Qualitative Social Work

Action research by social work practitioners provides a particularly direct means of overcoming the often cited practice/research divide within the profession. This article draws from a project within a UK local authority fostering recruitment team that examined aspects of recruitment including the impact of foster carer involvement. Characteristics of the project that contributed to its effectiveness as an action research process are discussed. These include: the important role of ‘critical conversations’ that shift and define the research direction; the advantages created by an ‘insider perspective’; maintaining flexible, but identifiable, research aims and objectives; maximizing the links between action research and practice; maintaining enthusiasm; a supportive organizational context; and the attention to ‘diffusing’ the research findings through the organization and beyond.