Instructions
Critical Analysis: Diversity, Oppression, and Social Justice Practice:
As professional social workers, we are charged by our professional Code of Ethics to provide culturally competent, respectful service to clients free of personal prejudices and biases. It is our duty and responsibility to understand culture and its function in human behavior and society. To achieve these goals, we must first take a reflective and evaluative look in the mirror at ourselves, to first understand ourselves; this will allow us to identify the hidden prejudices and biases that we may harbor that may inadvertently affect the delivery of our services. This 3-part analysis will be completed in the format of a paper and it will:
Analyze and manage personal values in a way that allows professional values to guide practice (CSWE Core Competency 1);
Communicate diversity as the intersectionality of multiple factors including age, class, color, culture, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, immigration status, political ideology, race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation (CSWE Core Competency 2); and
Examine the promotion and maintenance of forms and mechanisms of oppression, discrimination, marginalization, alienation, privilege, and power in order to more justly address human rights and social and economic justice (CSWE Core Competency 3).
Each part needs to focus on your individual experiences and is an intellectual assessment of yourself. Use your course readings and any other outside resources as sources to support your analyses. Your critical analysis will be evaluated on the various elements of critical thought and intellectual traits, which are detailed in the assignment rubric. Additionally, the critical analysis will be evaluated for the use of correct grammar, sentence structure and following the current edition of the APA guidelines for writing/formatting papers. Each part should include a section introduction, and a reference page can be at the end of each section or the end of the entire essay. References must also come from government or agency reports, books, or academic journals.
Part I: Social Identity Inventory: An Examination of Self
Provide an analysis of your social identities and how you feel they may impact your social work practice (micro, macro, mezzo). Your analysis should include the following:
Identify each of your social identities related to the course topics: race, class, nationality, religion, ability, age, and gender. Please note: identify your sexual orientation and gender identity at your discretion. Indicate whether each identity is a dominant or oppressed social identity group. You can arrange the listing of each in a table or infographic; and
Through critical analysis, identify your personal biases, prejudices, and stereotypical attitudes and behaviors towards minoritized groups and members of dominant groups. Analyze at minimum 2 for each minoritized/oppressed and privileged/dominant groups; 1 should be an analysis of an attitude and 1 of a behavior. During your analysis, identify the origin of these beliefs/attitude and behaviors, and make sure to make a connection between your social identities and the role it plays in these attitudes and behaviors. Use the Cycle of Socialization model (pg. 28) to assist during this analysis.
Identify how your identity may impact your social work practice from a micro, mezzo, and macro perspective.