Institutionalised or Deinstitutionalised? (A Paradigm Shift to Practice in Social Workers’ Views) By Nismah Qonitah Thesis Submitted to Flinders University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy College of Education, Psychology and Social Work November 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................ iv DECLARATION ...................................................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................................................ vi ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY ................................................................................................. viii ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................... x CHAPTER ONE ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................... 1 Introducing the researcher .............................................................................................................. 2 Responding to the rights of the child ............................................................................................... 6 A brief demography of Indonesia’s children at risk ......................................................................... 7 A paradigm shift in the residential-based care of children .............................................................. 8 Indonesia’s changing social and political contexts........................................................................ 11 Transforming social work practice in a challenging environment ................................................. 15 Thesis Structure ............................................................................................................................ 17 CHAPTER TWO ................................................................................................................................... 20 Literature Review .............................................................................................................................. 20 Explanations for children’s institutional care ................................................................................. 21 The social portrayal of residential child care ................................................................................. 28 Empirical perspectives on residential child care ........................................................................... 33 Social work and residential child care ........................................................................................... 40 Social workers in residential child care ..................................................................................... 47 Changing practice in social work................................................................................................... 50 Globalisation.............................................................................................................................. 50 Indigenisation of social work ..................................................................................................... 52 Changes in the child support provision ..................................................................................... 55 Managing the changing practice ............................................................................................... 60 Social workers’ challenges ........................................................................................................ 66 Rationale and significance of the study ........................................................................................ 71 CHAPTER THREE ................................................................................................................................ 73 Theoretical Frameworks and Research Methodology ...................................................................... 73 Theoretical framework ................................................................................................................... 73 Phenomenology ........................................................................................................................ 73 Ecological system theory .......................................................................................................... 75 Critical social work .................................................................................................................... 80 Overview of Research Design....................................................................................................... 83 Participants ................................................................................................................................ 84 Role of the researcher ............................................................................................................... 86 Data collection ........................................................................................................................... 87 Data analysis ............................................................................................................................. 88 Ethical considerations ............................................................................................................... 89 Potential Limitations of the Study .................................................................................................. 90 CHAPTER FOUR .................................................................................................................................. 92 Research Results .............................................................................................................................. 92 Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 92 Demography .................................................................................................................................. 93 Biographic and practice details ................................................................................................. 93 Becoming a social worker ............................................................................................................. 94 Government social worker/civil servant (Pegawai Negeri Sipil/PNS) ....................................... 95 ii Non-government social workers ................................................................................................ 99 Contract social workers (Sakti Peksos) .................................................................................. 100 Professional social work roles ..................................................................................................... 103 Knowledge of children’s rights .................................................................................................... 106 Perceptions of the change in the institutionalisation of children ................................................. 112 Challenges in implementing the transformation .......................................................................... 118 1. Decentralisation .................................................................................................................. 119 a. Synchronising knowledge backgrounds .......................................................................... 119 b. Role conduct ................................................................................................................... 120 c. Synchronising supporting actions to the central government policies ............................ 122 2. Patriarchy and gender roles ................................................................................................ 122 3. Resource access ................................................................................................................. 124 4. Service coverage ................................................................................................................ 126 5. Community awareness ........................................................................................................ 128 CHAPTER FIVE .................................................................................................................................. 131 Ecological Findings and Discussion ................................................................................................ 131 Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 131 Social Workers in the Ecological Perspective ............................................................................. 131 The chronosystem ....................................................................................................................... 133 The macrosystem ........................................................................................................................ 140 Before .....................................................................................................................................