Marcin Boryczko
@en.ug.edu.pl
Faculty of Social Science/Division of social pedagogy
University of Gdańsk
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Sociology and Political Science, Education, Social Sciences
Scopus Publications
Scholar Citations
Scholar h-index
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Mark Lusk, Marcin Boryczko, and David Stoesz
SAGE Publications
Despite predictions that liberal democracy was ascendent as a paradigm for governance in the contemporary era, the world has witnessed an alarming rise in authoritarian nationalism. A seeming preference for open and transparent models of plural democratic government has been challenged by the global advance of despotic and repressive regimes that are organized around racial, religious, and nationalist themes. Social work, grounded in the practice and pursuit of human rights, stands in stark contrast to authoritarian nationalism and is called to act through public diplomacy and soft power to counter emergent neo-fascism.
Marcin Boryczko, Melinda Madew, and Daniela Gaba
Informa UK Limited
Marcin Boryczko
Informa UK Limited
ABSTRACT The study explores how critical thinking can be practised and taught in the training of social work students. It investigates the nature and possible developments of critical thinking in an educational environment, asking which learning practices can be described as ‘critical thinking’ since this is not well defined or understood in an academic context or, particularly, in social work education. The approach, based on Legitimation Code Theory, allowed the creation of pedagogic interventions suitable for teaching skills and practices which clearly demonstrate what constitute examples of critical thinking. Students’ reflective writing showed a capability for recontextualising, generalising and assessing the meanings connected to the incident through weakening semantic gravity. High-achieving students produced ‘semantic waves’ by comparing different interpretations of knowledge, based on incident analysis, and successfully transforming these into a new form of individually ‘invented’ knowledge. Additionally, the study proved that mastering ‘semantic gravity’, the ability to manage knowledge which is to be decontextualised, transferred and recontextualised, may improve critical thinking skills. The analysis demonstrates how movements in semantic gravity in students’ writing assignments provide conditions for cumulative knowledge building that could be used in the future implementation of ‘semantic gravity’ in social work curricula.
Marcin Boryczko
Informa UK Limited
ABSTRACT The text contributes to the debate on power relations in social work practice and the impact of neoliberal governmentality on the professional conduct of social workers. The aim was to examine the nature of the relationship between policy shaping social work practice and power relations exercised by social workers in the changing welfare state in Poland. The perspective combining ‘governmentality’ and ‘historical-political sociology’ was engaged to answer questions of why and how in the context of dominant discourses affecting regimes of practice. Qualitative data were generated from in-depth interviews with 30 social workers and family assistants. The analysis was based on engaging theory that enabled knowledge to proliferate and there to be multi-faceted interpretations. Local patterns of neoliberal governmentality were identified: ‘suboptimization’, the role of ‘historical legacies’ taking as an example ‘catholicization’ and pastoral power, and installing ‘homo oeconomicus’ by inculcating self-discipline and personal responsibility. The question of why those forms of governmentality were introduced was also answered in terms of implementing a ‘business model’ in social work, the prevalence of ‘historical legacies’ and the Catholic church in constituting welfare state, and discursive domination of neoliberalism leading to deprofessionalization and submission of social work to market demands.
Dorota Jaworska, Khedi Alieva, and Marcin Boryczko
Uniwersytet Lodzki (University of Lodz)
Celem artykułu jest identyfikacja etycznych napięć pomiędzy poznawczą funkcją nauki, humanitarnymi przyczynami podejmowania pracy badawczej i jej praktycznymi celami w badaniach prowadzonych wśród przymusowych migrantów. Różnice pomiędzy badaczami i badanymi w wymiarach statusu społecznego, ekonomicznego i politycznego wyznaczają wyzwania budowania relacji etycznych, rozumianych nie tylko jako spełnienie imperatywu „nie szkodzić” poprzez zapewnienie bezpieczeństwa osobom badanym i ochronę ich przed nadużyciami. W zespole złożonym z badaczy o statusie zewnętrznym i wewnętrznym wobec badanej grupy rozważamy możliwości wyrównywania niesymetrycznych relacji, tworzenia relacji opartych na wzajemnych korzyściach oraz zaangażowania badanych w proces badawczy. Źródłem refleksji jest analiza raportów badawczych oraz doświadczenia własnej pracy badawczej prowadzonej wśród przymusowych migrantów przez współautorów niniejszego tekstu.