Poster presentation at the European Social Work Research Conference - ESWRA, Aalborg, Denemarken, 20 april – 21 April In the last decade a call is made upon a stronger knowledge base for social work and an abiding professionalism of practice. Transformations in The Netherlands state welfare regime are amongst others a big impetus for this demand. Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) contribute substantially in answering this legitimation call. UAS in The Netherlands adopted a research function since 2000 and practice oriented research is prevailing in their type of reseach. Both fields, social work practice and social work research as conducted by UAS, are relatively new and are to a certain degree reinventing themselves. It makes practice oriented social work research a timely topic. This poster presents the outline and aim of the PhD research on how to optimise practice.
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Presentation at the 6th European Conference for Social Work Research (ECSWR) 2016. As of September 2013, the Research Group Applied Research Methodology at HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht helps researchers to optimise their research methods for practice-oriented research. This presentation introduces the main elements of a PhD study on methodology in the field of Social Work by one of the research group members. The preliminary results of another PhD study are presented as an example on how to involve citizens, in particular vulnerable target groups in a SW-research design (Wilma Numans: science practitioner at Tranzo/Tilburg University - The Academic Collaborative Center Social Work). After a general introduction of the research outlines, all participants will be invited to share ideas and engage in a plenary discussion regarding the context, purpose and methods of the intended study.
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Presentation at the 6th International Conference on Sociology and Social Work – Zwolle, The Netherlands, 24 and 25th August 2016
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In our research we focus on shared processes of interpretation, knowledge development and innovation in education, developing non-hierarchical research relationships between researchers. Our work is informed by a critical stance towards the current practice in Dutch education where teachers are struggling with student diversity and students with disabilities are excluded from mainstream schools. For the project we present in this book we combined critical discourse analysis, participatory action research and an emergent research design. We worked with teachers and students, supporting and stimulating them to develop a more just and inclusive practice in their schools, where all students get a fair deal. Starting point were the narratives of the teachers involved. Their stories, their struggle and their views were important. Interpretation became a process of shared meaning making at all stages of the research process, systematically integrating insiders’ and outsiders’ perspectives. Thus, the teachers and their students developed contextually-relevant and innovative solutions to the challenges they encountered in their practice, for example regarding power relations in the classroom and managing diversity, making use of the strengths of individual students and those of the group. The researchers involved brought in their knowledge and experience regarding practice-oriented research and introduced a theoretical framework for analysing and understanding current practices. In: Smeyers P., Bridges D., Burbules N., Griffiths M. (eds) International Handbook of Interpretation in Educational Research. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Dordrecht
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Practice-oriented research is scientific research that is conducted with the primary goal to realize practical impact in relevant work fields. It shares with academic research the necessity to design and conduct the research in a methodologically sound way. It differs from typical academic research in the sense that academic research is on average more theory driven. The term "scientific" means that practice-oriented research, like academic research, has to conform to contextually relevant demands of reliability and validity. Accordingly, good practice-oriented research is research that conforms to relevant methodological demands and is useful to practitioners. Moreover, just like academic research, practice-oriented research should be in line with ethical standards. There is no single valid practice-oriented research method.
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Substantial structural changes have recently taken place in the Dutch social workterrain. Now the local governments have autonomous responsibility for the self-sufficiency and social inclusion of the elderly and the disabled people. This ‘transformation’ requires remodelling social services and hence investigation of its effects: practice-oriented research. Due to the binary character of the Dutch higher education system this kind of research almost exclusively takes place at universities of applied sciences whose research tradition only goes about a decade back. In order to preserve the values of the Dutch care system, that always sought to protect the vulnerable citizens, it is important that the practice-oriented research into the social domain is well-executed and that its results are directly translated in the curricula of the professional education. This calls for a targeted impulse to expanse the research activities at the universities of applied sciences, a closer cooperation with the research universities and direct connections with (local) care providers
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Over the last two decades, institutions for higher education such as universities and colleges have rapidly expanded and as a result have experienced profound changes in processes of research and organization. However, the rapid expansion and change has fuelled concerns about issues such as educators' technology professional development. Despite the educational value of emerging technologies in schools, the introduction has not yet enjoyed much success. Effective use of information and communication technologies requires a substantial change in pedagogical practice. Traditional training and learning approaches cannot cope with the rising demand on educators to make use of innovative technologies in their teaching. As a result, educational institutions as well as the public are more and more aware of the need for adequate technology professional development. The focus of this paper is to look at action research as a qualitative research methodology for studying technology professional development in HE in order to improve teaching and learning with ICTs at the tertiary level. The data discussed in this paper have been drawn from a cross institutional setting at Fontys University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands. The data were collected and analysed according to a qualitative approach.
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Collaborative research methods such as action research and engaged scholarship are seen as one way for research to impact practice. Scholars engaged in such research face several opportunities and challenges that often do not make into academic publications, and yet hold valuable insights. In this symposium, we will unpack the research journeys of academics who have been involved in projects with practitioners as knowledge partners. This symposium's objectives are twofold. First, we will showcase the diversity in research design across our panelists and discuss potential traps as researchers balance rigour with relevance. Second, we will discuss specific research strategies such as relational reflexivity and researcher vulnerability (Bjørkeng, Carlsen, & Rhodes, 2014) that push the frontiers of research methodologies.
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Most professionalisation programmes to support teacher educators as research supervisors focus on the development of research skills. The methodology of practice-oriented research, in addition to a clear vision on the function, and purpose of student research often receives little attention. At the Amsterdam University of Applied Science, we developed such a vision and methodology and studied the development of 17 teacher educators as research supervisors during a programme that introduced this methodology. We questioned participants about affect, and understanding regarding their role as a student research supervisor, and their perception of their competences to perform that role. Results showed that teacher educators became more aware of their role, and became more critical about their own competencies. Growing awareness of the implications of their role as student research supervisors seemed to result in a lower self-efficacy regarding the performance of this role. Implications for the training of teacher educators are discussed.
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