Privilege as Privileging: Making the Dynamic and Complex Nature of Privilege and Marginalization Accessible

Privilege is one of the central constructs social work educators reference to increase self-awareness and concern about inequality, but it is often oversimplified. This article argues how the concept of privilege can be made more credible to learners by anchoring it to everyday business-as-usual dec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of social work education 2017-01, Vol.53 (1), p.52-65
Main Author: Minarik, Joseph D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advantaged
Anchoring
Beliefs
Concept Mapping
Consciousness
Correlation
Counselor Training
Decision Making
Decisions
Disadvantaged
Ideology
Inequality
Marginality
Metacognition
Selfawareness
Social Differences
Social exclusion
Social privilege
Social Work
Social work education
Sociocultural factors
Stereotypes
Teachers
Teaching Methods
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Description
Summary:Privilege is one of the central constructs social work educators reference to increase self-awareness and concern about inequality, but it is often oversimplified. This article argues how the concept of privilege can be made more credible to learners by anchoring it to everyday business-as-usual decision making, stereotyping, and various ideologies. Using a modified definition of privilege as privileging, and elaborating the definition of opportunity, the article describes the connections between opportunity distribution decisions, content of stereotypes, and belief systems, showing how educators can help students connect privileging at the individual and interpersonal levels to group-based inequality and sociocultural phenomena. The article also shows how using the privileging concept map can help students identify subtler contemporary examples of privileging and marginalization.
ISSN:1043-7797
2163-5811
DOI:10.1080/10437797.2016.1237913