LIFE STORIES - A PRACTICE-BASED RESEARCH TECHNIQUE

Social work, like many other practice-based professions, has historica lly been concerned about the discontinuity between practice and resear ch. This discontinuity is frequently reduced to a debate between quali tative and quantitative methodology, placing the profession in a dilem ma and further alienating practitioners. This article describes a qual itative data collection and analysis process as it was in a large-scal e study exploring issues of family development. The use of open-ended story telling and ethnographic content analysis are recommended for us e in practice and in practice-based research. Adoption practice and ch emical dependency settings are presented as examples.