Disrupting the grassroots narrative of social work in Aotearoa New Zealand
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol32iss1id703Keywords:
Social work professionalisation, social work regulation, Aotearoa New Zealand, social worker registration, social justice, neoliberalismAbstract
INTRODUCTION: The Aotearoa New Zealand social work professionalisation project disrupted underpinning grassroots narratives of the profession and led to decades of debate and conflict. Social work emphasises egalitarian approaches and, during the 1980s and 1990s, social workers responded to internal and external challenges of elitism, racism, and sexism. However, the ongoing professionalisation project has been at times, at odds with social justice imperatives and undermined by neoliberal drivers.
METHODS: This research investigated how political, sociocultural and economic dimensions impacted on the development and initial implementation of the Social Workers Registration Act (2003) and how key actors at the time were affected. A qualitative realist research methodology has been utilised, analysing qualitative interviews with 22 participants, policy documents and archival data to clarify discourses of power and capture the voices and rich stories of those involved in the debates at the time.
FINDINGS: A sociological lens was utilised to focus and frame the coalescing political, socio-cultural and economic forces that contributed to the problematising of social work professionalisation and the determining of the need for registration. Insight from some key actors at the time, including educators, the profession, tangata whenua, employers, practitioners, the State, and the public were considered.
CONCLUSIONS: Examining these forces behind the professionalisation project provides a platform to consider if social work in Aotearoa New Zealand has been strengthened with registration. There are ongoing challenges and threats to the independence and social justice focus of the profession that grew alongside the grassroots of social work.
References
Beddoe, L. (2013). A profession of faith, or a profession: Social work, knowledge and professional capital. New Zealand Sociology, 28(2), 44–63.
Beddoe, L. (2014). A matter of degrees: The role of education in the professionalisation journey of social work in New Zealand. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 26(2&3), 17–28.
Beddoe, L. (2018). Social work education in Aotearoa New Zealand: Building a profession. Practice, 30(4), 305–320. doi:10.1080/09503153.2018.1478955
Beddoe, L., & Deeney, C. (2012). Discovering health social work in New Zealand in its published work: Implications for the profession. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 24(1), 41–55.
Beddoe, L., & Randal, H. (1994). The New Zealand Association of Social Workers: The professional response to a decade of change. In R. Munford &
M. Nash (Eds.), Social work in action (pp. 21–36). Palmerston North, New Zealand: The Dunmore Press.
Berridge, D., Cowan, L., Cumberland, T., Davys, A., McDowell, H., Morgan, J., . . . Wallis, P. (1984). Institutional racism in the Department of Social Welfare Tamaki-Makaurau. Tamaki-Makaurau, New Zealand: Department of Social Welfare.
Blagdon, J., Taylor, M., & Keall, B. (1994). Social worker registration. Social Work Review(June), 24–25.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2016). (Mis)conceptualising themes, thematic analysis, and other problems with Fugard and Potts’ (2015) sample-size tool for thematic analysis. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 19(6), 739–743. doi:10.1080/13645579.2016.1195588
Brown, M. (2000). Care and protection is about adult behaviour: The Ministerial Review of the Department
Hunt, S., Staniforth, B., & Beddoe, L. (2019). Establishing the qualification criteria for social worker registration in Aotearoa New Zealand: Conflict and compromise. Social Work Education, 38(7), 894–907. doi:10.1080/02615479. 2019.1593957
Hunt, S., & King, T. (2000). Allied health: Aligned for empowerment. Social Work Review, 12(3), 13–19.
Illich, I. (1978). The disabling professions. Paper presented at the New Zealand Association of Social Workers Biennial Conference., Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Keall, B. (1993). Biting the bullet: Professionalism. Social Work Review, 5(3), 4–6.
Kendrick, J. (2004). A national association: A reflection of its times? Social Work Review, 16(4), 7–14.
Maharey, S. (1998). Social policy, social work and professionalism. Social Work Review, 10(4), 25–26.
Mason, K. (1992). Report of the Ministerial review on the implementation of the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act 1989. Wellington, NZ: Department of Social Welfare.
Ministry of Social Policy. (2000). The registration of social workers. Retrieved from https://www.msd.govt.nz/ documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications- resources/archive/2000-reg_socwork_discpaper.pdf
Ministry of Social Policy. (2001). Registration of social workers: Consultation summary report. Retrieved from https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our- work/publications-resources/archive/2001-reg_socwork_ consultationsummary.pdf
Munford, R., & Walsh-Tapiata, W. (2006). Community development: Working in the bicultural context of Aotearoa New Zealand. Community Development Journal, 41(4), 426–442. Retrieved from http://cdj.oxfordjournals.org/content/41/4/426.abstract. doi:10.1093/cdj/bsl025
Nash, M. (1998). People, policies and practice: Social Work education in Aotearoa/New Zealand from 1949-1995 (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10179/2014
Nash, M. (2001). Social work in Aotearoa, New Zealand: Its origins and traditions. In M. Connolly (Ed.), New Zealand social work: Contexts and practice (pp. 32–43). Auckland, New Zealand: Oxford University Press.
Nash, M., & Miller, J. (2013). Social work: Where have we been and where are we going? In M. Connolly & L. Harms (Eds.), Social work: Contexts and practice (pp. 329–345). Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.
New Zealand Association of Social Workers. (1984a, February). Working Party on racism. News and views in social work. Auckland: Author.
New Zealand Association of Social Workers. (1984b, June). Discussion paper on registration. Auckland: Author.
New Zealand Children and Young Persons Service. (1996). Professionalisation strategy. Wellington, New Zealand: Author.
New Zealand Parliament. (2003). Social Workers Registration Bill – Second reading, in committee, third reading. Wellington, New Zealand: Hansard and Journals. Retrieved from http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/debates/debates/47HansD_20030403_00001124/social-workers-registration-bill-%E2%80%94-second- reading-in-committee
O’Brien, M. (2005). A just profession or just a profession? Social work and social justice. Social Work Review, 17(1), 13–22.
Olgiati, V. (2006). Shifting heuristics in the sociological approach to professional trustworthiness: The sociology of science. Current Sociology, 54(4), 533–547. doi:10.1177/0011392106065085
Richardson, L. (1994). Writing: A method of inquiry. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 516–529). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Social Services Select Committee. (2002). Social Workers Registration Bill, Government Bill, Commentary from the select committee. Wellington, New Zealand: House of Representatives Retrieved from https://www. parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/ document/00DBHOH_BILL4155_1/social-workers- registration-bill
Social Workers Registration Act 2003, 2003 S.N.Z. No. 17.
Social Workers Registration Legislation Act 2019, 2019 S.N.Z. No. 3.
Social Workers Registration Board. (2018, June). Fit and Proper Person: Policy Statement. Wellington, New Zealand: Author. Retrieved from https://swrb.govt. nz/about-us/policies/
Tennant, M. (1989). Paupers and providers: Charitable aid in New Zealand. Wellington, New Zealand: Allen & Unwin and Historical Branch of Internal Affairs.
van Heugten, K. (2011). Registration and social work education: A golden opportunity or a Trojan horse? Journal of Social Work, 11(2 ), 174–190. doi:10.1177/1468017310386695
Weiss-Gal, I., & Welbourne, P. (2008). The professionalisation of social work: A cross-national exploration. International Journal of Social Welfare, 17(4), 281–290. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2397.2008.00574.
Younghusband, E. (1981). The newest profession. A short history of social work. London, England: Community Care/IPC Business Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
By completing the online submission process, you confirm you accept this agreement. The following is the entire agreement between you and the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) and it may be modified only in writing.
You and any co-authors
If you are completing this agreement on behalf of co-authors, you confirm that you are acting on their behalf with their knowledge.
First publication
By submitting the work you are:
- granting the ANZASW the right of first publication of this work;
- confirming that the work is original; and
- confirming that the work has not been published in any other form.
Once published, you are free to use the final, accepted version in any way, as outlined below under Copyright.
Copyright
You assign copyright in the final, accepted version of your article to the ANZASW. You and any co-authors of the article retain the right to be identified as authors of the work.
The ANZASW will publish the final, accepted manuscript under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This licence allows anyone – including you – to share, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt and make commercial use of the work without needing additional permission, provided appropriate attribution is made to the original author or source.
A human-readable summary of the licence is available from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, which includes a link to the full licence text.
Under this licence you can use the final, published version of the article freely – such as depositing a copy in your institutional research repository, uploading a copy to your profile on an academic networking site or including it in a different publication, such as a collection of articles on a topic or in conference proceedings – provided that original publication in Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work is acknowledged.
This agreement has no effect on any pre-publication versions or elements, which remain entirely yours, and to which we claim no right.
Reviewers hold copyright in their own comments and should not be further copied in any way without their permission.
The copyright of others
If your article includes the copyright material of others (e.g. graphs, diagrams etc.), you confirm that your use either:
- falls within the limits of fair dealing for the purposes of criticism and review or fair use; OR
- that you have gained permission from the rights holder for publication in an open access journal.
