What I Learned, What Was New, and What Was My ‘Aha’ Moment from the Course
Task Description
This assessment piece will involve a series of personal and professional critical reflections about engagement in workshops and observations you make. The reflections are meant to be critical in nature and demonstrate understanding of workshops or readings and consideration of social work values and ethics.
Specifically, reflections on the workshops are intended to provide an account of one key lesson from two of the workshops so far or reading
These reflections could be critical themes that resonated with you or provided an “aha” moment in your development as an emerging social work or human services practitioner.
The journal is intended to conclude with a final reflection about what this unit so far has added to your emerging social work/ human service practitioner framework.
Your reflection should include references and also make reference to your practice standards/ethics (AASW/ACWA)
Template for critically reflective journal contributions
1.Description: What was new, your aha moment?
2.Feelings: What did YOU feel and think about what learnt/heard?
3.What issues of power exist or relate to this issue/s or topic areas? What are the socio-political assumptions? How is power at play? How do you position yourself in relation to the issue/s under
consideration? Are there dominant paradigms at play here – how do you think and respond? Think about anti-oppressive practice, complexity and critically engage
4.Analysis: What sense can YOU make of this and where does it fit within YOUR knowledge and awareness development (“fit” with evidence/information/knowledge)?
5.Conclusion: What are your thoughts on the topic now?
6.ACTION: How will this impact your practice or what you do in the future? Think about your practice framework and relate to your relevant practice Frameworks.
Please use “I” when writing your critical reflection. Please use all of the headings and cover issues in each heading. Avoid generalisations or simple descriptive summaries of the issue/s under consideration. Additional thoughts or comments are there if you want to add something further. You don’t need to include the prompt questions. The prompt questions are provided to assist you but don’t be constrained by them.
Reflective Journal
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Name and Number
Professor
Assignment Due Date
Reflective Journal
What I Learned, What Was New, and What Was My ‘Aha’ Moment From The Course
This course tackled the complexity of social work. Social workers work in quite a challenging and complex space (Cane et al., 2022). This course provided great insights into what creates this complexity. I learned that climate change and intersectionality are some of the critical factors that bring about complexity. Climate change brings about many events, including floods, fires, and increased health problems such as water-borne diseases (Lecture on Introduction to complexity). I dived further to examine the relationship between climate change and conflicts. In the event of droughts, communities tend to migrate from one region to another in search of water and food.
Climate change has become a global concern (Masson, 2021). The intensity of climate change impacts depends heavily on vulnerability (Lecture on "Determinants of Climate Risk"). I have learned that climate change adversely affects people's social lives, often leading to migrations and conflicts (Koubi, 2019). I have also learned something new about the climate conflict nexus, where climate change acts as a threat stressor and triggers conflicts (Lecture on "The Climate –Conflict Nexus." I have understood that climate change renders individuals more exposed to Conflict, threatening human security (Lecture on "Reciprocal Vulnerability"). The biggest realization in this training was that women are the most vulnerable to climate change. Previously, I felt everyone is equally susceptible to climate change. As a result of climate change, low-income populations are disproportionately impacted by pollution from industry in the surrounding regions. Due to a lack of financial resources, communities of color and the poor are often situated near toxic waste dumps. Given the government's contempt for the poor, it seems sensible to add more hardship to their life. I think the four "isms" will merge soon (Lecturers notes on “Challenges for the Rural and Urban Poor”).
In most cases, this will lead to Conflict as they will find another community where they relocate to, leading to Conflict that may even result in death as they battle for the limited resources. (Lecture SWH 404-Migration and Conflict). The course very well brought out the concept of intersectionality, birthing out inequality. I was particularly impressed by the great examples that helped me understand inequality as a result of various groupings of individuals based on sexual orientation, gender, race, or even class. Changes in resource availability and the resulting migration are having knock-on impacts on human freedoms, national politics, and perhaps the escalation of violence inside and between nations, all of which are influenced by the climate crisis. The climate catastrophe also poses questions of fairness at the regional level. Alves (2020) notes that weather patterns result from climate change, affecting all the world's nations and states (Alves, 2020). These tremendous climatic disasters are only the beginning of what the Earth has in store for us. There is a need to take good care of our surroundings before everything comes tumbling down like a ripple effect, or else we have little chance of surviving as a whole or preserving our home planet.
Feelings About What I Learned
This course has challenged me to think critically concerning problems encountered in a community. I realize that everything is not black and white. I have been challenged to think critically in this course, knowing that the issues humans face are interconnected. Looking at climate change from a social work perspective, it's not just the emission of greenhouse gases; it is the impact disasters associated with climate change have on the communities, especially the vulnerable societies, and how they magnify the issues already being faced (African Development Bank et al., 2021). Additionally, it has been interesting to tie climate change and intersectionality to the vulnerability of a particular group.
Being a global issue, I was stunned when I learned that women are the most vulnerable to disasters resulting from climate change. I feel this doesn't seem right, and women should not be discriminated against. I think people should embrace gender parity to reduce the vulnerability of women to climate change. I find it disappointing that even in massive disasters, the higher percentage of casualties are women; for example, in the Nepal earthquake in 2015, 55% of the deaths were women (Neupane, 2020). This course helped me comprehend climate change and conservation. Due to its importance, I think climate change should promote this subject globally.
There has to be a worldwide climate emergency declaration. The reason I am emphasizing political activity above personal initiatives is that the choices our leaders make have a direct impact on our day-to-day existence. Discarding single-use plastics and switching to a greener way of living are both something I strongly advocate. However, we can do this if the system allows us to. The necessities of life, the items we constantly use, all come in plastic containers. It is up to me whether I use a plastic or cloth bag when shopping. I have no say in how the items are packaged. If I don't want to, I don't have to contaminate the water sources. However, whether the manufacturers keep doing so is outside of my sphere of influence. Emissions of carbon dioxide throughout the world cannot be reduced only by me. All person's choices are affected when legislation is passed and rigorously enforced. For profit-seeking capitalists, see also: the importance of air to human life cannot be overstated. Maliha Khan (2019) notes that businesses must identify that air and water are essential to life and that our leaders must not shield polluters from responsibility.
Issues of Power That Exist or Relate to These Issues/ Topic Areas
In this course, I have learned that climate change affects women significantly and that their mortality is higher in developing countries. Men and boys are in a position of power compared to women and girls and have a lower mortality rate (Lecture on Women, Climate change and disasters). The impacts of climate change disasters are felt differently by the different genders (World Bank Group, 2021). Additionally, intersectionality results in the oppression of the so-called 'minor' groups by persons who feel superior or at a place of privilege (Lecture on introduction to complexity). Looking at all these forms of power privilege by certain groups got me wondering, by labeling a particular group as a 'minority,' are we indirectly oppressing them? What if the only label that mattered was a human? Would that reduce the vulnerability of these people?
Arushi (2020) states factions battle for resources and influence, mainly in democratic regimes. The socio-political assumptions are how we think ideologies and policies change the real-life example of managerialism and globalization. The assumptions have led to the shortening of the global market and the decline of authority. Social workers use their power to help clients with social and interpersonal problems. Managerialism and globalization are issues that social workers should endeavor to address. Managerialism is a dominant paradigm that still strongly influences people's minds (Buerkli, 2019). I am confident that power concerns may be easier ...