Abstract
Practice research on social work features collaboration between academic research and social work practice involving practitioners, service users and the community. The focus is on supporting rigorous research, evaluating interventions, practice innovation and impact. This results in the translation of research findings and fostering sustainable, scalable and feasible change. In particular, it enables practitioners and policymakers to collaborate and promote a culture of continuing evaluation improvement with the aim of effective and responsive services. Such innovations enable social workers to respond proactively to ever-changing social issues and the dynamic needs of both individuals and communities.
Practice research and social work co-exist within an environment of collaboration and interdisciplinary cooperation, where social workers collaborate with researchers, policymakers, and other professionals to collectively address complex social issues. There is a need for holistic research methodologies to develop approaches that address the multifaceted needs of individuals and communities. Central to this agenda is the promotion of social equity and the fostering of a sense of ownership, sustainability and agency among the partners engaged in the collaborative research process.
Practice research in social work is evolving and has been iteratively defined through a series of statements over the last 15 years (Epstein et al., 2015; Fook & Evans, 2011; Joubert et al., 2023; Julkunen et al., 2014; Sim et al., 2019). Most recently, the Melbourne Statement on Practice Research (Joubert et al., 2023) focused on practice meeting research, with an emphasis on ‘the development of models and methods of research that are sensitive to the environmental, cultural, and economic realities that impinge on the attempts of researchers and practitioners to collaborate in the generation of knowledge that has direct relevance to social work practice’ (Joubert et al., 2023, p. 368). Practice research is not static and this special edition represents a further evolution of studies that contribute to knowledge and conceptual development in social work research.
This special edition draws on practice research methodologies, research findings and their impact as they have been implemented over the past six international practice research conferences. Of particular interest has been the emergence of Practice Research Collaboratives (PRCs), which were established after the 5th International Conference for Practice Research in Social Work in 2021 as a way to keep conversations going in-between conferences. They aim to bring practitioners and researchers together from across the world with common interests to support the exchange of new ideas; sharing on-going work; and stimulating new collaborations. They were established as inclusive, non-hierarchical groups to provide opportunities for networking and information-sharing in meetings, workshops or other activities. They also enable participants to showcase their work in conference sessions or through the website of the International Community for Practice Research in Social Work (www.icprsw.com). At the time of writing (August 2023), there are six PRCs, four of which have contributed a paper to this special edition:
Research Impact, Translation and Influence
This group focuses on the impact of practice research and directly influencing practice and eventually policy, along with forming alliances. For research to be relevant and make an impact on policy and practice, the results of the research need to directly relate and be relevant to issues facing practitioners in the field. Through the knowledge and experience of the members, this group hopes to develop models that facilitate the translation of practice research back into practice, through focusing on practitioner and service user engagement.
Systemic Lens to Social Work Practice
This collaborative's main interest is to expand knowledge relating to systemic child welfare. It addresses questions such as What are the core skills of relationship-based and systemic social work? How can systemic social work be studied as an open and closed system? The group focuses on systemic traditions and evolving systemic practices and theories, and how they contribute to social work today. It aims to build an inspiring learning and sharing environment to support developments in systemic, empowering, critical social work thinking and practice, with an emphasis on producing knowledge together.
Collaboration and Co-Creation with Service Users
This collaborative aims to discuss and develop service user participation in practice research. Collaboration and co-creation are central to practice research in social work, though collaboration between researchers and service users can be challenging. Collaboration between social workers and service users is both the most important and most difficult part of social work. However, this collaborative might be able to learn from social work – and social work might be able to learn from research. The group provides a space for members to share experience from different regions and projects; to discuss issues, notions, barriers and possibilities; to write and present together; and, naturally, to include service users, service user organisations and practitioners in the discussion of collaboration and co-creation.
Organisational Supports
This collaborative is designed for those who are interested in sharing their experience and approaches to acquiring organisational support for practice research in social work, in both practice and university settings. This includes obtaining research funding; senior management support; access to research respondents and participants; and engaging practitioners and service users in research project design. This collaborative also focuses on fostering international collaborative research, where members are encouraged to develop the ongoing agenda.
Setting Outcomes
There is a critical need to be able to effectively measure social work outcomes, as many of the areas that social workers intervene presently do not possess effective outcome measures. This collaborative aims to explore the multidimensional nature of outcomes; the challenges they are currently facing in practice with the existing range of measures; and how they can create new measures to expand and improve the measurement of outcomes in practice research.
Diversity in Family Work
Embracing diversity in working with families is essential. Issues related to race, sexuality, religion and spirituality, class, abilities and many more dimensions impact the processes and outcomes of working with families in different contexts. This collaborative focuses on the impact of diversity from the person of the social worker, client characteristics and lived experiences, and organisational and governmental policies in different contexts. The group aims to appraise relevant research or policy related to diversity in social work, and may develop practice research questions for further exploration.
The papers in this special edition have been written, in part, from the PRCs, but also provide examples of different ways in which research-practitioner collaborations contribute to new practice and social work knowledge, skill-development and practice development.
Austin et al.'s paper emerged from the ‘Organisational supports’ PRC and presents four case examples of the organisational support required for effective practice research. The first was a practice research collaboration which conducted a survey of leaders of non-profit organisations providing social work services during COVID-19 in Beijing, China, in 2020. The second was an evaluation of a Practice and Theory project in Finland, which was a collaboration between a team manager in a service delivery organisation and a researcher. The third explored organisational supports in a large regional programme in Norway which brought four universities together with social service agencies in their municipalities to connect researchers with practitioners and service users to inform practice. The fourth example was Academic Collaborative Centres in Flanders and the Netherlands which created structures to support practice research. Each encountered its own challenges, but, together, they illustrate the emerging study of organisational supports for practice research.
Yliruka et al. describe a study examining the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on young people in Finland who had become independent of substitute care and were entering adulthood, particularly in relation to continued engagement of child welfare services in after-care. Utilising a co-created lived expertise lens enabled the subjects to recount, in their own words, how they felt about the reaction of society in terms of service provision relating to their ongoing needs, in the context and constraints of the Covid−19 pandemic. The aim of the study was to better understand how young people conceptualised their subjective well-being during this ‘Odd year’. The young people's message was that after-care was observed to be not equal with some receiving strong support while others simply did not. The transformative resilience of society could be increased for future crises by creating flexible structures for peer support for young people and engaging with them, to promote equitable and relevant resources. This paper provides an example of work undertaken by members of the ‘Systemic lens to social work practice’ PRC.
Liang et al. analyse three case examples of the use of Structural Family Therapy (SFT) with Chinese families following interpersonal violence in a pilot project in Singapore. They explore how therapists address dynamics in families whilst recognising their strengths. The positive resolution of interpersonal violence in these families suggests that SFT may have some possible benefits in this context. Emerging from the ‘Diversity in Family Work’ PRC, this paper highlights the value of piloting established therapies in different familial and cultural contexts to explore processes and outcomes prior to further evaluation. It also illustrates how working with individuals is not sufficient to create change in the context of interpersonal violence.
Brix et al. introduce the concept of ‘Synthesized Action Research’ in the context of the BIKVA model. BIKVA was articulated in the process of closure of long-stay institutions for people with mental health problems in Denmark wherein group interviews with service users; practitioners; managers; and politicians were conducted to help make sense of the transition to community care and support the processes of change. The BIKVA model subsequently supported the development of co-production in the public sector and has been used as a platform for evaluation. Brix et al. explore its potential for supporting developments in practice research.
Julkunen et al. describe a series of practice research examples from Ireland, Aotearoa-New Zealand, Canada, Australia and the UK which seek to contribute to knowledge and service improvement through academic-practitioner collaborative partnerships to impact on social work outcomes (Joubert & Webber, 2020). From a practice research perspective, impact is understood as the contribution that the research and practice make to society, the environment and the economy. Through the aggregated knowledge and experience of the members, the ‘Research Impact, Translation and Influence’ PRC has contributed to both methodology and practice. Their article draws on this context of active collaborative sharing in their analysis of the work on complex social work interventions at community level.
Webber et al. provide a narrative review of papers published in peer-reviewed journals by social work practitioners in England which report their practice research, conducted as part of their postgraduate qualifying programme. The 11 papers included in the review demonstrate the ‘art of the possible’; that Masters students can undertake practice research of the rigour required for peer-reviewed publication and provide new knowledge for social work practice. The studies are necessarily modest, but each address practice questions which are driven by the curiosity of students in the process of acquiring their social work qualification. They also demonstrate the importance of collaboration with researchers, to support both the research and publication processes.
Joubert et al. demonstrate significant insights relating to the impact of the Covid pandemic on the provision of social work services in the acute hospital setting in Melbourne, Australia. Additionally social work student placements were implemented at five participating hospitals, with the students actively participating as part of the research team and providing feedback about their own experiences. The study documented the challenges to hospital Social Work practice as a result of the pandemic, how hospital Social Workers rose to the challenges, and, importantly, adapted their practice and acquired new skills.
The collection of papers in this special edition provides a window into the diversity of social work practice research and illustrates that it is not restricted to particular methodologies or processes. Collaboration between researchers and practitioners equalises power relations and takes research studies to frequently unexpected destinations. Rigid boundaries are anathema to practice researchers, who constantly seek new directions for their enquiries, with a focus on practice innovations.
These papers highlight that the process of practice research in social work can be as important as outcomes. The process of collaboration is key to learning and the development of new knowledge in social work. This operates at multiple levels, including individual researchers and practitioners; organisations; and communities, as reflected by the papers in this special edition. However, the key features of practice research in social work remain evident: questions are derived from practice; appropriate methodologies are used to investigate them; and the findings are relevant to, and have an impact on, practice. Collaboration between researchers and practitioners is often complex, but the development of relationships and the sharing of expertise can be as influential as the research findings themselves. Irrespective of the direction in which practice research is implemented, practice improvement remains the goal.
