Dr Clarissa Hitchcock

Summary: There has been increased attention on the performance of social work researchers and strategies for strengthening the connection between research and practice. However, little is known about the research culture of social work discipline groups within universities and what contributes to a sustainable high-performance culture. Twenty experienced social work researchers from Australian universities were recruited and participated in qualitative interviews. Informed by a critical realist perspective, participants shared what they perceive as influencing social work research culture in university settings.

Findings: Participants reflected on the beliefs, values, and behaviors contributing to a positive research culture in universities and social work discipline groups. Four key themes were developed: research culture is enhanced when there is a cadre of research-qualified staff; collaboration enhances research culture; time for research needs to be protected; and the professional narrative about social work research influences research culture in universities. Precarious employment for research staff, limited focus on research training in social work qualifying degrees and workloads that focus primarily on administration and teaching were seen as inhibitors of research culture.

Applications: Attracting and retaining high-performing social work researchers assist in setting benchmarks for research performance, strengthening the quality and purpose of research training, supporting junior colleagues to navigate research systems, and creating opportunities for collaboration. While multidisciplinary collaborations within a particular field can sometimes detract from a focus on research culture in social work, they can also raise performance expectations and strengthen positioning for competitive grants.

Navigating complex and evolving practice environments requires resilient social workers. However, education's contribution to professional resilience development is underinvestigated. As part of a longitudinal, qualitative study, this article reports the findings on how social workers as students and then newly qualified practitioners perceived how their education fostered professional resilience. In stage one, interviews were conducted with 23 social work students from eight Australian universities in the final 12 months of their Master of Social Work (Qualifying) degree. In stage two, the sample was reduced to 19, with interviews occurring after approximately six months of practice. Framed by critical theory and social constructionism, narrative inquiry guided the analysis of participants’ perceptions. The results revealed professional resilience is relational and developed through curricula and pedagogy facilitating connection, building knowledge through critical reflection, and preparing students for the realities and complexities of practice. The study extends evidence that transitioning from student to practitioner is a crucial time in social workers’ careers. The findings identify that professional resilience can be fostered by responsive external resources and evidence-based programs offered by universities, practice organisations, and professional bodies.

This paper reports the findings of a project that conducted a rapid review of evidence regarding assessment and intervention approaches responding to children and young people who engage in harmful sexual behaviors. A literature review was conducted using a systematic search of academic databases and consultation with subject matter experts. The process resulted in 27 scholarly publications being included and analyzed to explore what was known about effective approaches with children and young people who have engaged in harmful sexual behavior. The review found that the current state of knowledge was limited, with few of the included papers reporting research outcomes. In the absence of a sound evidence base, additional theoretical literature and expert commentary have been drawn upon to better understand issues in this complex practice area. A key finding of this review was that growing awareness that children and young people who engage in harmful sexual behaviors are, first and foremost, children. They should not be regarded as soon-to-be-adults who are engaging in adult offending. This shift in thinking informs contemporary assessment and intervention approaches, challenging those models that previously focused on measuring risk using forensic approaches to predict the likelihood of future offending. A critical failure to understand the needs of specific cohorts of children and young people was also evident.

Increasingly complex practice contexts challenge social workers’ resilience, impacting workforce attraction and retention. This study comprised longitudinal and qualitative research to understand what influences professional resilience development, maintenance and integration. Purposive sampling resulted in the inclusion of 23 participants from eight Australian universities. Interviews occurred when the participants were students nearing the completion of a Master of Social Work (Qualifying) degree and again after approximately six months of post-qualifying practice. The results reveal social workers’ resilience develops over time through processing experiences that occur within contexts and shape professional identity. Supportive relationships are integral to this process, becoming protective resources during adversity. In universities and human service organisations, relationships with peers, teams, direct line managers, and supervisors are crucial for enabling insight and growth through critically reflecting on experiences and understanding their impact on professional identity formation and resilience. A disparity emerged between the expectation of available resources as a student and the reality as a newly qualified social worker. The relational nature of resilience has implications for educating social work students and preparing them for practice realities, organisations seeking to sustain a resilient workforce, and practitioners who navigate these complex contexts.

Social work education is responsible for developing graduates who can practice resilience in an increasingly complex and stressful human services environment. Resilience is a frequently used concept in social work, however, its application is diverse, and meaning lacks clarity. In-depth interviews were undertaken with 23 Australian Master of Social Work (Qualifying) students, exploring their understanding of professional resilience, including the conceptualisation and perceived relevance for future practice. Critical theory guided the thematic analysis of the data, with similarities and differences noted across subjective representations. The findings identified a contemporary yet individualised and one-dimensional understanding of professional resilience, influenced by dominant discourse and context. Professional resilience was seen as an essential attribute required to protect social workers from the intrinsic complexity and resulting impacts of practice. Implications for the role of education in fostering resilience in social work students to support them to navigate future practice complexities include: facilitating the development of a multidimensional and systemic understanding of self; creating safe, relationship-based environments for shared learning and growth; and teaching critically reflective processes which consider context and environment.

While social work research in Australia is in reasonable shape, it requires a strong research culture promoting rigorous research to enhance its credibility and influence on social policy discourses. This study explored proposals to advance social work research, based on interviews with 20 experienced Australian social work researchers. Strategies identified include improving research culture and training, the development of research infrastructure to promote and stimulate research, and forming new partnerships both among researchers and between researchers and research end-users. Growing and strengthening the research foundations of the discipline is essential to its future relevance.

IMPLICATIONS
The Australian social work community would benefit from a more deliberate and strategic approach to increasing the quality and quantity of research to inform practice and policy.

Opportunities for social work researchers to connect with each other to disseminate, discuss, and plan research could provide a hub for increasing research development and research collaboration.

The responsibility and capacity to lead research development and advocate for social work research is shared between the academy, the human services sector, and representative professional associations.

Social work practitioners are called on to be resilient in an increasingly complex and challenging human service environment. This study presents the results of a systematic scoping review aimed at understanding the role of social work education in developing students’ professional resilience in preparation for their future social work practice. The application of a comprehensive search strategy resulted in the inclusion of thirty-two articles, published between 2008 and 2018. A descriptive thematic analysis highlighted the political and contextual influences on this recent and emerging body of literature, together with three key themes. These themes centred around education building resilience through screening social work applicants, targeted knowledge provision and inclusive educational processes. The findings draw attention to the emphasis on social workers being individually responsible and accountable for their professional resilience, with this potentially reinforced and facilitated through education processes. The findings identify the need for future research to investigate environmental influences on social workers’ resilience, including how educators support students to understand and shape them.