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Qualitative Social Work
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Future Talk

Discussing Hypothetical Situations with Prospective Adoptive Parents

Martine Noordegraaf

Utrecht University, The Netherlands, martine.noordegraaf{at}chello.nl

Carolus van Nijnatten

Utrecht University, The Netherlands, C.H.C.J.vanNijnatten{at}uu.nl

Ed Elbers

Utrecht University, The Netherlands, E.Elbers{at}uu.nl

The objective of this study is to contribute towards understanding how welfare and justice discourses become apparent in institutional conversations where social workers involved in child protection have dual professional identities: that of helper and of gatekeeper. In this article we analyse a specific conversational practice in a particular child protection context: social workers asking questions about hypothetical situations in interviews with prospective adoptive parents. We show the nature of these questions in face-to-face interactions between social workers and prospective adoptive parents. In addition, we also analyse how the social workers manage to integrate aspects of testing the capabilities of the prospective adoptive parents while, at the same time, also helping them to become even better prepared parents. Using the method of conversation analysis makes it possible to analyse how the social workers are doing being a gatekeeper and/or helper without spelling that out.

Key Words: adoptive parenthood • child protection • conversation analysis • hypothetical situations • institutional communication

Qualitative Social Work, Vol. 7, No. 3, 310-329 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1473325008093704
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