Reflect on the identities (personal & social identities) that are salient for you and have particular relevance to your work as a social work intern.
My placement is working with the public school social worker in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. It is a diverse community. I have been working in that school for 7 years as a teacher assistant. I have experience working with special need students and general ed students with behavioral issues. I have worked with pre-k to 4th grade. I have been a 1 to 1 paraprofessional to students with learning disabilities, autistic students, translator for English learners and a classroom para. I have emphasized on patience and employing strategies that would allow me to understand my student’s diagnosis. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, but both my parents were born and raised in Puerto Rico. They arrived to the states in the late 60’s. Being bilingual is beneficial for my Spanish speaking students. A lot of my students come from broken homes and are raised by single mothers. Being a working mother allows me to understand the complexity of that role.
Answer the following questions:
1. What has been your experience with the practice issues related to your placement? (i.e. if you working with older adults with dementia, what has been your experience with older adults or experiences of dementia?) What assumptions are you unconsciously or consciously coming in with about your client population? What has been your experience with the communities you are serving? (no more than one page)
2. Introduce yourself by focusing on at least two (2) aspects of your social identities (i.e. racial/ethnic background, socio-economic class (poor, working-class, middle-class, upper-class), religious background, your ability (disability), your nationality (i.e. nation of citizenship), your gender identity, or sexual orientation). How do these social identities impact your work with your clients? What identity factors do you have in common with your clients? What factors separate you the most? How does your identity put you at an advantaged or disadvantaged position in relation to your clients (i.e. for example in the US context being White, a man, Christian, heterosexual puts you in an advantaged position and being a person of color (Black, Latino/a, Asian, Native American), a woman or transgender, Jewish or Muslim, gay/lesbian/bisexual puts you in a disadvantaged position)? Describe how you might address this in your practice.
3. How does an awareness of these social identities help you have a person-in-environment perspective, placing the issues clients present with within a larger socio-historical and political context. (i.e. working within the criminal justice system, it is important to understand how the “war on drugs” has disproportionately impacted Black and Latino communities). 4. How does the class discussions & assigned readings relate to an experience you’ve had thus far in your internship?
5.Picking two of the readings, summarize the main points of the article and discuss how it
relates to your personal reflection. The readings you can select for this paper are from weeks 4 & 5
Readings are:
Kirk, G. & Okazawa-Rey (2013). Identities and social locations: Who am I? Who are my people? In M. Adams, W. Blumenfeld, R. Castaneda, H. Hackman, M. Peters & X. Zuniga (Eds), Readings for diversity and social justice (3rd ed, pp. 9-14). New York, NY: Routledge. (Week 4)
Kirst-Ashman, K & Hull, G. H. (2018). Chapter 12: Culturally competent social work practice (pp. 466-498) Understanding generalist practice (8th ed.). Stamford, CT: CENGAGE Learning. (Week 4)
Kirst-Ashman, K & Hull, G. H. (2018). Chapter 13: Gender-sensitive social work practice (pp. 499-543). Understanding generalist practice (8th ed.). Stamford, CT: CENGAGE Learning. (Week 5)