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Social work and the arts: Images at the intersection

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Abstract

This article considers social work engagement with the arts. We are interested in claims made in the social work literature about why art matters (or should matter) to social work, and about what art achieves for people and communities and ideas. We focus in particular on the images and metaphors at play in descriptions of arts-informed social work projects. Our intent is to offer a framework for understanding what social work communities think (and hope, and imagine) happens when we take up the arts in education, practice and research.

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... Findings included an enhanced sense of collective responsibility among participants, and an increased willingness to publicly acknowledge risky cultural traditions that contribute to transmission (Bagamoyo College et al., 2002). Social work educators have used Theater of the Oppressed-a form of theater-based programming where spectators guide the direction of the performance-to promote critical thinking, reflective dialog, and ethical engagement (Fantus, 2019;Sinding et al., 2014;Spector-Mersel, 2017). The approach resulted in an enhanced sense of confidence and an increased ability to analyze ethical judgments in students. ...
... The approach resulted in an enhanced sense of confidence and an increased ability to analyze ethical judgments in students. One of the widely used theater-based programming, immersive theater, is a creative participatory experience where audience members give up their "observer" status to become coactors and cocreators of the narrative and of the storytelling process (Sinding et al., 2014). Researchers have explored its effectiveness in addressing the stigma of mental illness and HIV within communities and healthcare systems (Boehm & Boehm, 2003;Michalak et al., 2014). ...
... Participants are able to personalize the theatrical experience through self-identifying with the actors or identifying similarities with community members. The distance between the participant and the performed issue creates a safer space for inquiry, self-reflection, and cultivating empathy, while also connecting fellow participants in gaining shared understanding (Boehm & Boehm, 2003;Fantus, 2019;Sinding et al., 2014). The social influence of theater-based interventions affects participants affectively and cognitively to decrease instances of stigma and discrimination, thus enhancing access to services (Levy et al., 2014;Michalak et al., 2014). ...
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Critical reflection helps social work students gain a better understanding of their role and how to address social justice issues through empowerment and awareness. One way to encourage critical reflection is through the use of innovative methods such as immersive theatre. This qualitative study examined critical reflection to increase students’ skills in HIV-related intervention. Results found two main themes: (1) Responding and acting: The role of Social Workers in addressing HIV in the Black Community and (2) A greater understanding of HIV as a social justice issue. Implications for social work educators include utilizing critical reflection with innovative teaching to help students better understand issues related to social justice and health disparities.
... The authors of this document analysis wanted to find out what international knowledge there is about how the arts are used in social work and what effects they have. Sinding et al. (2014) looked at all of the published literature on arts-informed social work and found that it is varied and can be grouped or categorized in many different ways. When designing curriculum, it can be hard for social work educators to figure out how to incorporate the research process into educational interventions in order to do a more thorough evaluation of the process and results. ...
... According to the earlier discussion of a more comprehensive literature review, it was anticipated that the vast majority of the research that was going to be evaluated would be qualitative in character (Sinding, 2014;Kaufman 2011). The qualitative approach was taken in seven out of the eight research that were included. ...
... -Kadiya Qasem, photographer During lockdown the classroom became a virtual space, where images (photographs, video, web pages, film, etc.) played a crucial role in the teaching and learning process. Images have the power to change or influence people's behavior, which is empirically true (Huss, 2013;Huss et al., 2016;Phillips & Bellinger, 2011;Sinding et al., 2014). In particular, images such as photographs have the quality of a visual story, and as such, they are a powerful means of communication. ...
... In particular, images such as photographs have the quality of a visual story, and as such, they are a powerful means of communication. In social work, several authors using visual and arts-based methods emphasize the importance of using images in the learning process so that students can better understand themselves and others (Bromfield & Capous-Desyllas, 2017;Huss, 2013;Malka, 2022;Marshall et al., 2009;Sinding et al., 2014;Walton, 2012). Visual images are a powerful tool for communicating and, although they are open to interpretation, their purpose remains the same: to convey a message to the viewer. ...
Chapter
This chapter describes an innovative and creative project using self-portraiture which was designed to develop communication and activist skills among social work students in Greece during the second wave of the pandemic. During this time, students were able to exchange COVID-19 experiences through Microsoft Team (MS) meetings, raise awareness about the subject, and share their perspectives through creative endeavors. In this project, students utilized the face mask as an inspirational object and a medium to express themselves through self-portrait photography and convey messages about the pandemic to the public as a way of ethical social work activism. A variety of materials and creative techniques were used by students to capture their thoughts, feelings, and moods on the masks. After decorating their masks, students took photos of themselves to amplify their voices publicly. This chapter illuminates how the self-portrait photograph was a creative and engaging means of self-expression, ethical activism, and reflection for students. The chapter concludes with recommendations for developing and implementing visual arts-based methods, such as self-portraiture, as an embodied learning pedagogy in the social work curriculum.
... Según varios estudios, el cine puede mejorar la enseñanza-aprendizaje del trabajo social en cursos de grado y posgrado porque: complementa el material de los libros de texto y las sesiones expositivas (Liles, 2007;Papadaki, 2022); ayuda a comprender conceptos teóricos y su aplicación en la práctica (Keddell, 2011;Weiss-Gal, 2009); humaniza una variedad de temáticas, como la diversidad y la opresión que, de otro modo suelen enseñarse en un vacío teórico y/o empírico (Liles, 2007); potencia la mejora de competencias en la práctica clínica (Fleischer, 2017); contribuye a desarrollar el pensamiento crítico (Wehbi, 2015); permite analizar el trasfondo sociopolítico, las desigualdades sociales y los estereotipos (Lee y Priester, 2014; Van Wormer y Juby, 2016), y pensar de forma crítica analizando los mensajes manifiestos y encubiertos sobre las imágenes estereotipadas que los medios de comunicación suelen ofrecer de determinados colectivos (Van Wormer y Juby, 2016); ayuda a los estudiantes a comprender como interaccionan el género, la raza/etnia y la clase socioeconómica (Lee y Priester, 2014); y aumenta el entusiasmo del estudiantado, tanto en las sesiones presenciales como en línea (Head y Smith, 2016). Sinding et al. (2014) subrayan que el cine y la literatura ofrecen oportunidades formidables para la enseñanza-aprendizaje del trabajo social porque: 1) pueden llegar y sacar a la luz «lo que hay dentro» del individuo o del colectivo, p.ej.: sentimientos o recuerdos problemáticos y relaciones opresivas, así como fortalezas y aspiraciones; 2) nos permiten habitar los mundos de los demás, apreciar y empatizar con sus situaciones; y 3) pueden ayudar a interrumpir «malos hábitos», patrones de visión y conocimiento basados en estereotipos y prejuicios, al tomar conciencia de estos. ...
... Por lo general, las asignaturas de grado relacionadas con la política social en nuestra disciplina tienen la fama de ser poco entretenidas y el estudiantado las vivencia con cierto desinterés o como una tortura forzosa para superar sus estudios (Meehan, 2021). Los cursos introductorios de política social suelen ser la puerta de entrada para que el alumnado reflexione críticamente sobre sus propios valores y creencias, cuestión que puede producir cierta extrañeza e incomodidad (Leukefeld, 2011;Sinding et al., 2014). Teniendo en cuenta estas dos cuestiones, pensamos que el cinefórum es un buen recurso pedagógico para aprender política social desde un enfoque de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible. ...
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Nuestra sociedad se caracteriza por el protagonismo del audiovisual. Aun así, las competencias para capacitar al alumnado en el lenguaje audiovisual se trabajan con poca profundidad en nuestro sistema educativo. El cinefórum destaca como estrategia pedagógica desde un enfoque de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible, favoreciendo las dimensiones cognitivas, comunicativas y socioemocionales del aprendizaje. En este trabajo se analiza una experiencia docente sobre cinefórum y política social con 42 estudiantes de grado de una universidad española. El objetivo es explorar si el cinefórum fomenta el interés, la participación, el aprendizaje significativo y la mirada crítica, según sus valoraciones. La recolección de datos se realizó mediante cuestionario. La mayoría del alumnado valoró positivamente la experiencia de innovación educativa porque: a) aprendió conectando el contenido de las películas visualizadas con la teoría de la asignatura; b) la actividad propició la reflexividad y el espíritu crítico para analizar las problemáticas sociales desde un enfoque de género y de derechos humanos. La conclusión principal es que el cinefórum impacta positivamente en el aprendizaje cuando se diseña y usa con un propósito claro.
... A través de las voces de los participantes, los hallazgos muestran los beneficios de la experiencia de participación artística, revelando cómo el teatro les proporcionó un 'refugio' frente a las circunstancias hostiles de sus vidas y un lugar de reconocimiento y despliegue de capacidades. También se KEYWORDS Applied theatre; homeless people; social theatre; social work Introduction As Jane Addams' pioneering work at Hull House demonstrates, and which has been discussed in recent publications (Cordero Ramos & Muñoz Bellerin, 2017), theatre has been a classic object of interest for social work, given that culture and arts are intimately linked to quality of life and wellbeing (Sinding et al., 2014;Vieites-García, 2016). The arts can be a 'resource' (Yúdice, 2002) to give voice to the demands of marginalised sectors, to produce counter-hegemonic narratives that embrace diversity as a value, and to facilitate processes for reclaiming the cultural rights of excluded sectors (Boal, 2015). ...
... Social work research has been calling for interdisciplinary and innovative strategies that address contemporary challenges when working with vulnerable groups. As a growing body of research shows, arts applied to social work have an enormous potential to achieve this renewal as, among other things, they are a means to externalise feelings (Sinding et al., 2014) and make positive qualities of socially stigmatised communities visible (Kandil & te Bokkel, 2019), thus placing the focus on people's strengths and not on their deficits (Kelly & Doherty, 2017). Arts-led social work practices also allow for the development of inclusive alternatives to conventional communication (written or spoken) in order to reclaim silenced voices (Wehbi et al., 2018). ...
Article
Applied Theatre is an emerging field of knowledge concerned with the social, political, and educational uses of theatre and drama that is attracting increasing interest in social work research as it encourages creative practices committed to the participation of marginalised groups and the fight against injustice. This article presents the main results of a case study carried out over two years in the theatre group ‘Fuera de la Campana,' created in the context of an association of social intervention with homeless people. The achievements, challenges, and logics of this experience are analysed through a qualitative ethnographic methodology that includes participant observation and in-depth interviews. Through the participants' voices, the findings unfold the benefits of the experience of artistic participation, revealing that theatre provided them with a ‘refuge' from the hostile circumstances of their lives and a place of recognition to unleash their abilities. Dilemmas of inclusive artistic action embodied in this experience are also addressed, exploring how some applied theatrical practices can result in the re-victimisation of certain disadvantaged communities. Finally, it is concluded that theatre’s relevance in social work practice should be reinforced as it potentially provides powerful strategies to combat stigmatisation of marginalised groups.
... Arts-based methods can include visual, digital, handcrafted, literary, performance, and game-based practices and techniques. They are a powerful way to explore complex issues that may be difficult to elicit with more traditional research methods (Caldairou-Bessette et al., 2020;Sinding et al., 2014;Woodgate et al., 2017). Across studies, arts-based methods have been found to lessen power imbalances between participants and researchers (Coemans & Hannes, 2017), foster adolescent-led dialogue (Coemans & Hannes, 2017), improve young people's social-emotional health (Parker et al., 2008), and help adolescents connect personal experiences to systemic issues (Coemans & Hannes, 2017). ...
... Our findings make three meaningful contributions to the literature, the first methodological, the second empirical, and the third focused on practice. Methodologically, researchers who use arts-based methodologies have long understood that these methods can capture nuanced moments in people's lives that are not easily assessed with more traditional methods, such as surveys (Sinding et al., 2014). Our study supports this insight, as we found that story circles and body mapping produced layered and developmentally attuned understandings of how adolescents experience their gender, sexuality, and body over time and in different social-relational domains. ...
Article
We describe the implementation and select findings from Adolescent X, an arts-based research project that used story circles and body mapping to elucidate how young people understand the relationship between their social contexts and their sexual and reproductive health, with a particular focus on youth’s understandings of gender, sexuality, and the body as sites of possibility and power. A community-based sample of N = 24 youth of color was recruited from the South and West Sides of Chicago to participate in 3-day workshops. In addition to story circles and body mapping, data were collected via brief surveys with N = 24 youth, debriefing groups (n = 10 youth), and focus groups (n = 14 youth). Study data consisted of (1) body map visuals, that is, legends, mini-, and full-body maps; (2) written body map narratives; and (3) audio recordings of the story circles, body mapping activities, debriefing groups, and focus groups. All audio recordings were transcribed, deidentified, and uploaded in Dedoose for qualitative thematic analysis. Data analysis was conducted by a team of independent coders. Across all sources of data, three major themes were identified: (1) strong feelings of unsafety related to how young people’s bodies are gendered, sexualized, and racialized in different social settings; (2) the extent to which adults and institutions foster youth safety; and (3) sources of young people’s coping and resilience. Implications for public health research, practice, and policy are discussed.
... Savin-Baden and Winpenny (2014) offer a system for classification which considers how arts based methods in social work practice can be used as an intervention and at the other end of the spectrum can actually generate findings in an art form (see Huss, 2015). Sinding et al. (2014) talk about the arts acting as a vehicle for 'getting stuff out'; inhabiting others' worlds'; and 'breaking habits of seeing/knowing' (p190) in order to address individual and socially messy, problematic emotions and experiences in social work. ...
... There is a dual role here for social work, to learn from the art and creativity used by artists to achieve positive outcomes in the lives of service users, but also to take a step back and to make sense of the significance of the impact of the arts on the lives of service users, and support access to the arts. Aligning social work with the arts within a social justice framework (Sinding et al., 2014), is an acknowledgement of the role and power of the arts to enact social change and to challenge normative assumptions of embodiment. ...
... The use of art as a communication device in research has been found to allow for more spontaneous selfexpression in a manner that evades constraints of language and ability (Blodgett et al., 2013;Schormans, 2004). Sinding et al. (2014) have claimed that the arts act as an emotional safety valve and a critical conduit to disclosing unconscious feelings and thoughts. The participants were recruited via posters and public talks. ...
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This paper seeks to contribute to the carving [of] spaces that enable researchers to acompañar [walk with/accompany] a process of those that hold both ancient and cosmic knowledge carried across generations through oral traditions. Thus, it presents a pathway to a qualitative research methodology used to gather Indigenous Women’s experiences of inclusion/exclusion in a country in South America. More specifically, the goal of this paper is to discuss art-based methods and círculos de conversación [talking circles] as data gathering while following principles of reciprocity, solidarity, mutual respect and complementarity. Implications such as researchers needing to reposition in relation to occidental ethical principles that necessitate us to be neutral are discussed last.
... The vignette described a professional hockey player's difficulty with mental ill-health and nearly following through with a suicide plan. Research has indicated that priming activities (e.g., stimulus texts) may be beneficial in eliciting additional information on sensitive subjects (see Törrönen, 2002) and may help participants organize or expand on their thoughts during an interview, similar to the use of arts-based activities (Sinding et al., 2014) and guided journeys (Ross et al., 2009) in previous sport psychology research (e.g., Middleton et al., 2020). This vignette was chosen as Brennan had read it previously; when reading it, he found himself reflecting on his personal experiences with mental ill-health in sport and relating to Ben's negative experiences. ...
Article
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Athletes experience mental ill-health at prevalence rates similar to the general population but are reluctant to discuss or seek help for mental ill-health due to stigma, which can impact their status, playing time, or spot on the team. Researchers have alluded to social sequelae of mental ill-health stigma in sport (e.g., ostracization, reduced social opportunities), but these outcomes have not been explicitly explored. Therefore, we qualitatively explored athletes’ experiences of mental ill-health and their perceptions of the impact of stigma on their social relationships. Participants read a priming vignette before engaging in semistructured interviews. We interviewed 12 retired university and college student-athletes within 5 years of retirement who had experienced mental ill-health during their intercollegiate athletic career. Employing reflexive thematic analysis, we developed two themes portraying participants’ described experiences: (1) Relational Drawbacks to Protecting Oneself From Stigmatization, detailing negative impacts of mental ill-health stigma on participants’ relationships, and (2) Growth Through Stigmatized Experiences, highlighting the positive outcomes participants derived from their experiences. Through these themes, we found that participants utilized maladaptive coping strategies when fearing stigmatization, which led to the negative social sequelae they experienced. We also found that socially supportive and destigmatized interactions helped participants form deep, meaningful relationships that lasted beyond their student-athlete careers and provided a sense of well-being. We suggest that fostering socially supportive sport environments represents a promising path to destigmatization that can increase athlete well-being. We detail recommendations for future research avenues and interventions that may be beneficial in creating socially supportive sport environments.
... Prior to meeting with families, we each drew about our journeys to Canada and then interviewed each other about the stories behind our art. The use of art enabled us to share stories about ourselves that would have perhaps been unsayable or difficult to put into words without art as an icebreaker (Sinding et al., 2014). Also present during these interviews was another academic co-researcher who was well versed in arts-based methodologies and so was appropriately placed to ask questions of each of us from a different perspective. ...
... The arts facilitate access to and expression of the inner worlds of people (Sinding, Warren, and Paton 2014). Framed by the work of Dewey (1934) we are using 'art as experience', as a relational and 'embodied aesthetic' (Levy and Young 2020), that enables meaningful communication, relationship building and co-production of knowledge. ...
Article
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This paper offers reflections on an organic turn to the arts as a means of connecting and working with children and young people online during the Covid-19 pandemic. Lockdowns during the pandemic required social work practitioners, students, and social care staff to find innovative and creative ways of engaging with people. Online delivery of services presents both challenges and opportunities for communicating and building relationships. The arts, currently underutilised in social work, is one way to open up opportunities, and provide a ‘way in’ to the lives of people who use services. This paper draws on reflections from a student social worker based in Scotland, UK, on how a turn to the arts provided an effective means to connect with and understand the children and young people she was supporting. The paper first explores some of the benefits of using the arts in social work practice; second, it introduces online arts-based approaches used during the Covid-19 pandemic; and concludes by encouraging readers to adopt and adapt the approaches introduced in the paper to integrate arts-based approaches into social work.
... The use of art in participatory action research methods is considered relatively new in the social sciences and social work but is becoming more popular and widely implemented (Sinding, Warren, & Paton, 2014;Wiles, Crow & Pain, 2011;). However, art has been used as a working technique in groups and research since the beginning of the profession (Kelly & Doherty 2017;Coad 2007). ...
Chapter
This chapter describes the use of different artistic expression strategies in a participatory action research process. The protagonists of this project are young people with intellectual disabilities and their families in the context of a socio-occupational training programme at the university. The main objective of the research is to explore themes around the overprotection– autonomy continuum from the participants’ perspectives. A set of artistic techniques from different disciplines (visual art, performing art, and music) were used as a means to discuss and define the terms and their implications. Critically, this was in a participatory manner. At the beginning, the young people and their parents worked separately and independently following the same research steps and performing similar activities. The process and the methodology created opportunities to bridge the gap and increase mutual understanding that would not be possible through the daily interactions of normal life. Concrete examples are presented that highlight the benefits and difficulties of introducing activities not commonly found in a university environment. The analysis also includes a critical reflection about the possible use of art techniques in participatory action research projects with people with intellectual disabilities. Introduction Throughout history, people with intellectual disabilities have faced many socio-cultural barriers that have placed them in a position of inferiority in relation to the rest of society (Corrigan, 2014). The most common life plan for human beings is to achieve an adequate standard of living, have good relationships, have the freedom to make decisions based on personal convictions, and participate actively in family and community life. These aims are often unattainable dreams for people with disabilities (Abbott & McConkey, 2006). Despite the unquestionable progress in the conceptualisation and social recognition of the group (Roth et al., 2019), its social position and role clearly limit the possibility of living a full life. This fact is connected to access to education. People with disabilities experience great difficulties in finding supportive and inclusive spaces to eliminate the stigmas that promote exclusion (Madaus, 2011). This research is part of the Univerdi programme, a University of Jaen certificate, managed and run by university lecturers. Its main objective is the social and professional training of people with intellectual disabilities. The staff responsible for the programme asked the authors, who are specialised in group work research and intervention, to intervene in what appeared to be a case of ‘bullying’ among the participants.
... Another limitation to this study is that alternative or artistic "data" and ways of re-presenting friendship and distress may emphasise greater or different aspects of the topics (Gunaratnam, 2007). Artistic expression avoids or overcomes some of the restrictions of linguistic forms of communication and learnt expressiveness within it (Sinding, Warren & Paton, 2014). Art may therefore engage more emotional and embodied (as well as cognitive) reactions with the topics of "distress" and "friendship" (Taussig, 1993). ...
Article
Research, theory and mental health policy draws attention to the importance of family, social networks, community, employers and learning contexts in maintaining mental health and inclusion. Yet the meaningful complexities of friendship to psychological health and public policy has not received sustained analysis, and policy emphasis is often restricted towards family relations. This study explores the friendship-experiences of seventeen people who have endured mental health difficulties, through a critical narrative inquiry of their stories of friendship. A hermeneutics of suspicion, involving stigma, feminist and mad studies is used to explore meaning within the narratives. The study reveals the participants’ stories of problems of daily living, illness and stigma, of friendship as freedom and recognition, and friendship’s contribution to personal agency and establishing a valued position in society. The study develops a perspective of how compassion in friendship has helped articulate and reframe identities to one’s self, to others, and to distress, and therefore the potential contribution of friendship to living with mental distress. The thesis argues that mental health studies have been dominated by institutionalised relationships, of which friendship has been made to fit into theoretical frameworks of family- and kin-relationships. The thesis presents an alternative view of friendship to aid in the reformulation of the varieties of social relationships shared by people through mental distress. Additionally, there have been very few narrative studies that explore the friendship experiences of people with mental ill health and this study adds to a growing literature.
... These kinds of activities create an opportunity for social work students to practice a kind of relational politic that aims to break down unexamined habits of seeing the world from one's own vantage point. As Sinding et al. (2014) write, 'Art, here, works as a foil to usual (dominant) images; art has the capacity to interrupt our habits of seeing, to challenge and alter what (and how) we know, and thus how we act and relate to one another ' (p. 194). ...
Article
Teaching courses on social justice are mainstays of social work education and are considered imperative for ethically responsible social work practice. Social justice education comes with many challenges, including white settler student resistance and difficulties translating social justice content into social work practice. We suggest a move from viewing social justice practice as a value or skill set - as part of the ‘professional self’ – to one that understands social justice as relational and as a politics of being and acting. In this article, we discuss methods for decentering colonial whiteness in the social work classroom by adopting relational reflexive pedagogies more congruent with social justice content. The first half of the article focuses on the white and colonial epistemological foundations of social justice education in social work and notions of the social worker subjectivity as ‘good’ and ‘moral’. In the second half of the article, we invite social work educators to reflect on congruency between social justice theories discussed in the classroom and the practice of how we teach these concepts. We then offer circle pedagogy and Image Theatre exercises as examples of practicing a relational ethic and politic of social justice in the process of teaching.
... Si el objetivo de la IAP era el de definir los conceptos desde el punto de vista de los y las participantes, se debía utilizar una metodología que permitiera considerar diferentes niveles de habilidades y limitaciones. El uso de técnicas artísticas en IAP es considerado como innovador y relativamente novedoso, aunque se está aplicando de forma creciente en diferentes ámbitos (Sinding et al., 2014;Wiles et al., 2011). Sin embargo, el arte y las actividades grupales han sido utilizadas como técnicas de Trabajo Social en la práctica y la investigación desde el comienzo de la profesión (Coad, 2007;Kelly & Doherty, 2017). ...
Article
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En este estudio se describe un proceso de intervención mediante la Investigación Acción Participativa con un grupo de jóvenes con discapacidad intelectual y sus familias, en el contexto de un programa de formación sociolaboral en la Universidad de Jaén. El objetivo principal de la investigación consiste en explorar las temáticas relacionadas con el continuo sobreprotección-autonomía desde la perspectiva de los y las participantes. Mediante la utilización de actividades grupales y/o artísticas se promovió la discusión que llevó a la definición de la terminología y sus implicaciones en la vida diaria. El proceso de investigación supuso que familiares y alumnado trabajaran de forma separada pero paralela, con el objetivo de crear oportunidades para mejorar el entendimiento mutuo mediante la reflexión continua. Los principales ejes temáticos identificados por los y las participantes con discapacidad intelectual fueron: libertad, confianza por parte de sus familias, autonomía, libre elección de prendas e independencia. A su vez, las familias identificaron como dimensiones a trabajar: preparación para afrontar nuevas circunstancias, sobreprotección, sexualidad, consumos y objetivos vitales difíciles de realizar. Pudieron expresar sus opiniones de manera libre, segura y de forma diversa. El proceso participativo permitió un diálogo constructivo acerca de temas considerados tabú, tales como la sexualidad y la vida independiente
... Further, creative writing and the arts in social work can be used as a way to get inside, around, and under taken for granted discourses and privileges (Sinding et al., 2014). As Cross and Holyoake (2017) stated, "Poetic thinking and writing … encourages un-concealing or uncovering through allusions, syntax and unexpected metaphors" (p. ...
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Creative writing during the COVID-19 pandemic can serve as a decolonizing intersectional feminist method for critical self-reflexivity. We share responses to the prompt: “If my therapeutic practice came with a warning label in COVID-19, what would it say?” and provide an analysis of the neoliberalism, whiteness, and colonialism embedded in our creative writing and practice. Engaging in critical self-reflexivity through metaphor carries potential for revealing hidden gendered, racialized, colonial, and neoliberal biases and norms related to social work practice, particularly when done in a collaborative, dialogic manner. We conclude by providing possible creative writing prompts that might be used in social work practice, supervision, and teaching to advance existing practices of self-reflexivity in social work both during and beyond the pandemic.
... Applied theatre has demonstrated an inexhaustible potential to make the problems of disadvantaged groups visible and to propose alternatives for critical empowerment. Theatrical creation can facilitate processes to improve the quality of life of vulnerable groups (Sinding et al. 2014), activate processes of reconquest of social and cultural rights (Infantino 2020), provoke fractures in the processes of exclusion and self-exclusion (da Silva Perez 2015) and redefine patterns of behaviour and thought that underpin inequalities (Massó-Guijarro et al. 2020). ...
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This article addresses the potential of applied theatre to build spaces of visibility and recognition for homeless people. It describes the logics, achievements and challenges of Teatro de la Inclusión and Fuera de la Campana, two theatrical experiences coordinated by the authors in southern Spain. These cases have been investigated and documented through ethnographic procedures that have included participant observation and in-depth interviews with the group’s participants, among other data-collection techniques. Through the voices of their protagonists, the authors critically discuss the perceived benefits of the experiences by studying their potential for recognition and the artistic teaching methodologies put into play. They also analyse the convergences and divergences in the aesthetic-political conceptions of each of the groups and their consequences in their respective contexts.
... Arts-based practices explore the substance and relationship between power, dominance, and oppression (Sinding et al., 2014;Sitter et al., 2016). Leonard and colleagues' (2018) systematic review of the arts in social work education found that arts-based approaches effectively fostered connections between micro and macro practice among learners. ...
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Drawing upon Heron and Reason’s (1997) participatory inquiry paradigm and extended epistemology, this article explores how six Master of Social Work (MSW) students engaged in sensory arts-based critical reflection concerning their social location, identities, social justice, and social policy. We share our process for creating sensory arts-based stories, the stories themselves, and pedagogical reflections. We elucidate how sensory arts-based storytelling allows learners to draw upon their strengths, unique perspectives, and experiences in the world, generating transformative understandings of social justice. Sensory arts-based storytelling holds potential as an interdisciplinary mode of critical reflection, generating inclusive learning environments oriented towards social change.
... Thierry tried to assuage nervousness by explaining that there was no right or wrong, and it did not matter how well they could draw. The drawings were solely being used as a creative means of expression that helped them think about, organize, and feel confident to tell the story they chose to share (Sinding et al., 2012). When the youth appeared to be finished drawing, Thierry would begin a conversational interview by asking them to describe their drawing. ...
Article
Objectives To facilitate intercultural understanding by centralising forced immigrant youths' voices in the knowledge development phase of a CBPAR project. The aim of this paper is to reveal the role of sport in forced immigrant youths' acculturative journeys in different communities. Methodology We utilized ‘get-to-know-you’ arts-based conversational interviews (m time = 38 minutes) held at the onset of a community-based participatory action research project. A polyphonic (i.e., multi-voiced) vignette is used to portray an interpretive account of the stories told by 22 refugee and asylum seeking (i.e., forced immigrant) youth (m age – 13.4 years) developed through a reflexive thematic analysis. Results The three-scene polyphonic vignette stories the role sport has played, and continues to play, in forced immigrant youths' life journeys. The opening scene brings to light stories related to home country sport involvement. The second scene depicts how sport was engaged in during their journey to their current host community. The third scene completes the story focusing on how youth engage in sport during resettlement in their host Canadian community. Conclusions The meaning of sport, and what it means to be safe in sport, changes over the course of forced immigrant youths' acculturative journeys. Feeling safe in sport offers a unique opportunity for youth to feel a sense of sharing their acculturative journey with those around them.
... Our researcher(s) conducting the interviews, as well as any parents and younger siblings who were present during the interviews, also engaged in creating a piece of art work simultaneously, so as to engage entire families. Creating art work together not only helped the youth to pull out parts of their story they might have had 240 difficulty putting into words, but also helped to build rapport and reduce any distrust (Sinding, Warren, & Paton, 2012). A conversational interview followed, using one question: "Can you tell me about your drawing?" and continued with ensuing dialogue about themes introduced by the youth relating back to their art (Sparkes & Smith, 2014). ...
... Furthermore, as professors in the human services field, it is important to impart the acquisition of certain theories as well as competencies as established by the discipline. Arts, such as poetry, storytelling, and theatre, have been used in the social work classroom to emphasize non-verbal and metaphoric language (Sinding, Warren, & Paton, 2014). This use of the arts has been shown to help students acquire empathy, make ethical decisions, and increase critical thinking abilities (Turner, 2013). ...
Article
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This paper addresses how professors in a Social Work and Human Services Program in the Southeastern United States include voices of the oppressed and vulnerable through art forms to develop analytical thinking to prepare human service practitioners. This pedagogical practice is based on Gardner’s discussion of Multiple Intelligences. The authors also offer examples, discuss outcome measures for each, cite student responses, and provide considerations for inclusion in course work. This article is focused on human services curricula, such as social work, psychology, clinical psychology, and counseling, but the concepts can be used in a variety of human services professional education settings.
... Instead, the arts and creative processes act as analogs for situations and challenges that youths face outside of the group (Lang, 2016). Others have found that arts-based methods help people express their thoughts and feelings that would otherwise remain unidentified (Sinding, Warren, & Paton, 2014). Indeed, youths with communication challenges may find arts-based modalities more accessible and feasible than the high level of verbalization and cognition required for more traditional talk-based interventions. ...
Article
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Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) hold promise for building resilience in children/youth. We were interested in understanding why some MBIs incorporate arts-based methods, and what key findings were identified from the study of these MBIs. We used a scoping review to address our research questions. Scoping reviews can help us better understand how different types of evidence can inform practice, policy, and research. Steps include identifying research questions and relevant studies, selecting studies for analysis, charting data, and summarizing results. We identified 27 research articles for analysis. MBIs included the use of drawing, painting, sculpting, drama, music, poetry, and karate. Rationales included both the characteristics of children/youth, and the benefits of the methods. Arts-based MBIs may be more relevant and engaging especially for youth with serious challenges. Specific focus should be paid to better understanding the development and benefits of these MBIs.
... Our interdisciplinary approach to art-based research provides a basis to address the "in-between" spaces of cultural expressions and people's agency, building on the narration and involvement of the research participants (Desyllas, 2014;Foster, 2012;Foster, Deafenbaugh, & Miller, 2018;Määttä, 2017;Sinding, Warren, & Paton, 2014). We approach interaction and creativity in art-based research as being products of specific cultural, social and historical contexts. ...
Article
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This article discusses how art-based research can function as a decolonizing research method. Its analysis is based on the collaboration of social work and art education disciplines for advancing social justice and deconstructing power dominances. Empirically, the research builds on a participatory theatre project, “My Stage,” with immigrant women. The project was established as part of a larger interdisciplinary project, “Art Gear,” in Northern Finland, which promoted the bidirectional integration of the local population and people with immigrant backgrounds. The research data were collected through participatory observation and reflective discussions by the social work researcher in the theatre workshops. By the analysis of an interdisciplinary team of social work and art education researchers, we develop a context-sensitive framework of art-based research to advance decolonizing research methods, which contribute to supporting the agency and inclusion of marginalized populations in research and in their integration processes at times of complex and rapid demographic and societal changes.
... In the process of doing so, they learn about both self-compassion and empathy. Sinding, Warren, and Paton (2014) reported that social workers use arts-based methods to help people express themselves, and to help us make sense of someoneelse's experiences. Based on their developmental stages, this is especially the case when working with children and youth who mayneedto learn to identify their feelingsfirst before they can effectively express them. ...
Chapter
In this chapter, I describe how and why we use arts-based methods to facilitate the learning of mindfulness-based practices and concepts. An arts-based approach is engaging and enjoyable, and helps to create safe spaces for youth to understand and express their feelings and thoughts. Developmentally, using creative approaches makes sense for youth and it is a relevant and meaningful approach that promotes success. Arts-based approaches are effective for building a variety of resiliencies including increased self-awareness, emotion regulation, and self-esteem. The chapter also describes how we have used arts-based methods and processes to work with youth in disseminating the results of our research. Involving the youth in knowledge translation reflects our values as researchers and makes research findings accessible to a variety of stakeholders.
... Athletes were encouraged to select a place where they would feel comfortable engaging in an arts-based activity and conversational interview with the researcher. Art was used to begin each interview to support athletes in the untangling of their feelings and thoughts while deciding on what stories they would tell and to empower the athlete in taking control of the research process (Sinding, Warren, & Paton, 2012). Athletes were provided with paper, colored pencils, markers, and crayons and asked to illustrate/describe their daily routine in the form of a circle (otherwise known as a mandala), a tree, a flowing river, or any other image they chose to draw that was meaningful for them (i.e., a zig-zag timeline). ...
Article
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Families play an important role in the development of elite athletes. However, little is known about the unique role subsumed by the families of elite immigrant athletes. Our authors sought to extend this understanding through a narrative inquiry approach with nine elite immigrant athletes. Combining transcript data derived from arts-based conversational interviews and researcher field notes, the results are presented in the form of a composite moving story (i.e., stories composed from multiple guided journey accounts) comprised of three themes: (a) “When you first come, the only people you got is your family”, (b) “It’s on me to find a balance between my priorities and my parents’ wishes”, (c) “It’s been a family effort to get me to where I am right now”. The fluid nature in the story is brought forth by describing when, where, and to whom the athletes tell their story to. This dynamic interplay is used to accentuate the idiographic, dynamic, and complex nature of elite athlete acculturation, resulting in differences arising between family members’ values and priorities. Despite the tension that may arise due to these differences, family members (including siblings) play a vital role in supporting elite athletes throughout their journey. The use of a moving story as a form of representation offers readers an opportunity to think along with the athletes and learn through an embodied response to the complex relocation stories encountered by elite immigrant athletes.
... Accordingly, the fourth theme presents that the youths found the arts-based activities engaging, relaxing, fun, and helpful. Arts-based activities can "get things out" in ways that verbal communication cannot (Sinding, Warren, & Paton, 2014). In turn, this expression helped the youths feel better about themselves and to make some insights. ...
Article
Summary We facilitated an arts-based mindfulness group program with youths who were receiving short-term inpatient mental health supports within hospital. We aimed to explore the challenges and benefits these marginalized youths experienced through their exposure to the group intervention. Forty pre-group and 24 post-group interviews were analyzed using a thematic analysis framework. Findings The qualitative findings are presented using creative nonfiction in the form of a composite vignette. The composite vignette portrays the content within the themes, creatively telling a more compelling story that illustrates key points and themes within the data set. The vignette shows how mental health challenges created problems in the youths’ lives. Although most of the youths were initially nervous about participating in the program, the strengths and arts-based nature of the program helped them to connect with others in the group and express themselves. All of the youths reported that the group program was enjoyable and beneficial. They learned to identify what they were feeling/thinking and to express these feelings/thoughts using creative means of expression. Making art helped them to develop their self-awareness and created enjoyment in the group and with the group methods. Also, learning about mindfulness helped them to think in different ways, and to focus and relax more. Application The results of this pilot project warrant further investigation into the benefits of creative strengths-based mindfulness-based interventions for in-patient youths experiencing mental health challenges. The composite vignette centers the youths’ voices and provides a comprehensive account of their experiences.
... Our researcher(s) conducting the interviews, as well as any parents and younger siblings who were present during the interviews, also engaged in creating a piece of art work simultaneously, so as to engage entire families. Creating art work together not only helped the youth to pull out parts of their story they might have had 240 difficulty putting into words, but also helped to build rapport and reduce any distrust (Sinding, Warren, & Paton, 2012). A conversational interview followed, using one question: "Can you tell me about your drawing?" and continued with ensuing dialogue about themes introduced by the youth relating back to their art (Sparkes & Smith, 2014). ...
Article
There are varied approaches that have been used in sport for development (SFD) projects. This article is focused on the move by sport and exercise psychology researchers toward community-based SFD projects where marginalized groups are centralized. The authors have chosen two of their projects to exemplify different approaches to SFD. An initial project with an Aboriginal community is critically examined to reveal cultural missteps that perpetuated cultural colonization–something antithetical to community capacity building. The second project is then considered because of its closer alignment with cultural praxis and community capacity building. This second project focuses on the initial developments of a YMCA physical activity project designed to meet the needs of forced immigrants (a self-titled name developed by the refugee community members) and the staff who work with them. We culminate with five postulates proposed for SFD project teams derived from our vantage in sport and exercise psychology, where community engagement and eventual self-governance are imperatives.
Article
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Sanat terapisi; görsel sanatlar, müzik, yazı, drama ve dans gibi muhtelif yaratıcı süreçler aracılığıyla bireylerin, ailelerin ve toplulukların yaşamlarını iyileştirmeyi; nörolojik, zihinsel, bedensel veya davranışsal bozuklukların tedavisini desteklemeyi ve bireyin genel sağlığını teşvik etmeyi terapötik bir bağlam içinde amaçlayan çok disiplinli bir yaklaşımdır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, teorik temelleri ve pratik uygulamalarıyla sosyal çalışma disiplini dahilinde yıllar içerisinde gelişen sanat terapisiyle ilgili genel bir çerçeve sunmaktır. Bu amaçla 14.02.2024 tarihine kadar Web of Science (WoS) veri tabanı, sanat terapisi ile ilgili belirli İngilizce anahtar sözcüklerle en eski tarihten itibaren taranmıştır. Dahil etme ve hariç tutma kriterlerine göre 148 makaleden 99 tanesinin örnekleme alınmasına karar verilmiş ve verilerin incelenmesi amacıyla R istatistiksel yazılımında yer alan Bibliometrix paket programı kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen bulgulara göre sosyal hizmette sanat terapisi ile ilgili çalışmaların daha çok çocuklar ve geç yetişkinler üzerine yoğunlaştığı; travma sonrası stres bozukluğu ve kanser gibi hastalıkların ön plana çıktığı ve yaratıcılık, dayanıklılık ve empati gibi kavramların sıkça kullanıldığı görülmektedir. Araştırmalar ülke bazında incelendiğinde sosyal hizmette sanat terapisinin ağırlıklı olarak ABD’de çalışıldığı, İngiltere ve Kanada’nın ise onu takip ettiği görülmektedir. Elde edilen diğer bulgular sistematik literatür taraması içerisinde çeşitli görsel temsiller aracılığıyla desteklenmiş ve alanda çalışmayı planlayan potansiyel araştırmacılara kapsamlı bir çerçeve sunulması amaçlanmıştır.
Article
Qualitative research in social work employs various scientific approaches to explore the diversity and depth of human life, with interviews and observations being commonly used. Situated within an arts-based research (ABR) framework, this study explores participants’ experiences of collage-making, and how collage can be used as a methodological approach for collecting empirical data. Four themes emerged from the analysis: (1) Collage: a dynamic visual language in art and communication; (2) Collage: a method for reflecting, sharing, and bonding; (3) Collage: the ethics of associative creation; (4) Collage: the prerequisites of time, space, and place. Working with collage can be highly participatory and exploratory, developing meaningfulness, imagination, and new insights for both researcher and participant. It promotes an egalitarian and holistic approach to listening to people, enabling them to convey their experiences using visual, verbal, and metaphorical language. Nevertheless, the process is time-consuming given that collage-making lacks a distinct endpoint or limitation. Using this method requires time, participant commitment, researcher involvement, and a trustworthy workgroup. Moreover, the free and associative nature of creating collage, alongside the act of cutting pieces from one’s life and assembling them into a new whole, raises ethical questions. In conclusion, collage as a method of inquiry for collecting empirical data creates promising conditions for capturing stories of people’s lives, aspirations, struggles, and experiences of social processes and political concepts. With appropriate conditions in place, the process can be a meaningful experience for all involved.
Chapter
Social Work and the Arts: Expanding Horizons is a collection of writings by educators, researchers, practitioners, artists, and activists that call forth the historical roots, timelessness, and transformative powers of the arts in social work. Its chapters illustrate how the expressive arts are used for meaningful exchange, personal and community empowerment, and heightened awareness of issues that are all too often silenced. Content offers myriad ways the arts serve as strategies for understanding human struggles, building agency, gaining new knowledge, promoting social justice, and envisioning ways to harness creativity that can be used to design the social work landscape of the future. The book’s diverse voices vividly describe an array of art forms successfully used by the authors in their practices, including photography, poetry, theater, visual arts, dance, music, documentary, and graphic communication. They expound on theories that support and justify the synergistic relevance of the arts to social work, exploring the value of both traditional evidence-informed methodologies and the insight and worth of lived wisdom. Chapter formats take multiple forms, including graphic comics, poetry, and autobiography. Some of the authors are artists as well as social workers, while others are former students who have benefited from the arts in their education. Interest in the arts and social work continuously grows as evidenced by programs dedicating courses and certificate programs to its utility and seeking faculty who have art experience and acumen. The book content is designed to readily be used by readers in their areas of social work practice.
Book
This book shapes a situated body politics to re-think, re-write, and de-colonise social work as a post-anthropocentric discipline headed towards glocalisation, where human and non-human embodiments and agencies are entangled in glocal environmental worlds. It critically and creatively examines how social work can be theorised, practised, and written in renewed ways through dialogical and transdisciplinary practices. This book is composed of eight essayistic spaces, envisioning social work through embodied, glocal, and earthly entanglements. By drawing on research-based knowledge, autobiographical notes, stories, poetry, photographs, and an art exhibition in social work education, these essays provide readers with analysis and strategies that are useful for research, education, and practice as well as life-long learning. The book constitutes key literature for researchers, educators, practitioners, and activists in social work, sociology, architecture, art and creative writing, feminist and postcolonial studies, human geography, and post-anthropocentric philosophy. It offers the readers sustainable ways to re-think and re-write social work towards a glocal- and post-anthropocentric more-than-human worldview.
Article
The project described in this paper rests on a belief in the power and significance of storytelling in social change processes. It also takes seriously worries and critique about ‘what happens’ when personal stories of troubles or suffering are told to strangers, particularly as they revolve around contradictory claims about empathy. Over several months our research team worked with a group of women who have experienced homelessness and who are advocates for themselves and other women in our community. The women participated in a series of storytelling and image theatre workshops and exercises that formed the basis of a 20-minute dramatic vignette centered on their interactions with social services in the city. The creative process was designed to value the knowledge carried in personal stories of lived experience, while harnessing the power of the arts to evade some of the problematics of personal storytelling in public spaces. The women performed the vignette for social work students. In this paper we reflect on comments from students who witnessed the performance and offer our analysis of their responses in relation to specific features of the drama. In a discursive context that holds individuals responsible for all manner of social problems, we consider the potential of projects like this one for summoning and mobilizing publics and publicness.
Article
The gold standard for medical decision-making in pediatrics involves determining the “best interests” of the child and making the decisions accordingly. Accurately assessing the ethical concerns of children can assist care providers, such as parents, clinicians, and other healthcare professionals, in making care and discharge planning relevant to and reflective of what children need to flourish. However, the process of understanding children’s ethical concerns requires care providers to elicit their voices and address their hidden needs and desires into clinical care plans: a practice not commonly operationalized in hospitals. Found poetry was used to consolidate a three-year focused ethnography conducted at a large North American pediatric orthopedic hospital by rearranging interview transcripts into the poetic form. The ethnography demonstrated that children with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI or brittle bone disease) have developed complex strategies to navigate medical decision making processes and their communities despite prevailing societal notions of children’s fragility. The poems crystallize children’s rich and nuanced ethical concerns as well as the factors that support or thwart their moral agency within the hospital’s socioecological context. Found poetry thus can allow healthcare practitioners greater ethical insight into children’s needs and facilitate professional reflexivity.
Article
Over the last two decades there has been an increase in the use of participatory and emancipatory methodologies within disability research; centring the lived experience of disabled people. This paper explores some of the ethical and practical considerations when researching in the area of disabled women and sexuality, highlighting the pervasiveness of ableist attitudes and processes. Drawing on critical disability studies and utilising critical reflexivity, the researcher, a disabled woman, discusses some of the strengths and limitations of being an ‘insider-outsider’ researcher. The paper also presents some strategies and considerations for researchers who seek to use inclusive methods in research with and by disabled people, including the importance of language and multi-methods to facilitate and promote access and expression. If research is to be a true reflection of the community being researched, then it is vital inclusive principles are incorporated into all stages of research projects. • Points of interest • There has been an increase in research that includes disabled people in all stages of the research process. • This paper discusses some of the ways the researcher, a disabled woman, used inclusive research methods throughout her study focused on disabled women’s experiences of sex education, sexual expression and violence. • The paper considers some of the strengths and challenges of insider research, and outlines ways to promote access and expression.
Article
This article describes the use of film as a teaching tool in social work education by providing insights from using the film Portrait of a Lady on Fire in a diversity undergraduate social work course during the COVID-19 outbreak. The film was selected because of its course-related content as it involves issues of gender, class, power and oppression. The paper presents the rationale behind the choice of film as a teaching tool, the procedure, the outcomes and the feedback from students. The procedure used was inspired by Russell’s Model for Using Film. The outcomes and feedback from students support the idea of using film as a technique to stimulate discussion and explore concepts associated with diversity and intersectionality; students appreciated the opportunity to discuss such issues with their peers and considered the film as a valuable supplement to online lectures. Implications for using film in social work education are discussed.
Conference Paper
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Sanat, sosyal hizmet uygulamalarında mesleğin başlangıcından itibaren kullanılmıştır. Ancak sosyal hizmette sanatın teorik bir temelinin oluşturulmaması sanat uygulamalarının marjinalleşmesine ve sanatın bir yöntem olarak benimsenmemesine neden olmuştur. Uygulamalar teorikten doğru ortaya çıkmaktadır, bu nedenle sanatı bir yöntem olarak kullanmanın mantıklı bir gerekçesi olarak teorik temeli açık bir şekilde ortaya konulmalıdır. Sanatı sosyal hizmette nasıl kullanacağımızı aramadan önce sanatı neden kullanmamız gerektiğini anlamamız gerekmektedir. Sanat kişinin duygularını ve düşüncelerini yansıtan, davranışlarının yordayıcısı olabilen bir kendini ifade etme aracıdır. Kişiyi en iyi kendisi ifade edebilir ve sanat da kişinin ortaya çıkardığı sanatın sosyal hizmet uzmanı ve müracaatçının iletişim kurması, yorumlaması ve tartışması sonucu somutlaştırılıp bir veri olarak kullanılabilmesine olanak sağlar. İnsanı odak noktasına alan sosyal hizmet ve sanatın birçok ortak noktası bulunmaktadır. Sanat sosyal hizmetin amaçlarının doğal bir parçasıdır. Sosyal hizmet uygulamalarında sanatın kullanılması kişinin sözlerinin arkasındaki anlamı bulmaya, duygularını anlamaya, kişinin anlayışını ve kültürel algılarını ortaya çıkarmaya yardımcı olmaktadır. Sosyal hizmette kişi çevresinden bağımsız değerlendirilemez. Sanatın bağlam içinde kişi yaklaşımını somutlaştırması, kişiyi anlayabilmek için kendisine özgü bilgi, algı, duygu ve yaşantısının bilinmesi gerektiğini savunması ve farklı bilgi temellerini bütünleştirici bir alan oluşturması sosyal hizmet için faydalı bir yöntem olduğunu göstermektedir. Sanatın sosyal hizmet müdahalelerinde bir yöntem olarak kullanılması, müdahalelerin daha etkili olmasına olanak sağlayabilir. Bu makalede sanatın sosyal hizmette ile ilişkisini ve sanatın sosyal hizmetteki yeri ve önemini değerlendirmek amaçlanmıştır.
Article
This paper pertains to a project which began with an academic research team being recruited by a YMCA management team to help understand how to retain forced migrant youth in YMCA sport programs. Owing to experience working with diverse cultural groups through praxis-oriented approaches, the project team recognized a need to develop an understanding of how forced migrant youth wished to engage in sport where the onus was not exclusively theirs to shoulder the navigation of cultural differences. We present a critical analysis, interspersed with creative non-fiction accounts, to show how forced migrant youth, their families, YMCA settlement staff members, and an academic research team collaborated to increase awareness of the diverse cultural ‘realities’ present in our community and social inequalities faced by forced migrant youth. We conclude with lessons related to community capacity building and the development of contextually relevant sport programs.
Article
Genograms are widely used in family therapy as a way of visually mapping out systems and recurring family patterns. Creative genograms enable families to phenomenologically self-define recurring themes and issues, thus combining both historical, but also, experiential data on the same page. This participatory research gathers the self-defined, phenomenological experience of family social workers who experienced creative genograms firstly on themselves and then administered it with their clients: Examples are analyzed within the text. The findings point to the usefulness of including creative genograms in family social work contexts to intensify information, engagement, and stimulation and to re-perceive calcified problems through new visual terms. Challenges were the unfamiliarity of art language and fear of being “diagnosed” through art. Ways to overcome these challenges and to utilize the benefits were discussed. A theoretical understanding of social versus psychological art is outlined. The specific tool of the creative genogram enabled us not only to provide a clear directive tool for family social workers but also to demonstrate the ways that social art corresponds to and can enhance the aims of family social workers in more detail.
Article
This paper takes up a call from activists and scholars in Mad and Disability Studies to pay more explicit attention to resistance. Drawing on conceptualizations of predictive, normative, and ideal expectations, we describe three ways 2SLGBTQ service users who have experienced psychosis resist unmet expectations of just treatment. These include: (1) defending self-respect through resistant thinking and resentment; (2) reducing discrepancy through lowering expectations of just treatment from others; (3) and protecting selves through distrust and self-reliance. This paper makes several contributions to existing literature: It expands our understanding of the ‘everyday’ forms of resistance that service users engage in, particularly those that are ‘quiet’ and risk being missed. By paying attention to quiet forms of resistance, we come to recognize the everyday ‘moral talk’ of service users, and opportunities for collectivizing the values underpinning this talk into ethics. Supporting the creation and affirmation of these ethics is one way for social work to address the exclusion of service users from the creation of social work ethical guidelines and respect and acknowledge the legitimacy of service user knowledges, especially their developing visions of justice and moral relations.
Article
As we continue to contend with complex social problems, social work practice has witnessed the need to continue to grow in seemingly unfamiliar territory. Indeed, we have seen the rise in scholarship bridging between professional disciplines such as social work and the creative arts. As we begin to understand in more depth the links and potential cross-pollination between these seemingly divergent fields, it is important to begin to crystallize our approaches in ways that help guide our community practice. The article begins by summarizing the purpose of using the arts in professional practice and proceeds to proposing a typology to conceptualize arts-inspired approaches to practice. Specifically, I propose understanding the role of art as a potential catalyst, connector, and communicator. I also propose a methodology to guide interventions by examining the modes, means, and mediums that can take our theoretical understandings of the role of art to practical application. The paper ends with an invocation to heed our anxieties about taking creative risks in our practice, not by shunning them, but by welcoming them as a way to continually grow and evolve as practitioners.
Article
‘We are not the Others’ is an artful representation of women’s migration stories woven together through a series of spoken vignettes, developed from social work research. This way of seeing lived experience is useful as it enhances knowledge that may not be ascertained in the social work encounter. These learnings provide feedback on services and the hazards of Canada. The article begins with a discussion of the colonial other in relation to migration. Analysis is centred on the questions: how does the performance of the colonial ‘other’ invoke the desire to contest women immigrants’ belonging? How does the display of migration and racialisation grant silent permission to demarcate who belongs? This article takes up how this knowledge is seen and challenged by viewers, which provides insight for social workers into how the terrain of belonging is mediated by racialisation and gender.
Article
In this article, we discuss findings from a study centering students’ narratives about their experiences of using arts-informed approaches to teaching and learning in social work classrooms. The study interviewed thirteen graduate and undergraduate students about their experiences in social justice and anti-oppressive classrooms. Informed by constructivist grounded theory, we analyzed students’ conceptualizations and interpretations of how using art better facilitated their learning and connection to social work practice. Specifically, the article discusses three interrelated themes that emerged for students as they emphasized the importance of such approaches in their education: enhanced connections to others; connecting emotionally to social issues and social work; and connection to self through enhanced awareness. We conclude the analysis with some guidelines for educators for integrating arts-informed approaches in the classroom.
Article
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Arts-based research (ABR) continues to grow as a dynamic practice that is deeply influenced by critical theory and entwined with social justice aims. This article addresses three important topics at the intersection of ethics and ABR: how researchers and members of research ethics boards articulate and perceive uncertainty within the creative process, who is involved in the research, and how the arts may be incorporated into research in a manner that attends to risks of potential harm and to ways of mitigating these risks. Creative arts therapies will be highlighted regarding skills and training that promote ethical practice in ABR. résumé La recherche fondée sur les arts (RFA) continue d'évoluer vers une pratique dynam-ique bien implantée dans la justice sociale. Dans cet article, on aborde trois sujets importants au croisement de l'éthique et de la RFA : de quelle façon les chercheurs et les membres des conseils d'éthique de la recherche formulent-ils et perçoivent-ils l'incertitude inhérente à une démarche créative, quelles sont les personnes impliquées dans la recherche et de quelle façon les arts peuvent-ils s'intégrer à la recherche en tenant compte des risques de préjudices et des manières de les atténuer. On y présente les thérapies en arts créatifs sous l'angle des compétences et de la formation favorisant la pratique éthique en RFA.
Book
The Routledge Handbook of Critical Pedagogies for Social Work traverses new territory by providing a cutting-edge overview of the work of classic and contemporary theorists, in a way that expands their application and utility in social work education and practice; thus, providing a bridge between critical theory, philosophy, and social work. Each chapter showcases the work of a specific critical educational, philosophical and/or social theorist including: Henry Giroux, Michel Foucault, Cornelius Castoriadis, Herbert Marcuse, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Joan Tronto, Iris Marion Young, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci and many others to elucidate the ways in which their key pedagogic concepts can be applied to specific aspects of social work education and practice. The text exhibits a range of research-based approaches to educating social work practitioners as agents of social change. It provides a robust and much needed, alternative paradigm to the technique-driven ‘conservative revolution’ currently being fostered by neoliberalism in both social work education and practice. The volume will be instructive for social work educators who aim to teach for social change, by assisting students to develop counter-hegemonic practices of resistance and agency, and reflecting on the pedagogic role of social work practice more widely. The volume holds relevance for both postgraduate and undergraduate/qualifying social work and human services courses around the world.
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A partir de una amplia revisión de literatura en torno a programas de intervención social asentados en diferentes modalidades de práctica teatral, consideramos directrices que orienten proyectos teatrales vinculados con la puesta en valor de la historia personal y colectiva, y el desarrollo del sujeto y de la comunidad. Del mismo modo, valoramos cuestiones de carácter teórico y metodológico para proponer una mirada sistemática a las relaciones entre teatro y memoria, y a sus posibilidades en la promoción de proyectos en el campo de la educación y el trabajo social, en una perspectiva crítica.
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Building on the growing body of work that recognizes the value of participatory arts-based methods such as drawing, collage, Photovoice, and drama in work with war-affected children and young people and their families, this article asks the question, “How can the findings from practice based interventions become central to the work of preparing social workers who are at the beginning of their professional programs?” As the article highlights, there has been only limited attention in the literature on what these methods might mean for social work education, particularly in relation to family practice and especially in working with war-affected children. What could arts-based family practice with this population look like? The article maps out a framework that draws together two bodies of literature, the literature on the arts in social work education, and literature on the arts and war-affected children and their families. Central to this framework is a set of five pedagogical practices that align well with arts-based methodologies: reflexivity, situating one’s self, observation, ethical practice, and taking action. The article concludes that though arts-based methods as central to the social work curricula are not a panacea, “learning by doing” is a promising practice for those starting out in the profession.
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English In the context of ongoing internalized and structural forms of oppression in post-apartheid and post-colonial South Africa, social work education must be critical and engage with structural, modernist analysis and post-modern critical theory. This article explores how students experience a critical conscientization process as part of preparation for praxis which meets social change imperatives. French Dans un contexte où les formes d'oppression structurelles et intériorisées de la période post-apartheid et postcoloniale se maintiennent, il est nécessaire que la formation en travail social soit critique et qu'elle fasse place à l'analyse structurelle moderne et à la théorie critique post-moderne. Cette étude explore la façon dont les étudiants font l'expérience, dans leur cheminement pratique, d'un processus de conscientisation critique qui répond aux exigences du changement social. Spanish En el contexto de las internalizadas y estructurales formas de opresión actuales en la Sud Africa post-colonial y post-apartheid, la educación en trabajo social debe ser crítica y comprometida con el análisis estructural moderno y con la teoría crítica postmoderna. Este artículo explora cómo los estudiantes experimentan el proceso de concientización crítica como parte de la preparación para la práctica, la cual se enfrenta con los imperativos del cambio social.
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The central argument in this article is that social work has always been a practice at the fringes. The phrase is used in its best sense and in at least two meanings: (1) that social work has been at the edges of the mainstream of scientific discourse, not because of any intrinsic deficiency in the profession but because of the nature of the practice; (2) that, in the postmodern sense, social work has been a collage where science, art, rationality and intuition, systematic and asystematic knowledge meet. In this latter sense, this article proposes, social work can represent a very desirable convergence of paradigms that needs to be acknowledged and celebrated. Perhaps the most significant contribution of postmodernism is that it accommodates this possibility.
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The co-authors discuss their experiences of developing and facilitating an eight-week holistic arts-based group for a small group of Aboriginal women. The literature in spirituality and social work includes some written work that examines the convergences between Aboriginal cultural/spiritual perspectives and spirituality and social work but this could be expanded on. To this end, we describe the use of holistic arts-based methods with Aboriginal women, provide a brief description of the group, and explore how spirituality was evident in the arts-based and experiential methods. We also discuss some of the issues that arose in the process of establishing and facilitating the group including challenges related to group composition; the relevance of process; and attrition from the group.
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Group workers with varied levels of musical knowledge and skill can effectively employ musical interventions to engage clients, facilitate discussion of emotional topics, and enhance group cohesion. This article reviews the literature regarding the application of musical interventions, describes several methods for using musical interventions with the chemically dependent population, shares the experience of a generalist social worker employing musical interventions with groups of chemically dependent clients in a hospital-based treatment setting, and makes recommendations for utilizing this modality with other social work populations.
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This article describes a successful partnership between Indigenous and non Indigenous workers in relation to women, violence, and healing. The focus was on identifying and using Indigenous practice approaches, taking a community development approach and a project that produced culturally-relevant Strengths Cards (“Yarnabout Cards”), which provided benefits for all partners. The processes used are documented. The project involved a work-based social work student placement, the benefits of which are also discussed. It is hoped this may serve as an example or guide for others interested in collaborative learning and working with Indigenous communities and work-based social work student field placements that can provide positive learning experiences.
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This article discusses practice-based research that is exploring the helpfulness of holistic arts–based group work for the development of self-awareness and self-esteem in children living in foster care. The group program is arts based and encourages children to explore their beliefs, feelings, and behaviors. Examples of group exercises are provided, challenges in developing this group program are discussed, and qualitative research findings are presented, which are based on the analysis of fifteen 6-week groups. Findings indicate that children learned new skills, improved coping abilities, connected with feelings, and felt more positive. Practitioners are encouraged to consider how arts-based group work can help children in care.
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The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) places a premium on the development of cultural competence among practitioners. To this end, the present study highlights how social work practitioners, specifically group work leaders, can utilize elements of the culture of urban adolescents to develop effective group work intervention strategies. The article compares adolescent participants' perceptions of usefulness of traditional group therapy and similar group work sessions using RAP music as a conduit to support prosocial skills development. A nomenclature of three adolescent groups was tested: violent offenders, status offenders, and a control condition of high school students with no criminal history. Findings were unequivocally in favor of the RAP therapy as a tool for advancing prosocial behavior.
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This article discusses the value of using music in group work with adolescents. The article outlines the “reflective” relationship between teenagers and music, allaying fears about the possible negative “causative” impact of music listening. It highlights the ability of music to facilitate authentic self-expression and promote the achievement of group cohesion. The article concludes with descriptions of three music therapy techniques that may be relevant for social workers who choose to incorporate songs into their group work with adolescents.
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This paper discusses the use of different forms of artistic representation (poems, images, music, literature) to convey research findings. It theorises creativity as emerging from the precarious interplay between external and internal worlds that can surprise and demand invention and representation. Using examples from palliative care and ideas from post‐structuralism and psychoanalytic aesthetics, the article examines the form and content of art works as encounters and events which can ‘make way’ for what is beyond immediate recognition and experience, both how things ‘might be’ and the ‘not yet’. In tracing my own experiences of where artistic representations come from, I suggest that such representations can involve an emotional, sensual and corporeal opening out to others that involves the suspension of intellect. Through this discussion I argue that art can touch people and convey complex and incoherent notions of difference and otherness, precisely because of its ambiguities and insecurities of meaning. This ambiguity means that the lived experience of public presentation through and with art is always a gamble, based on risk and vulnerability for both the presenter and the audience. The basis of this mutual vulnerability is seen as productive and connective.
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Aspects of the art of performance (drama, dance, and music) can inform and enhance social work practice. The author explores parallels between the two crafts: the importance of technique, self-knowledge and use of self, and being in the moment.
Book
The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by"--metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them. In this updated edition of Lakoff and Johnson's influential book, the authors supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our thoughts in language.
Article
Ethical and moral conflicts are bound to arise in the problems of living that social workers confront in practice. This personal essay proposes an approach to education for practice that includes both theoretical knowledge and the development of experiential wisdom. The analogy of practice as a performing art suggests that the narrative and the literature of the humanities offer fertile sources for learning how to be and how to help in instances of such conflicts.
Article
Aspects of the art of performance (drama, dance, and music) can inform and enhance social work practice. The author explores parallels between the two crafts: the importance of technique, self-knowledge and use of self, and being in the moment.
Article
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Article
Ethical and moral conflicts are bound to arise in the problems of living that social workers confront in practice. This personal essay proposes an approach to education for practice that includes both theoretical knowledge and the development of experiential wisdom. The analogy of practice as a performing art suggests that the narrative and the literature of the humanities offer fertile sources for learning how to be and how to help in instances of such conflicts.
Article
In the first few decades of the 20th century, the social work pioneers leaned heavily on the then new technology of the camera. Ironically, the names of even the leading social photographers are far better known among photographers than among social workers. This article examines the contributions of a few avatars of social photography that were closely connected to the social work pioneers. The career of Paul Kellogg, a social work pioneer who was most associated with social photography, is also briefly examined. Finally, the article suggests that today's social workers should follow the lead of the social work pioneers and use modern technology to put images back into social work campaigns.
Article
This article explores the congruence between poetry therapy and the strengths perspective of social work. It demonstrates the ways in which poetry therapy is consistent with the strengths perspective and discusses methods for its utilization in direct practice settings. Case examples are provided to help the practitioner learn how to utilize poetry therapy with clients from diverse backgrounds. As a tool in strengths-based practice, poetry and poetry therapy can help empower clients and help to focus practitioners on clients’ capacities and resilencies. This article seeks to expand upon the growing literature of strengths-based social work, addressing how the theory can be applied to clinical practice situations.
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Different types of expressive therapies permit bereaved children to express and process their feelings through a variety of child‐friendly non‐verbal methods such as art, creative writing, and music. The selection of a particular method depends on considerations related to the particular needs of each child, the circumstances of the death, and the family/community narrative about it. This article demonstrates how expressive therapies may be used in individual, family, or group sessions which, through play and other modes of expression, provide children with an opportunity to communicate feelings about and reactions to their bereavement experiences in symbolic form.
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At a time when increasing numbers of elders need and continue to rely on social work services, it is important to build enthusiasm among students to prepare them for future work with this special population. A three-pronged approach to teaching about aging, which is built on the strengths perspective, critical social construction, and a human rights and social justice focus, is recommended. For each part of the method, a theoretical rationale is outlined, and specific readings, films, music, class exercises, and written assignments to enhance the learning process are presented and discussed.
Article
The portrayal of multiethnic children in picture books provides a unique opportunity for social workers, other helping professionals, and parents to work more effectively with a population of preschool multiethnic children. Twenty-two picture books portraying multiethnic children and their families are identified and evaluated. Their relevance for social work practice with children and families is discussed.
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English This article demonstrates that artistic activity is an important tool for deepening democracy, because it provides a vehicle for the excluded to reach the public sphere, thus making it more heterogeneous. As artists, they become active citizens and step out of the invisibility into which racism and exclusion has forced them. French Cet article montre que l’activité artistique est un important outil d’enracinement de la démocratie, parce qu’elle offre aux exclus un moyen de joindre la sphère publique, la rendant ainsi plus hétérogène. En qualité d’artistes, les exclus deviennent des citoyens actifs et ils émergent de l’invisibilité où le racisme et l’exclusion les avaient confinés. Spanish Este artículo demuestra que la actividad artística es una herramienta importante para la profundización de la democracia porque la expresión artística constituye un vehículo para que los excluidos lleguen a la esfera pública, con lo que ésta se enriquece y se hace más heterogénea. Como artistas, se convierten en ciudadanos activos y salen de la invisibilidad a la que el racismo y la exclusión los ha empujado.
Article
This article reports the experience of presenting a problem-focused play about work/family conflict to audiences of women and managers. It focuses on an evaluation of the audience groups' and student-actors' reactions to the play and explores the relationships among drama, consciousness raising, and self-empowerment of working women. The uses of drama in feminist social work practice are suggested.
Article
We are interested in exploring the use of visual arts in teaching relationality and difference within social work education. Our current research is based on the examination of photographic works on the subject of asylum seeking. In this article, we report on our findings from an analysis of the exhibit Leave to Remain. Leave to Remain is an installation of large format photographic prints, accompanied by individual testimonies. Beginning in 2002, photographer Diane Matar interviewed and photographed over 100 politically displaced people living in Britain. Her exhibit functions as a visual and oral history of how life in Britain is for people seeking asylum. In this article, we analyse Matar’s work using contemporary visual methodology, and present segments of our conversation with one another that provide the texture of this methodology. We conclude that relationality and difference are imbued in questions about vulnerability and what Judith Butler (2004: 28) calls ‘the fundamental sociality of embodied life’ — that we are each ‘implicated in lives that are not our own’.
Article
This brief report serves as a call for creative and artistic works relative to family social work. Recognizing the “art” of family social work, Mazza's (200313. Mazza , N. ( 2003 ). Poetry therapy: Theory and practice ; New York : Routledge . View all references) multidimensional poetry therapy practice model is used as a framework for addressing all arts-based approaches to practice and research.
Article
The author examines the usefulness and therapeutic value of poetry groups with a chronically mentally ill population. A specific example of a group led by the author illustrates the beneficial properties of writing for people in a residential mental-health setting and the particular strengths and possibilities of such a population. Self-definition, self-expression, self-creation, and peer interaction are all promoted by poetry groups. The story further explores the importance and possibility of community linkage through artistic endeavors.
Article
Social workers have always used narratives in the service of their clients. Many of us spend half our days listening to stories and the other half repeating them in one form or another, whether in assessments, in advocating for services or for a more accurate understanding of a client's circumstances. While we excel at this kind of storytelling, we have been held back from using the narrative genre in telling our own story. That story is one that describes the intricacies and variety of social work practice as well as the uniqueness that distinguishes us from other helping professions. For hospital social workers, who have experienced profound change in recent years, it is especially important that we find innovative and interesting ways to convey a richer and deeper understanding and appreciation of our role. The genre of personal narrative allows us to do this in a voice suitable for the task. When narratives are used in this way they can be seen as a tool of advocacy for both ourselves and our clients (Chambon, 2004).
Article
This paper is based on a research project at Helsinki University for practice development in social work and a recent study dealing with the issue of the potential role of theatre in social work. This article analyses and explores the possibilities of using theatre for facilitating the integration of immigrants into society. It seeks to bring a new perspective to social work and to the discussion on integration through a theatrical point of view by considering the concept of integration as an act of solidarity. It opens up a more holistic view of integration and emphasizes reciprocity. This article is formed around a case study on a multicultural theatre project, the Kalevala project, in Helsinki in 2005-2006. It was found to promote integration, both through cultural interchange within the group, and also by giving the immigrants both visibility and the opportunity to show their wish to participate in Finnish culture. In return they would like the majority to show some genuine interest in them and what they can bring to the mainstream culture. The research results challenge social workers to see the potential in immigrants, instead of primarily seeing them as victims or as objects that need to be integrated.
Article
Thirteen women enrolled in a master’s level group therapy class participated in an experiential focal group culminating in the writing of a poem. The poem was part of the framework developed by the students to evaluate an in-class personal and professional growth experience. The poem provided greater meaning to the participants than a mere letter grade assigned by the professor for class participation alone. The emotional intensity created through class participation in a group therapy class lends itself to memorializing a deeply shared temporal experience in a form of expression that is apposite to a poem.
Article
The effort of our School of Social Work’s Diversity Committee to create an engaging presentation/performance focusing on the social issue of racism to our faculty and staff colleagues is described in this article. Our journey to develop two specific performances is outlined, along with descriptions of each and the audience reactions. As we reflected on our experiences with these performances, we recognized the value of using non-traditional forms of presentations in the academic setting to create a meaningful experience that would be most engaging with our academic colleagues. Developing these performances, enacting them, and receiving critical feedback on those performances emboldened us to develop additional performances (rather than traditional formal presentations) in our academic setting.
Article
This descriptive article explores the uses of poetry and journaling exercises as means of helping students develop their self-reflective capacities within the context of international social work. First, self-reflection and its importance to social work practice and education is discussed. Second, the importance of self-reflection in international and cross-cultural work is highlighted. Third, the application of poetry and other journal writing exercises as a means of facilitating self-reflection is explored. Poems written in response to structured exercises by students who took part in an international experience in social work education in Leon, Nicaragua, are presented as examples. The exercises presented can be used by educators in various helping professions who seek to help their students expand their self-reflective skills and engage in cross-cultural and international practice.
Article
It is well established that public photographic representations of people with intellectual disabilities strongly influences what we think we know about people so labelled. This paper reports on the unanticipated outcomes of a research project that looked at the ways in which public photographs often construct people with intellectual disabilities as dysfunctional, from the perspectives of the labelled people themselves. Research participants with intellectual disabilities were asked to critique a sample of public photographic images and then, using the computer software program, Photoshop, to change the images to reflect their critique. These changed images were then shown to a number of non-disabled audiences. In this paper, I address the unanticipated outcomes of the project: the effects on participants and non-disabled others resulting from activities arising from the project. These unanticipated outcomes speak to the power of visual imagery, to the empowerment that can take place when people with intellectual disabilities are enabled to have their voices heard, and the ways dialogue between people with and without intellectual disabilities can work towards new understandings. Social work, in its concern for social justice, has a role in enabling the expression of the voices of people with intellectual disabilities and facilitating opportunities for dialogue.
Article
This article describes the use of writing and poetry in a group of women parenting sexually abused children. Sponsored by the Orange County Department of Social Services in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the ongoing class, led by a child therapist and Orange County's parenting social worker, consisted of between six and ten women parenting sexually abused children. Social workers observed that expressive writing paired naturally with group dynamics to help the women focus on their children's sexual abuse. Poetry helped them go deeper into their feelings than they had done before. As the women lowered their anxious feelings, their thinking became clearer. This led to more constructive problem-solving and more protective planning about their own and their children's behavior. The group leaders also saw other constructive changes in some of the women's parenting skills, such as in making decisions and in setting boundaries. The women ranked the use of writing and poetry as more helpful in dealing with emotional issues than oral presentations of their stories in earlier classes.
Article
Children rarely have the language or the cognitive development to process and convey their experiences solely through words, so spontaneously complement these with symbolic forms of expression and communication, such as play, metaphor and a variety of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic imagery. Consequently, social workers need to supplement verbal methods of assessment and intervention with more symbolic modes of communication and engagement when working directly with children. The play therapy literature has been a key source of guidance and the expressive arts therapies, such as art and drama therapy, are now well represented in the literature and training of social workers in ‘direct work with children’. However, principles and practice from music therapy are under-represented. The writer, who is a social worker, psychotherapist and musician, shares her reflections on introducing techniques and theoretical approaches from music therapy into her own therapeutically orientated direct work. Suggestions are made as to how other practitioners (both musically trained and not) could develop the use of music as a further ‘tool’ in their direct work with children.
Article
The use of social pedagogy as a paradigm for critically appraising developments within child and family social work has been largely neglected. This paper outlines the work of Augusto Boal and his adoption of social pedagogy as a method for empowering oppres-sed social groups in Brazil. It is argued that Boal’s approach can be adapted by using action research techniques to analyse and effect change in situations where child care professionals face daily contradictions in their attempts to both protect children and support families. To demonstrate its relevance to child care practice, a description is provided of how the approach was used with two groups of social work students – one undertaking qualifying training, the other post-qualifying training. The results of this application suggest a new theoretical framework for practice which aims to establish communicative consensus around the needs of children and a mutual appreciation of roles and responsibilities.
Article
A poetry writing group in a Veterans Administration Hospital had unexpected advantages for the treatment of patients. As an elective group that de-emphasized the discussion of emotions and concentrated instead on technique and writing of poems, it attracted a variety of patients. Some were initially too disorganized to participate effectively in other treatment groups on the ward, but were able to behave in a more organized way in this group. Their writing allowed staff to see treatment possibilities that were otherwise obscured by the patient''s withdrawn or confused presentation on the unit.
Article
In this paper I will introduce the basic concepts of dance therapy and show how dance therapy could be viewed self psychologically. A clinical example will be presented, discussed and critiqued utilizing self psychological concepts. A brief discussion will follow that appraises the potential of blending self psychology and dance therapy together. This is a speculative paper but it may provide a basis to further develop self psychology within dance therapy.
Article
This article provides an overview of the key images of identity in organizations found in the research literature. Image refers to the overall idea or conceptualization, capturing how researchers relate to — and shape — a phenomenon. Seven images are suggested: self-doubters, strugglers, surfers, storytellers, strategists, stencils and soldiers. These refer to how the individual is metaphorically understood in terms of identity, that is, how the researcher (research text) captures the individual producing a sense of self. The article aims to facilitate orientation — or encourage productive confusion — within the field, encourage reflexivity and sharpen analytic choices through awareness of options for how to conceptualize self-identity constructions.
Article
This paper explores the power of theatre to engage the public and my personal journey using theatre as a research tool in reproductive science. I argue that the capacity of theatre to simultaneously engage the minds and hearts of audience members qua research participants affords audience members the capacity to provide researchers with insightful comments informed by the scientific, social and tacit knowledge derived from the performance, integrated with their lived experience. Theatre is a particularly important research strategy when investigating public understandings and desires about complex issues such as those related to reproductive and genetic science.
Article
The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by"—metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them. In this updated edition of Lakoff and Johnson's influential book, the authors supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our thoughts in language.
Article
Arts-based approaches to public engagement offer unique advantages over traditional methods of consultation. Here we describe and assess our use of theatre as a method of public engagement in the development of health policy on preimplantation genetic diagnosis, a controversial method for selecting the genetic characteristics of embryos created through in vitro fertilization. Funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and Health Canada supported 16 performances of the play Orchids in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montréal and post-performance discussion in English and French (with Hubert Doucet) in 2005. A total of 741 individuals attended. The methods used to assess audience engagement and elicit policy-relevant dialogue included in-theatre observation of audience responses, moderated post-performance large audience discussion and focus groups, audience feedback forms and researcher fieldnotes. Emphasizing process and context over emerging outcomes, we reflect on the distinctive contributions of theatre in stimulating public engagement and the need to utilize multiple methods to adequately assess these contributions. We suggest continued dialogue about the possible uses of theatre in health policy development and conclude that greater clarity is needed with regard to citizens' (as well as specific stakeholders, policy makers' and sponsors') desired outcomes if there is to be a suitably nuanced and reflexive basis for assessing the effectiveness of various strategies for public engagement.
Social work and the arts: Critical imagination
  • A Chambon
Chambon A (2008) Social work and the arts: Critical imagination. In: Knowles JG and Cole A (eds) Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 591-602.
Social Work Education: Art Toward Student Conscientization in the Post-Apartheid and Post-Colonial Context. Paper presented at the Social Work Beyond Borders
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  • M Nathane-Taulela
Smith L and Nathane-Taulela M (2011) Social Work Education: Art Toward Student Conscientization in the Post-Apartheid and Post-Colonial Context. Paper presented at the Social Work Beyond Borders, Social Work Artfully workshop, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Into the Third Space: Social Work as Improvised Performance. Dissertation
  • U M Walter
Walter UM (2006) Into the Third Space: Social Work as Improvised Performance. Dissertation, University of Kansas.
From redistribution to recognition? Dilemmas of justice in a 'post-socialist' age Theorizing Multiculturalism: A Guide to the Current Debate
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Fraser N (1998) From redistribution to recognition? Dilemmas of justice in a 'post-socialist' age. In: Willet C (ed.) Theorizing Multiculturalism: A Guide to the Current Debate. Blackwell Publishers, pp. 19–49.
Unpublished manuscript) How art works: Hopes, claims and possibilities for social justice
  • C Sinding
  • H Barnes
Sinding C and Barnes H (Unpublished manuscript) How art works: Hopes, claims and possibilities for social justice. In: Sinding C and Barnes H (eds) Social Work Beyond Borders, Social Work Artfully (working title).
Canadian Experience,' employment challenges, and skilled immigrants: A close look through 'tacit knowledge
  • I Sakamoto
  • Chin M Young
Sakamoto I, Chin M and Young M (2010) 'Canadian Experience,' employment challenges, and skilled immigrants: A close look through 'tacit knowledge. Canadian Social Work Journal 10(1): 145-151.
Art works: Between social critique and active re-enchantment
  • A Chambon
Chambon A (2007) Art works: Between social critique and active re-enchantment. In: Witkin S and Saleebey D (eds) Social Work Dialogues: Transforming the Canon in Inquiry, Practice, and Education. Alexandria, VA: Council on Social Work Education Inc.