Paul Kauppila and Sharon Russell
Discusses the new Dr Martin Luther King Jr Library in San Jose´, California, which will house the collections of the San Jose´ Public Library’s main branch and the San Jose´ State…
Abstract
Discusses the new Dr Martin Luther King Jr Library in San Jose´, California, which will house the collections of the San Jose´ Public Library’s main branch and the San Jose´ State University’s Library system in one new building. Outlines the conception of the project, the site selection and the planning process. Considers the communities served, usage patterns and services. Focuses on the management structure and operations in light of a, perhaps controversial, aspect of mixing city and university library staff under the same roof, some performing similar functions, but with different supervisors and employing agencies. Discusses the new library in the context of other joint‐use libraries and in the context of economies of scale and future trends. Evaluates the arising challenges and opportunities.
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Kirsten Russell, Fiona Barnett, Sharon Varela, Simon Rosenbaum and Robert Stanton
The mental and physical health of those residing in Australian rural and remote communities is poorer compared to major cities. Physical health comorbidities contribute to almost…
Abstract
Purpose
The mental and physical health of those residing in Australian rural and remote communities is poorer compared to major cities. Physical health comorbidities contribute to almost 80% of premature mortality for people living with mental illness. Leisure time physical activity (LTPA) is a well-established intervention to improve physical and mental health. To address the physical and mental health of rural and remote communities through LTPA, the community’s level of readiness should be first determined. This study aims to use the community readiness model (CRM) to explore community readiness in a remote Australian community to address mental health through LTPA.
Design/methodology/approach
Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted using the CRM on LTPA to address mental health. Quantitative outcomes scored the community’s stage of readiness for LTPA programmes to address mental health using the CRM categories of one (no awareness) to nine (high level of community ownership). Qualitative outcomes were thematically analysed, guided by Braun and Clark.
Findings
The community scored six (initiation) for community efforts and knowledge of LTPA programmes and seven (stabilisation) for leadership. The community’s attitude towards LTPA and resources for programmes scored four (pre-planning), and knowledge of LTPA scored three (vague awareness).
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first Australian study to use CRM to examine community readiness to use LTPA to improve mental health in a remote community. The CRM was shown to be a useful tool to identify factors for intervention design that might optimise community empowerment in using LTPA to improve mental health at the community level.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of research evaluation policies and their interpretation on academics’ writing practices in three different higher education…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of research evaluation policies and their interpretation on academics’ writing practices in three different higher education institutions and across three different disciplines. Specifically, the paper discusses how England’s national research excellence framework (REF) and institutional responses to it shape the decisions academics make about their writing.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 49 academics at three English universities were interviewed. The academics were from one Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics discipline (mathematics), one humanities discipline (history) and one applied discipline (marketing). Repeated semi-structured interviews focussed on different aspects of academics’ writing practices. Heads of departments and administrative staff were also interviewed. Data were coded using the qualitative data analysis software, ATLAS.ti.
Findings
Academics’ ability to succeed in their career was closely tied to their ability to meet quantitative and qualitative targets driven by research evaluation systems, but these were predicated on an unrealistic understanding of knowledge creation. Research evaluation systems limited the epistemic choices available to academics, partly because they pushed academics’ writing towards genres and publication venues that conflicted with disciplinary traditions and partly because they were evenly distributed across institutions and age groups.
Originality/value
This work fills a gap in the literature by offering empirical and qualitative findings on the effects of research evaluation systems in context. It is also one of the only papers to focus on the ways in which individuals’ academic writing practices in particular are shaped by such systems.
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Dominiek Coates and Sharon Mickan
The embedded researcher is a healthcare-academic partnership model in which the researcher is engaged as a core member of the healthcare organisation. While this model has…
Abstract
Purpose
The embedded researcher is a healthcare-academic partnership model in which the researcher is engaged as a core member of the healthcare organisation. While this model has potential to support evidence translation, there is a paucity of evidence in relation to the specific challenges and strengths of the model. The aim of this study was to map the barriers and enablers of the model from the perspective of embedded researchers in Australian healthcare settings, and compare the responses of embedded researchers with a primary healthcare versus a primary academic affiliation.
Design/methodology/approach
104 embedded researchers from Australian healthcare organisations completed an online survey. Both purposive and snowball sampling strategies were used to identify current and former embedded researchers. This paper reports on responses to the open-ended questions in relation to barriers and enablers of the role, the available support, and recommendations for change. Thematic analysis was used to describe and interpret the breadth and depth of responses and common themes.
Findings
Key barriers to being an embedded researcher in a public hospital included a lack of research infrastructure and funding in the healthcare organisation, a culture that does not value research, a lack of leadership and support to undertake research, limited access to mentoring and career progression and issues associated with having a dual affiliation. Key enablers included supportive colleagues and executive leaders, personal commitment to research and research collaboration including formal health-academic partnerships.
Research limitations/implications
To support the embedded researcher model, broader system changes are required, including greater investment in research infrastructure and healthcare-academic partnerships with formal agreements. Significant changes are required, so that healthcare organisations appreciate the value of research and support both clinicians and researchers to engage in research that is important to their local population.
Originality/value
This is the first study to systematically investigate the enablers and challenges of the embedded researcher model.
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David Clayton, Andrew Clifton, Kay de Vries, Henson Kuuya and Bertha Ochieng
“My Story” is based on a life story approach. This study aims to facilitate therapeutic alliances by providing a format for older and younger people to interact.
Abstract
Purpose
“My Story” is based on a life story approach. This study aims to facilitate therapeutic alliances by providing a format for older and younger people to interact.
Design/methodology/approach
Three pairings were studied to explore the experiences of the older and younger person using “My Story”. The focus of the case studies was on how and if any therapeutic alliance emerged.
Findings
This study found that in the two of the pairings, “My Story” helped to create a bond and mutual benefit for the participants’ central to a therapeutic alliance. This led one of the pairings to develop into an intergenerational friendship and potentially help with loneliness.
Research limitations/implications
As this was an exploratory and small pilot, more cases and research are required to fully assess if “My Story” is a useful approach to develop intergenerational befriending.
Practical implications
Intergenerational befriending may be one solution that could help with loneliness and social isolation through forming a therapeutic alliance to make the befriending successful.
Social implications
Loneliness and social isolation for older people remain a problem.
Originality/value
An original pilot was undertaken to test the approach by bringing together older people identified as lonely by a voluntary sector provider and pairing these with a student volunteer. The students visited the older person over six weeks to discuss their life story and create an artefact based on the story for the older person.
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Sharon Louise Clancy and John Holford
The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications for adults of learning in a residential context and whether the residential aspect intensifies the learning process, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications for adults of learning in a residential context and whether the residential aspect intensifies the learning process, and can lead to enhanced personal transformation, moving beyond professional skills and training for employability.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports on research, conducted in 2017, with 41 current and former staff and students (on both short courses and longer access courses) in four residential colleges for adults: Ruskin, Northern, Fircroft and Hillcroft Colleges.
Findings
Key findings include the powerful role residential education plays in accelerating and deepening learning experiences, particularly for adults who have faced extraordinary personal and societal challenges and are second chance learners. The colleges, all in historic settings, confer feelings of worth, security and sanctuary and the staff support – pastoral and academic, bespoke facilities and private rooms are vital enabling mechanisms. Seminar-style learning creates opportunity for experiential group learning, helping to foster critical thinking and challenge to mainstream views.
Social implications
The colleges’ ethos, curricula and traditions foster among students an “ethic of service” and a desire to offer “emotional labour” to their own communities, through working for instance in health and social care or the voluntary sector.
Originality/value
Little research has been undertaken in contemporary settings on the impact of learning in a residential environment, particularly for second chance learners and vulnerable adults. Still less research has examined the wider implications of learning in a historic building setting and of learning which extends into critical thinking, intellectual growth, transformation and change.
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Power relations affect all aspects of our lives. MacGregor Burns states that “Power is ubiquitous; it permeates human relationships … Power shows many faces and takes many forms”…
Abstract
Power relations affect all aspects of our lives. MacGregor Burns states that “Power is ubiquitous; it permeates human relationships … Power shows many faces and takes many forms”. The purpose of this paper was to explore women principals’ experiences with power relations in the schools during times of increase in decentralization and accountability. The findings of this phenomenological study were that the six principals viewed power as an enabling, and a positive energy for change and growth in schools rather than a source of “top‐down” domination. Their descriptions of power also asserted that “power is not reducible to any one source”, and that an understanding of poststructuralist and structuralist theories of power will be essential for school leaders facing the dilemmas and challenges of the twenty‐first century.
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Pepukayi Chitakunye and Amandeep Takhar
The purpose of this paper is to explore how technological devices impact on family mealtime rituals. The intention is to understand how the consumption of technological devices…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how technological devices impact on family mealtime rituals. The intention is to understand how the consumption of technological devices transforms eating practices, and how the meanings of family quality time are continuously evolving through the consumption of mobile media devices.
Design/methodology/approach
Insights are drawn from two independent, ethnographic studies that adopted an interpretive approach which employed multiple methods, including 63 visual diaries; 40 written diaries; observations in schools, homes, and Sikh temples (73 items observed), and 66 in-depth interviews. Both studies involved children, aged between 13 and 17 years within the UK, and were conducted for a period of over 12 months each. Informants were recruited through interaction with schools, Sikh temples and the Sikh community.
Findings
The findings reveal interplay between family quality time, and the consumption of technological devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, ipods and their associated application packages. Of particular interest is how these devices transfer cultural meanings surrounding family mealtime interactions. The paper uncovers how family quality time is altered and evolved in form, but not ultimately abandoned, and argues that the pervasive nature of technology at mealtimes has implications into food cultures and identity.
Originality/value
The encroachment of media devices on the food environment has often been described with negativity. However, this study tells a different, yet positive tale about transformations in social institutions such as the family and the school as a consequence of the consumption of technological devices at mealtimes.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore what is meant by the term recovery language and the use of mental health language in today’s society.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore what is meant by the term recovery language and the use of mental health language in today’s society.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is an exploration of the use of recovery language and the application in modern day mental health services.
Findings
The language that is used to describe mental health is often based on a traditional medical model primarily focussing on diagnosis, symptoms and problems. This is a stark difference to the modern day use of recovery orientated language.
Practical implications
This paper can be used as a discussion topic in teams to explore themes around recovery language.
Originality/value
This paper explores issues of language in mental health that are central to recovery and the development of recovery-focussed services.