This paper aims to teach educators a variety of ways to navigate the digital collections of the Library of Congress, which include primary source materials from the past which can…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to teach educators a variety of ways to navigate the digital collections of the Library of Congress, which include primary source materials from the past which can be used to instruct students of all grade levels from elementary through college.
Design/methodology/approach
Workshops for preservice teachers, practicing teachers and their college-level and librarian counterparts focused on advanced searching skills and pedagogical structures which help students access primary sources and use them as evidence to draw conclusions about historical events in history.
Findings
Many of the Library of Congress’ holdings have been digitized, described and categorized for ease of access (subject, keyword and metadata descriptors) and for ease of rights management (copyright, ownership and permissions indicated for each digital object).
Practical implications
Digitized primary sources help students create deeper understandings of historical events and periods and allow for multiple perspectives on the same events, thus teaching students valuable skills in drawing conclusions based on primary and secondary information sources.
Originality/value
Online collections from the Library of Congress are free for use by teachers, students and the general public, and the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program makes available free training for teachers in how to use the materials, as well as provides lesson plans, project ideas and thematic units for use in K-12 schools and beyond.
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Robert S. Fleming and Michelle Kowalsky
This article discusses the experiences of a university's business school in enhancing the preparation of undergraduates through the innovative design and delivery of Business…
Abstract
Purpose
This article discusses the experiences of a university's business school in enhancing the preparation of undergraduates through the innovative design and delivery of Business Policy, the capstone course taken by all business students.
Design/methodology/approach
The case discusses the proactive approaches taken to explicitly align efforts between thinking and doing, for both faculty course designers and student participants alike.
Findings
Ten strategic areas of innovation and improvement are identified and discussed as areas for individual course alignment as well as the impetus for college and university business program development and delivery.
Practical implications
These innovations can be replicated by other institutions to enhance graduates' career preparation, pursue greater consistency with their organization's mission, develop external stakeholder engagement, and enhance internal collaboration with colleagues within the business school and across the university.
Originality/value
The unique value of this innovative and multifaceted approach was recognized by AACSB International, the elite accrediting agency for business schools, in several articles and at a conference on undergraduate program innovation.
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Andrew Brenza, Michelle Kowalsky and Denise Brush
This paper aims to develop a better understanding of student worker perceptions of academic libraries in an effort to improve student worker training, position structure and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a better understanding of student worker perceptions of academic libraries in an effort to improve student worker training, position structure and, ultimately, their perceptions of the library. The value of student reference assistants extends well beyond the completion of assigned library tasks. Specifically, student reference assistants can be important community voices and advocates for academic libraries, spreading, by word-of-mouth, the kinds of library services available to students and their relevance to the academic community. Consequently, it is essential to gain an understanding of how student workers perceive the academic library as a result of their employment.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses an informal, anonymous online survey of student reference assistants to gather information on student worker perceptions of the library. Questions focus on student workers’ understanding of library services and resources as well as on the library’s mission and purpose. An analysis of student responses is provided in light of four “ideal” perceptions which the librarians hold for all students.
Findings
Overall, student worker responses to the survey generally aligned with the ideal perceptions. However, misalignments suggest the need for training that focuses on the development of a broader understanding of the library’s role in the academic community.
Practical implications
The paper can help academic librarians gain insight on how student workers understand the role of the library within the larger academic community and how positive student worker perceptions can be leveraged for outreach purposes.
Originality/value
This paper examines an important aspect of student worker perception that has generally been overlooked in the literature.
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Sherry Ball, Michelle Montpetite, Christine Kowalski, Zach Gerdes, Glenn Graham, Susan Kirsh and Julie Lowery
The Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA) has promoted Specialty Care Neighborhoods (SCN) to enhance the coordination of services between primary and specialty care. Care…
Abstract
Purpose
The Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA) has promoted Specialty Care Neighborhoods (SCN) to enhance the coordination of services between primary and specialty care. Care coordination agreements (CCAs) were included as a critical element in the SCN program. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of these documents in the successful implementation of SCNs.
Design/methodology/approach
Content, quality, and perceived usefulness of CCAs from 19 SCN sites were evaluated. CCA content was defined as the presence or absence of eight key components: contact information, process for urgent consults, process for e-consults, content of consults, primary and specialty care responsibilities, expected response time, discharge criteria, and review criteria. CCA quality was based on a qualitative assessment of CCA content; and perceived usefulness was based on a qualitative assessment of interview responses from CCA users. CCA characteristics were compared to SCN implementation levels using descriptive statistics. SCN implementation level was defined and measured by VHA Specialty Care Services.
Findings
Participating sites with medium-high or high SCN implementation levels had CCAs with more key components and of higher quality than sites with medium-low to medium SCN implementation levels. Perceived usefulness of CCAs was not associated with implementation level.
Research limitations/implications
Since this study built on a quality improvement effort to facilitate care coordination, a rigorous research approach was not used. Specific CCA components could not be examined nor could specific hypotheses be tested due to the small and diverse sample. Findings presented are only preliminary.
Practical implications
The examination of CCAs suggests that these documents may be helpful to improve communication among primary and specialty care providers by explicitly stating agreed upon processes, mechanisms and criteria for referrals, roles and responsibilities for the co-management of patients, and timelines for review of CCAs.
Originality/value
This small study suggests that high-quality CCAs, which include a number of key components, can facilitate the implementation of coordinated care. Key characteristics of CCAs are identified in this study, including measures of CCA content, quality, and usefulness, which can be used in future efforts to develop and evaluate efforts to improve care coordination.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the buffering effect of the mediation of technology use and social support from school resource officers on the associations between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the buffering effect of the mediation of technology use and social support from school resource officers on the associations between cyber victimization and psychosocial adjustment difficulties (i.e. depression, anxiety, loneliness) over three years (wave-one=sixth grade; wave-two=seventh grade; wave-three=eighth grade).
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were 867 eighth graders from the Midwestern USA (ages range from 13 to 15 years old; 51 percent female).
Findings
The findings revealed that high levels of wave-two perceived social support from school resource officers and the mediation of technology use made the relationship between wave-one cyber victimization and wave-three depression more negative, while lower levels of this support and less mediation of technology use made the association more positive. These patterns were not found for anxiety and loneliness.
Originality/value
Implications for prevention and intervention programs and the role of school resource officers in such programs are also discussed.
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Mille Mortensen and Charlotte Andreas Baarts
The purpose of this paper is to explore the interplay of organizational humorous teasing and workplace bullying in hospital work life in order to investigate how workplace…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the interplay of organizational humorous teasing and workplace bullying in hospital work life in order to investigate how workplace bullying can emerge from doctors and nurses experiences of what, at first, appears as “innocent” humorous interactions.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on an ethnographic field study among doctors and nurses at Rigshospitalet (University Hospital of Copenhagen, Denmark) field notes, transcriptions from two focus groups and six in-depth interviews were analyzed using a cross-sectional thematic analysis.
Findings
This study demonstrates how bullying may emerge out of a distinctive joking practice, in which doctors and nurses continually relate to one another with a pronounced degree of derogatory teasing. The all-encompassing and omnipresent teasing entails that the positions of perpetrator and target persistently change, thereby excluding the position of bystander. Doctors and nurses report that they experience the humiliating teasing as detrimental, although they feel continuously forced to participate because of the fear of otherwise being socially excluded. Consequently, a concept of “fluctuate bullying” is suggested wherein nurses and doctors feel trapped in a “double bind” position, being constrained to bully in order to avoid being bullied themselves.
Originality/value
The present study add to bullying research by exploring and demonstrating how workplace bullying can emerge from informal social power struggles embedded and performed within ubiquitous humorous teasing interactions.
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Kristin L. Scott and Michelle K. Duffy
We explore the antecedents of workplace ostracism and delineate possible organizational interventions to deter ostracism. Under the lens of evolutionary psychology we argue that…
Abstract
We explore the antecedents of workplace ostracism and delineate possible organizational interventions to deter ostracism. Under the lens of evolutionary psychology we argue that individuals deemed capable of contributing to social and organizational goals become valued group members while those who threaten group stability and viability risk being shunned or ostracized. Specifically, we review empirical evidence and present the results of a pilot study suggesting that those who are perceived to violate injunctive and descriptive norms, as well as threaten one’s self-concept are at increased risk for ostracism. In terms of intervention, we propose mindfulness techniques and organizational support as a route to deter employees’ inclinations to ostracize coworkers. Thus, a primary goal of this chapter is to explicate a framework for identifying the predictors and deterrents of workplace ostracism in order to generate additional research on this important topic.
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Carole Collins-Ayanlaja, Warletta Brookins and Alison Taysum
Superintendents’ agency in the US is shaped by governance systems within education systems. These Education Governance Systems have been in a state of flux and experienced…
Abstract
Superintendents’ agency in the US is shaped by governance systems within education systems. These Education Governance Systems have been in a state of flux and experienced turbulence for twenty years. The professional challenge this research addresses is how do 14 credentialed educational professional African American women superintendents with doctorates and track records of school improvement, navigate the turbulence to empower families, and Empower Young Societal Innovators for Equity, Renewal (EYSIER), Social Mobility, and Peace.
This chapter identifies three aspects of a theory of knowledge to action to emerge from the empirical evidence presented. First, African American women superintendents need to know how to access policy and legislation, how to stay up to date with policy and need to be empowered to challenge policy. Policy has the back of African American women fighting institutionalised racism. Second, African American women superintendents need role models, and mentors with wisdom who can create proactive and mobilising networks across the state and the nation to advocate for and to support the teachers’ and leaders’ professional learning to be the best teachers, leaders and superintendents they can be. Finally, the African American women superintendents who have been self-selecting, or identified as potential future superintendents by current superintendents and schoolboards, need to be part of succession planning that transcends the short elected lives of district school boards. Newly incumbent African American women superintendents need to be empowered by Education Governance Systems to enable them to deliver on their manifestos and track records of outstanding school improvement with the impact strategies they were employed to implement. The impact strategies include promoting high-quality home–school engagement and ensuring all students learn how to learn, are culturally sensitive, ask good questions and solve problems as Young Societal Innovators for Equity and Renewal. The chapter recommends a network of African American women superintendents implements this theory of knowledge to action and that their work is documented, and if successful in optimising students’ learning, and outcomes, disseminated to build capacity for EYSIER.
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This paper aims to provide a historical overview of AA, its purpose and benefits, the legal rationale for the SCOTUS ruling and what it means for colleges and the workplace…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a historical overview of AA, its purpose and benefits, the legal rationale for the SCOTUS ruling and what it means for colleges and the workplace regarding equitable opportunities for minority groups (which include women, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and other low-income populations), as they aim for the “American dream”.
Design/methodology/approach
SCOTUS decision and rationale, along with literature.
Findings
The race-based affirmative action (AA) precedent was recently overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in the case of Students for Fair Admission (SFFA), Inc. vs President and Fellows of Harvard College/University of North Carolina. SCOTUS ruled that race cannot be a specific basis for college admission. In other words, public and private colleges and universities will no longer be able to consider “race” as a factor in deciding which qualified applicants should be admitted to enhance the diversity of their student body.
Originality/value
This is an original analysis.
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This chapter investigates the awareness of consumers to the water supply chain and if the introduction of water labelling information increases the degree of accountability. This…
Abstract
This chapter investigates the awareness of consumers to the water supply chain and if the introduction of water labelling information increases the degree of accountability. This research examines how fresh water can be traded as a direct physical entity or indirectly as part of the supply chain of a product. With greater pressure put on finite global resources, demand for this natural commodity is slowly overtaking supply. Fresh water is essential to life and its equitable management is critical in protecting the long-term survival of the World’s inhabitants.
This research uses a case study basis for the research undertaken and analyses what factors business decision-makers consider when making their choices. A bookshop has been used as the business context for this investigation. The research is based on a qualitative methodology and uses semi-structured interviews to gather the data. The findings indicate that water awareness is low amongst consumers and that water labelling information whilst being endorsed by consumers would only yield modest changes in buying behaviour patterns.
This research has been gathered using a small sample of the population, but in order to draw general conclusions it is recommended that the study be extended to include a variety of organisations located in different countries that are motivated by profit and not for profit objectives.