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Using the contents of journals has been an underutilized research approach in social work. Journal archives represent what has been legitimated in the discipline as well as what forms the dominant social work canon. To theorize about journal archival sourcing as a research method, we cite the limited extant examples, drawing out from these the methodology used. We then make a case for the value of journal mining and in particular from the vantage point of critical social work and critical discourse analysis, position the Foucauldian history of the present as an appropriate tool for analysis. We draw this article together by describing how to employ this research method and argue that this might be an exceptionally useful tool at this point of the discipline's history.

We focus on the role of journals in producing social work knowledge. We surveyed social work journals internationally, concluding that social work knowledge mostly is conceived of as universal, the inclusion of knowledges being based on an uncritical "big tent" (everyone is included) philosophy. This legitimized knowledge base overlooks alternative subjugated experiences, weakening social work. To avoid professional imperialism and coloniality, social work must expand its knowledge base to reflect diverse knowing.

This article reviews all items in the Canadian Social Work journal over its almost 90-year history that relate to child welfare practice in an Indigenous context. We review the journal contents as a way of understanding the profession's voice, noting that a journal's discursive practice reflects disciplinary discourse and that this journal positioned itself as a platform for social work debates. Our analysis contributes also to the truth-telling and accountability of social workers. While around 10% of the 1500 journal articles focused on child welfare practice, only 9 of these 152 articles addressed child welfare practice with Indigenous children and families. Our discourse analysis highlights that there was contemporaneous silence regarding social work complicity in the residential schools movement, the Sixties Scoop, and the current Millennium Scoop. In the 1980s, sustained critique around the role of social work in perpetuating colonization began to emerge. The journal, though, left child protection discourse unexamined and thus overlooked its role in maintaining dominant Canadian child welfare practice. We suggest that White supremacy and settler colonial discourses support the dominance of the child protection discourse, and that part of decolonizing child welfare practice relates to revealing and resisting these discourses and generating alternative decolonized discourses.

Dominant social work approaches are increasingly problematized. In many contexts mainstreamed social work practices and knowledges are inappropriate and eclipse alternative ways of knowing, being, and doing. Moreover, dominant approaches, promoted through professional imperialism, may be harmful, perpetuating colonial perspectives, ignoring structural conditions, underlining social control, and advancing decontextualized individualism. In order to become relevant to local populations, social work must build on traditional helping strategies and use contextualized worldviews/knowledge(s) to shift focus to parochial concerns. The authors explore alternative social work paradigms, paying attention to Indigenized, Indigenous, culturally authentic, local, developmental and decolonized models. The authors then conceptualize contextualized social work. This synthesized approach allows for the centering of Indigenous/local knowledge(s), an engagement with the impact of colonization and oppression, and responsiveness to local conditions. The authors consider specifically contextualized social work education, noting emergent literature regarding practice exists, but less so in the area of education. The distinguishing features of such education are highlighted, and policy supports identified. It is recommended that contextualized social work education be promoted to ensure future social work practitioners are able to work in a meaningful, relevant and respectful manner in all contexts.

This study looked into client access to their case records routinely maintained by social workers in the course of professional practice. An online survey and semi-structured interviews were undertaken with Canadian social workers. The study found that while the majority of the participants indicated that they granted clients access to their case records, clients were not effectively granted such access in practice. Client access to their case records is a core issue in social work, and social workers need to proactively grant such access if they are to live by the core values of social work.

AbstractThis article offers a cross‐national comparison of social work in two countries, Australia and Canada, about the care of Indigenous children within the context of colonization and the evolving profession. The discussion is based on data from two empirical studies that examined professional discourse relating to the removal of Indigenous children from their families and Indigenous peoples more broadly within key historical time frames. The studies involved a content analysis of the flagship journals of the Australian and Canadian professional associations. It is argued that a critical interrogation of professional discourse within these historical and national particularities provides insights that can inform a broader understanding of how practices and constructions of social work are shaped within contemporary practice contexts. The studies revealed that very little attention was paid to problematizing colonial policies and practices, including the state‐sanctioned forcible removal of countless Indigenous children from their biological families, while the professions in both countries were complicit in the oppressive treatment of Indigenous peoples that have left a legacy of intergenerational trauma. The findings suggest a way of understanding social work as a discipline beyond the historical specificities of the two countries that has relevance to social work across the globe.

Summary This article, towards decolonizing social work, reports on a study that examined the record of Canadian social work regarding Indigenous Canadians through the lens of the national professional association's journal. Noting that the broad dataset of over 1,500 journal articles represents legitimized knowledge within the discipline, the study aimed to develop a history of the present to interrogate the discourses relating to such practice. The study involved an analysis of the contents over the life of the journal from 1932 to 2019. Findings The study found that minimal attention was given to Indigenous issues in Canadian social work, only 30 articles touching on Indigenous issues directly. These articles portray contrasting discourses on Indigenous subjectivities and social work responses, reflecting conflicting perspectives in social work. Applications These observations should inform the interrogation of contemporary social work practice in Canada regarding its positionality in relation to Indigenous persons. Further, it should contribute to forging social work's future in recognizing the injustices and challenges accompanying its colonial history and present.