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What is practice research and how do we go about doing it? Jo Moriarty Southampton 5th October 2007 Outline • Definition – What is ‘practice research’? • Barriers to achieving it • Examples – Suggesting that we underestimate what has been achieved • Discussion Ever felt like this? • Adapted (gratefully) from McLeod (1999) – Do you sometimes read research articles and feel they bear no relationship to what you do? – In your work, are there times when you want to know more about why something is happening? – Would you like to know more about what other [social workers] do and what works for them? – Do you have a sense books are telling you what you already know? And this? – As you have become more experienced, are you more aware of contradictions and paradoxes in what you do? • If ‘yes’, you may be ready to embark on practitioner research! – John McLeod, (1999) Practitioner Research in Counselling, London, Sage Publications Ltd, pp 1-2 Starting point • Pawson and colleagues (2003) identified five different types of knowledge – Organisational knowledge • E.g. regulation and Codes of Practice – (GSCC, BASW) – Practitioner knowledge • Often personal and context specific Types of knowledge – Service user knowledge • Knowledge gained from personal experience (‘experts by experience’) – Research knowledge • Most ‘orthodox’ type of knowledge – Policy community knowledge • Agencies, government departments, ‘think tanks’ Read more about it • Types and quality of knowledge in social care – Ray Pawson, Annette Boaz, Lesley Grayson, Andrew Long and Colin Barnes – http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/kno wledgereviews/kr03.pdf – Paper copies free Trevithick’s framework Practice knowledge Knowledge Factual knowledge Theoretical knowledge Based on…(1) • Theories that – illuminate our understanding of people, situations and events – analyse the role, task and purpose of social work – relate to direct practice, such as practice approaches and perspectives Based on…(2) • Factual knowledge – Legislation – Agency policies • Practice knowledge – Way ‘book knowledge’ is transformed into something useable and useful So what? • Increasing importance given to ‘evidence based’ approaches – Five outcomes for children in Every Child Matters • Hierarchy of knowledge – Privileges some types of knowledge over others Why we need more practice research • Some types of knowledge easier to explain and justify – Explicit knowledge • Research/policy community – Implicit or tacit knowledge harder to identify and describe • Difference between ‘knowing what’ and ‘knowing how’ • Often associated with practice But… • Can those pesky researchers ever agree! – Idea that there is a distinction between explicit and implicit knowledge has been challenged • Jashapara (2007) – false distinction • Similarities with Trevithick’s (2007) framework Barriers to practice research • Funding – Harder to access if on the ‘outside’ • Resources – Adequacy of some professional training – Variable access to resources (books, journals and databases) • Today – Opportunity to help break them down Definition • ‘Research carried out by practitioners for the purpose of advancing their own practice’ (McLeod, 1999: p8) – About counselling but equally relevant to social work Example 1 • Miracles R them: solution-focused practice in a social services duty team (Hogg and Wheeler, 2004) – Short term goal-focused approach based on idea that people already have resources that will help them to change – Team manager thought would improve service user involvement and reduce staff burnout so team trained in this approach What they did • Would it be feasible for other teams to be trained in this approach? – Undertook focus groups and interviews – Identified benefits and need for management support – Developed resources and training – Expanded to rest of authority Example 2 • Fair play: creating a better learning climate for social work students in social care settings (Barron, 2004) – Developed as a response to a student on practice placement being confused about his role in a setting where there was no defined social work role What he did (1) • Are the experiences of social work students different in social work and social care settings? – Interviewed • six students in six sites • Supervisors – Questionnaires to tutors – Informal discussion with day centre workers What he did (2) • Found that students and supervisors in social work settings were clearer about their role – Suggested need for supervisor training – Identified role for more whole-team discussions – Discussed how it would influence his own future practice Example 3 • Health care professionals' death attitudes, experiences, and advance directive communication behavior (Black, 2007) • Slightly different to other examples – Focus is on research about practice • Spent over 20 years as social worker and care manager with older people What she did (1) • Are professionals working with older people influenced by their own attitudes to death when discussing advance directives? – Survey of 135 nurses, physicians and social workers in upstate New York What she did (2) • Found that attitudes were influenced by personal experiences – More inclined to discuss if • Took ‘positive’ attitude to afterlife • Had recent personal experience of terminal illness • Work helped inform grant application to provide training for care managers Example 4 • Own research – Study of social care services for people with dementia • Sampling framework was 206 interviews with social workers – Respite services for carers • Interviewing team included social workers References • • • • Barron, C. (2004). Fair play: creating a better learning climate for social work students in social care settings. Social Work Education, 23 (1): 25-37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0261547032000175683. Black, K. (2007). Health care professionals' death attitudes, experiences, and advance directive communication behavior. Death Studies, 31 (6): 563-572. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07481180701356993. Hogg, V. & Wheeler, J. (2004). Miracles R them: solution-focused practice in a social services duty team. Practice, 16 (4): 299-314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09503150500046202. Moriarty, J. & Webb, S. (2000). Part of Their Lives: Community Care for People with Dementia. Bristol: The Policy Press. Characterised by…(1) • Research question born out of personal experience and a need to know • Aims to make a difference to practice • Uses reflexive self awareness to gain access to underlying meanings Characterised by…(2) • Limited in scope to fit in with time and resource constraints • Addresses moral and ethical dilemmas of role as researcher/practitioner • (Designed to enhance and facilitate counselling process) Characterised by…(3) • Researcher retains ownership of knowledge – Subjective personal ‘knowing’ as well as impersonal objective or ‘factual’ knowledge • Results written up in a way consistent with principles listed above (McLeod, 1999: p8-9 Doesn’t mean… • Not a special category of research – Overlap with internal evaluation/action research – Although some have argued it is • Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1990) • Not either/or distinction – Many professional researchers have backgrounds in practice – Way of understanding where researchers come from Getting started… • Identification of a problem or issue • Choosing how to examine it in a systematic way • Collecting information • Analysing information • Sharing results and seeing how they can be implemented ‘Nothing’s perfect’ • Criticisms of practice research – Concerns about absence of voice of service users – Seen as too uncritical – Concept has even been challenged – Practitioner research: evidence or critique? (Shaw, 2005) Practitioners have… • Advantage of existing knowledge about the topic • Access to data – Colleagues – Service users – Records Can get help from… • Advice from academics – Practitioner training courses (McCrystal, 2000) • Specialist resources – Social Care Institute for Excellence • www.scie.org.uk – Textbooks for professionals and students Remember that… • Academic and professional researchers have problems too! – Sampling – Design – Methods • Not always apparent from ‘write ups’ Summary: Why do it? • To help practitioners have more influence in decision making • To increase the evidence base in a given area • To think more carefully about the way we practise – Confirm or ‘discomfirm’ what we think (Taylor and White, 2006)