The Power of One: Why auto-ethnography, solo service-user voice and reflective case study analysis are useful strategies for researching family-centred social work practice

Abstract

Family-centred social work practitioners often reflect upon and talk about their everyday work with families, but they rarely write about it, other than in case notes or for formal reports. If social work practitioners were to adopt a range of easy-to-use research strategies that focus on either one service-user, or one family case, or one practitioner experience, then they may be empowered to write and publish more about their work. This may then lead to a series of practitioner pieces aimed at improving knowledge and methods in family-centred social work practice. This article explores three ‘One Voice strategies’: those of auto-ethnography, solo service-user voice and reflective case study analysis, and their usefulness to researching family-centred social work practice. It argues that using such strategies are valid in everyday social work and that practitioners can make a difference to our knowledge of effectiveness in practice by telling us about just one story – the power of one!