Growing research in practice: messages for social work education - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 33
About This Presentation
Title:

Growing research in practice: messages for social work education

Description:

– PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:48
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 34
Provided by: iris5
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Growing research in practice: messages for social work education


1
Growing research in practice messages for
social work education
  • Liz Beddoe Phil Harington , University of
    Auckland, New Zealand

Practical Learning Conference Edinburgh 2008
2
Growing research in practice
  • The GRIP Team Liz Beddoe, Christa Fouché, Phil
    Harington, Glenda Light, Neil Lunt and Deborah
    Yates

3
Practice based research
  • Fox et al claim increasing number of prof.
    practitioners have research within their
    professional remit, as both practice and research
    benefit from practitioner research and academic
    research is enhanced by links with practice (Fox,
    Martin Green,2007,pp.1-3

4
Why practitioner research?
  • Dirkx describes the insider view versus the
    outsider perspective reflected in evidence based
    research .
  • Insider research is able to use traditional
    research methods to examine what works, but from
    a perspective which takes into account the
    epistemological, moral and political complexities
    of practice (Dirkx 2006,p.276).

5
Social workers research activity
  • Preparatory education for social work routinely
    includes content on research
  • Time erodes social worker confidence (continuum
    exercise)
  • Especially social worker confidence re selection/
    design methodology
  • Lack of support from employers, lack of
    identification within peer group of research as
    a job component
  • Lack of tradition sharing knowledge in a
    community of practice / research, conferences

6
its all about casework
  • Concentration on the prime tasks of the
    frontline
  • Workload measured in casework outputs
  • Practice lacks attention to building an empirical
    basis for decision making
  • No search for patterns (quant) no search for
    meanings (qual)
  • As a consequence no body of research on practice
    outcomes
  • No sense that data from practice informs
    management nor peers,
  • Critically- neither is much information collected
    from service users

7
Whats lost?
  • Loss of capacity to be appreciated for their
    scholarship potential
  • Social work reduced to asinine and anecdotal
    evidence to support practice
  • Audiences for social work argument may hear a
    plea not a knowledge claim
  • Cultural capital eroded by lack of use of the
    intellectual tradition and gravitas that was laid
    down in university preparation

8
Social work suffers a loss of professional
capital
  • Lack of research mindedness and impact on
    practice
  • Lack of confidence in interprofessional
    environments
  • It is considered that this situation impacts on
    the status and credibility of social work as a
    profession.

9
AIMS of the programme
  • The overarching goal of the GRIP programme was to
    assist the development of a culture of
    practitioner enquiry in social service agencies
    in Auckland aimed at facilitating meaningful
    change and service improvement. It is a
    collaborative programme bringing together
    practitioners, academics, agencies and funding
    bodies.
  • The objective of the GRIP teams own enquiry is
    to develop an understanding of what works in
    facilitating the uptake of research and results
    amongst social work practitioners within
    organisations and in practice settings.

10
Key features
  • An introductory seminar
  • Expressions of interest- selection criteria
  • Nine projects selected
  • The workshop series
  • Mentoring
  • Symposium
  • Collection of papers
  • Collection of resources
  • The Knowledge Map

11
Selection criteria
  • a project from, within and for practice
  • a small keen group of practitioners, staff or
    consumers
  • a small-scale feasible topic
  • a client or service-delivery focus
  • sufficient support from within the agency
  • the potential for GRIP to add value     

12
Dimensions of GRIP
Knowledge Map Research into practitioner
research activity
Research Projects Small groups of practitioners
enquiring into their own practice issues
  • Grip Team
  • Mentoring
  • Workshops
  • Resources Data collection

Funders
13
Values
  • Sound practitioner research is congruent with
    social work values (Powell, 2005). Basic social
    work principles informed the projects
  • transparency
  • reciprocity
  • social sensitivity
  • empowerment and social change
  • multiple accountability
  • Treaty partnership cultural sensitivity

14
Cultural dimensions
  • Within each practice project, full space has been
    afforded for appropriate cultural methodologies
    and ways of working.
  • E.g. a demonstration model undertaken with an iwi
    (Maori) agency or Pacific service provider would
    require the development of culturally appropriate
    approaches and resources would need to be sought
    to provide guidance and support.
  • The projects are controlled, negotiated and
    staffed by those with appropriate cultural
    knowledge and service expertise.
  • Throughout this period we have sought to include
    experts with knowledge of kaupapa Maori
    methodologies, Pacific ways of working such as
    Fa'asamoa, cross-cultural working and work with
    vulnerable groups.

15
Facilitating family meetings
  • Auckland City Hospital- Seven practitioners
  • Desire to document multiple cultural perspectives
  • And define Best Practice Family meetings

16
A Pasifika project aims
  • A project to document effective existing social
    practices used by Pasifika practitioners at
    Waipareira Pasifika.
  • Secondly, the aim was to conceptualise how these
    practices are defined by these practitioners.

Kote loto gatasi kote galiga o fenua The unity
of heart is the beauty of the islands.
17
The programme 6 seminars symposium
  • 1. Getting Started
  • the Research Question/the literature/ ethics and
    methodology
  • 2. Designing Methodologies
  • Interviews/ focus groups/Surveys /old and new
    data/ journals memos 3. Data Collection and
    Analysis of Diverse Perspectives
  • Responding to difference/Pasifika research
    guidelines
  • 4. Analysing and Organising Data
  • Quantitative methods/Qualitative methods
  • 5. Writing and Presenting Findings
  • Celebrating a Gripping Year and
  • The symposium

18
Mentoring
  • The mentors are the GRIP research team members
    and a Maori cultural advisor.
  • Mentors have met regularly with the teams in the
    workplace and e-mail has been used to communicate
    ideas and drafts throughout.
  • Mentoring is provided on a pro bono basis.
  • The role is supportive, rather than supervisory,
    and responsive to the queries or concerns raised
    by the practitioners.
  • Mentors have encouraged the teams to create a
    timeline for their project, assign tasks within
    and set goals for small components to be
    completed.

19
Key questions for our research
To what extent is a research culture facilitated
within the organisation Are there changes to
practice and service delivery? What other
direct/indirect differences does a practice
project make? What worked and what could be done
better?
20
Data Collection
  • at each workshop project participants were asked
    to complete questionnaires to provide a record of
    their experiences over time.
  • Interviews with team leaders and project teams
    were conducted during the latter part of 2006 and
    early 2007 to provide further data.
  • GRIP team members recorded their reflections on
    the mentoring sessions, notes made during
    workshops research memos to note insights and
    questions, GRIP team discussions recorded and
    transcribed to add to the rich set of data.
  • A further set of data is being collected over
    October 07-February 08

21
Early analysis of this data indicates
  • Considerable enthusiasm for practice research,
    despite the challenges of time pressure,
    knowledge and resources
  • Lack of confidence (Joubert,2006)
  • Social workers forget their research knowledge
  • Supports the usefulness of a collaborative
    approach in building research capacity and
    confidence in social work
  • Group relationships and process are very
    important
  • This requires culture change at various levels in
    social work in New Zealand as elsewhere
    particularly managers professional leaders
  • It also requires resources and support from
    mangers and supervisors real organisational
    commitment (Fox, 2007 )

22
Potential from collaborative process
  • Growing confidence
  • Sowing seeds for practitioner research
  • Supporting community groups for improved funding
  • Improved relationships between academia and
    practice

23
Outcomes
  • We have been running the Chinese mental health
    support for four years and weve seen outcome
    is very positive but we really dont know which
    part is working best is question in my mind for a
    long time. I want some answers for that and
    Chinese community is very, is increasing all the
    time in New Zealand and more people will be
    suffering and need professional help.
  • we need to improve, we need more money to do
    that. We need to apply for funding so we also
    need the evidence to go to the funders to say
    that this is a good programme, we have the
    research because that is the one thing that I
    learn. They said in New Zealand you have to give
    research evidence Chinese mental health group.

24
Social work research
  • I think somehow or other weve got to be able to
    implement research in the same way that medical
    teams here at the hospital implement research, it
    just becomes part of your practice as something
    thats taken for granted and its something where
    youre given time to do as well and funding.
    Until we show our practice and our evidence based
    approaches in terms of other professions were
    not going to be able to stand up Health group .

25
De-mythologize research production
  • That the genre of research is always academic and
    remote from practice
  • That it has to be quantitative to count !
  • That it has to be qualitative to have meaning!
  • It has to contest big ideas
  • That it has to construct major knowledge
  • That it has to be talked about in esoteric
    language not the vernacular of practice
  • That practitioners cant manage ethical
    adjudication of proposals

26
De-mythologize research dissemination
  • Research doesnt have to be published in academic
    journals to be significant to practice
  • That it cant be presented simply and accessibly
    to peers and still have value and invite further
    exploration
  • That we cant have a seminar programme in work
    time- that research happens somewhere else

27
Messages for pre-service education
  • Strength of research methods training and
    production of research reports needs to be
    grounded in practice issues
  • Nature of relationships with the field around
    student research projects
  • Transfer of learning
  • Methodologies have to be accessible immediate
    so that students will re-use them upon graduation
  • Create an appetite for graduates to read, write
    and utilise research and empirical practice

28
Messages for practitioner communities
  • Respect inquiry and expect analysis
  • Time , Time , Time
  • Find resources and support
  • Reward those who respond to the challenge
  • - awards
  • Bonuses
  • Research counting for salary and promotion
  • Conference leave
  • Writing time
  • Sabbaticals and fellowships with other
    stakeholders
  • Exchanges /secondments

29
Time and support
  • Project members workload has not in any way
    been reduced. Theyre not supported
    organisationally to attend or participate so what
    they have to have do is steal time away from the
    clinical load and having processes in place that
    allow them to come like being able to give their
    locator to a team member, its not at all unusual
    for locators to go off during GRIP meetings,
    people having to leave or people just not turning
    up at all ,because the work overwhelms them
    Health SW project leader .

30
  • Were told do an ethics application. No then
    somebody says actually for your project you dont
    need to do one, so write to the Ethics Committee
    about what youre doing just to kind of get a
    tick, so we wrote to them and they said you will
    do an ethics application.
  • So then our response was oh well lets do what
    the Ethics Committee tells us and then when its
    well under way the person at the research office
    talks directly to the chairperson of the Ethics
    Committee who says do you really understand what
    it is that theyre doing because its a very low
    risk piece of work. Its only accessing staff.
  • But thats interesting in itself, the whole sort
    of power of the experts telling us and under the
    guise for quality project it probably doesnt
    need an ethics application so weve kind of got a
    bit tangled up in that.

31
Last words
  • Im already doing another project with a team of
    people, an evaluation of the after hours service,
    there are two projects now, theres going to be
    another one next year, so yeah definitely
    increased confidence and interest around doing it
    some more.
  • We want all practitioners to start thinking
    about their experiences and putting that into
    projects and from the GRIP seminar there was
    something that was said ,that you dont have to
    call it research, you can just contribute, you
    can have conversation, you can just communicate
    and that can be your role in it. So it would be
    really good to see all practitioners starting to
    think of evidence based practice.

32
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge the sponsors of
the GRIP programme the Families Commission's
Innovative Practice Fund, the Ministry of Social
Development's SPEaR Linkages fund and the ASB
Trusts in partnership with the ANZASW. The
University Of Auckland Faculty Of Education
Research Fund and The University of Auckland
Staff Research Fund have also provided generous
support of the programme to date. We would also
like to acknowledge the support provided by
Thomson Publishing who provided text resources
for each practice team and last, but not least,
the participants to this initiative who made the
whole GRIP experience possible
33
Thank you for your interest
  • Liz Beddoe, University of Auckland, New Zealand

PEPE Edinburgh January 2008
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com