Shift Recording in Residential Child Care

Hardy, Mark

Abstract

Recording is a task often perceived by residential child care workers as boring or taking time away from the ‘real work’, direct engagement with young people. It is required by legislation and policy but has been undertheorized and treated as a technical/rational task. In this essay, Foucauldian and feminist perspectives are applied to shift recording, a routine aspect of residential practice, in order to problematize the positivist approach assumed in legislation and policy. The analysis suggests that this approach represses emotional aspects of care and subjugates particular forms of knowledge, such as young people’s experiences. Recording inevitably involves ethical choices and treating it as technical/rational task obscures its ethical implications. This essay concludes that greater attention needs to be given to the ethical aspects of shift recording in order to challenge practice that oppresses young people by failing to recognize their individuality and silencing their voices.

Citation

Hardy, M. (2012). Shift Recording in Residential Child Care. Ethics and Social Welfare, 6(1), 88-96. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2012.651894

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Feb 27, 2012
• Publication Date: 2012-03
• Deposit Date: Jun 19, 2018
• Journal: Ethics and Social Welfare
• Print ISSN: 1749-6535
• Electronic ISSN: 1749-6543
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 88-96
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2012.651894
• Keywords: ethics of care; Foucault; participation; recording; residential child care; surveillance
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/863668