MEMORANDUM
TO
SOWK 4211 Instructors and students
FROM
Jeff Jenson, GSSW Research Director
RE
Research Projects for direct and indirect practice
NOTE
As students design their individual research projects this quarter, please remember that the nature of projects tend to differ by whether a student is in a direct or an indirect practice placement. Students in direct practice settings usually have easy access to clients and frequently use methods that allow them to draw a sample from their agency.  However, students placed in indirect settings seldom have access to individual clients or client systems.  Thus, it is logical that indirect students will be designing different types of studies and using very different samples than students in direct practice settings.  For example, an indirect student may propose a qualitative study designed to assess the effects of legislation or use survey methods to assess implementation of recently-passed legislation.  These, and other similar projects, will not include clients or client systems in the traditional sense of the word. there is no requirement that students include clients in their studies; as in all research, the investigator's question(s) should drive the design and methodology.