A Feminist Approach to Social Work Research

Davis, Liane V.

doi:10.1177/088610998600100105

Cited by 26 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…Through observational research, it sought to understand how the organizational structure of a shelter whose rhetoric was one of empowerment actually affected the different members. METHODOLOGY This qualitative, participant-observation study was influenced by recent discussions of feminist research methodology (see, for example, Davis, 1986;Dobash & Dobash, 1981;Kelly, 1988). Feminist researchers have a particular relationship to their work.…”

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confidence: 99%

A Shelter: An Organization Like Any Other?

Srinivasan¹,

Davis²

1991

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Shelters for battered women have been idealized as collectivist organizations that empower residents and staff alike. Qualitative research at a battered women's shelter indicates that despite an implicit philosophy of empowerment , a shelter is indeed an organization like any other. Two separable organizational structures were identified: an egalitarian , collectivist structure for the relationships among staff members and a hierarchical structure for the relationships between staff members and residents . To prevent an inadvertent return to traditional patriarchal structures that oppress women , feminist social workers must continuously assess how ideology affects the organizational environment in which services are delivered .Shelters, as organizations that provide refuge to battered women and their children, were strongly influenced by the feminist ideology and activism of the 1970s. Wife battering was seen as deeply rooted in the patriarchal system that sustained the imbalances in power between individual men and women and allowed hierarchical structures to oppress the powerless (see Dobash & Dobash, 1979;Schecter, 1982). Therefore, as they embarked on developing services, feminists sought not only to Authors' Note: The authors wish to thank James Taylor for his helpful comments on this article, and thank the residents and staff of the shelter for their contributions.

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A Shelter: An Organization Like Any Other?

Srinivasan¹,

Davis²

1991

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“…While some feminists like Davis (1986) suggested that qualitative methods were most compatible with feminist research for giving voice to the voiceless, others, exemplified by Harding in the social sciences (1991,2006), do not think feminist research is defined by its methodology. Swigonski's (1993) discussion of standpoint theory incorporates the idea of critical consciousness: an achieved understanding of how gender (in this case) shape's both one's experiences and one's knowledge of the world, often distorting knowledge when gender is not considered and enriching it when the subjugated knowledge of marginalized women is taken into account.…”

Section: Feminist and Post-colonial Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Scientism to Science: How Contemporary Epistemology Can Inform Practice Research

Anastas

2012

Clin Soc Work J

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Fifty years ago, social work understood research as depicted by logical positivism and its successors, and an obsolete scientism still held sway. This paper will briefly trace the history of the epistemological debate that has taken place in social work in the last 30 years, which is directly related to the credibility of agency-based research and of qualitative methods as well as to issues in knowledge development about oppressed groups. Contemporary epistemologies-realism and pragmatism-offer frameworks that are compatible with what is needed for practice-relevant research and knowledge development: firm grounding for methodological pluralism, attention to the social and political nature of science, the embrace of theory, and an end to scientism without resort to relativism. If these changes in epistemological thinking can be fully embraced, the twentyfirst century can be a very productive one for agency-based and practice-relevant social work research.Keywords Social work research Á Epistemology Á Realism Á Pragmatism Á Critical theory Á Practice research Fifty years ago, social work and the social sciences understood research as depicted by logical positivism and its successors. In 1960, what Heinemann (Pieper) (1981 called an obsolete scientism still held sway, discrediting both practice-based research and analytically-informed practice. Since then, social work has grown in the sophistication of its thinking about epistemology, which can legitimate practice-relevant research methods and models for the future. However, greater knowledge of contemporary epistemologies will be needed to strengthen practicerelevant research in the years to come. This paper will briefly trace the history of the epistemological debate that has taken place in social work in the last 30 years, which is important for the credibility of agency-based research and of qualitative methods as well as to issues in knowledge development about oppressed groups. It will outline two contemporary epistemologiesrealism and pragmatism-that can inform and support a range of research methods and innovative approaches to practice-relevant research. Influences from social constructionism and from feminist and post-colonialist analyses will also be briefly discussed since they have influenced contemporary thinking in both realism and pragmatism.To position myself in this task, I am not formally educated in philosophy or epistemology. However as a teacher and practitioner of social work research, I encountered problems with the dominant view of science and research, and I was fortunate to have had a doctoral education that introduced me to epistemological thinking. Feminist critiques of knowledge development were also influential. The views I have developed on these matters come from reading in the field over many years, but they do not do justice to the precise and important debates that take place among philosophers of science. My goal instead is to present the broad outlines of two kinds of current epistemological thinking. However, no reader should ...

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“…Abramovitz (1987), Burden and Gottlieb (1987), Kravits (1982), and the Hunter College's Project on Curriculum Integration (1987) provide reviews of the new scholarship on women for inclusion in the practice, policy, and human behavior in the social environment sequences. Roseman and Ruckdeschel (1981) and Davis (1986) look at how to integrate gender content into the research sequence, and Berkun (1984) focuses on the field component. Hooyman, Leighninger and Summers (1988) have collected a variety of syllabi from social work courses addressing gender issues across the range of curriculum sequences.…”

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confidence: 99%

Gender and Social Work Education: Directions for the 1990s

Tice

1990

Journal of Social Work Education

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A Feminist Approach to Social Work Research

Cited by 26 publications

References 27 publications

A Shelter: An Organization Like Any Other?

A Shelter: An Organization Like Any Other?

From Scientism to Science: How Contemporary Epistemology Can Inform Practice Research

Gender and Social Work Education: Directions for the 1990s

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