exploring the emotional & subjective experiences of newly ... · neoliberalism’s impact on...
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Exploring the emotional & Exploring the emotional & Exploring the emotional & Exploring the emotional & subjective experiences of newly subjective experiences of newly subjective experiences of newly subjective experiences of newly
qualified social workers’ qualified social workers’ qualified social workers’ qualified social workers’ transitioning to the workplace.transitioning to the workplace.transitioning to the workplace.transitioning to the workplace.transitioning to the workplace.transitioning to the workplace.transitioning to the workplace.transitioning to the workplace.
Makhan Shergill
Coventry University,UK
Outline• Research context
• Preliminary findingsOutline • Preliminary findings
• Towards theorisation
NQSWs’
Neoliberal ‘spaces’
Research
Context
Political lens
NQSWs’ transition
Competing
paradigms
of social
work
Emotional
engagement
& intensity
of practice
Professional lensPersonal lens
The neoliberalisation of social workThe neoliberalisation of social workThe neoliberalisation of social workThe neoliberalisation of social work
Neoliberalism’s impact on social work (Dominelli, 2008)
1. Application of market principles to public sector
2. Changing context in which social work occurs and impact of inequality and disadvantage.
• Dislocation and exclusion of certain groups• Dislocation and exclusion of certain groups
• Move towards neoliberal individualism
3. Internationalization of social problems• Trafficking, child sexual exploitation, asylum & migration, forced labour
• Shifts towards safeguarding
• ‘Poverty not key concern of many professionals’: Morris 2017
Competing paradigms of social worksocial work
Re-surfacing of the dichotomous nature of social work
A statutory, narrow and service
delivery notion of social work.
A social justice agenda congruent with
the global definition of social work.
M
O
R
A
L
Global
definition
University Workplace
Competing
conceptualisation
L
D
I
S
T
R
E
S
S
UK Social
Work
GRADUATE TRANSITION
Emotional intensity of Emotional intensity of Emotional intensity of Emotional intensity of practicepracticepracticepractice
Emotional engagement
of social work
Emotion
Service users
ObserveWorking together
Emotion &
Social Work
Emotion
AssessMaking
decisions
Morrison, 2006
The absence of emotions in social work(Ingram, 2013)
Centrality o f emotion in human emotion in human life and social work
practiceAbsence in students
accounts of practice and lack of focus in literature
Research into the role of emotion arising from the intensity of some forms of social work practice
• Expression of emotion, particularly anxiety and fear, in the workplace is commonly stigmatized as weakness, and thus is more often than not repressed or ignored (Morrison, 1990; Dwyer, 2007). (Morrison, 1990; Dwyer, 2007).
• This negation and the consequent impact on poor performance and decision making can result in service users being exposed to undue risks of harm (Carpenter et al., 2012; Kinman & Grant, 2013).
Research FocusResearch FocusResearch FocusResearch Focus
Emotional experience
of graduates’ transition
to the workplace
Data analysis: Voice Centred Relational Method
1: The plot
Listening for the plot
2: I-Poem
Reading for the
3: Relationships
Reading for
4: Contexts
Reading for the socio-for the plot
and researcher response
for the ‘Voice of the I’
for relation-ships
the socio-cultural context
Stage 2: Nicole’s ‘I-Poem’
• I was 16
• I left home.
• I was kicked out of home
• I had got into a relationship with somebody
• My family didn't approve of that.• My family didn't approve of that.
• I then had a social worker who supported me
• I fell pregnant at the age of 17
• I was in a relationship where there was domestic violence.
• Physical abuse was part of my childhood anyway,
• It was acceptable to me.
Vanessa’s ‘I-Poem’
• I'm mixed,
• My mom's white, and my dad is south Asian,
• I was really going through a lot of trying to figure out
• How I was identifying,• How I was identifying,
• Figuring out, what do I need to own in terms of white privilege,
• How I can just be myself, in an embodied way, and with all that that brings.
• I really witnessed a lot of bare messiness, emotionally.
Charlotte’s ‘I-Poem’• They're telling you to F off out the house
• Screaming at you,
• I've had people shouting at me in my life,
• I've had to deal with that.
• It's scary and it frightens me.
• Some days I think "Oh, God! • Some days I think "Oh, God!
• I don't want to go to work!"
• "Oh no, I can't go."
• I don't want to have to give up in 5 years because it's too much.
• I think that they could prepare you better for that.
• Yesterday, I didn't have a very nice day
• I just wanted to go home and go to bed and hide.
Interpretation: psychosocial methods
• She speaks of not feeling fully prepared for the workplace and that
was associated with her feelings of being out-of-depth, underlying
fear and anxiety.
• She speaks of the psychological impacts of working with hostility, of • She speaks of the psychological impacts of working with hostility, of
being faced with aggression and how this evoked feelings of fear and
an inability to cope.
• She speaks of questioning her resilience, feelings of ambivalence and resolve to continue in this work, wanting ‘to hide’ and be protected,
perhaps as she was cared for as a child in a safe and stable
environment.
cognitive
Gender
Relational
HabitusVoice the
‘un-said’
affective
Power
Fear, anxiety, optimism,
determination, loss…
Early dispositions
Self, mothers, daughters,
colleagues, professionals
Power differences & status differences
Majors sites for generation of emotion
Emotional
capital
Habitus‘un-said’
Identity as
contextual,
relational and
emotional
How can social workers be supported to
develop an emotional identity to think and
feel intelligently on their feet?
Bion: coping with
uncertainty, containment
Klein: projective
identification
Transference, defence
Reay: psychosocial & habitus
Winnicott: the ‘space between’
early transitions from
subjectivity to objectivity
Thematic AnalysisThematic AnalysisThematic AnalysisThematic Analysis
Coding 1: Personal histories, individual traits and relational or Coding 1: Personal histories, individual traits and relational or Coding 1: Personal histories, individual traits and relational or Coding 1: Personal histories, individual traits and relational or organisational factorsorganisational factorsorganisational factorsorganisational factors
• Significance of students early experiences of adversity
• More recent experiences of transition, of struggle
• Relational, expectations on achieving
• Needing re-assurances: proud, be liked
• Feelings of loneliness, struggle
Coding 2: Support in relation to coping Coding 2: Support in relation to coping Coding 2: Support in relation to coping Coding 2: Support in relation to coping
• Support of Practice educator
• Feeling of being nurtured and protected• Feeling of being nurtured and protected
• Team members to confide in
• Safe team cultures
• Team as a ‘secure base’
Coding 3: Hindrance in relation to copingCoding 3: Hindrance in relation to copingCoding 3: Hindrance in relation to copingCoding 3: Hindrance in relation to coping
•Feeling out of depth
•Feelings of fear and angst•Feelings of fear and angst
•Anxiety of case load
• Initiated complaints by families
Coding 4: Extent feel course prepared for Coding 4: Extent feel course prepared for Coding 4: Extent feel course prepared for Coding 4: Extent feel course prepared for workplace?workplace?workplace?workplace?
• Lacked reality of practice
• Lack of balance• Lack of balance
• Hard, struggle, exciting, rewarding
• Learning new things/ development as a person
What is this data telling us?
•Key take away point is the need to understand the life journey that people have been on before they get to social work education, to understand they get to social work education, to understand what and how they need to learn and what are the challenges and struggles going to be for them and how we as educators need to be with them.