Patterns and Trends of Canadian Social Work Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

The first social work doctoral program in Canada began in 1952. Relatively recently, the number of programs has grown rapidly, doubling in the past 10 years to 14 programs. Despite the expansion there is no systematic understanding of the patterns and trends in doctoral research. In this study we review 248 publicly available dissertations from 2001 to 2011. We find that most dissertations are qualitative and descriptive in nature with a relatively low percentage focusing on intervention. We compare findings with other dissertation studies and raise critical questions about the knowledge base of social work in Canada.

KEYWORDS:

• Canada
• dissertations
• doctoral education
• research methods

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We extend thanks to Nico Trocmé for constructive advice on the final draft. Josianne Lamonthe provided excellent research assistance.

Notes

¹ Nine of these 14 schools are members of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work: McGill University, Memorial University, University of Montreal, Universite Laval, University of Calgary, University of Manitoba, University of Toronto, University of Windsor, and Wilfrid Laurier University.

² Data and codebook are freely available. The Dataverse Network is an open source application to publish, share, reference, extract, and analyze research data. It facilitates making data available to others and allows one to replicate other’s work. Researchers, data authors, publishers, data distributors, and affiliated institutions all receive appropriate credit (http://thedata.org/).

³ A Research Data Network is a university-based laboratory, staffed by a Statistics Canada Analyst, that offers researchers secure access to (a) confidential microdata—Statistics Canada census and surveys, plus a growing range of administrative data—and (b) fully equipped workstations, statistical software, and technical support (http://www.rdc-cdr.ca/).