Explores the challenges faced by principals of one‐teacher schools in the New South Wales Department of School Education as they attempt to implement departmental policy changes…
Abstract
Explores the challenges faced by principals of one‐teacher schools in the New South Wales Department of School Education as they attempt to implement departmental policy changes during a time of unprecedented structural and organisational change. It examines the substantial international transformations which have taken place in the public sector over the last two decades and their influence on state education in Australia. Highlights the changing relationships between the principals of small schools and senior managers of the department. The study found that over a period of five years the approach to change employed by senior management to have principals implement departmental policy changes altered significantly from an authoritarian approach to one of involvement and partnership.
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Kate Heward, Brendan Gough and Matthew Molineux
The diagnosis of a chronic progressive condition such as multiple sclerosis (MS) can impact on many aspects of daily life. Living with, and caring for, an individual with such a…
Abstract
The diagnosis of a chronic progressive condition such as multiple sclerosis (MS) can impact on many aspects of daily life. Living with, and caring for, an individual with such a condition is likely to have emotional and psychological consequences. We carried out semi‐structured interviews with nine partners and analysed the interview transcripts using grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), the phase presented in this article formed part of a larger overall study that explored the impact of living with MS for partners and a family. Our analysis in this phase highlights two core themes centred on identity issues faced by the participants: ‘playing detective’ in order to acquire information and manage the situation; and ‘reshaping identities’ in a shifting context, which reflected the participants' difficulties in reconfiguring important identities (at work and at home). Although previous research has addressed how carers cope, there is a dearth of qualitative literature relating to whether or not partners' identities are affected by taking a central role in caring, including how previous identities are maintained and new ones acquired.
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The quote above was taken from the actor Brendan Gleeson, who struck a chord with Irish people in his outburst about the lack of care shown to the old and vulnerable during the…
Abstract
The quote above was taken from the actor Brendan Gleeson, who struck a chord with Irish people in his outburst about the lack of care shown to the old and vulnerable during the years preceding the economic downturn in 2008. In the Irish case, it has always been the marginalised and poorest who have suffered at the hands of the pride and greed of the ruling elite. This chapter will establish an understanding of the ideologically driven and often tragic economic planning undertaken in the Irish state since Independence in 1922. The chapter will outline the problems associated with political elites which then became manifest in the socio-economic life of the country. These problems were political, but also cultural, and shaped the difficulties that have befallen the Irish state in almost every decade of its history.
This design‐based seminar was aimed at broadening the horizons of designers and engineers. The greatest area of cost reduction in any electronics project is in making the right…
Abstract
This design‐based seminar was aimed at broadening the horizons of designers and engineers. The greatest area of cost reduction in any electronics project is in making the right choices at the conception and design phases. This seminar was one step in this direction: a piece of 1·6 mm FR‐4 is not always the best substrate to use.
Roisin McColl, Peter Higgs and Brendan Harney
Globally, hepatitis C treatment uptake is lower among people who are homeless or unstably housed compared to those who are housed. Understanding and addressing this is essential…
Abstract
Purpose
Globally, hepatitis C treatment uptake is lower among people who are homeless or unstably housed compared to those who are housed. Understanding and addressing this is essential to ensure no one is left behind in hepatitis C elimination efforts. This study aims to explore peoples’ experiences of unstable housing and health care, and how these experiences influenced engagement in hepatitis C treatment.
Design/methodology/approach
Purposive sampling was used to recruit people with lived experience of injection drug use, hepatitis C and unstable housing in Melbourne, Australia. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted and a case study approach with interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify personal experiential themes and group experiential themes.
Findings
Four people were interviewed. The precarious nature of housing for women who inject drugs was a group experiential theme, however, this did not appear to be a direct barrier to hepatitis C treatment. Rather, competing priorities, including caregiving, were personal experiential themes and these created barriers to treatment. Another group experiential theme was “right place, right time, right people” with these three elements required to facilitate hepatitis C treatment.
Originality/value
There is limited research providing in-depth insight into how personal experiences with unstable housing and health care shape engagement with hepatitis C treatment. The analyses indicate there is a need to move beyond a “one size fits-all” approach to hepatitis C care. Instead, care should be tailored to the needs of individuals and their personal circumstances and regularly facilitated. This includes giving greater attention to gender in intervention design and evaluation, and research more broadly.