Women and Spirit – Developing Liberatory Speech: A Sample of Aotearoa New Zealand Social Workers Share on Spirituality in Work (77646)

Session Information: Interdisciplinary Research, Psychology & Mental Health
Session Chair: Hsin-Lun Li

Thursday, 28 March 2024 15:50
Session: Session 4
Room: Room 604
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation

All presentation times are UTC + 9 (Asia/Tokyo)

This thesis examines the premise of women’s spirituality in social work practices in Aotearoa New Zealand. The research unfolds in different ways, principally through autoethnography, interview conversations, literature reviewed, as an interpretative qualitative study, supported by imagery, metaphor, storying methods of the Celtic methodology of the researcher. The international literature identifies a shortage of writings about women’s spirituality, however the making of meaning, meaning systems, beliefs, hopes and goals of workers and communities remain crucial. These forms of spirituality in social workspaces, and these cognitive existential perspectives enable ongoing meanings which this generation need apply to those tasks which it faces. It is argued that both the recognition of spirituality in the work environment, the importance of spirituality in informing identity, bring forth legacies of meaning as groundings which inform the art and science of relationship fundamental to social work. In Aotearoa these hold significance to social justice work, as another justification for this study given our island home can only thrive on respectful partnership between peoples’, our obligations and respect for the land and the sacred cosmos. The researcher drew from a sample of 17 ethnic women social workers in appreciative conversation, placing narratives alongside theories of doxy, feminist theories, narrative, Indigenous knowledge systems; each are offered as lens to the women’s understandings. Through these participants sensitive creative work with their enduring knowledge facing into human suffering today, the research reveals fascinating wild inventiveness, creativity, beauty, hopes, as creative feminine spiritual traditions of care. Listen! The world is alive!

Authors:
Merrill Simmons-Hansen, Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, New Zealand


About the Presenter(s)
Slan agus beannacht'-greetings. I am a retired lecturer in social work based in first people knowledge. I work in PhD research alongside women cooperatively exploring words for spirituality, which reveal profound ways in which her world works.

Connect on Linkedin
http://www.linkedin.com/in/merrillsimmonshansen/

Additional website of interest
http://spirit-aotearoa.org/

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Posted by Clive Staples Lewis

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00