Social Justice: What the social work profession’s commitment means in practice

Abstract

Social justice plays a significant role in social work, featuring prominently in codes of ethics, and statements on the purpose of the profession. Despite occupying this central position, relatively little is known about the praxis of social justice in social work. This research project sought to gain an understanding of how New Zealand social workers translate the profession’s social justice mandate into their practice. It also sought to identify specific barriers to, and opportunities for, the promotion of social justice by social workers. In order to achieve this aim, 10 semi-structured interviews were carried out with registered social workers, all of whom were members of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers. These interviews were then coded through NVivo (9) utilising a social constructionist approach to grounded theory. This research found that social justice plays an important role in social work practice, and that social workers believe the social work profession should be actively promoting social justice. However, participants described a working environment which was often openly antagonistic to social justice. Participants described how engaging in explicitly social-justice-informed actions was likely to result in censure, or harm to career prospects. Participants also described how social workers were often overworked and lacked the energy or skills required to successfully promote social justice.