Managing the family`s health: preferences and experiences of women with different work and family arrangements.

Balancing the needs of work and family is a subject of much debate.The purpose of this research was to explore how families manage their children's health within the context of different work and family arrangements.In-depth interviews were conducted with women who were at home full time (8) or in paid work over 30 hours a week (7). Women had at least one child under the five years of age. Findings revealed there was no simple relationship between women's working arrangements and how they managed their children's health. All women, irrespective of their working arrangements, held similar preferences for managing their children's health.However, most women experienced either time or financial constraints that meant they had to compromise their original preferences. In some cases this meant children missed out on receiving health services. Workplace support, extended family support and general satisfaction with work and family arrangements appeared to be important factors for the small number of women who had no problems in managing their children's health. The implications of these findings are discussed.<br />

The several social constructions of James, Jenks, and Prout: A contribution to the sociological theorization of childhood

The article is intended to contribute to the ongoing debate over theorizations of childhood, especially in the terms articulated by Allison James, Chris Jenkins and Alan Prout. The article focuses on the notion of social construction as a theory of childhood. There are four valid approaches to theorizing childhood. The tribal approach treats childhood as a kind of exotic tribe with its own beliefs, practices and institutions. The social structural approach treats childhood as a structurally necessary stratum in any society. The minority group approach treats childhood as an oppressed minority group, able to some extent to represent themselves and exert quasi-political action. The socially constructed approach constitutes the sociological view of childhood. The key role played by the idea of social construction is made extremely clear in the earlier work, Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood by James and Prout. Social constructionism is said to be an interpretive approach, related historically to research on children's understanding of adult experimenters' intentions. The senses of social construction that emerge from critical psychology overlap a great deal with those articulated in the new sociology of childhood.<br />

Losing innocence : finding the line between emotional bonds and boundaries in protective service work

This paper builds on existing literature on the notion of emotional labour by investigating work in a child protective service environment. Notable characteristics of formal organisations, such as child protective services, are that they operate within a legal framework and that workers' professional duties have great influence on clients. This paper examines the intricacies of the worker-client relationship and the emotional dynamics of the service interactions by interviewing a group of workers in a public hospital in Victoria, Australia. This research extricates the complexities in the client-worker relationship by examining a range of work characteristics including their roles as professional caregivers, the emotional bonds and boundaries in the workers-client relationship, the intensity and magnitude of felt and displayed emotions, as well as the self-management of emotions and clients' emotions. This study adds to existing knowledge on the emotional expressions, experiences and regulation of emotions of the professional work lives in a child protective service work environment.<br />This paper is divided into the following sections. The first section details protective service work within the larger framework of human service work, and how the worker-client interface is different from other front-line service work. This is followed the need to examine the emotional dynamics of work in a child protective service organisation. Next, a study of these emotional dynamics in a child protective service organisation is reported. The paper concludes with a consideration of the wider implications for the sociology of protective service work, and how affective issues differ other service work roles.<br />

Can experiential learning improve emotional intelligence and can that, in turn, improve the work performance of middle managers?

A group of middle managers in the Australian arm of a large Global company participated in a program of experiential leadership training over a period of one year. One aim of the program was increased interpersonal skills and awareness. Change was measured using a mixed quantitative and qualitative longitudinal design. Pre and post-training measures of emotional intelligence were obtained using the EIQ (Dulewicz &amp; Higgs, 2000) and compared with content analysis of journals kept by participants during the program. The dependent variable was measured by pre and post training measures of work performance. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for management development as well as for further research.<br />

Is it worth the effort? How feedback influences students' subsequent submission of assessable work

This paper explores the extent to which students appear to their assessors to act on feedback they have received, and questions the assumption that providing feedback alone is sufficient to effect higher standards of work by students. Feedback provided to 51 undergraduate social work students, on two consecutive assignments involving a similar task, was examined to ascertain the number of problem areas noted from seven predefined categories. While the greatest increase in marks was associated with the greatest reductions in the number of problem areas identified in the comments, overall two-thirds of all students (66.7%) were awarded marks for both assignments within four percentage points. As such, this study found only limited support for the idea that students respond to feedback by making changes which are consistent with the intent of the feedback received. Hence the assumption that providing feedback alone is sufficient to effect higher standards of work by students was not supported. These findings invite educators to critically reflect on their own practices in providing feedback to students. <br />

Would the 'real' girl gamer please stand up? Gender, LAN cafes and the reformulation of the 'girl' gamer.

In this paper we consider the significance of cyber 'LAN' cafeacutes as sites where on and off-line practices meet in way that complicates binary notions of the gendered gamer. Existing research into computer games culture suggests a male dominated environment and points to girls' lower levels of competence and participation in games. Building on recent studies interested in the constitution of gender through engagement with online technologies, we draw on Judith Butler's politics of performative resignification, and conceptualise digital culture as a resource through which 'girl' gamers are mobilised and potentially reformulated, experiencing their gaming identities in contradictory ways, and fragmenting the category 'girl' in the very act of articulating their place in a male dominated gaming culture. It is argued that through the meeting of on and off-line practices, LAN cafeacutes operate as a location that is particularly amenable to reformulative work in relation to gendered gaming identities.<br />

Wages, career progression, training and work family policies : an integrated approach to explaining gender discrimination

While the Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) literature suggests that considerable progress has been made towards addressing gender-based discrimination (primarily through legal instruments), direct and indirece forms of discrimination persist and tend to be perpetuated through organisational practices (Tomaskovic-Devey 2001). Women are still receive less remuneration than men and are disadvantaged with respect to fundamental entitlements such as promotion and training and education. Furthermore, as more women enter employment the issue of work and family balance has become an organisational priority. There is a large body of research literature in the disciplines of economics, sociology, industrial relations, human resource management, organisational studies and public administration that examines the sources, nature and extent of gender-based discrimination in labour markets. This paper seeks to integrate this literature by taking a multi-disciplinary approach to the problem of women, EEO and discrimination. It is argued that our understanding of discrimination is greatly enhanced by theories and models that incorporate both economic and organisational explanations. Furthermore, it is argued that discrimination in terms of promotion, pay and training are endogenous. That is, the interrelationship between these variables needs to be taken into account simultaneously to accurately estimate the degree of direct and indirect discrimination that women face. The paper provides a review of the literature on the key themes of pay equity, career progression, education and training and work-family policy, and seeks to provide a synthesis of key themes. Emerging from this literature are a number of testable hypotheses. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.

Work-life integration : international perspectives on the balancing of multiple roles

The question of work-life balance and the difficulties of managing multiple roles is attracting considerable interest. This international collection broadens the focus of these debates and presents recent research findings that will further stimulate theoretical development and empirical studies. While much previous research has focused on the challenges faced by working mothers, the research presented in this collection introduces perspectives that have not been widely included in previous work in the field, such as the voice of children, the challenges that students face, the role of both employers and unions and how different occupational groups experience work-life balancing strategies.<br />

Attitudes about work practices, time allocation and publication output: profiles of U.S. marketing academics

This study examines attitudes of U.S.-based Academy of Marketing Science members toward teaching, research, participation in administration (including service), and academic promotional issues. Individuals were grouped using Ward&rsquo;s and K-means clustering procedures, which revealed four groups&mdash;established academics, research-focused academics, less satisfied midcareer academics, and satisfied teachers. Clusters were further profiled according to the amount of time spent on teaching, research, and administration; research output; and individual demographic and institutional characteristics. Overall, clusters were generally dissatisfied with a range of work-related issues, with workload stress appearing as an issue that needs to be addressed within marketing academia. <br />

Friendships under strain : the work-personal life integration of middle managers

Middle managers in today's organisations have reported experiencing longer working hours and intensified work regimes. These increased pressures, in turn, have led to growing difficulty in addressing the integration of their work and personal lives. In an exploratory study of the daily workplace experiences of Australian middle managers and the impacts on their personal lives, one of the key themes to emerge was respondents' concerns about the negative effects on their friendships. This paper discusses middle managers' recognition of the value of friendships for their wellbeing, and the resultant anger and sadness reported at the strain on these relationships due to competing time demands. The significant role that friendships play in alleviating some of the stresses of work demands, while concurrently being impeded by these same demands, is an important issue for organisations to consider. These findings indicate the need for middle managers to truly have an ability to engage in activities - and friendships - which will aid them in their working lives. The study also indicates a need for further investigation into the development and maintenance of friendships for both middle managers and other groups of employees. <br />

An exploration of the pedagogies employed to integrate knowledge in work-integrated learning

This article describes a three-sector, national research project that investigated the integration aspect of work-integrated learning (WIL). The context for this study is three sectors of New Zealand higher education: business and management, sport, and science and engineering, and a cohort of higher educational institutions that offer WIL/cooperative education in variety of ways. The aims of this study were to investigate the pedagogical approaches in WIL programs that are currently used by WIL practitioners in terms of learning, and the integration of academic-workplace learning. The research constituted a series of collective case studies, and there were two main data sources � interviews with three stakeholder groups (namely employers, students, and co-op practitioners), and analyses of relevant documentation (e.g., course/paper outlines, assignments on reflective practice, portfolio of learning, etc.). The research findings suggest that there is no consistent mechanism by which placement coordinators, off-campus supervisors, or mentors seek to employ or develop pedagogies to foster learning and the integration of knowledge. Learning, it seems, occurs by means of legitimate peripheral participation with off-campus learning occurring as a result of students working alongside professionals in their area via an apprenticeship model of learning. There is no evidence of explicit attempts to integrate on- and off-campus learning, although all parties felt this would and should occur. However, integration is implicitly or indirectly fostered by a variety of means such as the use of reflective journals. <br />

Ontological possibilities the rethinking teaching on the "nature of science"

An extensive literature documents teachers’ failure to include ideas about the 'nature of science' (NOS) in their classroom programmes, despite widespread advocacy for this as an essential component of more inclusive science teaching. This thesis frames much of the existing NOS literature as a deficit literature that focuses on epistemology, while largely ignoring the ontological realities of the classroom and overestimating individual teacher’s agency to change their enacted curriculum. Epistemologically-focused NOS reforms are positioned as curriculum 'add-ons', which teachers are likely to ignore. A NOS focus on ontology would entail curriculum restructuring, attending first to the contexts in which scientific knowledge is produced, and the ways it acts in the world. In any case, science itself has changed in recent years. Drawing from the sociology of science, in particular the work of Bruno Latour, the thesis compares traditional philosophical thinking about the ontology of science with more recent 'networked' views. Brent Davis explains the educational implications of key ideas from complexity science. Political philosopher Stephen White adds an ethical dimension. His ideas are used to argue for replacing 'strong' ontologies of realist science with more nuanced and actively tended 'weak' ontologies, as appropriate to the rapid sociological changes of the twenty-first century. The thesis argues that epistemological uncertainties that could lead to the suspicion of relativism are potentially threatening in the classroom because of hegemonic pressures towards consensus and a certain, safe status for the knowledge taught. Seeking an alternative pathway to change, Daniel Liston’s conceptualisation of teaching as a passionate act informs the analysis of the empirical component of the thesis. Eight recipients of New Zealand Royal Society Science Teacher Fellowships were interviewed on four occasions over two years. They discussed their personal learning during a year-long sabbatical to carry out an extended science investigation and their thoughts and actions on returning to the classroom. Narrative methodology is used to explore the teachers’ stories, revealing both passion for their personal learning and an ethical concern for their students’ learning to care for both the natural world and science as a means of its investigation. The thesis argues for the use of ontological approaches to the initial introduction of NOS ideas in school science, with epistemological concepts added only once a topic has been grounded in what Latour calls 'matters of concern'.Two potential teaching strategies—the production of network diagrams and the use of Davis's 'bifurcations'as a critical inquiry tool—are the focus of hypothetical experimentation. First in the context of global warming, and then addressing the challenges posed to teaching evolution by the proponents of 'intelligent design', these strategies are shown to have the potential to address some of science education’ s thornier issues, not just the NOS question. However, when conflicting expectations create tensions for teachers in the classroom moment, it is difficult for them to introduce reflective, deeply philosophical changes to their representation of science. Their working realities need to be acknowledged, and the tensions ameliorated, if we expect substantive change in their current practice.

Women, words, and work : a study of change and reconstruction in adult TESOL

My dissertation asserts that the discourses which at the present time construct the world of work for teachers in adult TESOL, are no longer adequate to represent the field in these new and rapidly changing times. For the last forty years the discourses that have constructed the field present a totalising, gender free, liberal humanist view of TESOL, rendering women's experience invisible, no longer speaking to or for women teachers who make up more than ninety percent of the teachers in Victorian adult TESOL programs (Cope & Kalantzis 1993, Brodkey 1991, Fine 1992, Peirce 1995). I begin by exploring the work of women teachers in adult TESOL, focusing on women teaching in the fast growing de-institutionalised settings of adult TESOL programs, which remain marginalised from the central programs in terms of administrative policy and practice. I report the findings of a series of projects undertaken by the teachers and the researcher by which new insights and understandings of teachers beliefs about their work and the changes which are currently reconstructing the field of adult language and literacy education in Australia, have been gained. I questions the discourses of applied linguistics which have for the past forty years constructed the field of adult TESOL in Australia and suggests that these lack a social theory (Candlin 1989). From the research findings I questions the possibility of continuing to work in the ways of the past, in the current climate of reconstruction of the field, rapid policy change and continued erosion of resources. I suggest that the previously loose system which held this field of work together, the ways of working, the understandings of practice, have in the light of these new times, been stretched to the limit and are in real danger of collapse. For the women working in TESOL this continued incursion of the systems into their work and the changes that have taken place, the denial of their ways of working, their local knowledge and gendered experiences, can be read against Habermas' concept of the colonisation of the lifeworld of language teaching (Habermas 1987).

1948 and 1968 Czech refugee settlers in Australia : a comparison of the settlement and integration processes among two waves of settlers

Nearly eighteen years ago when I first became interested in the history and sociology of Australian immigration, I was particularly attracted by the fact and opportunity to incorporate immigration settlement, experience and accomplishments in my history teaching in secondary school. In particular it was the area of the settlement of Australia that needed a fuller understanding in the teaching of Australian history. By that I mean it was needed to show that there were many other ethnic groups besides the Anglo-Saxon group which had participated in the development of Australia since 1788. Since the end of World War II, the Australian population has doubled, the population structure and characteristics have changed and knowledge about the diverse groups forming the Australian nation is now sought. Sane ethnic groups, mainly the numerically large, have been studied and numerous reports are available. But many of the smaller groups have attracted little interest among Australian scholars. This was one of the reasons that I decided to research the behaviour of one of the smaller groups - the Czechs - to find out about their immigration history to Australia; their immigration processes such as re-settlement and re-establishment; and their community life since World War II. Because of the scarcity of written materials on Czechs in Australia, I had to rely on interviews, personal reminiscenses, letters and documents translated from the Czech language. I should like to express my gratitude to all people and officials of Czech ethnic organisations and clubs in Australia, who agreed to be interviewed and who provided me with documentary material so important for my work. Respecting the wishes of my interviewees their anonymity had to be preserved. In the course of my research, I have received substantial help and the encouragement from the Editor of the now extinct Czech language paper Newspaper Hlas domova, Mr. F.V., whose co-operation is gratefully recognised. I am also grateful to Associate Professor William D. Rubinstein for his help and encouragement in all stages of my work. The introductory part of the study is covered in Chapter One. She reasons for the need to increase Australia's population after World War II and an analysis of the development of settlement in Australia between 1947 and 1984 are discussed. The emigration of Czechs into Australia and their place in the post-war immigration scheme is introduced. To obtain an overview of how Czechs have emigrated around the world, the literature describing their settlement is compared. Also discussed in the literature on Czech settlement in Australia from an historical point of view. The studies on the concept of ethnicity and settlement in Australia are used to document the theoretical issues for an understanding of Australian society. This chapter also contains aspects of sources and research, shewing the processes of documentary research, interviews and related matters. In Chapter Two the history of Czech emigration is discussed, covering the period from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. The first contacts with Australia are highlighted, continuing into the inter-war period and finally the re-settlement of Czechs after World War II. To understand why Czechs left their ancestral country after World War II, the political situation in Czechoslovakia is analysed. The third chapter concentrates mainly in the 1948 wave of settlers, who left Czechoslovakia after the communist take-over in 1948. Their means of departure from their homeland, selection of Australia as a new homeland and their re-settlement and re-establishment are discussed. Their attitudes after their arrival and their later stages of their settlement are analysed. The formation of numerous Czech ethnic organisations which mushroomed between 1950 and 1954 led to an active community life which began to change about five years after their arrival. These charges led to disorganisation of Czech community's life. The causes of these changes which were influential for the failure of the 1948 group to establish a viable community in Australia are analysed. In Chapter Four the wave of 1968 is viewed, their arrival and settling is covered. The study of their group attitudes and formation of group institutions is the main part of this section. A comparison of my data of the two waves, 1948 and 1968, reveals the information that these two groups did not develop the harmonious relationship expected of them as members of the one ethnic group. Chapter Five discusses immigration typologies and concentrates on the differences between legal and illegal emigrants from the Czechoslovak point of view. The integration processes of Czechs and their incorporation into Australian society are discussed. The sixth chapter sums up the findings of this disertation and states the influences which were responsible for the divisions in Czech ethnic life in Australia in the 1980s.

Nursing work and nursing knowledge : exploring the work of women's health nurses, patterns of power and praxis

The majority of women's health nurses in this study work in generalist community health centres. They have developed their praxis within the philosophy and policies of the broader women's health movement and primary health care principles in Australia. The fundamental assumption underlying this study is that women's health nurses possess a unique body of knowledge and clinical wisdom that has not been previously documented and explored. The epistemological base from which these nurses' operate offers important insights into the substantive issues that create and continually shape the practice world of nurses and their clients. Whether this represents a (re)construction of the dominant forms of health care service delivery for women is examined in this study. The study specifically aims at exploring the practice issues and experience of women's health service provision by women's health nurses in the context of the provision of cervical cancer screening services. In mapping this particular group of nurses practice, it sets out to examine the professional and theoretical issues in contemporary nursing and women's health care. In critically analysing the powerful discourses that shape and reshape nursing work, the study raises the concern that previous analyses of pursing work tend to universalise the structural and social subordination of nurses and nursing knowledge. This universalism is most often based on examples of midwifery and nursing work in hospital settings, and subsequently, because of these conceptualisations, all of nursing is too often deemed as a dependent occupation, with little agency, and is analysed as always in relation to medicine, to hospitals, to other knowledge forms. Denoting certain discourses as dominant proposes a relationship of power and knowledge and the thesis argues that all work relations and practices in health are structured by certain power/knowledge relations. This analysis reveals that there IX are many competing and complimentary power/knowledge relations that structure nursing, but that nursing, and in particular women's health nurses, also challenge the power/knowledge relations around them. Through examining theories of power and knowledge the analysis, argues that theoretical eclecticism is necessary to address the complex and varied nature of nursing work. In particular it identifies that postmodern and radical feminist theorising provide the most appropriate framework to further analyse and interpret the work of women's health nurses. Fundamental to the position argued in this thesis is a feminist perspective. This position creates important theoretical and methodological links throughout the whole study. Feminist methodology was employed to guide the design, the collection and the analysis. Intrinsic to this process was the use of the 'voices' of women's health nurses as the basis for theorising. The 'voices' of these nurses are highlighted in the chapters as italicised bold script. A constant companion along the way in examining women's health nurses' work, was the reflexivity with feminist research processes, the theoretical discussions and their 'voices'. Capturing and analysing descriptive accounts of nursing praxis is seen in this thesis as providing a way to theorise about nursing work. This methodology is able to demonstrate the knowledge forms embedded in clinical nursing praxis. Three conceptual threads emerge throughout the discussions: one focuses on nursing praxis as a distinct process, with its own distinct epistemological base rather than in relation to 'other' knowledge forms; another describes the medical restriction and opposition as experienced by this group of nurses, but also of their resistance to medical opposition. The third theme apparent from the interviews, and which was conceptualised as beyond resistance, was the description of the alternative discourses evident in nursing work, and this focused on notions of being a professional and on autonomous nursing praxis. This study concludes that rather than accepting the totalising discourses about nursing there are examples within nursing of resistance—both ideologically and X in practice—to these dominant discourses. Women's health nurses represent an important model of women's health service delivery, an analysis of which can contribute to critically reflecting on the 'paradigm of oppression' cited in nursing and about nursing more generally. Reflecting on women's health service delivery also has relevance in today's policy environment, where structural shifts in Commonwealth/State funding arrangements in community based care, may undermine women's health programs. In summary this study identifies three important propositions for nursing: • nursing praxis can reconstruct traditional models of health care; • nursing praxis is powerful and able to 'resist' dominant discourses; and • nursing praxis can be transformative. Joining feminist perspectives and alternative analyses of power provides a pluralistic and emancipatory politics for viewing, describing and analysing 'other' nursing work. At the micro sites of power and knowledge relations—in the everyday practice worlds of nurses, of negotiation and renegotiation, of work on the margins and at the centre—women's health nurses' praxis operates as a positive, productive and reconstructive force in health care.