Constructing child and family social work discursive practices in the context of Lithuania
Motiečienė, Roberta (2020)
Motiečienė, Roberta
Lapin yliopisto
2020
ISBN:978-952-337-232-0
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-337-232-0
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-337-232-0
Tiivistelmä
In the context of Lithuania, this study explores the daily work of family social workers’ practices with children and their parents by focusing on their home visits and commentary about professional experiences. Child and family social work is a prevalent public discourse, but family social workers’ voices are minimally heard in Lithuania. In order to explore this topic, twenty-five family social workers were invited from the three largest cities in Lithuania to construct everyday child and family social work practices together.
This study addresses the three following research questions: 1) how do family social workers construct their workday while working with the child and family in home settings? 2) how do family social workers construct their own and clients’ roles? And, 3) what kind of professional challenges have they experienced as family social workers?
Society has many expectations on family social workers while safeguarding the child and family’s rights. Nowadays, family social work practices face a lot of systemic changes in the context of Lithuania as more and more family social work is constructed via the public domain. This study aims to provide research-based knowledge about everyday practices in family social work in order to conceptualise social work professionals’ experiences in the field of family social work while providing specialised social services. This thesis consists of four peer-reviewed articles and a concluding chapter. The theoretical domain on which it stands is social constructionism, by following Foucault’s, Burr’s and Witkin’s ideas about social constructionism.
Among Lithuanian researchers, we could say that this study is the continuity of Dr Julija Eidukevičiūtė’s dissertation, which studied family social work in the context of a transitional society. Therefore, this study seeks to advance this by analysing child and family social work practices nowadays within a neoliberal society as contextualised by Lithuania. Also, researchers such as Dr Rasa Naujanienė, and Dr Gedas Malinauskas, who carried out the studies with new methodological approaches, guided the research as they applied discourse and narrative analyses in
their research. Thus, this piece of research intends to advance qualitative social work research on child and family social work (e.g. Ferguson, 2016, 2017, 2018). The aim is to deepen the understanding of these practices in the specific context of rapid political, financial and societal changes after Lithuanian independence.
This study is a qualitative one. As mentioned above, twenty-five family social workers were invited from the three biggest cities in Lithuania: Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda. For data gathering, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted. The data were analysed via thematic and discourse analysis.
The first of the four published articles was focused on the analysis of social service discourses. It sets out to answer the raised question: “How do professional social workers construct family social work when they are providing social services for families?” The second article reveals interpretative repertoires of roles of family social workers in the context of Lithuania. Social work professionals’ roles appear among professional, public and organisational discourses. Writing the second article, the question to be answered was: “What kind of roles do social workers take and give in family social work?” This article discloses what professional roles of family social workers are constructed concerning different everyday practice encounters that depend on situated language use in the contexts in which they take place. The third article analyses the different type of constructions of “good” and “bad” motherhood. The article answers the question “How does the positioning of a risk family woman through conversation with a social worker about the social work process with the family deploy different categories of motherhood and social worker’s positions?” The fourth article focuses on the construction of every day ethics and ethical questions that emerge through their daily practices. Their everyday experiences were analysed in the framework of “doing ethics”. The article answers the question: “What kind of ethical questions must family social workers consider when providing social services in the client’s homes?” This article opens the gaps between micro-social work practices and social policy in Lithuania. Family social workers are facing difficulties due to structural problems within society and are burdened to act with ethical considerations while lacking external resources.
Family social workers construct their everyday work experiences while working with the child and parent at the individual level to understand the meanings of what is going on in the practice field. Family social work daily work practices were recognised in the framework of the neoliberal model, where individualism performs the primary role, and social services efficiency is highlighted. Family social workers thus feel pressured to be as efficient as possible without any consideration of how this could be achieved, especially when a society is lacking resources. During interviews, family social workers were easily able to disclose how they act in the field when asked, but it became more complicated when talking about specific methods applied to their practice. Data revealed that family social workers’ creativity and personal resources sometimes become a way to help a child and their parents. Thus, family
social workers are working in applying features of psychological service discourses rather than alternative ones, where child and family rights are the focus of the social work practice. Family social workers build their client profile, highlighting their weaknesses, such as having a lack of social or parenting skills, like with alcoholism or ex-convicts. Thus, stating that their applied interventions are child-focused is misleading given that the real focus is on the parents’ behaviour.
The biggest professional challenges are faced with ethical considerations in family social work practice encounters. Family social workers are trying to respond to the ethical questions considered when confronting social problems, such as a lack of professional and structural resources to help clients, and when confronting social problems, such as evaluation and decision-making in contradictory settings: family home’s, organisations and societies. In the final chapter, the insights for family social work practice development are provided. The recommendations are based on the findings of my carried research and theoretical readings.
This study addresses the three following research questions: 1) how do family social workers construct their workday while working with the child and family in home settings? 2) how do family social workers construct their own and clients’ roles? And, 3) what kind of professional challenges have they experienced as family social workers?
Society has many expectations on family social workers while safeguarding the child and family’s rights. Nowadays, family social work practices face a lot of systemic changes in the context of Lithuania as more and more family social work is constructed via the public domain. This study aims to provide research-based knowledge about everyday practices in family social work in order to conceptualise social work professionals’ experiences in the field of family social work while providing specialised social services. This thesis consists of four peer-reviewed articles and a concluding chapter. The theoretical domain on which it stands is social constructionism, by following Foucault’s, Burr’s and Witkin’s ideas about social constructionism.
Among Lithuanian researchers, we could say that this study is the continuity of Dr Julija Eidukevičiūtė’s dissertation, which studied family social work in the context of a transitional society. Therefore, this study seeks to advance this by analysing child and family social work practices nowadays within a neoliberal society as contextualised by Lithuania. Also, researchers such as Dr Rasa Naujanienė, and Dr Gedas Malinauskas, who carried out the studies with new methodological approaches, guided the research as they applied discourse and narrative analyses in
their research. Thus, this piece of research intends to advance qualitative social work research on child and family social work (e.g. Ferguson, 2016, 2017, 2018). The aim is to deepen the understanding of these practices in the specific context of rapid political, financial and societal changes after Lithuanian independence.
This study is a qualitative one. As mentioned above, twenty-five family social workers were invited from the three biggest cities in Lithuania: Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda. For data gathering, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted. The data were analysed via thematic and discourse analysis.
The first of the four published articles was focused on the analysis of social service discourses. It sets out to answer the raised question: “How do professional social workers construct family social work when they are providing social services for families?” The second article reveals interpretative repertoires of roles of family social workers in the context of Lithuania. Social work professionals’ roles appear among professional, public and organisational discourses. Writing the second article, the question to be answered was: “What kind of roles do social workers take and give in family social work?” This article discloses what professional roles of family social workers are constructed concerning different everyday practice encounters that depend on situated language use in the contexts in which they take place. The third article analyses the different type of constructions of “good” and “bad” motherhood. The article answers the question “How does the positioning of a risk family woman through conversation with a social worker about the social work process with the family deploy different categories of motherhood and social worker’s positions?” The fourth article focuses on the construction of every day ethics and ethical questions that emerge through their daily practices. Their everyday experiences were analysed in the framework of “doing ethics”. The article answers the question: “What kind of ethical questions must family social workers consider when providing social services in the client’s homes?” This article opens the gaps between micro-social work practices and social policy in Lithuania. Family social workers are facing difficulties due to structural problems within society and are burdened to act with ethical considerations while lacking external resources.
Family social workers construct their everyday work experiences while working with the child and parent at the individual level to understand the meanings of what is going on in the practice field. Family social work daily work practices were recognised in the framework of the neoliberal model, where individualism performs the primary role, and social services efficiency is highlighted. Family social workers thus feel pressured to be as efficient as possible without any consideration of how this could be achieved, especially when a society is lacking resources. During interviews, family social workers were easily able to disclose how they act in the field when asked, but it became more complicated when talking about specific methods applied to their practice. Data revealed that family social workers’ creativity and personal resources sometimes become a way to help a child and their parents. Thus, family
social workers are working in applying features of psychological service discourses rather than alternative ones, where child and family rights are the focus of the social work practice. Family social workers build their client profile, highlighting their weaknesses, such as having a lack of social or parenting skills, like with alcoholism or ex-convicts. Thus, stating that their applied interventions are child-focused is misleading given that the real focus is on the parents’ behaviour.
The biggest professional challenges are faced with ethical considerations in family social work practice encounters. Family social workers are trying to respond to the ethical questions considered when confronting social problems, such as a lack of professional and structural resources to help clients, and when confronting social problems, such as evaluation and decision-making in contradictory settings: family home’s, organisations and societies. In the final chapter, the insights for family social work practice development are provided. The recommendations are based on the findings of my carried research and theoretical readings.
Kokoelmat
- Väitöskirjat [389]