Critical Reflection: Professionalism and Impact of Theory in Community Social Work
Introduction:
Professionalism
Offer a brief definition.
An explanation of an issue that came up in your practicum.
An issue that came up in my practicum was how my field work education was impacted by the covis-19 pandemic and how I would not do face-to-face with clients. Another issue was having childcare barriers during a lockdown because nobody could have contact with one another for the first month of my practicum experience so I had to study the agency’s manuals at home and complete safeguard and privacy safeguard quizzes online. This negative experience has lost me hours doing face-to-face. Secondly, child care in a remote community made things difficult and even though I had a plan B in place, covid-19 still created barriers.
Critical (Self) Reflection
Describe how you see the issue (professionalism) operating in your context and how this may impact you or how you interact with this issue.
As a social worker we need to think ahead. We should critically think about how we try to solve problems and think ahead with other ways to deal with the situation. However, when a pandemic crisi comes alone, I think it’s the responsibility of the faculty and field placement agency to have a plan B for students.
Provide clear examples to support your claims.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7539229/
Critical Thinking Analysis
Using an AOP lens, what do you infer/interpret from what you see?
What does this mean?
Use the questions below to guide your thinking.
Identify the standpoint in the experiences or the piece: who is saying what and why? What do they gain from this or not?
It is understanding what an experience, or what a position is about: what are the facts here? What are opinions?
It asks: what are the revlience and the importance or ideas expressed here?
Is it identifying and evaluating the assumptions behind an experience or piece of writing. Is it unpacking the ideologies that inform any assumptions?
Critical thinking involves “how do we know what is being asserted here?” In other words, what evidence is being offered for the claims? It involves assessing information as to whether the claims are made credible or not.
It includes looking for connections between ideas and making these explicit and apparent.
The Impact of Theory Strength-based Approach
Offer a brief definition
Explanation of an issue you faced in your practicum.
The issue with a strength-based approach is that many clients and families can be resistant to getting help. I am doing my practice with survivors and intergenerational survivors of the residential school system and the Indoegnous population has experienced internal oppression by the system and because I am working in a governed system, individuals and families automatically feel a sense of trust because of the power and privilege imbalance between my role and their lives. For example, Canadian Indigenous (First Nation, Metis and Inuit) residential school survivors have experienced social workers in the past from apprehending their children and many of those children abused and lost their culture, language, traditions and ways of knowing and being. From this, we can see how AOP is significant in social work practice because it teaches how to practice in a way that is anti-oppressive and educating clients that the histociac ways of social work practice is no longer a policy in our decision-making when it comes to children’s safety.
Critical (Self) Reflection:
Describe how you see this issue operating in your context and how this may impact you or how you interact with this issue.
An issue that might come up for me is dealing with conflict of interest because I live in a rural indiegnous community where I was born and raised. If I were to come across a client that has close family-ties or a close friend, this could impact the way I provide service delivery. But because the agency has policies in place, there are ways to prevent conflict between the practitioner and clients.
Provide clear examples to support your claims.
Critical Thinking Analysis
Using an AOP lens, what do you infer/interpret from what you see?
-Power: holding a title of a social worker and the way I present myself
-privileged: lighter skinned indiegnous person, higher education, middle-class (after I complete my degree), abilisim, cisgendered, and socio-economic privileged.
What does this mean?
Use the questions below to guide your thinking.
Identify the standpoint in the experiences or the piece: who is saying what and why? What do they gain from this or not?
It is understanding what an experience, or what a position is about: what are the facts here? What are opinions?
It asks: what are the revlience and the importance or ideas expressed here?
Is it identifying and evaluating the assumptions behind an experience or piece of writing. Is it unpacking the ideologies that inform any assumptions?
Critical thinking involves “how do we know what is being asserted here?” In other words, what evidence is being offered for the claims? It involves assessing information as to whether the claims are made credible or not.
It includes looking for connections between ideas and making these explicit and apparent.
Conclusion