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Social Work Research Statement

The IASSW Statement on Social Work Research

The IASSW Statement on social work research was approved by the IASSW Research Committee and by the IASSW General Assembly on the 4th April 2024 in Panama.

Following its core mandate of promoting and enhancing social work education and training on a global level, IASSW is committed to strengthening social work research (SWR). This research statement is aligned with the social development aims highlighted in the 2014 IASSW/IFSW Global Definition of Social Work, while it considers the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals recognizing global and local challenges.

Given the nature of social work’s commitment to socio-political, economic, and environmental justice, human rights and working towards more egalitarian societies, social work researchers cannot remain entirely neutral and uninvolved. Research endeavours are guided by the IASSW/IFSW Statement on Ethical Principles, the Global Standards for Education and Training, the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development, and the Global Social Work Definition that all subscribe to the notion that principles of human rights, social justice, respect for diversities and contextual relevance, grant social work its mandate. Social work research has a critical stance even about these value-based principles.

IASSW STATEMENT ON RESEARCH an introduction to IASSW role

The purpose of social work research is to develop knowledge, theory social policies, practice interventions and evaluation in support of the mission and purposes of social work as a practice-based profession and scientific field. Specifically, social work research is conducted to serve multiple purposes of the profession, policymakers, communities, and social work clients, including:

To encourage and facilitate understanding of individual, social, interpersonal, socio-economic, and structural issues and their resultant challenges and consequences.
To promote the assessment of the needs and resources of people in their natural, built, socio-economic, ecological, cultural, religious, and socio-political environments and the changing local, regional, and global contexts.
To inform the development, implementation, and evaluation of, programs, new problem-solving approaches, services, and policies especially those for marginalized, vulnerable, and oppressed populations.
To enhance the social well-being, sustainable development, quality of life, and advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice.
To assess the status, structural composition, and service rendering position and impact of social work service organizations in the greater national socio-economic context amongst other service entities and focuses.
To encourage social work theory development and new approaches to social work research.

Social work research activities are ultimately mechanisms for promoting survival, growth, evaluation, theory development and excellence in social work practice, services, and education. Such research is underpinned by the principles of critical social research, empowerment, social justice, decolonization, indigenization, and human rights, while it critically recognizes the interconnectedness of neo-liberal, colonial and western ideologies with the ever-changing contexts in which social work takes place.

Recognizing the practice-teaching-research nexus in social work means that research must form an integral part of social work education at undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate and post-doctoral levels. It is essential for practice to be informed by research and resulting in theory development. It is equally important that lessons from practice are incorporated into the research and teaching endeavours. Overcoming splits between education and research and between research and practice, and bringing together teaching, research, community engagement and field practice education in meaningful ways are crucial elements of social work research. Contextually responsive and relevant research must inform pedagogical strategies, outcomes and contribute to building a research and evidence-informed professional culture. Social work research upholds the ethical standards of science and aims to promote social justice, individual and community well-being and human dignity as core values underlying human rights and social responsibility. The principles of doing no harm, confidentiality, and the safe management of personal information are crucial. The ethical stance in social work research promotes the best interests of society, clients, vulnerable, oppressed and or disadvantaged groups and calls for the development of participative approaches in education, research, and practice.

Social Work research strive to maintain sound methodological principles by utilizing a large variety of methodologies and methods and by embracing plurality, diversity, multiple realities or truths, coproduction, and different ways of investigation and knowing. Critical analysis of different contexts of inquiry informed by diverse epistemologies and embracing qualitative, quantitative, multi-method and mixed method research approaches is essential in social work research. Building on multi-method, comparative, and inter- and trans-disciplinary and international approaches and studies, social work research generates critical and innovative knowledge. Social work also encourages innovative and creative research methods and methodologies and aims to address the challenges which the profession seeks to address in collaboration with communities, individuals, the academy, and civil society.

Social work research favours research and knowledge generation through practice and action. Consequently, social work research, knowledge implementation and dissemination occur in the dynamic and dialectic networks of the various stakeholders of social work educators, researchers, practitioners, students, professionals, policymakers, and service users. Dissemination of social work research is an important part of learning, teaching, stakeholder feedback and strengthening the profession.