Extending the Ally Model of Social Justice to Social Work Pedagogy

Figures & data

TABLE 1  Roles in System of Oppression

	Agents	Targets
Age	Middle/Adult	Young and Elders
Gender	Men	Women
Psychological/Developmental Disability	Able persons	Persons with Disabilities
Race	Whites	People of Color
Religion	Christians	Jews, Muslims, and other religious minorities
Sexual Orientation	Heterosexuals	Gay men, Lesbians, and Bisexuals Transgendered*

*Author’s addition to Griffin’s model.

TABLE 2  Connections among Cultural Competences and Wijeyesinghe, Griffin, and Love’s Characteristics of an Ally

Domains of Cultural Competencies	NASW’s 10 Standards for Cultural Competence	Characteristics of an Ally
Awareness	Self-awareness	1. Recognizes that unlearning oppressive beliefs and actions is a life-long process, not a single event, and welcomes each learning opportunity
		2. Understands the connections among all forms of social injustice
		3. Is willing to be confronted about own behavior and attitudes and consider change
		4. Understands own growth and response patterns and when she or he is on a learning edge
Attitudes/Beliefs	Ethics Diverse workforce Professional education Language diversity Cross-cultural leadership	5. Feels good about own social group membership and is comfortable and proud of own identity
		6. Listens to and respects the perspectives and experiences of target group members
		7. Believes she or he can make a difference by acting and speaking out against social injustice
Action/Skills	Cross-cultural knowledge Cross-cultural skills Service delivery Empowerment and advocacy	8. Acknowledges unearned privileges received as a result of agent status and works to eliminate or change privileges into rights that target group members also enjoy
		9. Is willing to make mistakes, learn from them, and try again
		10. Is committed to taking action against social injustice in own sphere of influence
		11. Knows how to cultivate support from other allies
		12. Takes care of self to avoid burnout
		13. Takes responsibility for learning about one’s own and target groups’ heritage, culture, and experiences, and how oppression works in everyday life
		14. Is willing to take risks, try new behaviors; acts in spite of own fear and resistance from other agents
		15. Acts against social injustice out of a belief that it is in her or his own self-interest to do so