EXPLORING THE SPACES BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE: A FRAMEWORK TO INTEGRATE A STRUCTURAL APPROACH AND SOCIAL WORK ACTIVITIES by HEATHER IONE PETERS B.A., The University of Saskatchewan, 1987 B.S.W., The University of British Columbia, 1993 M.S.W., Carleton University, 1999 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Social Work) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2012 © Heather Ione Peters, 2012 ABSTRACT This dissertation explores and examines the use of structural social work theory in practice, in order to better understand the processes involved in effectively integrating theory into practice. Structural social work theory was developed in Canada and has been in use for about 30 years. It is related to other progressive approaches such as radical, feminist, anti- racist, anti-oppressive and critical social work. The first chapter outlines the history of progressive social work and situates structural social work theory in this context. The literature review identifies issues and concerns with theory-practice integration specific to structural social work and other progressive social work theories, as well as theory-practice integration in general in the social work field. While the social work literature notes the problems with theory-practice integration, there are few studies examining the factors in the successful use of theory in practice. In addition, the literature tends to focus on individual factors in theory-practice integration, and there is limited research examining interactions between these factors. In-depth interviews were conducted with social work practitioners who utilized a structural social work approach in their practice. Follow-up interviews, a questionnaire and the analysis of documents mentioned by participants provided additional data. The findings demonstrate that participants’ use of structural social work theory in practice progressed through a series of six developmental stages. The stages began with the use of conventional social work activities, and moved to seeing the effects of structural oppression, forging alliances, encompassing structural goals into conventional social work activities, engaging in specifically structural activities, and culminated in adapting structural social work theory for use in practice. Participants’ use of the structural approach and the development through the ii stages were influenced by external contexts. The interactions between participants and the contexts, or structures, they encountered reflect the agency-structure dialectic found in structural social work theory. iii PREFACE An adaptation of chapter two has been published in the following textbook: Peters, Heather I. (2010). Chapter Three: Situating Practitioners’ Experiences in a Model of Theory- Practice Integration. In Structural Social Work in Action: Examples from Practice, S. F. Hick, H. I. Peters, T. Corner, & T. London, (Eds.). Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc. The published chapter is based on the ideas, information and format that came out of the literature review for this dissertation, but is not identical to the chapter in this dissertation. I am the sole author of this published chapter. This research study was approved by the University of British Columbia’s Behavioural Research Ethics Board (BREB) and has met all of the criteria for research with human subjects. The BREB Certificate of Approval for this study is #H09-01862. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ...................................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures ........................................................................................................................... x Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. xi Dedication .............................................................................................................................. xiii Chapter One. Situating Structural Social Work Theory ........................................................... 1 The Early Days of Social Work ............................................................................................ 1 Radical Social Work ............................................................................................................. 2 Feminist Social Work ........................................................................................................... 4 Anti-Racist Social Work ....................................................................................................... 6 Linking Oppressions ............................................................................................................. 8 Concerns with Anti-Oppressive and Anti-Discriminatory Discussions ............................. 11 Postmodernism and Poststructuralism ................................................................................ 13 Critical Social Theory ......................................................................................................... 17 Structural Social Work Theory ........................................................................................... 21 Situating Structural Social Work Theory ............................................................................ 27 Chapter Two. A Review of the Literature on Theory-Practice Integration ............................ 29 Framing the Literature Review ........................................................................................... 32 Reviewing the Literature Relevant to the Spaces Between Theory and Practice ............... 34 Educational space ............................................................................................................ 34 Organizational space ....................................................................................................... 39 Personal space ................................................................................................................. 43 Client space ..................................................................................................................... 47 Theoretical space ............................................................................................................ 50 Other spaces and comments ............................................................................................ 54 Summation of spaces between structural social work theory and practice ..................... 55 Potential Complexities of the Spaces .................................................................................. 56 v Spatial overlap ................................................................................................................ 56 Agency-structure dialectic .............................................................................................. 57 A modern/postmodern view which incorporates general trends with diversity .............. 59 The larger contexts of ideology and oppression ............................................................. 59 Literature Gaps and Research Questions ............................................................................ 62 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 65 Chapter Three. Research Methodology and Design ............................................................... 67 Overview of Methodology .................................................................................................. 68 Research paradigm/framework ....................................................................................... 68 Research approaches ....................................................................................................... 70 Grounded theory as the primary focus of the research approach .................................... 72 Research Design ................................................................................................................. 81 Participant recruitment .................................................................................................... 81 Participant sampling and definitions of theory ............................................................... 82 Participant selection ........................................................................................................ 83 Informed consent and ethics approval ............................................................................ 86 Data collection ................................................................................................................ 86 Steps to ensure rigour and to move the analysis beyond the literature review ............... 96 Data Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 98 Ethical dilemmas ..........................................................................................................