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Investing in the Future: Social WorkersTalk about Research

Liz Beddoe

Liz Beddoe, BA, MA (Social Work), Ph.D., CQSW, MNZASW, is Head of the School of

Counselling, Human Services and Social Work at the University of Auckland. Liz has

published many articles on social work education and professional supervision in a variety ofjournals in New Zealand and overseas. She is a member of the editorial boards for Social

Work Education, Australian Social Work, and Health Sociology Review and is a regular

reviewer for a number of journals. Her teaching and research interests include the

professionalisation project in social work, supervision, practice teaching, continuing education

and social work in health care

Correspondence to Liz Beddoe, BA, MA (Social Work), Ph.D., CQSW, MNZASW, School of

Counselling, Human Services and Social Work, University of Auckland, Auckland, New

Zealand. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

The movement towards developing a profession more confidently grounded in research

has been one of the most significant international trends in social work during the past

decade. This article presents findings from one section of a qualitative study of continu-

ing professional education in New Zealand social work. Social workers interviewed were

very aware of the significant contemporary discourse of research-informed practice

within the profession. Analysis reveals that while New Zealand social work practitioners

are positive about the ideals of social work research, their enthusiasm is tempered by

issues of confidence and some practical considerations and constraints. These issuesreflect those outlined in the social work literature. When asked to discuss their views

on social work research, as a component of continuing education, participants identified

research based activities as part of the professionalisation project of social work.

Research activity was also perceived as significant to the safety of the profession in con-

testable spaces, evidence of the contribution of social work and vital to the maintenance

and development of excellent practice.

Keywords:Practitioner research, professionalisation, social work research

Accepted: November 2010

# The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of

The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

British Journal of Social Work (2011) 41, 557575doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcq138Advance Access publication December 3, 2010

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Introduction

In the international arena, there has been an increasing emphasis on devel-oping evidence-based or evidence-led practice in social work, as there has

been in other professions (Munro, 1998; Sheldon, 2001; Webb, 2001;Walterset al., 2004;McNeill, 2006;Plath, 2006;McDonald, 2008).McCrys-tal and Wilson (2009, p. 857) note that in the UK, to a large extent, thisreflects the modernization agenda of the New Labour Governmentwhich has included demands for better quality standards and outcomesand greater professional accountability in health and social care. Fox,Martin and Green (2007)claim that an increasing number of professionalpractitioners have research within their professional remit, as both practiceand research benefit from practitioner research and academic research is

enhanced by links with practice (Fox et al., 2007, pp. 13).The Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) movement in social services, while

contentious (Trinder and Reynolds, 2000;Webb, 2001), has promoted thenotion that social work practice be informed and developed from theresults of scientifically conducted research (Sheldon, 2001). Critical per-spectives on EBP include the charge that it favours traditional empiricalresearch and is based on a flawed understanding of social sciences research;such an approach fails to adequately account for the ambiguities and com-plexities of social work practice (Webb, 2001). Many commentators (Beres-

ford, 2000;Gibbs 2001a,2001b) have argued that evidence-based practicetends to privilege certain types of evidence while marginalising otherforms in favour of the quick and dirty approach popular in contemporaryhealth and social care (Humphries, 2003, p. 86). It is held that the voice ofservice users can be lessened and Gilbert and Powell (2010, p. 13) citeScheyett (2006)as arguing that EBP effectively silences service users andthe practitioner as the knowledge of the real world becomes subjugatedto disciplinary knowledge external to the world of practitioner and user indialogue.Van de Luitgaarden (2009)challenges the inadequacy of general-ising research findings in work with service users. Social workers, whileobserving trends and patterns, might also privilege the unique and idiosyn-cratic feature of everyday practice tasks in situ, especially in relation toculture, space and place.

More recently, comment has focused on the impact of a dominant EBPculture on social work education and practice. From a US perspective,McCoyd, Johnson, Munch and LaSala (2009)argue that a quantocentricculture in social work scholarship may produce a long-term effect of the:

. . .

homogenization of social work knowledge in ways that will become everless-useful to social workers and social work students. We see removal of

much social context in quantitative research that is detrimental for socialwork practice, particularly as students pursuing practitioner roles find lessrelevance of research to their practice (McCoyd et al., 2009, pp. 8212).

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Adams, Matto and Winston LeCroy (2009, p. 174) note that the uncriticaladoption of EBP could diminish the emphasis in social work on theoriesof human behaviour and theories of change, arguing that EBP offers notheoretical underpinning on which to base activities in practice such as con-

ceptualizing a problem or assessing client needs. Responses to these criticalperspectives suggest alternative approaches, claiming that many researchmethods can contribute to social work knowledge. Petr and Walter (2009,p. 231), for example, argue for Multidimensional Evidence-Based Practice(MEBP), which redefines best practices by incorporating consumer, pro-fessional and quantitative research in the best practices inquiry, thusempowering those doing the work and receiving the services, and challen-ging the hegemony of EBP and quantitative research. Lack of problemati-sation of what is a good outcome of practice is questioned by van de

Luitgaarden (2009, p. 247), who notes that in definitions of EBP, it seemsto be implicitly assumed that consensus exists about the value that is tobe attached to every possible outcome, because the term improvementis not relativized or problematized in any way. Gibbs (2001a)andButler(2003) advocate for social work research to be closely aligned to themoral and ethical mission of social work. Participatory action research isone approach, compatible with social work principles, as it offers a strongframework for social work (Bradbury and Reason, 2003; Sanders andMunford, 2008) that is embedded in social care organisations. Collaborative

research can also contribute to policy development and associated practiceimprovement and bring benefits to practice, as it may help to identify infor-mation gaps and crystallize policy and practice issues (Connolly, 2004,p. 126). Connolly suggests collaborative research offers the potential formore holistic responses to research development that are cognisant ofpolicy and practice needs (Connolly, 2004, p. 126).

This paper reports the practitioner talk about research revealed in astudy of social workers participation in continuing professional education,as described below. It is important to note that EBP is only one aspect ofsocial work research and the practitioners in this study discussed scholar-ship, writing, knowledge production and utilisation of research as well asthe impact of EBP. Often, their discussion of EBP indicates that theyhave generalised the term as a shorthand way of talking about researchitself. As such, this indicates that EBP is a pervasive and influential dis-course and the frequency of participant comment may suggest anxietyabout measuring up in social work, rather than concern about measure-ment itself.

Challenges in developing scholarly capacity

Over the last decade, social work has been subject to critical examination inrelation to its ability to articulate a sound knowledge base for its actions

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(Osmond and OConnor, 2004;Osmond, 2005;Trevithick, 2008;WinstonLeCroy, 2010). Concern about the lack of emphasis on research-informedsocial work education and the level of research activity amongst socialwork academics is also well documented in the literature. University

social work schools face similar challenges in many countries, asgovernment-driven changes to the funding models for higher educationdrive outputs-focused research that is often challenging for schools inclinedto apply most resource into undergraduate social work qualifying courses(Beddoe, 2007, p. 52). Orme and Powell (2008) note the confoundingproblem where social work departments in universities have traditionallyrecruited staff from practice because, in order to defend the identity andinterests of the profession, such appointments were necessary because thefirst priority for practitioners moving into higher education was to deliver

the curriculum for social work education (Orme and Powell, 2008,p. 993). As Orme and Powell further note, research was not a high priorityin education or practice until the advent of modernisation (andperformance-based research funding of universities, a major factor inNew Zealand) and practitioners were not able to make up for the deficitsin research methods and/or research mindedness in their qualifying edu-cation and training because of the lack of emphasis on research in agencies(Orme and Powell, 2008, p. 993). In AustraliaAgbim and Ozanne (2007)report from a survey of social work educators the presence of strong

support for improved research activity and note that educators spoke ofa need for greater inclusion of research training in the. . . curriculum andfor educators themselves and suggest a culture change is needed inrelation to the approach to research in social work schools, including theneed to reduce teaching loads (Agbim and Ozanne, 2007, p. 79).

A brief review of the literature identifies many challenges to the socialwork profession in developing a research culture. Most commonly citedare matters of time, confidence, knowledge and skill (Karvinen-Niinikoski,2005;Joubert, 2006), belief in the need for social workers to do more thanjust process information (McCrystal, 2000; McNeill, 2006; Wade andNeuman, 2007) and access to literature and resources (McNeill, 2006,p. 153). In two projects involving New Zealand practitioner researchers,Lunt, Fouche and Yates (2008, p. 39) and Sanders and Munford (2008,p. 26) note that it is difficult for practitioners to set aside and maintaintime for research, as work demands their attention. Workloads, expec-tations and lack of support from colleagues and managers can add to thechallenges. Luntet al. also noted that management support was crucial interms of both practical matters and recognising the value of research.Youll and Walker (1995) and (Mitchell, 2001, p. 439) both noted that

agency personnel can find many ways to undermine study through lack ofsupport. There is agreement in the literature that there is a need for strat-egies to develop research confidence and capacity in the practitioner com-munity (McCrystal, 2000;Luntet al., 2008;Mitchellet al., 2008;Foucheand

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Lunt, 2009;Lunt et al., 2009).Mitchell et al. (2008, p. 5) note the potential ofpractitioner research and cite Fuller and Petch (1995), who believed that:

Practitioners are often better placed than academic researchers to developcollaborative relationships at all stages with professionals and service users.

Advantages include a research agenda driven by knowledge of context andservice users needs; the ability to draw upon and value practice skills when

used in the context of research activity; and knowledge of how agency datais collected and its robustness (Fuller and Petch, 1995, p. 10).

Lunt et al.(2008), in advocating mentoring of practitioner research, note apotential limitation in that academics working in applied professions areexpected to deliver academic outputs that do not necessarily support prac-tice initiatives such as publishing in practice journals, or mentoring practiceprojects (Lunt et al., 2008, p. 52).

Research and the professionalisation project of socialwork

There is common agreement in the literature that the social work professionrequires a strong research culture in order to be more effective and foot italongside other professions, frequently linking this to the reflective practiceimperative (Fook, 2003;Gilgun, 2005; Karniven-Niinikovski, 2005;McCraeet al., 2005).McCrae et al. (2005, p. 68) note that the professional knowl-edge base will remain weak in relation to other disciplines without anexpansion of research activity. Growing utilisation of research and buildingresearch capacity both within universities and in practice are both themesstrongly linked to the professionalisation project in social work. In theknowledge society, professions need stake a strong claim in a territory(Olgiati, 2006) and Olson (2007) argues that in the 1970s (in the USA,later in the UK and other countries), social work aligned itself with the aca-demic social sciences after a 100-year search for theoretical and epistemo-logical legitimacy, thus fully adopting the fundamental assumptions of the

professional project (Olson, 2007, p. 52). Humphries (2003) draws thethemes together thus:

. . .one needs to be aware of the important dimension of the professionalisa-tion of social work research in making sense of what appears to be socialworks easy seduction by the positivist inspired model of knowledge.Social work has had limited success in achieving professional statusthrough other means, and is currently pursuing a particular identitythrough what is presented as a scientific approach to research (Humphries,2003, p. 85).

This project has led to a re-examination of how knowledge is used in prac-tice and the links between formal codified knowledge and what practitionersknow. A problem identified in the study of social work knowledge is thatpractitioners dont always identify and label what they know (Osmond and




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OConnor, 2004; Osmond, 2005; Osmond and OConnor, 2006). Suchresearch has indicated that social workers dont demonstrate a coherent,comprehensive and elaborated theory and research base to their practice(Osmond and OConnor, 2006). This article reports on the views of New

Zealand social workers as they reflected on the significance of ongoing edu-cation, scholarship and research as a part of their engagement in professionaleducation (Beddoe, 2010). The article does not attempt to examine EBP indetail as a contested practice. Rather, it explores the study participantsexperience and the findings illustrate the close links of the research agendato the drive to modernise or professionalise social work. It will also benoted that the organisational context of social work exerts significantimpact on social worker engagement with research.

The study

The study of continuing education with social work practitioners and man-agers was undertaken during a period of intense change in New Zealandsocial work, brought about by the requirements of new legislation to regis-ter social workers (NZ Government SWRA, 2003). Registration heraldedthe arrival of a greater mandate for continuing professional education insocial work. This provides practitioners, managers and educators with

both challenges and opportunities but the lack of any significant expec-tation that social workers will undertake higher education. Professionaldevelopment is provided largely by employers, as few practitioners partici-pate in formal university education after achieving their first professionalqualification. The study employed both semi-structured individual (seven-teen) and (six) group interviews involving forty social workers, professionalleaders and managers. The participants were forty people engaged in socialwork and social services; most were practitioners, supervisors and man-agers, some in private practice and several with multiple roles. Threeheld significant leadership roles in specific professional communities. Theparticipants in this study were 80 per cent female (N 33) and, in age,60 per cent were aged between thirty and fifty years. Pakeha (European)participants were the majority, with 80 per cent (N 32), followed byMaori (10 per cent, N 4), Pasifika (7 per cent, N 3) and 2.5 percent (N 1) Chinese. The majority held professional qualifications,ranging from undergraduate diplomas and degrees to doctorates. Thestudy recruited people in response to a call to assist with a study of continu-ing professional education, in the period following the advent of statutoryregistration. Two group interviews were context-specific (one in a mental

health setting and one in statutory child welfare) and four groups weremixed. In New Zealand, child welfare services and health services are sep-arate. The statutory child protection agency and the health services(regional employers) provide large fields of practice and have different

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organisational cultures. Setting up context-specific groups ensured thatsituational differences could be identified.

The transcribed data from the interviews were coded line by line and ana-lysed with the assistance of qualitative research software. Themes emerging

from the project as a whole included strong links between continuing pro-fessional education and the professionalisation agenda of social work; theimpact of the organisational context on practitioners; the complex linksbetween professional education and forms of social and cultural capitaland greater understanding of the barriers to social worker engagement infurther education and, in particular, research activity (Beddoe, 2010).This article focuses on the last of these themes and explores socialworkers views on research activity within practice. Research activityincludes awareness, application and dissemination as well as production.

Deeper thematic analysis of the data focused on research and scholarshipactivities revealed five broad themes. These are: the value and importanceof research to practitioners; awareness of EBP; the influence of organis-ational factors on research activity; social work culture and the confidenceto do research; and status, other professions and research. Participants arefront line workers or supervisors unless otherwise stated.

The value and importance of research to practitioners

There was a general agreement that social workers needed to be wellinformed, but often research was seen as a stretch, or, as Bill put it:

Producing new knowledge or doing research that is the flash bit but actu-ally updating your knowledge and skills it is sort of a more basic level also

have its place (Bill, mental health).

The most common reaction to my questions about research activity was thatresearch was about justifying social workers actions, and indeed roles ininstitutions. This raises issues about the lack of linkage between the

ethical demands of professional practice. Respondents concerns weremore pragmatic:

It would help us to better meet the managerial demands, the demands ofeffectiveness, we can more effectively answer what it is that social workbrings to this organization, what it brings to its clients, and have answers. . .in a way that impresses other people. . . particularly in this kind of organ-ization (Summer, health).

I find we really needed to enhance the role of research and when we areworking in some programme we need to think of how to evaluate, it not

only just doing the same thing without any proof- how do you prove thatthis is good? (Zhang, NGO)

I came from a nursing background and there, it is very much evidence-basedpractice. Well, I dont see why we cant do the same in social work. I dont




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see why we cant say we make a difference. If we cant then do we make adifference? Are we just waltzing round talking to people and trying to makethem feel better? (Maree, health)

The problems of the right kind of evidence to justify social work reflected

the concerns about the professions uptake of research noted in theliterature:

I think that we do have to justify why we have done something. I dont see thatwe need to be any different from any other disciplines, but even the justificationis subjective . . . you know if you give somebody the wrong walking frame theyfall over. Well you know there is evidence to say that it was the wrong walkingframe. If you are working with someone [in social work] and you ask the wrongquestions, well thereisnt a finite setof questions for us to ask (Frances,health).

Obstacles for practitioners

The obstacles and constraints that affected social workers were thosereflected in the literature. Many talked about how the need for socialworkers to participate in research was not recognised by managers whowere very focused on service delivery goals and didnt see social workersas having valid research activities to pursue:

. . . absolutely unrecognized and I mean I just talk from very personal experi-ence at the moment trying to get a PhD proposal through for a staff member

who is set to contribute back to this organization. [It would be] invaluableresearch about innovative practice in our own organization, that could beworld leading (Maggie, statutory social work).

Time was a major issue because of the lack of support:

It took quite a lot of work and tenacity and grit and. . . to do anything youhave to be able to do it as well as your normal workload and that is not fair(Practitioner).

Some participants were also conscious of the need to make some form of

inquiry into practice a priority; certainly, some managers were advocatingthat social workers take more of an active role in service developmentand evaluation and this was often linked to the need for raised expectationsof social workers skills and focus. Maggie and Claire felt that greater socialworker participation and analysis of data wereinvestmentsinto the future:

We have to invest in evaluation and learn what is working and what is it weneed to change to make things work better. We need . . .a whole [new]understanding with our practitioners, supervisors and managers as to howthey will be developed though time and how they will supported. . . chal-lenged to achieve competent practice and develop best practice (Maggie).

We need to be far more focused on results and being able to quantify theresults for the organization. You know, why put your money in unlessyou know are getting a good product? (Maggie)

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I think it is about also social workers getting on to the critical analysis bandwagon and being more critical in terms of information capture and whatdata is already there. . .I also think it is about us thinking in that sphere. Ithink that we dont move our brains into that kind of perspective enough(Claire).

Awareness of evidence-based practice

The participants were almost all aware of the evidence-based practicemovement, although possibly this was more acutely observed in healthand mental health. This is most likely due to the position of socialworkers as clinicians in multidisciplinary teams and a feature of thisgroup was their greater conceptualisation of evidenceinformed practice.

Bridget and Collette were well aware of the ideas behind EBP, andaccepted the ethical need for better evidence of the effectiveness andimpact of social work, but were unsure how front line workers could beinvolved:

Best practice, todays practicethey are all terms that have been floatingaround for the last couple of years and social workers are starting to see that

it applies to them as well. There is not a huge evidence base that social workmakes a difference . . .. We need to research longitudinally to see if [wemake] a difference . . . time and money and interest and passion would berequired to do this (Collette, manager mental health).

In our particular part of social work that we do here, you know, there is sucha lack of evidence about what we do. We do it because we have to because

we dont know what else to do, but we dont actually know whether or notthe outcomes are any good you know? I mean what evidence we have gotsuggests that it is crappy outcomes actually (Bridget, manager).

For Collette and Dave, there were strong links between these evaluativeactivities and the demands of the new professional environment, and theneed for practitioners to meet CPE requirements and competency:

Part of that is I suppose the links with the health professionals competencyassurances [legislation], that has taken on a whole new meaning aroundpeoples continuing education . . .ensuring that they are keeping up to date

with latest trends and working along some evidence-based model (Collette,manager).

We tend to rely more on client satisfaction than real effectiveness on the job

. . .I suppose if youre going to be really honest, we do have to be accounta-ble for results and thats something everybody struggles with (Dave, NGOmanager).

You have an opinion; well what have you based that opinion on? Thatswhat we are trying to get people to doactually demonstrate how theyhave reached that opinion . . . it may not be right, but if you can at leastshow your reasoning then it protects you as a clinician (Sandy).




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Maree felt that evaluation research on social work practice was an impera-tive but recognised it was not easy to research outcomes in complex work:

What if we could say that we actually reduced the number of unhappyclients or potential litigation where social work is involved? Or work with

families around difficult issues, things like that and they say oh its too dif-ficult to prove and I say but we could . . .look at what the outcomes for

families are. We could start with all those things that are too hard tomeasure. I just feel like theres not a commitment to it (Maree).

Questioning EBP

As noted earlier, the development of evidence-based practice has been thesubject of prolonged debate in the profession. Humphries (2003, p. 84)notes that a bemusing aspect of the discussion about social workembracing:

. . . a version of positivism is that in doing so it ignores the epistemological

and methodological debates that have been ongoing for over half acentury (see Gouldner, 1973). The version of positivism, dominant inevidence-based practice, is based on the assumption that research in thesocial sciences is essentially the same as research in the natural sciences,and that the same rules should apply.

Several participants did have some critical questions about the adoption ofEBP, reflecting their value driven desire for person-centred or participatoryapproaches to social inquiry. There was an awareness of the debates andsome sympathy for a critique of narrow positivist approaches:

Theres a really strong critique, which basically says that EBP really doesntcompare one practice with another. All it does it says with a group of y, itgets x results, and in many ways its kind of. . . not meaningless but, its

not sound. Theres another school that talks about practice-based evidencewhich is much more about being informed by the client (Dave).

I think there is a lot of value in EBP, but at the same time, a lot of thera-peutic approaches dont necessarily lend themselves to being measurable

. . .

so you get things that fit really well with a scientific model and theybecome seen as inevitably the best. The inference is its best, whereas I

think it entirely possible that these other approaches dont lend themselvesto being broken down. . . they might be great approaches but maybe thescientific instruments havent got to a point where they are able tomeasure those things yet (Group member).

Dave also questioned the fit of attempts to codify approaches to workingwith people and links this to the concerns raised many times in the literature(e.g. Berger, 2010) that research that doesnt actively work with service

users is incongruent with social work values:Theres 450 different approaches [to psychotherapy], research shows thatactually none of them can prove any more effective. . .. So what you do ismanualise treatment or intervention, and youre just applying a method,

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youre not actually even dealing with a person so its totally incongruent(Mental health practitioner).

I think that I guess [a key question is] whose research? And what research?The best research is probably at the moment with clients on an ongoing

basis. [Research is] always about experts researching on people who dontalways get the feedback or anything like that so it just doesnt really fit(Dave).

Participants in a mental health setting group interview made links betweenEBP and practice values:

Im just thinking about my place of work, working alongside largely nursesand they talk about EBP a lot, but then it makes me laugh because theyll dosome things that are like expedient, or because of cost and they dont thinkhey thats not what we were saying (Group member).

I often think that when we sit in a multi-disciplinary team next to the psy-chiatrist and the psychologist that they are very evidence-led. And thatwe become quite scientific ourselves which at times might actually be aproblem I dont know (Group member).

The influence of organisational factors in research activity

The organisational context of social work practice is significant in the broaddiscussion about research and reflects the findings of the literature on prac-

titioner research. Factors traditionally cited for low levels of activity arelack of a research culture, time, lack of support and research activity notbeing seen as core business (McCraeet al., 2005;Luntet al., 2008;Mitchellet al., 2008;Lunt and Fouche, 2009). Participants in this study cited all theseaspects as significant to them. Some managers felt they had some discretionto try to assist, despite organisational issues:

I have got some staff doing postgraduate study and while the organizationdoesnt necessarily have the commitment to it, I have a personal commit-ment at least to try and make the time available (Bridget, manager).

Social workers want [support] to do a masters degree but it is not really seen

as something that would come back to the organization . . .it looks like a lotof time out of work and a lot of cost for little return for the organization(Claire).

The social work culture and confidence to do research

This study supports the findings ofMcCrystal (2000) andJoubert (2006),both of whom report the lack of social worker confidence and skill inresearch activity. While generally participants were enthusiastic and confi-dent about research, scholarship and even reading journal articles and pro-fessional writing were seen as barriers to participation:




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I dont think it is even in the vocabulary of most of the people who workhere and I feel a bit powerless to know how to actually bring it into exist-ence. . .there are some social workers who are good at looking up the evi-dence and making a personal judgement . . . but most people dont evenreally know how to start the process (Megan, health manager).

What were doing constantly is just responding to crisis and that opportunityfor pause and reflection and reading. . . it is not supported by the widerorganization (Mandy).

People say you should write it up, I dont see you publishing in the SocialWork Review. . .but for practitioners we dont sort of make that our pri-ority (Cindy).

What might help raise confidence?

Participants were asked what resources might assist in raising confidence tocarry out these activities:

My guess would be to put more of an emphasis on sociology in the [socialwork qualifying courses] and research methodology and action researchso it isnt a dirty word or people cant do it. It doesnt have to be rocketscience, just teaching them how to question and critically evaluate whatthey are doing (Collette).

Time is a major factor and participants frequently made mention of the

impact of workloads and pressures to do more direct practice limitingfollow-up of good ideas such as writing up good practice or challengingcases. Berger (2010, p. 181) notes that in social work, a major facet ofthe professional knowledge is the emphasis on strengthening relationshipsand the use of relational systems as a vehicle for the achievement ofchange and the social worker below comments about how challenging itis to write about successes, where new understandings might be developed:

We worked with a family who come back from no relationship at all to arelationship and that journey I think was really interesting. I would have

loved to have supported the social worker. . .

to write it up and present it.But in this place, the idea is there but you know you have to work 60hours and [its hard] to do any of that kind of extending of the work orwriting about the work, other than just the life saving stuff (Groupmember).

In a similar vein, another practitioner comments:

I think there is a need for more writing up of case studies . . . creating aculture of learning. But I see many barriers, time and energy, becausesocial work can be so energy sapping (Lucky).

As a consequence, social work knowledge built from the ground up remainshidden. The desire to utilise the knowledge gained through experience andreflections on successes as well as failures was a feature of this study and isreported in detail elsewhere (Beddoe, 2009,2010). Mentoring support was

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noted as offering significant potential for practitioners wishing to write uppractice reflections or projects. This echoes the findings of Lunt et al.(2008). The comments that follow indicate that there is a lack of confidenceamongst practitioners in their ability to write for professional publication.

There is also some indication that reluctance also reflects practitionermotivation:

When I have talked to the social workers about lets write about this, there

is a sense that that is something that other people do. . . and nobody has eversaid I will give you a hand to write that up? There is no space made for it, orsupport so you have to be hugely internally motivated (Jenny).

I think one of the biggest problems is peoples attitude. I think it is themotivation to make it happen . . .I just do think that . . .it would only needa tiny resource to bring it all together and it could be great. I think its so

closeat our fingertips (Maree).

Status, other professions and research

Many of the participants made comparisons with other professions withrespect to research and scholarship. Bill felt that social work was reallylimited in its engagement with research, even in the health environment,in which evidence-based treatment is so dominant:

I think research is an area we need to develop but I think that it would beseen in terms of paralleling other professions, particularly doctors it wouldbe kind of a kudos thing really (Summer).

Jeepers look at them, medicine, nursing, they have got a significant research

base, and it is well integrated with [universities] through joint [clinical andteaching] positions. People on the inside with this focus . . .helping prac-titioners to do the research and to be trained in the learning environment. . .that is what we should have for social work . . . we do not have a socialwork institute to do research. Where is it? That is what we need (Bill).

Bill also made a comparison with the education sector, where he noted the

strength of the teaching professions engagement with scholarship andresearch:

Look at education, a huge resource going into [professional development] Imean I dont know half of what is going on there but my impression is, theinstitutes, but the level of research, the bodies, the policy that gets devel-oped, the training opportunities . . . (Bill).

Claire was conscious of a discrepancy in the way in which social workerswere treated in terms of resources and some of this is that social workwas just not seen as research-active:

With people in the organization who are funded to do research, they getsupport, they get funding, they get some time and you know they get




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somebody to type everything up for them, somebody to help them. Socialwork is not seen as an area that needs to do research but I think it reallyis (Claire).

One of our social workers has developed evidence-based practice around

some work with young families but she has [only] been able to do thatbecause it is a specialized area and it is well funded. Whereas in a commu-nity team I am sure there would be social workers who would love to dothat, but that is not really what their role is (Sally, mental health).

Where levels of qualification were higher and there was a culture of post-graduate study, there was greater acceptance of EBP as a fact of life inthe professional culture, even if there was some cynicism:

It wouldnt be acceptable to not be evidence-led . . .around here. I mean youjust wouldnt survive, whereas in [statutory agency] . . .you dont have those

sorts of professions around, you are not surrounded by scientists the wholetime (Dianne, mental health).

One group interview participant acknowledged the change in her thinkingin a mental health role:

It is interesting when you talk about evidence-led and now I notice it hasbecome a natural part of my thinking around my work.. . . I definitelythink that before coming into this job, if I heard evidence-led practiceyou know I would think that is not for me, here I stand with my social

work values conflicting. Well sometimes social work and science have con-

flicted (Dianne, mental health).

In a similar vein, another worker acknowledged the real impact of EBPpolicy on practitioner choice. Practitioner autonomy and wisdom groundedin experience might be rejected as:

Within this environment I can see that there are possibly approaches totherapeutic intervention for which I wouldnt apply for funding because itprobably wouldnt fit with the model (Group member).

DiscussionYoull and Walker (1995)argued that the hallmarks of advanced practicewhether as social work managers, practitioner, educator or researcherarethe capacity for reflection, systematic review and critical analysis used in thedevelopment of responsive and innovative services (Youll and Walker,1995, p. 203). Youll and Walker found an individual motivation amongsttheir postgraduate students to critically appraise their agencys practices andpolicies (Youll and Walker, 1995, p. 206). This aspect was not present inthese discussions about research and scholarship. New Zealand socialworkers are so acutely aware of the contextual issues that they frame theirinterest in research in more pragmatic terms. While practitioners and man-agers recognised the importance of further education in developing individual

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careers, this was rarely problematised except in terms of access to resources.Managers and practitioners alike were most often seeking learning opportu-nities to meet immediate needs on the job and to build expertise. Despitethe advent of registration, participants felt the profession lacked a clearly

articulated pathway of professional development. As I wrote in a field note:It is so hit and miss. Jo social worker was lucky enough to land a job hereand yet if she went down the road she would find colleagues she trained withand they say oh you are so lucky!

Two practice leaders, France and Dave, stood out as articulating a concernabout weak practitioner critical perspective as they became immersed in thedemands of everyday practice and captured by institutional definitions oftheir role and identity. There is a sense of disjuncture between the pro-fessional education environment where Munford (2003) argues strivingfor a social work that remains critical and self-reflective, and engagedwith many bodies of knowledge and the world of practice, which isoften in conflict with a view that remains focused on the pragmatic andtechnocratic (Munford, 2003, p. 50). Scholarly activity was not presentedas an ethical imperative, and seemed remote from the world of every daypractice. Many participants had an ambivalent and limited engagementwith research and scholarship and lacked confidence; they felt theylacked the vocabulary of scholarship to engage in scholarly conversationin daily practice. Others expressed frustration, especially noticeable in

the comments that addressed me personally.Riach (2009, p. 361) describessuch comments as sticky moments, understood as participant-inducedreflexivity. . .. These [are] often triggered by the research theme itself. Inthis study, one example was Jennys comment about writing:

. . .that is what people like you do Liz, it is not what people like us do andthere is an idea that you have to talk about the theory as opposed to whatyou actually doing.

Those who were more aware were focused on reactive responses to theevidence-based practice movement, with only a few critical interpretations dif-fering from the standard rationale of proving what works and a neo-liberalideology of justification of professional activity in metrics rather than humanis-tic or progressive ideas. In general, there was a separation of knowledge fromdecision making.Van de Luitgaarden (2009, p. 256) suggests that a greaterfocus on developing individual workers decision making in such a way thatcorresponds to the ways in which experts take decisions in real-life settingswould stimulate expertise and utilise more naturalistic models of best practice.

Limitations

This pragmatic, status-based approach to research and scholarship perhapsreflects the preoccupation of social workers at the time. They were immersed




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in reacting and adapting to changes brought about by the new demands of anintensified professionalisation project. It would be useful to test this outthrough a further small study. In addition, Green and Thorogood (2004)remind us that the researcher is part of the process of producing data and

their meanings (Green and Thorogood, 2004, p. 194) and during theconduct of the study the author held multiple roles within the milieu beingstudied: social work academic, researcher and a member of several pro-fessional organisations. Though not anticipated at the onset of the research,which was for a doctorate, the author became a member of the SocialWorkers Registration Board. These roles, memberships and basic stanceon many major issues may well have been known to many participants.

An additional caution may be that the study participants, while respond-ing freely to a general call for people to participate in the study, generally

had some attributes in common. They were mostly degree-qualified andmany were members of the professional social work association. Manyheld leadership roles and were thus more likely to hold or be undertakingpostgraduate qualifications. As such, the participants perhaps do notreflect the same average breadth and depth of experience that mighthave been achieved had the study utilised a randomly selected group ofsocial workers. On the plus side, they were all strongly motivated to talkabout continuing education and the profession.

Conclusions

Social workers felt they were seen as less than intellectually robust, wereconscious of their lack of confidence and prone to defend by reverting topractical conceptualisations of social work activity. A second and reason-able claim is that social workers largely lack the resourcestime, money,access, skills and confidenceto ensure their work is underpinned by scho-larship and research. These findings support the movement to developstrategies to grow research confidence and capacity in the practitioner com-munity (McCrystal, 2000;Luntet al., 2008;Mitchellet al., 2008;FoucheandLunt, 2009;Luntet al., 2009). Leadership of this effort needs to be directedcloser to the front line of practice through collaborative relationshipsbetween academics and research teams to encourage more scholarlyactivity in practice and grow a research agenda, generated by the questionsin the field and focused on the needs of service users.

Acknowledgements

The helpful comments and suggestions of the reviewers and suggestionsmade by Drs Jane Maidment and Jan Duke, on an early draft of thisarticle, are gratefully acknowledged.

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