Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice
Assignment
Anti-oppressive social work means critically reflecting on your own cultural identities and how the social environment impacts these identities. Acknowledging power and privilege can be uncomfortable; however, with values of multiculturalism and social justice, social workers are committed to engaging in their own personal work and addressing social barriers clients may experience. Social workers view clients from a strengths-based perspective utilizing client strengths to support their goals, rather than pathologizing clients from the lens of the dominant culture.
For the past six weeks, you have learned about the social construction of social identities, structural inequality based on dominant and non-dominant groups, and oppressions based on sex, class, and race. While readings have continuously pointed out white privilege as the dominant group privilege, you also know that privilege is not equally distributed in groups. Intersecting identities creates unique experiences for clients. For this assignment, you draw from what you have been learning during the first part of this course and discuss strategies for anti-oppressive social work practice.
Submit a 2- to 3-page APA formatted paper in which you:
- Explain the potential impact of white privilege on clients from both dominant and minority groups (consider impact of both positive and negative stereotypes).
- Explain how intersecting identities might impact an individual’s experience (for example, race/ethnicity and gender, race/ethnicity and class, race/ethnicity and ability, race/ethnicity and sexual orientation, race/ethnicity and class).
- Providing specific examples, explain how a social worker might utilize cultural strengths when working with clients.
- Describe 2-3 social work skills and how a social worker might use them to engage in anti-oppressive work.
Support ideas in paper with at least 2-3 course resources (please reference specific chapters, not the entire textbook) and at least one additional peer-reviewed article from the Walden library (not assigned in this course) to support your ideas.
Adams, M., Blumenfeld, W. J., Castaneda, C., Catalano, D. C. J., DeJong, K., Hackman, H. W,… Zuniga, X. (Eds.). (2018). Readings for diversity and social justice (4th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge Press.
Chapter 23, (pp. 147-153)
Chapter 25, (pp. 157-161)
Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen S. M. (Eds.). (2014). Social work case studies: Foundation year. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].
\”Working With Immigrants and Refugees: The Case of Aaron\”
Bent-Goodley, T., Snell, C. L., & Carlton-LaNey, I. (2017). Black perspectives and social work practice. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 27(1-2), 27-35.
Note: Retrieved from Walden Databases.
Johnston-Goodstar, K. (2013). Indigenous youth participatory action research: Re-visioning social justice for social work with indigenous youths. Social Work, 58(4), 314-320.
Note: Retrieved from Walden Databases.
Joo, N., Reeves, R. V., & Rodrigue, E. (2016). Asian-American success and the pitfalls of generalization. The Brookings Institute. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2016/04/20/asian-american-success-and-the-pitfalls-of-generalization/
Mattsson, T. (2014). Intersectionality as a useful tool: Anti-oppressive social work and critical reflection. Affilia, 29(1), 8-17.
Copyright 2014 by Sage Publications. Used with permission of Sage Publications via the Copyright Clearance Center.
Library Assignment Guide. Retrieved from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/socw6051/week6assignment