Research for Social Workers

An Introduction to Methods

Margaret Alston, Wendy Bowles

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780415506779, 9780415506779
• eBook ISBN: 9781136189722
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Social Sciences

Social work is developing its own research orientation and knowledge base, springing from the research traditions of sociology and psychology and grounded in human rights and social justice. Effective social research relies on critical thinking and the ability to view situations from new perspectives. It is relevant to every area of social work practice: from the initial stages of an intervention, to planning a course of action, and finally evaluating practice.

Research for Social Workers is an accessible introduction to the research methods most commonly used in social work and social welfare. The major stages of research projects are outlined step by step, including analysing results and reporting. It is written in non-technical language for students and practitioners without a strong maths background. Illustrated with examples from across the world, this book captures the realities of social work research in a wide range of settings. End of chapter exercises and questions make this an ideal introduction to research methods.

This third edition is fully revised and updated. It includes new chapters on systematic reviews and research in crisis situations, as well as more substantial coverage of statistics.

PART I

Beginning social work research

I	Social work research

This chapter introduces you to social work research. As social work is an evolving, dynamic profession, it requires a solid research base to advance and develop responsive and sustainable practice. However, before we introduce you to a rich understanding of social work research, we want to provide you with some reassurance. Research is not all about numbers. If you are one of those social workers or students who have had unhappy experiences with mathematics, do not despair! Social research is more about critical awareness, careful thinking and the ability to view situations from new perspectives rather than it is about numbers. In the twenty-first century, a whole range of approaches to research exist—some involving more mathematics than others. With the advent of computer software packages, it is more important to understand the thinking or logic behind the mathematics, and the theoretical perspectives behind the thinking, than to be able to calculate the numbers themselves.

In this chapter, we examine some of the different forms of research and the power of the underlying beliefs that shape them. Quantitative, qualitative, emancipatory, feminist and postmodern influences on research methods are discussed. Each of these offers a range of possibilities for creative and exciting research for social workers. All these approaches can be used by social work researchers and all are important for you to understand, not only because you may use them in your work, but also in order to understand the research undertaken by others. As you will see, these methods are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Indeed, much research today involves a mixture of methods—that is, researchers use a ‘multi-method’ approach, selecting aspects of different approaches that best suit their purposes. As this is a text for beginning researchers, we present the approaches separately so that you can see how they have evolved, and so we can introduce some of the debates that surround them.

We also consider some of the important political and ethical issues that surround research, before moving on in later chapters to the ‘how to’ of different research approaches. First we discuss what social research is and why, as social workers, we should study research.

Why study research?

Research provides us with evidence about the effectiveness of our practice; it can enhance our understanding of effective policies and practice, and it can advance socially just issues and socially inclusive practices (Smith 2009). As with other professions, we are being encouraged to develop ‘research-mindedness’ or the ability to inform our practice with research findings and to conduct our own research (Humphries 2008).

Whether we realise it or not, most social workers are constantly doing research or research-like activities. Consider the following:

• A social worker wonders which counselling methods used by different workers in her team are most helpful to the young offenders they see on a regular basis.
• A community worker in a new job at a council has a brief to find out what the local community thinks of a planned development to build an industrial complex in some bushland containing a disused quarry.
• A worker in a church-based agency holds a regular group for homeless youth and suspects that many group members are facing similar issues and problems in their lives.
• A social welfare worker wants to know what effects the new respite care service is having on families who are under stress.
• A worker in the disability field who has been asked to establish a new service for young adults wonders what life is like from the perspective of the young people, and what kind of services—if any—they would like his agency to provide.
• A worker sent to a crisis situation wants to evaluate where the greatest need might be and how each of the services and organisations in the field is responding.

All these situations require research skills if social workers are to systematically and effectively address the questions and issues they face. The bottom line is that if you are to make informed decisions or undertake carefully thought through actions/interventions, you need research skills. More specifically, consider the following reasons for studying research.

Becoming an informed research consumer

Social workers are often confronted with government or interdepartmental reports in which research and statistics are quoted. If this is a familiar situation for you, you are probably uncomfortably aware that you may have taken such reports at face value and, because of a lack of research understanding, you may not have the ability to critique such reports. As Dudley (2011, p. 10) reminds us, we need to be ‘effective in consuming research studies that are pertinent to [our] professional work’. You should heed Smith’s (2009, p. 29) suggestion that we assess research findings by asking the following questions:

• Was the method used appropriate to this particular research question and research environment?
• Was the research carried out to an acceptable standard, according to the requirements of the chosen method?

Research studies can be biased or flawed for a lot of different reasons, and you might not be able to detect these reasons without a basic understanding of research methodology and the confidence required to assess these studies.

All social research has a political imperative. Some reports may take liberties in the way research is presented in order to achieve or to bolster a certain perspective. Some departments—for example, those keen to downsize—may disregard or under-report the success of certain programs. Some statistics may be used inappropriately or out of context to enhance an unsupported position. Likewise, some research reports might enhance positive findings in order to ensure continued funding. It is naive to think otherwise in an economic climate where large cuts have been made to welfare spending.

Consider also that when outside consultants are used by an agency or department to assess the organisation’s functions, you should be in a position to critically analyse their work and examine whether or not they have given you a fair appraisal. It is imperative that you become an informed practitioner, capable of dissecting the information on which decisions are being made about policies that affect your department or your programs.

Evidence-based practice

A second and equally important reason why you should have competent research skills is to allow you to justify your practice interventions in an informed way, based on research evidence. It is not enough to rely on your intuition—intuition is susceptible to bias, and may reflect your own values rather than client benefits. Increased accountability to funding bodies and to the people for whom the services are established requires workers to assess adequately what the people we are working with want and need, how our interventions are affecting people’s lives, and how our programs and approaches can be improved. Increasingly around the world, social workers are being expected to work in an evidence-based culture—that is, to know whether or not what they are doing is working.

There are a number of ways in which practice effectiveness may be assessed. For instance, as a practitioner you may be called on to examine the effect of certain interventions on a group of clients. You might also be required to justify your agency’s effectiveness by providing an evaluation of the use of its services and the effects of the services on the client group.

Again, you might be called on to show you are meeting the needs of a particular target group (needs analysis). Often practitioners keen to continue a new program are expected to evaluate the program in order that its effectiveness can be demonstrated—that it is meeting its objectives, that it is developing as intended and that it is producing desired outcomes (program evaluation). The future development of the program may depend on well-constructed evaluation research. As well, maintaining—and indeed increasing—your funding level may depend on your analysis of research conducted to justify a service (cost-benefit analysis).

It is also vital that you have the confidence and competence to act as a contributing partner in research projects. There are often occasions when your agency or department will conduct or contribute to a research project. Having an understanding of research methods will allow you to ensure that a social work perspective is part of the project.

Participating in the policy process

Increasing our research-mindedness also enables us to assess the impact of government social policies and to assist in constructing such policies. It is social work’s role as a profession to take a lead in the formulation of policy that affects the most vulnerable members of our community, and to criticise or support government policies. In the past, social workers have not been known for applying pressure effectively—at any level of government—to change or modify policies. As an example, cuts in welfare programs in many countries have not been matched by rich social work research assessing the consequences of a loss of services for vulnerable people.

With improved research skills, you will be on firmer ground in joining in the policy process—in commenting on current policies or evaluations of policy and developing a case for new or different policies.

Undertaking postgraduate education

One important outcome of studying research at undergraduate level is that it will facilitate your entry into Masters and doctoral programs. This reason should not be discounted, as it is our experience that students may be reluctant to pursue postgraduate study because of their lack of knowledge about research and their fear of attempting a major research project. Yet we need such students to build a strong theoretical and research base in order to upgrade the standing of our discipline. Of course, you must also be aware that studying research at undergraduate level is a requirement of professional social work associations around the world, and so is a basic requirement for those of you wishing to attain a social work degree.

Developing social work knowledge and theory

A very important reason for studying research is to aid in the development of social work knowledge and theory. Having studied, or being currently involved in studying, social work, you would be aware that the development of social work theories and knowledge rests on the shoulders of practitioners who are able to test and evaluate their usefulness. We need these developments to come from social workers themselves, rather than from other disciplinary areas. For all these reasons and more, you will benefit from the study of research methods.

Practising in an ethically responsible manner

Social work codes of ethics around the world support ethical research practice. For example, the ethical codes of the British, US and Australian social work associations all contain detailed sections on how to undertake ethical research. We discuss this in more detail later in the chapter.

What is social research?

From the above discussion, it can be seen that many different types of research are used in the welfare field. Which approaches you choose will depend on the purpose of the research, your background and beliefs, the agenda of the organisation funding the research and...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of tables and figures
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I: Beginning social work research
• Part II: Research methods for social work
• Part III: Evaluation
• Part IV: Statistical analysis
• Part V: Bringing it all together
• References
• Author index
• Subject index