The Obligation to bring about Good in Social Work Research

Abstract

Ethically, social work researchers should bring about good for research respondents. Referring to the work of other researchers who support beneficent research, this article describes an activity that can bring about such good: the identification and reporting of possible service gaps affecting research respondents. I identified this activity during a pilot qualitative study of children’s views regarding foster care. Specifically, interview transcript analysis highlighted comments suggesting unanticipated questions about services children received. Because of its characteristic methods of obtaining and analyzing data, qualitative research seems particularly likely to raise such unanticipated questions. Despite fear of jeopardizing future research possibilities, I raised the unanticipated questions about services at the agency. I aimed to enable the agency to address the questions, thereby helping children. In this case impact on agency services was slight. Nonetheless, the researcher’s obligation to report possible service gaps at agencies providing research samples was underscored.