Expert by experience research as grounding for social work education

This article is based on an investigation that involves five experts by experience in the field of mental health and eight students of social work. Both groups investigated the experiences of people with mental ill-health living in group homes. The article identifies the advantages if the researchers are expert by experience and the epistemological shift produced by the inclusion of people with the lived experience. Expert by experience research is a challenge to both experts by experience and for social work practice since it promotes the basic principle of social work as the science of doing. This study was based on the assertion that the real integration of theory and practice will not come from a rigid body of knowledge, but from the humility to learn from experts by experience.