Louisiana State University

The LSU School of Social Work believes that doctoral education in Social Work must involve first and foremost a passionate commitment to learning, and a specific commitment to the pursuit of new knowledge that can improve the lives of our client populations. The PhD Program prepares the next generation of social work educators, researchers, administrators, and policy- makers to contribute to the creation of the knowledge base of our profession. Social work practitioners must have the highest quality, up-to-date knowledge to strengthen the evidence base of their work, and it is the job of doctoral-trained social workers to provide this. The major educational outcomes for our doctoral students are:

• To learn about the historical and contemporary contexts of social work research, focusing on the nature of research questions posed and the methods used to address these
• To learn to critically analyze the quality and merits of social work research in a variety of substantive areas
• To produce original research relevant to the field of social work, including the framing of research questions, synthesis of the existing relevant literature, the use of appropriate methods to investigate answers to research questions, and analysis, synthesis, and interpretation of data; and
• To translate learning to practice.