Social workers use of knowledge in an evidence-based framework: a mixed methods study
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https://hdl.handle.net/10642/8819Utgivelsesdato
2020-07-03Metadata
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Originalversjon
Finne J, Malmberg-Heimonen I, Ekeland T. Social workers use of knowledge in an evidence-based framework: a mixed methods study. European Journal of Social Work. 2020 https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2020.1783214Sammendrag
Since the 1990s, evidence-based practice has become part of social work, grounded in the notion that social work should be a research-based profession. However, recent studies show that social workers struggle with bridging research and practice. This study analysed Norwegian social workers’ use of knowledge in their daily practice, drawing on data from a survey consisting of 2060 social workers in different practice fields as well as qualitative interviews with 25 social workers from social services and child welfare services. Analyses of the quantitative data revealed that clients, work experience, and colleagues were the three most common sources of knowledge among the social workers. The use of knowledge could be divided into two subgroups: (a) theory-oriented and (b) practice-oriented. The qualitative interviews revealed that social workers valued work experience, colleagues, supervisors, and clients as their main sources of knowledge. Lack of time was identified as the main barrier for engaging in research. The findings in this study are contextualised with theories on knowledge production and translation in social work, arguing that field instructors, supervisors, and social work education play an essential role both in facilitating evidence-based practice and, more broadly, in bridging the gap between research and practice. Siden 1990-tallet har evidensbasert praksis blitt en del av sosialt arbeid, forankret i en idé om at sosialt arbeid skal være en forskningsbasert profesjon. Studier viser imidlertid til at det har vært utfordrende å overføre forskningsresultater til praksis. Denne studien analyserer norske sosialarbeidere sin bruk av kunnskap i deres daglige praksis, med utgangspunkt i data fra en undersøkelse bestående av 2060 sosialarbeidere fra forskjellige praksisfelt, og kvalitative intervjuer med 30 sosialarbeidere og ledere fra NAV og barnevernet. Resultater fra de kvantitative dataene viste at klienter, arbeidserfaring og kolleger var de tre vanligste kunnskapskildene blant sosialarbeiderne. Deres bruk av kunnskap i praksis kunne deles inn i to undergrupper: (a) teoriorientert og (b) praksisorientert. De kvalitative intervjuene viste at sosialarbeidere verdsatte arbeidserfaring, kolleger, veiledere og klienter som deres viktigste kunnskapskilder i praksis. Mangel på tid ble identifisert som den viktigste barrieren for å anvende forskning i praksis. Funnene i denne studien er kontekstualisert med teorier om kunnskapsproduksjon i sosialt arbeid, og argumenterer for at praksisveiledere, og utdanning spiller en viktig rolle både i å tilrettelegge for evidensbasert praksis, og for å bygge bro mellom forskning og praksis.
Utgiver
Taylor & FrancisSerie
European Journal of Social Work;Tidsskrift
European Journal of Social Work
Med mindre annet er angitt, så er denne innførselen lisensiert som © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.