Siamak Aghlmand, Aboulfath Lameei and Rhonda Small
The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of voice of customer (VoC) analysis in a maternity care case study, where the aim was to identify the most important requirements…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of voice of customer (VoC) analysis in a maternity care case study, where the aim was to identify the most important requirements of women giving birth and to determine targets for the improvement of maternity care in Fayazbakhsh Hospital in Tehran, Iran.
Design/methodology/approach
The tools of VoC analysis were used to identify: the main customer segment of maternity care; the most important of women's needs and requirements; the level of maternal satisfaction with delivered services at the study hospital and at a competitor; the nature of women's of requirements (termed Kano levels: assumed, expected, and unexpected); and the priorities of the study hospital for meeting these requirements.
Findings
Women identified the well‐being of mother and baby as the most important requirements. Women's satisfaction with the services was, with a few exceptions, low to moderate. Services related to most of the maternal requirements were ranked better in the competitor hospital than the study hospital.
Practical implications
The results form a solid basis for achieving improvements in the processes of care for mothers and babies.
Originality/value
The paper presents a systematic approach to VoC analysis in health care settings as a basis for clinical process improvement initiatives.
Details
Keywords
Rhonda Riachi and Sally Markwell
This paper aims to highlight the results and emerging themes from a study concerning the effect of communication techniques that were tailored to each client in relation to the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to highlight the results and emerging themes from a study concerning the effect of communication techniques that were tailored to each client in relation to the extent of their dementia. Dementia was viewed by the care workers primarily as a memory disability.
Design/methodology/approach
A short qualitative study of the communication techniques of care workers in England, who had received training in dementia care and some training in the SPECAL® method (Specialised Early Care for Alzheimer’s),was conducted through semi-structured interviews. Resulting data were analysed using a constructivist grounded theory approach.
Findings
Continued application of the SPECAL techniques appeared to reinforced clients’ sense of well-being and produced benefits for care workers’ own well-being.
Research limitations/implications
This small qualitative study suggests there can be beneficial effects for both clients and the care team when care workers tailor their communication behaviour to the needs of people with dementia. Further research on communication techniques in dementia care is needed and how these benefits might be translated into institutional settings.
Originality/value
Few research studies have been made of the SPECAL dementia care method, and this study was the first to look explicitly at the communication techniques that the care workers used with clients. Public health professionals are less likely to be aware of the SPECAL method.
Details
Keywords
Listening with spirit is the key skill which teams need to attain andsustain creative dialogue. This is especially true for organizationallearning. Building on the distinction…
Abstract
Listening with spirit is the key skill which teams need to attain and sustain creative dialogue. This is especially true for organizational learning. Building on the distinction between dialogue and discussion, poses the question: “What makes dialogue dialogue?” and also offers tools for dialogue. The core of team dialogue is collectively listening with spirit, that is: in a group, people listen (individually) with selfless receptivity to each others′ ideas, thereby emptying themselves to create a common vessel which – shaped by and sustained by the power of the group′s collective listening – receives and contains a collective spirit. Draws on multiple disciplines including ethnography and the spiritual science of Austrian philosopher and founder of Waldorf Education, Rudolph Steiner. Provides examples of how this approach has improved the creativity of work teams. Also offers an explanation of how future search conferences work using the idea of creating a container via collective listening.
Details
Keywords
The closure of schools and nurseries during the COVID-19 lockdowns triggered the re-insourcing of childcare to the home, sparking extensive public debate and academic research on…
Abstract
The closure of schools and nurseries during the COVID-19 lockdowns triggered the re-insourcing of childcare to the home, sparking extensive public debate and academic research on the pandemic's potential impact on gender equality (see, for example, Burgess and Goldman, 2021; Vandecasteele et al. 2022). My PhD research, which explores parents' decision-making influences when planning care during their child's first year in the UK context, coincided with COVID-19. The coinciding of my data collection with COVID-19 (seven online discussions with a total of 36 participants and 12 follow up interviews, 10 which include partners) created microcosms in which wider public debates were echoed. My research draws on the Capability Approach (CA) (Sen, 2009) to conceptualise parents' capabilities to share leave as they aspire to and employs dialogical narrative analysis (DNA) (Riessman, 2008) to explore how gendered parenting norms are constitutive of parents’ care capabilities. In this chapter, I draw on feminist ethics of care to explore the disruption of gendered parenting norms, in the COVID-19 context, within parents' decision-making and a possible ‘reimagining’ of the value attributed to care (Ozkazanc-Pan and Pullen, 2021; Tronto, 2017). My findings support anticipation of what the promise of greater flexibility could bring as a result of increased visibility of caregiving during COVID-19. However, I also find evidence which supports the caution previously recommended of the need to reflect on work cultures and the predominance of masculine ideal worker norms in the UK (Chung et al. 2021).
Details
Keywords
Judith Overmier and Rhonda Harris Taylor
Introduces librarians to popular culture studies and emphasizes the importance of collection development of popular culture materials, both primary and secondary. Provides…
Abstract
Introduces librarians to popular culture studies and emphasizes the importance of collection development of popular culture materials, both primary and secondary. Provides strategies and identifies resources that can facilitate such collection development.
Details
Keywords
In this chapter, the professional knowledge landscape of schools is explored for its shaping effect on the life satisfaction and morale of teachers. Knowledge communities, those…
Abstract
In this chapter, the professional knowledge landscape of schools is explored for its shaping effect on the life satisfaction and morale of teachers. Knowledge communities, those associations and relationships that teachers experience as they navigate life in schools, is the conceptual lens that is used. Two teacher stories are explored. Both narratives reveal emotional and relationship influences on teachers as they find, build and work in knowledge communities. Knowledge community interactions, in turn, help them to understand the issues of their school community and support their survival on the larger professional landscape. This chapter uses narrative inquiry to analyse the stories that the teachers in the two exemplars (one Canadian; one American) lived and relived, told and re-told. Finally, serial interpretation allows for the unearthing of encompassing ideas which cut across both narratives and make visible common themes worthy of research attention.
Details
Keywords
Misunderstanding and harmful stereotyping have become commonplace amongst people in the United States and the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region since 2001, if not earlier. If…
Abstract
Misunderstanding and harmful stereotyping have become commonplace amongst people in the United States and the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region since 2001, if not earlier. If universities are the locus of transformative education, work remains towards remedying these issues.One non-profit organisation, “Natafaham (pseudonym, Arabic for « we understand each other”), works to undo this negativity student by student. It brings participants from the MENA and Europe/North America into dialogue via Zoom each week. The inter-cultural dialogue availed to participants is empowering to actors, including the dialogue facilitator. This narrative is an autoethnographic exploration of my experience as an intercultural dialogue facilitator. Yet reviewing contemporaneous notes and reflections revealed structural aspects of this programme that empower voices from the MENA region, while facilitating learning amongst participants on both sides of the Atlantic. Such aspects include the format and the location of the programme, its focus on individuals rather than institutions or groups, its mixed top-down and bottom-up approach, and the opportunities it avails for ascension to positions of authority. This narrative analyses these aspects through several lenses and academic traditions, including those of global citizenship, critical internationalisation, (reciprocal) global service learning, and socio-cultural frameworks of second language acquisition. The chapter urges that these aspects are recognised as key catalysts of (more) equal relationships between youth in the MENA region and the United States, which merit widespread replication. It concludes by envisioning a still more equal relationship predicated upon more equitable language usage.
Details
Keywords
Rhonda Povey and Michelle Trudgett
The focus of this paper is to centre the lived experiences and perceptions of western education held by Aboriginal people who lived at Moola Bulla Native Cattle Station (Moola…
Abstract
Purpose
The focus of this paper is to centre the lived experiences and perceptions of western education held by Aboriginal people who lived at Moola Bulla Native Cattle Station (Moola Bulla) in Western Australia, between 1910 and 1955. Of interest is an investigation into how government legislations and policies influenced these experiences and perceptions. The purpose of this paper is to promote the powerful narrative that simultaneously acknowledges injustice and honours Aboriginal agency.
Design/methodology/approach
The research from which this paper is drawn moves away from colonial, paternalistic and racist interpretations of history; it is designed to decolonise the narrative of Aboriginal education in remote Western Australia. The research uses the wide and deep angle lens of qualitative historical research, filtered by decolonising methodologies and standpoint theory. Simultaneously, the paper valorises the contributions Indigenous academics are making to the decolonisation of historical research.
Findings
Preliminary findings suggest the narrative told by the residents who were educated at Moola Bulla support a reframing of previous deficit misrepresentations of indigeneity into strength-based narratives. These narratives, or “counter stories”, articulate resistance to colonial master narratives.
Social implications
This paper argues that listening to Aboriginal lived experiences and perceptions of western education from the past will better inform our engagement with the delivery of equitable educational opportunities for Aboriginal students in remote contexts in the future.
Originality/value
This paper will contribute to the wider academic community by addressing accountability in Aboriginal education. Most important to the study is the honouring of the participants and families of those who once lived on Moola Bulla, many who are speaking back through the telling of their story.
Details
Keywords
Nancy A. Gigante and William A. Firestone
This paper aims to explore how teacher leaders help teachers improve mathematics and science teaching.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how teacher leaders help teachers improve mathematics and science teaching.
Design/methodology/approach
Research focused on a purposive sample of seven teacher leaders selected to vary in their time allocated to teacher leader work and their content knowledge. Each teacher leader was interviewed, as were two teachers and at least one administrator working with that teacher leader. Each interview was first subjected to a mix of deductive and inductive coding before a case study was written for each teacher leader. Ultimately, a cross‐case analysis was written.
Findings
Teacher leaders conducted two sets of leadership tasks. The paper finds that support tasks helped teachers do their work but did not contribute to teacher learning. Developmental tasks did facilitate learning. All teacher leaders engaged in support tasks, but only four did developmental tasks as well. Teacher leaders who engaged in developmental tasks had access to one material resource and three social resources not available to other teacher leaders: time to work with teachers, administrative support, more positive relations with teachers, and opportunities to work with teachers on professional development
Practical implications
When teacher leadership is intended to facilitate teacher learning, the payoff comes from engaging in developmental tasks. A key to teacher leader success is administrative support. Schools and districts should not invest in teacher leaders unless they intend to support teacher leaders adequately through time, administrative follow through, and training to help teachers develop the positive social relations on which their work depends.
Originality/value
These findings have implications for how to integrate teacher leaders into larger school improvement efforts.
Details
Keywords
Tremaine R. Young and Crystal R. Chambers
Public education in the United States is White, middle class, and urban/suburban normed. However, in the past decade, national population trends show an increase in minority…
Abstract
Public education in the United States is White, middle class, and urban/suburban normed. However, in the past decade, national population trends show an increase in minority populations, particularly in the southeastern United States. This trend has resulted in a cultural mismatch between teachers who are not trained in strategies that are responsive to the needs of a diverse student population. Novice teachers in a rural school district in eastern North Carolina participated in a study to examine the degree to which they were prepared to successfully interact with their culturally diverse student populations through the lens of culturally relevant classroom management (CRCM), based on their training at either historically White (HWIs) or Black (HBCUs) postsecondary institutions. As part of this larger study, we found that teachers trained at HWIs, although well-intentioned, enter the classroom far less prepared than their HBCU-trained counterparts. However, for both groups of novice teachers, intercultural interactions earlier in their lives seem to have a greater influence than institutional effects on effective, culturally relevant classroom management practices.