Qualitative Social Work Research Research Articles

How Academic Social Workers Negotiate Their Direct Practice Skills and Qualitative Research Techniques.

The field of social work has been invested in assessing the alignment between direct practice skills and qualitative research techniques. Nevertheless, some of the debates surrounding this relationship have not been attended to recently-and less so in empirical ways. This qualitative study aimed to assess the relationship between practice and research skills with the goal of enhancing training in our field. Twenty academic social workers who conduct qualitative research participated in semistructured interviews. Thirteen were female, 13 were White, 11 had a doctoral degree, and their ages ranged from 27 to 65 years. Autoethnography and constructivist grounded theory approaches guided the analysis. Findings were contained in three themes: transferable techniques, bidirectional benefits, and pedagogical possibilities. Data underscore the role of reflexivity and boundaries in forging spaces amenable to appropriate data collection. Findings also supported a nuanced assessment of how qualitative research in social work may deliver benefits to both researcher and interviewee. Respondents suggest guidelines to ensure that training opportunities are ethically sound and consistent with social work values. Findings from this study may inform innovative enrichment opportunities for the field of social work across both research and practice.

Challenges of conducting qualitative social work research with older adults

ABSTRACT This study was conducted using a qualitative descriptive design to explore the challenges encountered by researchers who have conducted social work research with older adults using qualitative research methods. Within the scope of the research, in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 researchers who have conducted qualitative social work research on older adults. Following the thematic analysis of the data obtained, three themes were identified: challenges encountered in the preparation process, challenges related to the researcher, and challenges related to old age. The research findings suggest that researchers may encounter various challenges when conducting qualitative social work research with older adults, despite the fact that a prior educational background in social work provides an advantage. It is anticipated that the visibility of qualitative research experiences with older individuals will contribute to the design of studies that are responsive to the general characteristics of the old age period and the problems and requirements of this period.

“Helping Me Get Through the Day”: The Importance of Social Contact and Support for Incarcerated Young People During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: There is limited knowledge about how incarcerated young people have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. An improved understanding of the impact of pandemic circumstances could help to advance a multitude of practices and policies, including those that strengthen personal relationships. Objectives: This study aimed to (a) describe self-reported perceptions that social contact and support for incarcerated young people are powerful protective factors with the potential to attenuate the negative impacts of incarceration, (b) explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their personal and relational well-being, (c) determine the extent to which the pandemic restricted access to social support and other resources, and (d) consider potential identity-related differences in these perceptions and impacts. Methods: This exploratory study employed interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith et al., 2010) of semi-structured interviews with 30 incarcerated youth in an adult correctional setting, ages 16-21 years, in addition to some preliminary information about social contact and multidimensional social support. Results: Significant benefits of family support were identified, such as moral guidance, hopefulness, and goal maintenance, as well as the necessity of relationships for youth well-being given the especially challenging circumstances created by the pandemic. Limitations and barriers to social support, as well as access to services, were identified that may have implications for programmatic and system-level changes. Conclusion: Contact with and involvement in supportive relationships is important for incarcerated young people, perhaps especially so during times of crisis. Specific implications for both forensic social work practice, such as family-focused advocacy and services, and further qualitative social work research, including with incarcerated young people, are further explored.

Challenges of Conducting Qualitative Social Work Research During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this study is to explore the challenges faced by researchers conducting social work research using qualitative research methods during the pandemic period. As part of the qualitative descriptive research methodology employed in this study, in-depth interviews were undertaken with 15 participants who utilized qualitative research methods in the field of social work amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The thematic analysis method was used to analyze the data, and MAXQDA 22 software was used for that process. As a result of the analysis, the following two main themes were identified: the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic reflected in the planning phase of social work research, and the challenges reflected in the data collection process. The research findings revealed that the characteristic of the COVID-19 pandemic that prioritizes the physical distance between people, and the structure of qualitative social work research prioritizing mutual interaction, trust-based relationships, observation, and making the experiences of disadvantaged groups visible do not align, which brings many challenges to the process of conducting online or face-to-face qualitative social work research during the pandemic.

“I may have benefited more than anyone else”: Responses to Staller’s (2024) Write-Up of Jane Gilgun’s Career Interviews

This commentary is a response to an invitation the editorial board of Qualitative Social Work extended to me to comment on an article that reports on my career interview as a qualitative social work researcher. The article appears in the present issue of the journal (Staller, 2024). The editors and I agree that Karen Staller did an exemplary job of interpreting the transcripts on which the article is based but that the transcripts were incomplete. In my enthusiasm for what I did say, I left things out. In this article, I added to the material that Karen had access to, such as laying out the principles of pragmatism that underlie qualitative social work research and practice and how I coped with the effects of hearing stories about violence and gained from it. I also added to the theory of violence that Karen wrote about and to her descriptions of my relationships with other feminists. I gave a brief account of deductive qualitative analysis that I did not mention at all in the interviews. I realize more than ever that there are differences between interviews, which are spontaneous utterances, and articles, that authors write over time, reflect upon, and revise countless times. Then editors have a go at them.

Enhancing critical social work practice: Using text-based vignettes in qualitative research

There exist ongoing calls among social work scholars and practitioners to cultivate applied knowledge of critical and emancipatory practice. In this paper, I explore the utility of text-based vignettes as instruments that can be used to elicit insight from marginalized service users on critical social work practice. To do this work, I draw on data from interviews with 20 transgender and gender diverse (TGD) social service users, along with 10 social workers, whose responses to a text-based vignette were originally used to build an understanding of the constituents of equitable social work practice with TGD people. Incorporating critical pragmatism as a conceptual framework and constructivist grounded theory as a methodological orientation, I analyze data from this study as an exemplar that substantiates the promise of using text-based vignettes in qualitative social work research to generate knowledge of critical social work practice. Specifically, I demonstrate how text-based vignettes in this study (1) contextualized the meaning, significance, and impact of oppression for service users, (2) built insight on practice that reflects solidarity and allyship, and (3) identified opportunities for social workers’ reflexive use of professional power to effect change. Accounting for the tensions between empiricism and critical praxis in social work, I consider the promise of incorporating text-based vignettes to develop empirical social work literature that is rooted in the voices of marginalized service users.

Reflections on the thoughts of Norman Denzin: His connections to the once and future social work qualitative research

Social work qualitative research and the work of Norman Denzin have much in common. Norman’s work was values-based, built on notions of justice, care, dignity, worth, equality, and self-determination with the purpose of identifying and describing problematic social conditions and, in turn, taking action to bring about social change and transformation. This statement fits social work perfectly. In this article, I describe the work of Norman Denzin, show how he promoted qualitative social work research, and how his suggestions for social work researchers to incorporate critical perspectives in our work was calling us back to ourselves. Most of all, he affirmed what we were already doing and want to do better.

Honouring the artistry in qualitative social work research

Honouring the artistry in qualitative social work research

Nowhere to turn: A Black feminist autoethnography of interpersonal violence

In July 2020, rapper Megan Thee Stallion was shot by her then boyfriend Tory Lanez, a fellow rapper. The incident brought to the surface (again) a long, ongoing conversation about the experiences of Black women survivors of intimate partner violence, much like other high-profile cases (e.g., Tina Turner) have done before. Specifically, these cases show how Black men particularly can uphold patriarchal violence in intimate or romantic contexts. Moreover, these cases show the tensions that can arise when survivors seek help from law enforcement. For example, the idea of racial loyalty and not calling the police on a Black man and how this affects the options available to Black women. In other words, Black women often have nowhere to turn for help when they experience violence. In this article, I employ Black Feminist Autoethnography as a methodological framework to analyze a personal instance of road rage where I was attacked, to explore how Black women survivors make meaning of their experiences, the thought process behind their decision to involve the police, how Black men uphold patriarchal violence in non-intimate contexts, and how Black women resist or refuse to accept the violence. This analysis reveals the raced and gendered components underlying the private/public nature of interpersonal violence experienced by Black women and the relationship between intimate and non-intimate interpersonal violence. Implications for qualitative social work research and practice include the use of Black Feminist Autoethnography as a methodological framework to identify areas of empowerment, strength, and support for survivors of violence.

Using text-based vignettes in qualitative social work research

Text-based vignettes are widely used within qualitative social work research yet there is little guidance on how to construct and integrate them into the research process. This article discusses the uses, benefits and limitations of written vignettes as part of semi-structured interviews and focus groups with social workers and related professionals. It provides clear guidelines on how to design a vignette. This includes the choice of scenario, characteristics of the protagonist, type of vignette, research setting, length, vignettes in semi-structured interviews and pre-testing. Text-based vignettes have been successfully used in social work research on six continents in a variety of research contexts including single context, comparative, cross-sectional, longitudinal and replication studies. Written vignettes are a useful tool to elicit (professional) values, attitudes and decision-making processes in a time efficient manner that produces focused, in-depth knowledge without the need to use real practice examples that could potentially include sensitive data or breach confidentiality. Vignettes have been used to explore a wide range of topics including but not limited to adult safeguarding, care planning, child protection and multi-agency working together. There is some debate whether vignette responses mirror real-life actions. The value of vignette data goes beyond documenting real-world decision-making. It can uncover tacit social work knowledge and unquestioned beliefs to show how they interplay in decision-making.

Challenging perspectives: Reflexivity as a critical approach to qualitative social work research

Reflexivity is acknowledged as a crucial concept and is pivotal in the methodology of qualitative research. Various practices of reflexivity are adopted in the social science disciplines. However, the concept is difficult to pin down and the challenge for researchers is to address how to become reflexive and do reflexivity in research practice. In social work, reflexivity has further been developed and applied in practice contexts. The practice terms, critical reflection and reflection or reflectivity are interrelated in ways that aim to explain reflexivity in the profession which, in turn, can offer an enhanced understanding of reflexivity applied in research. This exploratory article promotes practising reflection – questioning, analysing and evaluating oneself in employing reflexivity in all the research stages: methodological construction, data collection and data analysis by undertaking three key self-focused activities: (1) thinking about one’s own thinking; (2) observation of emotions/thoughts, role boundaries and power dynamics in research relationships; and (3) exploration of perceptual experiences. Maintaining the reflexive stance is achieved through reflectivity. The article is largely descriptive but draws on experience in a doctoral study of cultural competence and promotes the effective use of reflexivity in qualitative social work research.

A Complex Unit Interviews Analysis Approach in Qualitative Social Work Research

Abstract Qualitative research methods are advancing from individual analysis levels to dyadic and above to present multiple facets of reality, coinciding well with micro (individual), mezzo (family and groups) and macro (communities and society) levels in social work (SW) practices. Complex units (CU) comprise two groups with several members in each group, with each CU member having a perspective on the studied phenomenon; some perspectives are in congruence, others not. However, methodological approaches to the analysis of CUs are lacking. Based on the naturalistic–constructivist paradigm, this methodological article aims to present a Complex Unit Interviews Analysis (CUIA) approach that can be used in qualitative SW research. It includes a four-phase circular procedure: Phase 1—full analysis (i) familiarisation, (ii) coding, (iii) identifying themes; Phase 2—selective analysis of how a theme plays out in a CU (i) vertical analysis (across interviews within each CU group) and (ii) horizontal analysis (between groups of a CU); Phase 3—refining themes by analysis across CUs; Phase 4—conducting Phase 2 and Phase 3 for each theme identified in Phase 1. CUIA is illustrated using a family study case that presents multiple facets of a phenomenon’s reality by combining individual perspectives to form a CU perspective within SW and familial contexts.

Digitalising qualitative social research? On the potential of digital features to enhance data collection in qualitative research: the example of a virtual reality serious game in a qualitative research project

Digital features like virtual reality have hardly been used in the framework of data collection in qualitative social work research. Virtual reality holds specific promise because it allows the immersion of participants in a situation and has the potential to strengthen the ecological validity of data. In this light, we examined the use of a virtual reality serious game in qualitative in-person interviews in the framework of a prevention-oriented HIV social research project. We designed and developed an immersive virtual reality serious game, and integrated it into 24 problem-centred in-person interviews. The integration was feasible, and the virtual reality serious game was well accepted. It prompted participants to elaborate their lived experiences more extensively and in depth. Participants subsequently recalled episodes they had not mentioned before, complemented their narratives and brought up new topics. The atmosphere became less formal, and participants were even more communicative. The use of virtual reality seems to have the potential to open up new perspectives, broaden epistemic possibilities and complement the qualitative methods used to investigate, in particular, verbal and non-verbal communication and interaction processes. From an ethical perspective, the use of virtual reality should be well reflected upon regarding possible after-effects for the participants.

‘Doing’ research relationships: reflections on a qualitative longitudinal project with young people leaving secure care

ABSTRACT In this article I reflect on research relationships in a qualitative longitudinal (QL) project from a relational perspective, understanding agency as interdependent and evolving. My reflections are based on a study involving repeated interviews over eight years with young people who have experienced secure care, which is the most intrusive form of intervention for troubled youths in the Swedish child welfare. Research using a QL methodology requires a delicate balance in maintaining professional boundaries in relationships between the researchers and participants and emphasizes how time and place are embedded in relations. I explore the complexities of research relationships over time and the effect of repeated research encounters on understandings of time. My reflections are grouped into three themes: emotional footing, intersections of time and place, and evolving research agencies. While emotions from early encounters became a resource for my reflections as a researcher, return interviews turned me into an embodiment of time, producing linear-time narratives of progress, and the agencies of both me and young people evolved within and beyond the research project. I offer some conclusions for qualitative social work research regarding the effects of emotional, temporal and spatial dimensions on researcher vulnerability and research relationships over time.

SEEKING A COMMON THREAD OF ABRAHAM FLEXNER’S ARGUMENTATION: REASON, VALIDITY, RELEVANCE

By discussing the logic of Abraham Flexner’s reasoning of the question of whether social work is a profession, this paper provides a critical analysis of Flexner’s argumentation and his criteria of a profession in particular. Methodologically, Stephen E. Toulmin’s theory of argumentation was applied. The study showed that Flexner might not have given enough space to the diverse nature of professions but built his argumentation on the basis of a universal definition of the criteria of a profession. For this part, his one-dimensional theorems can be found to be doubtful. In spite of this, Flexner’s argumentation provides relevant reasoning from which the endeavors to develop social work as an intellectual system, profession, and discipline benefit significantly. This paper presents an argumentation analysis as a philosophical qualitative method applicable to qualitative social work research.

Anti-Racist Research Praxis: Feminist Relational Accountability and Arts-Based Reflexive Memoing for Qualitative Data Collection in Social Work Research

Largely absent from the feminist qualitative social work research literature are practical discussions about the ethics of white researchers who “study up” people and institutions of power. This methodological article grapples with how to conduct data collection from an anti-racist framework. I explore my use of an arts-based self-reflexive memoing process of embodied tableaux to inform my experimentations of rejecting “neutrality” when interviewing participants. I provide examples of disrupting white, patriarchal, and colonial norms during qualitative interviewing, including directly naming my whiteness and anti-racist stance; intentionally challenging the racism of white participants and deepening critical reflection; and viewing myself through a lens of critical skepticism to recognize when I was protecting whiteness or failing to effectively intervene. I conclude with an invitation to others to experiment with an anti-racist research praxis—an iterative process of self-reflexivity and relational accountability to reflect, theorize, and act differently during feminist social work research.

Thinking boxes, behavioural boys and the politics of love: ‘Doing’ post-qualitative social work research

Post-humanist theories and feminist new materialism are a growing feature of social work scholarship. It is timely to explore how these theories inform qualitative social work research approaches. Drawing on post-qualitative methodology and Barad’s concept and method of diffraction, in this article we engage in a performative re-analysis of an account of school social work practice with a group of boys with behavioural concerns. We illuminate the interplay of neurological and behaviourist ways of knowing boys and social workers’ expertise and their linkages with the materiality of the place and space of the school-based group programme. Moving beyond merely representing these material-discursive happenings, this paper affirms new social worker identities and behavioural boys’ subjectivities which emerge within the entangled relations with non-human, material objects and things in schools. Doing post-qualitative inquiry, co-configures us as researchers actively involved in knowledge generation as we seek to make differences that matter in social work practice. Diffraction not only offers methods to engage with the material-discursive interface of social work knowledge practices, but also an ethical methodology for researchers to do justice in our engagement with research data.

Using auto-ethnography to bring visibility to coloniality

This article traces how coloniality traps research and researchers in the Global North into maintaining the rigidity of its politics and logics through the meaning process. As International Social Work continues to gain popularity, supporting the proliferation of research across borders, the theoretical underpinnings must be unpacked with the context of the collaboration and the cultures involved that give meaning to both. The crux of the article rests within the implications for qualitative research in social work—both within, and across borders as a way of promoting social justice with marginalized communities. It also provides new possibilities for transcending and translating methodologies across the fields of social work and anthropology. To illustrate how research operates under the rubric of coloniality, this article uses autoethnography to uncover the on-the-ground realities of working across localities. The auto-ethnography revealed that despite the goal of sharing control of the research process, tensions related to coloniality emerged. As a result of working in different localities, each team’s processes became distinct—as it was informed by different historical, economic and geopolitical processes.

Critical reflections and reflexivity on responding to the needs of LGBTQ+ youth in a global pandemic.

The global community has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic. LGBTQ+ (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, etc.) youth may face increased stressors amidst the pandemic given their significant mental and sexual health disparities, pervasive rejection — including quarantining in homes with heightened risk of abuse and victimization, and a lack of access to essential resources. Responsive supports are needed at this time for vulnerable LGBTQ+ youth, particularly tailored mental health supports. This critical reflexive paper will highlight, as qualitative social work researchers and practitioners, the swift response to the needs of vulnerable LGBTQ+ youth across Canada during this pandemic. We provide a transparent account of how we have utilized critical reflexivity, cultivated through qualitative research, to support LGBTQ+ youth. This article will elucidate the importance of critical reflexivity in effectively transitioning essential offline mental health services for LGBTQ+ youth to a technology-mediated mental health affirmative intervention. The aim of this paper is to provide qualitative researchers and practitioners practical direction through important insights gleaned by supporting marginalized LGBTQ+ youth during particularly trying times such as a global pandemic.

Editor’s Acknowledgment of Service to JSSWR

Editor’s Acknowledgment of Service to <i>JSSWR</i>