Cole, Nicki Lisa, Ph.D. (2020, August 28). ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/discourse-definition-3026070. Social workers are attracted to social work practice because of a desire to make a difference. Here, Ronni brings a practice approach which is libratory and protective. Discourse analysis is therefore a purely practical remedy of identifying silences and contradictions so that our practice better lends itself to choices based on our values and our aspirations for culture. . Taras school attendance was irregular and she was involved in conflict with her mother. We want to use our work as a contribution, as something of value to the world. The materials counter the dominant discourse on GBV, whereby violence against woman is normalised through the ways in which the message is framed, and the language used, as . One of the advantages of identifying discourses-in-use in practice is that we gain access to how we are positioned within discourses. Ronni worked with Tara from a critique of prevention and risk education strategies normally used in dealing with girls sexuality. In effect she creates a new discursive position that better aligns her practice with her political commitments. I would like to turn to two case studies which illustrate how discourse analysis was used by students. Is that individual oppressed based on race or part of the dominant group due to her positioning as a The . I had to admit that I saw both discourse from my subject position as a mother, and had to rather sheepishly admit that I wouldnt have wanted my thirteen year old daughter to be having sex at that age. In this sense, sociologists frame discourse as a productive force because it shapes our thoughts, ideas, beliefs, values, identities, interactions with others, and our behavior. Understanding these Discourses allows you to develop the power and status you need to be successful, as well as making the bond stronger between you and that secondary Discourse. My students came to class as failed heroes. Discourse Markers 'Discourse markers' is the term linguists give to the little words like 'well', 'oh', 'but', and 'and' that break our speech up into parts and show the relation between parts. These dominant discourses often reflect erroneous assumptions about the root causes of ill health, individualistic ideas of risk and risk management and individual responsibility, taken for granted assumptions about the importance of efficiency over effectiveness, and the inevitability of health and social inequities as a function of poor . Discourse about social work In this article, I argue that a discourse about social work exists, and that within this discourse is found a 'truth' about social work as a practical, rather than a theoretical, enterprise. Introduction to Discourse in Sociology. Discourse theorists disagree on which parts of our world are real. Indeed, Carol- Ann OBrian (O'Brien, 1999) documents the history of prevention of sexuality as the dominate focus of social work literature related to youth sexuality. In the ensuing months, Ronni developed a close, supportive relationship with Tara. Given the mandate of working with marginalized people, this particular nexus is a place of crushing ambivalence. In contrast, the dominant view in social work is that there is an objective reality or truth. Discourse analysis can provide new vantage points from which to reconstruct practice theory in ways that are more consciously oriented to our social justice commitments. I draw on his theories in this discussion). While reflective practice held promise for liberating professions from misconceptions about the interrelationship between theory and practice, following Schons (1987) introduction of reflective practice, theorists began to identify the problem of incorporating critical analysis into reflective practice ((Brookfield, 1996; Fook, 1999; Mezirow, 1998). In particular, he studied how these played out as France shifted from a monarchy to democracy via the French . With the increasing prevalence of neo-conservative and managerial discourses, it is argued that a dominant focus on individualism diminishes the understanding of how the social context can impact on people's lives (Houston, 2016) and moves away from collectivist values . In J. Fook (Ed. A 13-yr old girl, Tara, was referred to Ronni Gorman for counseling. Spivak, G. (1990). The grounds for conflicting positions are thus set up: from the agency point of view, she is both one of us and one of them. Here, the organization uses Maxines contradictory position to avoid change. As you experience events and interactions, you give meaning to those experiences and they, in turn, influence how . Also, she was well-informed about the ways that prevention and risk education inherently set up a trajectory of sex as normatively heterosexual, age appropriate sexual experience. Discourse refers to how we think and communicate about people, things, the social organization of society, and the relationships among and between all three. Dr. Nicki Lisa Cole is a sociologist. Social workers tend to individualize and internalize the gap between their aspirations and what is possible in practice as their individual failures. Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and historian interested in the construction of knowledge and power through discourse. These wordsreflect and reproduce very particular values, ideas, and beliefs about immigrants and U.S. citizensideas about rights, resources, and belonging. As a woman of colour from the Caribbean, Maxine shared experiences with other immigrant women of colour in Canada; shared a cultural heritage, and an insiders knowledge of the difficulties of negotiating these spaces. The case studies were stories of clients whom they remembered with a sense of failure or apology or shame. Revolutions in how mental health problems are conceptualised have had a substantial impact on the work of mental health nurses. Further to this a task centred approach will be explained and how it could be used when approaching this case study. Fook, J. Ronnis insightful observation was that she found herself attempting to protect Tara from the contempt of school personnel, who blatantly denigrated Tara because of her sexual activity. The community discourse is consistent with the social work value base in emphasising social justice, community empowerment and the rights of marginalised groups (Ife, 2008). Ideology thus shapes discourse, and, once discourse is infused throughout society, it, in turn, influences the reproduction of ideology. (1999). Biomedicine is a dominant and pervasive model in health care settings and there are strengths and limitations in working within the this discourse. How do some discourses oppose or resist power? We then asked what was left out when discourses were set in opposition. Such an analysis might allow us to ask the kind of questions that are the heart of social work ethics: How, for example, could we think differently about child welfare practices with black families if our work were guided first and foremost by a desire to find forms of practice that take into account centuries of trauma from racial injustice? Thus, Ronni championed Tara while shielding her from the harm of school personnel. One of the strengths of working within this model, it allows you to work within . O'Brien, C.-A. . Maxine was devastated at her inability to put the relationship between mother and daughter to rights. Foucault believed that discourse is created by those in power for specific reasons and is often used as a form of social control. . 3, p. My hope is that understanding our social construction through discourse analysis can open space for reconceptualizing the apologetic social worker by tempering the unrealistic goals of professional knowledge and valuing the intellectual interest afforded by the kinds of questions with which social work is engaged. Even in the face of power differentials, they challenged dominant discourses directly and indirectly and advocated for various forms of help for the people with whom they worked. We worked to identify oppositions between competing discourses. The professional is political: An interpretation of the problem of the past in solution-focused therapy. This paper is based on the results of an Australian survey of 5007 young women aged 13-25, which examined their experiences of menstruation and dysmenorrhea. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Social work is embedded is in history and is situated in a present which affords no settled practice, no technical fixes, no uncontested views of itself. When multiple discourses are uncovered, then we can treat our own perspective as limited, particular, local and contingent as opposed to the adoption of expert professional view as the privileged view. In discussions of immigration reform, the most frequently spoken word was illegal, followed by immigrants, country, border, illegals, and citizens.. New York: Columbia University Press. Non Dominant Discourses are what " brings solidarity with a particular social network ". Thus, ideologies have both a theoretical . (p. 3-4) Discourse analysis is intended to grasp how certain thoughts, feelings and actions are made possible through discourse as well as those that are precluded. Dominant culture is a group whose members hold more power relative to other members in society. There may be ethical dilemmas that need to be resolved via ethics codes and decision-making schema, but practitioners will follow the prescriptions of liberalism by making correct decisions, craftily implementing theory through the right interventions, and now, even overturning racism, classism and sexism in the process. Such interventions are aimed at delaying sexual activity until appropriate ages and also educating around the risks of sexuality. Three types of ideology relating to social work are explored, and it is proposed that such case examples (among others) have, and continue to, maintain a significant influence within state social work. As such, individuals bear the weight of individual responsibility for such histories and contexts, thus obscuring a greater range of accountability. London: Sage. Thus, Maxine is positioned to assess and discipline Ms. M. She cannot find room for the very insider knowledge she is supposed to have. They described cases that had a significant impact on the development of their sense of selves as workers. Abstract. The purpose was to analyze how such discourses produced their conceptions of the cases and how they confined their thinking about the case. Gee's definition of Discourse is a theory that explains how language works in society. For some time now, I have been interested in the role of critical reflection in social work practice (Rossiter, 1996, 2001). The summer of 2020 was a season of racial reckoning for journalism in the United States. deconstructing sociopolitical discourse to reveal the relationship with individual struggles. 1. It aims to understand how language is used in real life situations. Discourse, as a social construct, is created and perpetuated . Dominant is any Discourse that will help you in life, or acquire more "goods" (money, status, etc. Taking the case of racially charged events in Ferguson, MO, and Baltimore, MD that played out from 2014 through 2015, we can also see Foucaults articulation of the discursive concept at play. Disrupting the Dominant Discourse: Rethinking. Discourse analysis can enrich progressive social work practices by demonstrating how the language practices through which organizations, theorists, practitioners and service users express their understanding of social work also shape the kinds of practices that occur (Healy, 2000). She engaged in low level self-mutilation and in sexual activity. The sense of the multiple stories at play helped relocate the notion of experience as brute reality carrying authority by virtue of being real to a notion of experience as constructed, contingent, and always interpreted. Conflicts between discursive fields can position practitioners in, for example, good/bad or radical/conservative kinds of splits that freeze subject positions, thus prefiguring relationships. No wonder we cling to the fantasy of the smooth trajectory of practice. Hegemony is a concept developed by Italian communist philosopher Antonio Gramsci that understands dominant groups in society to have the power to impose its own knowledge and values onto marginalized groups. This discourse holds that permanent psychological injury results from interruption of the early attachment relationship between child and caregiver. We frequently found that dependencies within competing discourses were obscured by oppositions. When I read the case studies, I was taken aback to find that students chose to write about stories of pain and distress in their practice contexts. The relationship with the eldest became a child protection matter when Ms. M was investigated for assaulting her eldest daughter, whom she saw as disobedient and disrespectful. In order to provide a frame for critical reflection on their cases, I chose four elements of associated with discourse analysis: 1) Identification of ruling discourses in the case studies; 2) the oppositions and contradictions between discourses; 3) positions for actors created by discourses which in turn shape perspectives and actions; 4) and the constructed nature of experience itself. Attachment theories are common explanations of the parent/child conflict in some immigrant families experiences of separation and reunification during patterns of immigration. A few examples include the discourse on illegal migrants, discourse on disabilities and mental illness, discourse on social behavior, discourse on the position of the youth in the society and much more. . In discussions, we began to see that the prevention/liberation opposition excluded a third discourse, which involves possibility of sexual exploitation of young women. Yet, as Linda Weinberg (Weinberg, 2004), in her work on the construction of practice judgments, notes that to locate ethics within the actions of individual practitioners, as if they were free to make decisions irrespective of the broader environment in which they work, is to neglect the significant ways that structures shape those constructions and to erect an impossible standard for those embodies practitioners mired in institutional regimes, working with finite resources and conflicting requirements and expectations (Weinberg, 2004, p.204). Dominant Ideology Definition. Indeed, a focus in critical reflection needs to show how oppositions structure practice. Adult Education Quarterly, 48 (3), 185-198. These students either had significant work experience, or experience in a previous practicum to draw from. These behaviors and patterns of speech and writing reflect the ideologies of those who have the most power in the society. Ronnis analysis moved beyond opposition through a new discourse of health-oriented openness to girls sexuality in which protection is configured as part of healthy sexuality. Social workers are the bodies in the middle of this site and must act within the force field of contradictions. Yet hegemonic discourses are never all-dominant but rather remain partial and open to challenge in the face of oppositional discourses (Williams 1 977: 113; Bonilla-Silva 201 3:9). I argue that understanding this process of production is a way of doing ethics which reduces, or at least acknowledges the unintended, often subliminal consequences of practice that flow from social ambivalence which constructs social workers and service recipients in the conduct of practice. Elements of postmodern theory provided a way into the achievement of this necessary distance. A postmodern perspective, in Jan Fooks view (Fook, 1999), pays attention to the ways in which social relations and structures are constructed, particularly to the ways in which language, narrative, and discourses shape power relations and our understanding of them. They can be found in many forms of media and communication. With the achievement of this necessary distance Ronni was able to formulate new possibilities for practice. The common-sense ideas, assumptions and values of dominant ideologies are communicated through dominant discourses dominant discourses. . In this case, the dominant discourse on immigration that comes out of institutions like law enforcement and the legal system is given legitimacy and superiority by their roots in the state. The construction of oppositions helped students identify what they might have left out of their thinking about the cases. Further, they suggest that reflexivity is not simply an augmentation of practice by individual professionals, but a profession-wide responsibility. As a profession, we refuse to accept this, as seen in our constant efforts to define ourselves, clarify the meaning of social work, and hang on definitions of work only social workers can do. Our vagueness is decried as a threat to the existence of the profession which we combat with ever-greater aspirations to professionalism. While she understands that such an approach is constructed a fiction it is a construction she chooses to empower because it is grounded in her social justice aspirations. An ideology is defined as a system of beliefs and values that not only seek to describe the world but also to transform it. People are understood to be members of social groupsusually . as social subjects (e.g. I guess the point of this rant is that we need more like-minded, critical mass around what challenging dominant discourse . While not eschewing the need to take positions in other words, without advocating relativism students could look at ways of thinking, at alternative perspectives that were outside the terms of the oppositions. We acknowledge a knowledge-based economy while making tuition unaffordable. Social Identities A social identity is both internally constructed and externally applied, occurring simultaneously. Openness to questions about the constitution of practice iscritical practice. Menstrual management is recognized as a critical issue for young people internationally. New York: Routledge. Within this anti-immigrant discourse,illegals and immigrants are juxtaposed against citizens, each working to define the other through their opposition. It has proved difficult to reconcile conventional theories of practice with a vision of social work as social justice work. Mezirow, J. In class, we worked to identify the existence of two, opposing discourses: one was the prevention and risk education approach of the school and the other was Ronnis libratory approach to girls and sexuality. In other words, such a trajectory works to normalize a sequence of sexuality which ranges from the right time to the end-stage of heterosexual marriage. Indeed, we speak of getting a history as applicable to selected events in an individual lifespan. Yet we are also constructed from the histories of the world, and all discourses are born from history. Ronni came to see that this discursive position cancelled out the possibility of calling on school personnel as resources for Tara - resources that had the potential to protect her as a young girl with particular vulnerabilities. Ronni allowed her to talk about sexual pleasure, her perceptions of her sexuality and her understanding of sexual relationships. These elements helped students writing cases from memories saturated with unease about their own performance to shift from what I did to how the case was constructed, and how their feelings arose from the complicated constructions of their practice within particular locations and time. Finally the strengths perspective will be . Discourse typically emerges out of social institutionslike media and politics (among others), and by virtue of giving structure and order to language and thought, it structures and orders our lives, relationships with others, and society. The knowledge she is expected to deploy is based on attachment theory the personality damage that results from interrupted early attachment. 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