Lecture: 4 hours/week
Course content will be guided by research, empirical knowledge and best practice. The following values and principles, consistent with professional standards, inform course content:
- Best practices in social work include the integration of research into practice and the ongoing creation and review of new knowledge about issues relevant to service users.
- Social workers must be able to critically evaluate the quality of research design and demonstrate discernment when integrating research into practice.
- A wide range of quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research methods are applicable to social work settings.
- Research has ethical implications, and methods employed by social workers must be congruent with social work values.
- Social workers need to be able to communicate research goals, methods and findings to a broad range of participants and community partners.
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Describe the role of research in social work practice, policy development and service provision.
- Formulate an effective research question.
- Conduct a literature review to establish the scientific relevance of a research question.
- Describe the purpose and nature of a variety of qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods data collection and analysis methods.
- Make ethical choices in the design of a research project, paying particular attention to the needs of equity-seeking groups.
- Critique a variety of research products, including research posters and published research articles.
- Create and communicate a research proposal that follows principles of good research design.
Written papers
Presentations
Research proposal
Examinations
Participation
Attendance
Evaluations will be carried out in accordance with Douglas College Evaluation Policy and will include both formative and summative components. Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation in a course as part of the student’s graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline.
Textbooks and materials are to be purchased by students. A list of required textbooks and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester. Example texts may include:
Engel, R. & Schutt, R. (2012). The practice of research in social work (current ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Brown, L. A., & Strega, S. (2015). Research as resistance, 2e: Revisiting critical, Indigenous, and anti-oppressive approaches. Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Wilson, S. (2020). Research is ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Fernwood Publishing.
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