Constructing Family from a Social Work Perspective in Child Welfare
A Juggling Act at Best
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31265/jcsw.v12i1.145Keywords:
family, child protection, best interest of the child, professional discretionary decisions, social workersAbstract
The transformative reality of diverse Canadian families is outpacing national and provincial statutes and policies. Social workers in child welfare agencies are faced with the complex task of making decisions about families while working within the confines of national/provincial statutes and social policies, as well as within agency structures. They attempt to balance the rights of diverse Canadian families and still protect children at risk of harm with the principle of the ‘best interest of the child’. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the construction of ‘family’ and decisions about family life in protection services from the perspective of professional social workers in the prairie region of Canada. Social workers from several urban communities were invited to participate in focus groups. During the focus group discussions, themes of social worker’s nuanced and somewhat fluid understandings of family did not always converge with current legal and professional notions of families. Study findings suggest that social workers’ construction of family and the decisions they make about family life involve three primary themes: ‘acceptance of diverse understandings of family’; ‘safety and the best interest of the child’, and ‘professional discretionary decisions’
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Euteneuer, M., & Uhlendorff, U. (2014). Family Concepts - a social pedagogic approach to understand family development and working with families. European Journal of Social Work, Vol. 17, No. 5, 702–717, doi: 10.1080/13691457.2014.945151.
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Finch, J. (1987). The vignette technique in survey research, Sociology, 2, 105-111.
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Gavriel-Fried, B., Shilo, G., & Cohen, O. (2014). How do social workers define the concept of family? British Journal of Social Work, 44(4), 992-1010.
Gazso, A. (2009). Reinvigorating the debate: Questioning the assumptions about and the models of “the family” in Canadian social assistance policy. Women's Studies International Forum, 32(2), 150-162.
Gergen, K. J. (1994). Toward transformation in social knowledge (2nd ed.). London: Sage.
Gladstone, J. W., Brown, R. A., & Fitzgerald, K. J. (2009). Grandparents raising their children: Tensions, service needs and involvement with child welfare agencies. International Journal of Aging and Development, 69(1), 55-78.
Goldberg, A. E. (2007). Talking about family: Disclosure practices of adults raised by lesbian, gay, and bisexual parents. Journal of Family Issues, 28, 100-131. doi:10.1177/0192513X06293606.
Green, B. L., McAllister, C. I., & Tarte, J. M. (2004). The strengths-based practices inventory: A tool for measuring strengths-based service delivery in early childhood and family support programs. Families in Society, 85(3), 327–334.
Gumuscu, A., Khoo, E., & Nygren, L. (2014). Family as Raw Material - the Deconstructed Family in Swedish Social Services. Journal of Comparative Social Work, 9,(2), 2-27.
Gupta, T. D. (2000). Families of Native people, immigrants, and people of color. In N. Mandell, & A. Duffy (Eds.), Canadian families: Diversity, conflict, and change 2nd Ed. (146-187). Toronto: Harcourt Canada Ltd.
Hakim, C. (2003). Models of the family in Modern Societies: Ideals and Realities. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Hargreaves, J., & Page, L. (2013). Reflective Practice. London: Polity Press.
Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
He, W. (2005). Introduction: Kinship and family in international context. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 25(3), 1-8.
Healy, K. (2005). Social Work Theories in Context: Creating Frameworks in Practice. Basingstoke: Penguin.
Herz, M., & Johansson, T. (2011). Critical Social Work - considerations and suggestions. Critical Social Work, 12(1), 2-19.
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Published
2017-04-21
How to Cite
Johner, R., & Durst, D. (2017). Constructing Family from a Social Work Perspective in Child Welfare: A Juggling Act at Best. Journal of Comparative Social Work, 12(1), 4–37. https://doi.org/10.31265/jcsw.v12i1.145
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