ONLINE DOCTORAL SCHOOL
Social work research as a practice of transparency
TiSSA organises, together with the Centre for Social Work & Social Pedagogy of Ghent University and with the support of the Doctoral School of Social and Behavioral Sciences of Ghent University, a series of online lectures as part of the online doctoral course "Social work research as a practice of transparency" with as its central theme 'Counterhegemonic Stories'.
The course will be spread over four training days, each consisting of two main parts, in total 24 contact hours.
2027 central theme: Counterhegemonic Stories
Social work research is inherently normative and as such the assumptions about social problems in social work research should be open to scrutiny and contestation. But although researchers often face tussles and huge contradictions, they rarely articulate them. In this course, we think critically through some of the questions and complexities PhD students are confronted with in social work and social sciences research in order to make the research choices more articulate and making research more transparent. In this 2027 edition we focus on the counterhegemonic stories in social work and social pedagogical research.
The choices made by social work researchers, although they can seem to be very obvious ones, often remain implicit during the different research processes. This weakens social work as an academic discipline as its profile remains unclear in relation to adjacent disciplines such as sociology, psychology and educational sciences. The aim of the course is to train researchers to develop their social work research as a practice of transparency in order to strengthen the identity of their work. This refers to the reflexive capacity of
researchers in which they need to learn to make their perspective on research and their research topic and the choices they often make implicitly, explicit and bring these into the public debate.
Over the course of the four days, international experts will each take a closer look at (an aspect of) the central theme. The full program can be found in the program section.
Schedule of the days
- Each morning session is plenary for all interested researchers and will consist of two lectures by international experts in conducting social work research.
Participation on the morning sessions is free of charge and accessible to everyone interested. Registration is not required.
- In the afternoon, we organise interactive seminars with the enrolled PhD students where collaboration, discussion and exchange are central.
To participate during the afternoon sessions as a PhD student, it is required to apply. Each PhD student will present his/her work during one of the training days. Participation is free of charge.
Target audience
All PhD researchers in the field of social work and social sciences can enroll for this doctoral school. Participation on the morning sessions is free of charge and accessible to everyone interested!
Objectives and learning outcomes
The choices made by social work researchers, although they can seem to be very obvious ones, often remain implicit during the different research processes. This weakens social work as an academic discipline as its profile remains unclear in relation to adjacent disciplines such as sociology, psychology and educational sciences. The aim of the course is to train researchers to develop their social work research as a practice of transparency in order to strengthen the identity of their work. This refers to the reflexive capacity of researchers in which they need to learn to make their perspective on research and their research topic and the choices they often make implicitly, explicit and bring these into the public debate.
Enrollment
During the afternoon sessions, we expect you to focus on the place of counterhegemonic stories in your research. Every PhD student has to prepare questions and dilemmas for one of the sessions with regards to their own research. They have to present these questions and dilemma’s where they are discussed with the other students, the lecturers and the supervisors.
Phd students who are interested may apply to this doctoral school using the form. In this 2027 edition, we expect the PhD students to address the place of counterhegemonic perspectives in their work. An abstract must not exceed 500 words.
As we want to keep these afternoon sessions highly interactive and we also expect active participation, only 24 PhD students can take part. If interested, please fill in the form and email it to info@tissa.net.
The deadline for applications is December 17, 2026. Abstracts submitted will be reviewed mid-December with specific attention for this year's central theme. Upon approval of your abstract, we will get in touch early January to set up the schedule with all participants.
Practical
- Participation on the morning sessions is accessible to everyone interested and registration is not required.
- Participation is free of charge, but please make sure you have an account on Zoom to join through the zoom link.
- This zoom link will apply to all sessions, as well as to the interactive sessions with PhD students.
- To get a certificate of attendance, PhD students are expected to present at 1 afternoon session and take part in the 4 training days.
- The PhD ACT is a doctoral school recognised by Ghent University - researchers from other universities should check at their own institutions if this course can be recognised as part of their doctoral training.
Organising committee
Prof. dr. Rudi Roose (Centre for Social Work and Social Pedagogy - Ghent University and chair of TiSSA)
Prof. dr. Griet Roets (Centre for Social Work and Social Pedagogy - Ghent University)
Dries Cautreels (Centre for Social Work and Social Pedagogy and secretary of TiSSA)
The following institutions are involved: University College Dublin (Ireland) (Prof. Jim Campbell), Royal Holloway, University of London (UK) (Prof. Anna Gupta) • University of Mùˆnster (Germany) (Prof. Onno Husen) , Aarhus University (Denmark) (Prof. Christian Kjeldsen), Maria Grzegorzewska University (Poland) (Prof. Anna Odrowaz-Coates), Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (Germany) (Prof. Anna-Lena Rademaker), Deakin University (Australia) (Prof. Kim Robinson) , UC Louvain (Belgium) (Prof. Martin Wagener), University of West Attica (Prof. Dr. Vasilios Ioakimidis)
