Reflections on Identity: the Prerequisites for Professional Strength and Creativity

1. Reflections on Identity: the Prerequisites for Professional Strength and Creativity JSWEC Conference 2010 Dr Brenda Clare The University of Western Australia brenda.clare@uwa.edu.au

2. Themes for Today 1.Requirements for practitioners to ‘hold the faith’ as brokers of hope for the poor and marginalised in this fluid, contested and arguably risk saturated practice environment 2. A look at new (and perhaps old but neglected) capacities and/or philosophies that can assist and nourish us as practitioners 3. A consideration of educational strategies, pre- and post-qualifying, necessary to equip and sustain ‘best practice’

3. Some Question to Start us Off • How do you describe what it is you do for a living? 2. If a stranger asks you what social work is all about, how do you answer? 3. If person told you they were thinking of doing a social work degree, what would you advise them? 4. When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

4. Reflections on Identity A located sense of self in the world Who we are, how we define ourselves Where we belong, and how we are impacted by the ‘rules of belongingness

5. Dimensions of identity

6. Stormy Weather Discourses, ideologies and ‘rules of practice’, formal and informal, explicit and assumed, informing [practice] interventions, locally and globally, competing with each other. “Like voices within the social worker’s head, all seeking to persuade, to cajole, to direct, a particular response.” (Gillingham, P and Bromfield, L ,2008) Bclare, UWA November 2009

7. The Organisational Sphere ‘Anxious environments’ (Morrison, 2005) ‘Formalised’ practice (Parton, 2006) Evidence-based impetus Litigious environment Demand for meaningful service-user involvement Resource impoverishment

8. The Professional Sphere Fragmented vision Reification and idealisation – losing embodied practice and practitioners’ voices Paucity of professional leadership Occupational rather than professional identity Sufficing/competence rather than excellence/artistry Modularisation of education – emphasising content over process, training over learning

9. The Personal Sphere What practitioners fall back on Sink or swim adaptation (Reynolds 1942) Shooting from the personal (Clare 2003) ‘Taking troubles home’

10. Pause for Reflection How does any of this resonate for you as social workers On a scale of 1-10, how robust is your professional identity? What resources are available to you Organisationally? Professionally? Personally?

11. A Definition of Social Work ‘Enabling’ dialogues – aimed at maximising the capacity of client populations to engage actively, purposefully and positively with the world To have a clear, positive sense of self and place To have a place of belongingness, without shame or stigma An aspirational goal, not an impossible task

12. Capabilities Required of ‘Enabling’ Social Workers Three key capability ‘sets’ Leadership capabilities - delivering results, working strategically within the broader environment Mastering oneself -self management and awareness; mental agility Engaging others - professional maturity, working together, listening deeply (Gibbs, 2009)

13. Additional Requirements To be able to work with the intra (psychodynamically), and the inter- (systemically) To work with complexity and multidemensionality (eg Thompson’s PCS model) And, crucially To define positive change to include the small interventions of our daily work

14. All this Requires in Turn A strong and questioning intellect Emotional intelligence Balance - a life outside of work that strengthens and nourishes us Spiritual sustenance - something to believe in

15. Outcomes of Professional Education A demonstrated capacity, to a high standard, for Intellectual rigour Emotional sensitivity (intelligence/wisdom) Contextually aware moral thinking Creative and potent decision making and action

16. Requirements of Teaching-LearningRelationships To address the anxiety of working in the ‘necessarily peopled environment’ (Blom, 2009: 160) of human service organisations To offer students opportunities to ‘rest in uncertainty’ (Wilmot 2008) and achieve a sense of ‘secure unknowingness’ (Clare, 2003, 2006) rather than retreat to 'safe certainty as is the tendency in periods of great stress’(Mason,1993,cited by Shohet 2009:96) To assist in the achievement of emotional calm and mindfulness [that] facilitates brain integration (Gibbs, 2008: 60)

17. To ‘standing alongside’ (Clare, 2010) students; to pay ‘compassionate, ruthless attention to their practice(Wilmott,2008) – in the classroom and in the field, with a view to increasing the their capacity for self-supervision and their sense of self-efficacy To assist them to avoid routinization and technical compliance (Thompson, 2009) To manage self (thoughts, feelings and actions) and manage organisational relationships to achieve professional ends; to work strategically and creatively within the parameters of role and mandate to effect change (Payne, 2006)

18. In summary To model and demonstrate ‘best practice’ interventions Demonstrating through dyadic and group interventions the knowledge, skills and attitudes required of professional practitioners Containing, facilitating and regulating behaviour to meet clearly articulated, explicitly contracted goals

19. Addressing all Domains of Identity (Clare, 2010)

20. Providing Strong Foundations for Robustness Personally and professionally – knowledge, values and skills that provide a sense of self-efficacy and a basis for provisional certainty (Clare 2003) Through dialogue, the achievement of practice fluency – the ability to talk the talk as well as walk the walk, enabling us to better influence and advocate Through the learning community facilitating a sense of individuated belongingness (personally, professionally and organisationally) – to be able and allowed to manage difference and conflict

21. Teaching for CREATIVE Practice Capacity – educating for excellence and growth Robustness – self trust; secure unknowingness Empowerment – owning professional authority; able to remain assertive; able to share power Artistry – able to ‘work the moment’, engage the audience Teamwork – able to share and learn; to use conflict creatively; avoid a besieged mentality Inclusivity – self awareness; able to relate across difference; expert at both oral and written communication Vision – personal philosophy of practice; hopeful about collective professional purpose and place Engagement – potent in shaping the environment

22. Final Thoughts How has this session resonated with your own thinking? Has anything been confirming? Has anything challenged you to ‘look again’ at what you think? Have you collected anything new and extended your sense-making?

23. Blom, B. (2009) Knowing or Unknowing? That is the Question in the Era of Evidence-Based Social Work Practice JSW9(2), 158-177 Clare, B. (2003) Social Work and Social Working: Stories of Learning and Identity Development. PhD Thesis University of Western Australia Clare, B. (2006) ‘Developing a Robust Professional Identity: Stories from Practice’. Social Work Review 18(4), 37-46 Gillingham, P. and Bromfield, L. (2008) ‘Child protection, risk assessment and blame ideology’ Children Australia 33 (1) 18-24) Judith Gibbs, Jenny Dwyer and Kitty Vivekananda (2008) Leading practice: A resource guide for Child Protection frontline and middle managers. Melbourne, Victorian Government Department of Human Services Shohet, R (2008) Fear and Love in and Beyond Supervision. In R. Shohet (ed) Passionate Supervision. London, Jessica Kingsley. 188-207 Thompson, N (2009) Understanding Social Work (4th Edition). London, Palgrave Wilmot, J. (2008) The Supervisory Relationship: a Lifelong Calling. In R. Shohet (ed) Passionate Supervision. London, Jessica Kingsley. 88-109,