Curriculum „Enhancing participative practice in social work”

10. Module sections

10.1. Section 1: Background, principles and context of participative research approaches

Aim: To familiarise PhD candidates with the wider conceptual and political context in which participative research approaches are located, their potential and difficulties in realisation

Theme	Topic	Guiding questions
Research traditions and trends	Objectivity and subjectivity in human science research Epistemology between positivism and post- modern relativism Contexts and interpretations of “Evidence Based Practice”	What reasons justify researcher objectivity? How can detachment and neutrality prevent you from obtaining meaningful insights into your research topic? What counts for you as “evidence” in professional social work practice?
Challenges in social work research	Types and pragmatics of research partnerships in view of limitations imposed by - Ethical standards (e.g. research interfering in people’s coping abilities, mental health) - Limitations in abilities (e.g. children, people with severe disabilities) - Professional limitations (e.g. delinquency, domestic violence, abuse)	What could be undesirable outcomes of my research project? Which criteria distinguish desirable from undesirable research outcomes?
Forms and levels of participatory approaches to research; example of CBPR	- Community-controlled and -managed, no professional researchers involved. - Community-controlled with professional researchers managed by and working for the community. - Co-production – equal partnership between professional researchers and community members. - Controlled by professional researchers but with greater or lesser degrees of community partnership, for example: – Advisory group involved in research design or dissemination. – Trained community researchers undertake some/all of data gathering, analysis and writing. – Professional researcher uses participatory methods (e.g. young people take photos), Banks et al., 2013) – Advisory group involved in research design or dissemination. – Trained community researchers undertake some/all of data gathering, analysis and writing. – Professional researcher uses participatory methods (e.g. young people take photos), Banks et al., 2013) Proposal: “Democratic partnership” “Democratic partnership means that social workers, while constructing partnership with families, are driven by a desire for engagement with an ongoing, ambiguous, uncertain, open and undetermined experiment of social work in a diversity of situations.” (Roose et al., 2013, 454)	What is the intended level of community / user involvement in your research project? Are the levels decided beforehand or do you intend a widening of involvement in the course of the research process? What kind of practical arrangements would “democratic partnership” require to operate in the case of your project?

Resources:

Burdon, P. D. (2015). Hannah Arendt: On Judgment and Responsibility. Griffith Law Review, 24 (2), pp. 221–243.

D'Cruz, H., & Jones, M. (2004). Three different ways of knowing and their relevance for research. SAGE Publications Ltd, https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857024640

Fleming, J., Beresford, P., Bewley, C., Croft, S., Branfield, F., Postle, K. and Turner, M. (2014) ‘Working together: innovative collaboration in social care research’, Qualitative Social Work, 13(5): 706–22.

Healy, K., Darlington, Y. & Yellowlees, J. (2011) Family participation in child protection practice: an observational study of family group meetings. Child & Family Social Work, 17 (1),1–12.

Krumer-Nevo, M. (2008) From ‘noise’ to ‘voice’: how can social work benefit from knowledge of people living in poverty? International Social Work, 51 (4), 556–565.

McCracken, S. G., & Marsh, J. C. (2008). Practitioner expertise in evidence-based practice decision making. Research on Social Work Practice, 18(4), 301–310.

Nolan, M., Hanson, E., Grant, G., Keady, J. and Magnusson, L. (2007) . ‘Introduction: what counts as knowledge; whose knowledge counts? Towards authentic participatory enquiry’, in M. Nolan, E.
Hanson, G. Grant and J. Keady (eds), User Participation in Health and Social Care Research, (pp 1–14) Berkshire: Open University Press.

Reason, P. & Bradbur, H. (Eds.), Handbook of action research: Participative inquiry and practice. London: Sage.

Roose, R., Roets, G., Van Houte, S., Vandenhole, W. & Reynaert, D. (2013). From parental
engagement to the engagement of social work services: discussing reductionist and democratic forms of partnership with families. Child & Family Social Work, 18 (4), 449-457.

Ziegler, H. (2020). Social work and the challenge of evidence-based practice. In S. Kessl, F., Lorenz, W., Otto, H.-U. & White (Ed.), European Social Work - a compendium (pp. 229–272). Oldenburg: Barbara Budrich.