I believe that educators and other social workers should strive to understand the concept of family. From a personal perspective, I find family an incredibly complex institution. Families have unique features that distinguish them from other social groups. According to White and Klein (2008), families are intergenerational, long-living social networks that link people to larger kinship groups (as cited in Hanson & Lynch, 2013, p. 45). Therefore, educators and social workers must realize that their work leaves a lasting mark on society by affecting families. In this respect, I believe that educators and social workers should not restrict the scope of their work to selected family members. Instead, they should strive to widen the scope and involve other family members in educational or other necessary activities.
Consequently, I reckon that educators and social workers should incorporate the concept of intersectionality into their professional approach. Oluo (2019) defines intersectionality as the acknowledgment of various identities combined in a human being, such as race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status. Whereas embracing intersectionality may be a slow and complicated process, educators and social workers should stay persistent and do their best to adopt this concept. According to Oluo (2019), intersectionality promotes the values of justice and equality, ensuring that fewer people a left behind by the system. For instance, intersectionality may be a key to solving the problems of ableism an identity language. Naty Rico, an advocate for the differently able community, described ableism as a perspective that views “disability” as an unfortunate situation rather than an identity (TEDx Talks, 2015). Brown (2011) urged to use such person-first expressions as “autistic person” to underscore identity instead of hiding it behind the phrases like “person with autism.” In these cases, intersectionality would help replace patronizing attitudes with respect and understanding. Intersectionality would help promote wider recognition of positionality, a notion that a set of an individual’s identities uniquely impacts their perception of social context.
In this regard, the role of the early interventionist, educator, or other social workers would be vitally important for explaining the concept of intersectionality to families. In the case of a professional paired with a family that has a differently able young child, the direction of this mission would be three-pronged, according to the number of themes in family practices. The Division for Early Childhood of the Council for the Exceptional Children (DEC, 2014) determines three themes encompassing family practices. Firstly, practices should be family-centered, provide family members with complete and unbiased information and involve them in choices, which are important for child development and family functioning. Secondly, practices should build family capacity by strengthening parenting knowledge and skills (DEC, 2014). Lastly, the practices should promote collaboration between the families and the professionals in order to assist in reaching a mutual agreement on matters related to child development.
Consequently, a professional working with a family that has a differently able child would share unbiased information about intersectionality, the concept that helps establish different abilities as a proper identity. In addition, the parents would be enabled to include intersectionality in their parenting knowledge and skills. Finally, the professional might use their knowledge about intersectionality to consider the parents’ perspective and make reaching a mutual agreement on child development easier. As such, I believe that educators, early interventionists, and other professionals in social work play an essential role as mediators who help families apply theoretical knowledge to parenting practice.
Given this information, I reckon that DEC practices and concepts related to family and support of special needs are vitally important for informing my own practices. In particular, this knowledge would make me more effective in achieving the paramount goal of creating and upholding a bias-free, inclusive environment in my professional activities. According to Kuh et al. (2016), an anti-bias framework can serve as a way of giving voice to new ways of thinking both to children and educators. In this regard, I believe that applying the concepts of intersectionality, positionality, and family to my practice would make me a better professional and create more enjoyable experiences for my clients.
Consequently, I believe that minimizing the role of bias and professional arrogance in practices is essential for professional educators and social workers. Arrogance and biases may likely undermine the positive destroy the bridges, the helpful connections created by DEC practices, intersectionality, and positionality. In my opinion, a professional cannot undermine their authority worse than by ignoring the difference in their clients’ perspectives and identities. By doing so, professional exhibits indifference and a lack of caring toward the people they are supposed to serve. I believe that such apathy is dangerously close to unethical behavior, which is unacceptable for educators and social workers.
Therefore, I consider intersectionality, positionality, and a family-centered approach essential to my personal narrative. A combination of these concepts should serve as a foundation of ethical professional practice in the fields of education and social work. Finally, I firmly believe that educators and social workers should strive to adopt an anti-bias framework in their professional activities. From my perspective, this is the best way of creating a positive experience for families and children.
References
Brown, L. (2011). The significance of semantics: Person-first language: Why it matters. Autistic Hoya. Web.
The Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (2014). DEC recommended practices. Web.
Kuh, L. P., LeeKeenan, D., Given, H., & Beneke, M. R. (2016). Moving beyond anti-bias activities: Supporting the development of anti-bias practices. Young Children, 71(1), 58-65. Web.
Hanson, M. J., & Lynch, E.W. (2013). Understanding families: Supportive approaches to diversity, disability, and risk. (2nd ed.). Brookes Publishing.
Oluo, I. (2019). So you want to talk about race. Seal Press.
TEDx Talks. (2015). Overcoming ableism: What you don’t know as an able bodied person | Naty Rico | TEDxUCIrvine [Video]. YouTube. Web.