What brings me here? Integrating Evidence-Based and Critical-Reflective Approaches in Social Work Education

This article discusses some of the key debates in the literature about the benefits of practice-based research in the teaching of counselors and family therapists. The author proposes that practice-based research embedded activities places the emphasis back on the “critical” in critical reflection in counselor and family therapy education by evoking reflection on practice. Whilst the two approaches (practice-based research and critical reflection) are often considered as deriving from differing knowledge bases and epistemologies, the author argues that a synthesis between practice-based research and critical reflective paradigms is needed in counselor and family therapy education to bridge the divide between research and practice in day to day practice in a variety of contexts and organizational settings. Two examples are used to illustrate how practice-based research in teaching can inform critical reflection among undergraduate counseling and family therapy students. The implications are discussed with a rationale for a wider use of practice-based research methods including alternative research paradigms such as co-research and auto-ethnography, alongside critical reflective approaches.