Patterns and Trends of Canadian Social Work Doctoral Dissertations

The first social work doctoral program in Canada began in 1952. Relatively recently, the number of programs has grown rapidly, doubling in the past 10 years to 14 programs. Despite the expansion there is no systematic understanding of the patterns and trends in doctoral research. In this study we review 248 publicly available dissertations from 2001 to 2011. We find that most dissertations are qualitative and descriptive in nature with a relatively low percentage focusing on intervention. We compare findings with other dissertation studies and raise critical questions about the knowledge base of social work in Canada.