ABSTRACT
Practitioners and researchers often disagree on what is important in the Evidence-Based Practice system, with each giving significantly more weight to the part of the system where they “work”. Many operate along a paradigm—the continuum between positivism and constructivism with the place on the continuum at any given time being determined by the question and the type of research one is undertaking. The historical categorizations of social work research into qualitative, quantitative and program evaluation is sometimes very difficult to understand. Paradigms that are often discussed in the world of social work are those of positivism and constructivism. Intervention theories often incorporate various parts of different basic explanatory theories to shape and refine explanations of personal and social conditions so that they are more applicable to interventions in social work practice. It is inclusive rather than an exclusive thinking, encouraging knowledge development and problem solution over theoretical and territorial protection.
