A Historical Analysis of Evidence-Based Practice in Social Work: The Unfinished Journey toward an Empirically Grounded Profession

Okpych, Nathanael J.; Yu, James L-H

doi:10.1086/674969

Cited by 83 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 172 publications

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“…EBP has been emphasized as valuable to social work and counselor professional development (Okpych & Yu, 2014;Purswell & Ray, 2014;Rubin & Parrish, 2012).…”

Section: Play Therapy and Evidence-based Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…To promote children's mental health, identification of effective treatments and validated research methodologies is essential. As such, single-case research design could meet the requirements for empirically supported interventions and has been used in the past (Okpych & Yu, 2014;Rubin, 2012). Additionally, research using single-case design methodology provides a means for scholars and practitioners to recognize a participant's functioning over time, to explain individual emotional and behavioral changes, and to enhance the evidence-based mental health field.…”

Section: Play Therapy and Evidence-based Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

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Application of Standardized Observation Form in School Counselling in Taiwan: Exploratory Study with Children Exhibiting Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior Concerns

Tsai¹

2018

IJPS

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The exploratory study investigated the impact of Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) on children who present with internalizing and externalizing behavioral concerns through a single-case design. Two second-grade male children in northern Taiwan displaying clinical levels of internalizing or externalizing behavior problems underwent 9 weeks of weekly 40-minute CCPT sessions. The children's parents and teachers completed the Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher's Report Form before and after play therapy. Observational data were collected via the Direct Observation Form throughout the baseline, intervention, and follow-up phases. Observation data were evaluated through visual analysis. In-session play therapy notes and the children's play therapy behavior scores were also analyzed. The participants' internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors demonstrated slight decreases.

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“…EBP has been emphasized as valuable to social work and counselor professional development (Okpych & Yu, 2014;Purswell & Ray, 2014;Rubin & Parrish, 2012).…”

Section: Play Therapy and Evidence-based Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Play Therapy and Evidence-based Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Standardized Observation Form in School Counselling in Taiwan: Exploratory Study with Children Exhibiting Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior Concerns

Tsai¹

2018

IJPS

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“…Concerned with improving the effectiveness of social work, resolving continued gaps between research and practice, and aligning professional standards with those in medicine, social work researchers and practitioners have advocated for the necessity of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) as a means to ensure the scientific legitimacy of the field and provide interventions that "work," leading EBP to become the guiding model for theory and practice in the field (Okpych and Yu 2014).…”

Section: Structuring Child Welfare Decisionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Standardizing Biases: Selection Devices and the Quantification of Race

Hirschman¹,

Bosk²

2017

Preprint

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Abstract:Racial inequality persists despite major advances in formal, legal equality. Scholars and policymakers argue that individual biases (both explicit and implicit) combine with subjective organizational decision-making practices to perpetuate racial inequality. The standardization of decision-making offers a potential solution, promising to eliminate the subjectivity that biases consequential decisions. We ask, under what conditions may standardization reduce racial inequality? Drawing on research in science studies and law and society, we argue that standardization must be understood as a heterogeneous practice capable of producing very different outcomes depending on the details of the standard and the organizational infrastructure surrounding its use. We compare "selection devices" -simple quantified tools for making allocation decisions -in undergraduate admissions and child welfare to highlight the complex relationships between race and standardization. Child welfare agencies adopted a colorblind actuarial device that attempted to predict which children were most at risk, and then make decisions based on those predictions. In contrast, the University of Michigan's points system explicitly considered and valued race, with the goal of increasing minority student enrollments in the context of promoting student body diversity. Comparing these cases demonstrates how actuarial standardization practices, including those adopted with the intention of reducing racial inequality, tend to reinforce an unequal status quo by ideologically reconfiguring mutable social structures into immutable individual risk factors. In contrast, non-actuarial practices that explicitly promote racial equality are vulnerable to political challenges, as they violate norms of colorblindness and cannot be defended in terms of their predictive validity.Acknowledgements:

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“…For human service professionals, turning our expertise into objectivity can be a source of just as much contention as regarding professional decisions as totally intuitive. Social workers are generally not opposed to the appeal of evidence-based practice (EBP) (Okpych & Yu, 2014). However, while academics have been preoccupied with empirical data, the soft, flexible and spontaneous practice wisdom of practitioners has been downplayed or sacrificed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Researching Practice Wisdom in Social Work

Cheung

2016

JSI

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Researching practice wisdom in social workSocial workers, as skilled helpers who make professional decisions using intuitive actions rather than by following defined rules, deserve better recognition for their practice wisdom. However, since there is a tendency amongst practitioners who adhere to the evidence-based paradigm to disregard practitioners' knowledge, empirical research on practice wisdom in social work needs to be encouraged. The author argues that the lack of a sound methodology hinders the development of such an invaluable asset for practitioners. It is suggested that a heuristic paradigm that embraces the concepts of tacit knowing, intuition and indwelling will provide a way forward towards recognizing the importance of social workers' practice wisdom. K e y w o r d sPractice wisdom, practical wisdom, tacit knowledge, heuristics, research methodology

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A Historical Analysis of Evidence-Based Practice in Social Work: The Unfinished Journey toward an Empirically Grounded Profession

Cited by 83 publications

References 172 publications

Application of Standardized Observation Form in School Counselling in Taiwan: Exploratory Study with Children Exhibiting Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior Concerns

Application of Standardized Observation Form in School Counselling in Taiwan: Exploratory Study with Children Exhibiting Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior Concerns

Standardizing Biases: Selection Devices and the Quantification of Race

Researching Practice Wisdom in Social Work

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