User:Ian F Shaw

I am professor of Social Work at the University of York, England. My theoretical, research and substantive interests within social work and social science focus on three main themes:

The practice/research relationship Qualitative r esearch and evaluation methodology, practitioner and action research Developing social work research strategies My interests have been stimulated by career work that straddles social work and sociology. My work has combined aspects of the social science of welfare practice, the development of qualitative and evaluation methodology, research on several aspects of social exclusion, and the development and critique of ICT applications in social work.

My first degree was in sociology, and it has continued to influence my social work practice and, subsequently, my university work. I followed my first degree with social work training in South Wales, before returning to Sheffield to work as a Probation Officer for five years. I arrived in York in Spring 2003, following a long career in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University.

My teaching has always crossed the borders of social work and other disciplines. Much of my teaching is at the borders of practice and research. I teach evaluation methodology, qualitative methods, dissertation and thesis skills, and evidence and knowledge for practice. I have aimed, in addition, to develop a view of professional practice in social work that embeds an evaluative dimension as part and parcel of good direct practice. I have also taught social work practice through eLearning, utilising packages for which I have taken the lead developer role.

My research work has, like my teaching, never been narrowly focused on social work and social care, but has been at the interfaces with especially sociology, but also social policy, health studies, education and housing. However, I think that a focus on social work research provides an invaluable gateway to several core issues – joined-up policy, professional decision making, evidence based practice, theorising practice, user-engagement in public sector services, transdisciplinary research, the role of the university in society, and so on. My aspiration is for a social work ‘presence’ in the university and community that helps accomplish this agenda. I initiated the international journal Qualitative Social Work (Sage Publications) in the late 1990s, (co-edited with Roy Ruckdeschel at St Louis University), and this provides a forum for some of these issues. I have been lead editor for the Sage Handbook of Evaluation (2006), and I will continue to write books and papers on practitioner research, qualitative methods, the uses of research, and evaluation as a dimension of direct practice. I have collaborated with others to lead the production of the Sage Handbook of Social Work Research (2009).

I have applied some of these ideas to mainstream and user led research at the borders of health and social care, with older people, and in the mental health field. I am also conducting a series of linked studies that aims to understand and develop strategies regarding the practice/research relationship. I have recently jointly led a large scale evaluation of the UK pilot sites for The Integrated Children's System. I have authored 80 or so papers in peer revewed journals and about a dozen book.