Principles of evidence-based practice come alive through illustrations of actual social work research in this Second Edition of Rafael J. Engel and Russell K. Schutt’s innovative
The Practice of Research in Social Work. The authors introduce research methods as an integrated set of techniques for investigating problems encountered in social work, directly linking each topic to issues associated with ethics, diversity, and evidence-based practice. Enabling students to critically evaluate research literature and develop the skills to engage in research and practice evaluation, the book emphasizes methods of particular concern in social work research and devotes chapters to group, survey, single subject, and qualitative designs.
New and Retained Features:
- Integration of substance and method. This textbook continues to offer the most contemporary treatments of developments in social work research with each chapter focusing on a particular substantive research question, supported by interesting and contemporary social work examples, such as Ch. 5’s use of child welfare studies on the impact of intensive, in-home, family-based services.
- New emphasis on evidence-based practice. Introduced in Chapter 1, each following chapter has a concluding section titled, Implications for Evidence-Based Practice. In addition, a discussion of web sites provides systematic reviews of evidence-based practice, such as the Campbell Collaboration.
- Updated coverage of diverse populations. The new edition identifies concerns and strategies at each step of the research process to help readers see that every aspect of the research process should be guided by consideration of cultural and ethnic group similarities and differences.
- An increased focus on ethics, including new ethics exercises. Ethical decision-making is presented as an integral part of the research design process, rather than as a disconnected step. New ethics practice exercises appear at the end of each chapter in the new edition, and up-to-date coverage of issues in ethical practice is included throughout the text, beginning with Chapter 2.
- Expanded coverage of qualitative methods. The authors offer a thorough, engaging, and up-to-date presentation of qualitative methods appropriate to social work, including a new section on photovoice, an emerging qualitative research method that enables participants a greater role in the research process.
- New examples of research in social work practice settings. New social work practice examples now illustrate the latest research on such topics as homelessness, domestic violence, substance abuse, gender, aging, child welfare, and welfare reform, including the methods used and the challenges researchers confronted.
- New and revised pedagogy. The new edition includes more review exercises in a variety of formats than any other text of its kind, including exercises on developing a proposal, discussion questions, practice exercises, web exercises, new ethics exercises, and new SPSS exercises on the student web site: http:/www.sagepub.com/prsw2.
Ancillaries
Updated Instructors' Resources on CD-ROM contain teaching tips, computerized testing, PowerPoint slides and more. The online Student Study Site includes journal articles appropriate for supplemental reading, e-flash cards, SPSS exercises, and unique interactive exercises.
The Practice of Research in Social Work, Second Edition is ideal for research methods courses in undergraduate and graduate-level social work programs.
The Practice of Research in Social Work, Second Edition is ideal for research methods courses in undergraduate and graduate-level social work programs.
Rafael J. Engel, PhD, is Associate Professor University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania). He received his PhD (1988) from the University of Wisconsin, his MSW (1979) from the University of Michigan, and his BA (1978) from the University of Pennsylvania. He coordinates the graduate certificate program in aging and is the Principal Investigator for the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education. He has written Fundamentals of Social Work Research (with Russell Schutt) and Measuring Race and Ethnicity (with Larry E. Davis). He is a member of the editorial board of Race and Social Problems. He has authored journal articles about poverty in later life, welfare benefits, and depressive symptomatology, and he has written a variety of monographs reporting agency-based evaluations. His most recent research addresses older adults and responsible gambling.
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is Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Lecturer on Sociology in the Department of Psychiatry (Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center) at the Harvard Medical School. He completed his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. (1977) degrees at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Sociology of Social Control Training Program at Yale University (1977–1979). He has authored and co-authored texts on research methods with Sage Publications and other books on social service issues, including
Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness (Harvard University Press, 2011). His recent journal articles and funded research have focused on the organization and effects of innovative public health and social service programs.
