Engaging Social Work Practitioners in Research: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Contemporary emphasis on measuring and evaluating observable, behavioral outcomes reflects a major change in the profession toward greater empirical basis for social work practice. This intellectual and methodological shift has created a gap between practitioners and researchers. While social work practitioners definitely should be more knowledgeable and receptive to interventions that have proven to be effective in helping people, social work academics must pay more attention to the realities of social work practitioners who struggle daily with expanding caseloads, ever-increasing time pressures to help clients whose lives are embedded in poverty, unemployment, oppression, racism, homelessness, and violence.

Anxiety Level of Undergraduate and Graduate Social Work Students Towards Conducting Social Work Research

“…Aslında araştırma odaklı bir kanıta dayalı uygulama yönelimini sağlamak sosyal hizmet ortamlarının gerçekleri söz konusu olduğunda oldukça güç görünmektedir. Öyle ki, yaşamları yoksulluk, işsizlik, baskı, ayrımcılık ve şiddet sarmalında devam eden müracaatçılara yardım ederken pek çok sosyal hizmet uzmanı artan vaka yükleri ve sürekli zaman baskısı altında çalışmak durumundadır (Gitterman, 2014;Zengin ve Çalış, 2017b). Dolayısıyla uygulama ortamının gündelik gereklilikleri emek ve zaman gerektiren araştırmaları arka planda bırakabilmektedir.…”

Building Research Capacity in a Mobile Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program: Service Learning in a University-Agency Collaboration

“…This averse attitude toward research concepts and application to practice may be the reason practitioners report either being unsure of the value of research (Rubin and Parrish 2007) or lacking confidence in their skills to conduct it (Howard, McMillen, and Pollio 2003; Kelly and Bronstein 2003; Montcalm 1999; Rubin and Parrish 2007). Lack of research expertise (Fook 2003) and demands from expanding caseloads (Gitterman 2014; Shaw 2005) are also frequently cited as reasons why practitioners avoid engaging in research activities or program evaluation. In addition, Barratt (2003) reports that many social service agencies fail to provide tangible support for staff to access and use research in their day-to-day work, which further segregates the knowledge advances made in social sciences from actual application in the field.…”