ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses findings from research that utilized a philosophical hermeneutics approach to understand how newly graduated Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) students in Canada, educated in a critical tradition, experience their practice. To “insinuate oneself” typically has a negative connotation in Western society, as it is often thought of in terms of something deceptive or unscrupulous. A. Gramsci’s formulation of hegemony was critical to the reassessment of the formation and distribution of socio-cultural power. A hermeneutic research method was chosen to answer the question, how might newly graduated BSW students, educated in a critical tradition, understand their practice. Critical social workers are taught to approach this type of practice from a voluntaristic, rather than deterministic, stance. Postmodern critical social work approaches have refocused from broader political and structural problems, to more local forms of change in an effort to allow more individuals and groups to be part of the continuum of social change.
