Mentoring Researchers and Practitioners Posted on January 16, 2008 Darrell P. Wheeler (bio) suggests that close work with data collection and analysis can help staff at all levels see research and practice as complementary.

There’s some students who are pretty clear, who are interested in academic or research pathways. And so I try to find opportunities for them to be closer to the data, both data collection and data analysis.

I’ve extended a lot of my work recently, in the past three to five years, has gone into qualitative data collection and qualitative data methods. And I have a couple of project coordinators that I’ve worked with and some research assistants who have been very instrumental in not only collecting the data, but I’m moving them through all the phases of transcription, cleaning the data, and doing the preliminary analysis.

So it’s more than just being practical social workers. But then there are another group of folks that we’re working with; what they’re really interested in are the thematic extractions or the content as it applies to practice. So it’s about finding ways for different players to come to the table.

And I think it’s also important for those different players to hear one another’s voices. Because again, being a social worker, my ultimate audience are other scholars or practitioners in the area of social work practice, and I need to produce something that makes a difference for them as well.

So I think there’s great merit in having both students at the table who are interested in a research path and those who are interested in a practice path, because they start to develop a greater appreciation of the other audience at an early point in their career. And they don’t see one as superior to the other, but see them as complementary entities.

I think as I’ve taught research and other courses, I think that’s what I get complimented on the most, that I bring the practical out of what could be a very esoteric experience for folks.

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