How does religion/religious affiliation shape views on social policy, nationalism and xenophobia in the United States
Discipline:
– Social Issues
Type of service:
Case Study
Spacing:
Double spacing
Paper format:
Not applicable
Number of pages:
5 pages
Number of sources:
5 sources
Paper detalis:
Page 1
Please consider and reflect on the following questions. Write your answers down and keep them for future discussions and reflections:
How does religion/religious affiliation shape views on social policy?
How do your views align with the NASW Code of Ethics?
Are their any religious views that are NOT aligning with the NASW Code of Ethics? What are the implications for practice?
Page 2
Please consider and reflect on the following questions. Write your answers down and keep them for future discussions and reflections.
Consider the rise of nationalism and xenophobia in the United States and the manifested racism in light of current events. In your groups, highlight how ideology contributes to framing this issue, by addressing the following questions:
Is this an important issue?
What are the causes of this issue?
How can it be addressed/resolved?
How do these views and the framing of the issue within a specific political ideology align with the NASW Code of Ethics?
Page 3
Based on the video you watched and the presentation on ethical dilemmas and ethical practices, please answer the following question:
Can we, as social workers, condone policies that protect cultural identity by allowing any and all cultural practices?
Guiding questions: Who defines the cultural practice? Who benefits from it? What is the degree of participation in developing and preserving this cultural practice of the group primarily affected by it?
Page 4
Good morning, Shirley. We are so happy you could be with us today. Let me just introduce you to the students. Here we have with us Dr. Gatenio Gabel
She is also like a– she has a history of advocacy for human rights. And she is representing the profession through her work on human rights at the UN level, at the Council of Social Work and Education level, and beyond. So we’re very happy to have her here today, because we want to learn from you, Shirley, about some aspects that we started introducing in this course.
And the first question I have for you is if you can talk to us a little bit about rights based policy practice. It is the first time for students to hear about rights based policy practice although they learned about the rights based framework. So if you can tell us what is this about?
Sure. My pleasure. Thank you for inviting me today. So there is a lot in common with policy practice the way we do it currently and a rights based approach to policy practice. But one of the important differences is that, when you do policy practice from a rights based approach, you value the outcomes as much as you value the process.
So both the process and the outcomes are very important in policy practice. So this has a lot of different implications. So for example, currently when we typically formulate policy, we think of experts who have a lot of knowledge deciding what would be best for us.
When we take a rights based approach to policy practice, we’re bring all the stakeholders in and we’re learning about how current policies affect people and how different policies might make things better, or maybe not, for them. So it’s a much more inclusive approach. We’re not focused on just and en but the means is just as important as the end. And we constantly reevaluate as we go along.
Well, thank you so much. This is such an important clarification, because we did talk about different ethical theories in which you either value the end or the mean. So it is important for students to understand, in a rights based approach, you value both. And they are both equally important. And it is equally important– it is very important to include the beneficiaries.
So I just want to go a little bit further into this discussion by asking you, we talk about advocacy as primarily focusing on social justice issues and really on protecting and realizing human rights. So is rights based advocacy an oxymoron or do we really need to think about rights based advocacy?
Right. Well, rights based advocacy is a form of policy practice. Right. So one form of policy practice could be policy analysis. Another form could be the implementation of policies or administration or management. Sometimes we call that leadership.
What is really important when you do rights based advocacy is that you value the process of how you’re going to fight for changes as much as the changes that you seek to make. So again, you bring in different groups from experts, politicians, those affected by the policy.
Not that long ago, well, for some of us not that long ago, 30 or 40 years ago, women often didn’t have a very clear voice when it came to making policies. And certainly in more recent decades, that has changed a great deal. It’s not that women make the decisions all of the time, but women have a voice and it can express how certain policies affect them.
Currently, we’re going through that with children. Some people feel that children shouldn’t have a voice. And that’s what their parents’ responsibility is to do. So it’s not about children making a decision, but it’s about hearing from children about decisions that would affect their lives. And so we would incorporate that when we do advocacy. And we encourage people to speak up for themselves.
Thank you very much. So rights based advocacy is very much about creating a voice where there is no voice and listening to all stakeholders involved. So this is very important. And we already talked in this course about the fact that policy practice is social work practice.
And social workers are mandated even more so as rights based social workers to engage in policy practice. Yet, now with a better understanding of the rights based framework to policy practice, what would you say are some challenges for social workers to engage in a rights based policy practice?
Oh. That’s a good question. The biggest challenge for social workers is that many social workers have not been trained in rights based practice. And so many of our students may be at field agencies where their supervisors are saying, let’s do it this way. And they’re saying, no, but in class we learned about taking the time to do a rights based approach. And so that could really be a challenge both for students and for social workers who practice from a rights based approach.
OK. Can I add just one more question here before ending this conversation? So yes, it is important for students to be trained to really work towards adopting a rights based framework in their practice. But what other challenges do you see, particularly in reference to the current political climate, for social workers to really adopt and pursue change through rights based methods?
Ha. OK. Well, that’s a very big question. And we can go on all kinds of directions. But if you look at the last presidential election that we had, the results certainly surprised many of us. And in a way, this may sound a little ironic, but part of the Trump’s campaign based itself in taking the approach that they were going to listen to people whose voice had not been heard. Right.
So that’s kind of ironic because what they do– what the administration has been doing is silencing people who have different opinions, which is the opposite of a rights based approach. But certainly you can see the strength of listening to people whose voices have not– often is dismissed or are not brought in to important decisions and the potential that has.
So I would say that one thing that, if we don’t have to get so specific, neoliberalism, populism– it plays with this idea that it’s in the interest– it’s in the best interests of all. But it’s really kind of a PR, because really the focus is on what’s best for those who will profit the most from whatever particular policy that might be. And it works a lot with hidden agendas.
But publicly, there’s the sense that it’s listening to people and being responsive to people. But the other elements of a rights based approach, such as transparency, ability, bill equality, nondiscrimination, those things are not being paid attention to in neoliberal or populist regimes.
Thank you so much. I wish we could continue on this theme because this is where the really interesting topics come in. But thank you for introducing our students to a rights based approach to policy practice. And I do hope we can speak to you again in the near future. Thank you.
Question 1 How does the human rights framework shape policy practice?
Question 2 As policy practitioners, what are the elements that will make the link between social protection (often needs based) and human rights practitioner (focusing on assets and rights of the populations served)?
Question 3 What are some of the ethical challenges in current practices (social protection) and how does a rights-based approach address these challenges?
Page 5
So there’s all these issues on our sustainable development goals. And it seems like each year we have fewer resources. So I’m wondering, do we even really need all of these? Zero hunger, tell me why I need you.
Why do you need me? Because globally, we’re still at 11% in undernourishment. That’s unacceptable. 40% of low income people are in poverty and are malnourished.
And so, I mean, obviously we don’t want people going hungry, but how does that lead to some other things that are main concerns?
Well, if you can’t eat, you can’t have education. You can’t have good health. That’s all tied together.
So let’s see, maybe we can find a way that we can address some other issues and not worry so much about you.
Well, what are you going to do to make me no longer a reality?
Well, you said if you’re hungry, you can’t go to school. So why don’t we just focus on quality education?
Yes. You need me. We have, as a global society, done really well with our primary education. About 94% of students have completed a primary education. However, only 30% worldwide have completed anything beyond a lower secondary education.
That causes a problem, because then we’re talking about people not necessarily having the skills for jobs. That is a super big problem. You need me. So what are you doing to help me in your community?
You know, I almost feel like if we maybe focus on ending poverty, then we don’t really need to focus on quality education.
Oh. You still need to focus on quality education. You still need to make sure that people have the skills to do your jobs.
Well, let’s hear from you. What can we do if we address poverty?
Well, we want to be able to end poverty everywhere in all forms. So by 2030, we’re hoping to eradicate poverty for people everywhere, which is defined by people making less than $1.25 a day.
Wow. That seems really important. I mean can we just focus on ending poverty and get rid of zero hunger and focusing on education?
Oh. No, no, no,
No. No. No.
You still need this. See, with education, you earn money and then you can buy food.
Well, this is getting complicated. Let’s hear from good health. What can you help with?
Good health is really important, because you need to be healthy in order to survive.
So I get that good health is important, obviously. But how is that going to help end poverty or anything else? Something we’re looking at doing is ending injuries like traffic injuries or work related injuries. You can’t really go to school or make enough money to eat if you’re hurt. So good health is really important.
Interesting. Yeah. This is getting really complicated. So what about gender equality? Can we have good health without worrying about that?
Oh. Not at all. One thing we’re trying to do is end teen pregnancy. Teenagers getting pregnant can’t really go to work and earn money or go to school if they’re trying to have children.
Well, I’m trying to figure out because I feel like we can choose one of you guys and just get rid of the rest. We don’t have that many resources.
Well, gender equality is not one that you want to get rid of. Across the world right now, only half of women have entered the workforce as opposed to men. 3/4 of them have. It may sound like a women’s issue where it just is a women’s problem. However, that diminishes the amount of workforce that we have. So that deals with everyone.
So women [? run ?] the world. What do we need the rest of these for?
Well. Excuse me. You definitely need me. We’re talking about the environment here. And what better way from our businesses, to our government, to our individuals that help impacts the environment in ways of reducing emissions, recycling, reducing waste. By 2050, they guess that low income and middle income countries will actually have an increase in temperature as well as increase in natural disaster.
Well, people are always talking about the environment. It seems like it’s important but how is that going to help when people are starving, and poor, and they can’t afford to go to school or work or any of these other things?
So it definitely affects our ecosystems, our food chains, our sources of water, and sustainable and renewable energy resources.
And so when our environment is secure, then we can grow food. More food yield– cereal yield, more people get to eat, which lowers hunger.
All right. Now tell me this. What about all the people who are wrongfully locked up and rotting away in jails? How is environmental action going to help them? How are you guys going to help them?
Well, once again, most people are hungry. If you’re hungry, you’re going to do what you have to do to get money. And if you don’t have money, that’s how a lot of people get into trouble and get incarcerated. If you’re uneducated, that’s a problem that can lead to a life of crime.
Yep.
Hi. I’m peace, justice, and strong institutions.
Oh wow.
I may be listed at number 16, but without me, none of these other goals have a chance. Around the world, states that govern in transparency and fairness offer the best platform for strategic developmental goals to flourish. Unfortunately, a large number of world states, citizens live in constant fear, constant conflict. They’re denied access to justice. And they’re governed in a very opaque way. In order to even have a small chance of a developmental goal succeeding, those communities have to be brought to some sort of calm and some sort of peace.
Around the world, homicide rates are very disproportionate in some parts of the world. And there there’s battle deaths that also have to be addressed if any of these goals stand the chance of succeeding. Access to justice– some parts of the world, people have faith in their justice systems. In other parts, you have no idea what to expect.
In those parts of the world, if there’s to be any type of investment, there has to be a reasonable belief that you can go to court and have a reasonable expectation of justice to be handed out. If you have some sort of dispute, whether you try alternative dispute resolution, whether you try a traditional dispute resolution, formal, you have to have some expectancy that you will have a fair and just outcome. You have to have an expectancy that your government will expect you to expect excellence from them.
In the United States in the ’70s and ’80s, there was a push towards sunshine in government and freedom of information laws. If a citizen of a developing country has a right to information, then the government is accountable to them. But before any public policy can be implemented, you have to have an idea of what numbers your constituents are. In many parts of the world, significant life events, such as births, marriage, and death, are not even recorded.
Globally, about 73% of births for children under five are recorded. In sub-Sahara Africa, less than half of any births are recorded. Europe– universally recorded. So before you can implement a public policy strategy, you have to have an idea of what numbers– what your constituency is. What are you doing in your community to promote peace, justice, and formal strong institutions?
You know, you’ve given me a lot to think about. And this is really interesting, because all these things seem so important. But if all these efforts are going to go unanswered and undocumented, how are we going to make any progress?
You’ll make no progress at all. You can eliminate poverty. You can eliminate hunger. You can eliminate poor health. You can eliminate climate. But if your probability of being murdered is so high, as it is in some parts of the world, 23 per 100,000 in Latin America and Caribbean countries as opposed to two per 100,000 in East Asia, none of this matters. If you don’t live to enjoy it, it’s all for naught.
Let me see if I can help.
Please do. I’m really confused now.
It all comes down to reducing inequality. In all of these situations and all of these scenarios, the issue is the absence of equity when it comes to hunger and food provision, when it comes to poverty and economic distribution, when it comes to affordable health care being available, when it comes to what quality of education is provided. All of these things– climate change, justice– all of these things are important factors. All of these things exist. But it is the absence of an equitable platform that is the issue.
As an example, we can take economic security. In the United States, for example, we have the issue of gender inequality showing up in income levels. A Caucasian man that will earn $100,000. A Caucasian woman doing the identical job with the identical credentials will earn $70,000. So there’s an income disparity across gender. That drops to $60,000 if that woman happens to be a person of color.
So we can’t close our eyes to issues of equity across race, across gender, across income, across education. If we’re going to solve this problem, we need to look at it from the equation of an inequality. And what side of the inequality are you on today?
Well, you guys, this seems really complicated. You know, reducing inequality seems like it would answer all of these issues. But it’s almost as though as soon as I try and eliminate one of you, you pop back up and it seems all interrelated. And even with what you guys have presented to me, there’s almost a few more missing links, don’t you think?
Indeed.
So I would say that we all need to work together, that’s it’s all interrelated. And we just have to find somewhere to start. So when you’re thinking about these issues in your own states and communities, try and think about how interrelated they are and how complex and diverse these issues are. It’s not easy to just take one out and focus on the others. They all seem to come back into the picture again and affect each other. So when you’re thinking about this, see maybe where you can start, what it leads you to, but remember that you can’t separate these issues from each other.
What SDGs were represented?
What SDGs were missing?
What are the most relevant SDGs for policy practice?
Then compare with the material on SDGs provided here.
Did you have to change your answers?