Background to the Research

• Despite the intensity of research on the conflict during the past twenty years little has been said about how social work has been affected by 'The Troubles'. This article debates why ARADP is important in assisting social workers and social work students address various levels of subordination in society. Following this an explanation is then presented of how an understanding of ARADP can help analyse the role of social work and its relationship with the state and sectarianism in NI. Finally, several ideas are proposed for the training and research of anti-sectarian practice.
  

Research Approach

The Case for ARADP

• This article notes that in contrast to the professional stance represented in the earlier Code of Ethics (BASW, 1975) one outcome of ARADP training for social workers has been an acknowledgement of the prevalence of structural, institutional and personal forms of discrimination in society. Consequently, there is now an enhanced recognition of the complexity of social disadvantage and how oppressive structures condition the language and practice of the profession. Furthermore, the emergence of the concept of ARADP has facilitated the examination of discrimination in society, encouraging analyses of social work interventions which might be effective in challenging disadvantage.
  

The State, Sectarianism and Social Work in Northern Ireland

• As elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and indeed also in the South of Ireland, there exists in NI high levels of poverty and disadvantage, and other unequal divisions of gender, race, disability, sexuality and age. However, it is the added dimension of sectarianism which makes ARADP training and practice so difficult and yet so crucial in NI. In this article, the authors argue that sectarianism is a product of the particular formation of the state in NI and is manifest at institutional and ideological levels, as well as in popular culture, interpersonal attitudes and behaviour. They state that analysis of these factors is a necessary prerequisite for anti-sectarian practice, as personal social work has a mutual relationship with these wider social structures.

Training, and Research into Training, for Anti-Sectarian Practice

• The article states that both the University of Ulster at Magee and the Queen's Univeristy Belfast have developed training for anti-sectarian practice, influenced by the authors' analysis of social work and sectarianism, as expressed earlier in the paper. Training for anti-sectarian practice is a complex and challenging process for staff and students alike, and requires both to accept individual responsibility, whilst acknowledging the structural causation and institutional sustenance of sectarianism.
• Research on ARADP and anti-sectarian practice is at an early stage. However, the authors state that further work will include a longitudinal survey of how student's knowledge bases are affected by college and practise-based curricula over the two year period of professional training. The article then details findings of research carried out by Smyth et al (1993), which focuses on how two social work courses at the University of Ulster, Magee College, met the ARADP requirement on practice placement. The research examined several pieces of evidence of anti-sectarian work, two of which focused on religious practice, and the importance of sectarian work, two of which focused on religious belief and religious practice, and the importance of respecting rights to religious practice. The study concludes that these types of issues were perhaps amongst the easier ones to raise in relation to sectarianism. The research also noted geographical differences within NI, explaining some of the difficulties experienced in undertaking work in sectarianism, which seemed to be more intense in certain locations than in others.

Conclusions

• The implications of ARADP for training social workers in NI are many. Effective ARADP work requires social workers to be able to tolerate conflict and ambivalence. Advanced skills in working with resistance of clients, colleagues, and professional organisations are also required. The article concludes by stating that the integrity of social work's contribution to the society it serves, and its ability to form part of the solution to social ills, depend on the profession's readiness to allow strategies such as ARADP to continue.