Research Paradigms in Social Work: From Stalemate to Creative Synthesis

For the last 5 years, four American journals have been the venue for a vigorous debate concerning the appropriate research method for social work. The issues underlying the debate extend well beyond methodology and reflect a broader paradigmatic debate between empiricism and normativism. This debate is extremely important to the future direction of the profession. While the debate remains unresolved in these journals, some movement toward constructive syntheses is possible. Three syntheses are briefly discussed. They are the critical, new paradigm, and creative paradigms.