In this chapter, we explore the concept of ethical practice from a Western perspective, beginning by introducing current codes of ethics, as well as debates about their limitations in guiding ethical practice. We examine some of the dominant assumptions and myths about supposedly objective ways of knowing and contrast these with critical understandings of knowledge, values and ethics. We also provide an overview of various approaches to decision-making in relation to ethical dilemmas and explore how a critical approach can offer an excellent guide for ethical practice. We further examine the practice of critical reflection and share a practitioner’s perspective from our research to demonstrate how they used critical reflection to inform ethical practice.Ethics is a domain of philosophy concerned with questions of what is right or wrong in human conduct. Given that social workers often work with people who are affected by poverty, unemployment, illness, violence, deprivation of liberties and other forms of social disadvantage and oppression, we are frequently faced with making complex ethical decisions that can affect the lives of others.

The term ‘social work’ was first coined by the American economist Simon Patten in 1900. He envisaged a new profession that would address the social problems of the modern world. These problems are neither timeless nor innate to human nature, but come into being at particular points in history as a result of people’s actions and the way they organise power in society. Looking at these issues historically enables us to see the way social problems (such as extreme inequality and poverty, mass urbanisation, industrial pollution, racism, sexism and different forms of violence) have been constructed and varied over time. More importantly, this lens may provide us with clues as to how people might un-make these problems and do something better. This historical perspective is vital for practice today because it locates critical social work as part of much wider and ongoing struggles for social justice and human rights.

This book is about the potential of social work, and in particular the potential of critical social work. It is about what social work is, what social work can be and, from a critical perspective, what social work should be. We use the word ‘potential’ quite deliberately, as it implies that there are elements of uncertainty in endeavouring to make social work critical that are yet to be fully realised and never guaranteed. Yet, in the current context, the values and vision of critical social work are perhaps more relevant and important than ever before.

In Chapter 1, we invited you to consider the critical potential of social work: the potential for us as individual workers, and collectively as a profession, to question the social conditions and discourses that give rise to human suffering and what we might do about these. The critical standpoint is one that sensitises us to social injustice and the need for transformation. Being a critical practitioner is challenging: while we may decide that this is the path we wish to take, it is an ongoing process, borne out in day-to-day and week-to-week activities. Becoming a critical practitioner is not a single act of commitment, but an often-arduous journey of revelation and struggle. There are many potential setbacks along this journey. As the words of a great twentieth-century social reformer Martin Luther King remind us, ‘Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable … Every step towards the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concerns of dedicated individuals.’ Critical social workers are among those dedicated individuals with passionate concerns.

In this and the following chapter we explore the importance of context for social work practice. Ife et al. suggest that context is vital because it impacts on how social workers understand the issues they are working with and how they will respond. Social work does not exist in a vacuum. Therefore, we focus on a number of powerful social forces that shape our social contexts. These consist of far-reaching (sometimes global) social structures and discourses. Social structures, as noted in Chapter 1, are the enduring social patterns, divisions and institutional arrangements that can give rise to inequality and harm. Discourses, on the other hand, are sets of ideas or language about a particular topic with shared meanings and assumptions that reflect and reinforce particular power relations. In other words, discourses are never neutral descriptions of reality, but actively justify certain asymmetric social structures; in turn, these structures promote discourses favourable to their maintenance.

This chapter will introduce you to some of the key formal social work theories that underpin practice. We begin with the individualistic and systems-based theories that originated in psychology and conservative sociology respectively. As was evident in Chapter 5 on the history of social work, these establishment theories generally dominated social work before the emergence of critical social work theories. We then shift our attention to the development of critical theories, such as Marxist, radical, structural, feminist and anti-oppressive perspectives that aim for social justice and autonomy, and discuss the more recent contribution of poststructural and queer theories to the evolution of critical theories and to critical social work. The newer critical theories developed out of critiques of the older establishment theories, so it is necessary to have some familiarity with the principles of both. Finally, we draw on research with our first-year students to demonstrate the application of theory in relation to a case study.

In this chapter we explore concepts and practices related to diversity. This is a complex terrain to navigate as we are all ‘diverse.’ However, diversity (or our differences) have personal, social and political effects; many of which involve power and engender various forms of inequality, privilege and oppression. Critical social workers have been considering the ‘dilemma of difference’ for decades. In 1985, for example, Martha Minow observed that, rather than avoiding this dilemma, we should ‘immerse ourselves in it’, not necessarily to seek a final resolution, but to engage in a ‘more productive struggle’ for equitable processes and outcomes’. Challenging privilege and oppression is at the heart of critical social work and our journey is both personal and professional as we grapple with how to respectfully listen, learn and engage in mutual consciousness-raising across difference, while advocating for social and systemic change to address inequality.

While we have already touched on several fields of practice throughout this text, this chapter draws on our own and other authors’ research and experience to go somewhat deeper in relation to three social work practice fields: aged care and working with older people; child protection; and men’s violence against women. We consider some of the current debates that exist within these fields and contextualise them within wider social and political contexts. We acknowledge the challenges for critical practice, particularly when it seems to be at odds with the dominant discourses and associated institutional structures and cultures.

Social work practice may be conceptualised in a variety of ways. Sometimes practice is referred to as ‘methods’. Some social work texts have tended to refer to different levels of practice: micro methods, including methods for working with individuals, such as casework, counselling and case management; methods for working with couples and small groups, such as family group conferencing, mediation and group work; and macro methods, which are more collective methods of practice, such as advocacy, community development, policy development and analysis, research and social action. Practice is also sometimes referred to in terms of the processes that characterise it from beginning to end – for example, engagement, assessment, intervention, termination and evaluation. This tendency to conceptualise practice in terms of ‘processes’ is mostly relevant for micro methods, and some have argued that this conceptualisation represents the imposition of ‘corporate management techniques’ and a ‘case management approach’ onto social work.

This chapter provides an overview of some of the key practice strategies that social workers use to try to challenge and arrest the massive social inequalities we explored in the previous chapters. The theory and practices of critical social work help us to devise creative and effective ways to contest and resist the harms created by oppressive social forces. Developing our capacity for critical analysis is an important first step that underpins all other practices outlined in this chapter: social policy analysis and development; social activism, allyship and participation in social movements; critical practice in organisations; and undertaking social research. These practices connect practitioners with discretionary spaces in which they can work towards social justice and emancipatory aims.

As noted in Chapter 1, since writing the last edition of this text in 2019, the world has undergone rapid changes and continues to transform at an accelerated pace. Social work, often informed by social movements and community experience, aims to anticipate and respond to emerging social issues. Perhaps this is one of the defining hallmarks of the social work profession – its capacity to evolve to address new challenges and opportunities. Throughout this book, and especially in Chapter 2, we explore some of the global social forces and discourses that characterise the rapidly changing contexts in which social work operates. These changes have created new challenges that require critical responses, in some cases generating new fields of practice. In this chapter, our major focus will be on: (1) the increasing urgency of climate change, threats to the planet (and humanity) and the implications of climate change for social work; (2) global pandemics and their impacts for people and service delivery; and (3) increasing wealth inequality and associated poverty and homelessness.

Notions of professional social work knowledge, theory and practice often rest uneasily within the context of interests, aspirations and sovereignty of First Peoples. It has long been so, and it remains a challenge in contemporary social work. This chapter provides an opportunity to encourage specifically theoretical engagement with an Aboriginal peoples’ standpoint and to understand social work practice that is responsive to it. It is often said that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and so it is within an holistic framework of social justice and self-determination that Aboriginal health and well-being must be approached. This is a standpoint that encompasses the well-being of the collective; provides recognition of the Aboriginal world-view; and validates the cultural memory of an ancient oral tradition filled with stories and connections to Country. It is through human rights and decolonised practices that these elements can be framed, and from which equitable and socially just outcomes for Aboriginal communities can be achieved.

To suggest that social work theory and empirical research necessarily inform and strengthen practice under-estimates the difficulties involved in bringing together conceptual and practical endeavours. Building linkages between theory, research and practice has been a long-standing challenge in social work. Busy practitioners have little opportunity to keep abreast of new research, and the higher-order nature of some theories and perspectives means that they lack the capacity for straightforward translation into practice. As a consequence, models of practice have emerged from theoretical ideas. These function as bridges between broader theoretical ideas and intervention strategies used in daily practice. For example, empowerment perspectives (see Chapter 8) do not provide a tractable practice pathway, yet the family group conference is a good example of a practice model that can trace its roots to the empowerment tradition. This is an example of a practice model that has emerged from theoretical concepts and ideas. When theory, knowledge and practice come together in this way, the result becomes part of a rich and continually evolving intellectual tradition within social work.

Throughout this book, we have explored the ways in which we bring theory to our practice as social workers. This process is a complex and continuing one. As theoretical understandings change and develop over time, and as service systems change, we develop our understandings, practice wisdom and insights. Social work as a profession has been strong in emphasising both the need for more formalised reflective practice and the opportunities that social work supervision presents to consider how practice can be improved through processes of critical reflection. In this chapter, we look at the skills involved in critical reflection and how social work as a profession benefits from engaging in reflective and reflexive, theoretically informed practice. So, we explore the elements of successful supervisory relationships, as well as some ways of thinking about supervision within the client, worker, agency and community system. Then we return to the importance of the cultural lens in supervision – ensuring culturally responsive supervisory practices as one vital way of supporting optimal practice.

Social workers will often say that they use systems theories in their practice. People are inextricably linked to their environments, and theories that call on systems of experience and interaction tend to make logical and practical sense to workers in daily practice. Systems theories help us to think about these interactions between people and their social and physical environments, and they also help us to understand how change can occur through the use of ecosystem interventions.In this chapter, we will explore the development of systems theory and how some key thinkers in the systems theory approach have informed social work practice. An examination of some of the key systemic thinkers and their understandings of systems theories will serve to illustrate how these theories have evolved, and how they have shaped practice in different and significant ways. Finally we will explore contemporary systemic adaptations, and in particular, how a broader systems analysis informs service navigation.

In this chapter, we look at behavioural approaches, and the more recent cognitive behaviour approaches, that provide a lens of change on how people think, feel and behave. In the second half of this chapter, we look at mindfulness approaches, and how they build on some of the core tenets of cognitive behavioural approaches as well as spiritual and cultural approaches. The chapter concludes by examining critically the strengths and limitations of these approaches.

We have used the metaphor of onion-peeling to describe the characteristics of insight-focused theories because they seek to peel back layers of experience to reach understanding. Like an onion, human experience reflects a layering: layer upon layer, it builds up around us and influences our lives, sometimes in complex and repetitive ways. Awareness and insight lead to change and optimal functioning. The onion-peeling metaphor is relevant to several key theoretical approaches. In this chapter, we explore two that have been particularly influential in the development of social work thinking: psychodynamic and person-centred approaches. As with the ecosystem collection of theories, both psychodynamic and person-centred approaches have extensive histories and traditions. In this chapter, we draw together core ideas from the psychodynamic and person-centred theories that we think best capture the essence of the onion-peeling tradition.

The third edition of this book continues to focus on practice with families experiencing vulnerabilities in order to promote wellbeing and prevent violence abuse and neglect. Since the publication of the last edition of this book, global events have highlighted our collective vulnerabilities. Indeed, the word ‘unprecedented’ seems to be the word of our times - being used to describe the COVID19 global pandemic, catastrophic bushfires, floods and other disasters, mass migrations of people fleeing conflict zones and uninhabitable lands, and the global financial crisis. These events have not only increased our collective vulnerability, they have also shone a light on the disproportionate burden carried by some families and children, frequently due to structural and social inequality, and other vulnerabilities. Society’s soul and its commitment to creating a just and equitable society where children and their families can thrive has been laid bare. Global social justice movements have also gained momentum – exemplifying part of humanity’s eternal stance towards resisting oppression and inequality.