A Collaborative Research Process in Social Work Doctoral Education: Recentering Community

Background and Purpose: The collaborative process of conducting socially relevant research as a team is vital to social work doctoral education. Students’ perspectives on the implementation of their doctoral program’s research practicum courses or opportunities are necessary to inform educators, administrators, and incoming students. The practical takeaways from current students in social work doctoral education are not routinely formally compiled to serve as a resource for the future. During a two-semester research practicum course, doctoral students learned invaluable lessons about the collaborative process and conducting socially just research. This project describes the process and student outcomes of a student-led practicum research project, with a lens of how the project may impact student development.

Methods: As a group with diverse research interests, the doctoral students identified an overarching topic of parental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic through collaborative discussion and decision-making, with each student selecting a unique subtopic (e.g., posttraumatic growth, childcare access, problem-solving efficacy, romantic relationship quality, economic hardship, mindful self-compassion, sense of community, etc.). Ecological systems theory was utilized to organize the individual constructs. Each member conducted a pilot survey using their personal and professional networks and integrated participants’ feedback. The final cross-sectional retrospective survey consisted of 11 measures associated with the macrosystem, mesosystem, microsystem, or individual system, totaling 116 to 135 questions, dependent on skip logic questions. When creating demographic survey questions, the doctoral students utilized extant research and resources to develop representative response options to reduce the chances of individual respondents being excluded. The team contracted with Qualtrics to distribute the survey to a representative panel of parents in the U.S. Results were analyzed individually with faculty and peer consultation.

Results: A total of 440 participants responded to the survey. The final sample (n = 436) was 77% cisgender women, 15% cisgender men, and 8% nonbinary. All respondents were over the age of 18 and had parented at least one child during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey data was used to inform several collaborations and independent projects. Each student prepared their own manuscript for the purposes of the course. Three students have submitted manuscripts for publication either independently or in partnership with peers from the course. All seven students presented research findings in three different settings within the university including a research poster session, a community engagement program, and a graduate school research conference.

Conclusions and Implications: Through this collaborative doctoral research experience, team members developed practical skills (e.g., data collection, selecting topics and theories, preparing research posters and papers, etc.) as well as a deeper understanding of the research process and related issues (e.g., decision making skills, timeliness of research, conducting socially just research, issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, etc.) that will benefit doctoral students throughout their program and future careers. This hands-on and student-led research process provides unique opportunities for doctoral students’ academic growth, which suggests the research practicum may be incorporated into U.S. social work doctoral programs’ curricula. Implications for doctoral studies and application to doctoral programs will be discussed.