Social Work Under Occupation: The Palestinian Student Perspective
This paper presents a qualitative study based on the collaborative efforts of US and Palestinian social work faculty to understand the emergence of social work in the Palestinian West Bank from the perspective of students.
Social work is a relatively new field of study in the West Bank, but there has been very little research about theory and practice needs for the field in this unique context.
Our research question asked: How do Palestinian West Bank social work students understand problems facing their clients and the role of social workers in addressing them?
Methods:
Following IRB approval, sixty-five West Bank social work students completed a survey designed by our research team, which included demographic information and questions that pertained to students’ understanding of social work practice in Palestine. The survey was translated into Levantine Arabic. Survey results were translated into English. Grounded theory thematic analysis was employed. Coding was conducted by 3 researchers and compared to improve inter-rater reliability.
Findings:
The sample included female (n=40) and male (n=25) identified respondents. All participants were Palestinian and predominantly Muslim (n=64). The mean age was 22.9. Most students reported monthly household income below 3000 shekels ($900), which is lower than the 2011 mean monthly household income in Palestine of 3903 shekels ($1125). Students reported commuting to campus from nearby cities (n=21), villages (n=42), and refugee camps (n=2).
Respondents described the erosion of individual, family, and group well-being related to poverty, unemployment, violence against women, imprisonment of boys/men, lack of services for the disabled and elderly, and severe constraints on medical treatment and social work services related to the separation wall and checkpoints. Separation of children from parents emerged as a major theme, leading to child labor and harassment of divorced women and children in their communities. Students also identified depression, isolation, suicide, anxiety, phobias, and war related trauma. As social workers, students primarily hoped to address social issues: prevent abuse of women and children, address effects of violence, and the concomitant loss of self-esteem for children and adults. Importantly, students confronted many of the same acute psychosocial problems as their clients. Most reported coping with daily harassment at checkpoints and difficulty maintaining focus and hope, especially when their degrees are not recognized in Israeli controlled territories.
Interestingly, despite these goals they overwhelmingly chose individual and intrapsychic treatment models. Yet when presented with two cases they tended to favor interventions in the social environment and group.
Conclusion and Implications:
Students both identified and conceptualized the most urgent problems faced by their clients with reference to the psychosocial impacts of the occupation, especially on women and children. Further research is necessary to understand why students primarily identified intrapsychic models as their theory basis and favored intervention method, when they hoped to intervene as social workers by improving social conditions and inequalities. These findings may reflect the impact of Western colonialism on the emergence of social work in non-Western contexts. Implications for cross-culturally competent teaching and practice will be discussed.