A Case Study Using Photovoice to Explore Racial and Social Identity Among Young Black Men: Implications for Social Work Research and Practice

This article describes an exploratory qualitative case study using a research method novel to social work known as Photovoice. This case study of the Photovoice process assesses its value as a community-based participatory research (CBPR) method with marginalized communities within social work research. Photovoice was used to engage young Black men as researchers into their own lived experience. Through a photographic and group participatory project, participants discussed how intersections of race, gender, and sexuality affect their lives and health. While this methodology has proliferated within public health literature, little research exists within social work. Photovoice represents a research well-aligned with core social work values of empowerment and social justice. This method offers our profession a participatory, action-oriented tool to inform practice and policy and does so in the voices of communities who often go unheard.     

The personal is political: a feminist reflection on a journey into participatory arts-based research with sex worker migrants in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This article offers a personal reflection of my journey into participatory arts-based research with sex work migrants in South Africa. It begins by sharing some background information of how my own experience as a migrant woman, and my layered (sometimes conflicted) identities, have continued to shape and influence much of my scholarly work, including my commitment to engaging in research that supports (or at least tries to support) social justice. Through this article, I offer an example of how the ‘personal is political’ is entwined in feminist values of research and engagement. Those who experience the issues under investigation must be considered equal partners in research processes. Collaborative forms of knowledge production can support social justice, particularly if efforts strive to shift the centre from which knowledge is traditionally generated and disseminated.     

The Apparent Conflict between Commitment to the Development of the Profession and the Imperatives of the Academy

It has been argued in a number of publications in the social work field that the current preoccupation with evidence-based practice is problematic, in that it offers a restricted and sometimes inappropriate understanding of the fundamentals of research in the social sciences. As a result social work and social care are at risk of deprivation of appropriate knowledge to inform practice. This article takes up this critique, in particular pointing out that the tendency for the debate to be reduced to one of competing (qualitative and quantitative) research methods is unhelpful. The issue is an epistemological one about the nature of knowledge and the authority of 'knowers'. The article gives examples of participatory approaches to research that start from a valuing of a range of kinds of knowledge. This opens the way for both quantitative and qualitative methods to have a place in social work research and social work education.     

Using Participatory Action Research to Access Social Work Voices: Acknowledging the Fit

This article presents Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a critical methodology that fills a gap in health research, and describes the importance of using PAR with a group of social workers about their conceptualizations of health. While social work practice, knowledge and contributions extend beyond the traditional positivist framework that dominates health research, the profession’s unique understanding of health is frequently subsumed within work contexts that are dominated by bio-physiological conceptualizations of health. PAR provides a means of engaging the knowledge of social workers, which, in turn, helps in the pursuit of wide-reaching social justice and change.     

Reflective Teaching in Social Work Education: Findings from a Participatory Action Research Study

This article describes a feminist-informed reflective teaching project enacted by a group of social work faculty at Texas State University–San Marcos. Utilizing Schon's notion of reflection-in-action, faculty formed a participatory action research group to implement reflective techniques to further their professional development as new teachers and better prepare social work students for practice in the social work profession. This project guided the participants in establishing academic identity through the creation of a supportive academic setting and peer collegiality. The group met monthly to share reflective teaching journals (RTJs), participate in intergroup dialogue, and engage in contemplative practices, such as meditation and visualization. Methods of data collection and analysis included content analysis of the intergroup dialogue sessions. Findings from the project reinforced Kolb's experiential learning cycle, in which new insights gained from reflection were integrated back into the classroom. This article presents these important insights and suggests replication of this project to promote reflective teaching in social work education and to help prepare new social work faculty for success in academia.     

“You are a Besya”: Microaggressions Experienced by Trafficking Survivors Exploited in the Sex Trade

ABSTRACT

This article exposes the prevalence of microaggressions as experienced by female sex-trafficking survivors in their everyday lives. Using a case example from Nepal, this article investigates the under-researched experiences of microaggressions against trafficking survivors and their cumulative effects on their lives. A participatory action research (PAR) process was used with eight trafficking survivors to delineate and explore categories of microaggressive behaviors to them. The results of the study reveal the occurrence of microaggressive behaviors against sex-trafficking survivors, grounded in experiential evidence in personal narratives. Implications for social work education and practices are discussed.     

Reflections on Student,Service User and Carer Involvement in Social Work Research

This article will reflect on the experience of undertaking a participatory action research influenced study within a module of a social work degree programme. In doing so it will touch on some of the literature associated with student, service user and carer involvement in qualifying programmes, and in particular on research and module design. It will outline the history of service user and carer involvement in respect of a specific module within a singular degree course. It will provide an overview and some findings of the study, which sought to evaluate the involvement of an inherent service user and carer group within that degree course. However, as service user and carer involvement within degree programmes has had significant attention within the wider literature, the current study seeks to present a reflexive commentary on student, service user and carer involvement in research modules and participatory action research. Whilst the research presented here should be regarded as an initial foray with acknowledged limitations, it equally highlights some perspectives that lead to an understanding of how greater levels of student, service user and carer involvement within social work research might be achieved, in particular in the context of social work qualifying programmes.     

Undergraduate students’ perception of their own strengths and weaknesses as potential social workers

This article offers some insight into how undergraduate social work students perceive their own strengths and weaknesses. This qualitative research study explored responses from 51 s-year students. Participant responses revealed five main themes in strengths and weaknesses categories: characteristic features, client work related, communication skills, expert-centred approach and problem-focused approach. In order to teach students social work core values and perspectives, it is crucial for the educators themselves to explore their own approaches related to the strengths perspective vs deficit-based approach and their willingness to change their own views and teaching methods to prepare future professionals.     

DEVELOPMENT OF PRACTICE

In this paper it is described how the work of the Balay Rehabilitation Centre in the Philippines has changed over time as the political and human rights conditions of the country's affected areas have changed. Balay's psychosocial rehabilitation programmes address the needs of individuals and communities and offer support and healing. Originally Balay focused on individual and family-level psychological and social intervention in accordance with clinical diagnoses; however, as the political and human rights situation of the Philippines changed and large numbers of people became victims of trauma and displacement the intervention strategies changed. Balay became increasingly interested in assisting communities to become empowered to participate in their own healing and the frameworks of community research and participatory action research (PAR) are now being explored by Balay as valid methods of integrating research with rehabilitation activities on the community level.     

Beginnings: participatory action research and adults with developmental disabilities

This paper discusses the emergence of Participatory Action Research (PAR), and its use with individuals with cognitive disabilities. A brief history of PAR is given, with a focus on its uses for empowerment and self-determination for persons with disabilities. Using literature-based standards for participatory, action and emancipatory research approaches, a 3-year research project with goals of increasing community participation by adults with developmental disabilities is described and evaluated. The "Transition into Community Life" project used an adapted form of the "Farmer-back-to-Farmer" PAR model (Rhoades & Booth, 1982), and the article discusses the successes and challenges of the model in a context quite different from how it was originally designed. The author describes lessons learned concerning the use of PAR with people with developmental disabilities. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the feasibility of PAR with individuals with cognitive challenges.     

Pockets of Participation: Revisiting Child‐Centred Participation Research

This article revisits the theme of the clash of interests and power relations at work in participatory research which is prescribed from above. It offers a possible route toward solving conflict between adult‐led research carried out by young researchers, funding requirements and organisational constraints. The article explores issues of participation in child‐centred research in a cross‐cultural context and gives examples from research carried out with young refugees. The author discusses what might be the best way forward for researchers against a backdrop of critical dialogues concerning child participation on the one hand and funders’ frequent calls for participatory methodologies on the other. In doing participatory research with children and young people on the margins of society, issues of power, knowledge, ethical relations, funding processes and research methodologies and practices may seem at odds and difficult to resolve. In this article a methodology of creating pockets of participation that can be owned by the young researchers is suggested as a possible route.     

Towards design sociology

In this review essay, I introduce and map the field of what I call “design sociology”. I argue that design research methods have relevance to a wide range of sociological research interests, and particularly for applied research that seeks to understand people's engagements with objects, systems and services, better engage publics and other stakeholders, work towards social change, and identify and intervene in futures. I discuss 3 main ways in which design sociology can be conducted: the sociology of design, sociology through design and sociology with design. I explain key terms in design and dominant approaches in social design research—participatory, critical, adversarial, speculative, and ludic design. Examples of how sociologists have already engaged with design research methods are outlined. The essay concludes with suggestions about what the future directions of design sociology might be.     

The Good,the Bad,and the Ugly: Dimensions of Success and Failure in Research Collaboration

Failure is a common experience in society, and analyses of failure have been important for developing social theory. This article analyzes how chemical scientists experience failure in both credited and uncredited research collaborations. Credited work produces the outputs that are evaluated by administrators and analyzed by social scientists. Thus, “credit” is closely tied with visibility in science. But chemical scientists often engage in uncredited collaboration as well. Uncredited collaborations are not opportunities to receive formal credit for one’s work, but chemical scientists still engage in uncredited work in order to meet the metrics by which they are evaluated. Analyzing 106 interviews with chemical scientists, this article builds a framework for understanding success in collaboration. The two dimensions of this framework that shape experience of success and failure are (1) whether a collaboration produced outputs and (2) whether expectations are met. Collaborative expectations often go unmet, but these disappointments rarely undermine collaborations from producing credited outputs. Novice scientists often have positive experiences in uncredited collaboration despite not receiving credit for their work. Success and failure are experienced differently in credited and uncredited collaboration. Institutional pressures often create circumstances for failure in collaborations while also keeping scientists invested in unsuccessful collaborations.     

Research Methodology and Community Participation: A Decade of Indigenous Social Science Research in Canada

Those engaged in community‐based participatory research often comment on tensions between social scientific and community values, yet little systematic evidence exists about the relationship between social science research methodologies and community participation. We analyze nearly 500 peer‐reviewed articles published between 2005 and 2015 on Indigenous issues in Canada, where policies encourage participatory research methods with disempowered groups. We find that research that includes Indigenous participation is more likely to include Indigenous epistemologies and participatory evidence sources and analysis methods. We also find that peer‐reviewed research involving Indigenous participants often fails to go beyond minimum levels of consultation required by policies.     

On the Road to Damascus: First Steps towards Changing the Relations of Disability Research Production

This paper distinguishes between participatory and emancipatory research, and discusses how both differ from other research practice. A further distinction is made between material and social relations of disability research production. It is argued that, although there are significant constraints imposed by the material relations of research production, genuine progress can still be made in changing the social relations of disability research. Based on the experience of doing research commissioned by organisations of disabled people and other work carried out within a framework of 'user's perspectives' on services and policy, the discussion focuses on the lessons we have learnt-and those we still need to learn-about how to change the relations of research production. Consultation between researchers and disabled people, subjecting research to critical scrutiny, and making researchers accountable to disabled people are suggested as key issues in the development of participatory research.     

Decolonizing Sociology Through Collaboration,Co-Learning and Action: A Case for Participatory Action Research1

Despite important efforts by postcolonial scholars to “decolonize” sociology, this endeavor remains limited by the scaffolding of empirical research, or the institutionalized practices and beliefs embedded within data collection and researchers' relationship to research subjects. In its current form, this scaffolding excludes “subaltern” voices from critiquing and extending sociological theory, deriving benefits from the study, or informing social actions that stem from the research. This limits the field's understanding of the multi-faceted impacts of colonialism and retrenches inequalities between scholars and participants. Participatory Action Research (PAR) offers an alternative, decolonial infrastructure. PAR acknowledges the value of knowledge from the periphery and calls for (1) the participation of marginalized research populations in each step of the research process; (2) co-learning between researchers and participants; and (3) collaborative social action that centers the needs of marginalized research populations. Drawing on a case study of PAR in Rio de Janeiro, I demonstrate how PAR allows sociologists, in partnership with historically colonized groups, to decolonize sociology not only in theory, but in the concrete practices of empirical research.     

Advancing scientific knowledge through participatory action research

This paper aims to demonstrate the value of participatory action research (PAR) for advancing scientific knowledge as well as for solving practical problems. The article supports the argument through brief summaries of three PAR cases in industry: Norwegian shipping, Xerox Corporation, and the FAGOR group of the Mondragón cooperatives. While noting the practical gains achieved through PAR, the author concentrates particularly on the advances in substantive knowledge and theory that would have been unlikely to emerge out of more orthodox sociological research. The author suggests finally that wider use of participatory action research can have a stimulating effect upon the future development of sociology.     

Can we find solutions with people? Participatory action research with small organic producers in Andalusia

This paper reports on an experiment linking science with people. Taking as a paradigm the holistic scientific approach fostered by agroecology, we present a methodological proposal for the implementation of participatory action research in rural areas. Our aims were various: to solve a specific problem, i.e. the exclusion of small- and medium-scale organic farmers from the official certification system; to find solutions collectively through an exchange of knowledge between researchers, technicians, producers and consumers; and to generate endogenous social change in rural areas through processes based on local skills and collective creativity. This paper examines the methods applied, and provides a participatory reflexive analysis of those methods. Both the keys to the success and the constraints are analysed, in order to conclude the contributions that agroecology and PAR processes can make to sustainable and innovative research proposals.     

Putting Principles Into Practice: Addressing Historical Trauma,Mistrust, and Apprehension in Research Methods Courses

The social work profession has articulated commitments to acknowledging and affirming how diversity and culture shape the human experience and to developing social workers who can competently engage in research-informed practice and practice-informed research. However, there remains a need in social work education for more widespread use of culturally relevant pedagogies that can help achieve these goals. Informed by historical trauma theory and the Black perspective, this article presents a model we used for teaching research to master’s-level social work students at a historically Black university. The article describes assignments and classroom exercises that were used and discusses the implications of this model for culturally informed research curricula that promotes antioppressive research in diverse classroom settings.