This statement on social work practice research highlights the contributions of scholars, practitioners, and conference participants in the Fourth International Conference on Practice Research (ICPR) in 2017, hosted by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in May 2017. It focuses on the contexts and challenges of carrying out practice research in the Far East and beyond as well as raises pertinent questions about the development of practice research. It begins with a brief description of the context of social work practice research in the Far East. The second part explores the organizational and community contexts and challenges of practice research with special attention to the perspectives of practitioners. It concludes with reviewing some of the continuing challenges that will guide the program planning for the Fifth ICPR in 2020 in Melbourne, Australia, located at the crossroads between East and West.
In this article, the Mirror method is studied as an approach to critical evaluation. The method offers a research approach to social work practice that is in line with the ideology, mission, and purposes of critical evaluation. The strengths of the approach include a dialogical process, an empowering effect, an understanding towards a client's situation as a whole, collective knowledge creation, and integration into daily social work. The potential of the Mirror method to facilitate critical thinking, enable changes towards equality, challenge oppression, and empower marginalized and silenced groups should be explored in the evaluation process.
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