I’m happy to share a new article published in the Journal of Teaching in Social Work: Supporting Epistemological Congruence in Qualitative Doctoral Research: Navigating Onto-Epistemological Tensions in Social Work Education.
Qualitative research is used a lot in social work PhD projects. But many doctoral students find it hard to clearly explain how their big ideas, theories, research approach, and methods fit together. When those connections are unclear, it can make research harder to defend and harder for others to understand.
This article grew out of my experience coordinating a PhD thesis support group, as well as my own experience as a doctoral student. It looks at why these “fit” problems happen and how they are shaped not just by research methods, but also by how we teach, supervise, and evaluate doctoral work.
To make this more concrete, the paper uses an example from my own dissertation. It shows how a researcher’s values and assumptions about knowledge shape their choices about theory, research design, data collection, and how they think about quality and rigor. The goal is not to give one “right” way to do research, but to show how researchers can explain their choices clearly and in a connected way.
The article also looks at how ideas about “good” or “rigorous” research are shaped by power, tradition, and discipline norms in universities. It ends by offering practical ideas for teaching and supervising PhD students in ways that support clarity, reflection, and stronger qualitative research.
This article is written for PhD students, supervisors, and educators, but it may also be useful for anyone interested in how qualitative research is taught and learned in social work.
Read the paper:
Goulden, A. (2026). Supporting epistemological congruence in qualitative doctoral research: Navigating onto-epistemological tensions in social work education. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841233.2026.2620747