Focus Of Supervision Analysis Social Work Essay

Focus Of Supervision Analysis Social Work Essay The focus of this supervision is to look at how our supervisiory relationship is working in regards to our different learning styles. Referral to Public Health Nurses (PHN) for girls in the in the Early Intervention Program (EIP). Wai Ora Girls Program one client has offended and one client has absconded reflection on practice. Feasibility study Community Coordinators have said there are no issues with youth crime in their area. Where to next? During this supervision my supervisor is to complete my second direct observation assessment. Discussion points Learning Styles We began the session by reviewing our learning styles. My supervisor asked me to fill out the 80 question Honey Mumford Learning Styles Questionnaire (2006) in my first week of placement. My learning style is a reflector and my supervisor has a pragmatist learning style. Reflectors: like to view the situation from different perspectives. They like to collect data, review and think carefully before coming to any conclusions. They enjoy observing others and will listen to their views before offering their own (Mumford, 1992). Pragmatists: are eager to try things out. They like concepts that can be applied to their job. They tend to be impatient with lengthy discussions and are practical and down to earth (Mumford, 1992). Therefore, we discussed how we can work together in supervision from these different learning styles to make it affective. My supervisor has identified as a pragmatist learner he does not like lengthy discussions and prefers to get straight to the point when it comes to discussions around practice. Where as because I am a reflector I like to discuss my learning through different perspectives at length before I am able to come to any conclusions around my learning. This can cause difficulties within our supervisory relationship and we need to work together so that I am able to make the most out of our supervision sessions and the field education placement in relation to my own learning style. My supervisor identified that he needs to be flexible in the different learning approaches that are presented by: Organising a range of opportunities for practice Using a blend of methods and materials that will help me learn Using a mixture of theory and practice focus in supervision Using learning materials that focus on the reflection of practice Formal and informal opportunities to learn Continuing teaching and learning styles discussion EIP Program I have identified a range of health issues presented by the girls who attend the EIP. In a previous supervision session it was discussed that I will contact the PHN to arrange health assessments for the girls that are presenting concerns. Following on from this I discussed with the volunteers of the Girls EIP which girls we believe could use a health assessment. On contacting the PHN it became apparent that we would be unable to get these girls health assessments as I did not have parental consent, and two girls are already involved with the PHN. Upon contacting the parents of the girls who are not already involved they did not give permission for their children to be assessed. I discussed with my supervisor that I still has concerns for these girls but because there is no parental consent we are unable to refer them to the nurses. We decided it is up to the volunteers and I to monitor the concerns, and if they became more evident to approach the parents again. Wai Ora Girls Program one of my clients who I have been working with has been arrested over the weekend and charged with driving with excess blood alcohol. I discussed with my supervisor the concerns I had around this charge and the events that had led to the young women driving whilst under the influence. We agreed that it would be best for me to notify her Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS) social worker in regards to the concerns I had as it was beyond my level of involvement. Another one of the young women I have been working with has absconded over the weekend; I discussed with my supervisor what I should do next in regards to this client. My supervisor suggested that as we do not have any mandate to work with this young person and that it was not my responsibility to follow up with this young person, as her involvement with our agency is voluntary and if she does not wish to be involved that I was not to force her. I will contact her CYFS social worker to let her know that if the young person returns I am happy to continue working with her. Feasibility Study during supervision I discussed the information and negative feedback I had received from the Community Coordinators in regards to the feasibility of Te Roopu O Wai Ora working in Albany and the East Coast Bays areas. He said to document these conversations and the next step us to speak to CYFS, Police, and the local schools. Direct Practice Observation the second direct practice observation was completed in relation to the second Learning Outcome. This assessment bought out discussion around my resiliency as I have been confronted with a range of client issues through out my placement. We focused more closely on working cross-culturally in my practice with clients and I am often working with young people and their families who are of a different culture from my own. At the alterative education centre where I am placed two days a week I am the only female and pakeha person there. We discussed how I can critically reflect on my issues in practice and working cross-culturally (I will discuss this further in my critical reflection). Direct practice feedback from Fieldwork Educator My supervisor discussed how he views my experience as an advantage for the organisation; that he trusts me to manage my own workload and ask for help when I need it. The information my supervisor has feedback through this supervision and direct practice will lead me to further discussions and reflections in my critical reflection assignment: Grace has shown good levels of interviewing techniques on our observation of her at work. She has interviewed family members of our clients and shown experience beyond her years. Through supervision and on job training Grace has self-reflected on issues and questions she has been challenged with. She is not afraid to ask the hard questions. Grace is aware of her own feelings and background in working with different clients on a range of issues. She shows genuine empathy and an ability to engage with clients in a relaxed and professional manner. Working in the school setting as the only female and pakeha person, has enabled her to identify the differences in culture but also helped her to work cross-culturally with other staff and clients. Family visitation has also helped her to identify areas that need more training in. Suggested next steps for practice No Steps 1 Critically reflect on discussions in this supervision and the direct observation assessment in regards to working cross-culturally. 2 Contact CYFS in regards to the two young women in the Wai Ora Girls Club that are presenting with problems/concerns/absconding. 3 Attend EIP program and monitor their health issues 4 Contact police, CYFS and local schools in regards to Feasibility Study. What is the relationship between this supervision session and the B.Soc.Wk 2 learning objectives, generally and my contract specifically? The relationship between this supervision and the B.Soc.Work learning objectives and my contract were the discussions around my second learning outcome in relation to the second direct observation. I have demonstrated the appropriate use of self in a professional social work setting by exploring in supervision my practice, cultural awareness, resiliency, and my learning style. I have demonstrated my ability to initiate and articulate my own learning in my placement by reflecting on my learning style and discussing how our supervisory relationship is working. Also by identifying that in this supervision session that there was a significant focus on my practice cross-culturally and using it as the basis for my second critical reflection, to enable me to reflect on my cultural framework more critically. I have been in contact with other agencies and the community in relation to shared clients and the Feasibility Study. Learning Made The learning I made in this supervision session was in regards to my learning style and how it affects our supervisory relationship, and how we can make it effective for my learning during y field placement. I will use the learning made from the discussion around my practice this week and working cross-culturally as the basis for my critical reflection.

Kite Runner Themes Essay

Ethnic Pride Baba expresses a great deal of pride and attachment to the afghan culture so the move to America fills Amir and himself with a loss of heritage and identity. The escape from the previous culture however allows Amir to escape the incident of rape upon his best friend Hassan which has left a bad taste on his childhood. In America Amir doesn’t turn away from his Middle Eastern culture, and asks Soraya’s father, the general for permission to marry her even though he spurns it slightly by talking to her privately without consent. Amir towards the end, becomes proud of his blended culture. Although he enjoys visiting Pakistan, eating the traditional food and hearing references to childhood legends, he also likes the feeling of hope and freedom he gained from America. Social Inequality From childhood, Amir recognizes the difference in social standing between himself and best friend Hassan. As a Pashtun, Amir enjoys privileges of being a higher class and his father being a successful man whereas Hassan is poor and he and his father face prejudice from people every day. Despite this, Hassan and Ali are content with their lower class life and are good natured human beings. Hosseini is trying to convey that your social standing in society does not determine what kind of person you are and if you are better than someone else. You can only truly be better than someone else morally and having saint-like characteristics. During Amir and Hassan childhood, they’re differences of social class are conveyed by living standards, Hassan being illiterate and physical appearances. These are individually important but as a whole they all convey irony in the fact that it is Hassan who is content with life and Amir who is not. Later in the novel, Hazara prejudice which is taken to the extreme as they are massacred and abused by Taliban officials, such as Assef. When Sohrab returns with Amir to America, Amir is quick to dispel any mention of class as he believes it is has influenced his and Sohrab’s life too greatly and he perhaps finally sees them as his equals which he was afraid to do so as a child(never referring to Hassan as his friend). Personal Responsibility Many of the actions of the main character stem from personal responsibility. Baba takes on the responsibility of Ali from his father, who took him in when he was a child. He lets Ali and his son work for him, offers them shelter and food; making them feel part employees and part family. Air later realises this ‘personal responsibility’ baba showed for Ali may stem from his guilt of betraying Ali and fathering Hassan. Amir feels responsible for all the bad occurrences which happened to Hassan and his father. He feels many of the events which occurred later in the novel are down to him being too cowardly to prevent Hassan being raped. Though many suffer from the Taliban’s ruthlessness, he believes the events that happened to Hassan’s family are his responsibility/fault. The feeling of responsibility is what drives Amir to return to Afghanistan, to rescue Sohrab. Rahim Khan plants this idea in Amir’s head and suggests this is the way to achieve closure and absolution for the past. After he rescues Sohrab, Amir feels responsible for the boy in a different way and wants to protect him from anymore pain; furthermore, he sees Sohrab as a way to fill the emptiness in the marriage from his and Sorayas infidelity. Identity and Self- discovery Throughout the novel the protagonist struggles to find his true purpose and find his identity through noble actions. Amir’s failure to be loyal to his friend at such a crucial moment defines this conflict. His endeavour to overcome his own weaknesses appear in confronting Assef, returning to a war torn country oppressed by the Taliban and even his carsickness whilst during with Farid. The revelation of baba later in chapter 17, allows Amir to discover who his father really was and how alike they were in terms of betraying people who loved and were loyal to the end to them. The return to Afghanistan allows Amir to find out the type of man he can become and to confront his past which he has so desperately tried to bottle up. Family, Fathers and Fatherhood Family relationships play a great part in this novel but mothers are strikingly absent. Amir and Hassan grow up without their mothers and this is exemplified through the tension of Baba’s treatment of his sons. He makes it clear he is disappointed Amir is bookish, cowardly to protect his social standing and stick up for Hassan whilst on the other hand, he never publically acknowledges Hassan as his own son- although he shows a great deal of affection to Hassan. Likewise, General Taheri is a similar traditional, highly critical father who chafes his daughter for rebellious behaviour. The theme of family is then reintroduced when Amir and Soraya are unsuccessful in starting their own- punishment perhaps for their pasts or that Amir has yet to face up to his. The adoption of the troubled Sohrab however, provides them with the attempt to begin a complete family based on love and honesty. Journey and Quest The novel is mostly based around Amirs departure from Afghanistan as a young teenager and his return as a middle aged man to the war-torn country. At the same time, it is a symbolic quest. Amir makes great sacrifices to pursue his quest to atone for past sins by rescuing his nephew Sohrab in the hands of the Taliban. Symbolised at the beginning of the novel with Amir cutting his fingers with the kite string in order to sacrifice himself for his father’s love, sacrifice plays a big theme also. Amir towards the end of the novel again, willingly cuts his fingers, to revive his spiritually wounded nephew who is suffering from depression. By the end of the novel, this significant symbol of sacrifice shows how much Amir has morally developed as he is willing to sacrifice much in order to save Sohrab from a similar fate and to protect him. The most part of the novel is Amir hiding from his past and by returning to Kabul he is taking that all important journey to have complete redemption. Political power and Abuse The events of the novel occur against the backdrop of political change, the rise of the Taliban government. Assef, Hassans rapist and bully, who becomes a high ranking Taliban officer, embodies the consequence of abuse of power and violence and oppression caused by the Taliban. Assef is a sociopath who thrives in the atmosphere of chaos. Interpersonal violence leads to the split of Hassan and Amir; on a national scale the abuse of power by communist backed soviets results in massacres and Afghanistan forces to go into exile. The abuse of power and abuse is an important reference to how the hazara’s have been treated. From humiliation at the beginning of the novel for their looks to being massacred and horrifically abused. When General Taheri demands an explanation for their adoption of Sohrab, he echoes the discrimination against this entire ethnic minority and in a sense, Baba also condones the attitude towards Hazara’s by not admitting that he fathered a Hazara son. Kites After Hassan gets raped while running his kite, Amir cannot separate kite fighting and running from his own betrayal and cowardice. Therefore, even after all of his injuries and trials on Sohrab’s behalf, it is the act of kite running that finally makes him feel redeemed. Beyond their significance to the plot, kites have multiple layers of symbolism in the story. One of these layers involves the class difference between Amir and Hassan, which largely dictates and limits their relationship. In kite fighting, one boy controls the kite while the other assists by feeding the string. Just as Hassan makes Amir’s breakfast, folds his clothes, and cleans his room, so does he cater to Amir in kite tournaments. Even though Hassan shares in the excitement of kite fighting, he does not actually have control over the kite. Hassan may help the kite â€Å"lift-and-dive,† but Amir is the one who claims a victory. Hassan may catch a cherished rival kite and hold it in his arms, but always to bring it back to Amir, to whom it then belongs. His joy is vicarious, just like his experience of wealth and privilege while living in Baba’s household. In order to free himself of selfishness and cowardice, Amir must go from being merely a kite fighter-someone who seeks glory-to a kite runner, someone who genuinely does things for others. The activity of kite fighting is violent by nature. The kites battle and so too do the children flying them. The string, which is covered in ground glass, carves deep gashes into the fliers’ hands as they try to cut each other down, and once kites fall out of the sky, the kite runners retrieve them with the same furious determination as, say, a hunting dog does a slain bird. In its violence, kite fighting represents the conflicts that rage Afghanistan nearly throughout the course of the novel. When Hosseini paints us a picture of hundreds of kites trying haphazardly and with great determination to cut each other down, he shows us also the warring factions of Afghanistan overthrowing one another. At the same time kite fighting is violent, the mere act of kite flying is innocent and speaks of freedom. Amir and Hassan do not have control over the differences between them; in fact, they are both the victims of a lie, and their relationship would have been different had they known they were brothers. Yet despite their differences and the symbolism of their respective kite-fighting roles, flying kites is an activity that brings the boys together. For a moment, they are part of a team. For many years, Amir feels as though he and Hassan are adversaries for Baba’s love. After the rape, Hassan’s very existence infuriates Amir because it reminds him of his cowardice. Despite all this, when the boys fly kites together, they are on the same team. They are more like brothers then than perhaps any other time, because the activity is somewhat mutual. It allows them to momentarily escape their differences and enjoy a shared sense of exhilaration and freedom.

Public Education System

In the past few decades school has shifted its focus from education to fashion. Students are judged upon their shoes or jeans rather than their knowledge. Uniforms in the public education system is a great idea, not only is it cost effective, but also it gives the students a chance to concentrate on their studies and not have to worry about what to wear tomorrow. Plus the crime or violence rate drops in schools that have a uniform policy, and those that do not belong on campus are spotted quicker and easier. Private schools ave already adopted this idea as well as some schools in England and Australia. Early morning or late evening fights over what is allowed to be worn to school could come to an end if uniforms are issued in the public The kids that come from lower class level backgrounds are the kids out there selling drugs and committing the crimes, but the money made goes to buy the latest designer jeans, just so that they are â€Å"cool† at school. A difference in the violence on school grounds has decreased in areas were school uniforms are mandatory. Gang activity is not as high because the students can not show their colors or signs at school. Sgt. Joe Battle, a Long Beach, California juvenilia officer states that, â€Å"uniforms take away the No. 1 reason that kids treat each other differently; how they look† (Ritter, 1A). Long Beach was the first public school in the nation to have mandatory school uniform policy. The crime rate there is down 76 percent, and assaults on school property is also down by 85 percent (Starr,1). One of the reasons behind the sudden change in school policy has to do with the recent school hootings. The most famous and talked about one was the Columbine High School. The two teens were able to bring in weapons to the school under trench coats. With uniforms this could have been prevented, because long coats are not to be worn in the school. Even the President of the United States is moving to the uniform policy. President Clinton has given speeches during his State of the Union address including that uniforms keep kids, † from killing each other over designer jackets† (Ritter, 1A). The way that the kids are dressed is more important than the grades they make. The students are able to focus on the education rather than someone else's new clothes. Parents that were not too sure of the idea agree that there are more positives than negatives to wearing uniforms. The students are less distracted and can concentrate on the teacher. Students admit that having everyone wear the same thing is easier on them. No one worries about whether or not they wore something last week or that they don't have the name brand labels to flash around. Kids that can't afford the name brands are the ones with the lower test scores and poorer attendance. The cost of uniforms in comparison to the latest fashion is ridiculous. For what it would cost to buy a major household appliance, two or three of the latest designer outfits can be bought. The students who don't have the money to buy all the newest clothes tend not to go to class as much because they feel they don't fit in. It used to be that the kids that wore the K-Mart or Wal-Mart brand of clothes were thought of as uncool. Uniforms don't only bring down the cost of clothes for the parents, but the school spirit is higher and the students feel a sense of unity. The line between the poor and rich kids is brought down, the students can no longer tease on another because of their clothes as they are all dressed the same. Administrators can spot a person who does not belong on campus faster and easier if they a don't have a school uniform on. Uniforms can be bought at almost any clothing store. Prices range from $5-$7 for shirts, $10 for shorts and pants and $7 for a jumper. Now compare that to $30-$80 for jeans and$15-$30 for a shirt. Majority of parents only buy two or three uniforms a school year Students all dressed the same that is the whole idea. But there some negative aspects of this area. Psychologist Ruth Rubinstein at the Fashion Institute of New York argues that having students dress alike decreases their sense of expression or creativity. Although students can express themselves in the classroom or even wear different socks. Some days are specified for the optional dress down, where the children can wear what ever they would like. If the students have to wear uniforms then so should the teachers and staff. How can the students be expected t follow the teachers lead if they are not in uniforms as well? This makes the whole school equal and the principles' job easier for enforcing the dress code. Some schools do have strict dress codes if a not a uniform policy. Students must wear clothing that is appropriate for a learning environment. No sleeveless shirts or offense slang or short, shorts are not allowed. Students that do not follow the rules could be suspended. Schools could go as far as to not allow skirts to be worn. Some schools have an optional uniform policy. Most parents and students choose to wear uniforms because of At the moment many public schools are only using uniforms under a voluntary basis. With this system they hope to increase awareness of the benefits that these uniforms hold. These uniforms will help to lower budgets, school violence and help students become more accepted among their peers. Fatal accidents could be avoided with the use of uniforms in the public school system. It is not just a fast growing trend to make the school look better, but also a way to increase the chances of a more secure learning environment.

Starting Your Own Private School