Introducing a special issue: Teaching qualitative research and inquiry

Qualitative Social Work: Research and Practice offers this special issue to highlight the importance of education in developing a strong cadre of knowledgeable, skilled and active qualitative researchers, scholars and teachers. The journal expands upon its ongoing section on teaching to promote extensive discussion of this important part of social work education. Voices from many parts of the world are included in this special issue. These voices highlight different emphases and interests, but also affirm a shared strong commitment to educating students to understand, and to produce, excellent qualitative research.

The timing of this special issue is also important. Within developed countries, advocates for expanding the role of empirical knowledge in guiding public policy and for evidence-based practice renew challenges to the worth and place of qualitative research (Cheek, 2011; Denzin and Lincoln, 2011; Drisko and Grady, 2012). While the ‘paradigm wars’ of the 1980s and 1990s led to support for ‘many ways of knowing’ (Hartman, 1994) in social work, contemporary neoliberal administrative models create research hierarchies that actively devalue the contributions of qualitative research in the name of science. Recent calls for a ‘science of social work’ similarly omit or undervalue the contributions of qualitative research to social work knowledge building and practice. In this context, strong economic, political and academic forces are questioning the need for qualitative research education in social work. The voices and views of those supporting the merit and worth of qualitative research in social work must be renewed and heard now.

In practice, there is little emphasis on qualitative research in most social work education standards. Both the US Council on Social Work Education (2008, EP 2.1.6) standards and the United Kingdom’s The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) makes only scant reference to research as part of the professional capabilities framework. The International Federation of Social Workers Global Standards (2012) does not list research as a core social work purpose, nor do these educational standards even mention qualitative research. Political support, and overt professional endorsement, for qualitative research education is very limited. On the other hand, the impact of explicitly including qualitative research in educational standards has led to an increase in its coverage in social work research courses and textbooks. Useful, but limited, content on qualitative research has become available to the typical social work student. Yet neither educational standards nor texts offer much guidance to social work educators on how to teach qualitative research. We must teach each other how to be the best educators of qualitative researchers.

This special issue of Qualitative Social Work seeks to reinvigorate examination of how social workers teach qualitative research and the elements of qualitative research and inquiry that warrant special emphasis. The first four articles in this issue explore both key content to include in qualitative research courses and how these courses can best be structured. Drisko’s opening article entitled “Teaching qualitative research: Key content, course structures and recommendations” reviews the literature on teaching qualitative research across disciplines. A small and irregular literature is revealed. Drisko continues with recommendations for core content to be included in qualitative research courses and reviews both hands-on and content-based course structures. Munn’s article, “Teaching qualitative methods to social workers: Four approaches,” describes the author’s experiences teaching baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral level courses using four different formats ranging from a single session in introductory research class, to a semester long team-taught doctoral course, to a hands-on study abroad model emphasising visual methods, and a project-focussed model. Probst and student colleagues’ article entitled “In our voices: A collaborative reflection on teaching and being taught” examines the impact of a doctoral level qualitative research course from the perspective of both the instructor and the student learners. They note that the success of teaching is in its impact on learners. Turner and Crane’s article, “Teaching and learning qualitative methods through the dissertation advising relationship: Perspectives from a professor and a graduate,” explores the crucial, but under-studied, role of dissertation advising from the perspectives of both instructor and student. In these articles, several different perspectives on the content and educational process of teaching qualitative research in social work are explored and detailed.

The next five articles in this special issue examine specific approaches to teaching qualitative research. Albertin and colleagues’ article, “How do I do discourse analysis? Teaching discourse analysis to novice researchers through a study of intimate partner gender violence among migrant women” illustrates their active approach to teaching discourse analysis using project-based education. They identify and illustrate core principles of discourse analysis through an exploration of a study of gender-based violence against migrant women in Spain. Identifying relevant patterns within texts and locating how such patterns function in social life are especially highlighted. Hickson’s article entitled “Becoming a critical narrativist: Using critical reflection and narrative inquiry as research methodology” reports a doctoral level project that integrates narrative methods with critical reflection. Principles of critical reflection and narrative scholarship are shown to be intertwined but also usefully separated for conceptual and practical examination. Leitch and colleagues article entitled “A dual instructional model for CAQDAS integrating faculty member and specialized instructor: Implementation, reflections, and recommendations” examines a cooperative instructional approach between a qualitative research instructor and a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis trainer. The purposes, strengths and challenges of integrating a Voice over IP method of software training with a doctoral level advanced qualitative research course are examined from the viewpoints of faculty, software specialist and students. Joyce’s article entitled “The thing itself: Using literature and literary criticism in teaching qualitative research through dissertation advising” addresses the use of literary criticism techniques in dissertation advising of qualitative projects. These techniques help students stay close to the voices and views of participants while helping students move through the challenges of analysing large qualitative data sets. Literary techniques simultaneously remind students of the tremendous scope of qualitative research and the wide variety of techniques that can enhance and extend it. Hudson and Richardson’s article, “Centering power, positionality and emotional labor in an MSW research course: Perspectives from a student and instructor,” describes the adaptation of a traditional research course assignment to assist a student explore her worthy topic and the emotional labour that accompany this research work.

Finally, Newman and McNamara’s article, “Teaching qualitative research and participatory practices in neoliberal times” reminds of the powerful shaping forces of economics and politics on education and on privileged research methods. They emphasise how qualitative research includes, and in turn is shaped by, larger social contexts too often unaddressed in social research. The contemporary neoliberal economic and political culture in developed countries inevitably shape, and pose challenges for, optimal qualitative research in social work.

These 10 articles offer useful ideas and concrete guidance for teachers of qualitative research. We hope others will further expand attention to the teaching and learning of qualities research in future articles in this journal and others.