Aina Lian Flem

 FACING DIVERSITY; RISKS OR OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOCIAL WORK DEVELOPMENT?

“Teach your students not to be so quick” one of the Ghanaian social workers told me when he summarized his experiences from being the supervisor of a Norwegian student during her field work studies in Ghana[1]. “Social work needs time, discussions and reflections” he said and also added: “Especially when you get too emotional to the case; you can make too quick decisions, which does not help”.

On the contrary to his last statement; the Norwegian students underlined that they, when experiencing emotional distress, always started to reflect; and through these experiences found valuable options for professional development.

 These two statements are therefore not contradictory; both underline the importance of reflection in social work, and as we’ve heard, emotional distress can both prevent, but also promote reflection processes.

            Within a Nordic network[2] of three schools offering Bachelor Degrees with a special focus on intercultural and international social work, students are encouraged to practice in contexts very different from their own. During these periods we have experienced that they are continually facing challenges (Payne&Askeland 2008:31). From an educational perspective, these situations are therefore considered to inhibit both risks and options for professional development (Antzak & Johansen 2007, Ottelid 2008; Torn 2008). As responsible teachers within these schools, we have therefore been exchanging ideas in how to support students’ learning processes. In this paper I will first summarize how we structure this support within this Nordic network. Then I will highlight two examples of students’ knowledge production based on Norwegian students going to Ghana for their field work studies. These examples are dealing with facing societal taboos and social work in a human rights perspective.

Supportive structures:

Before

Within all three schools the students start their preparatory process long before they are going abroad, almost a year ahead. (Being a student focussing on international social work, many of them have been planning their international field work studies even before they start studying). When they have decided on international practice, they apply individually and discuss their plan with the field work coordinator. In the planning process, they also have to take a big responsibility in establishing their contacts in the field.

During

During the practice period, their supervisor in the field is to be the one the students first of all are to consult. At the very beginning of the period they have to outline specific learning goals together. These goals are to be assessed, both during and at the end of the period. But the students are also keeping in touch with their contact teacher at home in different ways. They keep in touch through mail and are also writing one or two papers to send home which are to describe and analyze their experiences. Last year students from the Norwegian school were in addition partaking in a research project under the leadership of Associate Professors Anne Moe and Riina Kiik (Kiik, Riina; Moe, Anne 2008). This project invited the students to write three more papers, the so called reflection papers during the process, which they got written feed back on from their contact teacher.

After

When coming home, all the three Nordic schools offer various seminars where the students are to further reflect and elaborate on their experiences together with their contact teacher and fellow students. This follow up is structured as both a compulsory teaching module for all students, and also as separate modules for the international students designed according to their own needs and options.

The Norwegian project:

Analysing challenging encounters as critical incidents

In the examples to be described, the students experienced that their reflection processes developed in stages; from difficult encounters on micro level to gradually developing knowledge through reflections, writings and discussions?  (Payne& Askeland 2008:39). In the group sessions after the students came home from practice, we therefore focussed on challenging encounters as critical incidents. The whole process has altogether been very much in line with critical incident method. This method is described as both an emotional and cognitive process, proceeding from lower to higher levels of reflection, from analysing the experiences to conceptualizing new knowledge (Fook et al.,2006, in Payne & Askeland 2008). Let us then turn to the first example dealing with a student facing societal taboos.

Facing societal taboos

“Do you want to marry me?”, a male service user in a psychiatric hospital asked one of the students. “Oh, what have I done wrong”, she thought. She most of all wanted to run away from the situation. But as she had learnt during her education; she was the one responsible for the working relation, she was the one to clarify her professional purpose and role (Shulman 2003). And she did in a way manage to do that during the session. But when she reflected afterwards, she was mixed with a dual feeling; both insecurity whether she had acted sufficiently professional, but also relief having been informed by the service user about expectations from his part. These expectations she hadn’t thought about at all. Maybe, she thought at first that this was because she herself didn’t like to talk about private affairs in any context. In fact she perceived the issue as a personal taboo.

But when reflecting further in the group sessions after coming home, she saw new perspectives. First of all she had to understand the man’s reaction taking into consideration the present cultural context. She admitted that she had observed that her fellow Ghanaian social workers performed their social work role in a different way. From her perspective her colleagues represented a more authoritarian authority. In her context and from an interactional perspective she was used to put emphasis on creating relationship of mutual dialogue (Shulman 2003). But now she could see that this mutual dialogue in this context also could create confusion and expectations as expressed by the service user. This experience made the student become more conscious in reflecting on expectations connected to the fact that she was a young lady and the service user a young man.

 We’ve heard how the student claimed that the man/woman relation for her was a taboo to discuss in general. But when discussing this with her fellow students at home, they realised that these aspects of social work could be relevant in their own context as well. More likely as hidden issues they thought, contrary to what the student had experienced in Ghana. Besides, this was also an issue seldom discussed in the social work literature. The question raised was therefore; whose taboo does this theme represent; the individual student or even the social work profession?

Through this and other examples the students had therefore got a deeper understanding on how societal taboos are being upheld by cultural norms and expectations in every society. They also had realized challenges connected with facing societal taboos. They had therefore developed more openness towards reflecting critically on their own values as well as others, and also to take into consideration the limitations and possibilities in discovering societal taboos.

Social work in a human rights perspective

All students practising in Ghana were in different ways faced with issues connected with domestic violence. Their different host agencies were strongly supported by international as well as national politics focussing on human rights principles (United nations, 1992:8). On the national level a Domestic violence Act was passed in May 2007. The next example was experienced by one of the students working at a public office in Accra, Ghana. At this office the social workers were frequently receiving individual complaints from women having been assaulted by their husbands.

“A man has the right to discipline his wife!”

One day the Norwegian student was contacted by 5 men and 3 women. This group of visitors had not made any appointment, but was just walking into her office one late afternoon. One of the men started to talk. He was obviously very annoyed since he had received a letter from this office accusing him for having been violent against one of his 6 wives. He was accompanied with male relatives and three of his wives. The wife whoa had made the accusation was not present. Now the man had come to the office together with his male relatives and three wives present; to claim that he did not want to undergo any conflict conciliation since him as a man “did have the right to discipline his wives”.

            The student got overwhelmed by both the unexpected visit and the statements from the man. She acted intuitively, and politely asked all the men to wait in the waiting room while she had the chance to talk to the women. This talk did not, however, lead to any clarification of the situation since the three wives present were very much supporting the men.

Universalism and relativism in social work ethics

            In the group reflection, this student first of all realized that she, when separating women from men, took for granted that since the women were the most vulnerable in the situation, they had to be addressed separately. But in retrospect, she understood that the present issue most of all concerned the men. They were the ones to concentrate on. They were representing the power structure in the family; they actively maintained a perspective and practice which could create big challenges for the women.

From this case the student became conscious of that she not only had to take into consideration a universal perspective of protecting the women, she also had to bear in mind the existing values very much upheld within this family structure. In other words she had to search for alternative ways of acting to make a difference. Therefore she had to find ways which both acknowledged and challenged the ones who had the power to define end carry out men’s right to discipline their wives. In other words; she had, as claimed by Healy, to take into account both a universal and a relativistic perspective, and from there explore new ways of structuring the working process (Healy 2007).

In spite of social work sharing universal principles of human rights, these experiences made the students realize the complexities in supporting change processes related to such issues. They therefore did agree with the one supervisor who had underlined the necessity of not taking too quick decisions, at least when they were facing issues of diverse values. Making too quick decisions in these situations would only result in accelerating conflicts in stead of starting a process of conciliation and change.

Individual and community mobilisation as complementary interventions?

From discussing this incident, the students also clearly recognized that the issue of domestic violence was also very relevant to address in their own Norwegian context. But what they really had learnt facing such issues in the Ghanaian context; was the importance of including the family and community in the working process. To promote change they also had to consider this issue an issue of structural change.  

This and also other incidents from Ghana, had therefore made them acknowledge the complementarities between individual and community mobilisation in social work. Besides; this was also strongly supported by their host agencies working from a human rights perspective. These agencies all underlined that social work interventions in a human rights perspective are not interventions on individual or structural level, but on both levels.

Summary: From emotional distress through reflection and learning

I didn’t think I had learnt much shortly after I got home, one of the Norwegian students expressed some weeks ago, but after the various group sessions where we role played and reflected, I now realise how much this period really has given me. This also corresponds with a general attitude among students within the Nordic schools who frequently express that the international experience has been one of the most important periods in their life both personally and professionally (Torn 2008, Ottelid 2008).

 “Respecting others and different ways of living”, is a very common response from the students when they are asked what they’ve especially learnt during their international practice. But as the examples above indicate; the students’ respect for diversity is also challenged when encountering unexpected situations, in this paper described as critical incidents. These situations were always connected with becoming emotionally distressed, feeling alone and being out of control of the situation. In these situations they desperately needed somebody who could reach out to them and help them in sorting out their own emotions so that they became able to reflect and learn. This immediate support, they first of all got from their fellow students[3].

But after coming home, they still needed time and space to further reflect and analyze specific situations. By considering these as critical incidents, a process of reflection has been designed. The students have especially valued these sessions, and it is worth noticing that some of the most challenging examples were not written down by the students during their field work period, but instead described orally during the group sessions.

These processes have been vital in supporting the students’ reflections connected to both self reflection, and to critical reasoning in the domain of knowledge (Payne & Askeland 2008:36). But most of all these processes have underlined the importance of acknowledging diversity as resources for knowledge production both for the students and for the social work as a profession.

References

Antczak, Helle; Johansen, Helle ( 2007): Socialt arbejde i et globalisert samfunn,

Forlaget Samfundslitteratur, kap.1: Internationalt sosialt arbeid som nytt praksisfelt?

Healy M. Lynne ( 2007): Universialism and cultural relativism in social work ethics,

International Social Work

Moe, Anne; Kiik, Riina( 2008): Studentenes møte med praksis og kunnskapsutvikling i teori og praksis, Husk – arbeidsrapport nr.1/2008

Ottelid, Magnus ed. (2008): Devotion and empowerment, mid Sweden University Students report on social work in rural India 1988-1995, Mid Sweden University

Payne, Malcolm; Askeland Gurid Aga (2008): Globalization and International

Social Work, postmodern change and challenge, Ashgate, England, ch.3: “Critical

Reflection to promote Contextual Social Work Practice and Educatio

Shulman, Lawrence (2003): The skills of helping Individuals, Families, Groups and Communities.  Peacock Publishers, Inc.

Thorn, Carina (2008): Internship abroad, Mid Sweden University, unpublished paper