Phillip Stoeklen, Justin J. Sullivan, M. Justin Miller, Meridith Drzakowski and Sasha King
This paper aims to discuss the evolution of a digital learning environment in higher education as a result of ongoing data collection and evaluation.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss the evolution of a digital learning environment in higher education as a result of ongoing data collection and evaluation.
Design/methodology/approach
The manuscript is based on a digital learning environment intervention at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and is informed by evaluation data collected from student and faculty surveys annually between 2002 and 2016. Survey themes changed annually based on student/faculty concerns and interests, and program management used this feedback to make modifications to program scope and offerings.
Findings
The digital learning environment at the University of Wisconsin-Stout has been effective in providing faculty and students with the tools they need to be successful. This success is largely due to the ongoing commitment to data collection and evaluation at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and has ensured that the digital learning environment stays modern and adaptive.
Originality/value
This manuscript is the culmination of 15 years of ongoing evaluation practice and thus provides valuable best practices and lessons learned for educators/educational institutions hoping to improve or create their own digital learning environment.
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To determine the key aspects of writing as a disciplinary literacy evident in videotaped peer talk during the writing process.
Abstract
Purpose
To determine the key aspects of writing as a disciplinary literacy evident in videotaped peer talk during the writing process.
Methodology/approach
Sixth-grade students talk with peers during the writing process, the peer talk is videotaped and played back to the participants, and students reflect on the impact of peer talk on their writing.
Findings
This study gains sixth-grade students’ perspectives on how they experience talk in the disciplinary literacy of writing. Students use the content knowledge of writing and discuss habits of thinking specific to the disciplinary literacy of writing.
Research limitations/implications
These findings are from a sixth-grade classroom, under the guidance of an exemplary English language arts teacher who encouraged daily writing and peer talk. Without these instructional routines and classroom talk, alternate findings may emerge.
Originality/value
This chapter makes a significant contribution to the field of writing as disciplinary literacy and the use of video as a mediational tool. The chapter foregrounds the voices and perspectives of sixth-grade students to understand how students themselves experience and view talk in the context of disciplinary literacy of writing.
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Sarah Atayero, Kate Dunton, Sasha Mattock, Amanda Gore, Sarah Douglas, Patrick Leman and Patricia Zunszain
Interdisciplinary approaches to health education are becoming increasingly common. Here, the authors describe an arts-based approach designed by academics and artists to both…
Abstract
Purpose
Interdisciplinary approaches to health education are becoming increasingly common. Here, the authors describe an arts-based approach designed by academics and artists to both supplement the study of mental illness and support the individual mental health of undergraduate and postgraduate university students, by raising the visibility of mental illness in an innovative way.
Design/methodology/approach
Through workshops, university students were guided in a sensory and physical way to discuss psychological health and vulnerability. This was followed by the creation of physical representations of mental distress through art pieces.
Findings
Students were able to design their own art pieces and discuss mental health issues in an open and creative way. Students reported that the arts-based initiative was beneficial to their practice as future professionals and provided a holistic learning experience. At the same time, artists were able to generate powerful images which facilitated further discussions within the faculty.
Practical implications
This project provides an innovative model for workshops which could be employed to raise the visibility of common mental health disorders among university students while providing a safe space to discuss and support wellbeing. Additionally, variations could be implemented to enhance the teaching of affective disorders within a university curriculum.
Originality/value
This paper presents the results of collaboration between academics and artists, who together generated an innovative way to both support students' mental health and provide an alternative way to supplement experiential learning about common mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
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The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of the Mental Health Act (MHA) 1983 in safeguarding adults at risk of abuse and neglect. The author has undertaken a thematic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of the Mental Health Act (MHA) 1983 in safeguarding adults at risk of abuse and neglect. The author has undertaken a thematic review of Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs) commissioned in England and Adult Practice Reviews (APRs) commissioned in Wales where the MHA 1983 was a central aspect to the review.
Design/methodology/approach
Reviews were included based on specific determinants, following analysis of SARs, APRs and executive summaries. This should not affect the credibility of the research, as themes were identified in conjunction with analysis of literature regarding use of the MHA in the context of adult safeguarding. Consequently, this review has been underpinned by evidence-based research in the area of study.
Findings
The interaction between statutes, such as the MHA 1983 and Care Act 2014, signify challenges to professionals, with variable application of mental health legislation in practice.
Research limitations/implications
Lack of a complete national repository for review reports means that it is likely that the data set analysis is incomplete. It was noted that limitations to this research include the fact that Safeguarding Adults Boards in England may not publish SAR reports or may choose to publish an executive summary or practice brief instead of the full SAR report, therefore limiting the scope of disseminating learning from SARs, as this is difficult to achieve where the full report has not been published. The author aimed to mitigate this by undertaking comprehensive searches of Local Authority and SAB websites, in addition to submitting Information requests to ensure that this research encompassed as many relevant review reports as possible.
Originality/value
This is an important and timely topic for debate, given that the UK Government is proposing reform of the MHA 1983. In addition, existing thematic reviews of SARS tend to be generalised, rather than specifically focused on the MHA.
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In this phenomenological study, the experiences of seven Black women faculty at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) who are working toward tenure and promotion are presented…
Abstract
In this phenomenological study, the experiences of seven Black women faculty at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) who are working toward tenure and promotion are presented. The use of phenomenology, specifically in-depth interviews, gives voice to the women as they share the essence of their experiences including their perceived supports and barriers. Understanding their experiences adds to the literature on women of color in education and has the implications for schooling and community, and support structures essential to the success of Black women and all women of color in academe.
Sasha Mesherry and Sitong Michelle Chen
This paper aims to draw on paradox theory and sensemaking literature to empirically investigate tensions and sensemaking logics at Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) engaging with…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to draw on paradox theory and sensemaking literature to empirically investigate tensions and sensemaking logics at Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) engaging with New Zealand’s biotechnology industry.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative, abductive approach was used to conduct and analyse 10 semi-structured interviews from four CRIs.
Findings
CRIs experience interrelated and co-occurring performing, organising, belonging and learning tension types due to interconnected environmental factors. Interrelated performing and organising tension types were perceived through dichotomous and business-case logics, whereas interrelated learning and performing tensions were perceived through the paradox logic. Furthermore, performing and organising tensions were more salient to participants compared to belonging and learning tensions. Based on these findings, this study provides a revised dynamic equilibrium model tension framework.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this paper are not directly transferrable to other contexts, as the tensions and logics identified are situated in a New Zealand biotechnology CRI context.
Practical implications
This paper identifies environmental factors that practitioners may constructively engage with to mitigate salient biotechnology tensions between competing stakeholder demands in hybrid R&D institutes.
Originality/value
This paper addresses knowledge gaps in the relationship between dynamic equilibrium model tensions and sensemaking logics in the novel context of hybrid R&D institutes and emerging technological industries. In doing so, this paper identifies novel paradoxical performing tensions at the organisational level, including temporal and cultural tensions in hybrid R&D institutes.
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As the First Lady, Michelle Obama stated that she had a number of priorities but that the first year would be mainly about supporting her two girls in their transitions to their…
Abstract
As the First Lady, Michelle Obama stated that she had a number of priorities but that the first year would be mainly about supporting her two girls in their transitions to their new life in the White House. Her choice to be mom-in-chief drew unusually intense and rather puzzling, scrutiny. The chapter briefly discusses the range of reactions along the political spectrum as well as African-American feminists’ analyses of the stereotypes of Black women underlying those reactions. This analysis engages the debates from a different perspective. First, the chapter addresses the under-theorizing of the racialized gender norms embedded in the symbolism of the White House and the role of First Lady. It challenges the presumption of traditional notions of true womanhood and the incorrect conclusion that mothering would preclude public engagement.
Second and most importantly, this chapter argues that there are fundamental misunderstandings of what mothering meant for Michelle Obama as African-American woman. Cultural traditions and socio-historical conditions have led Black women, both relatives and non-kin, to form mothering relationships with others’ children and to appreciate the interdependence of “nurturing” one's own children, other children, and entire communities. Those practitioners whose nurturing activities encompassed commitment and contributions to the collectivity were referred to as community othermothering. Using primary sources, this chapter examines in detail Michelle Obama's socialization for and her practice of community othermothering in her role as First Lady. Attention is focused on her transformation of White House events by extending hospitality to more within Washington, DC, and the nation, plus broadening young people's exposure to inspiration, opportunities, and support for setting and accomplishing their dreams. Similarly, the concept of community othermothering is also used to explain Michelle Obama’s reinterpretation of the traditional First Lady's special project into the ambitious “Let's Move” initiative to end childhood obesity within a generation. The othermothering values and endeavors have helped establish the White House as “the People's House.”
This research explores the subjective health experiences of women incarcerated in a provincial detention center in Ottawa, Canada.
Abstract
Purpose
This research explores the subjective health experiences of women incarcerated in a provincial detention center in Ottawa, Canada.
Methodology/approach
Narrative interviews conducted with 16 previously incarcerated women were analyzed to explore how health issues shaped their experiences in detention.
Findings
Women identified a set of practices and conditions that negatively impacted health, including the denial of medication, medical treatment, and healthcare, limited prenatal healthcare, and damaged health caused by poor living conditions.
Research limitations/implications
Findings suggest that structural health problems emerge in penal environments where healthcare is provided by the same agency responsible for incarceration. The incompatibility between the mandates of incarceration and healthcare suggests that responsibility for institutional healthcare should be transferred to provincial healthcare bodies.
Originality/value
This research responds to the lack of research on carceral health experiences within both penal scholarship and medical sociology, particularly in relation to women and those confined in jails.
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David McNally and Louise Hardwick
This article describes efforts to develop a joint health and social services strategy for rehabilitation in one local authority area in response to national policy. It notes the…
Abstract
This article describes efforts to develop a joint health and social services strategy for rehabilitation in one local authority area in response to national policy. It notes the effects of competing policy initiatives, of the shift in hospital provision to providing only acute care, and of failure to agree joint responsibility for the future development of such services.
Petra Scicluna and Marilyn Clark
The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical analysis of the pathways of female addicts within the Maltese context by highlighting the complex interrelatedness between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical analysis of the pathways of female addicts within the Maltese context by highlighting the complex interrelatedness between substance abuse and victimisation. This paper proposes that female addiction and victimisation trajectories unfold in a non-linear fashion, heavily influenced by particular socio-psychological processes.
Design/methodology/approach
Guided by a career approach conceptual framework, this study was carried out through an in-depth exploration of the victimisation and addictive career trajectories of 12 women, who are either incarcerated or in a residential drug treatment facility. Data were gathered qualitatively through in-depth interviews and analysed using a grounded theory methodology.
Findings
The paper highlights how the victimisation and substance abuse trajectories of women initially unfold and develop over time. This includes an exploration of the strategies employed in order to negotiate gender-based victimisation experiences throughout their lifetime, such as through the development of a victim identity and the self-medication of trauma symptoms, a process that is facilitated by the influence of older, male peers. As the women’s addiction trajectories progress rapidly towards commitment, sex work and IPV feature and the victim identity is reinforced, motivating continued and increased drug use.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for the development of a gender-responsive framework of intervention when working with women who were present for the treatment.
Originality/value
With a focus on women’s experiences, this study fills a lacuna within the literature by complementing and expanding upon quantitative analyses that examine these phenomena as distinct entities.