Bowen Mcbeath

Biographic Data

ID218072
NAMEBowen Mcbeath
GIVEN NAMESBowen
FAMILY NAMEMcbeath
SIGNATUREMCBEATH B
AFFILIATIONSPortland State University
ORCID0000-0003-0115-1372
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS44
TOTAL CITATIONS194
AUTHOR COUNT44
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2005
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX9

  • Practice Research in Social Work—Participation, Co-Creation, and Service Users’ Positions

    Open AccessBowen Mcbeath, Sui Ting Kong et al.ARTICLEResearch on Social Work Practice2026

    Purpose This special issue examines practice research in social work, focusing on participation, co-creation, and service users’ positions in knowledge production and utilization. Practice research is advanced as a collaborative, context-sensitive approach that challenges hierarchical models of evidence and foregrounds co-produced knowledge. Method Drawing on the Sixth International Conference on Practice Research at Aalborg University, Denmark, …

  • Platforms for the Development and Sustainability of Practice Research in Social Work

    Open AccessBowen Mcbeath, Michael J Austin et al.ARTICLEResearch on Social Work Practice2026References: 2

    Purpose: This paper presents an institutional and organizational comparative case analysis of practice research platforms in social work, which are institutionally embedded partnerships of university-based research centers, organizations delivering social services and healthcare, and other knowledge intermediaries that connect social work practice and research. Methods: An institutional and organizational comparative case analysis is presented co…

  • Practice Research Collaboratives

    Open AccessSidsel Natland, Bowen Mcbeath et al.ARTICLEResearch on Social Work Practice2025References: 9

    Purpose: This article reflects an analysis of the establishment and development of the Practice Research Collaborative on Organizational Supports (PRC-OS) within the International Community of Practice Research. The basic thesis concerns the importance of building intersecting special interest groups to form communities of research practice. Methods: The study is a qualitative case study, consisting of diverse data as written documents, field not…

  • Dimensions of Organizational and Personal Evidence Use by Senior Managers in Private Child Welfare Agencies

    Crystal Collins‐camargo, Crystal Collins-Camargo et al.ARTICLESocial Service Review2025Cited by: 1References: 6

    Scholars know little about how human service agency leaders use evidence to improve organizational performance. We draw on interviews with 27 private child welfare administrators in six states to examine how senior leaders use evidence, the types of evidence they use, and specific organizational processes established to support evidence use. Results suggest evidence use in private agencies takes diverse forms, including the analysis of internal d…

  • Introducing ‘society work

    Open AccessKe Cui, Timothy Sims et al.ARTICLEInternational Social Work2025

    This study focuses on current discussions around the newly-built Society Work Department in China. It argues that ‘society work’ helps to clarify the internationally recognized concept of ‘social work’ and this institutional reform promotes development of the social work profession and discipline, it also helps to decolonize social work in China

  • T-W-O’

    Open AccessBin Xu, Bowen Mcbeath et al.ARTICLEChina Journal of Social Work2024References: 2

    During the peak years of COVID-19, Chinese social work service organisations actively participated in the preventing and controlling of the pandemic. These organisations also faced external challenges that reflected changing public health policies, contractual and fiscal changes, and immense service needs. This paper describes the specific external challenges that a purposive sample of 11 Beijing-based social work service organisations experience…

  • Organizational Supports for Practice Research

    Open AccessMichael J Austin, Bowen Mcbeath et al.ARTICLEResearch on Social Work Practice2024Cited by: 2References: 1

    Organizational support represents a critical driver of practice research projects. This analysis includes four international examples of such support (Norway, Finland, Belgium, and USA and China). The four studies capture the similarities and differences between university support and national government support. The analysis is placed within the context of defining practice research and the core components of organizational support. The findings…

  • Organizational supports for evidence use in child welfare

    Open AccessElizabeth Chuang, Crystal Collins‐camargo et al.ARTICLEChildren and Youth Services Review2023References: 72

    Despite its importance to achieving positive outcomes for vulnerable children and families, use of evidence by child welfare managers and practitioners remains limited. This study describes four types of organizational supports that child welfare agencies may use to facilitate evidence use. Data collected in 2016 from a six-state sample of private child welfare agencies are used to examine agency investment in different supports for evidence use …

  • Conducting practice research

    Michael J Austin, Bowen McbeathARTICLEChina Journal of Social Work2022References: 5

    The conduct of practice research is both similar and different from traditional social science and social work research. It is similar in terms of common research methods applied to essential social work practice issues. But practice research is quite different when it comes to framing and negotiating the research questions, engaging in participatory data analysis, and using research findings. This paper introduces core elements of practice resea…

  • Connecting Practice Research With the Process of Theorizing

    Open AccessMichael J Austin, Bowen McbeathARTICLEResearch on Social Work Practice2022Cited by: 1References: 9

    In this analysis, we contend that theorizing strengthens the connections between practice and research by requiring researchers to check their working assumptions, premises, conclusions, and implications for research, theory, and practice. Our exploration of the process of theorizing in practice research is rooted in the concept of “sensemaking” ( Weick, 1995 ) whereby practice researchers engage in disciplined imagination by reflecting on divers…

  • Trajectories of mental health services for youth in foster care with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

    Open AccessOrion Mowbray, Kylee Probert et al.ARTICLEChildren and Youth Services Review2022References: 55

  • Organizational complexity within private child welfare agencies in the United States and impact on agency performance outlook

    Open AccessMónica Pérez Jolles, Bowen Mcbeath et al.ARTICLEChildren and Youth Services Review2022References: 55

  • Practice research methods in social work

    Open AccessBowen Mcbeath, Michael J Austin et al.ARTICLEThe British Journal of Social Work2022References: 25

    Although social work research is commonly rooted within social service settings, it can be difficult for social work researchers and practitioners to develop and sustain participatory studies that specifically promote knowledge sharing and service improvement involving organisational practice. One participatory approach is practice research (PR), which involves social work researchers and practitioners collaborating to define, understand and try …

  • Redesigning Schools of Social Work Into Schools of Social Work and Social Justice

    Bowen Mcbeath, Michael J AustinARTICLEJournal of Social Work Education2021

    This paper explores the re-envisioning of a school of social work into a School of Social Work and Social Justice. The thought experiment identifies how a school can meet its educational and social justice mission in response to the historic crises of 2020. An outgrowth of the aspirational strategic vision statement is the proposed strengthening of democratic learning spaces involving students and faculty members, better alignment of school curri…

  • Ready? Set? Go

    Open AccessRenee Spencer, Alison L Drew et al.ARTICLEJournal of the Society for Social…2021References: 4

    Objective: Interest in promoting more widespread use of evidence-based practice standards in mentoring programs is rising. To describe and better understand efforts to implement recommended standards, we studied a multilevel initiative by a national advocacy organization in which state-level affiliates guided local mentoring programs through a structured quality improvement process. Specifically, we examined organizational readiness for change am…

  • Exploring mechanisms of change in a dyadic relationship intervention for siblings in foster care

    Open AccessJeffrey Waid, Brianne H Kothari et al.ARTICLEChild & Family Social Work2021Cited by: 2References: 3

    There is increasing recognition of the potential for sibling relationships to promote the well-being of youth in out-of-home care. Efficacious interventions now exist to strengthen the sibling relationships for youth in out-of-home care, yet the processes through which these interventions work to enhance sibling relationships remains largely speculative. The current study therefore aimed to identify the critical components of an efficacious dyadi…

  • Internationalization of environmental education for global citizenship

    Bowen Mcbeath, Qing Tian et al.ARTICLEJournal of Community Practice2021References: 20

    We present a teaching-and-learning case study of a 2018–2019 university-based summer institute in Beijing, China that concerned environmental education in support of global citizenship, involving Chinese and international faculty from education, social work, and related disciplines. The case study identifies: (1) the context of the summer institute; (2) its goals, design, and basic content; and (3) lessons learned for social work education. Speci…

  • Relational Mechanisms in Complex Contracting

    Open AccessElizabeth Chuang, Emmeline Chuang et al.ARTICLEJournal of Public Administration…2020Cited by: 15References: 94

    The complexity of human service delivery means that contracts are often incomplete or contingent. When contracted services or products are complex, relational contracting can function as a critical informal accountability mechanism. This study introduces and tests a conceptual framework of relational processes and organizational factors hypothesized to inform private human service contract outcomes. Data from a 2015 survey of private nonprofit an…

  • Building Knowledge to Support Human Service Organizational and Management Practice

    Open AccessBowen Mcbeath, Jennifer E Mosley et al.ARTICLESocial Work Research2019Cited by: 4References: 15

    Leaders of human service organizations (HSOs) face significant pressures from policymakers and funders to justify practices and ensure successful outcomes, an issue that has implications for social work practitioners and evidence-informed management practice. Although empirical research has advanced understanding of the factors that improve human service effectiveness and organizational improvement, considerable research-to-practice gaps exist an…

  • Visualizing and describing foster care placement pathways

    Bowen Mcbeath, Bethany Godlewski et al.ARTICLEJournal of Public Child Welfare2018Cited by: 2References: 5

    This paper introduces a flowchart-based methodology for describing the movement of foster youth in and out of placements of differing types and durations. This longitudinal methodology is designed to be sufficiently simple to appeal to policymakers and administrators seeking to chart the movement of groups of youth over time and the sequencing of their placements, and sufficiently descriptive to be of use to researchers seeking to predict the pla…

  • A longitudinal analysis of school discipline events among youth in foster care

    Open AccessBrianne H Kothari, Bethany Godlewski et al.ARTICLEChildren and Youth Services Review2018Cited by: 6References: 50

  • Foster home integration as a temporal indicator of relational well-being

    Open AccessJeffrey Waid, Brianne H Kothari et al.ARTICLEChildren and Youth Services Review2017Cited by: 4References: 29

  • Network indicators of the social ecology of adolescents in relative and non-relative Foster households

    Open AccessJennifer E Blakeslee, Jennifer Blakeslee et al.ARTICLEChildren and Youth Services Review2017Cited by: 3References: 43

  • Child Welfare Practice within the Context of Public–Private Partnerships

    Crystal Collins‐camargo, Crystal Collins-Camargo et al.ARTICLESocial Work2017Cited by: 1References: 4

    Frontline and managerial child welfare practice occurs within the context of a "partnership" among public agencies that have statutory mandate for child protection and related services and private agencies that provide an array of services to children and families through contractual or informal means. Empirical literature has begun to develop around key questions within this interorganizational system, including how public and private child welf…

  • Validation of a Measure of Foster Home Integration for Foster Youth

    Open AccessBrianne H Kothari, Bowen Mcbeath et al.ARTICLEResearch on Social Work Practice2016Cited by: 2References: 4

    The PHI is a reliable and valid scale that measures youth perspectives of inclusion in the foster home and relationships with their foster care provider. This scale quickly gathers youth perspectives and differentiates between youth who have more versus less significant needs. Implications for research and social work practice are discussed