The lived experience of patients receiving radiotherapy for head and neck cancer: A literature review

It is estimated that 60% of patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer will receive radiotherapy at some stage in their disease trajectory. The aim of this literature review was to find and analyse papers pertaining to the lived experiences of patients with head and neck cancer receiving radiotherapy. The review identified a limited number of high-quality research papers focusing on this topic, with only 10 papers fitting the inclusion/exclusion criteria. The majority of the investigative studies were not generalisable owing to small sample sizes and many of them being conducted in only one centre. However, the findings do highlight and contribute to the understanding of the lived experiences of this patient group and provide some insight into the unique physical, social, and psychological difficulties they encounter as a result of their treatment. There appears to be a need for further high-level research into these patients, particularly focusing on the provision of support and information prior to, during, and following radiotherapy. Further attention needs to be paid to preparing patients for the slow recovery following radiotherapy. Interventional studies are also required to develop clinical guidelines and protocols that can assist health professionals in meeting the holistic needs of this patient group.

Student teachers' experiences of initial teacher preparation in England:Core themes and variation

Drawing on data generated via large-scale survey and in-depth interview methods, this article reports findings which show that being a student teacher in early-twenty-first-century England is a demanding personal experience which requires considerable engagement and commitment in the face of built-in challenges and risks, and which engenders, for many, highly charged affective responses. Student teachers are centrally concerned during this time with their (changing) identities, their relationships with others and the relevance of course provision. Findings also indicate that, in some respects, student teachers’ accounts of their experiences are systematically differentiated according to a number of factors, notably the initial teacher preparation route being followed, their age, and their prior conceptions and expectations of teaching and of learning to teach. These findings are situated in the broader literature on teacher development and some implications for teacher educators are discussed. © 2008 Taylor & Francis

Language Teacher Education in Ireland, North and South

The European Union considers modern languages among the basic skills or key competencies required by all its citizens and is concerned to promote excellence in the teaching and learning of languages as well as greater diversity in the range of languages available to learners in the Member States, as witnessed by the recent European Commission Action Plan, Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: An Action Plan 2004-2006. This consideration, the changing socio-cultural demography of Ireland, the need for more joined-up thinking in the context of language teaching in schools, and in the context of language teacher education in particular, form the back-drop to the paper. Among the challenges facing modern/world languages’ education in Ireland identified in the paper are, lack of a languages’ policy, lack of a languages’ strategy, and lack of an integrated language curriculum and by implication, a whole school approach to language teaching and learning. The paper refers to positive signs that are occurring in this context as well, e.g. official recognition to Irish as a working language in the European Union and in the Official Languages Act in Ireland (2003). The paper reports on the recent first ever all Ireland cross-border conference in the context of language teacher education. It outlines the background, aims, and content of the conference that includes findings from a study about the impact of autonomous language teaching and learning supported by the European Language Portfolio in the context of post-primary language teacher education in Ireland. The paper shows data from the first ever survey on language teacher education provision, policy and practice across colleges in Ireland, North and South. Initial teacher education is on the cusp of change. This paper highlights several key issues facing language teacher education. This paper has implications for Irish as well as international readers, and is aimed at supporting all those who want to bring about improvement in this important area.