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Working Together Works Better: Reflections and New Attention to Long-Standing Themes in Social Work Research

Working Together Works Better: Reflections and New Attention to Long-Standing Themes in Social... This past spring I had the good fortune to attend two impactful meetings—the annual meeting of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work (GADE), held at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at the University of Southern California, and the first learning collaborative for the newly formed Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment Policy, Research and Training at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. The meetings were very different in their structure and goals. GADE meets every year to provide opportunities for exchanging ideas and presenting data to promote improvements in PhD and DSW education around the world, and the learning collaborative was designed to develop innovative approaches to preventing and responding to child maltreatment. Doctoral program directors generally attend GADE; a multidisciplinary network of content experts constitutes the learning collaborative. Despite these obvious differences, I was struck by the consistency of the messages I took away from both meetings. To put it simply, we can do more together than alone. Team science benefits science. Multidisciplinary scholarship multiplies impact. The theme for the GADE conference this year was “Confident Scholars in a Transdisciplinary World: Emphasizing Social Work Strengths in Doctoral Education.” I was fortunate to attend interactive, engaging sessions facilitated and presented by social work researchers with successful multidisciplinary approaches to scholarship. I was inspired by social work/business and social work/engineering collaborations, teams composed of social work students working alongside students from a variety of disciplines, and the potential to use artificial intelligence to deliver social work interventions. The anchoring of our discussions about doctoral education in a multidisciplinary framework encouraged the attendees to think bigger about how we are training emerging social work scholars and teachers to work effectively and efficiently across disciplinary divides. The Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment Policy, Research and Training is one of three such centers funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The center’s goal is to focus equal attention on training, practice, and research as mutually reinforcing solutions to the problem of child maltreatment. The Scientific Learning Collaborative brought together thought leaders, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers for two days of interactive discussions about causes of and solutions to the problem of child maltreatment. A series of brief, TED-style presentations titled “A View of Maltreatment from My Discipline” set the stage for a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach to the meeting. Although exciting and current, these are not new approaches. Social work researchers and practitioners have long extolled the virtues of working collaboratively, including across disciplines, to the benefit of rigor, reach, and value. Citing the work of Ida Cannon in the early 1900s, Maramaldi et al. (2014) have noted the 100-plus year history of social work practice in interdisciplinary teams. Textbooks designed to train social workers to work effectively across disciplines abound. The skill set of social workers is well aligned with both leading and participating in collaborative teams across disciplines (Bronstein, Mizrahi, Korazim-Kőrösy, & McPhee, 2010). The complexity of social problems social workers—and social work researchers, specifically—seek to address requires contributions from many who can contribute the fruits of their own discipline-specific training and access to their audiences. As Lein, Uehara, Lightfoot, Lawlor, and Williams (2017) noted in an editorial in this journal, social work research can broaden its impact by working effectively with diverse communities. This points to a need to think about who constitutes our research teams, how to include those whose needs should be represented in our findings, and how to disseminate findings effectively to maximize impact. As one of my students said recently, “Every movement needs allies.” The meetings I attended this spring inspired me to think about the natural allies for the problems I seek to tackle. The Grand Challenges for Social Work explicitly call on us to “bring great minds to the table, building collaborations among . . . partners who might not otherwise be engaged in the work” (Uehara et al., 2013, p. 167). In advancing social progress through scholarship, we could think bigger, expand our networks, and promote engagement of service providers, activists, organizers, policymakers, and researchers, all with a vested interest in addressing social problems. If partnerships and teams are such an essential tool to social work research and practice, why don’t we use them more effectively and consistently? The barriers to effective collaborative work are myriad and well-known to anyone who has attempted to develop meaningful scholarly collaborations. Within academic and research environments, the “silo effect” keeps potential partners focused on the needs and challenges of their own environments. Discipline-specific jargon and acronyms build walls around what could be shared expertise. Some scholars may feel inferior or superior to those in other fields. Conversely, attempts to create a united front and genuine connection with social workers could lead to a closing of ranks. Finally, the issue of competing demands makes investing time and energy in new partnerships and projects challenging. This challenge may be exacerbated in practice, policy, or advocacy settings, where engaging in research activities is not always central to the mission of the organization. Given the centrality of team-based science and multidisciplinary collaboration to advancing the mission of social work and social work research, overcoming these challenges is critically important. I find it heartening that the two meetings I attended this spring focused attention on training emerging social work scholars to have the tools and experiences required for effective collaboration. Intentional focus on meeting the training needs of the next generation will require exposure to multidisciplinary teamwork; participation on scientific teams in which members hold various roles that may shift over time; and communication about social problems with research, practice, and policy audiences as well as collaborators. Charlotte Lyn Bright, PhD, MSW, is associate professor and associate dean for doctoral and postdoctoral education, School of Social Work, University of Maryland, 525 W. Redwood Street, Baltimore, MD 21201; e-mail: cbright@ssw.umaryland.edu. References Bronstein , L. , Mizrahi , T. , Korazim-Kőrösy , Y. , & McPhee , D. ( 2010 ). Interdisciplinary collaboration in social work education in the USA, Israel and Canada: Deans’ and directors’ perspectives . International Social Work, 53 , 457 – 473 . Google Scholar Crossref Search ADS WorldCat Lein , L. , Uehara , E. S. , Lightfoot , E. , Lawlor , E. F. , & Williams , J. H. ( 2017 ). A collaborative framework for envisioning the future of social work research and education [Editorial] . Social Work Research, 41 , 67 – 71 . Google Scholar Crossref Search ADS WorldCat Maramaldi , P. , Sobran , A. , Scheck , L. , Cusato , N. , Lee , I. , White , E. , & Cadet , T. J. ( 2014 ). Interdisciplinary medical social work: A working taxonomy . Social Work in Health Care, 53 , 532 – 551 . Google Scholar Crossref Search ADS WorldCat Uehara , E. , Flynn , M. , Fong , R. , Brekke , J. , Barth , R. P. , Coulton , C., et al. ( 2013 ). Grand challenges for social work . Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 4 , 165 – 170 . Google Scholar Crossref Search ADS WorldCat © 2019 National Association of Social Workers This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Social Work Research Oxford University Press

Working Together Works Better: Reflections and New Attention to Long-Standing Themes in Social Work Research

Social Work Research , Volume 43 (3) – Sep 10, 2019

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References (4)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© 2019 National Association of Social Workers
ISSN
1070-5309
eISSN
1545-6838
DOI
10.1093/swr/svz012
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This past spring I had the good fortune to attend two impactful meetings—the annual meeting of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work (GADE), held at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at the University of Southern California, and the first learning collaborative for the newly formed Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment Policy, Research and Training at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. The meetings were very different in their structure and goals. GADE meets every year to provide opportunities for exchanging ideas and presenting data to promote improvements in PhD and DSW education around the world, and the learning collaborative was designed to develop innovative approaches to preventing and responding to child maltreatment. Doctoral program directors generally attend GADE; a multidisciplinary network of content experts constitutes the learning collaborative. Despite these obvious differences, I was struck by the consistency of the messages I took away from both meetings. To put it simply, we can do more together than alone. Team science benefits science. Multidisciplinary scholarship multiplies impact. The theme for the GADE conference this year was “Confident Scholars in a Transdisciplinary World: Emphasizing Social Work Strengths in Doctoral Education.” I was fortunate to attend interactive, engaging sessions facilitated and presented by social work researchers with successful multidisciplinary approaches to scholarship. I was inspired by social work/business and social work/engineering collaborations, teams composed of social work students working alongside students from a variety of disciplines, and the potential to use artificial intelligence to deliver social work interventions. The anchoring of our discussions about doctoral education in a multidisciplinary framework encouraged the attendees to think bigger about how we are training emerging social work scholars and teachers to work effectively and efficiently across disciplinary divides. The Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment Policy, Research and Training is one of three such centers funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The center’s goal is to focus equal attention on training, practice, and research as mutually reinforcing solutions to the problem of child maltreatment. The Scientific Learning Collaborative brought together thought leaders, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers for two days of interactive discussions about causes of and solutions to the problem of child maltreatment. A series of brief, TED-style presentations titled “A View of Maltreatment from My Discipline” set the stage for a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach to the meeting. Although exciting and current, these are not new approaches. Social work researchers and practitioners have long extolled the virtues of working collaboratively, including across disciplines, to the benefit of rigor, reach, and value. Citing the work of Ida Cannon in the early 1900s, Maramaldi et al. (2014) have noted the 100-plus year history of social work practice in interdisciplinary teams. Textbooks designed to train social workers to work effectively across disciplines abound. The skill set of social workers is well aligned with both leading and participating in collaborative teams across disciplines (Bronstein, Mizrahi, Korazim-Kőrösy, & McPhee, 2010). The complexity of social problems social workers—and social work researchers, specifically—seek to address requires contributions from many who can contribute the fruits of their own discipline-specific training and access to their audiences. As Lein, Uehara, Lightfoot, Lawlor, and Williams (2017) noted in an editorial in this journal, social work research can broaden its impact by working effectively with diverse communities. This points to a need to think about who constitutes our research teams, how to include those whose needs should be represented in our findings, and how to disseminate findings effectively to maximize impact. As one of my students said recently, “Every movement needs allies.” The meetings I attended this spring inspired me to think about the natural allies for the problems I seek to tackle. The Grand Challenges for Social Work explicitly call on us to “bring great minds to the table, building collaborations among . . . partners who might not otherwise be engaged in the work” (Uehara et al., 2013, p. 167). In advancing social progress through scholarship, we could think bigger, expand our networks, and promote engagement of service providers, activists, organizers, policymakers, and researchers, all with a vested interest in addressing social problems. If partnerships and teams are such an essential tool to social work research and practice, why don’t we use them more effectively and consistently? The barriers to effective collaborative work are myriad and well-known to anyone who has attempted to develop meaningful scholarly collaborations. Within academic and research environments, the “silo effect” keeps potential partners focused on the needs and challenges of their own environments. Discipline-specific jargon and acronyms build walls around what could be shared expertise. Some scholars may feel inferior or superior to those in other fields. Conversely, attempts to create a united front and genuine connection with social workers could lead to a closing of ranks. Finally, the issue of competing demands makes investing time and energy in new partnerships and projects challenging. This challenge may be exacerbated in practice, policy, or advocacy settings, where engaging in research activities is not always central to the mission of the organization. Given the centrality of team-based science and multidisciplinary collaboration to advancing the mission of social work and social work research, overcoming these challenges is critically important. I find it heartening that the two meetings I attended this spring focused attention on training emerging social work scholars to have the tools and experiences required for effective collaboration. Intentional focus on meeting the training needs of the next generation will require exposure to multidisciplinary teamwork; participation on scientific teams in which members hold various roles that may shift over time; and communication about social problems with research, practice, and policy audiences as well as collaborators. Charlotte Lyn Bright, PhD, MSW, is associate professor and associate dean for doctoral and postdoctoral education, School of Social Work, University of Maryland, 525 W. Redwood Street, Baltimore, MD 21201; e-mail: cbright@ssw.umaryland.edu. References Bronstein , L. , Mizrahi , T. , Korazim-Kőrösy , Y. , & McPhee , D. ( 2010 ). Interdisciplinary collaboration in social work education in the USA, Israel and Canada: Deans’ and directors’ perspectives . International Social Work, 53 , 457 – 473 . Google Scholar Crossref Search ADS WorldCat Lein , L. , Uehara , E. S. , Lightfoot , E. , Lawlor , E. F. , & Williams , J. H. ( 2017 ). A collaborative framework for envisioning the future of social work research and education [Editorial] . Social Work Research, 41 , 67 – 71 . Google Scholar Crossref Search ADS WorldCat Maramaldi , P. , Sobran , A. , Scheck , L. , Cusato , N. , Lee , I. , White , E. , & Cadet , T. J. ( 2014 ). Interdisciplinary medical social work: A working taxonomy . Social Work in Health Care, 53 , 532 – 551 . Google Scholar Crossref Search ADS WorldCat Uehara , E. , Flynn , M. , Fong , R. , Brekke , J. , Barth , R. P. , Coulton , C., et al. ( 2013 ). Grand challenges for social work . Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 4 , 165 – 170 . Google Scholar Crossref Search ADS WorldCat © 2019 National Association of Social Workers This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)

Journal

Social Work ResearchOxford University Press

Published: Sep 10, 2019

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