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Social workers assume many different types of leadership roles, develop leadership skills, and, over the course of their careers, develop styles of leadership with which they are most comfortable. One of their most important resources in leadership development is the professional use of self—understanding one’s own identity and position and how it impacts one’s work and interaction with others. As developing social work leaders, it is important to be able to apply knowledge and skills through a lens of an understanding of individual identity to practice. In this class, you will be asked to reflect on how age interacts with other aspects of identity (sexual orientation, race, gender, sexual identity expression, religion, abilities) and apply it specifically to your work with groups.
The purpose of this assignment is to guide you in identifying how you as an individual impact your interactions with others and your current approach to leadership, assessing the effectiveness of that approach in various settings or circumstances, and developing a plan for expanding your leadership skills, and to provide you an opportunity to reflect on the style(s) of leadership that you have demonstrated in groups as well as in your practice more generally.
Group Theory and Practice | Master Online Syllabus
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A. Age: For this portion of the assignment, you are being asked to begin by exploring age using the following instructions:
Social work reflection: Identify your own age and how that interacts with other aspects of your identity, either creating privilege or oppression. Answer I’m a 42-year-old African American woman that was raise in small town in Louisiana. I grown up in a middle-class home with both parents until by parents’ divorce and I spent the reminder of my childhood in a single-parent home.
How are you either an agent or a target? How do you see yourself experiencing either internalized oppression or internalized superiority (depending on which two of the table of oppression legs are yours to work on)?
▪ Ageism against youth: Reflect on biases and oppression of children/youth. Discuss
the pros and cons of childhood in the United States. How are children and youth
controlled and managed based on culture, structures, and values, including economic, political, and cultural exclusions, in both negative and positive ways? How are youth empowered? I have experienced all the pros of living in a two-parent home. I was involved in extra activities (girl scouts, theater school, science clubs) However when my parent divorce I was unable to participate in those extra activities because my mom could not afford it. I was raised in church and participated in the youth department; which allowed me to sing and travel with the choir.
▪ Ageism against elders: Reflect on biases and oppression of elders. What are your
reactions to the Facts of Aging quiz? (Breytspraak, L., & Badura, L. (2015). Facts on
aging quiz (revised; based on Palmore (1977; 1981). Retrieved from
http://info.umkc.edu/aging/quiz/.) What do you see as the pros and cons of aging in the United States? How are elders disempowered? I was raised to respect my grandparents and elders. I was able to learn about African American history and all the contribution they made to the United States. I had to watch the television miniseries of “Roots” and Roots the next generation. These shows discuss slavery and the importance of family,
▪ Age and group theory and practice: What insights do you have about how age may
impact work in engaging, assessing, and intervening with groups? What values or biases do you hold about different ages that might impact engagement, assessment, and intervention in your work with groups? What would you do differently if you were working with a group of children? What would you do differently if you were working with a group of adolescents? What would you do differently if you were working with a group of elders?
B. Leadership: Articulate your working definition of social work leadership, assess your current level of leadership skills in group settings and more broadly throughout your practice, and develop a plan for expanding or enhancing those skills.
Using the materials that you find in the Zastrow text and from reading at least one of the two articles cited below:
● Define what social work leadership means to you.
● Describe the style(s) of leadership you currently exhibit.
● Identify the leadership skills you already possess and which skills would you
like to develop further in your social work practice as a whole and, more
specifically, with groups.
● Identify your plan for enhancing your leadership skills.
Keenan, E. K., Sandoval, S., & Limone, C. (2019) Realizing the potential for leadership n social work. Journal of Social Work, 19(4), 485–503. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/ejournals/article/368126086
Vito, R. (2020). How do social work leaders understand and ideally practice leadership?
A synthesis of core leaders
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