A guest blog post by Kate Morris, Professor of Social Work at the University of Nottingham. Kate is one of the authors of Re-imagining Child Protection: Towards humane social work with families. In this post Kate reflects on her recent visit to Aotearoa New Zealand and the similarities between politically motivated reviews of child protection services in England and NZ.
Several colleagues with an interest in the work of the RSW collective have asked how they can use digital media to support and contribute to our work. This post offers a basic introduction to one social media tool: twitter. It explains the basics of tweeting, provides links to additional information, and offers you a nice wee digital activist project for the long weekend. Future posts will explore the value of digital activism more broadly, and discuss engagement with other digital media tools.
Paora Moyle offers a Māori practitioner’s perspective on cultural identity and the meaning of the term “of Māori descent”.
I listened with interest to Lyndal Greenslade’s podcast and read the related paper with a mix of excitement and concern (Greenslade, McAuliffe, & Chenoweth, 2014; Podsocs, 2014). Both of these items were kindly posted on this website by Liz Beddoe. The podcast and paper described radical ways in which social workers in Australia work covertly to the advantage of their clients. For example, turning a blind eye to behaviour that was contrary to care plans, in order to avoid a more arbitrary use of power by other professionals. This covert activism must be considered in the context of the social workers’ ‘deep critical reflection’ on their practice, and an organisational climate experienced as being increasingly hostile to the professional values held by social workers.
In light of the New Zealand governments call to review Child, Youth and Family, Paora Moyle offers a Māori practitioners perspective on the CYF review and the continuing relevance of the document Puao-te-ata-tu (Daybreak).