Learning to become evidence based social workers: student views on research education and implementation in practice

ABSTRACT

Professional guidelines for social workers in relation to research use in practice, present social workers as consumers, rather than producers of research evidence. This approach aligns with a growing emphasis on the use of evidence-based practice within social work. This paper reports on a small mixed methods study with a cohort of BA social work students (N = 38) with two aims: 1) to understand the experiences of students learning research at undergraduate level and 2) to explore how their learning and placement experiences interact and influence their development as ‘research-minded’ practitioners of the future. Descriptive statistics of the quantitative data and thematic analysis of focus groups are presented. Our findings support the existing literature relating to social work students attitudes to research, including feelings of anxiety and perceptions of difficulty, while also viewing it as important to their careers. We also found that within placement settings, students encounter negative, often dismissive views of research and experience little in the way of role-modelling of evidence-based practice. We consider these findings in light of the promotion of EBP in UK social work, and how this may influence our teaching of research and evidence use to future student cohorts.

KEYWORDS:

• Research education
• evidence-based practice
• social work curriculum
• social work research
• attitudes to research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Helen Gleeson

Helen Gleeson is a Research Fellow in Social Work/Social Policy at Middlesex University.  She teaches research methods across undergraduate and postgraduate social work programmes. Her research interests include drug and alcohol research, young people in criminal justice systems and professional studies pedagogy.

Alfonso Pezzella

Alfonso Pezzella is a Lecturer in Mental Health Nursing at Middlesex University.  His research interests include LGBT+ pedagogy, mental health and social attitudes.

Nida Rahman

Nida Rahman was a student at Middlesex University at the time of this research and was engaged as a research assistant on this project.