Indigenous Youth Participatory Action Research: Re-visioning Social Justice for Social Work with Indigenous Youths

Theoretical discussion

This article questions social justice as one of the foundational values identified by the National Association of Social Worker's (NASW) Code of Ethics, especially given the history of social work within Native communities. The author offers a theoretical discussion, asking whose definition of social justice should be used, and how social justice can be revisioned with the perspective of Native communities, and Native youth in particular, in mind. The article makes a case for youth participatory action research as one method that can forward social justice in Native communities.

This article interrogates social justice as one of the foundational values in the National Association of Social Worker's Code of Ethics. It acknowledges the past and ongoing harms of the social work field towards Indigenous peoples.

This article calls for a re-visioning of social justice theory and practice for social work, one that moves beyond the rhetoric of social justice towards its realization, specifically for Indigenous communities and Indigenous youth. Youth participatory action research is recommended as one model to use moving forward.

Theoretical discussion using secondary sources

Theoretical discussion published within a Social Work journal to further conversation within that field.

"Given this cumulative history, Indigenous communities hold a justifiable apprehension toward the profession of social work. A paradox remains: How can a profession, across time and while espousing an ethos of social justice, so frequently have participated in patterns of injustice?" (p. 316)

"If the profession of social work is truly committed to social justice, a re-visioning of social justice theory for social work practice is necessary" (p. 318)

Social Work