Nominated Practice-based Research Papers

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https://hdl.handle.net/10315/28563

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Open Access
The Advocate Self of(f) Beaten Paths: Travelling Colonial Roads in Neoliberal Times
(2020-04) Koziorz, Dorothy
Social work often conceptualizes advocacy as synonymous with social justice and critical praxis (Smith, 2011), which seemingly affirms the heart of the social work profession. Though many claim an advocacy role or agree that advocacy is essential to social works cause, little is known about how the advocate self is constructed, understood, and practiced. 6 self-defined, Ontario-based child and youth advocates were interviewed in this study to explore how they engage in their own self-making processes; specifically advocates for children and youth who are involved in the child welfare system. This research is informed by post-structural, anti-colonial, anti-racist, and other critical theories and worldviews. It deploys a narrative approach and an analytic framework of Foucauldian discourse analysis to explore how child and youth advocates are shaped by, and in turn, shape dominant relations of power that work against, or in solidarity with children and young people towards social justice. Findings reveal that the roads travelled by child and youth advocates in their self-making processes are complex and ever-changing. The narratives of child and youth advocates reveal that they are both co-producers and disrupters of dominant discourses and power-knowledge systems. Additionally, it is argued that the advocate self is not a bounded self, but that it is “discursively mediated and politically situated” (Macias, 2012 p. 10). Finally, the research concludes with an argument for the necessity to historicize social justice imperatives in order to gain insight to the current tensions experienced by social justice advocates and further, opportunities for resistance.
Open Access
An Examination of How Dominant Notions of Normalcy Inform the Experiences of Non- White Subjects Living with Chronic Illness
(2018) Iyer, Minakshi
The subject of normalcy within critical disability studies explores the dichotomy of normal and abnormal and how this informs the way disability is discussed within society. Using a post-structural and critical approach, this research has examined the intersections between race and disability within the narratives of non-white subjects living with chronic illness. What this research reflects is a global conversation regarding the ways in which capitalism, whiteness and ability impart limitations upon participants in this study, and how community activism and friendship serve as a form of empowerment and solace while navigating these structures of dominance.
Open Access
Case Worker’s Perspectives of Ontario’s Social Assistance Program During the COVID-19 Pandemic
(2021-04) Parnell, Morgan
This study explores seven Ontario Works case workers’ perspectives of the social assistance program in Ontario, Canada, during the novel coronavirus pandemic 2019 (COVID-19). Rooted in a critical paradigm, this research was guided by the following research questions: How has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced case worker’s perspectives on the effectiveness of Ontario’s income support program? What gaps do case workers identify in this system and how do they think they would be best addressed? Data for this study was generated through the use of semi-structured interviews and the major findings that emerged include 1) Challenges clients faced while transitioning to virtual service delivery highlight lack of communication and support; 2) COVID-19 emphasizes Ontario Works’ universal service delivery approach and the inability to support people with complex needs; 3) The implementation of CERB highlights Ontario Works’ inflexible program requirements, insufficient assistance rates and who is defined as deserving versus underserving during the pandemic; and 4) Quality of case management service delivery could be improved if case workers experienced less stress, more flexibility and more support from the organization. Participants also identified two major recommendations to address these gaps, including the implementation of a wraparound, wholistic, mixed-methods model that offers financial amounts that meet MBM and inflation, and consult welfare recipients and Ontario Works case worker’s and involve them in the decision-making process.
Open Access
Co-Creating Ethical Understandings Through Outsider Witnessing
(2020-04) Mulloff, Mark
This research project seeks to examine ethical dilemmas faced by practitioners who work with men who have used intimate partner violence (IPV). The study is informed by a Foucauldian conception of power. The research explores how the workers’ reflections on power and ethics give them insight into the journeys towards accountability that their clients undertake. Methodologically, the study adopts narrative inquiry combined with outsider witnessing methods, which allow an audience of participants to listen to one participant be interviewed about an ethical dilemma, and explore what things resonated with them in the story; what accounted for this resonance within the life or practice of the witness; what these things indicate about the values, ethics, or politics of the storyteller; and where the witness has been transported as a result of hearing the story. Findings indicated that this process contributes to a relational understanding of ethics through soliciting shared experiences, feelings, and values; by causing participants to reflect on past experiences differently; and by descriptions of values, ethics, and power as active and relational processes. Insight into the clients’ pursuits of accountability arose through reflections on the experiences of clients, the process of change, and an understanding of shared navigations of power relations with clients. The study recommends that those working with men in IPV intervention consider building a regular practice connecting with others doing similar work in order to co-create shared ethics and mutual support around the pursuit of those ethics.
Open Access
A Cookbook Approach to Building Community: Applying a Narrative Lens to Food Work
(2019-03) Guthrie, Jade
There has been a push from community food activists to create community food work practices which are more democratic, collective, and connected to social justice goals. As a response to these calls, this research project explore the research questions of “how can a collective narrative approach be applied to community food work programming in order to render this type of programming more inclusive and empowering for participants?” Using a narrative approach to probe this question, this community-based participatory project develops a “food narratives” framework to doing community food work. In-depth interviews, as well as a creative focus group session with community food practitioners served to gain insight into to the work being done on the ground. This research grounds this framework in theories of affect, intersectionality, and critical pedagogy, contending that “food narratives” can be mobilized within community food spaces as a means of exploring identity, creating community, and building resilience.
Open Access
Diverse Political Women in Canada and Online Attacks: Experiences, Perspectives, and Insights
(2019-06) Skogberg, Jenna
Multiple academic disciplines agree upon the importance of women having diverse representation in politics because their unique perspectives are strongly thought to have positive implications on policies that affect the health and well-being of all people (Clayton & Zetterberg, 2018). Yet, abuse or harassment levied at these women both online and offline likely diminishes their voices or desires to remain politically engaged. Using hermeneutic phenomenology and intersectional feminism, I explored the experiences of a diverse group of political women in Canada with online attacks to gain their insights on potential implications and strategies for change. The findings analyze the participants’ complex relationships with social media, the unique challenges of each platform, the interlock of online and offline harassment, the women’s resiliencies and strategies to cope with online attacks, and their ideas for potential resolutions. The implications for critical social work practice are identified as: insight on the continued need to challenge Eurocentric heteropatriarchal colonial institutions, online and offline; the importance for Canadian social workers to (re)imagine their roles in online spaces; and, the need to develop methods with interdisciplinary teams to combat ideological radicalization on online echo chambers. Regarding future research, there exists much potential. One focus I recommend is that an interdisciplinary team of people, representing various socio-political positionalities, study how to perform community building projects on online echo chambers.
Open Access
‘Drink a Nap. Take Water.’ and Other Self-Care Advice A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis on Self-Care Posts on Instagram
(2020-04) Blumenfeld, Stephanie
In recent years, self-care has become a qualification for many social work organizations. At the same time, mental distress has been receiving significant attention. Through this period, government policies have decreased funding to social services while increasing surveillance. As well, social media has increasingly become a source of governmentality as a useful tool for perpetuating dominant narratives, surveilling each other and the self. The purpose of this study is to explore these connections through a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis on self-care posts from Instagram. My analysis uses post-structural literature on mad studies, neoliberalism, whiteness, and feminism. A major theme of my analysis regards evidence of reification of the neoliberal state as self-care becomes the qualification for worker-citizen-subjects. The implications of self-care discourses for people struggling with mental distress are that those experiencing it are blamed for their individual choices. The paper concludes by exploring subjugated discourses, relevance for social work and suggestions for future research.
Open Access
Economic Recovery for Whom? Jobs, Business, and Homo Oeconomicus in BC’s COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan
(2021-04) Zainal, Shila
This qualitative study examines how neoliberal rationality is reproduced and reinforced, in addition to how certain lives are centered while others marginalized and excluded, in British Columbia’s COVID-19 pandemic economic recovery plan titled “Stronger BC for Everyone”. Utilizing Foucauldian Discourse Analysis, this study found that neoliberalism is sustained in this recovery plan through the discursive centering of jobs, business, and homo oeconomicus–the productive, self-interested, and entrepreneurial “economic man”. This paper also proposes that the realities of marginalized subjects and demands for radical alternatives are repackaged to uphold neoliberal rationality, leaving palpable silences on the realities of those who are the most marginalized throughout this pandemic. These reconfigurations and silences further entrench the hegemony of neoliberalism as the only common-sense solution to the existing inequities. Furthermore, this study illustrates the importance of re-politicizing social work and the need for more research radical alternatives to neoliberalism.
Open Access
Exploring Polysexual Experiences within Mental Healthcare and the Negotiation of In/Visibility: A Qualitative Arts-Based Inquiry
(2020-04) DeAngelis, Alyssa
Contemporary research has found that polysexual people (who are sexually and/or romantically attracted to multiple genders) report poorer mental health when compared to monosexual people (Arnett, Frantell, Miles, & Fry, 2019; Bostwick, Boyd, Hughes, & McCabe, 2010; Brennan, Ross, Dobinson, Veldhuizen, & Steele, 2010; Flanders, Gos, Dobinson, & Logie, 2015; Steele, Ross, Dobinson, Veldhuizen, & Tinmouth, 2009). Furthermore, data from the 2003 and 2005 Canadian Community Health Surveys found that, “Bisexuals were more likely to report unmet [physical and mental] health care needs, compared with heterosexual Canadians” (Tjepkema, 2008, p. 62). Thus, this study explored the research question: “How do polysexual identified individuals wish to be seen, understood, and/or engaged within the specific context of mental healthcare?” The framework for this study was based on Daley’s (2013) theory of “negotiating in/visibility” in psychiatric service spaces. In the current study, six people participated in a semi-structured interview and four participants additionally completed a reflexive photography exercise (which included photographs and text). All mediums of data were brought together to discuss the following four themes: intersectionality; relevance; physical, online and community presence; and resistance. Findings revealed (respectively) that polysexual people wish to be seen as intersectional bodies, for their sexuality to be understood through their own perspectives as it relates (or not) to mental healthcare, to be engaged with through queer politics, and for therapeutic services to not be yet another space where they must resist oppression. While these results are not revolutionary by any means, they convey – often unmet – needs of polysexual people, from which service providers can reflect upon their own practice.
Open Access
Exploring the Impact of Client Suicide on Social Workers: A Phenomenological Study
(2018) Duffy, Amber
This research aims to further the understanding of how the phenomenon of client suicide is experienced. Using phenomenology, registered social workers were interviewed to garner an understanding of how client suicide is experienced within the social work perspective. Client suicide research has largely focused on the experience of other professions such as psychology and psychiatry, despite social workers often working with people who have suicidal ideation. Understanding how social workers make meaning of, and are possibly affected by their clients dying by suicide, is valuable in avoiding trauma, grief, and burn out. This research used a constructivist lens to interpret how various social workers experienced the same phenomenon differently, examining the question, “how do social workers describe their experience of client suicide and its impact on their personal and professional lives?”
Open Access
Exposing and Closing the Knowledge Gap in Canada for Indigenous People: What is working to support Indigenous students in schools today from an Indigenous perspective
(2017) McKay, Tsitra
The major focus of this project explores what factors enable Indigenous people to continue in education despite all the barriers they face. Furthermore the research looks at how the education system can continue to improve to support Indigenous people through post-secondary. Moreover, the research looks at what the implications to government and educators are now that the TRC (2015) recommendations have been released and how they are being implemented. Most importantly my research was done in collaboration with Indigenous peoples through a sharing circle and interviews using Indigenous research methodology which is holistic, sacred and honors Indigenous knowledge.
Open Access
Fatphobia as Marginalization: The Impacts on Women in the Public Sphere
(2021-04) Schmalz, Hayley
This paper seeks to explore the impact that fatphobia has on Western society, specifically the female body. Using existing literature, this research aims to deepen the knowledge and experience around fatphobia and its pervasiveness in the public sphere. Key questions explored are centered around how fatphobia impacts women in Western society, how fatphobia is created and maintained, and the exploration of where fatphobia is most pervasive in a person’s life. The study will analyze its research findings through a feminist and intersectional theoretical perspective. Some of the key findings in this study were that fatphobia is largely connected to patriarchy, Western culture, and colonization. As well as classism and neoliberalist ideologies and how these ideologies create and maintain fatphobic beliefs. The intersection between fatphobia and race was explored, however, there was a significant lack of perspective in the literature from fat women of colour. Additionally, analysis on the biomedical discourse around obesity and weight discrimination was explored, eliciting extreme discrimination against fat bodies. Based on this information, it is apparent that awareness of fatphobia needs to be explored further in professional research and in day-to-day life. Specifically, recognizing fatphobia as a form of marginalization is recommended to be included in social work education and implemented into social work practice to ensure more inclusive knowledge and practice.
Open Access
“Fuck Latino Illegal Aliens”: The Settlement Experiences of LGBTQI+ Asylum Seekers in Canada
(2022-04) Reyes, Kiana
Upon their first year of arrival, do LGBTQI+ asylum seekers feel properly supported within British Columbia? This paper reveals the stories of community members who hold intersecting identities, and have taken unique journeys to migrate to Canada. This study utilizes Critical Race Theory, Transnational Feminism, and Thobani’s concept of the exalted subject to show how fleeing from persecution results in new forms of systemic violence and discrimination not experienced by other migrants. I interviewed three LGBTQI+ refugees who arrived in British Columbia, Canada over the last 10 years who described the multiple sites settlement violence experienced by them in the health care, housing, legal services, dating apps, the labour market and social support agencies designed to assist in their very settlement. Using a narrative analysis, I argue that this community needs a specialized focus to support their unique needs while at the same time acknowledging and challenging how border imperialism and settler colonialism shapes their experience. This study suggests that LGBTQI+ asylum seekers are not properly supported when they first arrive in British Columbia, and must navigate issues around settlement needs, geographical locations, violence and discrimination, migration timelines and waiting periods, code-switching, gratitude, and COVID-19. This paper recommends future research to be conducted around the settlement needs for LGBTQI+ asylum seekers.
Open Access
Horticulture as Therapy in Toronto: Unearthing Healing and Wellness in a Post-Industrial Setting
(2017) Fontaine, James
This paper explores how community service providers in Toronto use Horticultural therapy to engage with local ecological landscape in supporting client rehabilitation and wellness. A qualitative Deep Ecology theoretical framework through an inductive, revised, grounded theory research methodology was used. This research hopes to further the understanding of how community program service providers could facilitate therapeutic processes through engaging with ecology in Toronto's urban landscape. This study strived to deepen understanding of benefits in the use of land and environment for community and therapeutic programming in an urban setting. Data was collected through semi-structured, interviews with six service providers who are facilitators or developers of wellness programs which offer forms of horticulture for therapeutic benefits. Subsequent questions inquired how service providers see urban issues as intersecting into their work in the metropolitan context of Toronto. Providers expressed how their work in urban environments enables, in their words, the creation of natural oases. Adaptability is a strong theme evident in the year-round horticultural programming available in Toronto’s temperate climate. A significant age range (0-95) and diversity of populations was found to access needs-specific horticultural programs in institutional and community settings. Connectedness appeared as a strong guiding principle in local horticulture therapy programming. Varied critical perspectives were offered by the professionals on the distancing or entrenchment into the naming of their programs as a ‘therapy’. Food production in horticulture and its power of bringing people and cultures together in Toronto’s metropolitan environment emerged as a theme. Horticultural wellness programs access local natural resources, topography and waterways to broaden the practice of counselling for trauma, grief, death, addiction and life-changing experiences. Implications for broader acknowledgement of environment and occupied landscapes in Canadian social work practice, theory, and research are discussed
Open Access
‘I Just Need to Get to Know You’: A Foucauldian Genealogy of Health Care Assessments of Trans and Gender Diverse Youth
(2022-04) Seburn, Kaeden
Despite the importance of transition related health care (TRHC) for many trans and gender diverse (trans) youth, there are many barriers to accessing this care, including assessment protocols that limit youth’s autonomy. This research seeks to interrogate how and why current assessment practices in pediatric TRHC in Ontario have come to be. Drawing on the theories of (trans)normativity and governmentality, the project applied a Foucauldian discourse analysis to analyze interviews with five clinicians currently practicing in TRHC in Ontario. Analysis identified six sources which influenced clinicians’ assessment practices: clinical guidelines, more experienced clinicians, other experience in pediatric care, evolving research and evidence, perspectives of youth and families, and external legal and social pressures. Additionally, analysis interrogated the evolution of mental health assessments from the realm of psychology and psychiatry to an embedded part of clinical care; the oft-repeated intention of clinicians to “get to know” youth; and the conditional decision-making authority, granted to some, but not all, trans youth. Findings discuss how these discourses obscure the ways in which power is enacted within the clinic. Finally, this project explores the implications of these findings for provider training, clinical practice, and theory. This research is put forward in the hope that, in the future, all trans and gender diverse children and youth will have access to the affirming TRHC that they need and deserve.
Open Access
Mental Illness and the Use of Lethal Force in Canada: A Critical Policy System Analysis
(2021-04) Unkerskov, Sacha
The use of police lethal force is an unresolved and urgent critical social issue. Most recently, the deaths of those in mental health crises during police interventions have increasingly led to public controversy in Canadian society, especially in circumstances where the victim suffered from a mental illness. This study sought to locate policy that justified the use of lethal force by police officers on persons with mental illness (PMI) and provide recommendations to amend policy to uphold the sanctity of life. The primary objective of the study is to challenge our current policing and criminal justice systems and apply principles of restorative justice with the goal of obliterating police shootings and healing communities in the aftermath of state-sanctioned deaths. This study used an interpretive policy analysis framework to analyze lethal force policies at the federal, provincial and municipal levels of government in Canada. The findings of the study revealed that the policies allow for police to uphold the social relations of power and determine whether or not to end a citizen’s life. The policies normalize state violence as an appropriate response to social issues and allow for police officers to hold vast discretionary power in determining to use force when they perceive a threat. A primary latent goal of the policies is to uphold officer safety at the expense of citizen safety. Accountability and lack of transparency of Special Investigations Unit (SIU) investigations and lack of implementation of Coroner’s Inquest recommendations were found to reinforce underlying factors of this social issue. In addition, unclear and conflicting legislation pertaining to the roles of police in our society, specifically in mental wellness checks, is raised as a significant issue in citizen safety in encounters with police. This study contributes to the growing body of Canadian policing research and fills a gap in the lack of policing policy analysis. This study supports decolonization and democratization of policing in Canada and purports that applying restorative justice principles and values can be transformational in the healing of police and community relations. This study contributes to social work education by enlightening social workers to public policy that can have dire consequences for the populations they serve. This study supports the inclusion of social work knowledge and expertise in police interactions with persons in mental health crises. In the pursuit of social justice, this critical social issue cannot be overlooked.
Open Access
Models of Psychosis and the Limitations of Psychiatric Knowledge
(2014) Ricker-Wilson, Maya; Rossiter, Amy
In this paper, the medical discourse on the constructs of “psychosis” and “schizophrenia” is challenged by a literature review of contradictory evidence, alternative theories, phenomenological explorations of psychosis, and perspectives of people who have experienced psychosis. One purpose is to expose the violence that occurs in constructing madness as an illness and “treating” it through pharmacology, while another is to deconstruct the binary of “sane” versus “insane” by examining the social and existential factors that may contribute to the development of psychosis. Implications for social work practice are discussed.
Open Access
Money, Drugs, and Voluntary Trusteeship; Applying Harm Reduction to Money Management Programs for People Who Use Substances
(2017) Dixon, Michelle
The objective of this research is to explore whether the Harm Reduction Trustee Case Management program at St. Stephen's Community House is reaching its objectives by improving overall quality of life for clients who are actively using substances and have a history of homelessness. Methods: A qualitative, non-experimental approach was used. Eighteen (18) retrospective pre-test-post-test questionnaires were completed. Questionnaires sought information pertaining to whether improvements in stability in terms of housing, financial, substance use, and overall quality of life were identified by clients. Results: All program outcomes measured, indicated improvements based on client responses. Post- test results indicated that 100% of clients are housed and maintaining their housing. One hundred percent (100%) of responses indicate that clients are practicing safe using strategies in terms of using substances since joining the program; and 78% of responses indicate improvements in terms of budgeting skills. Conclusion: The program evaluation has demonstrated that the Harm Reduction Trustee Case Management program it meeting its objectives and offering support that improves housing retention/stability as well as improving overall quality of life for clients enrolled in the program.
Open Access
Putting a Bow on Death and Dying Health Care Professionals’ Experiences with Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis with Agambian Insights
(2018) Townsley, Alison
This paper employs a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis perspective to enrich the understanding of the experiences that health care professionals in Ontario, Canada have with medical assistance in dying. Interview data is analyzed by situating the health care professional as an effect, as a producer, and as a challenger of power-knowledge systems. Philosophical theories of Giorgio Agamben are applied to the data to challenge Foucauldian principles, and to bolster the discussion of defining of the body that deserves to live, and the body that deserves to die. Major findings that emerged include the dominant discourse of aligning right and good within confines of the law, and the absolution of quantification and generalizability in relation to definitions surrounding dying. In terms of next steps for social work practice, this paper concludes by asking social workers to interrogate why we feel the need to ‘put a bow on death and dying’, so that we may engage in critical conversations with our colleagues.
Open Access
Raising Children with a Developmental Disability: Ghanaian-Canadian Parents Shed Insight
(2019-04) Awuni, Linda
Using hermeneutical phenomenology, this study attempts to answer the question: How do Ghanaian-Canadian parents of children with developmental disabilities understand their child’s disabilities, and what experiences inform this? By interviewing six Ghanaian-Canadian parents of children with developmental disabilities through semi-structured interviews, it was determined that these parents understood disability broadly. Their understandings were influenced by childhood and post-migration experiences. These experiences were marked by stigma, stress, frustration and joy. Subsequently, the experience of having a child with a developmental disability inspired faith and allowed parents to see their own strengths and abilities in reconceptualizing disability. This research has pointed to broader systemic issues when children are transitioning out of the educational system and the lack of resources to support parents. In spite of strides being made to create awareness, attitudes towards persons with disabilities and their caregivers continues to be a concern for parents. Social workers and the research communities are encouraged to form alliances with minority groups to promote awareness and address barriers that continue to limit these parents and their children’s participation in Canadian society.