Reimagining Anti-Oppression Social Work Research explores the challenges, tensions, and possibilities of engaging with anti-oppression epistemology in social work research. Through in-depth discussion of methodologies such as phenomenology, surveys, decolonizing research principles, autoethnography, and critical arts-informed research, the authors provide insights about the application of these approaches to studies with marginalized populations and on a variety of social issues.
Outlining principles for engaging with communities, research in organizational contexts, and the importance of fluidity and practices of unknowing, this edited collection invites readers to reflect critically about research frameworks. The authors explore the complexities of research on topics such as whiteness, racism, disability, and trans experiences, as well as working within feminist contexts and institutional social service settings. An ideal resource for social work students and scholars, this insightful and highly accessible volume highlights the value of anti-oppressive research for social change.
Features
provides a comprehensive look at anti-oppression approaches to social work, when paired with Reimagining Anti-Oppression Social Work Practice
offers real case studies and examples
accessible and appropriate for undergraduate courses
Preface: Anti-Oppression Research: Epistemologies, Principles, Directions Henry Parada and Samantha Wehbi
Section I: Conversations and Negotiations: Processes of Engaging with Community
Chapter 1. Taking the Pulse, Making Trans People Count: Quantitative Method as Social Justice Strategy in the Trans PULSE Project Jake Pyne, Greta Bauer, Rebecca Hammond, and Robb Travers
Chapter 2. Anti-Oppression Qualitative Research Principles for Disability Activism: Reflections from the Field Yahya El-Lahib
Chapter 3. Critical Arts-Based Research: An Eff ective Strategy for Knowledge Mobilization and Community Activism Purnima George
Chapter 4. The Use of Photography in Anti-Oppressive Research Samantha Wehbi
Section II: Unfolding Anti-Oppressive Research in Organizations
Chapter 5. Process as Labour: Struggles for Anti-Oppressive/Anti- Racist Change in a Feminist Organization Ken Moff att, Lisa Barnoff , Purnima George, and Bree Coleman
Chapter 6. Carrying Out Research on Whiteness, White Supremacy, and Racialization Processes in Social Service Agencies June Ying Yee
Chapter 7. A Research Design for the “Messy Actualities” of Restructured Social Work Kristin Smith
Section III: Valuing Fluidity and Unknowing
Chapter 8. Phenomenology as Social Work Inquiry: Parallels and Divergences with Anti-Oppressive Research Susan Preston and Lisa Redgrift
Chapter 9. Unpacking Liminal Identity: Lessons Learned from a Life on the Margins May Friedman
Chapter 10. Decolonizing a Graduate Research Course … Moving Away from Innocence and Ignorance Susan Silver
References
Index
Biography
Henry Parada is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Ryerson University.
Samantha Wehbi is a Professor in the School of Social Work and the Associate Dean of Student Affairs at the Yeates School of Graduate Studies, Ryerson University.
“This volume offers researchers the language, perspectives, and examples of kindred searchers who embrace anti-oppression and anti-racism on their research journeys.… This book delves into the reality of the challenges, struggles, and experiences of doing research using a critical decolonizing and anti-racism lens.… I loved the inclusion of the creative arts, photography, storying narratives, and shifting subjectivities in research practices. Often readers want to hear the ‘how’s it done,’ and this book produces.” — Kathy Absolon-King, PhD, MSW, Indigenous Field of Study, Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University
“This diverse range of case studies offers a collection of opportunities to consider how research practitioners engage in anti-oppressive theory. Students will appreciate the real-world practicalities; teachers will relish the praxis modelled; researchers will savour the insights and wisdom offered; and social workers will be inspired by the strategies for critical action and social justice.” — Leslie Brown, PhD, School of Social Work, University of Victoria
