hau 179 Ethics and social work education Unit Standard 19404

Click Here!
Unit Standard 19404
Analyse ethics for social service work

Ethics and social work education
What is it that we have in common in social work and in social work education? Before we consider ethics in social work and social work education we need perhaps to think about what it is that we do how we do it and why. After that we might be able to codify common ethical values that help to prevent professional abuse.
Above the policies and practices of local organisations there are national codes of ethic in different countries and, since 1994, a Code of Ethics of the International Federation of Social Workers. The ethics and values of these Codes are mostly influenced by the western, European countries (Banks, 1995). Four main principles are found;
1 respect for the individual person/case
2 self-determination of the client/user
3 promotion of social justice
4 working for the interests of the client/user
The present Post builds on an earlier paper (Cleave and Khulmann 2000). As pointed out there most ethical codes sometimes forget to say that in practice there is inevitably a tension between the business of supporting the interests of clients and social justice on the one hand and their duties to control and save money on the other (Payne 1995). In addition to this the 'Codes' place more emphasis on the individual's rights to respect and support than on the duties of the societies towards those who have been 'crushed and downtrodden' (Salomon 1923) during their fight for economic survival. Those are- all over he world- mostly women and children, often from minority or oppressed groups.
Most ethical codes concentrate more on the professional-user relation and less on the society-social problems relationship. In the beginning of the profession there was a broader approach to social work ethics mainly in the works of Alice Salomon as she began he task of looking at the tradition of help ind the Judeo- Christian world.
We might also learn from the ethic of mutual aid found in other cultures such as the Maori tradition. This might be elicited in a study of aroha and other terms. Aroha indicates support, care, affection and identificatio with the user of the social work service. There has been a great deal of influence from the Judeo-Christian traditions on Maori and other Polynesian cultures simply through historical exposure and in some ways this makes comparisons and contrasts difficult.
Sometimes an ethic as a matter of reflection. It is found in the way people think about society the way they inquire. The Polynesia tradition involves shared talk. This may seem to the outsider as a lot of shared talk by as many people as possible, by a committee of the whole for any given situation to sort out or sort through an issue.
This process of talk also involves the following of ritual guidelines in the form of the protocols of the marae, te kawa o te marae in the Maori case. This in turn involves distinctions between locals and visitors, tangata whenua and manuhiri and other matters in a culturally specific form of inquiry or rangahau (cf Post 148 http://puffcom.blogspot.com/)
There is, in this ethic, also the affirmation of an ethic position. Maoritanga or the Fa'a Samoa which some see as 'a whle way of life' and others see as 'a whole way of struggle' (Webster 1998). This may be like Weber's 'Protestant ethic' or wht came to be known as a 'work ethic'. Ways of life, ways of struggle are involved.
To return to the Judeo-Christian tradition there is also the matter of mutual aid traditions including those of ethics surviving industrialisation, urbanisation and the vanishing of extended families. Traditional structures of social support broke down and the state neglected to build up new ones.
Into this vacuum stepped people like Heinrich Wichern who founded the 'inner mission' in 1848. He demanded a special welfare organisation in order to adapt Christian welfare to an industrialised society. At he same time diakonia, thforms of social support in the first Christian communities, were emphasised (Cleave and Khulmann, 2000:163).
Christian and Jewish traditions of welfare were involved ni the establishment of social work in Germany (Cleave and Khulmann 2000: 162-6).For Alice Salomon (1872-1948), the founder of IASSW in 1928 social justice was the main obligation of social work.As suggested by Cleave and Khulmann ibid the destructive power of the developing capitalistic market, the colonisation of traditional structures of care and support forced those who were engaged in social work to einvent or call up again an ethic other than an ethic of the market or the 'free' workingma and consumer.
It may be the case that social work in Aotearoa has seized on the ethic of a minority group, the Maori, in much the same way as that suggested in Europe. The language of the minority offers tools for challenging the prevalent ethic.
To return to the four points raised earlier;
1 respect for the individual person/case
2 self-determination of the client/user
3 promotion of social justice
4 working for the interests of the client/user
In the case of Aotearoa to Point One might be added respect for the whanau or extended family of the individual concerned. A reference to he Treaty of Waitangi would be a significant addition to Point Two. Similarly social justice, the third matter, might also involve the Treaty or initiatives like Puaoteatatu. The last point, working for the individual might also involve the whanau and the Treaty as well as the hapu and the iwi.
Where the iwi or the hapu and in some cases the whanau are social work providers there are matters that may apply to all of the four points.
In any given country there will be local characteristics. In Aotearoa one feature must be the primacy of the Maori child. In Europe the situation with respect to gender rights might be more acute when Muslim minorities are concerned although gender rights are important in all countries as are the rights of the child.
It is important to appreciate the functions of a social work ethic. Not only is there the guidelines for the correct and just ways of doing things. There is also the possibility that the ethic is a kind of underground railroad where the values and aspirations of minority and repressed groups might be carried along in times of threat or repression. It may be the case that sometimes the ethic is subverted and used in the interests of the power structure. It is important for the student of social work to work through these possibilities to arrive at their own understanding of the ethics involved.
Bibliography
Banks, Sarah 1995 Ethics and values in social work Macmillan Press, Hampshire and London
Cleave, Peter and Khulmann, Carola Language and mutual aid, in Cleave edit. The Nurturing Shield, Campus Press, Napier
Payne, Malcolm 1985 The code of ethics, the social work manager and the organisation in Watson edit A code of ethics for social work: the two step, London 104-122
Salomon, Alice 1923 The relation of the church to social workers in Proceedings: National Conference of Social Work in Washington