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While social work research in Australia is in reasonable shape, it requires a strong research culture promoting rigorous research to enhance its credibility and influence on social policy discourses. This study explored proposals to advance social work research, based on interviews with 20 experienced Australian social work researchers. Strategies identified include improving research culture and training, the development of research infrastructure to promote and stimulate research, and forming new partnerships both among researchers and between researchers and research end-users. Growing and strengthening the research foundations of the discipline is essential to its future relevance. IMPLICATIONS The Australian social work community would benefit from a more deliberate and strategic approach to increasing the quality and quantity of research to inform practice and policy. Opportunities for social work researchers to connect with each other to disseminate, discuss, and plan research could provide a hub for increasing research development and research collaboration. The responsibility and capacity to lead research development and advocate for social work research is shared between the academy, the human services sector, and representative professional associations. The Australian social work community would benefit from a more deliberate and strategic approach to increasing the quality and quantity of research to inform practice and policy.Opportunities for social work researchers to connect with each other to disseminate, discuss, and plan research could provide a hub for increasing research development and research collaboration.The responsibility and capacity to lead research development and advocate for social work research is shared between the academy, the human services sector, and representative professional associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the effectiveness and impact of social work programs, 2018 Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) and the Australian Research Council (ARC).

Social work with older people is often characterised as low status employment and is dominated by medicalised constructions of old age. Consequently, there is a need for educational responses that address students’ negative attitudes toward older people and enable the development of practice skills in this area. The present paper evaluates an elective course for third year social work students that challenged their perceptions of their own and others’ ageing, and stimulated a reflective approach to practice with older people. Reflective learning techniques were employed in the course, including observations in aged care service settings. Students in the course showed a high degree of interest in working with older people in the future and, although this did not increase much throughout the course, they evaluated it positively, noting greater awareness of issues affecting older people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]