Teaching Gender in Social Work - MailChimp

Why is the Problematisation of Gender in History Important in Social Work?
Every year a predominantly female and relatively homogenous group of young
adults start their studies hoping to become qualified ‘helpers’ for other people
who have faced problems in their lives. There are many important issues (such
as is the identity of the other and of ourselves) which we would like to encourage
teachers of social work to problematise in the course of social work studies,
because our understanding of the world around us depends on where we are
positioned within it. Initially, students tend to take for granted such matters as
the present gender-based division of labour in the field of social care, and this
easily leads them to reproduce the existing ways of working and of relating to
each other in their professional communities. Problematisation is important, if
we wish to open up new avenues of understanding, such as possible innovative
alternatives and space for reflexive social work practices in future.
Gender is undoubtedly among the most important issues, not least
because the female worldview and women’s views on the family, childhood,
mothering and fathering tend to become self-evident in the interactions
between students and their teachers and peers. Without critical reflection
on gender in everyday practices, social workers are likely to encourage the
reproduction of traditional gender-specific family roles in circumstances in
which the constant questioning of them would be more appropriate. This
has led us to make the following conclusion: it is not enough to question the
present gendered practices of social work as such, but rather we need to extend
the investigation to some of the origins of the profession. It is important to
acknowledge the particular gender order that existed when the earliest forms of
the then new profession arose. Second, knowledge about how gender relations
in general and the gendered practices of the profession in particular became
established over time is a key aspect of the cultural heritage of the profession.
To enhance students’ understanding, teachers should, in addition to
presenting the historical facts, highlight the most common invisible meanings
of gender at the personal-experiential level. Bearing this in mind, in the second
part of this article, we show how to apply drama education when exploring some
of the historically constructed meanings of gender in social work. Questioning
why certain practices of knowledge generation and representation are privileged
and examining their relationship to the dominant ideas, may broaden
our understanding of how such gender-related ideas arise and are sustained.
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