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Thinking about how we think about children : social policy and related child welfare practices

Thinking about how we think about children : social policy and related child welfare practices. Dr Wendy Foote Deputy CEO ACWA Adjunct Lecturer: Social Work Practice UNSW . Thinking about how we think about children . 1. Thinking about thinking - Concepts about children and childhood

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Thinking about how we think about children : social policy and related child welfare practices

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  1. Thinking about how we think about children: social policy and related child welfare practices Dr Wendy Foote Deputy CEO ACWA Adjunct Lecturer: Social Work Practice UNSW

  2. Thinking about how we think about children • 1. Thinking about thinking - Concepts about children and childhood • 2. Tools for critical reflection in a ‘critical’ social work frame • 3. Challenges

  3. Reflective practice • Thinking about how we think and practice

  4. The impact of concepts Three examples of cohorts of children - • Child migrants • Stolen generation • Forgotten Australians

  5. Notions of childhood • ‘Harmism’ – focus on potential harm created from parental split ‘helpless dependents’ who need their parents to stay together (Smart) • Children’s needs and identify subsumed by family (Mason) • Individual children invisible in parental disputes about them within family law legal systems (Foote)

  6. Thinking about children as citizens • The tension between the need to care and protect children and increasing children’s rights around participation • UNCRC • Human rights – new emphasis that allow for children to be treated as individuals & lifted out of obfuscation of the family context (Jans 2004)

  7. Thinking about children as citizens • Significant upheaval and change in the social institutions lead to some significant revisions about childhood – family, class, science, work, state and democracy Eg Childhood as a period of learning can no longer be defined as: ‘children are the ones who need to be qualified by adults who are qualified’ (Hengst 2001). • Children have knowledge about their present condition: adults are now seen as life-long learners.

  8. Critical reflection: what’s the link? • Provides a robust method of reflecting on issues and practices that are key to child and family welfare • Critical reflection, a specific application of ‘reflective learning’, offers a framework for practitioners to use as they work • First exposure in undergraduate studies - refined and continually used as a career long practice (Cleak & Wilson 2007) • Protective of practitioners – espec in child protection work and useful

  9. What is CR? • Thinking deeply about experiences and situations in order to bring about change (Fook 2010). • It is holistic in its application: the ‘whole self’, + the context, + social and cultural background and personal history, personally held assumptions   • Gender, diversity, power, and prevailing discourses (Fook 1999)

  10. CR Framework • 1. Identify the describe the incident or situation • 2. Re-creation • 3. Deconstruction (tacit knowledge/ power/gender/diversity/discourses/structures) • 4. Challenge • 5. Reconstruction and application of new knowledge (Jan Fook)

  11. Tricky to teach • Golden standard in Social work training and in practice – but not so easy to teach…. • Why? • Level of engagement required is high; new process transformative learning translates theory through analysis to application and change. • Can’t indulge in denial or be a bystander – like we may have done in the face of overwhelming narratives eg the remnants of the White Australia policy.

  12. The challenge • Educators have a job of teaching undergraduate students to ‘think within their discipline’ • In the sector we must establish powerful discourses, such as meaningful participation of children • Take this to the broader community • Use the human rights framework as a base

  13. A cautionary tale • "The ... Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and Tepco, and the lack of governance by said parties," … • Plant operators could not bring themselves to expose the problem …. The powerful work culture resulted in all of them keeping silent.

  14. ‘Three Generations of Imbeciles Are Enough’ • Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes's infamous opinion in the 1927 case of Buck v. Bell. • Overriding individual rights on the basis of a socially constructed notion of the greater good.

  15. Ensuring child centered practice • Create room for questioning and critical reflection – think about our thinking • Human Rights framework is key – violations are a red flag • Current challenge – continue to develop, practice and maintain ways of managing the complexity of the need for protection and active citizenship and to engage children and young people in meaningful ways

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