ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to develop thinking about gender and family in ways that challenge and expand social work practice knowledge. The concept of family has often been assumed rather than defined in social work literature. Social work has drawn historically from sociological and psychological theories of the family in adapting and developing models and interventions. The family life-cycle model, like the individual model on which it is premised, assumes a "normal" and linear progression for families. Family life-cycle theorists have also worked to incorporate gender as well as issues of race, ethnicity, and class into their thinking and practice. Poststructuralists have focused on questions of language, subjectivity, discourse, and power in the construction of social reality. The field placement provides an important opportunity for putting critical knowledge of gender, power, and family diversity to practice. The educational process should interrupt rather than facilitate the flow of dominant discourse.
