes 1, 2, 3 and 7). You also need to be more focused and explore ethical social work practice with this particular service user group(for example, if you focus on children, you can write about how best to involve children and what challenges there are in ensuring that their voices are heard when it comes to their care).

It is important to provide a critical discussion, informed by your extensive reading and points/arguments backed up by evidence (see below). This module explores the ideological and philosophical underpinnings of social work as a profession and as such the essay needs to reflect this: it is not an essay that should be predominantly a personal reflection (even though you might want to add some of your personal thoughts/dilemmas), or a practice essay (i.e. a list of what services are out there).

To achieve the critical discussion, your essay needs to be based on a clear argument that you follow throughout the essay. This argument could be something like ‘domestic violence severely affects victims’ lives on many levels and social work should be central to addressing this’.

Descriptive writing is not enough for this essay. Descriptive writing is information-giving. You will do some of this, but it should be minimal. You need to write an essay that provides a critical perspective on the topics provided. For pointers on the difference between descriptive and critical writing see the Table 4.3 on page 31, in the book by Brown and Rutter(2006) Critical Thinking for Social Work, Exeter: Learning Matters (online access). Please also read chapter 4 from Aveyard, Sharp and Wooliams (2011)