creators_name: McGinty, Carol
creators_id: carol.mcginty@dkit.ie
type: article
datestamp: 2017-03-02 17:34:37
lastmod: 2017-04-28 13:00:54
metadata_visibility: show
title: A critical and maternal narrative approach to practice, enhancing recognition and solidarity with ambivalent representations
ispublished: pub
subjects: subject_socialscience
subjects: subject_sociology
full_text_status: public
keywords: Critical approaches to social work practice; Ambiguous representations in maternal narratives; Biographical method; Child protection social work.
abstract: This is a conceptual paper that uses a critical practice approach to how a social worker’s interpretive lens may transform after they become a parent. With a composite case example, I reflect on my own biographical maternal narrative, which aims to enhance the recognition and solidarity with ambivalent representations in the journey of motherhood. I conceptualise maternal narratives with Fook’s critical approaches to practice framework (2016). I interweave a composite case example that I had direct experience and privilege of working with, along with my own biographical experience of mothering. The central themes that have emerged from my critical reflective analysis are; ambivalence, imperfection and guilt. This open ended inquiry outlines a new way of knowing. The primary data are biographical. For the purpose of this critical reflective article I am a mother, and hence I refer to my gendered experience. The article attempts to explore how my social work practice is afforded a new interpretative lens and reconstruction after my own transition into motherhood.
date: 2017-02-26
date_type: published
publication: Practice: Social Work in Action
publisher: Taylor & Francis
refereed: TRUE
issn: 0950-3153
citation:   McGinty, Carol  (2017) A critical and maternal narrative approach to practice, enhancing recognition and solidarity with ambivalent representations.  Practice: Social Work in Action.   ISSN 0950-3153     
document_url: http://eprints.dkit.ie/557/1/Carol%20McGinty%202017%20Updated.pdf