I appreciate that we spent time this week to deconstruct the rationale behind the broad readings and class topics. Once I was able to recognize that understanding the foundational paradigms will help me to be a more critical and effective social worker someday, I appreciated what I was learning. Although I knew this to be true before, it was a good reminder to hear in class that our western culture predominantly operates upon a positivist/ post-positivist paradigm. These paradigms have evolved through work and study of nearly all white, middle to upper class men, and therefore the scope of understanding can be limited. Nearly all the disciplines that own respect within the American culture derive from this orientation, and therefore stepping into the arena and operating from some of the alternative paradigms will cause friction. While the reality of this is somewhat intimidating, I find solace in the veracity that history is constantly evolving, and ideologies that were once contumacious are now generally accepted; such as the uprising of Protestantism that questioned much of the foundational beliefs of Scholasticism. Our focus in class on the evolution of Evidence Based Practice cultivated disappointment because in my opinion, it has moved farther from an empowering methodology that helps the marginalized to one that keeps power centralized for those who have status.
As a social worker someday I will need to figure out what paradigms my ethics and morals align with, while also being aware of the paradigms that I am culturally forced to operate within. Someday I may be forced to work within a system that enforces Evidence Based Practice as doctrine, and I will need to comply with these standards. As a social worker I will need to decide when I can comply with the status quo, and when I may need to advocate for policy and paradigm change. The world is not stagnant, which is a beautiful thing, but it also brings challenges. If the paradigms and methodology upon which my practice is based are not bringing my society closer to equality and social justice, then I need to examine the assumptions that I am working for. Asking myself the questions that you presented in class will help me maintain conscientious practice: Who is it for, what is it for, and who determines the purpose and impact?
I want to be a medical social worker because it deeply burdens me to know that there are people, like the woman above, who are wasting because they are too poor and powerless to receive treatment for diseases that are completely treatable and often times curable. I think that the healthcare system operating within a free market system directly benefits those who hold power while it kills the millions of people who do not. A man named James Natchtwey took this photo.
