Practitioner Research Evidence or Critique?

1. Practitioner ResearchEvidence or Critique? Ian Shaw Health and Social Care RSU, Cardiff University

2. three questions • The relationship between practitioner research and mainstream academic social work research. • An assessment of the scope for practitioner research to contribute to evidence based practice. • Whether research by practitioners has potential for critique of practice and of social science.

3. ‘research carried out by practitioners for the purpose of advancing their own practice’ (John McLeod, 1999) Characteristics Direct data collection and management Professionals set its aims and outcomes intended practical benefits ‘insider’ research Focus: own practice Practitioner research

4. Practitioner research (2) • small scale and short term • self-contained • typically a lone activity • ‘own account research’ • focus is not restricted. While it will commonly be evaluative, it may be descriptive, developmental or analytical

5. treats ‘evidence’ too straightforwardly No cross-professional dialogue ‘client-donor’ relationship to social science. client-donor relationship to human service agencies Neglects how styles of inquiry may perform as practice models deductive assumption about the theory/practice relationship silence of the service user. A too conventional writing ‘voice’. Limitations of PR

6. ‘Practitioner Research in Social Care’ Cardiff 2002-3 • Screening audit of PR in social care • Categories of PR in social care • Theoretical sample of case studies

7. Motives Consent and Ethics Fieldwork style Relation to research priorities Career and identity Usefulness Generalization Practice/university relations in PR ethics and practitioner involvement in PR Empirical issues

8. Categories of PR

9. Individual Practitioner owned + Practitioner use + No formal approval + Data on practitioner researcher’s practice Multiple Agency owned + Planned/actual uses + Formal approval + Agency wide or multiple agencies + Service use stakeholders PR Dimension 1 Ownership

10. Simple Single data type + Single researcher + Data on practitioner researcher’s practice (possibly + absence of any formal approval) Complex Multiple data types + Research team + Actual utilization of results + External ethical approval PR Dimension 2Research activity

11. Inquiry and Practice Cf McIvor on PR skills and practice skills • Is social work akin to research? Inductive practice theory building (Lang) • Dilute qualitative research in s/w and the ‘Translation’ of qualitative methods (Shaw)

12. R&D PR specialists Government and funder strategy priorities Networking Eg Knud Ramain national project in Denmark R&D and networking facilitate possibility of critique > Capacity building

13. ‘Practical’ PR and Critique • PR and the sociology of practical knowledge • ‘Insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ • The complexities of practical judgement, eg Schwab and Schwandt

14. PR and social justice • PR, individualism and the silent service user • Exemplars • Carr and Kemmis – an action research template for PR • Janet Miller and collaborative teachers • Fahl and Markand and critical psychology • Critique-led PR and evidence-based practice

15. The Cardiff PR Project Contacts • Ian Shaw Shawif@Cardiff.ac.uk • Alex Faulkner FaulknerAC@Cardiff.ac.uk • Simon Keane KeaneS1@Cardiff.ac.uk The project is due to complete February 2003. We hope to do further comparative work on practitioner inquiry