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Open research questions in Social Work Education and Practice

291 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 10,632 Social Work Education and Practice papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • • Institutional analysis of working conditions: Future studies should examine how working and organizational conditions—such as workload, resource availability, and institutional culture—condition the effective imple- mentation of LRAA, identifying facilitating factors and obstacles to a high standard of professional practice.

    The Legal Regime for the Accompanied Adult in Portugal: Human Rights and Social Work Competencies · 2026 · DOI

  • When looking at the limitations of the study, there are important caveats to consider. First, the Professionalism Assessment Tool (PAT) was modified for use with professionals assessing new social workers. Although the PAT allows for such modifications, its use outside medical students is limited, and evidence supporting its reliability and validity in this study population is insufficient. Future research should work to operationalize the survey and allow for reportable reliability and validity measures. Second, the survey used to collect data was provided to a single contact person at cooperating social service agencies and distributed to their email listserv for clinical and administrative staff. Although this was done to protect staff from having their email addresses shared outside the agency, it makes it impossible to know the response rate for the survey. This also opens the data to participant bias, as the motivation to complete the survey is unknown. While the letter of consent served to informed participants of the goals of the research study and reduce harm, it could have also affected the way participants viewed the survey questions and their answers. Unfortunately, these factors affect validity of the data collected. Future research could improve on this bias by hosting focus groups to allow participants to provide more discussion on their views of new social workers and professionalism to determine more robust and reliable themes. Third, while the definition of “new social worker” was provided to the participants in the letter of consent and on the survey, due to some of the participants’ comments, there is concern that the definition may have been broadened to a larger audience, including all social workers and all social service workers in general. Future research endeavors could benefit from providing more emphasis on what a new social worker is and stressing the importance of keeping this specific population in mind when answering survey questions.

    "What is Going on with New Social Workers?” · 2026 · DOI

  • The major strength of this study is that there are few studies on teaching social justice at HBCUs, HSIs, and TCUs, and this author found none that study MSIs together in one study. The literature focuses on the operationalization of teaching social workers, but primarily at PWIs. Little attention is paid to how institutions serving systemically marginalized persons teach social justice. This preliminary study provides guidance for teaching social justice with inclusion, recognition, cultural respect, and cultural humility for voices with lived experience, and for training students to work in communities of color. The study results guide teaching social justice at the BSW level by decentering Whiteness and adopting an anti-racist pedagogy. Limitations of this study include the reliance on syllabi to assess course social justice content. Syllabi are one-dimensional and only reveal limited knowledge of what is taught Bagley/SOCIAL JUSTICE IN CURRICULUM 817 (Mehrotra et al., 2017). A second limitation was that the TCU included in this study was not CSWE-accredited. Also, only one syllabus from one TCU was analyzed. More research is needed to determine if accredited social work programs at TCUs would produce different results. A future study of CSWE-accredited social work programs at TCUs that include Indigenous faculty would provide additional guidance on teaching social justice. A third limitation is the analytic strategy employed in the research. This study used inductive and deductive content analysis. While content analysis is frequently used to understand pedagogical approaches and student learning, researchers' knowledge, lived experiences, and values influence how the findings are interpreted (Cole, 2022; Hong & Hodge, 2009). Finally, this study served as a preliminary study that will inform future research on the topic. A larger-scale study is needed to further explore findings.

    How Minority Serving Institutions Infuse Social Justice Into Their Curriculum · 2026 · DOI

  • While the ICM addresses the conceptual and practical limitations of the PIE framework, future efforts need to investigate its validity and reliability. Researchers could investigate the distinctiveness and interactivity of the six hyphenated contexts. Such investigation is necessary to ensure that ICM constructs can be operationalized, measured, and statistically analyzed. For example, the ICM’s Environmental-Geographic context could be defined and measured in terms of air pollution exposure, proximity to green spaces, and racial disparity by zip code in a project with the research question: What is the relationship between environmental risk exposure and anxiety in racially segregated urban neighborhoods? Moreover, qualitative projects that explore practitioners, students, and clients’ experiences with the ICM may reveal insights about the model’s applicability across diverse settings and populations. An example of an ICM-inspired qualitative research question is: How do Black and Native American communities differ in terms of their historical and intergenerational trauma and resiliency narratives? Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are critical because social workers rely on various forms of evidence to support their assessments and interventions. Furthermore, evidence-based education and practice models increase professional credibility among client systems, the public-at-large, and policymakers by demonstrating their effectiveness. Finally, statistically validated and qualitatively credible frameworks help social work students and professionals fulfill their ethical commitments to competence.

    Shifting From the Person-in-Environment Framework to the Individual-in-Contexts Model · 2026 · DOI

  • This study has several strengths that enhance the value of the findings. Findings are drawn from rich, in-depth qualitative data from participants willing to discuss personal experi- ences navigating political and ethical tensions in social work practice, offering nuanced insights into perspectives often underrepresented in the literature. The focused geographic sample also allows detailed understanding of regional norms and professional experiences that may inform future compar- ative research. Additionally, the researcher’s careful probing of extreme or inflammatory statements during interviews enhanced the depth and clarity of the data and facilitated exploration of complex ethical and political dynamics. The study also has limitations that should be considered. First, the small sample size limits transferability and reflects only a narrow segment of conservative social workers. Par- ticipation was subject to self-selection bias, as participants were active online and willing to discuss politics and per- sonal experiences. Second, the sample was geographically concentrated, with most participants in the Midwestern United States and two-thirds in Ohio. Views expressed may therefore reflect regional political cultures and workplace environments that differ from other areas. Most participants worked in clinical settings, which may shape experiences of ethical tension differently than administrative or policy contexts. Finally, researcher positionality played a complex role in data collection. While probing sometimes enhanced clarity, it may also have introduced social desirability bias or participant self-censorship. Future research could use com- plementary methods, such as anonymous written reflections or peer-facilitated focus groups, to mitigate these influences.

    “It sounds horrible to say, but…”: Examination of Professional Ethical Conflicts Divulged by Politically Conservative Social Workers · 2026 · DOI

  • Existing bodies and networks associated with PCSW should initiate discussions on the formulation of standards of practice for PCSW in the Indian context.

    Palliative Care Social Work Standards of Practice – Review of Select International Protocols · 2026 · DOI

  • By delineating that both discursive conformity and resistance cut across the boundaries between acting in alignment with and against organizational guidelines, we unveil an underexplored complexity of conducting professional identity work associated with the interrelationships between practices of talk and action that has largely been overlooked in prior scholarship.

    Discipline, caregiving, and identity work of frontline professionals: Talking about the acts of compliance and resistance in the everyday practices of social workers · 2024 · DOI

  • The literature on social work covers the importance of critical reflection and presents a number of frameworks for how to reflect critically, but how this skill should be taught given its complexity and sensitivity has not been investigated, in particular as regards distance learning students.

    Strategies to use online forums to teach social work students critical reflection · 2024 · DOI

  • The phrase 'in it together' has been used liberally since the outbreak of COVID-19, but the extent that frontline workers felt 'in it together' is not well understood.

    In it together?: Exploring solidarity with frontline workers in the United Kingdom and Ireland during COVID‐19 · 2022 · DOI

  • However, these personal characteristics are insufficient in the absence of sociopolitical opportunities, including (a) changes in policymakers’ perceptions regarding ways to deal with social problems, (b) changes among political policy actors or appointment of new key decision-makers, and (c) formative events in the relevant environment.

    Social Entrepreneurship in Social Work: Opportunities for Success · 2021 · DOI

  • By analysing the result of structured telephone interviews with representatives from 102 Swedish municipalities, this article brings some knowledge to this scarcely researched field.

    Privatizing the central core of social work. Exploring the use of agency social workers in the Swedish social services · 2021 · DOI

  • Although increasing scholarly research has examined critical reflexive approaches to incorporate in the training of prospective anti-racist social work practitioners, scholars, and educators, limited research has examined narratives from social work students grappling with positionality and power structures of the profession.

    Unsettling reflexivity and critical race pedagogy in social work education: narratives from social work students · 2021 · DOI

  • The adoption of alternative methods of communication through technology has disrupted the core principles of relationship-based practice and has meant that, without proper planning or staff training, alternative models of delivery, which may have enabled some form of continuation and centralisation of relationship-based practice are under explored and require further investigation.

    Remote service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic: Questioning the impact of technology on relationship-based social work practice · 2021 · DOI

  • By comparatively analyzing these frameworks, we noticed that generally, there are two models formulated – the first one which regards the supervisor as a professional with experiece in social work, and the other model sees supervision as a distinct profession with transdisciplinary nature, but with access limited by the need for an initial training and previous experience in the field of social work.

    Normative and Institutional Frameworks for the Functioning of Supervision in Social Work · 2018 · DOI

  • Today social work is at practice in a society marked by intensified globalisation; social needs and social problems that social workers are confronted with in their professional practice are sometimes transnational in their dynamics and cannot adequately be understood when limited to a local or national context.

    Conceptualising Social Work through the Lens of Transnationalism: <i>Challenges and Ways Ahead</i> · 2018 · DOI

  • We conclude that further research is required to examine whether registration of social workers is justified in Australia, and particularly to ascertain whether the regulation of social workers generally or in specific practice areas such as child protection can realistically take place independently of the large number of human service practitioners who are not social work trained.

    Is there a case for the registration of social workers in Australia? · 2018 · DOI

  • Despite growing interest in Master of Social Work/Master of Public Health (MSW/MPH) programs, limited research literature is available on MSW/MPH graduates and none has examined field instructors’ perceptions of MSW/MPH students.

    Dual Master of Social Work / Master of Public Health Degrees: Perceptions of Graduates and Field Instructors · 2017 · DOI

  • An online survey accessed the views of 403 social workers and generated rich quantitative and qualitative responses, including to two very specific open questions (the focus of this article), first about social workers’ expression of pride and second, felt stigma as potentially encountered in their professional and personal domains.

    ‘Proud of what I do but often … I would be happier to say I drive trucks’: Ambiguity in social workers’ self-perception · 2017 · DOI

  • To address a significant dearth of knowledge surrounding this highly discussed but poorly researched topic, this article presents the findings from a study that analysed 12 months of social work coverage in Melbourne, Australia.

    Representations of Social Work in the Australian News Media · 2017 · DOI

  • The literature review revealed no studies on Romanian graduates that have measured the beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors students have about EBP in the final semester of their bachelor's of social work (BSW) degree program.

    Intentions to Engage in Evidence-Based Practice among Undergraduate Social Work Students: Preliminary Findings from Romania · 2015 · DOI

  • Step 4: Testing Effectiveness in a Variety of Settings and CircumstancesTo answer the question of whether efficacious interventions will achieve their intended results with varying populations and under varying circumstances, the interventions should be examined in multiple studies.

    Heeding the Call: Advances in Social Work Intervention Research · 2015 · DOI

  • (this issue) drew from social exchange theory to examine whether personal networks mediated the association between incarceration and HIV risk; although limited by a cross-sectional design, Kriegel and colleagues found personal networks with alters who engaged in risky sex partially mediated the relationship between incarceration and multiple sex partners and the sex trade.

    Commentary: Social Network Analysis and the Social Work Profession · 2015 · DOI

  • Because of the gap in the literature and the ongoing discussion related to field policies and procedures, the authors-both BSW field coordinators-believed that there was something to be learned from examining BSW manuals for their content.

    The Devil is in the Details: A Content Analysis of Field Manuals · 2015

  • The issue of social partnership in vocational training is discussed in various articles, conferences, but the Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Crafts and the Chamber of Agriculture of the Lithuanian Republic (hereinafter Chamber), as social partners and their qualification development has not yet been widely studied.

    The Development of Social Partners’ Training Needs · 2014 · DOI

  • Student assignments and evaluation results indicate that a virtual asynchronous classroom experience is beneficial for students and faculty and that MSW administration students studying advanced generalist practice are an under-recognized potential source of nonprofit leadership.

    Preparation for Social Service Leadership: Field Work and Virtual Organizations That Promote Critical Thinking in Administration Practice · 2014 · DOI

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291 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 10,632 Social Work Education and Practice papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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