Social Work Foundations - Week 2

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key historical foundations, Indigenous wholistic theories, social welfare policies, and critical frameworks presented in Week 2 of Social Work Foundations.

Indigenous Wholistic Theory

A practice knowledge framework described by Kathy Absolon (2010) that utilizes the four directions of the Medicine Wheel to address wholeness, balance, connection, harmony, growth, and healing.

Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ)

Indigenous Inuit traditional knowledge and foundational principles that guide approaches to helping, healing, and community well-being.

East (Indigenous Wholistic Theory)

The Medicine Wheel quadrant associated with the spiritual domain, new beginnings, clarity of thought, vision and purpose, cultural identity, and understanding the self in relation to past, present, and future.

South (Indigenous Wholistic Theory)

The Medicine Wheel quadrant associated with the emotional domain, heart-centered healing, relational growth, trust, intimacy, community connections, reciprocity, and connecting to Elders.

West (Indigenous Wholistic Theory)

The Medicine Wheel quadrant associated with physical health, endurance, material needs, living ancestral teachings, and critically analyzing the ongoing impacts of colonization.

North (Indigenous Wholistic Theory)

The Medicine Wheel quadrant associated with mental wisdom, integration, Elder wisdom, traditional knowledge, decision-making skills, community leadership, and being called to action for change and balance.

Bureau des pauvres (1688)

A French colonial institution established in 1688 to oversee poor relief, distinguish between deserving and undeserving individuals, and coordinate charity and mutual aid.

Poorhouse

A 19th-century British-influenced institution providing indoor relief and basic shelter to impoverished individuals deemed unable to work.

Workhouse

A 19th-century British-influenced institution that mandated hard labor in exchange for institutional shelter and food for individuals deemed able to work.

Less Eligible & Less Deserving

A social welfare principle under which assistance is deliberately kept restricted and subordinate, rooted in concerns over dependency and the view that poverty stems from personal moral failure.

Social Gospel Movement

A movement providing social services through Christian-focused organizations; Black Church communities simultaneously established parallel networks to deliver support denied by racist policies.

Welfare State

A Canadian system that emerged following the 1929 Great Depression, marking a structural transition from religious and charitable assistance to government-funded responsibility for social relief.

Neoliberalism

A political and economic ideology emerging in the 1980s that prioritizes market growth and fiscal austerity, driving social work toward standardized assessments, brief interventions, and reduced service funding.

Family Ethic

A historical social welfare doctrine that tied women's entitlement to aid to their status as mothers and wives within traditional households, rather than their individual economic needs.

Second Shift

A concept identified by Arlie Hochschild (1989) describing how women working full-time outside the home continue to bear primary responsibility for unpaid domestic labor and family caregiving.

Market Citizenship

A framework (Baker & Tippin, 1999) equating formal employment with self-sufficiency and full citizenship, which stigmatizes low-income lone mothers and those outside the wage-labor market.

Social Location

The combination of intersecting identity markers—such as race, class, gender, ability, and sexual orientation—that positions an individual within societal hierarchies and determines access to power and privilege.

Positionality

The specific social perspective and stance an individual holds based on their social location, influencing how they perceive, understand, and operate relative to power structures.

Intersectionality

A theoretical lens coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw demonstrating how various social identities overlap, collide, and intersect to produce distinct, simultaneous forms of privilege and discrimination.

Cultural Humility

An ongoing professional commitment to self-reflection, learning and unlearning, and recognizing the limits of one's knowledge while actively challenging colonial dominance in social work.