Qualitative Research in Social Work

This book exposes social workers, practitioners, and researchers to research methods that can be alternative or complementary to the largely quantitative methods that have dominated social work research for the last fifty years. Drawing together leading scholars of the profession with a wide diversity of viewpoints, the book addresses the need for qualitative research approaches that can better capture the context, complexity and change processes that characterize actual practice.

The volume is organized into five parts that explain basic qualitative methods, practice evaluation, applications to types of practice, settings and client populations, integration of qualitative and quantitative methods, and epistemological issues. The exemplars of actual qualitative studies and the glossary of terms are especially helpful for classroom use.