http://rsw.sagepub.com/Research on Social Work Practice

http://rsw.sagepub.com/content/16/4/457.1.citationThe online version of this article can be found at:

 DOI: 10.1177/1049731506287086

2006 16: 457Research on Social Work PracticeDonald Leslie

Book Review: Primer for critiquing social research: A student guide  

Published by:

http://www.sagepublications.com

can be found at:Research on Social Work PracticeAdditional services and information for    

  http://rsw.sagepub.com/cgi/alertsEmail Alerts:

 

http://rsw.sagepub.com/subscriptionsSubscriptions:  

http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navReprints:  

http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navPermissions:  

What is This? 

- May 26, 2006Version of Record >>

at WALDEN UNIVERSITY on January 14, 2013rsw.sagepub.comDownloaded from

professional practice. And be prepared to have difficulty putting thisbook down once started.

—Carolyn RussellNational Foundation forSelf-Directed Care, Inc.

Van Wormer, K. (2006). Introduction to social welfare and so-cial work: The U.S. in global perspective. Belmont, CA:Thomson/Brooks & Cole. 458 pp. $61.95. ISBN-0-13-119446-1.DOI: 10.1177/1049731506287090

Katherine Van Wormer’s new introductory text, Introduction to SocialWelfare and Social Work: The U.S. in Global Perspective, affords studentsa rigorous overview of the historical development of the profession, theetiology of key social work values, and important human behavior in thesocial environment (HBSE) models influencing practice. The first part ofthe book deals with the structure of the social welfare system in the UnitedStates, whereas the second addresses critical social problems from adevelopmental perspective. What distinguishes this book from someother introductory social work texts is the author’s significant integrationof material on social issues from a global perspective. This integrationwill help students recognize the global nature of social problems and howsocial issues in the United States are inextricably linked to those in othercountries. As social workers today find themselves increasingly practic-ing within the context of a global economy and schema, this book is bothtimely and germane for introductory social work courses.

The first chapter delineates the unique nature and purpose of thesocial work profession, including clear definitions of such terms asfunctionalism, cultural competence, empowerment, and welfare state.In addition, evidence of the globalization of the social work professionis supplied, supporting the author’s primary contention that “the pow-erful forces of social, cultural, demographic, and political changesassociated with globalization have important implications for thesocial welfare state and for social work practice” (p. 21). The secondchapter furthers this discussion by exploring the context in which theU.S. social welfare system developed. The author identifies numerousvalue dimensions influencing the American welfare state, includingcompetition versus cooperation, moralism versus compassion, andindependence versus interconnectedness.

The third chapter is a historical treatise (in the more traditional sense)on the development of the profession. Classic antecedents such as theProtestant Reformation, Elizabethan Poor Laws, Colonial Poor Laws,and the Settlement House Movement are examined in detail. A uniquefeature of this chapter is the contrasting of the nascent development of thesocial work profession in the United States with that of Europe. Theauthor also identifies paradigm shifts occurring in both countries thatreciprocally influenced the social development of the other.

Chapter 4 serves as a bridge to modern day social problems, morespecifically the global nature of poverty, hunger, and homelessnessand the oppression of vulnerable cultural groups. In addition to explor-ing the etiology of these long-standing social problems, more specificissues pertaining to economic oppression are examined, includ- ingNAFTA, world banks, the European Union, and the Kensington Wel-fare Rights Union. This discussion of oppression is extended to socialoppression in chapter 5, where the author critically assesses welfare

reform, classism, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, and other prevalentforms of social oppression. Considerable attention is given to pertinentissues surrounding the recent significant increase in the Hispanic pop-ulation in the United States. Finally, chapter 6 serves as the culmina-tion of the author’s discussion of oppression, focusing on the global-ization of human rights, criminal justice systems, gay and lesbianrights, the death penalty, and concepts of restorative justice.

In chapter 7, the focus of the book shifts from more structural issuesto an overview of basic concepts of HBSE and an in-depth analysis ofspecific social problems that are highly amenable to social work inter-ventions, such as child maltreatment and exploitat ion,psychopathology, and gerontological issues. Once again, these socialproblems are considered from a global perspective, and pertinentglobal examples are supplied, including the genital mutilation of chil-dren, child labor, and population imbalance issues. In addition to elab-orating on these various social problems, the author reviews promisingsolutions to them, including kinship care, harm reduction models, andsuccessful treatment modalities from other countries.

In terms of the empirical support behind the author’s assertions,sources are meticulously documented at the end of each chapter. Therigor of the works cited range from rigorous, peer-reviewed journals topopular periodicals. The author does cite from a number of top socialwork journals and peer-reviewed publications in allied health disci-plines. There are also a number of citations retrieved from onlinesources and databases. Overall, the author does a credible job of sup-porting assertions with considerable documentation.

In an introductory social work text, designed for students getting aninitial exposure to the profession, I would have expected more of a discus-sion of the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics andhow these ethics influence and govern social work practice. Although theauthor did address this area somewhat in chapter 2 and included a copy ofthe Code of Ethics in the appendices, I think there could have been a bitmore substantive discussion on core social work values and ethics. Per-haps this can be accomplished in future editions of the text.

Finally, the text is positively supplemented by the photography ofRupert Van Wormer, a doctoral student in social work at Portland StateUniversity. The dynamic and recent images contained in the book put ahuman face on the social problems elaborated on by the author and arejudiciously placed in the text.

In sum, this introductory social work text is a globally relevant,timely work that emphasizes the interconnectedness of the Americansocial work profession and the larger world. This point is critical, associal work practice in the 21st century, perhaps more so than anyother, does not exist in a vacuum. Consequently, beginning social workstudents can employ concepts gleaned from this text to help thembecome more globally conscious, culturally competent practitioners.

——W. Jay GabbardWestern Kentucky University

Holosko, M. (2006). Primer for critiquing social research: Astudent guide. Belmont, CA: Thomson. 73 pp. $22.95. ISBN 0-495-00774-9.DOI: 10.1177/1049731506287086

I preface this review by stating that I am a biased reviewer in that Ihave test driven earlier iterations of this primer for the past 2 years. My

457

at WALDEN UNIVERSITY on January 14, 2013rsw.sagepub.comDownloaded from

classes of undergraduates served as key informants assisting theauthor to tweak this text to its present form. The author incorporatedtheir suggestions and those from other cognate disciplines who servedas similar test classes. This is probably why this text is so appealing tostudents, as they were instrumental in its development.

I wish to comment first on what this text not only purports toachieve but, in my experience in using it, does achieve. It is not a so-called research methods text that informs one about how to conductresearch. It is a text that directs individuals in developing skills thathelp one to become a better consumer of research. Developing suchcritiquing or critical-thinking skills in turn helps students or learners todemystify the research process, to develop confidence in their abilitiesto appraise research, to identity the various steps involved in qualita-tive or quantitative studies, and to identify the numerous criteria usedto analyze each step of any research study. As such, the primer servesas a supplement to a main research methods text and serves as a precur-sor to its content. For instance, when students critique the sample of astudy using the five criteria listed in the primer, they then turn to amethods text to find answers to questions about sample size, biasness,selection, relationship to population, descriptive or unique features.

The writing style of the text is also unique. It is written in a pur-posely casual, conversational tone that uses simple prose to describethese various criteria. The author takes the reader or user from the titleof a research study through each section and subsection to the final ref-erence list at the end of the research study. For each step in this linearprocess, he articulates and briefly explains, through a series of boxes,figures, and checklists, the minimal criteria one could use to critiqueeach component of a qualitative or quantitative research study. He alsoinjects interactive symbols such as “stop signs,” “go signs,” defini-tions, and something called “pensive pauses,” which are issues onwhich students need to reflect. Finally, the author offers a short tem-plate students may use to critique online articles at Wadsworth. com,with frequently asked questions and answers and an e-mail address tocontact the author directly. Such stylistic features readily appeal tostudents.

Although the author is a social work professor and thus uses socialwork examples to make his points, the text is applicable to any and alldisciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Given that the Ameri-can Psychological Association (APA) sets the stylistic requirements

for 85% of published social research, the author incorporates theAPA’s requirements in the criteria when applicable. For instance, APArecommends that an abstract should have 120 words or 960 charactersor spaces. The author then adds other minimal criteria about well-writ-ten abstracts to this. The word minimal is important here as all criteriapresented are deemed as such. On my using the primer, for instance, Ihave added to them in various assignments as need arose. Indeed, inclass discussions, students too have added to them when they wishedto do so.

From a content perspective, although the numerous criteria are pre-sented in simple checklist fashion, it does not imply that they are notcomprehensive. As such, the author articulates nondiscreet aspects ofqualitative research; unravels the semantics of design versus methods;clarifies nuances of design issues; simplifies the essence of critiquingtables, graphs, charts, and statistics; delineates the similarities and dif-ferences between qualitative and quantitative research methods; anddifferentiates main research methods from techniques used to achievethese methods. For those of us who have taught research to undergrad-uates, we are fully aware that these are not moot or trite issues. Thisreduction in complication of the various elements of research, whichby its nature and scientific shroud are drawn to complexity, is a notablefeature of the primer.

The above-noted features make it a useful tool in the teaching pro-cess. It is not useful only as a guide to assessing research studies on anoverall basis, but it can also be used to assist students at various stagesof the critique process. For example, early elements in the primer deal-ing with questions of what is or is not research can be of assistance tostudents in their initial selection of potential studies for examination.Similarly, using the section on research design can assist students toreadily find particular types of research studies that may be requiredfor assignments or their particular learning needs. In short, this is awell-written, very well-thought-out and useful tool for students andprofessors alike. It makes a significant contribution to an area of stu-dent learning in the research realm that has been previously largelyunexplored. According to students, the primer makes a picture out of apuzzle and, therefore, deserves a resounding “two thumbs up.”

——Donald LeslieUniversity of Windsor

458

at WALDEN UNIVERSITY on January 14, 2013rsw.sagepub.comDownloaded from