Department of Social Work And Social Care Dissertation

Title

This needs to clearly identify the focus of your research.

Background Information and Literature Review

This section will indicate the focus of the research and what experience and/or interests attracted you to it. It should provide the reader with information about why the research is important and give a flavour of the literature. It provides the context for the research aims which should be clearly stated.

Research Question(s)

State clearly your primary research question. You may choose to have a single research question, or to include supplementary questions that relate to the primary overarching question.

Methodological approach

This section needs to explain the approach you will be taking to explore and seek to answer your research question(s). If it is an empirical study explain whether the research adopt qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods and justify why this is appropriate. If you are doing a literature-based dissertation you need to indicate your initial thinking about searching the literature, search terms you might use, and mention the kind of bibliographic database(s) you may search on. Discuss the kinds of literature and research studies (quantitative / qualitative) that are likely to be most valuable to answering your question(s).

Make reference to theory and the philosophical underpinnings of your approach in terms of positivism and / or interpretivism. This is a social work dissertation so you may bring in whatever relevant theory you wish.

Data Collection and Analysis

Outline the methods you will use to collect your data. If your study is empirical you should say which data collection methods are most appropriate and why they are most suited to your project. You must also include discussion about why other methods are inappropriate in order to illustrate the point. If your dissertation is literature-based your methodology will incorporate extensive searching of bibliographic data bases and critical appraisal of key publications you identify. Because you are not doing empirical data gathering you will not be adopting a qualitative or quantitative methodology as such, but your research questions(s) will mean that particular research approaches are relevant to your work. You should therefore demonstrate knowledge of the research methods that have been used by researchers in the literature you are using by commenting on the kinds of studies you expect to be most relevant to your research question(s): qualitative, quantitative and/or mixed methods. Don’t forget, you need to justify as well as describe your methodology and the kinds of research you will include.

Access, Ethics and Sampling

Explain how you will gain access to your data. For literature-based dissertations the ‘data’ is publications: journal articles, books, reports and so on. There are systematic ways of searching for literature by using bibliographic data bases and as suggested above, you will need to explain this and ideally do a bit of searching as part of the proposal. For literature-based dissertations you do not have to apply for ethical approval for your work because you are not engaging with people and sensitive issues concerning vulnerability and confidentiality. For empirical dissertations you need to say who your participants will be and how will you contact them. How big a sample will you aim for and what kind of sample (eg convenience, purposive), in effect, what is your sampling strategy? What are the ethical implications of your study, are there particular issues to be considered when accessing and researching the participants? How does your proposal reflect research ethics principals?

The full dissertation: Due Date September, 2024 (90% of the overall mark)

Dissertations must be submitted electronically to Canvas.

The dissertation will be assessed by two markers, one of who would normally be the student’s supervisor. For details of the marking criteria, see Appendix 1.

Requirements of the dissertation

You are required to submit a dissertation which demonstrates your intellectual ability and capacity to complete an extended piece of work by systematically identifying, gathering and analysing data, considering its implications and presenting it in a structured, clear way. The dissertation must be on a topic that is directly relevant to social work.

A dissertation may take a number of forms, for example:

1. Literature-based research - The aim of this approach is not to generate new empirical data, but rather to explore and analyse existing literature. Central to this is identifying and reviewing existing research and literature to explore what is known about the chosen topic and research question and the concepts, methods, theories and debates, or secondary sources (such as existing datasets, government reports or policy documents) that it may be valuable to consider in order to address the research aims. The research should take a critical and analytical approach and be directly related to the questions being addressed. The aim of the research must be clearly specified and the topic must be well-defined and focused. The study must be based upon a methodological, conceptual and theoretical framework. The main difference between this and an empirical study is the source of the data.
2. Empirical research – refers to forms of investigation into research questions that involves collecting new data and analysing it to produce findings and original knowledge. The research question(s) must be rooted clearly in a review of the relevant literature which is less detailed than in a literature-based dissertation and followed by developing a methodological approach, data collection and analysis and conclusions / recommendations. Whilst originality is encouraged you do not have to find something which has never been researched before. Qualitative and/or quantitative methods of data collection may be used. The dissertation should demonstrate your ability to undertake a small piece of empirical research and to explore and analyse the concepts, theories and debates around the research topic. Empirical research requires ethical approval that must be applied for and once approval has been granted you will be able to begin accessing participants and gathering data (see below).

Although the deadline for the dissertation is several months after the writing of the proposal it is vital that you spread the work throughout the year and allow enough time for gathering and analysing the data and writing the dissertation. In addition to lectures, to assist you with this you will receive support from your supervisor.

Research governance and ethical review of empirical research proposals

All research must be conducted ethically, in ways that protects the safety and dignity of participants. The Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care provides guidance on good research practice and ‘promotes excellence in the conduct of research’. This framework requires the university to ensure that student research projects give due consideration to quality and ethics and that they receive ethical ‘approval’. As social work students these issues of values and ethics are particularly pertinent. All research that involves gathering data from human subjects requires ethical approval before data collection can commence. This is especially the case in disciplines such as social work because the research often involves inquiring into sensitive topics. This should not be perceived as a barrier or inhibit your interest in doing empirical research, many MA social work students complete successful empirical dissertations. The application form for ethical approval is on Canvas. You must work closely with your dissertation supervisor on the ethics review application. You should not submit the application until it has been commented upon by your supervisor, you have revised and developed it in the light of feedback, you are convinced that it is as good as can be and your supervisor agrees. Applications for ethical review need to be submitted by the 4th March, 2024. You are encouraged to submit the form even earlier as this gives you more time to get on with negotiations with organisations and individuals to gain access to research participants and gather data. The application for ethical review should be emailed to the social work admin office at socialwork-ma@contacts.bham.ac.uk. In the email you must make it clear that you have received your supervisor’s approval to submit it. They are read by two members of staff and the decision and feedback will be returned to you within four weeks of submission. Once your proposal has received university ethical approval you are then free to begin formal negotiation to access research participants. You will then need to establish what ethical approval is required from any organisations you are accessing participants through. Many social care organisations are satisfied with knowing that university ethical approval has been gained, while some have their own formal social care ethics review processes. Some topics may require students to comply with the research governance frameworks for organisations which come under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of State for Health; this includes research undertaken in many social care agencies. Once university and agency sources of ethical approval have been gained you are able to begin directly negotiating access to participants and gathering data. Ethical Review is not required for literature-based dissertations, which does not mean that they require less work, but rather that your time and energy are put into some different forms of rigorous scholarship.

Presentation of full dissertation

The word length for the dissertation is 10,000 words. Students may submit up to 10% under or 10% over the 10k word length, meaning that the dissertation should be between 9,000 and 11,000 words in length. This word count includes everything from the first word of the introduction to the final word of the conclusion. It does not include the Front page, contents page, Executive Summary, appendices and references.

As with other written assessments your work should use 1.5 or double spacing and a font of at least 12pt. You should include a word count on the title page. Failure to do so will incur a penalty. All individuals and agencies involved in your study be anonymised. Please follow the general presentational guidance and information on avoiding plagiarism that appears in your student handbook. For the marking criteria, see appendix 2.

Dissertation Structure

Each dissertation is unique and its structure should be designed as the best means of communicating its content. All dissertations should begin with:

• Title Page
  This should contain the approved dissertation title, your student number (not your name), a statement of the degree for which the dissertation is being presented, the name of the department and the university, and the date of submission.
• Acknowledgements (optional)
  Here you may wish to thank those persons and organisations who have assisted you in your work.
• Executive Summary
  An Executive Summary is designed to ‘stand-alone’ from the dissertation and should provide the reader with a brief overview of the study and findings. It should summarise all of the key points within the dissertation. After reading the Executive Summary the reader should understand the main arguments of the dissertation, and the evidence which supports them, without having to read the full version. In order to do this effectively the Executive Summary is likely to be between 2 and 3 sides of A4. You may use the Executive Summary to provide feedback to the agencies and participants who have supported you with your research.
• Contents Page
  A tabulated listing giving page numbers for each section and chapter, this should be followed by a list of any tables and illustrations.

The above aspects are presented before the introduction and are not included in the word count.

• Introduction
  This should outline the topic and what attracted you to it, the research questions(s), context, rationale and objectives of the study.
  The main components of any dissertation are outlined below, these aspects do not necessarily have to be presented in this order or style but the elements should all be discussed within the dissertation. You are strongly encouraged to discuss the final structure with your supervisor.
• Literature Review
  An initial overview of relevant literature must be included in all types of dissertation. It should be related to the objectives described in the introduction, and should clearly state the central research questions to be addressed.
• Methodology
  This should include a full explanation of the research design and method(s) used in the study, including a discussion of the reasons for choosing them and their methodological and philosophical justification. It should indicate the conceptual and theoretical background to the study and include a degree of critical analysis. The approach to analysing the data must be explained and justified.
• Findings and Data Analysis
  The results of analysing the data and themes arising from it should be presented in accordance with the methodological approach to the study. A crucial test of this section is the relevance of the data to your research questions. Findings may be presented in one large chapter, using sub-sections to discuss particular themes, or in several chapters.
• Discussion
  This chapter / section should summarise the main findings and themes of the study, relating these back to the research question(s) and literature, tying it firmly into social work. It should include a critique of the study including any limitations you are aware of.

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