Insights on Research in Social Work
Research in the School of Sociology and Social Work
In this UTAS Open Day public lecture, Dr Margaret Hughes, Dr Sonya Stanford and Ms Jos Baltra-Ulloa discuss the place of research in a social work context and in dealing with marginalised people. This lecture is presented by the UTAS Faculty of Arts.
Field of Practice
Dr Sonya Stanford, undergraduate and postgraduate lecturer, Coordinator BSW Hons Program, discusses:
- Theory and practice together
- Sexual assault crisis support
- Education of developing social workers
- Risk in social work
Ms Jos Baltra-Ulloa, PhD student in Social Work:
- Teaches in undergraduate areas
- Working with people of refugee background
- Social work as a way of life
Dr Margaret Hughes, Coordinator BSW Program, Lecturer, Social Work:
- Domestic violence crisis service
- Death and dying – community palliative care services
Research Areas
Dr Margaret Hughes: Death and Dying
- Supporting people at the end of life
- Understanding death, grief and bereavement
Understanding the lived experience of palliative care in the context of a home death Ms Jos Baltra-Ulloa: Cross-Cultural Social Work Practice
- The refugee experience
- Refugee re-settlement
- The impact of Whiteness in social work practice
- Decolonised social work practice
- Community practice
- Participatory research
PHD topics
Dr Margaret Hughes:
- Research into people who had attended the death of a close person who died from a life limiting illness in the setting of the home
- Interviews with people from 18-80 years
- Attending to the death and final arrangements, including body disposition, final ceremony and memorialisation
Ms Jos Baltra-Ulloa:
- Interviewed social workers who had worked with people of refugee background
- Interviewed people of refugee background who had worked with social workers
- Interviewed social workers of refugee background
- Earning community trust and respect to attract research interviewees
- Looking inwards and towards social work as a particular culture to then understand what social work is, why and how social work practice takes place
Social Work skills
- Networking
- Use of self
- Transparency
- Compassion
- Listening skills
- Eating and sharing food
- Respect
- Different communication skills
- Understanding broader socio-political contexts
- Using interpreters to understand across languages, dialects and cultures
- Earning trust by acknowledgment of differences
- Privacy in research
- Earning membership to a community to then proceed with social work
Q+A
How would you deal with upset and emotional clients?
- Respectful response
- If unsure, always ask
- Apologise for inappropriate responses
- Creation of a safe environment
- Understanding of cultural differences, sometimes emotion is not shown
- Sometimes the most help you can be, is to not be there
- Knowing when to not push and to step aside
- Being comfortable with being uncomfortable
- Let your good heart come through
- Show dignity for other people’s lives
How do you stop yourself becoming too affected by the stories of your clients?
- Supervision
- Do not become the focus of attention, but do not stop being affected
- Do not pretend we are steel traps
- It’s not all about tears
- Working for change
