Understanding and Using Theory in Social Work

Juliette Oko

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780857254979
• eBook ISBN: 9780857254986
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

Understanding how theory informs social work practice is an area that students can find challenging and complex. This book helps students to understand how theory impacts and informs social work practice. Updated with a new introduction by the author, subjects covered include values and ethics, organisational contexts and putting theory into practice. There is a chapter on the relationship between theory and practice in social work which examines notions of empowerment and concepts of social exclusion and the distinctive role of the social work practitioner. Critical thinking exercises are built into the text to aid learning and reflective thinking.

Chapter 1

Introduction to understanding social work theory

ACHIEVING A SOCIAL WORK DEGREE

This chapter will begin to help you to meet the following National Occupational Standards.

Key Role 5: Manage and be accountable, with supervision and support, for your own social work practice with your own organisation.

• Manage and be accountable for your own work.

Key Role 6: Demonstrate professional competence in social work practice.

• Work within agreed standards of social work practice and ensure own professional development.

It will also introduce you to the following academic standards as set out in the social work subject benchmark statements.

4.3 Defining principles.

Subject knowledge and understanding.

5.1.4 Social work theory.

Subject-specific and other skills.

5.5.1 Managing problem-solving skills.

5.5.3 Analysis and synthesis.

Introduction

This chapter introduces you to some of the key themes discussed in this book. In particular we will explore different definitions of social work and see that these draw upon different explanations about its nature and purpose. In turn, this leads to the view that social work is a ‘contested activity’ based on different knowledge sources, ideas and beliefs that we draw upon to help us make sense and which influence our view of what social work is and what we think social work should do. In other words, we begin to see the relationship between thinking and doing, or more specifically, how social work theory can influence our practice, and the importance of recognising the influence of these ideas, knowledge sources and beliefs, through critical thinking and reflection.

By the end of the chapter, you should be able to:

• recognise social work as a contested activity based on different views about its nature and purpose;
• understand the approach known as ‘social constructionism’ which draws attention to the different ideas or constructions about the nature and purpose of social work as arising from different world views;
• identify what is meant by the term ‘theory’ and its relationship to informing practice;
• recognise the importance of critical thinking and reflective practice.

Defining social work

To begin with, let us consider definitions about ‘what social work is’ as in doing so, this helps to reveal the range of ‘theories’ or ideas and beliefs we draw upon to construct our view.

ACTIVITY 1.1

Write a short paragraph describing what you think social work is about.

COMMENT

For me, coming up with a satisfactory definition was surprisingly difficult! But I would begin to define social work as:

a paid professional activity which involves working with both adults and children to help them try and resolve practical and interpersonal difficulties in order to enable them to function and participate more effectively. This can be on an individual basis or within families, or working with groups or communities to improve their inter-social or personal competencies through the provision of a range of services and interventions. This may also involve the use of statutory controlling powers as well as more therapeutic support.

In coming up with this definition, I was conscious of how much I wanted to ‘pad out’ the definition by providing practice examples or to clarify terms such as ‘help’ or ‘enable’. An important consideration therefore, is the context in which social work takes place, which can alter our view of how social work is perceived.

In your definition, you may have described social work as an act of ‘helping’ directed towards supporting and working with a range of different service users and carers, such as older people or young children or people with learning difficulties, in order to promote their well-being. Such definitions tend to draw upon ‘client characteristics’ such as age or vulnerability and draw attention to the different ‘practice contexts’ of social work, seeing that social work takes place in different settings and with a variety of different service users. In addition, the use of the term ‘helping’ suggests social work is seen as a benign and uncontentious activity, willingly accepted. This was the view adopted by the Department of Health’s (2006) recruitment campaign for social work. Here, a social worker is described as:

a professional doing a varied and worthwhile job which focuses on improving people’s well-being …helping vulnerable people to make crucial decisions to regain control of their lives. They may be parents and children who are struggling in the face of deprivation, disability or abusive behaviour; young adults who are finding it hard to handle the pressures of living independently; people with mental health problems; those with physical or learning disabilities; people with drug or alcohol problems; people suffering from HIV/AIDS; older people who need support or refugees and homeless people. (p4)

In contrast, an alternative definition may have emphasised more the types of reasons why social workers are involved in people’s lives, such as poverty, ill health, abuse and family breakdown or offending, for instance. These definitions seem to hint more at people’s social circumstances or difficulties and may also prompt a consideration of issues of ‘social control’ and in contrast to the first definition, social work becomes a more contentious activity. This second approach towards defining social work is typified by Jones’ (2002) account, which describes social work as:

overwhelmingly a class-specific activity … whether the client is old or young, able-bodied or with a special need, an offender, a single parent, an abused child or partner, black or white, clients are most likely to be poor and most likely to be drawn from those sections of the population which enjoy the least status, security and power. (p42, emphasis added)

A third type of definition may have concentrated more on the skills, tasks or interventions you associate with social work, such as listening, advocacy, assessment, care management or using the law. This is the view adopted by Trevithick (2005), who states:

that social work involves working with some of the most complex problems and perplexing areas of human experience and, for this reason, social work is – and has to be – a highly skilled activity … (these) skills and interventions can be used in practice to enhance our effectiveness and help bring about positive outcomes. (p1)

In highlighting skills and interventions, this definition suggests social work is an applied, interactive activity that draws upon the use of particular knowledge sources and beliefs, and the use of practical and interpersonal skills about how to work effectively with people and problem-solve. Such definitions hint more at the use of values and ethics in social work.

Formal definitions of social work

We can see from the above that trying to define social work can be problematic and points to competing views about its role and purpose. Indeed in their definition, Pierson and Thomas (2002) go on to suggest that social work is an increasingly complex activity. To begin with however, they define social work as the paid professional activity that aims to assist people in overcoming serious difficulties in their lives by providing care, protection or counselling or through social support, advocacy and community work (p448). This definition draws heavily on social work’s skills and knowledge base. However, later on Pierson and Thomas acknowledge that through its historical development to its present day form social work has come to be many different things, with large – at times, grandiose – objectives, to an extent that a single summary of what it entail(s) become(s) impossible (p449).

We can see an example of this grandiose approach in the beginning definition of social work provided by the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW).

The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilising theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work. (IFSW, 2001, www.ifsw.org)

Perhaps what the IFSW definition helps to illustrate most clearly is that social work is a contested activity with competing views about its purpose. In using value terms, such as ‘empowerment’ and ‘liberation’, the IFSW is clear the activity of social work should go beyond promoting personal effectiveness, and instead, that social work should promote social change to enhance people’s well-being. However, in their definition, the IFSW provide no discussion about how this should be effected and neither is there an acknowledgement of the coercive elements of social work that often elicit both public and political concerns about the role and effectiveness of social work.

Social work as a contested activity

It can be argued that the range and emphasis taken in the different definitions outlined above demonstrate social work to be a contested activity with competing views about its purpose and role. One reason for this, as Parton (1996) argues, is that social work provides an essentially mediating role between the individual and society; it occupies, alongside other welfare professions, the middle ‘space’ in between. Social work is charged, by virtue of its role and legislative powers to intervene with individuals, groups and communities, to effect some kind of change. It is a socially mandated profession, which within Britain, historically originated from welfare concerns to manage the worst excesses of industrialisation (Parton, 1996). Social work grew out of the slums of developing industrialised cities and has a long association of managing and working with people living and experiencing poverty. However, contemporary social work also deals with people who are vulnerable by virtue of their age or fragility, or mental capacity, or those who are disadvantaged as a result of their social circumstances arising from physical disability or mental ill health; equally there are those who are at risk or are indeed socially excluded due to issues such as lifestyle, drug or alcohol misuse or offending behaviour.

Social work takes place within a variety of different practice settings, which can include for instance, residential homes, hospitals, young offender teams and child protection teams. In addition social work utilises a range of skills and tasks that include practical ones such as problem-solving, administrative tasks and the use of assessment protocols as well as more interpersonal skills such as listening and interviewing. We can add to this a number of intervention methodologies, such as cognitive behavioural therapy or other forms of counselling and brief therapies to effect change as well as drawing on legislative powers in the intervention role.

Social work is a contested activity precisely because of these different factors and also because it mediates between the state and its members. What social workers do and what their responsibilities are will depend significantly on what view is held about the nature of society and the role of the state in welfare. In other words, questions about the nature of society are questions about what kind of society we think we live in or indeed what kind of society we want. This generates questions about what obligations, if any, does society have towards its more vulnerable and disadvantaged members; how do we explain and make sense of issues around social inequality; what rights and responsibilities does society have, and what about individual rights and responsibilities versus collective responsibilities? These are all questions about the type of society or community we live in or would like to see and represent fundamental questions about the type of society we value. These questions generate contested and diverse views about the type of society we live in and invariably impact on views about the nature and purpose of social work. Such views about the purpose and value of social work lie at the heart of considering the issue of what social work is and what it should concern itself with and calls to mind the kinds of ‘theories’ or knowledge, skills and beliefs which are felt to best guide its activity.

Social work is not a neutral activity and its contested nature reveals itself in terms of changing policy directives, different practice settings and work with different service users, different work patterns between professionals and peers and in our interactions and contact with service users and carers. But it is not just the formal context of ‘what social work is’ that is contested and changes – our personal views about the nature and purpose of social work do not remain fixed either. Our ideas and beliefs change over time and context as well and are mediated, among other things, by our personal and practice experiences, the development of our professional skills and what we know and learn and our emotions and feelings. These all come together and affect the different ideas and beliefs we have about working with different service users and the range of practice settings that exist and what we consider to be social work. (In developing your understanding of social work as a contested activity, you might wish to broaden your knowledge by following up the reference above to Parton, 1996, or reading other texts, such as Barry, M and Hallett, C (eds) (1998) Social exclusion and social work. Both edited texts deal comprehensively with the social challenges that social work is charged with.)

Understanding the role of theory to inform our practice

So far, I have introduced the term ‘theory’ in inverted commas to refer to the range of knowledge, or ideas, skills and beliefs we draw upon to help us make sense of ‘what social work is’, which in turn influences our view of ‘how to do social work’. In this section I will introduce a definition of what is meant by the term ‘theory’ and its central importance in helping us inform our view of social work. (These ideas are discussed more fully in Chapter 2 when I look at the distinction between formal and informal theories about the nature of society and how these influence our view about the nature and purpose of social work.)

To begin with however, a theory can be described as representing a set of related ideas and assumptions that are drawn upon to help explain a particular phenomenon. A theory represents therefore an explanatory framework which attempts to help us make sense of the phenomenon in question – in this case, the context of social work. These explanations provide us with an opportunity to hypothesise, or make a judgement, about what we think is going on. In other words, these ideas and assumptions, when acknowledged, provide us with an explanation that can aid our understanding of what the matter is – that is, they help us answer the question of what is going on, what can be done to help and why. Theories essentially help us structure and organise our thinking and are central to helping us make sense of our practice and what we do. In social work, the theories which have predominantly influenced our thinking have been drawn from three main sources, namely; psychological, sociological and biological explanations. These have been drawn upon to help social workers make sense of questions about the nature of social work and its practice context and the difficulties faced by service users and carers.

For instance, we may be working with a mother who is struggling to deal with her nine-year-old son’s challenging behaviour. The boy has been diagnosed as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In attempting to work effectively with this family, we may draw upon biological explanations to help us understand the diagnosis of ADHD and some...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Series Editors’ Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Introduction to understanding social work theory
• Chapter 2 The relationship between theory and practice in social work
• Chapter 3 Values and ethics in social work
• Chapter 4 Social work and its organisational context
• Chapter 5 Putting theory into practice
• Conclusion
• Appendix
• Glossary
• References
• Index