Social Work Research Methods: Four Alternative Paradigms

Social Work Research Methods is the first book to expand social work research methods to include alternative models and integrate these methodologies into general social work practice. In addition to traditional positivist research, author Teresa Morris also describes research methods for post positivism, critical theory and constructivism in a straight forward and accessible style. Key features include: - integrates research methods into a practice model; - step-by-step guidance is given on how to carry out quantitative and qualitative research with illustrative examples from research projects that have used each of the paradigms; - offers choices in research method; - provides a conceptual frameworks to make decisions about which research methods to use in which situation; - provides the tools to carry out research as well as the theoretical rationales for each approach; - discusses the ethics and politics of research and the researcher's responsibility to diversity; - discusses the use of technology at each stage of a research project.