Module 10 Flashcards
Working with power and privilege and the purpose of your practice framework
Difference, diversity and human services
- Human service workers required to work with people who may be very different from yourself
- Clients and colleagues may have different cultural affiliations, religious or spiritual beliefs, behaviours and upbringings
- Sometimes when we critically reflect we may find that we are not as open and inclusive as we thought we were
- Understanding difference and how you approach it will assist you to find ways to make connections with people who you may never have come in contact with before
Social Justice framework
Belonging to one or more of the following communities continues to
heavily shape health and life outcomes in Australia:
- First Nations person, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples - Identifying as LGBTQI+
- Refugee or humanitarian background
- Asylum seekers background
- People of colour
- A public or social housing residents
- Being a womyn
often intersects with race, faith, abilities and SES
Culture
- Difficult to define but some common characteristics across definitions
- Physical artefacts, values, worldviews about the world, time, how humans interact and shared ancestry & language (Ow, 2019)
- Values, beliefs, characteristics and behaviours of a group of individuals at a given point in time (Shovholt and Rivers,
2004, in Chenoweth & McAuliffe, 2020) - Culture is not static and can be ascribed to a group of individuals as well as to a whole society
Prejudice (Pre-judge):
Generalised and negative belief or set of beliefs that prejudge a person or group. Usually unchanged by evidence. Actioned?
Discrimination:
- Patterns of behaviour that systematically deny access to privileges or opportunities offered to others
- Individual and institutional levels
- Positive as well as negative discrimination
Stigma:
–refers to negative and often unfair social attitudes towards a person or group,
which often entails blaming a person for a perceived deficiency
–common
–often reinforced by dominant cultural norms.
Oppression
- daily experience of oppression – constant fear;
all-consuming - practitioners work between the world of clients and
the wider machinery of the state - position of agencies and systems – double-edged:
care and control, empowerment and oppression
Privilege
- entails unearned benefits, advantages and rights to people
due to their association with particular social groups or
identities - some people and groups benefit from oppression and
dominant groups receive certain privileges purely for being
part of that group - members of privileged groups may be reluctant to let go of
their privilege and may not recognise it - most common types of privilege described in the literature
is that pertaining to white privilege
Intersectionality
- coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, a black
feminist, in 1989 - originally developed to explain oppression related to
gender and race, this concept has been expanded to
include a number of other interlocking socially
oppressive institutions - examines the ways in which different privileges
intersect and result in compounded oppression
Whiteness
- It is a term used to describe the institutionalised benefits
experienced by people who are deemed white - Manifest in various forms, including access to better
education and employment opportunities, cultural
affirmations of one’s own worth; greater social status; and
freedom from racism and discrimination with the ability to
move, purchase things, be in paid employment and speak
freely without fear of retribution - While colonialism has been examined, whiteness is grossly
under-theorised in literature. This is partly because, as the
dominant settler majority in many countries, the identity of
whiteness is taken for granted
Ideologies
– a system of beliefs about the nature of the world
and human beings
– can be both political and epistemological, that is,
they can focus on either social change or
knowledge generation
– both types of ideologies incorporate a set of ideas
that uphold and justify an existing or desired
arrangement of power, authority, wealth and
status in society
– ideologies can often perpetuate prejudice,
discrimination and oppression
INFLUENCE on DIVERSITY
- Newly arrived migrant minorities
- First Peoples:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- Māori people
- Pasifika peoples
- Whiteness
- Sexual orientation and gender identity
- Disability and mental health
NEWLY ARRIVED MIGRANT
MINORITIES
Issues:
- people who have migrated to other countries
- refugees – escaping torture/trauma
- loss of support systems and income
- new language; making connections
- most cultures tend towards ethnocentrism (i.e.
only their own culture is a valid perspective)
- cultural knowledge is important for workers in
this field
First Peoples
Congruity of experiences of:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in
Australia
- Māori people in Aotearoa New Zealand
- First Nations peoples in North America.
- History of colonisation – loss of land, displacement
to missions or reservations, removal of children
- Intergenerational trauma
Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples
Issues for practitioners:
- respect for elders paramount
- importance of land and country
- need to understand the history of colonisation
- acknowledge the role of profession in colonialism
- community development approaches
- self-determination
- issues for First Peoples practitioners are complex –
e.g. negotiating identity, kinship ties.
Disability and mental health
- Many people with a disability experience
exclusion and discrimination on the basis of
their impairments. - Theories of disability:
- individual approaches (e.g. personal tragedy,
medical model) - social model of disability (people are disabled
by environments and social barriers) - disability as a lived experience compounded by an
individualistic society focused on dominant values
Sexual orientation and gender identity
-Sexual orientation – Another dimension of difference (LGBTIQ+):
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, gender diverse, queer
-Gender identity: Sense of self as man, woman or neither, or moving
freely around the gender binary
- Transgender/trans/gender diverse: Mismatch between birth gender
and internal gender identity
-Intersex: Anatomical or chromosomal differences; neither male or
female, or a combination of both
- Attitudes: Homophobia (extreme fear of homosexuality) can be
unconscious – its ultimate expression is hate crimes against people
seen as not heterosexual
- Heterosexism: Heterosexuality as normative and non-
heterosexuality as deviant
- Heteronormativity: ‘[A] contemporary theory to refer to the many
ways in which heterosexuality is produced as a natural,
unproblematic, everyday occurrence’ (Irwin, in Pease et al., 2016,
p. 255)
Sexual and gender diversity
- Coming out – process of disclosure of sexual orientation; difficult,
especially for adolescents - Uncertainty and confusion about sexual orientation/gender identity;
may deny real feelings - Families – source of support or tension/conflict
- Relationship difficulties in areas such as immigration, Family
Court, IVF, adoption, etc. - Same-sex parenting presents many issues – still some stigma;
significant policy and legislative changes to combat discrimination
Critical reflection
- In order to identify and confront these unconscious beliefs, we need to undertake a process of self-discovery that explores what
difference and diversity means to us - Critically reflect on your own values, beliefs, experiences and
potential biases in relation to people who are different to yourself
Anti-oppressive practice
approaches focus on both
individual and system changes to
oppression
Empowerment;
partnerships with
clients; minimal intervention
Critical radical practice
broader social change through social
action
Cultural competence, cultural
humility & cultural
consciousness
- Respond respectfully and effectively to people of all cultures, languages, classes, races, ethnic backgrounds,
religions, spiritual traditions, immigration status etc & - Recognize, affirms, value, and preserve their dignity (Danso, 2018)
Using your lived experience
- Sometimes practitioners will draw on their lived experiences in practice.
- While this can include sharing personal stories with clients, this should be done in a considered way ensuring that such sharing is for the benefit of the client.
- Practitioners may also use their lived experience to empathise and understand what a client may be feeling, drawing from their own experiences or they might use it to help clients find resources and support.
Three types of knowledge (Trevithick, 2008)
This model of the three types of knowledge used in human service
and social work practice can be applied to examples of ‘working
effectively with difference and diversity’
i.e. what theoretical, factual and practice knowledge is needed to
work effectively with people from diverse backgrounds?
- These three forms of knowledge (theoretical, factual and practice) together will enable you to approach difference and diversity with multiple sites of knowledge
- No matter how much we know we will never know all there is to know about difference and diversity
- No two people experience anything in exactly the same way
- Approaching each encounter with as much knowledge as we can and an openness to learn more about the unique experience of the individuals we work with will provide us with the ability to deliver on our ethical requirements to value difference and diversity
A clear message
Codes of our professional groups is that difference and diversity are on the agenda
Commitment to valuing ‘difference’ and diversity is more than just a nice idea – it’s a requirement of ethical practice
If we don’t undertake a process to understand what this means and to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to practice in a manner that delivers on these values, we will not be fulfilling our requirements as ethical practitioners
