Becoming a social worker: Chris' account

Chris Murray, a young African-American male, admitted on a scholarship to a social work masters program, reflexively explores his negotiation of difference in dialogue with an Australian female social work educator twice his age. Standpoint theory and the concept of intersectionality are used to fra...

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Main Author: Crawford, Frances
Format: Journal Article
Published: Routledge 2012
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/35248
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author_facet Crawford, Frances
author_sort Crawford, Frances
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description Chris Murray, a young African-American male, admitted on a scholarship to a social work masters program, reflexively explores his negotiation of difference in dialogue with an Australian female social work educator twice his age. Standpoint theory and the concept of intersectionality are used to frame Chris’ experiences at a private northeast US university after achieving an undergraduate degree in his southern home state. His initial access to university came through military service. Chris was interviewed by the author as part of her international study project examining social work students’ experience of diversity in the classroom. The open-ended interview was designed to allow self-identity of difference. Chris ethnographically recounts to a stranger a subjectivity statement of who he is in relation to studying social work. Chris’ story works the hyphen between the binary of subjectivity and objectivity through the particulars of his personal history and world-view and his expectation that I as a social work educator share his seeking of social justice. His detailing of what moved him to become a social worker and contextual complexities negotiated along the way connect to wider discourses on how agency and structure play out in lived experience in seeking social justice.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-352482017-09-13T16:07:58Z Becoming a social worker: Chris' account Crawford, Frances Chris Murray, a young African-American male, admitted on a scholarship to a social work masters program, reflexively explores his negotiation of difference in dialogue with an Australian female social work educator twice his age. Standpoint theory and the concept of intersectionality are used to frame Chris’ experiences at a private northeast US university after achieving an undergraduate degree in his southern home state. His initial access to university came through military service. Chris was interviewed by the author as part of her international study project examining social work students’ experience of diversity in the classroom. The open-ended interview was designed to allow self-identity of difference. Chris ethnographically recounts to a stranger a subjectivity statement of who he is in relation to studying social work. Chris’ story works the hyphen between the binary of subjectivity and objectivity through the particulars of his personal history and world-view and his expectation that I as a social work educator share his seeking of social justice. His detailing of what moved him to become a social worker and contextual complexities negotiated along the way connect to wider discourses on how agency and structure play out in lived experience in seeking social justice. 2012 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/35248 10.1080/02615479.2010.538673 Routledge restricted
spellingShingle Crawford, Frances
Becoming a social worker: Chris' account
title Becoming a social worker: Chris' account
title_full Becoming a social worker: Chris' account
title_fullStr Becoming a social worker: Chris' account
title_full_unstemmed Becoming a social worker: Chris' account
title_short Becoming a social worker: Chris' account
title_sort becoming a social worker: chris' account
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/35248