Homemade Social Work: Starting In The Ontological
Keywords:
Ontological, Interpretive social work, Ethnographic methods, Autoethnography, ContextAbstract
“Ontological” sounds like one of those esoteric and abstract concepts so annoying to those embedded in the “real” world of practice. Ontological questions relate to matters of actual existence and action. In this paper I argue that starting in the ontological or lived experience has been a central thread of social work since the time of pioneering social worker Jane Addams. Her work documenting an interpretive praxis offers an anchoring for the continuous renewal of social work. This paper aims to link the past to the present and further to identify the ontological power of ethnographic methods in continuing these “homemade” traditions. Beginning with a reflection on my practice and subsequent research, the paper considers six interpretive projects I supervised. A common thread is their contextual generation in the lived experience of the always-embodied researcher/practitioner. Setting aside the epistemological debate around qualitative, compared with quantitative, approaches, this paper examines what interpretive research does and explores the power of ethnographic methods in social work research and practice. Seven contemporary interpretive research cases map how located experiences of gender, indigeneity, practitioner-being, migration and other possibilities usefully inform the project of social work. All share generation from a particular practitioner’s “local knowledge” and in that sense are “homemade”. All differ by virtue of being responsive to each researcher’s positioning in time and place. Homemade social work is a way of doing social work research. This way of making knowledge through exploring, demonstrating and publishing responsiveness to the diversity of problematic issues in an always-changing world has the advantage of turning reflected practitioner experience into an asset for a researcher rather than being considered a contaminating deficit. Such theoretically informed projects constitute ways for social work as a discipline and profession to rise to the challenge of being research-informed while building on what it is that social work practitioners do.
References
Addams, J. (1990). Twenty years at Hull-House: With autobiographical notes. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Bacon, H. (2008). Book review [Review of the book Working with denied child abuse: The resolutions approach, by A. Turnell & S. Essex]. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 13(2), 328–329.
Benterrak, K., Muecke, S., & P. Roe (1984). Reading the country: Introduction to nomadology. Fremantle, WA: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.
Caddy, L, Crawford, F., & Page, A. C. (2011). “Painting a path to wellness”: Correlations between participating in a creative activity group. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 19(4): 327–333.
Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Crawford, F. (1994.) Emic social work: A story of practice. (Doctoral Thesis). Illinois University, Champaign-Urbana. Retrieved from http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R?func=dbin-jump-full&local_base=gen01-era02&object_id=185993
Crawford, F. (2006). Research for and as practice: Educating practitioners in inquiry skills for changing cultural contexts. In
J. Fook & S. White, with F. Gardner (Eds.), Critical reflection in health and social care (pp. 172-184 ). London, UK: Open University Press.
Deegan, M. J. (1989). Jane Addams and the men of the Chicago School, 1892–1918. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. Denzin, N. K. (2001). Interpretive interactionism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Dodds, J. (1995). Collaborative group inquiry—A blend of research and therapy. Australian Social Work, 48(3), 37–44.
Dreyfus, H. L. & P. Rabinow (1982) Michel Foucault. Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press
England, K. V. (1994). Getting personal: Reflexivity, positionality, and feminist research. The Professional Geographer, 46(1), 80–89.
Floersch, J., Longhofer, J., & Suskewicz, J. (2014). The use of ethnography in social work research. Qualitative Social Work, 13(1), 3–7.
Foucault, M. (1965). Madness and civilization: A history of insanity in the age of reason. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Geertz, C. (1983). Local knowledge: Further essays in interpretive anthropology. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Gergen, M. (2011). Book review.. [Review of the book Writing against, alongside and beyond memory: Lifewriting as reflexive, poststructuralist feminist research practice, by M. Metta]. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 35(4), 637–638.
Gray, J. (2007). (Re)considering voice. Qualitative Social Work, 6(4) , 411–430. Gray, J. (2008). Living with a label. Saarbrucken, Germany: VDM Verlag Dr Müller. Hartman, A. (1990). Many ways of knowing. Social Work, 35(1), 3–4.
Hartman, A. (1992). In search of subjugated knowledge. Social Work, 37(6), 483–484.
Malinowski, B. (1950). Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An account of native enterprise and adventure in the archipeligoes of
Melanesian New Guinea. New York, NY: E. P. Dutton.
Malinowski, B. (1989). A diary in the strict sense of the term. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Munro, E. (2011). The Munro review of child protection: Final report, a child-centred system (Vol. 8062). London, UK: TSO Shop. Nangan, J., & Edwards, H. (1976), Joe Nangan’ dreaming: Aboriginal legends of the north-west. Melbourne, VIC: T. Nelson.
Nimmagadda, J., & D. Martell (2010). Home-made social work: The two-way transfer of social work practice knowledge between India and the USA. In M. Gray, J. Coates, & M. Yellow Bird (Eds.), Indigenous social work around the world: Towards culturally relevant education and practice (pp. 141–152). Farnham, UK: Ashgate.
Percy, I. (2006). Living reflexive qualitative research: Resonance and authenticity. In J. Higgs, A. Titchen, H. Armstrong, & D. Horsfall (Eds.), Being critical and creative in qualitative research (pp.97-107). Sydney, NSW: Hampden Press.
Percy, I. (2007). Composing our lives together: Narrative therapy with couples. In E. Shaw & J. Crawley (Eds.), Couples therapy in Australia: Issues emerging from practice (pp.139-157). Melbourne, VIC: Psychoz Publications.
Percy, I. (2008). Awareness and authoring: The idea of self in mindfulness and narrative therapy. European Journal of Psychotherapy and Counselling, 10(4), 355–367.
Reason, P. (Ed.). (1994). Participation in human inquiry. London, UK: Sage Publications.
Roe, P. (1983). Gularabulu: Stories from the West Kimberley. (Stephen Muecke, Ed.). Fremantle, WA: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.
Staller, K. M. (2012). Epistemological boot camp: The politics of science and what every qualitative researcher needs to know to survive in the academy. Qualitative Social Work, 12(4), 395–413.
Taylor, C., & White, S. (2000) Practising reflexivity in health and welfare: Making knowledge. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Turnell, A., & Edwards, S. (1999). Signs of Safety: A safety and solution oriented approach to child protection casework. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
White, M. (2004). Narrative practice and exotic lives: Resurrecting diversity in everyday life. Adelaide, SA: Dulwich Centre Publications.
White, M. (2007). Maps of narrative practice. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
Witkin, S., & Saleebey, D. (Eds.). (2007). Social work dialogues: Transforming the canon in inquiry, practice and education. Alexandria, VIC: CSWE Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2014 Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and Research
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Advances in Social Work & Welfare Education by Australian and New Zealand Social Work and Welfare Education and Research (ANZSWWER) is licensed under CC BY 4.0
