Preparation for Practice: Can Philosophy Have a Place in Helping Students Incorporate the Social Model of Disability Within Their Praxis?

Abstract

This short paper emerges from an engagement with the paper by Morgan in this special edition which argues that the social model of disability can be viewed as a threshold concept which students struggle to 'get'. I suggest that introducing social work students to philosophical concepts such as recognition at an early stage of their learning about skills, values and anti-oppressive practice, could facilitate the transition over this disability studies threshold, reducing the potential for ritualised performance instead of true understanding. It will be argued that Honneth's account of recognition in particular can be helpful in reducing the risk of psycho-emotional disablism within professional relationships between social work students and disabled service users. However I also suggest that encouraging students to engage with philosophical questions about personhood and humanity are crucial to maintaining true anti-oppressive practice at a time of financial cutbacks in social work services.

Exploring ethics in social education and social pedagogy from Honneth and Butler’s recognition theories

“…The theories presented in this article have been widely used in the social and educational field by different authors. This fact demonstrates their applicability and the relevance of putting them into practice in the fields of intervention of social pedagogy and social education, such as childhood and family work (Díaz and González, 2015;Štirn, 2015;Waterhouse and McGhee, 2015), disability and attention to diversity and inclusion (Fernández and Vasco, 2012;Garrett, 2010;Moon, 2017;Otero and Fernández, 2017;Reeve, 2012;Zembylas, 2019), the education system (Dadvand and Cuervo, 2019;Forrest, Keener and Harkins, 2010;Gowlett, 2012;Stojanov, 2016), inequalities and social justice (Dotolo et al, 2018;Juul, 2012;Youdell, 2006;Zembylas, 2015), leisure and sport (Andersen, 2015), adult education (Sandberg, 2016), community work (Fascioli, 2012;Huttunen and Heikkinen, 2004;Tuama, 2016), feminism, gender and sexuality (Cover, 2014;Gowlett, 2012;Jergus, 2018;Szörényi, 2014), interculturalism, migration and refugees (Cover, 2013;Gregoriou, 2013), homelessness (Cefaï, 2015), among others.…”

“…Another example is provided by Fleming (2016), who states that educational experiences are transformative, as working on people's abilities, their confidence and respect can increase spheres of recognition. Other authors discuss the creation of positive affective bonds among people, both in their family and social sphere (Otero and Fernández, 2017;Stojanov, 2016) and in their relationships with professionals (Garrett, 2010;Malany, 2018;Reeve, 2012). From another perspective, their description of spheres of recognition and types of freedom have also been used as tools to analyse and evaluate the social and educational situation and relationships of the people that professionals support (Andersen, 2015;Dotolo et al, 2018;Fernández and Vasco, 2012;Henning, 2016;Rähme, 2013;Reeve, 2012;Sandberg, 2016).…”

Disability and support relationships: What role does policy play?

“…Although it has been argued that policies and practices that emphasise people's rights tend to produce recognitive attitudes within an organisation's workers (Niemi, ), interpersonal recognition can also be fostered in contexts where the policy environment is characterised by ‘misrecognition’ (Ikäheimo, ). For minority groups and people on the margins, who are more likely to have their rights abraded, this is a critical intersection, and one which is under‐explored in the context of Honneth's recognition theory (Reeve, ; van Leeuwen, 2013).…”