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Open research questions in Social Work Education and Practice

1,540 gap statements mined from Social Work Education and Practice papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 11,773 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • There is a gap between students' recognition of community development's relevance and their feeling of preparedness. Community development is less visible and receives less attention in social work teaching. The study highlights the need for community development to have a clearly identifiable place within the programme and greater visibility across the wider curriculum.

    Reimagining Community Development in Undergraduate Social Work Education: Student Perspectives from Northern Ireland · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should explore long-term impacts of organizational practices on job satisfaction, retention, and well-being.

    Exploring trauma-informed organizational practices and self-care: Strengthening resilience factors among child welfare workers. · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need for more research on the impact of AI on social work practice. The current state of research on AI and social work is limited. There is a lack of clear guidelines and regulations for the use of AI in social work.

    Tekoäly sosiaalityössä – kirjallisuuskatsaus · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of substantive approaches to preparing students to practise in AI-assisted environments.

    A kind of magic? Artificial intelligence-assisted recording: developing principles for an AI-informed social work curriculum · 2026 · DOI

  • Theoretical and methodological foundations of social work in healthcare remain ambiguous. Expectations on licensed Health Social Workers need to be clarified.

    Advancing Practice among Health Social Workers – How are Theories and Methods in Daily Work Discussed? · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on developing and evaluating effective interventions for socially excluded localities. There is a need for more research on the role of community leadership and digital inclusion in social work interventions.

    Motivation for social work interventions among residents of socially excluded localities · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need for more research on the motivational factors and strategies that influence client participation in social work interventions. The study highlights the gap in current knowledge on effective interventions for socially excluded localities.

    Motivation for social work interventions among residents of socially excluded localities · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research could explore the development and implementation of training programmes for social work supervisors. Future research could investigate the impact of supervision on social worker well-being and job satisfaction.

    Social workers’ perspectives and recommendations with regard to the training needs of social work supervisors · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a gap in supervision practices, with supervisors often lacking necessary training. The study identifies a need for training programmes that address the specific needs of supervisors in the South African social development context.

    Social workers’ perspectives and recommendations with regard to the training needs of social work supervisors · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need for a clear-language guide to intersectionality. There is a lack of understanding of the importance of intersectionality in understanding social issues and promoting social justice.

    Social intersectional compassion (SIC) for promoting social justice in health and social care: a critical theoretical review · 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.

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

  • Limitations of this study include the reliance on syllabi to assess course social justice content. 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.

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

  • 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.

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

  • The lack of sustained attention to race, racism, oppression, and social justice in social work education. The need for innovative teaching strategies and social justice in social work education.

    Fall 2025 Editorial · 2026 · DOI

  • A significant limitation of this study is that the scope of knowledge derived is limited to only contemporary American social work literature and does not provide a more encompassing understanding of advocacy.

    Ambiguous Advocacy · 2026 · DOI

  • The existing literature focuses on the general challenges of the social work profession, overlooking the unique experiences of female social workers. There is a lack of research on the lived experience of female social workers in Iran.

    The Lived Experience of Female Social Workers: a Thematic Analysis of Occupational Burnout and Professional Agency · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of research on the relationship between anarchism and social work. The paper identifies a need for more nuanced and critical approaches to social work's role in social change. The authors argue that anarchism can provide a framework for addressing this research gap.

    Fragmentos anárquicos en trabajo social: apuntes reflexivos sobre la producción de conocimiento · 2026 · DOI

  • 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 implementation 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

  • The lack of understanding of how social workers cope with the challenges of working with nyaope users. The need for research on the coping strategies employed by social workers working with nyaope substance users.

    Coping Strategies of Social Workers Working with Nyaope Substance Users in South Africa · 2026 · DOI

  • The nature of professional identity in the roles of practitioners in social care is not clearly defined.

    The Place of Research in the Professional Identity of Practitioners and Managers in Adult Social Care · 2025 · 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

  • Health inequalities persist and are in evidence between groups of people with different characteristics.

    Examining the role of social workers within clinical metabolic genetics care · 2026 · DOI

  • Fragmentation, resource constraints, and competing institutional pressures have limited the profession's unified representation in South Africa. The success of the association depends on active participation and membership uptake.

    Social work associations: Towards unified professional voices · 2026 · DOI

  • The study did not receive any grant or funding. The sample size was limited to 18 participants.

    The Lived Experience of Female Social Workers: a Thematic Analysis of Occupational Burnout and Professional Agency · 2026 · DOI

  • Further research could explore how to improve students' preparedness for community development practice, - Research could investigate the effectiveness of different teaching methods for community…

    Reimagining Community Development in Undergraduate Social Work Education: Student Perspectives from Northern Ireland · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Social Work Education and Practice

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Future research should explore long-term impacts of organizational practices on job satisfaction, retention, and well-being (“Exploring trauma-informed organizational practices and self-care: Strengthening…”, 2026); (2) There is a need for more research on the impact of AI on social work practice (“Tekoäly sosiaalityössä – kirjallisuuskatsaus”, 2026); (3) The lack of substantive approaches to preparing students to practise in AI-assisted environments (“A kind of magic? Artificial intelligence-assisted recording: developing…”, 2026); (4) Future research should focus on developing and evaluating effective interventions for socially excluded localities (“Motivation for social work interventions among residents of socially excluded…”, 2026); (5) Future research could explore the development and implementation of training programmes for social work supervisors (“Social workers’ perspectives and recommendations with regard to the training…”, 2026). 1,540 gap statements have been mined from Social Work Education and Practice papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 11,773 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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