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Rights to education
Essays on social justice in social work
The role of social workers
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INTRODUCTION
Discrimination and oppression are some of the tear-jerking issues happening around us, as a social worker we have to be against discrimination and oppression. Social workers have to advocate for the oppressed and discriminated. It is upon us to take a stand and stop discrimination and oppression. Social workers act as anti-discriminatory practitioners and anti-oppressive practitioners to advocate for social justice and the equality of people. This essay seeks to critically explain that when social workers do not challenge oppression and discrimination no one will.
KEY TERMS
ANTI-OPPRESIVE PRACTICE: is a radical social work approach which is informed by humanistic and social justice values and takes account of the experiences and
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Invalid source specified.. As educators social workers must teach the community about human rights and the need for equality, they must teach them the effects of their discrimination. If people are aware of the results of their oppression and discrimination they will end it.
ADVOCATOR
As advocates social workers fight for the rights of others and work to obtain needed resources by convincing others of the legitimate needs and rights of members of society Invalid source specified.. Discrimination and oppression results in violation of human rights and it is upon us as social workers to stand up for the discriminated and oppressed and fight for their rights. Social workers should advocate also for equality of all individuals.
ENABLER
In the enabler role a social worker helps a client become capable of coping with situations or transitional stressInvalid source specified.. Being discriminated and oppressed can results in emotional stress. People who are discrimated feels that they are not loved and may end up committing suicide because of the pressure they are getting from the society. As anti-discriminatory practitioners’ social workers should help those who are discriminated to deal with it and help them to cope with the situation they are facing whist coming up with solutions to the
Social workers play a pivotal role helping one achieve social justice. “As such, the social justice mandate of the social work profession may be regarded as an ethical obligation to ensure that all persons have an equal right to access societal resources and opportunities so that they may fully participate in and be contributing members of society” (DuBois 136). Everyone deserves to live in a fair and equal society however, in the movie Selma portraying the years 1964-1965, this wasn’t how the American society lived. Despite segregation slowly coming to an end, racism was still a huge issue as blacks were denied the right to vote. This is where social workers step in: social injustice and inequality.
Social workers have to choose between the individual struggles and society rules. In choosing to help people with programs or challenging the existing state
The social justice piece is very important in social work’s Code, as it distinguishes social work from other helping professions, and radical social work is justice motivated. Traditional social work follows more along the lines of the medical model and social justice may be set aside in the interests of helping those who can pay or have health insurance learn coping skills. The social justice and competency standards written into the Code must not be forgotten or set aside. Jemal is calling for radical social workers to keep these standards as their goals and
Most social workers in North America start their promising career with a social service organization armed with a burning desire to solve a social problem, contribute to society, or anything noble in purpose. They are usually in the forefront in any crusade against oppression committed to a marginalized group. However, when such oppression is however against the social workers even within the organization where they work, it is ironic that they seem to be silent about the situation. A lot of North American social workers experience this form of oppression because it works clandestinely. Consequently, an examination will be made to explain that operation and to scrutinize the arguments why social workers need to be aware of the existence of
It does not matter what nationality, place of residence, sex, ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status the person is, everyone should be treated equally (United Nations human rights office of the high commissioner [OHCHR], 1996). There is an international human rights law that protects human beings against the government and that limits the government’s power on their people. Human rights are protected by the law to protect people or groups against any type of discriminations. There are different organizations that promote and protect human rights. Social workers should also protect and fight for their clients’ human rights. It’s important for social workers to be knowledgeable about human rights so they can be able to advocate for their clients. Social workers should also teach their clients about human rights and how all human beings are entitled to their human rights. All human beings should be aware and knowledgeable about their human rights and social workers can be
The National Association of Social Workers, NASW, considers the following as its six most core values; service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. The value of service is considered to be a core value because offering help to those in need is a crucial goal for all of those looking to practice in the field of Social Work. These services can include, but are not limited to, addressing social problems, helping those in need, and volunteering their knowledge to those who cannot otherwise afford such help. Social Justice is also an important core value for a Social Worker to develop. As a Social Worker one will encounter many people from several different walks of life, no two cases will ever be exactly the same. Some of these walks of life can leave a client vulnerable, defenseless, exploited, oppressed, and troubled. Therefore it is important to learn what Social Justice is, and how to help people from falling victim to injustice. Dignity and Worth of the Person is one of the most important values that one should uphold. People who need the help of a Social Worker many, but not all, times feel powerless, embarrassed, and worthless because they feel as though they cannot control aspects of their life an...
The value of service involves the social worker placing the needs of the client above personal interests. The social worker accesses their knowledge base to assist clients and engage in social problems to evoke change. Additionally, social workers are expected to be philanthropists by allocating time to pro-bono work. It is expected that such contributions are categorized as volunteerism and does not include the service provided in the professional setting where there are earnings involved. Social justice lies at the foundation of social work. Social workers continuously strive to advocate for vulnerable and disenfranchised clients facing oppression and social injustice. They exhibit efforts in the name of social change in arenas of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, amongst others. Social workers seek to continuously educate themselves on cultural diversity as well as connecting client’s with necessary resources to improve the quality of their lives and empower them to sustain lasting change (Reamer,
In today’s society where an abundance of resources exists, social workers are often the entry point for people to access services. Therefore, it is imperative for social worker professionals to have a clear understanding of themselves in relation to the client from a cultural perspective. While the social work profession has always focused on social justice and oppression, it wasn’t until the civil rights movement that there was a conscious shift in the social work pedagogy to focus the social service practice on race, racism, and training the workforce in cultural competences. Later in the mid 1980’s, the tone of cultural competence would shift from race and racism to a more inclusive language, which includes a more robust list of all types
One must consider the nature of oppression and how it is present within social work. The nature of oppression infiltrates all aspects of life. Social work theorist, defines oppression as “relations that divide people into dominant or superior groups and subordinate or inferior ones. These relations of domination consist of the systematic devaluing of the attributes and contributions of those deemed inferior, and their exclusion from the social resources available to those in the dominant group”. When humans experience a perceived threat to their personal identities and lack the ability to maintain and affirm a unique identity, they exclude others by contrasting themselves against a constructed, and inferior, identity of the other. To better
Social justice is a core value in the social work field. We define social justice as, “all citizens would possess equal fundamental rights, protection, opportunities, obligations and social benefits (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2015, p. 29). Unfortunately, we understand there are many members in today’s society that are not receiving social justice. Some may not want help and believe that s/he is able to do it on their own and then there are the individuals that we may not know about that could really use our help. Our jobs as social workers is to help those who need help no matter if they are rich, poor, disabled, white, Hispanic, it does not matter because everyone should be treated equally. As NASW states, “The original mission of social work had much to do with championing the rights of society’s most vulnerable members, from children to homeless people to the physically disabled” (NASW: National Association of Social Workers, 2015, para. 1).
As a social worker, I have never interrogated my theoretical orientation, in part because I considered that common sense, agency´s directions, and social policies guided social work interventions. In fact, Mullaly (2010) discusses that social workers do not see the relation between theory and practice, and social work is perceived as a performance of practical duties. This was my perception until now, in particular, because I have been analyzing anti-oppressive principles and I realized that my experience has many nuances of those principles. Therefore, my past interventions have some commonalities with the anti-oppressive perspective, and then some strengths and limitations compared to the Canadian social work. (1) One of these strengths is empowerment. Power is an important element of
Among an array of Values from The Code of Ethics (TCE) of social work Value 1 dictates that as social workers we must respect the dignity of our clients and refrain from passing judgement onto them (Canadian Association of Social Work, 2005, pg.7). As a social worker, it is important to follow this value as it prevents the distancing of the client from the worker as the client will have a better chance of opening up to someone who does not instantly tell them what to do or reprimand them for their actions or non-action in their lives. Oppression relates to the TCE in that it says the social work profession’s main purpose is to raise their clients who are vulnerable, oppressed and/or living in poverty (CASW, 2005, pg.7). Taking this into account
When they are in need we must do everything in our power to make a change. Sometimes this involve advocating for them to see a change in social problems. The definition of a social worker states that they are trained person that carries out work with the aim of alleviating conditions of those in need (12). This often calls the need for social justice. After learning about social workers throughout history, I realize there’s multiple ways to help those in need (11). They’ve been able to implement social welfare for the public.
Social workers challenge social injustice. Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. The meaning of this value is to ensure that individuals going into the social work profession pursue change, most importantly with, on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals, and with groups of people. Additionally, this social work value forces social workers to constantly affect social change primarily focused upon issues of poverty, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice by creating activities that seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic
The work of a social worker is complex and all encompassing. Social workers work in many capacities seeking justice, liberation, and equality. There work is global, as they work to put policies in place to govern practices. To keep up with societal shifts and generational changes there learning is continuous. As new questions rise so does the need for the continuation of research, not only to answer these questions but to implement into