Still Among the Missing? A Content Analysis of LGBT Articles in Social Work Journals, 1998–2009

In 2002, Van Voorhis and Wagner published an article that examined how often, between 1988 and 1997, four major social work journals published content on gay and lesbian people. This content analysis is a follow-up to the previous one to see if the findings were different when the same four journals were examined between 1998 and 2009. As with the Van Voorhis and Wagner study, articles were coded depending upon their focus on HIV/AIDS and the gay community or other issues impacting gays and lesbians. Similarly, articles were coded depending on whether they focused on the client, worker, or macro system. This study found a decrease in the number of same-sex articles from 77 in the first analysis to only 50 in the present one. Furthermore, there was a decrease of almost 90% in the number of articles on HIV/AIDS, from 51 to 5. Van Voorhis and Wagner indicated that social work educators would not be able to easily find gay and lesbian content if they had to rely only on the four major journals. This study reaches a similar conclusion.     

Research Articles in Australian Social Work from 1998–2007: A Content Analysis

Abstract

With the rise of evidence-based practice, there have been calls in social work for practice research that examines the efficacy of its interventions. For the present paper, the authors conducted a content analysis of all articles published in Australian Social Work in the period from 1998 to 2007 to examine the nature of published research and evaluation. Of the 313 articles, 138 (45%) reported on research findings. Of these, only six articles involved practice evaluation or testing of an instrument, but there were positive signs of a developing empirical research culture primarily utilising a qualitative approach or mixed methods studies. The authors suggest that there is a need for more research on social work interventions, a more conscious decision by the profession about its attitude to evidence-based practice (EBP), specific directions for research education, and greater rigour in reporting all types of research studies, but particularly qualitative studies.     

Do the Characteristics of Seconded or Sponsored Social Work Students in England Differ from Those of Other Social Work Students?—A Quantitative Analysis Using National Data

Amongst initiatives by social work employers in the United Kingdom (UK) to resolve recruitment difficulties is the use of secondment and sponsorship to attract entrants to the profession; commonly known as Grow Your Own schemes. This paper reports on part of a mixed-method research study that asked ‘What works in Grow Your Own (GYO) schemes?’ in England. One important research question for this study was whether the characteristics of seconded or sponsored social work students differ from those of other social work students. To explore this, the researchers analysed around 41,000 students' anonymous data records supplied by the General Social Care Council covering enrolments on social work programmes from 1998 to 2007. The findings indicate that GYO schemes have facilitated the participation of men, Asian groups and older applicants in social work qualifying programmes when compared to the general population of social work students. However, students from Black ethnic backgrounds and those with disabilities have been more likely to be under-represented in such schemes. The findings are discussed within the wider study remits and messages for educationalists and social work employers are drawn out.     

Social Justice as Concept and Practice in Australian Social Work: An Analysis of Norma Parker Addresses, 1969–2008

Abstract

Social justice is central to Australian social work. Principles of social justice underpin the definition of social work as a profession, its code of ethics, and its standards of practice and education. However, there is a dearth of empirical research regarding what social justice has meant to social work over time and how it has been enacted in practice, topical as social inequalities continue to escalate. As a first-stage study, this paper examines how social justice was represented within 19 Norma Parker Addresses delivered by Presidents of the Australian Association of Social Workers at national conferences between 1969 and 2008. Two key themes were evident: social justice as a concept and social justice as social work practice. Social justice was represented conceptually throughout the Addresses as an enduring guiding principle and moral responsibility for social work. How social justice was enacted in practice included themes of: standpoint; practices and strategies; educating social workers; and contested and constrained practice. The meanings and practices of social justice were embedded within the changing contexts within which the Addresses were delivered. Further historical studies can inform social work knowledge, practice, and critical reflection as the profession continues to evolve and confront persistent social justice challenges.     

Examining Foundations of Qualitative Research: A Review of Social Work Dissertations, 2008–2010

This study examined the treatment of epistemology and methodological rigor in qualitative social work dissertations. Template-based review was conducted on a random sample of 75 dissertations completed between 2008 and 2010. For each dissertation, we noted the presence or absence of four markers of epistemology: theory, paradigm, reflexivity, and power. We also examined methods choices and the strategies used for ensuring rigor. Results suggested that most (96%) doctoral students completing qualitative dissertations address theory, but fewer refer to reflexivity (45%), paradigm (13%), or power dynamics (8%). Students typically used multiple strategies for ensuring rigor. Grounded theory and phenomenology were the most popular methods choices, followed by case studies, ethnography, or narrative methods. Implications for doctoral education are offered.     

Coverage of Women's Issues in Social Work Journals: Are We Building an Adequate Knowledge Base?

Abstract

The authors of this article conducted a review of selected social work journals published between 1982 and 1991 to determine the coverage given to women's issues during this period. Because this study was similar to one conducted for the previous decade, the authors were able to analyze trends over time as well as differences among various journals. The findings indicate that articles focusing on women's issues comprised less than 10% of all articles published in the sampled journals during the decade. The study also found that women authored over 75% of the articles and books on women's content, but that only about 15% of the articles women write are on women's issues.     

Business in Social Work Education: A Historically Black University’s Social Work Entrepreneurship Project

The destabilization of the current economy has sparked increased interest in entrepreneurship, especially for underrepresented minority social work students. The entrepreneurial thinking of these social work students entering social work programs at historically Black colleges and universities needs to be fostered in a learning environment. This article describes a historically Black university’s creative social entrepreneurship venture in response to the Social Work Congress’s 2010 imperative “Business of Social Work—Infuse models of sustainable business and management practice in social work education and practice.” The social entrepreneurship project uses the interprofessional collaborative educational model and attempts to provide meaningful and relevant education to social work students interested in social entrepreneurship through the collaborative efforts of the university’s School of Social Work and the School of Business and Management.     

The Social Backgrounds of Nazi Leaders: A Statistical Analysis of Political Elites in Weimar Germany, 1918–1933

This article compares the social backgrounds of Nazi leaders and representatives of democratic parties in the Weimar Republic. It does not advance any overarching new narrative on Nazism’s social origins, but rather aims to present a nuanced statistical picture of Weimar’s political elites. The results of this analysis are derived from an index of German members of parliament and from a new dataset, which has recently been collected from the Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB), Germany’s largest biographical encyclopaedia. Together, these two samples cover more than 2000 German politicians, industrialists, diplomats, political writers, academics, high state officials, and important journalists. This article reveals sociological differences between the politicians who led the Nazi party in parliament and those elites that promoted Nazism in the media, in academia, or within the German civil service. While Nazi politicians in the Reichstag were recruited from a variety of social classes, ranging from industrial workers to members of the aristocracy, National Socialist elites outside the parliament typically belonged to the Bildungsbürgertum and sociologically resembled the highly educated members of democratic and liberal parties. Overall, the picture of a generation of Nazi leaders emerges that was sociologically far more heterogeneous than is often recognized by historians.     

Social Work Intellectuals in the Twenty‐First Century: Critical Social Theory,Critical Social Work and Public Engagement

Frequently, observation of social work students in ‘live’ work is absent or haphazard. An overview of the key literature examines the need for observation of students during training, explores the strengths and challenges of live supervision and describes a planned process for conducting live supervision. This approach incorporates four phases: collaborative preparation for a session of direct practice; observation of the student's work by a field educator; debriefing and feedback; and the development of a plan for further learning steps. Brief vignettes are used to illustrate the process. The article is enriched by the inclusion of student comments from the evaluations undertaken after live supervision activities.     

The Status of Online Public Relations Research: An Analysis of Published Articles in 1992–2009

This study was designed to identify trends, patterns, and academic rigor in research studies focusing on Internet-related public relations through a review of articles published between 1992 and 2009. ^{1 1}Please see the appendix for a bibliography of the 115 articles studied. This study examined the authorship, theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and research topics addressed in these published articles. Key findings suggested an increasing trend in the number of published articles, a lack of applied theoretical frameworks, a dominance of quantitative research, and an emphasis on use of the Internet in public relations.     

Social Work Supervision of Staff: A Primer and Scoping Review (2013–2017)

Supervision of staff has a rich history within the social work profession, and is widely valued internationally for the support, knowledge, and skill it is perceived to provide. Moreover, quality supervision is championed for ensuring good client care. However, supervisors practicing within the social work profession have not typically had access to best practice information, nor accessed the parallel research related to the supervision of staff. A supervision primer provides an orientation to the supervision literature, including definitions and disciplinary perspectives. This sets the stage for a scoping review of social work supervision articles for the purpose of supporting supervisors in keeping current, locating, understanding, and applying literature to their practice. Seventy-nine conceptual and empirical articles first-authored by social workers were published in 36 journals between 2013 and 2017. The volume, location, context and nature of these articles are presented, pointing to an increased social work presence in the literature. Implications for supervisory practice, scholarship, and research are discussed.     

How Have Other Journals Compared to “The Top Seven” Journals in Family Social Science with Respect to LGBT-Related Research and Reviews? A Comment on “A Content Analysis of LGBT Research in Top Family Journals 2000–2015”? An Editorial Analysis

Van Eeden-Moorefield, Few-Demo, Benson, Bible, and Lummer (2018) recently reviewed the content of seven family social science journals with respect to theory and methods used in 153 articles featuring LGBT research or reviews of LGBT research. They concluded that less than three percent of 6,832 articles published in those journals between 2000 and 2015 were LGBT-related and that most had not used explicit theory and had used purposive cross-sectional samples consisting mostly of White and middle-class participants. During the tenure of the present editor, between 2010 and 2017, Marriage & Family Review featured 14 research reports, reviews, or commentary on LGBT-related issues out of 250 articles, not counting brief editorials or biographies between 2010 and 2017, an odds ratio of over 2.0 compared to the other “top-tier” journals. Likewise, the Journal of Family Theory & Review published at least 15 articles, mainly reviews or commentaries, on LGBT-related issues between 2009 and 2017. Articles in Marriage & Family Review and Journal of Family Theory & Review were more likely to be reviews of the literature, or feature explicit theory, to be qualitative in methodology, or to involve interviews or surveys, while other characteristics were similar to those in the other seven journals. Thus, even if some mainstream family journals did not publish often on LGBT-related issues, other important family science journals have done so. Furthermore, there are numerous scholarly journals that welcome LGBT-related research and reviews almost exclusively.     

How can We Enhance Productivity in Social Work? Dynamically Reflective Structures,Dialogic Leadership and the Development of Transformative Expertise

This article examines how to enhance the ability of managers to promote productivity through reflective structures and appreciatively evaluative dialogues based on front-line expertise and knowledge in social work practice. In order to discuss these ideas, we review the ideas of dialogical leadership and reflective structures, and the concept of productivity in relation to reassessing social work core tasks and the work-related well-being of social workers. We will present and reflect on our experiences and ideas generated from research that developed reflective tools, known as the Mirror method, for peer evaluation and practice development in social work. The Mirror method is designed as a tool for leaders and managers to enhance, through trialogic processes and structures, both the well-being of employees at the individual level and the productivity of social work and learning for transformation at the organizational level.     

Bridging the Theory–Practice Gap in Social Work Education: A Reflection on an Action Research in China

This article explores the background to, and issues associated with, the implementation of Personal Development Planning (PDP) within Higher Education (HE). Consideration of issues for social work educators follows as the authors seek to ground policy change in practice and debate issues so that reflection is not ‘little more than a mantra’ but rather a ‘model for practice’ (Kuit et al., 2001, Active Learning in Higher Education, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 128–142, at p. 129). Although educators have arguably always used a variety of strategies to encourage student reflection and evaluation of their learning experiences, implementation of PDPs codifies and institutionalises individual student reflection and the production of associated outputs. This is evidenced by the production of guidelines to promote what is billed as a core educational process by Universities UK, the Standing Conference on Principals, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and the Learning and Teaching Subject Network (LTSN) Generic Centre. As social work academics consider and respond to the challenges associated with the re‐specification of programmes to meet new award requirements they might usefully reflect on the challenges PDP brings, and integrate responses into programme specifications. Avoiding fragmentation and duplication, for example around the personal tutor system and role of staff in PDP, is important for both social work students and staff within complex and, at times, contradictory organisational contexts such as Institutes of Higher Education (IHE).     

A Psychometric Analysis of Field Evaluation Instruments Designed to Measure Students’ Generalist-Level Social Work Competencies

ABSTRACT

There is a dearth of research on the evaluation of the psychometric performance of instruments designed to measure students’ generalist-level social work competencies. There is also uncertainty on the performance of various response option formats used to measure students’ competencies in assessment instruments. Using a sample of 198 master of social work students and 198 field instructors, the current study employs confirmatory factor analysis to assess the psychometric performance of a field evaluation instrument designed to measure students’ generalist-level social work competencies. The results provide evidence to support the validity and reliability of the instrument. The results also highlight nuances associated with a 5-point response option format for items used to measure competency indicators. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Decision-making in Social Work Field Education: A “Good Enough” Framework

This qualitative study was designed to explore decision-making processes used by directors of field education in social work programs in the USA. It is a follow-up to previous research showing the dilemmas that field directors face [specifics deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process]. We asked 22 field directors to explain how they would handle different dilemmas designed to simulate the kinds of issues that typically arise in field education. Analyses revealed that field directors use a four-dimensional decision-making process to address competing demands, employing a ‘good enough’ framework. The four dimensions include student learning, professional ethics, agency relationships, and administrative expectations.     

Teaching Critical Reflection: A Tool for Transformative Learning in Social Work?

In an Australian Bachelor of Social Work degree, critical reflection is a process explicitly taught in a fourth year subject to students who have returned from their first field placement experience in agencies delivering social work programmes. The purpose of teaching critical reflection is to enable social work students to become autonomous and critical thinkers who can reflect on society, the role of social work and social work practices. The way critical reflection is taught in this fourth year social work unit relates closely to the aims of transformative learning. Transformative learning aims to assist students to become autonomous thinkers. Specifically, the critical reflection process taught in this subject aims to assist students to recognise their own and other people's frames of reference, to identify the dominant discourses circulating in making sense of their experience, to problematise their taken-for -granted ‘lived experience’, to reconceptualise identity categories, disrupt assumed causal relations and to reflect on how power relations are operating. Critical reflection often draws on many theoretical frameworks to enable the recognition of current modes of thinking and doing. In this paper, we will draw primarily on how post-structural theories, specifically Foucault's theorising, disrupt several taken-for-granted concepts in social work.     

Controversy and Its Implications for the Practice of Contemporary Social Work in Intercountry Adoptions: A Korean–Australian Case Study

Abstract

Korean–Australian intercountry adoption has been practiced for 30 years. This longevity provides unique opportunities to develop critical perspectives on a complex, global practice. This paper presents understandings drawn from a study that explores Korean intercountry adoption using Actor Network Theory. It argues that the practice of intercountry adoption in Australia has been shaped by adoption-driven influences and characterised by controversy and competing discourses. It concludes that contemporary understandings necessitate a global, contextual, and critical view that is inclusive of emerging voices and alternate discourses. The challenge for practitioners and policy makers is to ensure the complex nature of the phenomenon is understood by all stakeholders. This will involve remaining child-focused, promoting multilevel interventions, incorporating research findings, and resisting wholly positive discourse that promotes singular perspectives. An awareness of how the internet is used to forge networks and promote discourses is crucial in ensuring multiple perspectives are considered in this contentious practice field.     

Towards Body–Mind–Spirit Integration: East Meets West in Clinical Social Work Practice

Contemporary trends in clinical practice are moving more toward an integrative approach that views the mind, the body and the spirit as inter-connected entities. There is an increasing interest in approaches that utilize physical, cognitive, emotional and spiritual components in assessment and treatment. This paper presents an integrative body–mind–spirit approach in clinical social work practice which is informed by the Eastern philosophical traditions of Daoism, Buddhism, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Our work with a bereaved elderly woman is presented to illustrate how the three key intervention principles: (1) promoting a dynamic balance within the individual through multi-modal intervention; (2) fostering strengths; and (3) facilitating meaning-making can be effective in helping people in a clinical setting.