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In 1915 Flexner suggested that social work was not a profession, in part because it did not have a unique body of information for which it was responsible. Although generally viewed as a profession now, the question about the scope the profession's expertise remains. Brekke’s Rosen Lecture at the 2011 SSWR Annual Conference championed the establishment of a science of social work. Within the last year the Coalition for the Promotion of Behavioral Health and Prevention of Negative Developmental Outcomes has unveiled their Grand Challenges, on which the social work academy should focus its efforts. So, identifying “social work knowledge” becomes an important concern.
Harry Spect accused the social work practice community of forsaking its historic mission in Unfaithful Angels. Perhaps social work researchers are unfaithful angels also. The purpose of the current study was to determine social work faculty and administrator opinions about the following questions: If a social work scholar does high-quality work that has little bearing on social work practice, is it good social work scholarship? If the social work academy endorses scholarship that has little connection to social work practice, is it forsaking its mission? What do SW faculty and administrators think about this?
Methods
This qualitative study used a snowball sample method to recruit thirty-one tenured faculty members (20 of whom were deans or directors) from 24 schools who provided in-depth semi-structured interviews. Participants were asked to provide opinions regarding 1) the importance of social work values in the work (projects) of social work scholars, 2) the balance between personal gain and social gain in their academic setting and in the social work academy in general, and 3) how directly they thought social work research projects should be connected to social work practice.
The analysis of the transcribed data was done with the assistance of NVivo (11th ed.) software. Reflective commentary was used (journaling and memos) to identify patterns, possible themes and questions during coding. Extensive member-checking was done during the interviews and a limited amount was done during the analysis phase.
Results
Four themes (among seven) that emerged from the analysis are presented in this abstract: 1) Personal reward (obtaining funding, producing publications, etc.) has a stronger influence on determining social work researcher agendas than does a desire to improve the social condition, and this is seen in the nature of projects they propose. 2) Social work values are forsaken in order to enhance grant submissions, most believe. 3) Some institutions DO favor scholarship with direct practice implications for their citizens and communities. 4) Seemingly self-serving outcomes may be the means to grander service-oriented ends.
Implications
Social work scholarship is intended to further the work/goals of the profession. As the leaders of the social work academy address identified Grand Challenges, it is important that work being done to these ends actually reflects the values and views of the profession. To promote scholarship that endorses generic scholars rather than social work-scholars denigrates the academy’s role as leaders of the profession.