Turning Ideas into Research

Barbara Fawcett is Professor of Social Work  (Adults and Communities) at the University of Birmingham. Previously she was Professor of Social Work and Policy Studies at the University of Sydney Australia. Prior to moving to Australia in 2004, Barbara was head of the large interdisciplinary School of Applied Social Studies at the University of Bradford.  She spent thirteen years in the field before entering academia. Her research interests focus on older age and end of life, mental health, disability, participatory action research and postmodern feminism. She has authored and jointly authored eight books and has written a wide range of journal articles.Rosalie Pockett is an experienced senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, the University of Sydney. She has an extensive practice career in hospital and health social work where she held senior leadership and management positions in social work and allied health services. Rosalie’s doctoral research investigated the occupational culture of social work in hospital settings and her ongoing research interests include: health inequalities; the social determinants of health and social justice perspectives; interprofessional education and practice; critical reflection in education and practice; leadership and management in social work; professional practice supervision; and classification systems for social work practice. Rosalie is an NH&MRC (National Health & Medical Research Council Australia) Travelling Fellowship recipient and a scholar of the Mount Sinai Social Work Leadership Programme, New York where her research interest in practice-based studies was developed. She has undertaken and published clinical data-mining studies in areas such as victim of crime presentations and advanced care/end-of-life planning in hospital settings. Her current research involves practice-based studies in oncology social work practice. Rosalie is a regular reviewer for a number of key social work journals and is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Australian Social Work and the Australasian Board of the international journal, Social Work Education.

This unique research text begins and ends with respect for practitioners’ ideas and shows how they can be translated into practice-relevant knowledge.  It puts the practitioner into Practice-Research and makes a powerful contribution to a truly international Practice-Based Research Movement.

• Part One: Thinking about researchChapter One: Why do research?Chapter Two: Partnerships in researchChapter Three: Ethical considerationsPart Two: Thinking differently about knowledge and researchingChapter Four: Creating viable research from good ideasChapter Five: Designing a research project: Qualitative researchingChapter Six: Designing a research project: Quantitative and mixed method researchingChapter Seven: Evaluative researchingChapter Eight: Constructively and critically appraising researchPart Three: The impact of researchChapter Nine: Research dissemination, sustainability, making a difference and writing for publicationChapter Ten: Common pitfalls and dilemmasChapter Eleven: Concluding remarks