Elizabeth McCay, Celina Carter, Andria Aiello, Susan Quesnel, Carol Howes, Heather Beanlands, John Langley, Bruce MacLaurin, Steven Hwang, Linda Cooper and Christina Lord
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of the dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) training which was provided to community agency staff (N=18) implementing DBT…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of the dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) training which was provided to community agency staff (N=18) implementing DBT in the community with street-involved youth.
Design/methodology/approach
Staff participated in a multi-component approach to training which consisted of webinars, online training, self-study manuals, and ongoing peer consultation. To evaluate assess the effectiveness of the training, questionnaires assessing evaluating DBT skills knowledge, behavioral anticipation and confidence, and DBT skills use, were completed at baseline, immediately post-training, four to six months post-training, and 12-16 months post-training. Additionally, the mental health outcomes for youth receiving the DBT intervention are reported to support the effectiveness of the training outcomes.
Findings
Results demonstrate that the DBT skills, knowledge, and confidence of community agency staff improved significantly from pre to post-training and that knowledge and confidence were sustained over time. Additionally, the training was clinically effective as demonstrated by the significant improvement in mental health outcomes for street-involved youth participating in the intervention.
Practical implications
Findings suggest that this evidence-based intervention can be taught to a range of staff working in community service agencies providing care to street-involved youth and that the intervention can be delivered effectively.
Originality/value
These findings help to close the knowledge-practice gap between evidence-based treatment (EBT) research and practice while promoting the implementation of EBT in the community to enhance positive youth outcomes.
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This paper aims to highlight the value of research contributions that have focused on making visible the knowledge of those historically excluded from formal knowledge-making. It…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to highlight the value of research contributions that have focused on making visible the knowledge of those historically excluded from formal knowledge-making. It identifies key bodies of theory that have grounded these analyses, and questions whether we can fully do justice to this project if we continue to rely on established “canons” of social science theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The article reviews research contributions to Researching Work and Learning conferences over the past decade, aimed at identifying those who have been invisible as makers of knowledge. It then considers a body of critique that our dominant epistemologies within the social sciences are rooted in unequal global and local power relations.
Findings
In the literature on workplace learning, a few theoretical paradigms forged in the global north seem to predominate. The article concludes that we need to re-centre our sources of knowledge-making to what Homi Bhabha has called an “ex-centric” site, if we are to develop more inclusive theorizations of work and learning, and more socially just ways of working and learning in the future.
Originality/value
The article invites researchers to reflect critically on their use of theory, and to be more proactive in developing theories with an angle of vision outside of the geo-political centre, so as to better understand the diversity of work and learning globally.
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Kaela Jubas and Shauna Butterwick
This paper discusses insights from a study of women working, or seeking or preparing for work, in the information technology (IT) field. At issue is how and whether alternative…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper discusses insights from a study of women working, or seeking or preparing for work, in the information technology (IT) field. At issue is how and whether alternative career pathways and informally acquired skills and knowledge, as well as the operation of gender in learning and work, are acknowledged by employers, colleagues and participants themselves.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the qualitative technique of life and work history, this study mapped varied learning pathways of women working in the IT field. We used a feminist approach to explore this field, which is characterised as both highly masculine and filled with opportunities for all workers, including women.
Findings
Juxtaposing categories present in the data, such as female and male, formal and informal education, work and learning, hard and soft skills, and centre and periphery, we establish that binary constructs are both persistent and tenuous.
Research limitations/implications
Our analysis challenges assumptions about educating the global workforce and the learning pathways within the IT field. Moreover, it suggests the usefulness of further qualitative research on this topic in other geographic locations or fields of work.
Originality/value
In questioning epistemological and social binaries, our analysis contributes to the re‐theorisation of conceptions of knowledge and learning. In moving from an either/or to a both/and understanding of them, we offer a different way of talking about how they can be understood.
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This chapter focuses on a case study of attempts at one South African university to widen access to adult learners from diverse race, class and gender backgrounds. It locates the…
Abstract
This chapter focuses on a case study of attempts at one South African university to widen access to adult learners from diverse race, class and gender backgrounds. It locates the education of adults within a post-apartheid policy framework aimed at transforming higher education on the one hand and pressures on universities brought about by changes in the global economy on the other. It then outlines the history of adult education programmes at the University of Cape Town, an institution that has an elite, colonial history and that privileges research over teaching. The chapter then considers the results of a 2008 survey of adult learners' experiences of the institutional culture and institution's systems, and the ways in which these present barriers to adult learners. It critically assesses three strategies adopted by staff on the ‘periphery’ of the institution to widen access to adult learners; these focus on: changing the institutional culture, developing policies and processes of recognition of prior learning (RPL) and transforming the curriculum. The chapter concludes that programme innovations have been possible with the aim of ensuring that curriculum is responsive to adult learners; however, widening access and increasing participation for adult learners also needs to be accompanied by significant changes in how the university is administered and run and that while alternative access routes into the university are theoretically possible, practical and political barriers remain.
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This is a study of a sample of women who have been particularly successful in the highly competitive field of mass media, where the pressures and rewards are perhaps more extreme…
Abstract
This is a study of a sample of women who have been particularly successful in the highly competitive field of mass media, where the pressures and rewards are perhaps more extreme than in most other professions. Case histories of each individual were developed, based on interviews, biographies, autobiographies and other material. These were then analysed in terms of common and contrasting themes at different stages of the life‐cycle.
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Trade unions, like many other membership‐based social movement organisations, are confronted by the challenge of growth and revitalisation. Declining membership numbers, an…
Abstract
Purpose
Trade unions, like many other membership‐based social movement organisations, are confronted by the challenge of growth and revitalisation. Declining membership numbers, an increasingly restrictive legislative framework, and dramatic changes in modes of employment have combined to challenge many unions to rethink the way they work. In response to these challenges some unions adopted what has been referred to as the “organising model”, comprising new methods of recruiting, campaigning, educating, fostering activist members, and developing community and international alliances. It is changing the way union staff work, and requires a new understanding of their roles. The purpose of this paper is to examine an organising campaign conducted by one of Australia's largest unions.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on semi‐structured interviews with a pivotal group of lead organisers, union reports and planning documents, participant observation, and published data on the major private child‐care employer.
Findings
The efforts to organise the child‐care workers proved successful and a new collective agreement was endorsed, confirming for the union that its approach could work. However, the model remains new and whether it achieves the desired outcomes of changing the culture and ways of union work, creates new learning opportunities and activates new layers of workers, is yet to be seen.
Originality/value
There is a burgeoning literature on new organising approaches. There are fewer detailed descriptions of the practice of organising and its impact on organisational change and learning. Therefore case studies such as this, which locate the decision to organise this sector, reports on how the campaign unfolded, and discusses the union's interest in understanding the learning associated with these new ways of working, provide an opportunity to examine connections between the theories and practices of organising.
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Mary C. Johnsson and Paul Hager
This paper aims to examine the nature of learning discovered by recent graduates participating in a symphony orchestra‐initiated development program that is designed to nurture…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the nature of learning discovered by recent graduates participating in a symphony orchestra‐initiated development program that is designed to nurture them through the transition to becoming professional orchestral musicians.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a qualitative case study approach, the authors interviewed developing musicians and professional musician mentors individually and in small groups using a semi‐structured protocol. Interviews were audio‐taped and transcribed. The authors also observed musicians working together in rehearsal and in concert performance and reviewed documents on the development program, the organisation and the Australian performing arts industry.
Findings
The findings suggest that learning is better conceptualised as an embodied constructed experience with others in context. What the authors call “guided contextualising” differs from conventional discussions of skill‐based novice learning and mentorship. For musicians, the competency that is being developed is one of learning how to become, forming a sense of identity as broader musical citizens as well as becoming members of more instrumental communities.
Practical implications
The design and structure of the program (and alternatives emerging overseas) suggest possibilities for new collaborations towards “a living curriculum” between higher education and industry.
Originality/value
Rather than “employability”, the concept of “graduateness” for young adults is formative and transformative, a process that involves the seeking of various forms of identity and contextualised learning that transcends self. “Becoming” practitioners together in generative ways enhances fitness for professional practice and develops a commitment to lifelong learning.
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Peter H. Sawchuk and Arlo Kempf
The purpose of this paper is to contextualise historically transnational labour experiences within guest worker programs in Canada and to provide a conceptual foundation for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contextualise historically transnational labour experiences within guest worker programs in Canada and to provide a conceptual foundation for analysing work, learning and living relations with special attention to agricultural workers.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on a critical review of the literature as well as secondary analysis of existing research on agricultural guest workers in Ontario, Canada.
Findings
The authors argue that the structural conditions for these particular forms of work, learning and living relations have a long historical trajectory that dates back in North America to the nineteenth century. They outline a long trajectory of convergence of American and Canadian policies in this regard. In terms of work, learning and living experiences we show how shaped by race, class and citizenship relations, as well as by the learning that infuses their reproduction, intensification and contestation.
Originality/value
The article sheds light on a system of transnational labour that is emerging in a wide range of economies around the world, but which has not, to date, been widely analysed in work and learning literature.
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The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the adequacy of UNESCO policy in the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. People working in the informal economy in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the adequacy of UNESCO policy in the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. People working in the informal economy in the Global South are looked at as a starting point.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines UNESCO/UNEVOC documents, the UNIFEM report on the “Progress of the World's Women”, development literature, and case scenarios from Southern Africa.
Findings
There is a mismatch between policy and the reality on the ground. Changes in policy and provision are necessary if a social justice agenda is to be met.
Practical implications
The approach to TVET planning and provision should shift in three ways: from an emphasis on the formal to the informal economy; from work defined as employment to work as livelihood activities; and from sustainable development to sustainable livelihoods. The paper argues that five conditions should be met so that TVET can begin to include workers from the informal economy.
Originality/value
The paper defines “work” more inclusively, focuses on education and learning in the informal economy, and challenges notions of sustainable development in favour of sustainable livelihoods.