WHY BE RESEARCH MINDED?

Research for understanding

The are many different types of research methodologies and areas of research but for the research minded practitioner two broad areas of research are discussed. These are research for understanding and research for decision making. This section is concerned with the first of these and is about acquiring knowledge about society in the broadest sense and about understanding the circumstances and lives of social work service users in a way that informs the basic approach of work. It is clearly related to research for decision making but the latter has a more precise focus on trying to answer questions about how practitioners can intervene successfully in particular circumstances.

Pyramid with Macro highlighted Research for understanding is also about influencing action at a political or social policy level and may have implications for decision making at an agency policy level. Research should interact with social work theory to shape broad philosophical and methodological approaches to work with service users at a 'Macro-level'. This can be contrasted with Meso and Micro level approaches discussed in the next section.

Examples of research for understanding include research into such broad areas as:

	Child developmental research		Incidence and characteristics of child abuse and neglect
	Family life and patterns of living		Social work theories and practice
	Mental health and ill-health		Social policy
	Organisational behaviour and decision making		Organisation and functioning of social agencies
	Psychology and sociology		Understanding of racism and workings of anti-racist legislation
	Criminology, penology and workings of the criminal justice system		Feminist experiences and perspectives
	Sexuality, sexual orientation and discrimination		Effect of housing policies and legislation
	Drugs rehabilitation services and patterns of drug use		Workings of benefits system
	Gerontology and ageing		Poverty and ill health
	Alcohol issues and services		Employment patterns and legislation

Keeping up to-date

It is impossible for academics, let alone practitioners to keep abreast of all research, even within their own subject discipline. However all of these areas impact on the lives of service users in different ways and social care practitioners need an awareness of broad developments in many of these areas - depending of course on their specialist role.

The reality is that new research information is filtered into public and personal awareness by television, newspapers and other media and though social interaction. While it is easy enough to identify how often the media deals with complex issues in superficial, trivial or sensationalist ways, there are many examples of serious in-depth analyses of issues that can play a significant part in shaping public understanding and perceptions and ultimately of influencing public policy.

Professional awareness also develops through contact with colleagues, team discussions, inter-agency contacts, conferences, training courses, agency practice and policy statements as well as through professional journals. Enhancement of your tacit knowledge through such formal and informal processes should not be underestimated, and for the research-minded practitioner they play a significant part in keeping up with research developments. There are marked contrasts between teams of workers who are engaged in sharing and exploring ideas about the work and those where the focus is only on the day to day practical issues around work. Here are things that can help in being a research minded team:

Team meeting/seminars on issues and research	~	Team subscriptions to professional journals	~
~	Bringing in experts from other agencies	~	Team co-working and/or research projects
Use of local monitoring and research departments	~	New intiatives and projects	~
~	Team members investigating issues and reporting back	~	Sharing feedback from conferences
Access to the Internet and knowledge of social work gateways	~	Access to agency library/resources	~
~	Computer information systems on research/policy and practice	~	Use of abstracts and summary sources

Developing expertise

Social care practitioners at both a team or individual level need explicit, systematic and focused ways of enhancing their knowledge base. There is no one ideal route for doing this but these resources identify different ways in which this can be done. The next section looks at ways of moving from improving your general understanding and awareness into decision making about your work with service users.