Research Practicum with Dr. Oleksandr (Sasha) Kondrashov, PhD, MSW, MEd, RSW
Overview
The research practicum provides students with supervised hands-on, practical experience with Dr. Oleksandr (Sasha) Kondrashov (www.krasun.ca) on an ongoing research project. Typical activities include data collection and analysis, interpretation of results, and research report writing. Practicum may also involve activities such as literature review, recruitment and screening, and instrument development.
Learning Tasks and Activities
If you are interested in either developing innovative newcomer ambassador program to support newcomers to Canada adaptation, or locating organizations across Canada where social workers practice, or organizing first global access social work forum that unites social work educators, researchers, practitioners and policymakers, or learning about African-Canadian and Ukrainian-Canadian experiences of oppression in BC, SK, MB and finding out what changes are needed, please consider becoming part of the unique research practicum experience under my supervision.
Additional list of tasks and activities that can be part of the research practicum:
- Attend to workload organization and instrumental tasks
- Complete a research ethics application
- Complete research training protocols
- Conduct research interviews / focus groups
- Critically analyze the underlying political ideologies and practices specific to research topic
- Design a research study
- Engage in ongoing self awareness and critical reflection
- Explore the meaning and implications of being committed to critical, social-justice oriented social work research
- Identify and critically assess how issues of social GRACES are considered in the research project
- Identify how research, and evaluation are used to promote social change
- Identify value differences or conflicts in the team
- Make ethical decisions
- Observe and learn about the function of the research team
- Observe and learn how social workers address the processes of change
- Review and analyze relevant legislation and policies related to the topic of research
- Stay engaged with the research team and in the research process
- Transcribe and analyze data
- Understand how personal values intersect with the research process
- Use self-awareness and critical reflection to take action
Practicum Objectives
The primary objective of the practicum is to strengthen a student’s ability to synthesize various phases and components of social work research. The key to this is the ability to articulate linkages between the research questions, the data gathered to address these questions, the techniques selected for analyzing the data, and the interpretation of findings and implications in terms relevant to the original research questions. While the research practicum may not expose students to the specific population or problem of greatest interest to them, the skills and competencies mastered should help prepare students methodologically to carry out their future research projects.
Overall Practicum Guidelines
Together with the student we identify the learning objectives/goals, primary activities toward achieving these, and meeting schedule within which training and supervision will take place. The skype is used when students cannot attend an in person meeting which makes the research practicum experience accessible to all locations where internet services are available.
Student cannot be a research assistant and practicum student on the same project at the same time.
Registration Form: The Learning Agreement
Registration for the practicum involves meeting with me and your school field coordinator to prepare the learning agreement that will be approved by your School. The learning agreement typically includes the days and hours the student will devote to the practicum, research skills to be mastered, research tasks to be performed, research training needed, and a brief outline of the proposed final written product.
Student Responsibilities
The student is expected to devote a required number of hours per week to the practicum (based on your School requirements). In all instances, activities should be in service to the student’s learning of key aspects of the research role.
A summary paper is written in a scholarly format that parallels writing for professional publication. This paper synthesizes the substantive and research activities and achievements of the student’s learning objectives. The details and specific format are negotiated so that the paper will benefit the project as well as serve as an opportunity for faculty feedback on scholarly writing skills. Students are encouraged to pursue publishable work stemming from this practicum. However, the practicum activities and summary paper must be of a scale that is realistically achievable within the timeframe of the practicum.
Faculty Responsibilities
The practicum is based upon a mentorship model. The configuration of experience and therefore of supervisory responsibility will be negotiated between the student and instructor and summarized in the learning agreement. I will make available appropriate skill-development opportunities to meet the goals and objectives outlined in the learning agreement through work individually or with a research team. I will provide feedback on the paper and on the extent to which the student’s activities and performance achieved the learning objectives. I will also provide a reference letter that the student may include in their professional portfolio (e.g., for later job searches, awards/scholarships application etc).
Practicum Evaluation
At the end of the practicum, we meet together with the student to evaluate the practicum experience. We will fill all the required forms and student submits the form to the field coordinator.
For more information please contact
Oleksandr (Sasha) Kondrashov PhD, MSW, MEd, RSW
Assistant Professor
School of Social Work and Human Services
Faculty of Education and Social Work
AE275 Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC
Webpage: https://www.krasun.ca
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krasun/
#TheSWEducator:
https://www.facebook.com/thesweducator/
https://twitter.com/thesweducator
Practicum Projects
- Create an asset map on organizations that employ social workers in Your province. More information https://krasun.ca/research-apprenticeship/
- Write an academic article on Social Work Education in Canada, Chile, Colombia, Nigeria, Ukraine or any other country where you know local English-speaking social work educator
- Contribute to EMPR Social Work. More information on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/EMPRsocialwork/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/emprsocialwork/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/emprsocialwork
- Support newcomers in your city by designing a guide Welcome to your city using the Welcome to Kamloops course model: https://krasun.ca/welcome-to-kamloops/
- Write general articles on supporting newcomers to Canada using foreigner.bg model: https://www.foreigner.bg/ (Thank you Daniel for the idea)
- Be part of the course I am designing / teaching (varied per term) to learn how to teach class, grade assignments and create an effective learning environment
- Verify Schools of Social Work in your selected Country. More information https://krasun.ca/social-work-education-around-the-world/
- Write a book chapter (based on the current book project). More information https://krasun.ca/social-policy-across-lifespan/
- Support accessibility for students. More information https://krasun.ca/research-assistant-position/
- Design training for an organization where you work/volunteer based on their needs.
- Create an asset map for ethic group in Canada. Examples (African Canadian: https://krasun.ca/african-descent-communities-in-canada/ Ukrainian Canadian https://krasun.ca/ukrainian-canada/)
- Do a book review (video/print) for an inspirational book for social workers https://krasun.ca/book-review/
- Do a memoir review (video/print) for social workers https://krasun.ca/memoirs/
- Create an updated list of songs for social workers and or poems for social workers: https://krasun.ca/social-work-songs/
- Create an updated list of social advertisements for social workers https://krasun.ca/social-advertisements/
- Plan a Service to Humanity Tour and Information Page for your city https://krasun.ca/service-to-humanity-tours/
- Design and implement a grant proposal to create university-community partnerships or any other research proposal on topic of your interest
- Support social work students around the world to find scholarships, professional development opportunities or any cool ideas for informational supports for social workers who practice in different areas of practice
- Create annotated bibliographies / asset maps /literature reviews on the topics of your interest
- Your ideas for practicum projects are always welcome
Dr. Oleksandr (Sasha) Kondrashov 