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Women's Ways of Engagement: Explorations of Gender, the Scholarship of Engagement and Institutional Rewards Policy and Practice.

Elaine Ward — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 06:54:06 PDT

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the promotion and tenure experiences of women faculty who carry out community-engaged scholarship. Purposive sampling of women faculty members nationwide who received national recognition for their work as community-engaged scholars was conducted. In depth semi-structured interviews, personal written scholarship narratives, written personal promotion and tenure narratives and other written documents provide the oral and written data analyzed in this study. Feminist theory guides this study. More specifically, the works of Reinharz (1992), Naples (2003), Belenky and colleagues (1986, 1997) guide this study’s exploration into feminist methods, methodology, and epistemology and the areas of women’s work in the academy, their power—both real and perceived—within the existing institutional culture of higher education and how the experiences of these women community-engaged scholars align with institutional cultures as evidenced through promotion and tenure structures and practice. This study addresses current understanding that the developing field of the scholarship of engagement requires 1) an exploration of the experiences of women faculty who carry out community-engaged scholarship, 2) an examination of individual faculty work alongside institutional contexts that support and/or hinder that work, and 3) a development of a theoretical model that helps us understand individual faculty work of community-engaged scholarship within the larger institutional contexts of U.S. higher education. Examining the intersections and alignments between individual faculty community-engaged work and their respective institutional contexts is an emerging field of study, and women faculty members’ experiences with community-engaged scholarship has not before now been researched. Bringing both together, and developing a theory of community-engaged scholarship grounded in the experiences of women faculty community-engaged scholars bridges the fields of feminist and engaged scholarships and advances the field of the scholarship of engagement in terms of developing theoretical underpinnings necessary to strengthen its own foundation as a developing field. The study’s major findings include the following: First, that women’s community-engaged scholarship is deeply rooted in her identity and that gender is an influence but is one dimension of the faculty member’s choice to carry out community-engaged scholarship. Second, epistemology is a characteristic present in all three aspects of the community-engaged scholar’s identity— personal, professional, and civic. Third, characteristics of women’s ways of engagement correlate to aspects of Women’s Ways of Knowing. This study contributes to the field of the scholarship of engagement through the development of a theoretical schema of women’s ways of engagement.

Organizational Stress in Social Care

Brian McCarthy — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 06:35:48 PDT

The aim of this research project was to develop a model of understanding, coping with and preventing work-related stress in social care organizations. The research was framed conceptually in a model of organizational stress developed and adapted from Beehr’s (1998) integrative model of organizational stress. The first two stages of the research project explored by interview and survey staff and management perceptions of stress in their organizations. It was found that both acute and chronic stressors occurred and were seen to have increased; organizational stressors were also likely to be more persistent and chronic when they occurred. Interviewees were
concerned particularly with the psychological and social effects of stress responses; these were seen as often having destructive effects on the work team and the quality of its work. Labour turnover was considered to be less of a problem in the sector than heretofore and stress-related sickness absence was seen as a possible outcome of stress but depended on prevailing attitudes in the specific organization towards taking sick leave.
A survey of a wide range of staff and managers indicated that there was considerable consensus as to what the main stressors were. Client-related situations where violent, abusive behaviour and suicide attempts occur in emotionally-charged atmospheres were seen by all respondents as very stressful. Difficulties relating to teamwork and staff relationships were seen as a serious source of stress. These difficulties interfere with the teamwork and close interaction required by this kind of work. The final stage of the research used an action-oriented research approach in which a set of workshops was conducted in one of the participating organizations. An in-depth analysis was developed of staff and management perceptions of coping, positive and
negative moderators of the stress process, and team and organizational issues. The model of organizational stress was found to be accessible to staff and managers and to be applicable to a range of situations. Understanding and awareness of work stress was enhanced through an emphasis on the organizational aspects of stress. Participants perceived clearly the links between stressors, stress responses and individual and
organizational outcomes. They highlighted the importance of stress awareness
emphasising the recognition of stress in one’s colleagues; supervision was seen as an important vehicle for learning about stress and for enhancing coping strategies. Thedevelopment of an appropriate level of hardiness was considered an important coping resource which comprised both problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies. Social support was seen as an important coping resource and positive moderator of the stress
process; counselling as a support was seen to be under-used and participants thought that it needed to be more accessible. In this respect further investigation of the role of counselling in stress prevention would be useful for social care organizations.A practical outcome was the identification and planning of preventive measures. The most important interventions for the overall prevention of stress were considered to be team-building, the focused use of supervision, and organizational support for personal development and learning. The importance of including temporary staff in team-building
and the need to develop supervision skills to an advanced level in the organization were emphasised by the participants. Interventions were conceptualised within the preventive stress management framework of Quick et al (1997) and seen as having implications for primary and secondary prevention. Thus the main thrust of the interventions selected was
towards medium and longer-term change as part of an ongoing stress prevention plan. Such interventions can be seen as useful recommendations to many social care organizations although the mechanisms by which they might be integrated and enacted would vary from setting to setting. The issue of integration of stress prevention interventions into organizational processes and the maintenance of commitment to them represent a challenge to all organizations in the sector. A systematic monitoring of these processes would be a useful development of this study; it would contribute to learning at an organizational level and would be beneficial to many social care organizations. The type of action-oriented programme conducted in the final stage of this project would seem to offer a useful method of collecting feedback on the practice of stress prevention management. The model of organizational stress developed in this research can provide a framework within which further research inquiries can be pursued with consequent benefits for the
social care sector.

Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education’s Conference Proceedings, Vision into Practice, Dublin Castle, Dublin, 8th – 10th February 2007, pp 321-327.

Geraldine French — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 07:56:04 PST

This background paper Children’s early learning and development, sets out the theory and research underpinning children’s early learning and development in the Framework for Early Learning. The paper essentially responds to the question - how should we envision and understand the child as a young learner? The paper begins by outlining the context for early childhood care and education in Ireland by referring to our economic and social climate, the increasingly multicultural nature of society and relevant legislation and policy. Drawing on centuries of research, the modern day view of the child is one of him/her being a competent learner, capable of making choices and decisions; a young citizen and participator in many contexts (family, early childhood setting, community and society); actively learning in reciprocal relations with adults and other children. This new construction of childhood is oriented towards the child’s present rather than his/her future. Building on this image of the child, key messages about how children learn and develop.

How Children tell: Containing the Secret of Child Sexual Abuse

Rosaleen McElvaney — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:11:01 PST

In recent years, research on the subject of child sexual abuse disclosures has seen an increase in the use of qualitative methods to explore individual experiences, reflecting an emphasis on understanding diversity rather than typicality. This research study builds on previous work that viewed disclosure as a process that occurs over time, influenced by both anticipated reactions and actual reactions that in turn influence future decisions about disclosing. The study has as its fundamental focus the experience of telling. Interviews were conducted with young people aged 8 to 19 years (n=22), parents (n=21) and adults who had experienced sexual abuse in childhood (n=10). In all, 29 young people’s stories were represented in this study. The study was informed by Grounded Theory methods and data was managed using the NVivo computer programme. By directing the analysis to take account of the impediments to telling, the motivation to tell and the consequences of telling, a theoretical framework emerges that suggests that the experience of disclosure needs to be seen in the context of a process of containing the secret of sexual abuse. This process, it is suggested, involves three key dynamics: active withholding, pressure cooker effect and confiding the secret. The additional characteristics of this process for participants in this study were that it was an active cyclical process that was adaptive for the individual, was re-negotiated over the course of the lifespan in the context of different relationships, was influenced by multiple factors operating at multiple systemic levels – child, family, school, child protection and legal systems, and wider society - and changed over time. Key factors that influenced this process included being believed, being asked, shame/embarrassment/self blame, fear, concern for others (both not wanting to upset others and concern for other children) and peer influence. The diversity of children’s experiences of confiding sexual abuse suggests that a multifaceted and multisystemic approach to prevention and intervention is needed that takes account of the potentially conflicting needs of child protection, therapeutic and legal systems and the needs of children and their families to contain the secret of sexual abuse. A holistic approach to educational and awareness-raising campaigns is required, incorporating individual children, peer groups (particularly adolescents), families, schools and societal institutions as target audiences.

What Are Four-Year-Olds Doing At School?:Reconciling Current Knowledge About Learning in Young Children With Early Educational Pedagogy

Noirin Hayes — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:42:18 PDT

The title of the thesis is ‘What are four-year-olds doing at school? Reconciling current knowledge about learning in young children with early educational pedagogy.’ The study addresses the question of four-year-olds at school on two levels. On the one hand, the study describes what four-year-olds are doing at school. Using data from the IEA Preprimary Project1 the thesis provides information on parental and teacher expectations for 203 four-year-olds and presents details of the observed behaviour of the children and their teachers in school. Some of this data has been reported elsewhere (Hayes, O’Flaherty and Kernan, 1997). Additional analysis has been carried out to provide more detail on social interactions in the classrooms including matrices to allow for an examination of the degree of match between teacher planning and child behaviour. In addition to the direct question of what Irish four-year-olds actually do at school the thesis also considers the question of whether four-year-olds should be in primary school. In this connection it presents, analyses and discusses the child activities recorded, the observed adult behaviour and the management of time in the classroom in the context of an extensive review of psychological and educational research. The unique contribution of this thesis to early education in Ireland can be seen on a number of levels. In the first place it argues, by reference to research, that the case has been made for the support of quality early education as a unique and separate level of education along a continuum of lifelong learning. It further argues that there is ample research isolating those factors which constitute quality early education. Through the literature review this thesis extends beyond these conclusions by addressing why quality early education is effective and desirable for young children. Drawing on psychological research it concludes that quality early education is effective, in the short and long-term, because of the interactive nature of the pedagogy and its effect on development. It supports this assertion by reference to psychological findings on the role of interactions in development and educational research on the impact of interactions on learning. Secondly, the argument of the thesis is that educators, whether teachers, academics or policy makers should expand their consideration of what early education should provide for children by including attention to affective development and the nurturing of learning dispositions. The proposal that generative learning dispositions are critical to early and future learning is supported by reference to contemporary psychological and educational literature. In particular, the link to developmental psychology is made through the identification of the central relationship between dispositions, proximal processes (close day-to-day interactions) and the progress of development. This study proposes that generative learning dispositions can be developed within the early years setting when the teacher is sensitive to fostering and guiding their development. For this to happen, it argues, teachers need an awareness of what learning dispositions are, an understanding of why they are important to development and learning and a pedagogy that fosters their development in early learning environments through the explicit acknowledgement of the educative nature of care. To facilitate this the thesis proposes a mechanism to make psychological research more relevant to educational practice and to inform psychological research by reference to practice. In this regard the thesis proposes that the bio-ecological model of development (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998) provides a useful framework at both a theoretical and a practical level. Thirdly, in the context of the limited research base on early education in Ireland (Walsh, 2003) this thesis contributes an important addition. Using a complex research design the thesis provides comprehensive data on what parents and teachers expect of four-year-olds and details on what actually happens in the primary school classrooms these four-year-olds are attending. There is original analysis presented in this work, particularly in relation to social interactions within the classroom and the interaction between certain setting variables. Finally, this work contributes to the current debate on early education in Ireland by presenting and defending a unique integration of the literature review and empirical data at time when early education continues to be characterised as a period of preparation for school (Coolahan, 1998; Ireland, 1999a; 1999b). The thesis concludes that what four-yearolds are doing at school relies too much on the traditional view of development towards the acquisition of skills and knowledge, reflects limited active participation by children in their own learning, highlights the dominance of a traditional, didactic teaching style and indicates a limited recognition of the importance of developing skills of learning through planning for the development of learning dispositions. It provides recommendations for future research, reformed pedagogy, curriculum development and teacher education.