Fran Gale

Western Sydney University, School of Social Sciences & Psychology, Faculty Member

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Andrea Peto

Central European University

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Prof. Andrew Azzopardi

University of Malta

MOHD SADIQ SALMAN

Aligarh Muslim University

Laurajane Smith

The Australian National University

Emma Waterton

Western Sydney University

Yanina Welp

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), Geneva

Ármann Jakobsson

University of Iceland

Viacheslav Kuleshov

Stockholm University

Andrea Cornwall

King's College London

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Papers by Fran Gale

Ultimate concerns and human rights

Promoting youth-directed social change: engaging transformational critical practice

Routledge eBooks, Jan 25, 2022

This article examines the influence of social workers' critical practice on youth-directed social... more This article examines the influence of social workers' critical practice on youth-directed social change among hard-to-reach young people in neoliberal new public management contexts. Young people are increasingly acknowledged as essential change agents in ameliorating their experiences of disadvantage or marginalisation. Yet, youth and community organisations supporting projects and strategies to engage with young people's agency find change from these interventions is small, or non-sustained. In exploring what obstructs and what galvanises youth-directed social change, comparative analysis of three youth participatory action research projects nested in youth-facing agencies in New South Wales, Australia, was undertaken. Particular attention is drawn to the young people's perspectives in order to provide insight into tackling challenges of youth disengagement and exclusion. The article predominantly draws on Nancy Fraser's critical theory of social justice as a heuristic to illuminate dynamics of the young people's projects. At the heart of all projects were transformative measures with potential to impact underlying structures which foster marginalisation, opening up prospects for sustained change. Despite a significant barrier being new management practices reinforcing adult asymmetrical relationships with youth, strategies informed by critical social work practice were able to support young people to progress their social change goals.

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Critical social work in action : equipping social work graduates for socially just practice

ANZSWWER 2020 Virtual Symposium Book of Abstracts: Social Work in a Climate of Change, 19-20 November 2020, Online, 2020

Background: Redressing inequality, discrimination and oppression are core for social work practic... more Background: Redressing inequality, discrimination and oppression are core for social work practice. Yet increasingly social work students find themselves grappling with identifying and challenging issues of social justice in contexts influenced by neoliberal hegemony. Such contexts emphasise failings of individual behaviour where people may be experiencing social problems such as poverty, inequality, incarceration and racism. Aims: By exploring the ways in which social work students can most effectively identify and challenge issues of social justice this research aims to inform social work teaching practices which can best equip graduating social workers for emancipatory social work practice. Method: Here we report on a pilot study, part of a wider research project exploring student experiences and understandings of an undergraduate social work subject which explicitly aims to equip students with skills for social justice practice. Field education students carried out a review of social work social justice literature; then undertook peer interviews to share collective experiences and co-design creative solutions for addressing the research question: what are the most effective approaches for teaching social justice understandings and practices to social work students? Findings: The students provide insight into ways they frame social justice concerns and the methods and strategies they believe could most effectively promote student recognition, understanding and critical skills for socially just social work practice in contexts increasingly shaped by neoliberalism

“This Group Is My Country”: Sri Lankan Tamil Women’s Narratives of Isolation and Connectedness in Australia

Social Inclusion

Refugees lose their networks and support systems on their journey from their home country. In add... more Refugees lose their networks and support systems on their journey from their home country. In addition, they may experience torture, trauma, and socio‐economic hardship. A critical question concerning refugee wellbeing is how refugee belonging, inclusivity, and community connectedness can be better understood, strengthened, and promoted. In this article, we discuss how members of the Tamil Seniors Group, supported by the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS), develop social networks in Australia. Based on two focus group discussions, this article analyses their experiences through the intersection of age and gender to elucidate the challenges and affordances of networking and establishing social relations in Australia.

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The effectiveness of digital mapping to enable hard-to-reach children to co-design, with the local authority, a Children Friendly City (UNESCO) in a disadvantaged community in Australia

DIPRC2019: Digital Inclusion Policy and Research Conference 2019, 18 - 19 June 2019, University of Liverpool in London, 2019

Child Friendly City Principles (CFCP) aim to increase children’s life chances, health and well-be... more Child Friendly City Principles (CFCP) aim to increase children’s life chances, health and well-being (UNESCO https://childfriendlycities.org/guiding-principals/). Seventy-five children, 7-12 years from schools in a disadvantaged area of Sydney, Australia created a digital map to define what CFCP means for them in their community context. Both natural and built environments were a source of interaction and connection. The children were provided with art materials to create whatever they wanted to express their positive experiences in their local community. They were then supported to upload images of their creative work onto a digital map of their local area, pinpointing each location of their choice. The children used the digital map to explain what is important for them in their municipality and to advocate for social justice. Spaces and places selected were explained by the children when situating them on the digital map in terms of their significance for their respect, autonomy, identifications, safety, social and cultural meanings as well as community engagement. Using their digital map, the children shared power and responsibility with local authority decision makers to co-design a safe, healthy environment aligned with how children chose to localise CFCP. The digital map provides a sustainable platform on which more social and political links can be built by children. The implications of using digital mapping as a tool for hard-to-reach children, in partnership with local authority, to engage directly in place-based change, affords an opportunity for critical place-making, that is, grounded in children’s understandings of the often invisible socio-spatial processes underpinning and reproducing social differences

Promoting Intercultural Understanding, Connectedness, and Belonging: An Independent Qualitative Evaluation of Together for Humanity Programs

This report presents an independent evaluation of the extent to which Together for Humanity's... more This report presents an independent evaluation of the extent to which Together for Humanity's programs – particularly the Prejudice and Belonging and Good Practice Programs – achieve their aims. Critical, was understanding the extent to which Together for Humanity programs support learners to improve their understandings and skills in intercultural understanding, belonging and connectedness, resilience, compassion, and creative and critical thinking. Further, the report contextualises Together for Humanity's operations within an updated scope of current research on best practice. A qualitative methodology was utilised. Students and school staff participated in in-depth interviews pre- and post-program delivery. Participants were from eight diverse primary and secondary schools across the South-Eastern Sydney metropolitan region where Together for Humanity programs were delivered from 2018 to 2019. The evaluation found that TFH programs are effective in assisting students to ...

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Ultimate concerns and human rights : How can practice sensitive to spirituality and religion expand and sharpen social work capacity to challenge social injustice?

Spirituality and religion are among the very last human rights to be implemented in social work. ... more Spirituality and religion are among the very last human rights to be implemented in social work. However, there is a difference between a right in the Conventions and Codes of Ethics and grounding that right in social work praxis. Understood as a human right possessed by individuals, spirituality and religion are, nonetheless, increasingly esteemed as important aspects of culturally competent social work practice i.e. that social workers are cognizant of diverse ethnic groups’ religious affiliations and practice. Consequently, an intent to progress and deepen anti-oppressive and anti-racist practice is a key motivation for including spirituality and religion in social work literature and practice. Social work is now facing unprecedented challenges in a postsecular (Habermas 2006), globalised world, where the impact of globalisation on those individuals, groups and communities who are most disadvantaged and vulnerable leaves social work to pick up the pieces (Dominelli 2010). This chapter argues that social work practice that is alive to spirituality and religion can construct a critical practice which expands its capacity to galvanise social justice. Spirituality and religion, through their potential to bring together ‘situated’ contextual knowledge of people’s ‘glocal’ needs, ultimate concerns, oppression and forms of resistance, can be a significant catalyst in social work practice for inspiring and motivating social justice. Nevertheless, the claim that religion and spirituality can challenge oppression and disadvantage arising from social processes including globalisation remains at the level of the romantic unless the ‘knowledge from the margins’, which this chapter argues they can deliver, has a conduit for practice

Through a glass, darkly

Metascience, 2011

Seeking Refuge, Losing Hope: Parents and Children in Immigration Detention

Australasian Psychiatry, 2002

Objective: To record observations made by the authors on a series of visits between December 2001... more Objective: To record observations made by the authors on a series of visits between December 2001 and March 2002 to two of Australia's immigration detention centers and to consider the mental health consequences of Australia's policy of mandatory immigration detention of asylum seekers for families and children. Conclusions: Parents and children in immigration detention are often vulnerable to mental health problems before they reach Australia. Experiences in prolonged detention add to their burden of trauma, which has an impact not only on the individual adults and children, but on the family process itself. Immigration detention profoundly undermines the parental role, renders the parent impotent and leaves the child without protection or comfort in already unpredictable surroundings where basic needs for safe play and education are unmet. This potentially exposes the child to physical and emotional neglect in a degrading and hostile environment and puts children at high r...

Time to father

Social work in health care, 2004

This paper reports the qualitative findings from 40 couples involved in a study exploring men&#39... more This paper reports the qualitative findings from 40 couples involved in a study exploring men's post-natal mental health. Interviews were conducted with individuals soon after the birth of their first child. Findings suggest that new fathers want to be more involved in the direct care and nurturing of their children than their fathers were with them. Discourses which construct fathers and inform social structures have not kept pace with men's changed attitudes and role expectations limiting the options available to men as fathers. In particular men's employment circumstances figure in their experience of adjusting to life as a father. Those fathers having least flexibility and autonomy in their work report experiencing, since the birth of their child, more unhappiness, anxiety, and generally higher levels of stress. These findings suggest increasing workplace flexibility and provisions such as parental leave are important for men's post-natal mental health.

Young people, social capital and mental health

Social exclusion, or being disconnected from a society's organization and communities (Room, ... more Social exclusion, or being disconnected from a society's organization and communities (Room, 1995), has consistently been linked with negative health and social outcomes (Silburn, 2003; Dudley et al, 1998a & b). Social capital has been argued to address social exclusion. In this paper, the concept of social capital is used to explore how young people may be positioned within society in ways which enhance their mental health. We present findings in which young people linked practices of 'care' with the development of bonds of trust with the community of adults. A key finding is that young people read a lack of 'trust' as a lack of 'care'. This was found to have important implications for young people's emotional resilience. Social capital in the form of bridging capital (Putnam, 2000) can open up 'spaces' where young people's expression of themselves and needs become discernible.

Supporting Strong and Connected Communities

Spirited Practices

Fostering Social Resilience Through Online Communities: An Evaluation of the Livewire Chat Room

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Through a glass, darkly : Nazi era illuminations of psychiatry, human Rights and rights violations

Amid crisis on Manus Island, some questions about the role of health professionals

Health professionals confront the intentional harms of indefinite immigration detention: an Australian overview, evaluation of alternative responses and proposed strategy

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care

Purpose Indefinite immigration detention causes well-documented harms to mental health, and inter... more Purpose Indefinite immigration detention causes well-documented harms to mental health, and international condemnation and resistance leave it undisrupted. Health care is non-independent from immigration control, compromising clinical ethics. Attempts to establish protected, independent clinical review and subvert the system via advocacy and political engagement have had limited success. The purpose of this study is to examine the following: how indefinite detention for deterrence (exemplified by Australia) injures asylum-seekers; how international legal authorities confirm Australia’s cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; how detention compromises health-care ethics and hurts health professionals; to weigh arguments for and against boycotting immigration detention; and to discover how health professionals might address these harms, achieving significant change. Design/methodology/approach Secondary data analyses and ethical argumentation were employed. Findings Australian Governm...

Through a glass darkly

The Pharos of Alpha Omega Alpha-Honor Medical Society. Alpha Omega Alpha, 2012

Transit to connection : aspirations and identities of asylum seeking young people

Fran Gale, Natalie Bolzan and Shakeh Momartin, Transit to Connection: Aspirations and Identities... more

Time to Father

Social Work in Health Care, Oct 8, 2008

ABSTRACT This paper reports the qualitative findings from 40 couples involved in a study explorin... more ABSTRACT This paper reports the qualitative findings from 40 couples involved in a study exploring men&#39;s post-natal mental health. Interviews were conducted with individuals soon after the birth of their first child. Findings suggest that new fathers want to be more involved in the direct care and nurturing of their children than their fathers were with them. Discourses which construct fathers and inform social structures have not kept pace with men&#39;s changed attitudes and role expectations limiting the options available to men as fathers. In particular men&#39;s employment circumstances figure in their experience of adjusting to life as a father. Those fathers having least flexibility and autonomy in their work report experiencing, since the birth of their child, more unhappiness, anxiety, and generally higher levels of stress. These findings suggest increasing workplace flexibility and provisions such as parental leave are important for men&#39;s post-natal mental health.

Ultimate concerns and human rights

Promoting youth-directed social change: engaging transformational critical practice

Routledge eBooks, Jan 25, 2022

Download

Critical social work in action : equipping social work graduates for socially just practice

ANZSWWER 2020 Virtual Symposium Book of Abstracts: Social Work in a Climate of Change, 19-20 November 2020, Online, 2020

“This Group Is My Country”: Sri Lankan Tamil Women’s Narratives of Isolation and Connectedness in Australia

Social Inclusion

Download

The effectiveness of digital mapping to enable hard-to-reach children to co-design, with the local authority, a Children Friendly City (UNESCO) in a disadvantaged community in Australia

DIPRC2019: Digital Inclusion Policy and Research Conference 2019, 18 - 19 June 2019, University of Liverpool in London, 2019

Promoting Intercultural Understanding, Connectedness, and Belonging: An Independent Qualitative Evaluation of Together for Humanity Programs

Download

Ultimate concerns and human rights : How can practice sensitive to spirituality and religion expand and sharpen social work capacity to challenge social injustice?

Through a glass, darkly

Metascience, 2011

Seeking Refuge, Losing Hope: Parents and Children in Immigration Detention

Australasian Psychiatry, 2002

Time to father

Social work in health care, 2004

Young people, social capital and mental health

Supporting Strong and Connected Communities

Spirited Practices

Fostering Social Resilience Through Online Communities: An Evaluation of the Livewire Chat Room

Download

Through a glass, darkly : Nazi era illuminations of psychiatry, human Rights and rights violations

Amid crisis on Manus Island, some questions about the role of health professionals

Health professionals confront the intentional harms of indefinite immigration detention: an Australian overview, evaluation of alternative responses and proposed strategy

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care

Through a glass darkly

The Pharos of Alpha Omega Alpha-Honor Medical Society. Alpha Omega Alpha, 2012

Transit to connection : aspirations and identities of asylum seeking young people

Fran Gale, Natalie Bolzan and Shakeh Momartin, Transit to Connection: Aspirations and Identities... more

Time to Father

Social Work in Health Care, Oct 8, 2008

Doesn't matter if you stopped me, I've still got to chase my dream : Tibetan youth in NSW navigate racism and intergenerational differences

by Fran Gale and RIMPLE MEHTA

Journal of Intercultural Studies, 2024

Racism and discrimination, family disjuncture and differential experiences depending on migration... more Racism and discrimination, family disjuncture and differential
experiences depending on migration experiences influence
resettlement in new environments and sense of belonging. This
article focuses on a little-known group in Australia – Tibetan
youth. This article centres the voices of Tibetan refugee youth in
the state of New South Wales seeking to understand, from their
frame of reference, how they establish networks and social
relations in the context of racism and intergenerational
differences. ‘Refugee youth’ can imply homogenised experiences,
yet intersections such as ethnicity, culture, religion, gender and
more shape diverse experiences. This article also shows the
importance of responsive not-for-profit organisations in filling the
welcome gap that is not apparent in the wider society.

Fran Gale

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