All Children Are Equal, but Some Are More Equal Than Others: Minoritization, Structural Inequities, and Social Justice Praxis in Residential Care

Abstract

This article draws on our practice and research experience in diverse residential settings to examine structural inequities facing children and youth in residential care. Our overall goal is to conceptualize residential care as a site for radical advocacy and social change. We track the impact of minoritization by exploring links between historical structural inequities and the positioning of minoritized groups as being in need of professional intervention. Drawing on queer, anti-racist, Indigenous, postcolonial, and feminist theories, we explore how interplaying processes of racialization, gendering, classing, and sexualization (among others) produce unequal circumstances for some groups of children and youth in residential care. We situate our critique in an analysis of two important structural forces that shape contemporary social services in the West: neoliberalism and neocolonialism. We propose that employing a critical social justice analysis in our engagement with children, youth, families, and communities -and with the systems in which they and we are embedded -can open alternative possibilities for residential care praxis.

Re-Imagining Child and Youth Care Practice With African Canadian Youth

“…Critical theories can show us how to embrace a politicized and collective approach in child and youth care (de Finney et al, 2012;Loiselle et al, 2012) as well as how we can learn to name racism and decentre Eurocentric hegemony and worldviews (Yoon, 2012). This includes the widely shared assumption that human services practices and spaces are "universal" and respond to all children's needs equally (de Finney et al, 2011). Principles, practices, and initiatives characterized as universal, and typically derived from Eurocentric philosophies (Saraceno, 2012;Yoon, 2012), are often perceived as the only legitimate or possible guides to professional conduct.…”

Discerning Success of Indigenous Health Students in Community-based Programs

“…While some Indigenous researchers have rejected postcolonial theories due to their implication that colonialism is in the past (Smith, 2012), Vukic et al (2012) insisted that "postcolonial theories do not assume that colonial practices are past" (p. 156). Neocolonial practices, or ongoing forms of colonialism, were also addressed in the literature (Altbach, 2006;Ashcroft, Griffiths, & Tiffin, 2006;Battiste, 2013;de Finney, 2011), with acknowledgements that such practices continue to marginalize and racialize Indigenous peoples (Battiste, 2013). Vukic et al (2012) further stated that the current focus on colonial practices is to "shape a desirable future" (p. 155) and this is supported by Battiste (2000) in her work about colonization and the need to reclaim the Indigenous voice.…”

The Canonical Self and Politicized Praxis: A Tracing of Two Concepts

“…I had been interested in ideas of the self prior to starting at the school, and the conversations that were happening around praxis during my undergraduate studies further motivated me to conceptualize my work in terms of a way of being and a contextualized integration of theory and practice. Furthermore, I was inspired by a number of CYC scholars (e.g., de Finney et al, 2011;Gharabaghi & Krueger, 2010;Skott-Myhre & SkottMyhre, 2011) who extended White's model or developed their own notion of praxis to emphasize the political and revolutionary aspects of CYC. White's praxis framework supported my early conceptualizations of the self in CYC (Kouri, 2010) and generally inspired my practice and research interests.…”

“…Traditional models of CYC that inform national curricula and practice standards are grounded in assumptions of individualism, meritocracy, objectivity, and cultural essentialism, and they do not adequately represent or respond to the realities and experiences of diverse Canadian populations (de Finney et al, 2011;Yoon, 2012). Contemporary CYC must develop alternatives to individualizing and essentializing approaches to care and elaborate strategies that address inequitable social realities (de Finney, Little, Skott-Myhre, & Gharabaghi, 2012;Gharabaghi & Krueger, 2010;Kivel, 2007).…”