scholarly journals The Insider-Researcher Status: A Challenge for Social Work Practice Research

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Chammas
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Practice Research

For insider-researchers engaged in qualitative inquiry, positionality and researcher neutrality are major concerns. Based on a study of human rights in social work practice among asylum seekers in a public institutional setting, this article highlights the insider-researcher status where the researcher was also a practitioner in the setting. Specifically, the author discusses the insider-researcher’s positionality towards knowledge of the population served, knowledge of the setting and knowledge of the research process by examining both the advantages and limitations of being an insider-researcher, as well as highlights ways to address and overcome these limitations.

scholarly journals SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND MARGINALISATION OF HOMELESS PEOPLE: A CLARION SOCIAL WORK CALL FOR THE SPIRIT OF UBUNTU TO REIGN

2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-454
Author(s):  
Timson Mahlangu ◽  
Nathaniel Phuti Kgadima
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Homeless People ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Structured Interviews

Social work is committed to the advancement of human rights and social justice. One strategy for promoting social justice is to inculcate a human rights-based approach to social work practice. Using ubuntu as a theorical framework, this article initially explores social exclusion and the accompanying stigma that homeless people experience; it then examines how social workers could apply the principles of ubuntu to re-inscribe homeless people’s human rights. A qualitative study was undertaken with 14 participants who were purposively selected and also identified through snowball sampling. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. Principles of credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability were judiciously adhered to in the research process. The findings indicate that homeless people are the most marginalised population of the community and they are exploited in a variety of ways.

scholarly journals The Information Behaviour of Social Workers: Needs, Seeking, Acquiring and Using Information in Practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 1588-1610
Author(s):  
Niamh Flanagan
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Information Behaviour ◽  
Traditional Research ◽  
Search For Information ◽  
Information Landscape

Abstract In the debate about what informs social work practice, research remains the dominant discourse. However, the relationship between research and social work practice has always been an uneasy one, arguably passed from other clinical disciplines without resizing to fit social work. Even as social work research matures as a discipline it represents one element in a much broader composite which informs practice. This article takes a unique step back from the traditional research-practice discourse and examines the broader information landscape of social work practice, asking how practitioners inform their practice, rather than how research informs practice. This study explores the information needs that prompt practitioners to search for information, the strategies they employ, their acquisition of information and the uses to which the information is put. This study aims to elucidate the information behaviour with a view to improving dissemination and use. Findings demonstrate that the social work information base is substantially broader than has been suggested. Practitioners employ a pragmatic palette of strategies to navigate the breadth of information that supports practice, from research through to knowledge sharing. This article proposes that a pragmatic framework of information behaviour is required to accurately reflect the information behaviour of social workers.

Learning from the Staff and Clients of Child Welfare Services

2020 ◽  
pp. 99-118
Author(s):  
Austin Michael ◽  
Sarah Carnochan
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Child Welfare Workers ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Partnership Model ◽  
Human Service Agencies ◽  
Welfare Workers

Chapter 5 of Practice Research in the Human Services: A University-Agency Partnership Model focuses on studies of child welfare practice in county human service agencies. An early multi-county project explored the tensions that arise in interprofessional relationships within the juvenile dependency system, using interviews and focus groups with legal and child welfare professionals, as well as foster youth and caregivers. A second project developed innovative qualitative data mining methods to examine an array of practice issues that included parental substance use, child trauma, and skillful social work practice with youth, using the case record documents created by child welfare workers as the data source. Practice research principles derived from the projects relate to the essential role of communications throughout the research process, the contrasting time frames that operate in agency and academic research settings, and the need for awareness of the potential for political sensitivity surrounding study findings.

A review of research about the transition from student social worker to practitioner: Exploring diversity

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 834-857
Author(s):  
Lana M Battaglia ◽  
Catherine A Flynn
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Transition To Practice

Summary With increasing student mobility to and from western host-universities, newly qualified social workers are more likely to enter the field in an unfamiliar context. To examine whether current knowledge appropriately informs education and support for a diversifying cohort of newly qualified social workers in the Australian context, a scoping review was conducted on 53 articles investigating the transition to social work practice. Research conducted over a 45-year period from a broad range of international contexts was included in the review. Findings Findings suggest that current understandings do not reflect the needs or experiences of the present cohort of newly qualified social workers as they transition to social work practice. Rather, study samples, mostly derived from western contexts, are notably homogenous, with most participants described by researchers, as ‘white’. Additionally, there is an assumption that students transition to practice within the same context as their education. Current knowledge therefore does not capture the various ways internationally mobile, newly graduated social workers may transition to practice, or how it is experienced. Applications Findings suggest that further examination is urgently needed on the pathways navigated to practice by diverse and mobile early career social workers. Further consideration of the influences of diversity and mobility on experience is needed, using more inclusive research methods, to capture the variability and complexity of the transition to practice as the profession diversifies and mobilises.

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