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The technological innovations in the field of human reproduction which have been advancing at a dizzying pace, especially in Israel, have posed complex ethical dilemmas for social…
Abstract
The technological innovations in the field of human reproduction which have been advancing at a dizzying pace, especially in Israel, have posed complex ethical dilemmas for social workers and social scientists. Do these developments, particularly in vitro fertilisation, offer a feasible solution for infertile couples or are they at the same time creating difficult, intricate problems whose outcome has yet to be clarified? Is it not paradoxical that attempts to “assist” nature by artificial means have led to such results as the birth of a child to a 60‐year‐old woman from eggs donated by another woman?
Martin Wynn and John L. Taylor
This article describes a case study research and training method currently being developed with the co‐operation of OECD in Great Britain and overseas. It is intended, ideally…
Abstract
This article describes a case study research and training method currently being developed with the co‐operation of OECD in Great Britain and overseas. It is intended, ideally, for “in‐house” use in local authorities, above all with personnel actively involved in the urban planning and development processes. It can, however, be adapted for use in a variety of planning and management environments and contexts. We are essentially concerned, then, with providing the educational technology for helping local authority personnel to achieve a deeper understanding of their developmental role, and so contribute to an improvement in their urban management ability.
Johnmarshall Reeve and Sung Hyeon Cheon
Our ongoing program of research works with teachers to help them become more autonomy supportive during instruction and hence more able to promote students’ classroom motivation…
Abstract
Purpose
Our ongoing program of research works with teachers to help them become more autonomy supportive during instruction and hence more able to promote students’ classroom motivation and engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
We have published five experimentally based, longitudinally designed, teacher-focused intervention studies that have tested the effectiveness and educational benefits of an autonomy-supportive intervention program (ASIP).
Findings
Findings show that (1) teachers can learn how to become more autonomy supportive and less controlling toward students, (2) students of the teachers who participate in ASIP report greater psychological need satisfaction and lesser need frustration, (3) these same students report and behaviorally display a wide range of important educational benefits, such as greater classroom engagement, (4) teachers benefit as much from giving autonomy support as their students do from receiving it as teachers show large postintervention gains in outcomes such as teaching efficacy and job satisfaction, and (5) these ASIP-induced benefits are long lasting as teachers use the ASIP experience as a professional developmental opportunity to upgrade the quality of their motivating style.
Originality/value
Our ASIP helps teachers learn how to better support their students’ autonomy during instruction. The value of this teaching skill can be seen in teachers’ and students’ enhanced classroom experience and functioning.
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In this chapter I draw on the philosophical anthropology of Bruno Latour to propose an account of the work of research ethics. Through a consideration of research ethics as text…
Abstract
In this chapter I draw on the philosophical anthropology of Bruno Latour to propose an account of the work of research ethics. Through a consideration of research ethics as text, I explore the ways in which any such text needs to be accompanied – by people, by processes, by other voices or other texts – in order to become meaningful and then impactful for the ethnographer of education. Research ethics are thus positioned as the technological outcome of a dialogue that is prone to misunderstanding and misinterpretation, notwithstanding the strictures of the processes and policies that increasingly seek to codify the work that ethnographers do in the field. Through arguing for Latour's recent philosophical anthropology as a conceptual toolkit for the exploration of research ethics, I propose that it is research ethics as object that should be the focal point for ongoing ethnographic inquiry.
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This paper describes and evaluates the application of a gaming simulation exercise used in a summer school seminar on interdisciplinary research methods. The seminar was held on…
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This paper describes and evaluates the application of a gaming simulation exercise used in a summer school seminar on interdisciplinary research methods. The seminar was held on the Greek island of Skopelos sponsored by the intergovernmental program Man and the Biosphere (MAB) project No. 7 “Ecology and rational use of insular ecosystems” under the auspices of UNESCO's Division of Human Settlements and Socio‐Cultural Environment. The focus of this exercise is the study of tourism's impacts in minor Mediterranean islands and coastal areas. The purpose of the research is to provide decision makers with the basis for sound management of the islands' physical and social resources that would lead to the improvement of the inhabitants’ quality of life. Tourism was identified as one of the most significant sectors in the islands studied.
Kathy Livingston, Kathleen M. Sutherland and Lauren M. Sardi
The purpose of this research is to investigate how parents and caregivers describe their concerns about the HPV vaccine for their children on open Internet websites. The study…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to investigate how parents and caregivers describe their concerns about the HPV vaccine for their children on open Internet websites. The study examines what the discourse among parents reveals about their concerns regarding the HPV vaccine.
Methodology/approach
Our exploratory study utilized a grounded theory approach as a method of collecting data and simultaneously formulating research questions based on emerging themes from the data. We used purposeful sampling to select sets of comments posted on websites that provided news, scientific information, or parental support regarding HPV and its vaccine.
Findings
Findings suggest support for Bond and Nolan’s (2011) theory that familiarity with a disease is central to parents’ assessment of risk, and that dread of a serious disease such as cervical cancer is weaker than dread of unknown possible side effects in parents’ motivation to give or withhold the vaccine for their children.
Research limitations/implications
Research limitations include our usage of a purposeful convenience sample of websites. The limitation of this sampling technique is that the comments made by website “users” and used in the analysis may not be representative of the wider population, and may include Americans as well as non-Americans.
Originality/value of chapter
Our research fills an important gap in the literature by looking at the ways in which parents share their concerns about the HPV vaccine on Internet websites as they consider whether to reject, delay, or consent to the vaccine.
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Paint people marry Two well‐known figures in the paint industry have married. They are Alan Birrell, sales director of Signpost Paints, and Sarah Hearn, director of United Paint…
The purpose of this paper is to explore how the public sector entity within New Zealand's public health system, the Pharmaceutical Management Agency (PHARMAC), continues to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how the public sector entity within New Zealand's public health system, the Pharmaceutical Management Agency (PHARMAC), continues to operate unfettered, with minimal government interference, in the face of ongoing public challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
The literature focuses on the philosophical paradigms of Willcocks and Mitchell et al. Willcocks explores multiple layers of organisational effectiveness, and Mitchell et al. introduce the notion of saliency. The concepts are then explored with respect to PHARMAC, with information regarding PHARMAC gathered from both publicly available documents and semi‐structured interviews. The application of the paradigms to the organisation is described.
Findings
PHARMAC's ongoing success and operations are due to a combination of factors. A lack of conflict between the organisation and theoretical constructs plus factors unique to the New Zealand situation provide a multi‐faceted explanation. There is danger in complacency, however; the current set of compatible factors may not be sustainable.
Social implications
A more informed debate should enable the development of better performance and effectiveness measures. This may reduce the inherent tensions between administrators and clinicians in the public health sector of New Zealand, and potentially elsewhere.
Originality/value
The author is unaware of any other conceptual piece that draws together these paradigms at multiple levels in public sector organisations, especially within New Zealand.