This Is What Social Work Research Methods Look like

Background and Purpose:

Researchers hoping to prove social work a science have long sought a specifically social work research methodology.  Many of the most prominent debates about social work’s research methodology have raged at the Society for Social Work Research conferences.  While we have looked to other disciplines that have successfully captured the title of being a science, the answers lie within social work itself.  Using our community-based research study of racial disparities in the use of solitary confinement in Michigan prisons as a model, we argue that social work research should look to the practice and ethical commitments of social work practice in determining what our methodology is and should be.

Methods:

We use a descriptive case study approach to explore how a research methodology that parallels social work practice could look and what benefits this can bring.  Our data are the field notes that we took as we were working in partnership with community activists, a data scientist, and formerly incarcerated people to uncover racial disparities in the use of solitary confinement.  We particularly focus on the methods that we had to use to get the data that the institution would not cede, using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and Python script.

Results:

Social work research centers social justice.  Social work research centers the people who are most affected by a given problem.  Social work research is interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary.  Social work research is continually under-resourced.  Social work research is respondent to the needs of real people and communities.  Social work research is committed to the poor and oppressed in our society.  Social work research does not flinch or shrink away from the depths of human misery, rather we illuminate them in an effort to alleviate the misery AND fight for justice.  Social work research interacts with, works within, and is antagonistic towards institutions.  Social work research asks the hard questions and faces constant, unsolvable ethical dilemmas.  Social work research happens at every level.  Social work research uses whatever tools it needs to get the job done. 

Conclusion and Implications:

Our work both shows how social worker researchers can and should work without institutional blessing when our ethical commitments command us to do so.  We offer practical tips for how to go about developing transdisciplinary and community partnerships, as well as using tools like FOIA and Python script in social work research.