Viva Questions for Social Work

Social Work vivas emphasise the connection between research and practice, and the ethical dimensions of working with vulnerable populations. Examiners will expect you to demonstrate reflexivity about your dual identity as practitioner and researcher, to show that your work is grounded in the lived experiences of service users or communities, and to articulate how your findings could improve social work practice, education, or policy. Qualitative and participatory methods are common, so be prepared for detailed questioning about your approach to data collection and analysis.

Social work PhDs carry a particular ethical weight. Your research is likely to involve people in difficult circumstances – poverty, abuse, illness, bereavement, displacement – and your examiners will want to see that you've treated their experiences with care, rigour, and respect. The viva is not just about defending your methodology; it's about demonstrating the values that underpin good social work research – social justice, anti-oppressive practice, and a commitment to making research matter for the people it's about.

Questions about your research

Social work examiners will pay close attention to how you navigated the ethical, relational, and practical complexities of your research. Working with vulnerable populations raises questions about power, consent, gatekeeping, and the potential for your research to do harm as well as good. They'll also want to understand your analytical process in detail – particularly if you've used participatory, narrative, or arts-based methods, where the relationship between data and findings may be less immediately transparent than in conventional qualitative approaches.

• What social work issue or question does your research address, and what makes it important for practice, policy, or the lives of service users?
• How did you recruit participants, and what challenges did you face – including institutional gatekeeping, distrust, or practical barriers to engagement?
• How did you manage the ethical complexities of researching with people in vulnerable situations – and were there moments where ethics committee requirements felt at odds with good practice?
• What steps did you take to ensure informed consent was genuine, ongoing, and meaningful – not just a signature on a form?
• How did you handle your dual role as a social work practitioner and a researcher – and were there moments where those roles came into conflict?
• Can you explain your approach to data analysis in detail – your coding, theme development, narrative construction, or other analytical processes?
• How did you address power dynamics in the research relationship – between you and participants, between you and gatekeepers, between participants and institutions?
• What steps did you take to ensure the trustworthiness, credibility, and ethical integrity of your findings?
• Were there any safeguarding concerns during your research, and how did you respond to them?
• How did you manage the emotional demands of the research process – on yourself and on your participants?
• Did any of your participants withdraw, disengage, or challenge the research process – and what did you learn from those moments?

Questions about theory and literature

Social work research draws on a wide range of theoretical traditions – from critical theory and feminism to attachment theory, systems thinking, and the capabilities approach. Examiners will want to see that your chosen framework genuinely shapes your analysis and connects your findings to broader debates about social justice, welfare, and professional practice. They'll also probe your engagement with the social work literature specifically – not just the adjacent disciplines it draws from.

• What theoretical or conceptual framework underpins your research, and how does it connect to social work values?
• How does your work engage with the core values of social work – social justice, empowerment, anti-oppressive practice, human rights?
• Which key thinkers, models, or theoretical traditions inform your approach – and are they drawn from social work or from allied disciplines?
• How does your work relate to current debates in social work – around personalisation, austerity and welfare reform, evidence-based practice, or decolonisation?
• Are there perspectives from sociology, psychology, philosophy, or critical theory that shape your analysis?
• How does your research centre the voices, experiences, and knowledge of service users or communities?
• How does your theoretical framework handle structural inequality and individual agency – and are you satisfied with that balance?

Questions about contribution and impact

Social work examiners care about whether your research will make a difference. They'll want concrete, actionable implications – not vague calls for more research or awareness. Be prepared to explain what should change in practice, in training, or in policy as a result of your findings, and to be realistic about what your evidence can and can't support.

• What does your thesis contribute to social work knowledge that wasn't previously understood, documented, or articulated?
• How could your findings be used to improve practice with this population, in this setting, or on this issue?
• What are the implications for social work education, qualifying programmes, or continuing professional development?
• How might your research inform social policy – at local authority, national, or international level?
• What would need to change – in organisations, resources, legislation, or professional culture – for your findings to make a real difference on the ground?
• How does your work amplify or give platform to the perspectives of people whose voices are often marginalised in policy and practice?

Tough follow-ups your examiners might ask

Social work examiners will challenge you on the transferability of your findings, the influence of your own position on the research, and the gap between what your research recommends and what is feasible in the current policy and resource environment. They'll also test whether your work genuinely centres service users or inadvertently reinforces professional or institutional perspectives. Honesty about these tensions is far more impressive than trying to resolve them neatly.

• How do you ensure your research doesn't simply reproduce existing power structures or institutional narratives?
• Your participants are from a specific local authority, service, or community – how transferable are your findings to other settings, populations, or policy contexts?
• How do you respond to the tension between evidence-based practice and the messy, relational, context-dependent reality of social work?
• A team manager or service director reads your thesis – what should they do differently starting tomorrow?
• What would a quantitative, outcomes-focused study on the same topic look like, and what would it add to or challenge about your findings?
• How do you navigate the gap between what your research recommends and what is possible within current funding, staffing, and political constraints?
• If the people your research is about read your thesis, would they recognise their experiences – and would they feel you had done them justice?

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