Social Work Research Research Articles

Status i perspektivy issledovanij social'noj raboty v Kitae za poslednie 20 let

Based on co-word analysis as the basic principle, this paper presents the development history, evolution, frontier fields and overall knowledge framework of social work research in mainland China.

Starting a conversation about racism with teenagers: using the social work research Dialogue Approach

Increased migration over the last two decades has resulted in greater diversity within Irish society. There is much debate around multiculturalism, diversity and integration, and how this is best achieved. As microcosms of society, schools have also experienced substantial growth in diversity. Over 90 per cent of second-level schools in Ireland record migrant students on their roll, with between 2 and 9 per cent of the school populations being migrant students. Moreover, research indicates that not only do teachers often struggle with increased diversity in the classroom but racism and inclusion are also not adequately addressed through the curriculum. Although Ireland sometimes prides itself on being a friendly and welcoming nation, racism is noted as a persistent issue. This article explores the topic of racism with teenagers in an Irish school, using the social work Dialogue Approach. This co-created study examines how students and teachers conceptualise racism and its impact. It is argued that exploring attitudes and encouraging dialogue among young people about the impact of racism and exclusion is fundamental to social work values.

Timelines, convoy circles, and ecomaps: Positing diagramming as a salient tool for qualitative data collection in research with forced migrants

Visual elicitation methods, such as diagramming, are growing in their use with vulnerable populations, trauma-informed research, and social work studies where the use of traditional oral interviews alone may be lacking in their ability to increase access to different areas of human consciousness. The adoption and designing of innovative diagramming and visual methods have the potential to push the boundaries of data collection in understanding the experiences of forced migrants. However, scholars have seldom adopted this method in forced migration research. In this article, the authors explore three diagramming methods-timelines, convoy circles, and ecomaps-to highlight the possibilities of their use for social work research with forced migrants. The benefits of utilising these methods in support of the unique characteristics and challenges of forced migrants are also discussed. The article concludes by identifying several limitations while advocating for the adoption and documentation of the use of diagramming in studies with forced migrants.

Convergence of community social work practice, collective impact, and design thinking: What, why, and how?

Summary Social workers engage with marginalized communities impacted by challenges that are intensely complex and dynamic. This necessitates designing strategies and interventions that are sustainable, effective, nonduplicative and collaborative across systems and organizations. This article aims to provide a synthesis of three frameworks that can intersect to facilitate systems-level change: community practice, collective impact, and design thinking. Each framework provides unique contributions for bolstering contemporary macro social work practice. Findings The article provides an overview of the three frameworks and their distinctive features, limitations, and points of intersection. The integration of community practice with collective impact and design thinking frameworks for enabling social workers to come up with innovative solutions that include diverse stakeholder perspectives is elucidated with a case example. Application The article specifies the implications of integrating community practice, collective impact, and design thinking for further strengthening social work practice, education, and research.

Characteristics and Outcomes of School Social Work Services: A Scoping Review of Published Evidence 2000-June 2022.

School social workers are integral to the school mental health workforce and the leading social service providers in educational settings. In recent decades, school social work practice has been largely influenced by the multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) approach, ecological systems views, and the promotion of evidence-based practice. However, none of the existing school social work reviews have examined the latest characteristics and outcomes of school social work services. This scoping review analyzed and synthesized the focuses and functions of school social workers and the state-of-the-art social and mental/behavioral health services they provide. Findings showed that in the past two decades, school social workers in different parts of the world shared a common understanding of practice models and interests. Most school social work interventions and services targeted high-needs students to improve their social, mental/behavioral health, and academic outcomes, followed by primary and secondary prevention activities to promote school climate, school culture, teacher, student, and parent interactions, and parents' wellbeing. The synthesis also supports the multiple roles of school social workers and their collaborative, cross-systems approach to serving students, families, and staff in education settings. Implications and directions for future school social work research are discussed.

Lived Experiences as a Starting Point for Social Work Research—Possibilities and Challenges

Lived Experiences as a Starting Point for Social Work Research—Possibilities and Challenges

Collaborative practice research in a community-based home visiting program

ABSTRACT Through collaborative practice research with the goal of identifying alternative discourses that can challenge expert-led knowledge in parent education, this study examined a community-based home visiting programme conducted by a social work practitioner serving disadvantaged migrant families in Shenzhen. To obtain diverse information, data was collected by three major methods, including in-depth interviews, participant observations and document reviews. Findings of this study shed lights on the social work research-practice partnership through a reflexive knowledge co-construction approach which helped to produce alternative discourses that considered parents’ experiential knowledge and emphasised a system-oriented perspective. By embracing the alternative subjectivities constituted by alternative discourses as collaborators and co-learners, the practitioner and researcher also demonstrated abilities to think about new possibilities for parent education practice and research. Implications for future empowerment-oriented social work practice and research in family and parent education fields were also discussed.

Strengthening Social Work Skills and Competency Through Exposure to Diversity

ABSTRACT One hundred and fourteen (N=114) Master of Social Work students completed an online survey to explore whether demographic characteristics, prior international travel, and learning abroad program experience were associated with levels of CSWE competencies, racial attitudes, and attitudes toward mental health. Results indicate that multilingual students and students with prior international travel experience self-reported lower levels of policy skill development and lower overall competency development. Age and race were associated with students’ attitudes toward those experiencing mental health concerns, with younger or non-Hispanic White students reporting lower stigma toward those with mental health concerns. No association was found between demographic characteristics, learning abroad participation, prior international travel, and racial attitudes. Implications for social work education, practice, and research are offered.

A scoping review of faith-based responses to human trafficking in sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT Sub-Saharan Africa reports high rates of human trafficking including child soldiers, sex trafficking, forced domestic labor, and ritual enslavement. In some countries, a majority of agencies who provide anti-trafficking specific services are faith-based organizations serving local communities. The shared value of social justice expressed by both religious organizations and the social work profession presents opportunities for collaborations in this field. However, there exist many gaps in the literature on faith-based anti-trafficking interventions, including best practices, program evaluation, and strategies to improve multi-sector collaborations. This research employs a scoping review to map peer-reviewed publications on faith-based organizations in anti-trafficking in sub-Saharan Africa. We examine the types of faith-based organizations providing services in this field, identify the trafficking sectors addressed, and the interventions offered. Informed by the findings of this review, we provide a research roadmap to promote multi-sector anti-slavery collaborations with the goal of maximizing the pool of resources available to both faith-based organizations and social work researchers and practitioners. Indeed, deliberate engagement built on shared values could bolster provision of localized and responsive survivor-centered services in the region.

Epistemic Justice in International Social Work Research: Postcolonial Theory and Analytic Strategies.

Scholars have long grappled with the ways in which unequal power relations influence the creation and circulation of international social work knowledge. I outline a robust postcolonial theoretical framework to elucidate complexities of global knowledge and power and extend possibilities for considering such questions of epistemic justice. Drawing on my own research with service providers in Nepal, I suggest three analytic strategies to apply postcolonial insights in international social work research: reflexivity, critical discourse analysis, and postcolonial translation. Postcolonial theory and the strategies provided support social work researchers to comprehend, generate, and disseminate knowledge that can disrupt colonial assumptions.

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.

Learning Green Social Work in Global Disaster Contexts: A Case Study Approach

Green social work (GSW) is a nascent framework within the social work field that provides insights regarding social workers’ engagement in disaster settings. Although this framework has recently garnered more attention, it remains under-researched and underdeveloped within the context of social work research, education, and practice in Canada and internationally. To further develop GSW in social work education and professional training, we considered how social work students and practitioners can use a learning framework to understand the impact and build their capacities to serve vulnerable and marginalized populations in diverse disaster settings. To do this, we developed a four-step case study approach, as follows: (1) provide detailed background information on the cases, (2) describe how each case is relevant to social work, (3) discuss how each case informs social work practice from a GSW perspective, and (4) provide recommendations for social work practitioners and students using GSW in future disaster-specific efforts. This case study approach centers on natural, technological, and intentional/willful hazards that examine current GSW research–practice engagement in Canada and internationally. Applying this four-step case study approach to three extreme events in Canada and internationally (a natural hazard, a technological hazard, and an intentional/willful hazard) illustrates it as a potential method for social work students and professionals to build their GSW capacities. This will assist in building the resilience of Canadian and international communities—especially those who have been historically marginalized. This article sheds light on how current social work education and professional training should develop new approaches to incorporate the GSW framework into the social work curriculum at large in order to prepare for future extreme events while incorporating environmental and social justice into research and practice.

Breaking the deadlock: defining the quality of social work in the Czech Republic through social work research

ABSTRACT To ensure the quality of social work performance, governments or national professional associations usually employ binding quality standards, codes of ethics, or laws on social work. In Czechia, all previous attempts to establish comprehensive institutional and formal pillars for developing the quality of social work performance have long been in a deadlock, due to their being diluted by lobby groups, opposing interests, or political pressure. This text aims to show the potential of social work research for developing social work profession pillars under such circumstances. The basis of our ‘research-led approach’ to establishing national-wide quality criteria for social work performance was a well-chosen participatory research methodology fine-tuned to facilitate discussions among various stakeholders, leading to the reconciliation of their positions and interests. During the research project, we managed not only to reach agreement on the formulation of the Set of Social Work Quality Criteria and Indicators, valid across all areas of social work practice in Czechia, but also on the desirability to implement it. We believe that the proposed research-led approach for developing social policy instruments is transferable to other national or local contexts, perhaps even as an initial solution, not only as a means of overcoming deadlock.

Lived experience of youth in vocational schools: “I stopped focusing on my past and started living the present so I could reach the future”

This study examines the lived experience of 30 vocational education students in Israel. This examination is important in light of international research asserting vocational schools to be spaces of social exclusion and given the relative lack of social work research regarding vocational schools. The findings of the study revealed four main themes: the dynamics of “working students” who contribute to their own and their family's livelihood; a history of social exclusion in academic schools prior to transitioning to vocational schools; experiences of exploitation and rights violation by employers, caregivers, and other adults; everyday coping strategies in the face of social exclusion. These four themes are analyzed, portraying the unique characteristics of youth in vocational schools facing social exclusion. The importance of examining vocational schools by social workers in light of these schools being spaces of social exclusion populated by marginalized youth is discussed.

Defining e-research in social work: a review of strategies and challenges

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted social work researchers for whom fieldwork is the crux of data collection. Resilient as humankind is, researchers must innovate to look at society and communities digitally. This review paper explores e-research as an option for social researchers. It summarises and synthesizes existing literature on digital research in social work. What is e-research? What is the position of the researcher in this context? What are some of the strategies and challenges in conducting research online? The paper throws light on these questions. This review article reveals the methods that can be adapted to merge technology with research in the social work domain. It also lays out the challenges of e-research. We propose a synthesized definition of e-research in social work and conclude that there is tremendous value in using technology and doing research online if done ethically.

Safeguarding Young People beyond the Family Home: Responding to Extra-Familial Risks and Harms, Carlene Firmin, Michelle Lefevre, Nathalie Huegler and Delphine Peace

This is a long overdue and welcome text, in a social work research and practice context which is focused on and dominated by responses to and understanding inter-familial risk and harm. In recent years, there has been an increased awareness and understanding of extra-familial risks and harms (EFRHs) as safeguarding issues, such as harmful sexual behaviour, child sexual exploitation and county lines. However, responses to these issues tend to have been shoehorned into existing safeguarding processes, which have been designed to respond to inter-familial risks and harms. This book, however, addresses the policy and practice gap that exists for responding effectively and holistically to EFRH and presents a clear and robust conceptual framework which recognises EFRH as a distinct and complex area of safeguarding practice. In the book, the authors identify characteristics associated with effective service responses to EFRH and principles of social care systems necessary for service responses to be effective.

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.

Āpiti hono, tātai hono: A collaborative bicultural social work research approach

INTRODUCTION: This article introduces the qualitative research design of a research report completed in 2019 that focused on collaborative bicultural social work practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. A major focus of this article is the relationship between the Pākehā researcher (and tauira) and the Māori social work research supervisor. Therefore, reflective accounts are provided throughout the article where we have emphasised the value of the supervision process and bicultural collaborative relationship. METHODS: The research utilised social constructivist theory and a decolonising, Te Tiriti o Waitangi lens. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with four registered social workers. An integrated narrative approach to analysis allowed for multiple narrative levels to be considered. The researcher and supervisor modelled a collaborative bicultural relationship in the research design process. FINDINGS: The article presents the process of research design and a critical reflection on the challenges and benefits of a collaborative bicultural supervision relationship. We argue that an interrogation of the cultural positioning of the researcher and supervisor is essential in research design in Aotearoa New Zealand. These were also reflected in the findings reported in a separate article in this issue (Deverick & Mooney, 2023). IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE, RESEARCH OR POLICY: Reflections of bicultural research will be of interest, particularly to other Pākehā, Tauiwi tauira interested in exploring how they can contribute to the bicultural discourse in research. Research supervisors may also be interested.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and Social Work Practice in Australia: A Narrative Literature Review

ABSTRACT In Australia, it has been well documented that the leading preventable cause of nongenetic neurodevelopmental disability (NDD) is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). This review explores literature informing Australian social work in the context of FASD. It highlights the need for increased social work research to inform evidence-based practice (EBP) in FASD diagnosis and management using the biopsychosocial-spiritual-cultural (BPSSC) framework. Social workers are often first to identify children's emotional, behavioural, and learning difficulties that may be a characteristic of FASD. Nonetheless, there is limited knowledge and understanding about how social workers in Australia address FASD. We argue that research about FASD and social work practice can improve social workers’ understanding of the BPSSC characteristics and management of FASD across the life course and contribute to EBP development in these areas in Australian social work. IMPLICATIONS Social workers have an emerging role in the holistic assessment, diagnosis, and management of FASD in Australia. Social workers are well placed in being first to recognise and identify an individual’s emotional, behavioural, sociocultural, and learning difficulties that are characteristics of FASD. Social workers can contribute to ongoing care in a tailored FASD management plan that links the caregivers to appropriate local community resources, service provision, and disability supports.

Bending toward Justice: Social Work Research Advocacy in Times of Political Turmoil

Research has never been free of politics. What we learned about the scientific method, making observations, developing theories and hypotheses, testing, and eliciting findings and drawing conclusions has never been the whole story. The truth is that politics, the political environment, and social policy may affect every aspect of research. This is especially true of social work research. Currently, with white nationalist rhetoric reaching the mainstream, with certain states restricting access to knowledge, with local and state politicians targeting the very individuals and communities that social workers serve, and in some cases, social workers themselves, how can we respond? Can social work research respond to this political landscape? Should there be a response at all? The National Association of Social Workers’ (NASW, 2021) Code of Ethics has specified social workers’ responsibility to the community and broader society since its adoption in the 1960s. In fact, two ethical principles of the code remind us that social workers challenge social injustice and strive to respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person. These two principles alone place social workers at odds with a political system that targets marginalized members of a community and aims to impart further harm on those who have been historically and currently oppressed. It is a political system that threatens the civil and human rights of those whom social workers serve.