Logic deficit in social intervention for parents: Professional practices and social representations

• Published in: Nouvelles pratiques sociales Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 152 - 176
• Main Authors: Boulanger, Dany, Larose, Francois, Couturier, Yves
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French
• Published: 01.01.2010
• Subjects: Common Sense; Empowerment; Intervention; Parents; Skills; Socioeconomic Status; Work Skills
• ISSN: 0843-4468

The professional practices of the social interveners are most generally embedded in a deficit perspective, aiming principally toward the compensation of the educational deficits attributed to the parents coming from underprivileged socioeconomic classes. These practices would be based on some negative social representations shared by these professionals towards the educational skills of the low socio-economic status parents. Social representations are a share core of common sense knowledge who guides the behaviors and conducts of the individuals pertaining to a social category such as the professionals of the social intervention. However, actualizing new practices based on the recognition of the parents' educational skills could, under certain conditions, help the development of positive social representations by the social practitioners. In this paper, we will describe the nature of the practitioner' social representations in this matter. We will demonstrate up to which level these representations have an influence on their practices. Moreover, we will expose, under which conditions certain professional behaviors might help to modify these representations and sustain a process of appropriation of certain skills (empowerment) by the parents stemming from underprivileged "milieu". Consequently, our paper will shed a light on the relationship between professional practices and social representations. Adapted from the source document.