STUDYING FAMILY SELF-SUFFICIENCY PROGRAM AND POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: A MULTILEVEL APPROACH

University Of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

Three main activities will be conducted to establish a foundation for a practice based examination of social welfare implementation in Minnesota: (1) A meta-analysis of implementation studies focused on interventions for low-income children and families. It will focus on the questions of 'what policy issues do implementation scholars study?' and 'what relevance might this literature have for policy implementation practice?' (2) A policy field analysis examining the major laws, institutions, and networks at the state level. (3) Initiation of in-depth field-work involving observation and interviews of implementation practitioners at the state level. It will explore practices around implementation challenges or quandaries and how they are resolved. For the meta-analysis, three sources (the Expanded Social Sciences Citation Index, WorldCat, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses) will be used because of their breadth and interdisciplinary reach. Articles published since 2003 in one of these sources will be assessed according to research approach and methodological rigor, content area, and significant findings. The program content area for the policy field analysis will be identified in consultation with the Scholars Network. Information will be gathered through publicly-available sources (legislative review, budgets, program reports) and informal interviews with field-level actors. For the field research, implementers will purposively be identified within the selected field to study in detail. Ethnographic research methods will be utilized, such as participant observation and semistructured and unstructured interviews, to document day-to-day practices. Documented and recorded data will be analyzed through iterative deductive and inductive coding.