Supervision conversations about social justice and social work practice

Abstract

In today's environment dominated by managerialism and fiscal restraint, actualizing the principle of social justice has become a daunting task for social workers. Supervision has been identified as a promising site for enacting social justice, but evidence is lacking that supervision conversations support socially just practice. A concurrent mixed model nested research design was used to explore the needs of social workers for supervision conversations about social justice and practice. A mixed method web-survey on supervision was completed by 636 social workers from a broad spectrum of social work practice settings and geographical locations in Ontario, Canada. Quantitative data and written responses from open-ended questions are presented as an integrated narrative.Findings: The results demonstrate that social worker participants shared a need for supervisors to promote and provide space for conversations about multiple aspects of social justice and practice. This need for a social justice focus had not been currently or recently experienced by a significant number of participants who worked in a variety of settings.Applications: In response to the findings and their inferences, implications for supervision knowledge, practice and policy development are provided that could help social workers better actualize social justice in their day-to-day practice.

Making the connections: A practice model for reflective supervision

“…In a changing practice environment, there is a need for supervisors to engage supervisees in critically reflective conversations and the many aspects of social justice within social work organisations (Hair, 2015;KarvinenNiinikoski, 2004). For critical conversations to occur in reflective supervision within different contexts, appropriate frameworks need to be developed in practice.…”

“…The supervisor has responsibility for facilitating the session, contributing to the agenda setting related to the supervisee's needs and to co-ordinate reflective questioning related to the agenda. Supervisor questioning can assist with highlighting assumptions and promote collaborative exploration of language and meaning (Hair, 2015). Examples of particular questions raised by the supervisor that assist the supervisee's reflection on the agenda item are illustrated in Table 1.…”

Supervision. From Administrative Control to Continuous Education and Training of Specialists in Social Work

“…For this reason, the authors notice a resistance of the practitioners towards the neo-liberal management, including the model of supervision based on the interdependence between professional and managerial (Egan, Maidment & Connolly, 2016). The Canadian perspective shows again that the social workers consider the practice of supervision to be insuficient, in the case of the research conducted by Hair (2015), the insufficiency reffering to promoting social justice in the welfarist act.…”

Advancing Human Rights and Social and Economic Justice: Developing Competence in Field Education

“…Field instructors can help students see how dynamics of oppression and privilege affect professional relationships. Supervision can promote social justice by exploring the power inherent in helping relationships, the effects of dominant discourses, and more expansive knowledge sources (Hair 2014).…”

“…With ongoing training and support from schools of social work, field instructors could be more equipped to help students grapple with this core competency during supervision Hair 2014) and model practices that advance human rights and social and economic justice. Across all practice settings, students need to see workers intentionally engaged in micro and macro practice collaborating to Bdismantle the systems and structures that function to preserve inequity^ (Rountree and Pomeroy 2010, p. 293).…”