‘Enjoy poverty’: introducing a rhetorical approach to critical reflection and reflexivity in social work education

ABSTRACT

The concepts of critical reflection and reflexivity currently occupy a prominent space in social work education. Nevertheless, there is a need for more evidence on how these concepts are conceptualised and enacted in concrete social work teaching contexts. In this paper, we develop a rhetorical approach to critical and reflexive social work education building on the concepts of terministic screens, trained incapacities and rhetorical listening. We explain how we operationalised our approach in an educational project where social work students critically engage with an artistic documentary on poverty. Based on the qualitative analysis of eight reflective group discussions, we identify three critical moves in students’ rhetorical reflections: deconstructing problem definitions of poverty and their performativity, negotiating multiplicity, and reflecting critically on critical reflection. Drawing on our research findings, we argue that the rhetorically aware social work professional takes the stance of a researcher, embraces ambiguity and positions oneself as a political actor. Moreover, rhetorical pedagogies offer students a ‘social work education’ that discloses different conceptions of critical reflection in work education as rhetorical constructs as well. We conclude the paper with recommendations for educators that wish to engage in a similar pedagogical approach in their social work classroom.

KERNWOORDEN

De concepten kritische reflectie en reflexiviteit nemen actueel een centrale plaats in binnen het sociaal werk onderwijs. Desondanks is er nood aan meer inzicht in hoe deze concepten concreet worden ingevuld en geoperationaliseerd in concrete sociaal werk onderwijscontexten. In deze paper ontwikkelen we een retorische benadering van kritisch en reflexief sociaal werk onderwijs waarin de concepten terministic screens, trained incapacities en retorisch luisteren centraal staan. We lichten toe hoe we deze benadering operationaliseerden in een onderwijsproject waarin master studenten in het sociaal werk kritisch reflecteerden op een artistieke documentaire over armoede. Op basis van een kwalitatieve analyse van acht reflectieve groepsdiscussies identificeren we drie kritische bewegingen in de reflecties van studenten: het deconstrueren van probleemconstructies van armoede en hun performativiteit, het onderhandelen van meerduidigheid en het kritisch reflecteren op kritische reflectie zelf. Op basis van deze bevindingen argumenteren we dat de retorisch bewuste sociaal werk professional de positie van een onderzoeker inneemt, ambiguïteit omarmt en zich als een politieke actor opstelt. Daarenboven biedt retoriek studenten een ‘perspectief op perspectieven’ dat ook verschillende invullingen van kritische reflectie in sociaal werk onderwijs als retorische constructen beschouwt. We concluderen met enkele reflecties en aanbevelingen voor onderwijzers die met gelijkaardige pedagogische benaderingen aan de slag willen in sociaal werk onderwijs.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical reflection
• reflexivity
• rhetoric
• social work education
• poverty

SLEUTELWOORDEN:

• kritische reflectie en reflexiviteit
• retoriek
• sociaal werk onderwijs
• armoede

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding details

This work was supported by the Ghent University Special Research Fund under grant Doctoral Scholarship BOF-16-DOC-401.

Notes

1 Renzo Martens’ (2008) work ‘Episode III: Enjoy poverty’ can be purchased via https://www.humanactivities.org/en/product/episode-iii-enjoy-poverty. The website also provides a more extensive narration of the plot of the art work/documentary.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laura Van Beveren

Laura Van Beveren studied Social Work & Social Pedagogy and Conflict & Development Studies at Ghent University. Currently, she is affiliated to Ghent University’s Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy where she works a post-doctoral research assistant. Her dissertation, entitled ‘Critical reflection in social and behavioural sciences: a rhetorical approach’ studied how the field of new rhetoric can function as a theoretical and methodological framework for educating reflective scientist practitioners in the fields in social work, teacher education and clinical psychology. She also has a research interest in qualitative-interpretive research methodology.

Griet Roets

Prof. Griet Roets is Professor at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University. Her work focuses on social work, citizenship and social rights, intersections of poverty, disability, gender, and age, and the way in which social services and social workers carry or critically reflect on and question broader societal developments. Her research and teaching interest includes qualitative and interpretative research, and dimensions of research ethics.

Ann Buysse

Prof. Ann Buysse is Professor of Clinical Psychology, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences and head of the Family Lab at the Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology at Ghent University. Her research expertise is situated in the domains of qualitative and quantitative research methods, interdisciplinary research and fundamental outcome-/process research in the field of family psychology.

Kris Rutten

Prof. Kris Rutten studied Art History and Comparative Cultural Studies, and obtained a PhD in Educational Sciences with a dissertation on the rhetorical and narrative turn in education. He is currently working as an assistant professor at the Department of Educational Studies of Ghent University and specifically within the research group Culture & Education. His main research interests are the rhetorical and narrative turn in education, the rhetoric of cultural literacy and arts-based research. He is lecturer-in-charge for the BA course Culture & Education and the MA course Cultural Studies.