While professional social workers are clearly obligated to pursue social justice,
controversies abound surrounding what that means in theory and practice. Perhaps nowhere are
the paradoxes inherent in practice for social justice seen in sharper contrast than in the field
of child welfare. Intended to protect the rights of children, child welfare systems themselves have
been characterized as instruments of oppression. This article hopes to enrich that discourse
through an examination of how these issues are conceptualized and acted upon by front-line
child welfare social workers. Through in-depth interviews with 25 child welfare workers, and 3
focus groups, in two Canadian provinces, and employing grounded theory strategies for data
collection and analysis, we have explored understandings of the social justice mandate and how
it is expressed in practice. Participants in this study conceptualized social justice in terms of
both wider societal goals of fairness and equality, and of the quality of interactions and
relationships between social workers and those with whom they work; conceptual emphasis on
one or the other of these we found to be associated with differences in practice. We reflect on the
implications of each of these emphases for effectiveness in advancing social justice aims in the
child welfare context, and make recommendations regarding a grounding for educators and
practitioners in theoretical orientations that includes attention to the linkages between macro and
micro opportunities to advance social justice.