(Download) "Lessons Learnt from Researching 'Policy in Action'." by Women in Welfare Education ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Lessons Learnt from Researching 'Policy in Action'.
- Author : Women in Welfare Education
- Release Date : January 01, 2000
- Genre: Education,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 186 KB
Description
Introduction Challenges and difficulties of undertaking research which examines child protection practices in situ have been highlighted both internationally and in Australia since the mid 1980's (Dingwall et al 1983; Parton 1989; Tominson and Goddard 1993; Scott 1996). This article outlines the issues involved when undertaking in situ research into 'policy in action' in the context of work practices undertaken by front-line workers in the New South Wales Department of Community Services (DoCS) (2) in responding to notifications of child emotional abuse. The interaction of differing elements of official policy, the front-line workers (3), the service-users, the implementing organisation, other relevant organisations and the media, determine 'policy in action' (Waugh 1997). The issues confronting the researcher from the initial development of this research project, through the data collection stage until the completion of feedback to the research participants provides the focus of the discussion. Hence the emphasis of this article is on describing the data collection stage as it sets the context in which the difficulties arose and strategies for dealing with them are considered. It is not the intention of this article to discuss the specific details of analysing the data or to outline the findings or the conclusions of this research.