School of Social Work

The ACU School of Social Work equips undergraduate and graduate students in an evidence-based approach to practice. We prepare students to access, appraise, use and generate research as a tool for the student’s professional performance and the strengthening of human service delivery systems. The structure builds research based on students’ internships and the specified need of the organization.

It is our goal that students:

• Experience individual faculty consultation on research in which they engage. It is our understanding that students need opportunity to conceptualize their research topic one-on-one with experts in their field. Additionally, students should benefit from direct feedback on structure, methodology, and analysis, as well as details of writing research.

• Produce research that adds to the practice knowledge on the individual, group, organizational and community levels of practice. Students engage in a research process with their internship to discover the needs of the organization (intervention effectiveness, needs assessment, program evaluation, best practices). Students are held accountable to both the School and the agency to produce new knowledge that benefits the organization and reflects the standards of academic scholarship.

• Effectively disseminate that research in arenas appropriate to the research. The School promotes the distribution of student research through three avenues.

o   Each organization in which students intern will have access to that research for the purpose of aiding in organizational effectiveness.

o   Students will be encouraged to enter research in the university-wide research festivals.

o   Students will be given opportunity to disseminate exceptional research in professional settings such as regional and national conferences and submission to publication.