Social work values and working with difference
Learning Objectives
After considering this resource, you should understand how social work values can guide practice when working with difference and the challenges this can raise.
Values are at the heart of social work practice, and have a particular significance when working with difference. It is a complex relationship to navigate, and one that is the focus of this article by Dharman Jeyasingham. In it, he explores the construction of difference and the central role it has in the way in which social workers practice.
Reflective Questions
- Write down a sentence that sums up the values that you hold and a sentence that describes where these values came from. Once you have completed this, consider how these descriptions are constructing the idea of values. What kinds of things do they allow you to say about yourself and what do they stop you from identifying?
- Consider an individual who represents values which you oppose - perhaps a public figure such as a politician or someone that you know personally. What sorts of physical feelings do you have when you think of, or encounter, this person? Embodied responses such as disgust are likely to play a significant part in how a lot of people define their personal politics. What role do they play for your sense of your own values?
- Think back to a situation where you were tasked with working together with other people to achieve a specific goal. This could be an intervention with a service user on placement, with colleagues in the agency in which you were placed or with other students, perhaps for a group project. Think of things that you did or said that were intended to find common ground or engage people in the task. How did these actions or statements construct similarity (e.g. similarities between women or shared concerns about a social issue)? What assumptions were at work about the nature of difference?