Reclaiming Our Heritage: The Pragmatist Legacy in Social Work

Pragmatist philosophy is the foundation of qualitative social work research and practice, but few know this. Pragmatist philosophy arose from the collaboration of women social workers at Hull House and male faculty at the University of Chicago in the Progressive Era (1890s to c. 1918). Male sociologists erased the contributions of women to the development of pragmatism. As a result, social work lost awareness of the contributions that social workers made to pragmatist philosophy and the pragmatist principles that are the foundation of social work.

This workshop includes a panel of two qualitative social work researchers representing several fields of study and whose methods and methodologies are based on pragmatist principles. Workshop leader 1 is an associate professor whose research areas are gender, sexuality, and critical feminism. Workshop leader 2 is a professor emeritus whose research is on violence against women and children, gender, and development over the life course.

The format is as follows. 1) Workshop leaders will each provide an overview of the pragmatist principles within their research; 2) Next leaders and participants will discuss these principles. 3) Then, the leaders will distribute a checklist of the qualities of pragmatist methods and methodologies; 4) Participants first will work alone to appraise whether or not the qualities are present in the methods/methodologies they use; 5) Then participants will discuss their appraisals with one or two others; 6) Next is a large group discussion; and 7) The leaders will summarize the outcomes of the discussion while inviting input from participants.

The principles of pragmatism are the following: 1) Environmental influences shape us and we shape environmental influences; 2) The centrality of understanding lived experiences in social and historical contexts; 3) The importance of reflexivity so that we understand our own biases and values before we presume to think that we can understand others; 4) Beginning our encounters with others with an open mind, assuming that we know nothing about their circumstances and perspectives; 5) Recognition of multiple perspectives; 6) Recognition that knowledge is provisional; 7) Purposefully seeking information that will add to or change our provisional understanding; and 8) advocating for social change that arises from the democratic values that are the bedrock of pragmatism: equality, dignity, worth, justice, care, and self-determination.

By the end of the workshop, participants will have deepened knowledge and appreciation of

1) pragmatist legacy within social work. This will advance social work as a discipline because it challenges the conclusions of Flexner that social work is not a true profession because it does not create its own knowledge. Participants will know that we stand on the shoulders of our own giants.

2) the pragmatist intellectual history of the mission of social work to create just, caring, and equitable social policies, programs, and direct practice, and

3) that pragmatism has given social work a vision and language to imagine a just and caring society that promotes racial, gender, and class equity.