Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice. Prospera Tedam
educational level? It requires less effort to deal with people who have similar presuppositions.
(Allport, 1954, p17)
In 1954, Allport would most certainly have been applauded for stating openly what perhaps the majority of people felt and believed at that time. In 2020, there is evidence that this view is still rife, however, with perhaps fewer people owning up to such thoughts because of public opinion and for fear of being exposed. The statement plays into the hands of people who support reduced cultural and ethnic diversity. As social workers, it may sometimes be obvious to us why diversity is important in the work we do; however, with recent global and national events, it is no longer safe to make such assumptions. Diversity is not a side issue to be addressed occasionally, nor is it one to be left to a few people in a team or organisation. It is something that applies to everyone and should be part of everything we do in practice. Neither we, as social workers, nor the people who use social care services fit into neat and distinct categories; consequently, we see the world from very different perspectives. In order to work effectively in a diverse setting, we need to understand ourselves, recognise our biases and work constructively to overcome them.
Social Work England (SWE) (2020) has identified in their Qualifying and Training Standards (4.3) the need to ensure that the course is designed in accordance with equality, diversity and inclusion principles, and human rights and legislative frameworks. This standard demonstrates further the importance of embedding equality and diversity principles from the outset in a trainee social worker’s journey while they are in training and well into practice.
In addition, diversity is important because it is one of the nine overarching competences for social workers in the Professional Capabilities Framework for Social Workers in England. According to Parker and Crabtree (2018), the social work profession is preparing its practitioners to serve those who experience discrimination, marginalisation and oppression, and many of these service users will experience this discrimination and oppression on the grounds of many of the areas of diversity.
Social work students prepare to work in a variety of professional arenas and these diverse areas also require diverse skills, knowledge and expertise. Direct work with service users, policy development, management and research are some of these areas. There is a growing need for social work services for persons who have experienced natural or manmade disasters, from victims and survivors of bush fires (Australia), earthquakes (Haiti), hurricanes (USA) to survivors of mass shootings and terrorism (USA, New Zealand) and disasters such as the Grenfell Tower fire (UK). In relation to the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London, Ferguson and Lavalette (2017) suggest that while the building was located in the richest borough in the UK and one of the richest in the EU, the safety of residents appeared not be high on the agenda, as authorities ignored multiple warnings about the quality of material used during the refurbishment of the tower block. The question of class diversity is examined with an overwhelming suggestion that some lives appear to be more important than others. Social workers were called upon to work with survivors and their families, restoring homes and providing appropriate interventions. While reflecting on this, it is important to imagine the extent of diversity manifested in the nature of the families, the expressions of grief and resilience, as well as the varied coping strategies used by the survivors and their families. Working effectively across these differences using the appropriate affective (moods and feelings), cognitive and behavioural skills are required of social workers across the many different areas of practice.
Diversity in social work
The importance of diversity in social work has already been outlined, so we will now move on to examine how social work students and qualified practitioners might acknowledge diversity in practice learning and practice environments. It is important that, as a social work student, you are confronted with case studies that require you to consider intervention and responses from different perspectives.
Activity 2.1
In the table below, I have offered some dimensions of identity and diversity. I invite you to make a list of other dimensions you are aware of and consider the type of oppression and discrimination that bearers of these identity markers might experience.
Also consider which settings or places such oppression might be exacerbated and discuss these with a colleague.
Your list
Guidance
No two people should have the same the list, so it would be interesting for you and your colleague to share what you have written. As students, you may also be regarded as ‘traditional’ (usually straight from sixth form, potentially younger) or non-traditional (usually older students or who may have been out of formal education for a while). As a traditional or non-traditional student, you may experience peer othering (Murtagh, 2019, p793), which can mean that you are unable to join colleagues after classes for social events because you have other commitments, or that you are not invited to an additional IT support session because colleagues feel that you already have that expertise as a result of being a younger ‘traditional’ student.
Self-reflection is extremely important for social workers at all levels of education and practice because it sets a foundation on which to build. It is important that you are guided not only to look for difference among populations, but also the similarities and intersectional identities that shape complex social inequalities.
Strategies for enhancing diversity
There are many ways to enhance and promote diversity in social work education and practice, and the list below is by no means exhaustive.
Teach social work students to act as allies.
Move beyond tokenism.
Support social workers to use assessment and intervention tools that promote diversity. If these are believed to be Eurocentric, then adaptations and modifications should be made to ensure that these tools are fit for purpose. The ability to make appropriate adjustments to the intervention and/or the manner in which it is used and delivered is an important consideration when thinking about benefits to service users.
Support students and practitioners to engage with ethically sound media and news outlets – you are what you read!
Engage in reflective practice as a student and beyond.
Activity 2.2
What are the first thoughts that come to mind when you hear the word ‘diversity’?
Write down your thoughts and discuss with a colleague or reflect on your own.
Difference
Writing strongly about difference, Audre Lorde (1984) argued that there are very real differences between us in terms of race, age and sex. She argues that these differences between us are not separating us, but rather the separation comes from how we respond to those differences. Lorde suggests that we usually respond to differences in three main ways: 1) we ignore the differences; 2) if the differences are difficult to ignore, then we copy them if we think they are dominant, or 3) we destroy them if we believe they are subordinate. It is our refusal to recognise the value of these differences and to examine the distortions that result from our misnaming them and their effects upon human behaviour and expectation that lead to differentiation (Lorde, 1984, p115). This strong view by Lorde is a useful starting point in trying to understand that the refusal to recognise difference is what results in discrimination and oppression of people, leading to ‘othering’.
Othering
‘Othering’