久违的实践研究:创造社会工作学的路向

Hi there,Practice Research: A new Path for Social Work as a Discipline

社会工作试图建立自己的专业历史,并将社会科学视为社会工作实践的知识基础。可以看到,虽然实证主义科学仍然是主流,但是通过＂单一案例系统设计＂和循证研究实践,创造知识库作为社会工作实践背后的强大力量,反思实践的兴起和过程知识的使用,为社会工作从业人员和教育工作者提供了替代方案。文章将这两种社会工作实践分别作为第一类型实践研究和第二类型实践研究,认为第二类型实践研究更有希望达到从＂实践现场＂产生社会知识的期望。只有从实践中进行研究才能使社会工作者获得更多的与实践高度相关的知识。作者分析了Sheppard的＂实践有效性＂概念,以期弥合理论与实践的差距,并可能引起更多的讨论,形成一种实践范式转移,这或许可以帮助社会工作摆脱无制约相对主义的危险。

In this article,we analyze the history of social work’s attempt to establish itself as a profession so as to see the trend of making social science as the knowledge base of direct social work practice. While,as we could see,positivistic science remains a strong force in creating a knowledge base for informing social work practice through the advocacy of single-case system design and evidence-based practice,the rise of critical reflective practice and the use of process knowledge has provided an alternative to social work practitioners and educators. We would take these two strands in social work practice as Type Ⅰ and Type Ⅱ practice research respectively and argue that Type Ⅱ practice research is more promising in reaching for the expectation for producing social knowledge from"the site of practice". O nly does research from practice allow social workers to obtain more knowledge that is highly related to practice and possibly informing practice. The author would consider Sheppard’s concept of"practice validity"as promising in filling the theoryandpractice gap and possibly leading to more discussion on the necessity for the formation of a practice paradigm which could help social work escape from the dangers of an unrestrained relativism.