Making Research Count: What Australian Social Work Researchers Think

ABSTRACT

A central question in the research utilisation literature is what happens to research evidence once it is produced. In social work, this has frequently translated to questions of whether and how social workers use research in practice. Despite these questions, relatively little is known about the ways in which research comes to be used in social work practice. This paper reports on a study of research utilisation in social work, which examined researchers’ perceptions of the factors impacting on research use in social work. The specific focus of this study was on the impact of interaction between researchers and practitioners on research use in practice. The study replicated a scale used in prior studies on knowledge utilisation to collect data from 60 Australian researchers publishing in social work journals, all of whom reported some level of research use by practitioners. Key variables were coproduction, engagement, and research utilisation. Implications for future use of the survey instrument for the measurement and implementation of research use in social work are discussed.

研究文献的使用，其核心问题在于研究证据产生之后的事情。就社会工作而言，这经常被理解为社会工作者在实践中是否以及如何利用研究成果。除了这些问题，对研究成果用于社工实践的方式我们也知之甚少。本文特别关注研究者与实践者之间的互动究竟对研究成果运用于实践有着哪些影响。本文复制了前期有关知识利用的研究的量表，前期研究涉及从60位澳大利亚研究者发表于社工刊物上的研究中获取资料（这些研究都或多或少被实践者采用）。关键变量包括共同生产、参与、研究的使用等等。本文还讨论了将来使用调查工具测量并施行理论与社工实践相结合的意义。

KEYWORDS:

• Research Use
• Interaction
• Social Work
• Knowledge Utilisation