Social work as an academic discipline has struggled to develop research methods and methodologies that are specific to social work. This set of slides shows the relevance of the Chicago School of Sociology to social work research. In fact, there may be a case for the name Chicago School Social Work Research. Hiding in plain sight are research methods that originated within the Chicago School of Sociology of the first third of the twentieth century and that have undergone further development ever since in such disciplines as sociology and nursing. Social work has not been part of the methodological developments that early social workers helped originate. Members of the Hull House Settlement were early contributors to the Chicago School not only in terms of understanding social problems and crafting policies and programs, but also in terms of research methods and methodologies that later became known as grounded theory, deductive qualitative analysis, and fieldwork.

1. HIDING IN PLAIN
SIGHT: SOCIAL
WORK-SPECIFIC
RESEARCH AND THE
CHICAGO SCHOOL
OF SOCIOLOGY
Jane F. Gilgun, PhD, LICSW
Professor
School of Social Work
University of Minnesota,
Twin Cities, USA

2. Topics
Social Work-Specific Research
Chicago School of Sociology
Types of Chicago School Research
• Are they actually social work-specific
research approaches?
Your Experiences

3. Format
of Today’s
Presentati
on
Presentation (35 minutes)
Reflection Panel (20 minutes)
Reflection & Writing (10 minutes)
Audience Response (20 minutes)
Wrap-Up (5 minutes)

4. Social Work
Specific
Research
Based upon researcher immersion
into social settings
Researchers seek to understand
perspectives of others and the self
Recognition of reciprocity
between persons and the multiple
environments over time

5. Social Work
Specific
Research
Descriptions
Interpretations
& Meanings

6. Social Work
Specific
Research
Value-based: justice, care,
dignity, worth, autonomy,
sensitivity to vulnerability
Critical & therefore
emancipatory
Has strategies for ensuring
impact of findings

7. Chicago
School
of
Sociology
Hull House
Understand Perspectives of Others
Multiple Methods
Reciprocity Between Persons & Environments
Immersion
Emancipatory Research

8. Chicago
School
of Sociology:
Methodology
Symbolic Interactionism
American Pragmatism
Constructivist
Vivid Writing: Grab
Critical Realist

9. Chicago
Style
Approaches
Fieldwork/Ethnographies
Analytic Induction/Deductive
Qualitative Analysis
Grounded Theory
Multiple Methods

10. Chicago
Style
Approaches
General Reflections
How ideas presented
apply or do not apply
to your own work

11. Brainstorm Final Thoughts
• Many Chicago Schools
• Maybe it’s chicago school of social work research
• Can Add perspectives—knowledge is always incomplete
• Why theory?
• Meso level studies & Chicago social work research
• “we are not animals in a zoo”
• Importance of pragmatism in terms of our common humanity
• No rigidification
• Lets’ welcome various perspectives that support the foundations
• Embracing the messiness
• We mess with the canon—if we had one

12. References• Gilgun, Jane F. (in press). Deductive qualitative analysis and grounded theory: Sensitizing concepts and
hypothesis testing. To appear in Bryant, A. & Charmaz, K. (Eds.), The Sage handbook of grounded theory (2nd
ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Gilgun, Jane F. & Samantha Hirschey (2017). A four-factor outcome model for family case management
services for children who have experienced complex trauma. Journal of Family Theory and Review,
published in December.
• Gilgun, Jane F. (2015). Beyond description to interpretation and theory in qualitative social work research.
Qualitative Social Work, 14, 741-752. This article is number 31 in the most read articles in this journal.
• Gilgun, Jane F. (2015). Research and theory building in social work. In William Nichols (Ed.), Encyclopedia of
Social and Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed) (pp. 502-507. New York: Elselvier.
• Gilgun, Jane. F. (2014). Chicago School traditions: Deductive qualitative analysis and grounded theory.
Amazon.
• Gilgun, Jane F. (2014). Writing up qualitative research. In Patricia Leavy (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of
qualitative research methods (pp. 658-676). New York: Oxford University
• Gilgun, Jane F. & Gwendolyn Anderson (2013). Mothers’ perspectives on signs of sexual abuse in their
families. Families in Society, 9 (4), 259-266.
• Gilgun, Jane F. (2012). Enduring themes in qualitative family research. Journal of Family Theory and Review,
4, 80-95.
• Gilgun, Jane F. & Roberta G. Sands (2012). Special issue editorial: The contribution of qualitative approaches
to developmental intervention research. Qualitative Social Work: Research and Practice, 11(4), 349-361.

13. References
• Gilgun, Jane F. (2012) Hand into glove: Grounded theory, deductive qualitative analysis
and social work research and practice. In Anne E. Fortune, William Reid, & Robert Miller
(Eds.). Qualitative Methods in Social Work (2nd ed.) (pp. 107-134New York: Columbia
University Press.
• Gilgun, Jane F. (2010). Methods for enhancing theory and knowledge about problems,
policies, and practice. In Katherine Briar, Joan Orme, Roy Ruckdeschel, & Ian Shaw, The
Sage handbook of social work research (pp. 281-297). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Gilgun, Jane F. (2010). Reflections on 25 years of research on violence. Reflections:
Narratives of Professional Helping, 16(4), 50-59.
• Gilgun, Jane F. (2008). Lived experience, reflexivity, and research on perpetrators of
interpersonal violence. Qualitative Social Work, 7(2), 181-197.
• Gilgun, Jane F. (2006). The four cornerstones of qualitative research. Qualitative Health
Research, 16(3), 436-443. (
• Gilgun, Jane F. (2005). Qualitative research and family psychology. Journal of Family
Psychology, 19(1), 40-50.
• Gilgun, Jane F. (2005). “Grab” and good science: Writing up the results of qualitative
research. Qualitative Health Research, 15(2), 256-262.

14. References
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15. References
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