Human Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice with Marginalized Oppressed Populations

Roberta R. Greene, Michael Wright, Melvin Herring, Nicole Dubus, Taunya Wright

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780429951169
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

Human Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice with Marginalized Oppressed Populations addresses what social workers can do to combat the increasingly complex social concerns that face the profession, and explores how to incorporate the celebration of diversity and the protection of human rights into social work curricula and the helping process. The authors combine human behavior theories with a narrative, postmodern practice methodology that deals with both the client's or constituencies' presenting problem and equity issues, and, as a result, the book is both theoretical and applied. Two major integrating themes throughout are at the forefront of the book—the celebration of diversity and the equality of human rights. The goal is to strengthen diversity and human rights components of the social work curriculum and to provide more practice guidelines for cross-cultural practice.

1The RESM

A Culturally Sensitive Model of Social Work Practice

In this chapter, you are introduced to the resilience-enhancing stress model (RESM) of social work practice. The companion website expands on definitions of elements of the RESM and further introduces the stages of the RESM helping process. Two case studies in this chapter illustrate terms and assumptions.

Companion website: http://mawmedia.com/mawgroup/webfolder/ MainPage.html

The struggle to serve diverse communities by applying theories best suited for culturally sensitive social work practice has yet to be achieved. Social workers need only watch the nightly news to wonder whether they can fulfill their professional mandate to promote individual and community well-being despite living in a time of daily “threats and pulls,” “unmanageable historical events,” and “personal uncertainties” (Lifton, 1993/1999, p. 28).

Today’s sociocultural events require that social workers have specific knowledge and heightened skills to “enhance [the] quality of life for all people” (Council on Social Work Education [CSWE], 2015, p. 1). This challenging mandate includes the obligation to combat discrimination and to further advance social, economic, and environmental justice. The resilience-enhancing stress model (RESM) is an attempt to address this difficult and pressing need—to provide social work practice that is culturally sensitive and advocacy based.

The needs and aspirations of socially marginalized populations in U.S. society frequently go unrecognized and unacknowledged (Yosso, 2005). Oppressive structural barriers to resources remain, and attaining equity and human rights is elusive. Thus, those who are oppressed may experience a sense of anxiety and despair (Goldenberg, 1978; Lifton, 1993/1999). At the same time, tensions may flare and conflict may arise. Life choices may seem indefinable.

It is ironic that many people remain resilient despite such circumstances. This book addresses what social workers can do to combat the increasingly complex social concerns people face. It explores how to incorporate a celebration of diversity and the protection of human rights into the helping process.

This chapter uses two narratives to set the stage for thinking about social work practice with marginalized clients and constituencies. The first narrative reveals the childhood events of Ruby Bridges, who helped to integrate New Orleans public schools, and the second tells a social worker’s account of how she pursued theories suitable for serving marginalized individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. The companion website will further familiarize you with elements of the RESM as well as the four phases of social work practice with the RESM.

Case Study: Ruby Bridges

This case study of Ruby Bridges describes a historical account of school integration in New Orleans. Ruby’s story of resilience in the face of discrimination was recorded by child psychiatrist Robert Coles, who volunteered to provide counseling to her during her first year at William Frantz Elementary School. This account is described in his book The Story of Ruby Bridges (Coles, 2004; see the companion website for more details).

In early 20th-century New Orleans, black and white children went to segregated schools. This practice was declared to be unconstitutional in the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education. In 1960, after years of advocacy by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a judge ordered that schools in New Orleans be desegregated. Four black girls were assigned to white elementary schools.

Ruby, who was 6 years old at the time, was recruited by the NAACP to be one of these children—the only African American student who would attend first grade at Frantz Elementary School during that school year.

While Ruby’s parents walked her to school daily, white people gathered outside the school, carrying signs and calling Ruby names. The mob thought the use of violence would intimidate Ruby and her family and prevent her from attending. Yet Ruby knew that her family, the federal marshals, Mrs. Henry (her teacher), and her faith-based community were there to help her get through this seemingly impossible situation.

Ruby’s mother later concluded that:

our Ruby taught us all a lot. She became someone who helped change our country. She was part of history, just like generals and presidents are part of history. They’re leaders, and so was Ruby. She led us away from hate, and she led us nearer to knowing each other, the white folks and black folks.

(Coles, 2004, p. 55)

Introduction: Social Work Mission and Human Behavior Theory

Since the beginning of the social work profession, practitioners have tried to help people struggling with factors that interfere with social well-being by addressing difficulties in the person-in-environment configuration. Today, more than ever before, with many communities in a state of tension over racial/ethnic and cultural differences as well as economic disparities, social workers need to be prepared to empower clients and constituencies. This anti-oppressive view of social work practice allows clients to be understood within the context of their culture, their shared cognitive map, their discourse, and how they go about their lives (Greene, 2002).

Case Study: A Social Worker’s Story

This autobiographical case study illustrates a social worker’s quest for a human behavior theory that would give credence to both personal concerns and societal inequities.

Born in 1940, R. G. grew up in the segregated South. She was taught by her mother to protest discrimination in public accommodations, such as segregated seating on city buses. On a field trip in the 10th grade to a family service agency, R. G. decided to get a social work degree. While attending graduate school for her master’s in social work in 1960 (the same year that Ruby Bridges integrated Frantz Elementary School), R. G. read the historical mission of social work. She discovered that the profession had a dual allegiance to person–environment practice, which meant social workers had an obligation to attend to both personal and environmental factors.

In addition, R. G. learned that since the inception of the profession, social workers had assisted individuals and families facing socioeconomic difficulties. The emphasis was on providing material needs and socializing new Americans.

During World War I and the Great Depression, professional attention shifted away from economic and social conditions to internal psychological concerns. When R. G. got her master’s in social work in 1962, human behavior content emphasized psychodynamic theory.

For many years thereafter, R. G. felt the need for theoretical frameworks that would bridge person-in-environment issues and provide more than one-to-one interventions. R. G. was interested in how environments could support client functioning, and so she often engaged in policy practice, testifying before Congress and her state legislature about how specific policies affected her clients’ well-being.

During the 1970s and 1980s, R. G. joined with other social workers who were advocating that the profession use theory that paid more attention to the cultural groups to which clients belonged. This was a time when changes in the body politic presented social work with “formidable challenges” (Tidwell, 1971, p. 59). It was a critical time for political involvement.

In 1980, R. G. joined the faculty of a school of social work when academic communities were raising questions about the biases in social work’s professional knowledge base. Throughout her years in academia, R. G. has been active critiquing theories and asking questions about their universality (see Table 1.1).

Table 1.1 Universality: Questions to Explore

Questions to ask about a theory’s universality include the following:

•Does the theory address social work’s dual mission of promoting personal and societal well-being?

•Is the theory applicable to the intersection of the multiple factors that relate to difference?

•Does the framework focus on how diversity and difference are linked to the formation of identity?

•What is the theory’s utility in addressing cultural and ethnic diversity and its assumptions about what constitutes adaptive behavior?

•Does the framework examine differences associated with oppression, poverty, marginalization, and alienation as well as privilege, power, and acclaim?

•Does the theory recognize and attempt to eliminate structural barriers—including social, economic, political, and cultural exclusions—that may oppress, marginalize, or alienate or create privilege and power?

•Can the theoretical framework provide strategies that attend to human rights, such as freedom, safety, privacy, an adequate standard of living, health care, and education?

The RESM

The RESM is the outcome of a search for a culturally sound human behavior framework. It combines several the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Index of Tables, Figures, and Companion Website Content
• Foreword
• Preface: A Call to Action
• 1 The RESM: A Culturally Sensitive Model of Social Work Practice
• 2 Narrative Theory, the Culturally Sensitive RESM Interview, and the Helping Process
• 3 Risk and Resilience Theory: An Outcome Approach
• 4 RESM Assessment and Intervention: Ecological and Systems Theory
• 5 Social Work and Social Justice: Groups, Organizations, and Social Movements
• 6 A Presenting Problem, a Family, and a Marginalized Community: Applying the RESM
• 7 The RESM: An African American Client with Dementia and His Caregivers
• 8 Educational Resilience, School Stressors, and the RESM of School Social Work Practice
• 9 Resettling as a Forced Migrant: Applying the RESM
• 10 Improving Police–Community Relations: Creating a Third Space for Cultural Inclusion
• 11 Chronic Stress in U.S. Indigenous Communities: The RESM and the Relational-Self Approach
• 12 Grand Narratives: Building Community and Global Resilience
• Epilogue: The Ecology of Lake Hula
• About the Contributors
• Bibliography
• Index