Confronting the Reality of Collaborative Practice Research: Issues of Practice, Design, Measurement, and Team Development

Abstract

Four issues that arise in the process of collaborative research conducted by practitioners and researchers are identified and discussed: Issues of practice, design, measurement, and team development are examined from the separate perspectives of the practitioners and the researchers. A case example of practitioner and researcher collaboration to evaluate single-session groups for families of psychiatric inpatients is used to illustrate the emergence and resolution of these issues. Implications for social work education and for the conduct of research in agency-based practice are considered.