Abstract
Across these pages, readers will find studies that illuminate the texture and complexity of social work practice, research, and teaching. Together, these contributions demonstrate how qualitative social work continues to expand its boundaries—methodologically, ethically, and imaginatively. They show how scholars and practitioners are rethinking what counts as evidence, voice, and interpretation in a rapidly changing world. Qualitative inquiry here is not merely a means of documenting lived experience but a practice of interpretation—of listening closely, asking difficult questions, and tracing how social, political, and emotional forces shape human life. The six articles featured in this issue reflect the vibrancy and maturity of a discipline that refuses to settle for simple answers, choosing instead to embrace complexity as both a challenge and a source of insight.
Misa Kayama and Wendy Haight examined Japanese elementary school-aged children’s experiences navigating disability and stigmatization at school. Drawing on a 10-week ethnographic study in a Japanese elementary school, they show how children with autism spectrum disorders experience both inclusion and exclusion in school life. Through detailed field observations and rich narrative accounts, the authors reveal how peer interactions and institutional expectations reproduce subtle hierarchies of disability. Even within inclusive classrooms, children internalize and act upon a “disability hierarchy,” distancing themselves from peers whose impairments are more visible. Kayama and Haight situate these dynamics within the cultural values of empathy (omoiyari) and group belonging, revealing how inclusion in Japan is both relational and emotional. Their work challenges Western paradigms of inclusion, offering a culturally grounded model of stigma-sensitive and relationally attuned education.
Dharman Jeyasingham, Josh Behan-Devlin, and Felipe Saravia analyze how digital transformation, changes in office spaces and the blurring of work and non-work lives affect social workers’ practice in England. Based on a multi-site ethnography, the authors show how post-pandemic hybrid work arrangements have reshaped the practice environment. Using a sociomaterial lens, they demonstrate how these new arrangements have reconfigured professional relationships, collaboration, and emotional well-being. Their findings capture the paradox of hybrid work: social workers experience greater autonomy yet increasing isolation, flexibility yet fragmentation. By situating these changes within the broader context of austerity and bureaucratic reform, Jeyasingham and colleagues illuminate how digital infrastructures contribute to the “individualisation” of social work practice—reducing shared reflection and collegial support while amplifying personal responsibility.
Ethical reflection takes center stage in Paula Jacobs, Helen Whincup, and Maggie Grant’s research with care experienced children and young people. Drawing on a longitudinal study in Scotland, the authors use reflexive vignettes to illustrate how “ethically important moments” emerge in fieldwork with care-experienced children. These moments—often small, unplanned, and emotionally charged—reveal the tensions between care, justice, and representation. The authors argue that ethical practice in qualitative research must be understood as an ongoing, relational process that unfolds in real time. Their analysis underscores the importance of attentiveness, humility, and responsiveness, showing how ethics-in-action demands researchers’ emotional presence and reflexivity.
Sabine Ellung Jørgensen and Charles Antaki turn our attention to frontline practice. Drawing on the conversation analysis of two video-recorded supervised contact sessions in Denmark, they examined how supervisors navigate the delicate balance between care and control when intervening in interactions between children in foster care and their birth parents. Through close analysis of talk, gesture, and timing, the authors show how supervisors deploy subtle conversational strategies—ambiguity, indirectness, and the invitation to co-experience—to manage parental behavior while preserving parents’ sense of authority and dignity. Their work illustrates how authority and care are co-constructed in real time and highlights the relational skill required to maintain empathy in settings charged with emotion and power. Jørgensen and Antaki’s study reveals how even brief moments of communication can carry deep moral and institutional significance.
Turning to the foundations of scholarship itself, Elisabet Sernbo, Veronica Svärd, and Marie Materne draw on a systematic review of 52 Swedish doctoral dissertations in social work and health care (2008–2019) to examine how theory functions across different research traditions. They identified two overarching orientations—predictive and interpretive—and propose a typology distinguishing theory’s use in description, analysis, and interpretation. This typology illuminates how theory shapes inquiry and meaning-making in social work research, helping scholars clarify their epistemological stance and theoretical commitments. Sernbo and colleagues offer a vital contribution to methodological scholarship by encouraging explicit reflection on how theory structures our research questions, analytic processes, and interpretations—inviting social work scholars to engage with theory not merely as a tool but as a living, evolving practice.
Finally, Jenn Lilly, D’Andrah Almanzar, Doreen Dorcely, Luisa Fernanda Sandoval-Cortes, and Ana Iris Murcia bring readers into the creative and transformative world of Latina youth zines. Conducted through a participatory arts-based design, this study engaged Latina young adults in co-creating digital zines as a way to discuss mental and sexual health. Grounded in a socioecological resilience framework, their analysis demonstrates how zine-making can operate as both research method and intervention—allowing participants to challenge silence, celebrate cultural identity, and imagine new possibilities for wellbeing. The authors position zine-making as a form of feminist praxis and culturally responsive pedagogy that transforms both research participants and audiences, offering a compelling model for community-engaged scholarship.
Taken together, these six articles reaffirm Qualitative Social Work’s commitment to deep listening, ethical engagement, and creative inquiry. They remind us that knowledge is always situated—in culture, relationship, and power—and that interpretation itself is a collaborative act. At the same time, they show how the field continues to grow—embracing new methods, contexts, and scales of analysis to capture the complexity of human life. Across these contributions, we are invited to slow down, to listen more closely, and to see the world through others’ eyes. This kind of attentiveness helps us imagine more just and compassionate ways of knowing and being.
In this same spirit of expansion and attention, this issue also includes an announcement that introduces a new submission category for the journal labeled “Long-Form Papers”. This category is designed to encourage the submission of in-depth qualitative work—particularly ethnographic and historical monographs—that require extended space for narrative, theoretical, or methodological development. By opening this space, the journal affirms its commitment to nurturing ambitious, context-rich scholarship that pushes the field’s interpretive and creative boundaries even further.