The Social Work Dissertation: Using Small-Scale Qualitative Methodology, Carey Malcolm,. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/ Open University Press, 2nd edition 2013,.
Book review The Social Work Dissertation: Using Small-Scale Qualitative Methodology, Carey Malcolm, Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/ Open University Press, 2nd edition 2013, Social work gained recognition by the ESRC, the Government funded research council, as a research discipline in 2006. Disciplinary recognition, and subsequent designation as a priority research area, was achieved because social work research makes a distinctive contribution to knowledge about the effective design and delivery of social care services or interventions to promote well being. Achieving a vibrant and heterogeneous research discipline requires solid foundations: qualifying social workers need to be both active consumers and producers of research. Carey makes this argument early in this second edition of his book: social work students are uniquely placed among social science undergraduates and postgraduates to apply their research in practice. Social work researchers are able to build upon their practice experience of working alongside service users to bring about positive outcomes in their lives. Competing demands on the qualifying curriculum following the Munro Review may lead some universities to question the need for an extended piece of work, such as a dissertation; Carey argues, in the first chapter, that conducting a dissertation enables students to understand social ‘problems’ in context and, at the same time, develop core social work skills. The text does much to demystify research from social work students’ own disciplinary base. In chapter 2, Carey takes the reader through the stages of undertaking a dissertation: through choosing a topic to writing up and disseminating the findings. Choosing a topic is illustrated by practice examples, stimulating students’ interest in core social work issues, including the assessment skills of care managers, safeguarding work with children and the needs of residents with learning disabilities in supported living. Students can thus visualise that the dissertation enables them to develop understanding and expertise about a key area of social work practice: to further investigate a problem they have encountered on placement, develop their understanding of people’s experiences of service provision or pursue a topic about which they are passionate. Key concepts underpinning qualitative research such as reliability, validity and rigour form the basis of chapter 3. Questions addressed include how do we know that findings are authentic or our interpretations are credible? Students at all levels can struggle to understand the role of theory in qualitative research; in chapter 4, Carey highlights, through case studies, how four contrasting theoretical approaches may be used to inform research. In each case, he outlines the main tenets, key authors, traditions and relevant topics; for example, how critical theory informed research with disadvantaged children using the Sure Start programme. Subsequent chapters examine different aspects of the dissertation in greater depth including reviewing the literature, identifying a methodology and methods, analysing the
data, writing up and disseminating the findings. The chapter about the literature review is useful both for empirical dissertations, where the review of the literature provides the context for understanding the topic under investigation, and for literature-based dissertations, which may use different ways of approaching the review e.g. narrative or systematic approaches. Chapter 5 provides the rationale for the literature review and some of its core components; students often produce a descriptive inventory of everything they have read rather than a coherent argument which examines contrasting perspectives. The final chapters consider data analysis, writing up and dissemination. Some of the overarching principles in qualitative analysis are first outlined followed by a six step guide to thematic analysis. The importance of theory, researcher reflexivity and context are reiterated and also the potential outcomes for social work practice. The final chapter identifies the key sections for a dissertation and it offers suggestions on style and ways of improving the final piece of work. In light of the central role that values and ethics play in social work (p. 84) and their inclusion in the Professional Capabilities Framework for the social work curriculum, it would be helpful to include broader discussion of social work’s commitment to social justice and combating the causes and consequences of unequal social relations. Social inequalities are addressed briefly in the sections on feminist methodology and in Marxist and other critical approaches, but values infuse the choice of topic, influence the methodology adopted and shape the analysis and conclusions reached. As noted in chapter 2, social research cannot be value-free. Overall, the book is successful in outlining the key issues in undertaking a dissertation in social work. It provides an excellent toolkit for the undergraduate and postgraduate research student and it brings together a wealth of practical suggestions, key readings and resources that will help to invigorate and sustain the discipline of social work research.
Dr Julie Fish Reader in Social Work and Health Inequalities, Social Work Division De Montfort University Leicester
