International Networking Strengthens Review Practices in Social Work

A method workshop co-led by Moritz Reisberger strengthens systematic evidence analyses and promotes their adoption in Social Work

For several years now, the MCI department of Social Work, represented by Moritz Reisberger (teaching & research assistant), has been actively involved in an international working group on systematic literature reviews - together with Julia Brielmaier and Franziska Seidel (University of Kassel) - and specializes in systematic and scoping reviews in the field of Social Work sciences. During regular meetings, the group discusses all aspects of review practice and has already conducted several workshops on implementing the method.

Once again, this year, a two-day methods workshop was held at the beginning of the summer at the Institute for Social Affairs, Health, and Education at Munich University of Applied Sciences for researchers in Social Work and anyone interested from the D-A-CH region. Participants from a wide variety of universities, universities of applied sciences, and Social Work practice institutions learned, based on the organizers’ expertise from projects and publications, the practical steps for implementing research methods. Participants’ own project ideas were directly addressed, reflected upon, and collaboratively adapted for step-by-step implementation. The workshop format thus facilitates a direct peer-to-peer transfer of knowledge. The workshop aims, first, to increase the visibility of systematic evidence analyses in the discipline of Social Work in general and, second, to integrate them more firmly into the research landscape. This is because these methods make it possible to synthesize scientific findings in a structured manner and systematically present them, for example, to stakeholders in academia, practice, and politics.

In many academic disciplines, systematic reviews of evidence have already become the standard approach to addressing a research topic, and this approach is also gaining increasing prominence in the field of Social Work. The working group’s activities are driving the establishment of this methodology in German-speaking countries. Through this work, the MCI department of Social Work also promotes the professional development of the discipline, with the goal of helping to shape social change processes - both regionally and internationally - toward greater social cohesion, responsibility, and justice through well-founded and professional contributions.