Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice. Prospera Tedam
on the topic of anti-oppressive practice.
What was discussed?
How would you evaluate:the teaching;your understanding of the issues discussed?
On your own or with a colleague, reflect on this and make some notes.
It is important that research which informs your learning is also grounded in anti-oppressive principles. For this reason, McLaughlin (2012) emphasises the need for social work researchers to undertake research that is non-oppressive and aims to emancipate, liberate and change the situations for people in oppressive circumstances. He also makes the case for research into indigenous perspectives, arguing that interventions such as Family Group Conferences that emerged through Maori practices in New Zealand have become invaluable in mainstream social work. In addition, organisations that employ social workers must themselves understand the nuances of oppression and be engaged in management practices that promote anti-oppressive practice.
‘Doing’ anti-oppressive practice
Having articulated what oppression is, and outlined the forms and types of oppression, we focus now on what anti-oppressive practice is and how social workers can engage with service users in an anti-oppressive way.
According to Dominelli (2002, p6), anti-oppression is:
A methodology focusing on both process and outcome, and a way of structuring relationships between individuals that aims to empower users by reducing the negative effects of hierarchy in their immediate interaction and the work they do.
This definition centralises the value of human relationships by empowering service users and minimising the impact of oppression, discrimination and injustice. In Chapter 4, we will examine various models and frameworks which social workers can use to support anti-oppressive practice.
Writing about anti-oppressive practice from the perspective of service users, Wilson and Beresford (2000) states that service users have been minimally involved in the development of anti-oppressive practice, which is both ironic and unfortunate as they are often claimed to be the beneficiaries of anti-oppressive practice. For this reason, it is important for the service user to explain their own reality and experiences, and for you to avoid stereotyped responses to oppressive practice. Instead, you should ensure that you work with each service user to understand their specific and unique experience of oppression.
As a social worker, if you do not know what your service user is entitled to, or you do not understand the legislation that underpins your practice with them, you will most likely be practising oppressively. Here again, we are reminded of the definition by Barker (2003) which refers to oppression as placing severe restrictions on individuals. By not knowing the services available to your service users, you are placing restrictions on the direction of the intervention and the scope of possibilities.
Intersectionality
Intersectionality, as a concept, is woven throughout this book as a central theme in understanding and achieving anti-oppressive practice. It is the way in which the interconnections of social categories such as race, gender, age, ability and class create unique experiences of discrimination and oppression. It is one of the aims of this book to promote the reality that people’s lives are complex and their identities diverse. This results in situations where there is always more than one factor that can result in people being oppressed or discriminated against. Conversely, the powers inherent in some of these identities, such as gender, race, ethnicity, disability and sexuality, provide its holders with the power to oppress. If social workers are to gain any real understanding of oppression, then it is imperative that they view situations through the lens of intersectionality.
Activity 1.4
Who is a ‘good parent’ and what does good parenting look like from your perspective?
Make a list of what these traits or values might be.
Guidance
You will notice that your views for this activity come from your own experience of being a parent or through being a child, or both. Indeed, you may have formed your views from reading research, legislation or engaging with relevant material. However these views are formed, it is important to note and understand where your oppressive views and ideas may be coming from. There is no single way or type of parenting, yet in many social work endeavours, parenting appears to relate mainly to mothers. This may be a view or approach perpetrated by men; however, it is not uncommon to see female social workers promoting this type of practice. Inequalities exist within households and within relationships; however, taking an oppressive and privileged stance, neglecting the diversity of opinions and views can be unproductive. According to Healy and Mulholland (2007), a social worker must always try to represent yourself in your writing as thoughtful, objective, experienced and careful about what is being communicated. This will not only make you accountable, but also evidences the thought and care with which you constructed your recording.
The SHARP framework
Shaia (2019) introduced the SHARP framework to assist social workers to make sense of oppression within the context of poverty and socioeconomic disadvantage in the USA. Arguing that social workers routinely respond to the outcomes of poverty and oppression with little attention to the oppression itself, Shaia proposes this framework to address this anomaly. She examines the term context blindness (p18) and makes the case for social workers to examine the contexts of people’s lives. She uses an interesting analogy which we will unpick in this chapter. She likens a social worker who is context blind to a doctor who treats a patient with radiation poisoning without asking about the environment which caused the radiation poisoning. Such practice could result in the doctor prescribing treatment but sending the patient back to that very same poisonous environment which caused the initial illness. Social workers should endeavour to identify and intervene at the source of the service users’ problem, and the SHARP framework enables us do this. There are five core components of this framework:
Structural oppression – This requires you, as the social worker, to interrogate what issues in the service user’s ecosystem are impacting on their ability to succeed. These could be lack of access to employment, inadequate or poor housing, unavailability of affordable housing, inadequate access to healthcare.
Historical context – As a social worker, you should consider how a person’s history has and is impacting on their current situation and need. For example, how has intergenerational poverty and disadvantage impacted on the service user? How might previous engagement with social workers impact on the service user’s willingness or hesitation to engage at this point?
Analysis of role – What role will you, as the social worker have in this situation? The framework argues that there is no neutral position and that social workers are either part of the solution or part of the problem. This analysis of your role will further enable you to reflect on why you are in the role. When you avoid discussing and interrogating issues of oppression and discrimination, you are complicit in their oppression and doing little to disrupt it.
Reciprocity and mutuality – In the fourth component of the framework, you are required to consider what strengths the service user possesses, recognising these as valuable assets which they bring to the helping relationship and the quest for solutions.
Power – Finally, what can the service user do to change their situation and the impact of structural oppression? As a social worker, you should consider supporting the service user to examine how they might change their circumstances through activism or advocacy, recognising that what might seem like small simple actions can have a profound impact. The concept of power and powerlessness is so central to anti-oppressive practice that we have dedicated Chapter 3 to examining it in depth.