Teaching research methods to social work students: a transnational critical reflection

The authors discussed a mutual interest in teaching research methods to social work students. Drawing on their considerable experience they reflected critically on the pedagogical issues, practical realities, cultural biases and ethical dilemmas that surround the teaching and learning of research methodology. They recognised that many of these challenges and dilemmas were relevant in both the Indian and Australian contexts and that a meaningful cross-national collaboration would potentially enrich the research learning experience of students in both locations. They also noted the paucity of research that captured social work students' reflections, particularly cross-nationally, and believed that a study eliciting the opinions of students in India and Australia offered opportunities to contribute to "the experience of new cultures, particularly ... a new educational culture, [and] ... also an opportunity for some creative thinking about how new knowledges are formed and generated" (McGinty, Koo and Saedi, 2010, p. 518). The discussions between the authors led to the formulation and implementation of the research project and its outcomes described in this presentation. The research aimed to draw on the views of social work students, in a transnational context, to inform best research methods teaching practice and thereby increase new practitioner readiness to undertake research. Using an online survey the researchers gathered data from social work students in Australia and India in order to seek students' reflections on the experience of studying research within their degree, how prepared they were to be practitioner researchers and, also, to ascertain their views on how the teaching-learning process may be improved. The transnational approach to this research provided opportunities for the enriched data reported in this paper and, also, the application of what is learned, in both countries, for the benefit of social work students and practitioners in India and Australia. This paper also describes an international collaborative research relationship that potentially acts as a model for the development of further research in this area