Critical Reflection on Belief Systems in Social Work Practice

This essay reflects on the author's belief system, values, and ethical perspectives in relation to social work practice. Growing up in Bangladesh within a family of influential figures, the author witnessed social issues firsthand and developed a commitment to secular humanism and social justice. The essay discusses the author's experiences with child labor and inequality, linking these observations to social work theories. It also addresses the potential challenges of balancing personal and professional values. The author aspires to promote social change and improve well-being through interventions like cash transfer programs, aiming to address social problems with a modern approach. The essay concludes with a focus on continuous learning and the development of strong psychological and emotional skills essential for effective social work practice. Desklib offers this and other solved assignments to aid students in their studies.

Running Head: POLICY DEVELOPMENT 0
HUMAN SERVICE SYSTEM

POLICY DEVELOPMENT 1
In this assessment, a creation reflection is made relating to my current belief system including
values, principles and ethical perception. Some of these might help in building my strength as
well as accomplishing social work objectives. The first section of the assessment includes a
context related to my background and the sort of society I was grown. It will be supported by
various significant ideas, theories and perspectives related to the social work and social
science and also based on relevant social issues. In the last section of this writing, it
comprises of my anticipation and foreseen outcome as a competent and capable social
worker.
In an urban area of a developing nation i.e. Bangladesh, my journey in this life was started as
the eldest daughter in a working-class family. Honoured to be born in a male-controlled
community where the family head (father and mother) were renowned persuasive figures,
where my mother represents Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police and my father
represents Senior Principle Officer in bank. With regards to this, there are several political
figures in direction with democratic ideologies. Various individuals come up with their
problems every morning concerning social provable, domestic violence and allocation of
materials in the village. I also remember that most of these issues were solved by my mother
who also known to be as a role model. Only some people seek for legal way if they are not
happy with the decision. As far as I can remember, my mother was full of eternal happiness
after solving the problems of those people. Considering those memories of my experiences
and childhood, I believed that one can be happy and gain a high level of understanding after
helping people from heart. During my schooling, I used to involve in various social activities
and civic and social studies were one of my major interest field and subject that give me
pleasure. Involving myself fully into social science after finishing my graduation in
Economics, as in my nation, there are nil opportunities available to do practices in social
work. Hence, I joined an NGO and work as a half-time junior social worker in domain of
youth and children protection area. The understandings that I gained by working in such
NGOs in emerging nations and do volunteering practices in several social enterprises, I prefer
to extend my avenue on social science and thus agreed to continue my post-graduation in
social science here in Australia (Taliaferro, 2015).
I also founded a concept in my early childhood related to Islamic religion being experienced
along with my family. Religious belief direct various division and sub-division of caste and
class system and also signifies the outcome as inequality and discrimination in the
community (Hefti, 2011).

POLICY DEVELOPMENT 2
Considering my understanding in the world, I always devote to secular humanism. I also
believe that almost all the current world issues could effectively resolved without involving
any kind religious principles. A secular global view can support people with a substantial
foundation for a meaningful and prosperous life. In addition, secular humanism is far more
important in comparison with any religious global view as due to the fact that it does not
surface the problem of diversity that mostly ascends in the instance of religion (Cimino and
Smith, 2011). As I possess some of this belief system that emphasizes on human-centric
issues solving approach can aid to better individual as a whole, however, I also respect and
follow other religious philosophies and principles.
Being lived in an urban area of Bangladesh, I had found various big issues such as child
trafficking and child labour. In Bangladesh, Child labour is common with 12.6% or 4.7
million children having age of 5 to 14 are included in the workforce. In these child labour
workforce, rural areas comprised of 83%, whereas urban area includes 17%. One can easily
find child labour in poultry breeding, leather industry, garment sector, agriculture sector and
also in production of shoes. Children’s are also involved in processing of jute, production of
soap, candles and furniture. They work in production of asbestos, tiles and in salt industry.
Predictor of child labour incidence rate can also signify the demographics of the people of
Bangladesh. In comparison with children in urban areas, rural areas children prefer more
likely to work and one of the reason might be the Bangladesh agriculture history in addition
to the practice of children working in the grounds. However, on both the fields i.e. urban and
rural, boys are preferably working in comparison with the girls. Having age of 12-14
considered to be major age group of the child working (Streets, 2009).
All above mentioned discrimination force me to see myself as a social worker whose aim is
to promote social change, development, social unity and make the people liberalise in my
own nation. It always makes me disappointed when I found that today’s society still
presumes the contemporary and traditional way of looking at social problems and resolving
them in the same practice. In rural region, most of the individuals are still unaware of the
basic social and human right. In Bangladesh, child labour is still a vital problem that needs to
be addressed by all people in society. In direction of theories related to humanities and social
work, I will try to make people those people engage with improving their well-being. I will
also develop Cash transfer related programmes which provide financial security to the
families and provide them access to basic needs such as healthcare and education.
Conditionally or not, it will help in preventing child labour and encourage children to study

POLICY DEVELOPMENT 3
and going to schools. With regards to this, I am also alert of the situation where my
professional and personal values may challenge each other and considering this situation, I
need to be prepared so that to detached both of them in order to address one of those issues.
According to me, social work is a kind of profession where one skills need to be strong in
terms of psychological and emotional aspects in coordination with relevant academic courses
and training. To end, I am searching to learn various significant social work practices in
relation to social issues.

POLICY DEVELOPMENT 4
References
Cimino, R. and Smith, C., (2011) The new atheism and the formation of the imagined
secularist community. Journal of Media and Religion, 10(1), pp.24-38.
Hefti, R. (2011) Integrating religion and spirituality into mental health care, psychiatry and
psychotherapy. Religions, 2(4), pp.611-627.
Streets, F. (2009) Overcoming a fear of religion in social work education and practice.
Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work Social Thought, vol28, 185–199.
Taliaferro, C. (2015) The New Secular Humanists: Ronald Dworkin and Philip Kitcher on
Life without God. Religions, 6(4), 839–851. doi.org/10.3390/rel6030839