Values Perspectives in Social Work

Members of the Institute are engaged in an exciting new international edited book collection on Values Perspectives in Social Work. This has been commissioned by Palgrave and will be published in 2009.

Background

Although values are related to social work in many different ways it is unclear about the nature of values in social work education and practice, and it is even less unclear about the way that social work process lead to sound value judgements. Too often we have interpreted values in terms of philosophical systems that have not been verified at the level of practice and we have settled for certain dominant perspectives that we assume are transmitted at the level of educational processes and further assumed that this will lead to moral behaviour. Questions about the value of value in social work have never been sufficiently addressed in either the literature or in the curriculum. At the level of practice it seems that values are either implicitly acknowledged or intrinsically transmitted through dispositions or rules or else they are negotiated on a situational basis. There has been an unhelpful tendency to assume that there is a correspondence between what a few key thinkers write about on social work values and the way these become enshrined in what front-line practitioners actually do. This tendency has been hardened by the way that social work values are taught and the way that practice learning is assessed on social work courses. Not only has social work values in educational contexts been narrowly defined and restrictive in terms of the various perspectives offered but more worrying is the formulaic manner in which they have been articulated at the level of practice. A few choice perspectives, which seem fashionable at the time, have been identified and simply laid out for the consumption of students and practitioners.

The preoccupation with professional codes of ethics, such as those developed by BASW and CCETSW in the UK has tended to endorse this kind of moral economy of teaching social work values. The GSCC code of conduct has tended to move the context even further in this direction. Whilst social work has never pretended to be value-neutral it is clear that "values education" in social work has been heavily prescribed and almost dogmatically conveyed. The literature has been dominated by three or four key thinkers and one or two key perspectives. This book on values perspectives aims to remedy this worrying situation by introducing for the first time a range of social work value perspectives that we feel are much more representative than those previously offered in the literature. The book will positively counter the very significant blind-spot that is prevalent in the social work literature on values. We feel that this not only more accurately represents what social workers actually do and what values they adhere to in their practice but more importantly that it reflects the diversity of different perspectives that constitute educational, policy and practice settings.

In professional education and pedagogical terms it is our view that the education of the social worker does not just consist in practice placements plus formal teaching of law, values and skills, but should demand deep engagement and analysis with case studies, examining value perspectives in all their dimensions. This is a dialogical enterprise with peers and tutors alike, not to find out how the case should have been handled, but to explore how one might go about thinking, judging, reasoning, reflecting, imagining, feeling about a range of values; opening up their possibilities for human action. This is to get a sense of what is possible as an ethical social worker in various situations and settings. A value perspective approach to social work relies on a moral reflexivity in the student or practitioner, and is a function of self-understanding and self-monitoring. That is, a value perspective demands as a matter of course that one do more than ones duty; indeed duty is not a moral factor. Duty or rule following in social work often consists in abiding by the dictates of the organization, for there is no set of rules about the quality of interaction with the client. We do not have specifiable duties towards them in terms of the quality of the work. Developing a values perspective calls upon the inner sense of the essential rightness of ones stance commensurate with the situation and the determinations of a moral dialogue with the rest of society. It should not consist merely of duty to the organisation.

Value perspectives as the ground for modes of ethical conduct that help reproduce society, act as society's conscience. Having been educated to reflect on values, we would not feel easy about abandoning them. It does not feel right to do things without reference to a system of values which help to ethically calibrate how we go about practices. The "practice of value" (Webb, 2006) helps maintain moral agents who judge and then act upon the environment in which they find themselves. So we go about things "in this way" because "this is the way" we do things. We do not though, abandon values qua ethical forces because we just are or are not like this; they set the baseline as to what we should not do; we should not act against their spirit. The practice of value then, is not some doctrine of utilitarian relativism where each situation has its own structure of interests which are pursued by the agents involved. A value perspective draws upon skills of self, of perception, judgment and measure, and not just automated response. The practice of value envisages a set of human qualities which by their nature tend to promote the social good, but which can be used variably according to the situation arising. The possibility of an ethical self is primordially a question of what it is to be human, and not a function of moments in our lives determined by pure self-interest. To be ethical is prior to any particular configuration of life; using ones value capabilities effectively is a skill of being human, and not just, in our case example, a social worker. The development of values is rather like the development of the use of the senses of understanding.

Scope and range of book contents

The range and scope of perspectives that are offered in this book much more accurately represent the various tensions, contradictions and ambivalences that are experienced by students and practitioners in their day-to-day front-line work. The limitations in circumscribing a narrow values agenda means that social work has failed to open up teaching to broad values perspectives. Social work professionals have received very little and only inconsistent preparation around how to respond to the needs of those groups and individuals for whom an alternative value perspective is of major importance or how to resolve dilemmas arising from a clash of values or from their own beliefs. This situation has also impacted adversely on service-users for whom differing perspectives have central significance. There are very obvious dangers associated with being "blind" about alternative and even competing perspectives. It seems that the failure to address value diversity in terms of alternative perspectives is a missed opportunity for social work to build on the strengths and positive based approaches found elsewhere in education and practice.

Research consistently shows that social workers are keen "value activists" so it is crucial that their evaluations and judgements are represented in a book that acknowledges the diversity and scope of a range of different perspectives. It is widely accepted that social work is not value-free; values imbue everything that is done in social work and the entire practice of front-line delivery of services and various interventions. This book will demonstrate how value is inescapable in social work. The processes of evaluation in social work can never be avoided. Beyond the technical competency and skills required of social workers effective interventions are guided by the application of values. This mean that values and the practices flowing from them play a key role in shaping social work intervention. This book not only underlines the significance of values and values education for social work but also contributes to a value pluralism that embraces both solidarity and difference. In order to embark on this new route of recognizing a range of value perspectives in social work we need a clearly formed and articulated set of values, ethical standpoints and evaluative criteria for these. If we are to argue for a system of perspectives which allows for the clearer articulation of difference, in a plural rather than dual form, we must do so from the basis of thinking across different perspectives that have cultural, societal and historical currency. This book is the first to offer this kind of thinking about values perspectives in social work and thus would be at the forefront of the ethics literature.

The book is divided into four different sections that accurately convey the range and depth of perspectives on values in social work. These have often been conflated or confused in the social work literature and we felt it important to not only acknowledge the different dimensions of values but also highlight the significance of these perspectives. By delineating these four separate sections the book affords a reader friendly and accessible structure that can help in identifying different dimensions within value perspectives and easily permit comparisons for further study.

Practice Perspectives

This section examines the professional practice perspectives which social workers bring to bear on ethical issues and value-based questions for social work practice. Featured prominently in the social work literature, rational ethical decision making frameworks serve as a guide to resolving ethical conflicts, including codes of ethics, which operate increasingly as codes of practice or codes of conduct. Also increasingly influential is faith-based practice whereby practitioners bring their dominant value perspectives to the fore in resolving ethical dilemmas and in making ethical decisions. The influence of faith-based perspectives, once subjugated to secular professional interests, are now being raised as a further ethical dimension in social work. Several key writers in this area, including Stefan Borrman, Eileen Munro, Donna McAuliffe, Paul Webster, and Phillip Gilligan bring their considerable research and practice expertise to bear on ethical practice perspectives.

Moral Perspectives

Long influential in social work have been deontological and utilitarian moral perspectives and most social work texts on ethics focus exclusively on these perspectives. In this section, key authors, such as Brid Featherstone Sonia Tascon Stan Houston Stephen Webb, and Mel Gray respectively examine increasingly influential moral perspectives, including ethics of care, ethics of responsibility, discursive ethics, virtue ethics, and postmodern ethics.  

Social Perspectives

This section examines the dominant social perspectives, including antiracist practice, human rights and social justice, anti-oppressive practice, and citizenship and participation in social work. The contributors, Walter Lorenz, Jim Ife, Lena Dominelli, and Aila-Leena Matthies are best known for their work in this area. These perspectives represent ongoing concerns within social work with marginalised, oppressed, and vulnerable minorities in society, such as immigrants and refugees; racial, religious, and ethnic minorities; and gay and lesbian people.

Spiritual Perspectives

An entirely new feature of the literature on values perspectives, this section focuses on Islam and ethics, Christianity and ethics, and New Age ethics, with respective contributions from leading theorists in this area: Terry Lovat, Russell Whiting, and Dick Houtman. These diverse spiritualities represent attempts to grapple with difference in social work and reflect the increasingly culturally rich environments in which social workers work as new areas of practice open up with inter alia immigrants and refugees, and migrant workers.

Defining features of the book

1. It is the first book on value perspectives in social work aimed solely at engaging students with a range of perspectives that permits a comparative and critical reflective engagement with ethics across diverse dimensions. All other works focusing on 'ethics' either missed this mark or have been written for colleagues and scholars.

2. A variety of value perspectives are discussed by writers who have a leading role in developing them in social work, thus providing students with a first-hand look on their importance, how they came about and were developed for social work.

3. Its format will have consistent chapter organisation, headings, students aids in learning the material, and range allowing for theories to be easily compared and contrasted. This will include a reader friendly glossary of key terms and three study questions at the end of each chapter.

4. The introductory chapter and concluding chapter comments lay the groundwork for demonstrating the importance of studying social theory in social work. The glossary and selective bibliographies also help the readership map key learning points and directions in social work thinking.

5. It includes several new perspectives, for example, Islam, New Age perspectives and moral approaches based on the ethics of responsibility and care which make the volume the most contemporary and up-to-date on aspects of values for social work. To date literature has been published which offers such a comprehensive range of perspectives in a structured and accessible way.