Reference no: EM134021241
Assignment
Self-awareness and commitment to ongoing personal reflection are important components of all levels of social work practice. Specifically, you will find it helpful to understand the extent to which you occupy positions of power or influence in your context, community or in society by virtue of your background , religion, , age, familial status, income, or other demographic factors. For example, if you are a female who belongs to a matriarchal culture, your experiences of power and privilege are likely different from those of a woman in a patriarchal culture or a more egalitarian culture.
Awareness of any power and privilege you hold in various contexts and roles is not only important for self-reflection. It can also affect how you will interact with and develop reciprocal and cooperative relationships with the organizations and communities you will serve as a macro social worker. Things like your age, sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status may not always feel powerful to you, but depending on the context, they can affect how the organizations and communities that you serve perceive you. Throughout the course, you are encouraged to think about how aspects of power and privilege may affect your work.
In this activity, you will identify the social groups that you belong to and reflect on how they may affect your perceived or actual power and privilege. You are encouraged to reconsider these factors as you develop your knowledge of working with organizations and communities.
Learning Outcome
1) Develop reflection and self-regulation to manage the intersection of personal and professional values.
2) Explore injustice and the impact of racism and oppression within the social environment at local and global levels.
3) Demonstrate cultural humility by applying critical reflection, self-awareness, and self-regulation to manage the influence of bias, power, privilege, and values in working with clients and constituencies.
4) Identify practices that advance human rights to promote social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
Background Information
This workshop activity is an opportunity to reflect on how your own personal experiences may contribute to power, privilege, and powerlessness in your life. As you learned in your supplemental reading, cooperative power can be difficult in contexts that gives privilege to the dominant culture. Still, it is what we should strive for as social workers. By considering power, privilege, and powerlessness, social workers can achieve greater shared power for those who lack a voice or significant influence.
Task
I. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.
II. Watch the Video: What are the dimensions of power?
III. OPTIONAL: Read the article Understanding Power and Powerlessness: Towards a Framework for Emancipatory Practice in Social Work.
i. If you are not already logged into OCLS, you will be prompted to enter your My IWU login and password to access the article.
IV. Download the Self-Assessment: Power and Privilege.pdf file. On the worksheet, complete the following:
i. Briefly explain the three dimensions of power described in the video and why they are important for social workers to consider. Get the instant assignment help.
ii. In your current community context, identify 2 groups you share a sense of identity with and describe how they contribute to any power, privilege, or influence you hold in one of the dimensions of power.
iii. Identify a social group that you identify with that could represent a of diminished dimension of power or vulnerability for you. Explain.
iv. How might your identification with the groups you identified affect your perception of, reaction to, or ability to advocate for and engage in practices that address human rights or justice, socially, racially, or economically? Explain.