TFEL Resources on Practice Research

In this webinar, Dr. Sally St. George and Dr. Dan Wulff present ideas they have been working on that trouble the distinction between practice and research. Their aim is to bring practice and research back together as a unitary initiative rather than separate operations for new and experienced practitioners. In the webinar, you are invited to imagine suspending the traditional idea that researchers research and practitioners’ practice as well as to brainstorm questions that raise your curiosity in your own practice settings. In addition, examples across many areas of social work practice for which this can be useful will be provided.

In this workshop, presenters described their ideas of “Research As Daily Practice”, defined as “systematically and reflectively examining our curiosities and ideas from our work in order to better understand what we do and what we could do.” The main tenet of this idea is that practitioners are, in fact, researchers by virtue of the way they practice. Presenters provided illustrations and opportunities to utilize this idea in a variety of front-line practice settings.

This webinar highlighted practice research in social work field education. The topics of discussion included definitions of practice research, the integration of practice research in field education, and the understandings of practice research in diverse contexts.

This workshop explored the models for research-based field practica and research projects/internships in undergraduate and graduate social work education. Presenters gave an overview of models for the integration of social work education research and practice, and provided examples of how to support research-based field practica and other internships/projects in a variety of practice settings. Past students, who have completed research-based practice learning, shared their experiential critical reflections.