The discourses of a childcaring agency in the Philippines: A community of practice perspective

• Main Author: Lim, Jonna Marie A.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Child welfare > Philippines; Community-based child welfare > Philippines; Language and Literacy Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/541
• Institution: De La Salle University

Neglect and abuse of children has remained a persistent problem in Filipino society. Though laws were enacted to care and protect Filipino children, the dearth of studies examining the real experiences of these children and of those involved in the delivery of care has further disadvantaged these neglected and abused children. Hence, the present study examined the discourses that emerged from the policy documents relevant to a child caring agency (CCA), from the accounts of the practitioners and from the life stories of the residents. Using the descriptive single case study method in describing the discourses that emerged from the data sources, the analysis revealed that the dominant discourses were responsible in the formation of practices that would constitute a community of practice (CoP) within a CCA. The dominance of certain discourses were further enacted on the language level where the policy documents assigned beneficiary roles to the residents, agentive to the government or the CCA and both beneficiary and agentive roles to the families or parents in contrast with the practitioners and residents narratives which highlighted the agentive roles that residents must play for them to achieve a better life. The dominant discourses were also found to serve as a means of social control within a CCA to direct and guide the members of the CoP in achieving its common endeavor of a better life for the residents. The results of the present study provided a clearer picture of the realities within a child caring agency that may hopefully better inform legislators in their policy-making endeavors, better assist child carers in the delivery of care, and better prepare and help the residents become full-fledged members of a community of practice which seems to be a key for a socially disadvantaged child to secure himself a better life after he leaves a child caring agency.