Oral Health Experiences of Social Workers Serving Children in the Foster Care System: Assessing the Feasibility of a Social Worker-Driven Oral Health Intervention

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Balancing cultural diversity and social cohesion in education: The potential of shared education in divided contexts

This article considers how the education systems of divided societies have been shaped in response to the experience of ethnic and religious conflict. The analysis identifies two competing priorities in such contexts – the development of social cohesion and the protection of cultural, ethnic and religious identities - and explores how these may be reconciled through a model of ‘shared education’. Drawing on research evidence and recent experience of shared education in relation to Northern Ireland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Cyprus, we reflect on the advantages and challenges of this model in areas experiencing conflict and division.

Student’s Perception on the Personal Impact of a Social Education Degree Internship

The functional profile of the social educator is based on the development of theoretical, technical and personal/relational skills, which should guide training courses organization. Assuming the shortcomings of a merely theoretical approach, besides a consistent preparation in theoretical and essential technical contents for socio-educational intervention, practice in context should be favoured as an opportunity to develop professional skills, together with a critical reflection on the functional profile. This study emerges from the need to reflect and rethink the internship, as well as how the respective supervision is developed, of the degree in social education at the School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, and it is based on the students’ perceptions about the impact of the internship on personal development. This is a qualitative and exploratory study, using the documentary analysis of 50 final internship reports. From the content analysis, four categories emerged referring to gains in terms of acquiring and managing knowledge, development of technical skills, personal and relational development and reinforcement of professional identity. The importance given to personal and relational development should be noted (41.4% of mentions) taking into account its relevance in constructing a professional identity. Findings on the technical skills and on the increase of profession knowledge, also by mobilising theoretical training, positively reinforce the internship model that is based on a proximity supervision approach and on a dialogical perspective of the professional learning.

Effects of coping strategies, social support and work-nonwork conflict on shift worker's health

Objectives This study examines the direct and mediated effects of shift workers' coping strategies and social support on structural work-nonwork conflict and subjective health. Methods The participants were 172 registered female nurses, aged 21 to 40 years. They all worked full-time, on rapidly rotating, 8-hour shifts in metropolitan general hospitals. All the respondents completed a self-administered questionnaire requesting demographic information and data on sources of social support, work-nonwork conflict, and coping strategies. Results A path model with good fit (chi(2)=28.88, df=23, P>.23, CFI=0.97) demonstrated complex effects of social support and coping on structural work-nonwork conflict and health. Conclusions Structural work-nonwork conflict mediated the effects of social support from supervisors and emotionally expressive coping on psychological symptoms. Control of shifts mediated the effect of social support from supervisors on structural work-nonwork conflict. Disengagement coping had direct and mediated effects on psychological and physical health. However, it also had mediated effects, with the effect on psychological health being mediated by support from co-workers and the effect on physical symptoms being mediated by family support. Go-worker support mediated the effect of social support from supervisors on psychological symptoms. Overall, these findings support previous research and clarify the process by which coping strategies and social support affect structural work-nonwork conflict and health in shift work.

Competing notions of social justice and contradictions in special education reform

In the past three decades, special education has been subjected to extensive critique and reform of practices. These critiques have been based on notions of social justice and equity. However, the field has suffered from inadequate attention to assumptions about social justice. Social justice is essentially a contested concept. Rather than representing a unitary and universally shared concept, social justice has variable meanings. Differing views of social justice can be seen to underlie apparent contradictions in continuing practice in response to pressures for reform. Reforms predicated on individual rights have been undermined by deep commitments to meritocratic practices in U.S. schools. Reforms based on more communitarian principles, however, ignore the need for structure and the tendency for communal values to marginalize people with disabilities. Special education reform today requires a different basis in a relational definition of the self, structures to support the qualities of relationships, and a belief in the mutability of social justice.

CAMCOG as a screening tool for diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia in a Brazilian clinical sample of moderate to high education

Background The CAMCOG is a brief neuropsychological battery designed to assess global cognitive function and ascertain the impairments that are required for the diagnosis of dementia. To date, the cut-off scores for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have not been determined. Given the need for an earlier diagnosis of mild dementia, new cut-off values are also necessary, taking into account cultural and educational effects. Methods One hundred and fifty-seven older adults (mean age: 69.6 +/- 7.4 years) with 8 or more years of formal education (mean years of schooling 14.2 +/- 3.8) attending a memory clinic at the Institute of Psychiatry University of Sao Paulo were included. Subjects were divided into three groups according to their cognitive status, established through clinical and neuropsychological assessment: normal controls, n = 62; MCI, n = 65; and mild or moderate dementia, n = 30. ROC curve analyses were performed for dementia vs controls, MCI vs controls and MCI vs dementia. Results The cut-off values were: 92/93 for dementia is controls (AUC = 0.99: sensitivity: 100%, specificity: 95%); 95/96 for MCI vs controls (AUC = 0.83, sensitivity: 64%, specificity: 88%), and 85/86 for MCI vs dementia (AUC = 0.91, sensitivity: 81%, specificity: 88%). The total CAMCOG score was more accurate than its subtests Mini-mental State Examination, Verbal Fluency Test and Clock Drawing Test when used separately. Conclusions The CAMCOG discriminated controls and MCI from demented patients, but was less accurate to discriminate MCI from controls. The best cut-off value to differentiate controls and demented was higher than suggested in the original publication, probably because only cases of mild to moderate dementia were included. This is important given the need for a diagnostic at earlier stages of Alzheimer`s disease. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Early intervention: Narratives of learning, discipline and enculturation

Current understandings about literacy have moved away from the belief that literacy is simply a process that individuals do in their heads. These understandings do not negate the importance of the individual aspects of literacy learning, but they emphasize understandings of literacy as a social practice. In many cases, responses to early literacy intervention seem to be grounded in theories that appear out of step with current literacy research and consequent evidence that literacy is socially and culturally constructed. One such response is the Reading Recovery programme based on Clay’s theory of literacy acquisition. Clay (1992) describes the programme as a second chance to learn. However, others have suggested that programmes like Reading Recovery may in fact work toward the marginalization of particular groups, thereby helping to maintain the status quo along class, gender and ethnic lines. This article allows two professionals to bring their insider’s knowledge of Reading Recovery to an analysis of the construction of the programme. The article interweaves this analysis with the personal narratives of the researchers as they negotiated the borders between different understandings and beliefs about literacy and literacy pedagogy.

A Mind of their Own. A Qualitative Study of Drug Education from a Young Person's Perspective: Exploring their Experiences, Views and Opinions

The main aims of the research are to explore young people's experiences and opinions of drug education and to discover whether it is, in their opinion, meeting their needs. The study was conducted with twenty young people aged fifteen to nineteen years in two towns in North County Dublin. The principal school teachers from three secondary schools in the area were also interviewed. The findings reveal there is a lack of planned drug education in the schools mainly, according to principal school teachers, due to timetable constraints. Another key finding is the need expressed by the young people for accurate and balanced drug education. The study also shows that there is a conflict between young people's negative opinion of teachers as drug educators and that of the literature and research, which identifies teachers as the most appropriate drug educators. In view of these findings the following recommendations are recommendations are suggested. Firstly, the role of teachers as drug educators needs further research. Secondly, the Substance Abuse Prevention Programme needs to be extended to include the over fifteen year's age group with a harm reduction/safety module as part of the programme. Thirdly, the Social, Personal and Health Education as a core subject needs to be fully implemented in the schools. Finally, the inclusion of young peoples' views in the form of a 'reference' or 'representative' group in each school would be a positive recommendation. This would give young consumers of drug education programmes some input into drug policy within the schools they attend.This resource was contributed by The National Documentation Centre on Drug Use.

The impact of two education methods on knowledge of schistosomiasis transmission and prevention among schoolchildren in a rural community in northern Minas Gerais, Brazil

The objective of this study was to analyse the effect of using two health education approaches on knowledge of transmission and prevention of schistosomiasis of school children living in a rural endemic area in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The 87 children participating in the study were divided into three groups based on gender, age and presence or absence of Schistosoma mansoni infection. In the first group the social representation model and illness experience was used. In the second group, we used the cognitive model based on the transmission of information. The third group, the control group, did not receive any information related to schistosomiasis. Ten meetings were held with all three groups that received a pre-test prior to the beginning of the educational intervention and a post-test after the completion of the program. The results showed that knowledge levels in Group 1 increased significantly during the program in regard to transmission (p = 0.038) and prevention (p = 0.001) of schistosomiasis. Groups 2 and 3 did not show significant increase in knowledge between the two tests. These results indicate that health education models need to consider social representation and illness experience besides scientific knowledge in order to increase knowledge of schistosomiasis transmission and prevention.

Conflict resolution and evolution of social structures in insect societies

In colonies of social Hymenoptera (which include all ants, as well as some wasp and bee species), only queens reproduce whereas workers generally perform other tasks. The evolution of worker's reproductive altruism can be explained by kin selection, which states that workers can indirectly transmit copies of their genes by helping the reproduction of relatives. The relatedness between queens and workers may however be low, particularly when there are multiple queens per colony, which limits the transmission of copies of workers genes and increases potential conflicts between colony members. In this thesis, we investigated the link between social structure variations and conflicts, and explored the mechanisms involved in variation of colony queen number in ants. According to kin selection, workers should rear the brood they are most related to. In social Hymenoptera, males are haploid whereas females (workers and queens) are diploid. As a result, workers can be up to three times more related to females than males in some colonies, where they should consequently favour the production of females. In contrast, queens are equally related to daughters and sons in all types of colonies and therefore should favour a balanced sex ratio. In a meta-analysis across all studies of social Hymenoptera, we showed that colony sex ratio is generally largely influenced by workers. Hence, the evolution of social structures where queens and workers are equally related to males and females may contribute to decrease the conflict between the two castes over colony sex ratio. Another conflict between queens and workers can occur over male production. Many species contain workers that still have the ability to lay haploid eggs. In some social structures, workers are on average more related to sons of queens than to sons of other workers. As a result, workers should eliminate worker-laid eggs to favour queen-laid eggs. We showed that in the ant Formica selysi, workers eliminate more worker-laid than queen-laid eggs, independently of colony social structure. These results therefore suggest that worker policing can evolve independently from relatedness, potentially because of costs of worker reproduction at the colony-level. Colony queen number is a key parameter that influences relatedness between group members. Queen body size is generally linked to the success of independent colony foundation by single queens and may influence the number of queens in the new colony. In the ant F. selysi, single-queen colonies produce larger queens than multiple-queen colonies. We showed that this association results from genes or maternal effects transmitted to the eggs. However, we also found that queens produced in colonies of the two social forms did not differ in their general ability to found new colonies independently. Queen body size may also influence queen dispersal ability and constrain small queens to be re-adopted in their original nest after mating at proximity. We tested the acceptance of new queens in another ant species, Formica paralugubris, which has numerous queens per colony. Our results show that workers do not discriminate between nestmate and foreign queens, and more generally accept new queens at a limited rate. To conclude, this thesis shows that mechanisms influencing variation in colony queen number and the influence of these changes on conflict resolution are complex. Data gathered in this thesis therefore constitute a solid background for further research on the evolution and the maintenance of complex organisations in insect societies.

An ASsessment of Relationship between Students' Perception of Social Studies and their Academic Performance in Colleges of Education in Kaduna State

The objective of this study was to find out the relationship between students’ perception of Social Studies and their academic performance in the subject in Colleges of Education in Kaduna State. The respondents of the study comprised NCE 2 and NCE 3 students of Social Studies at the Federal College of Education in Zaria and the Kaduna State College of Education in Gidan Waya. The data for the study was collected using a questionnaire with reliability coefficient of 0.87. The Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to test the hypotheses formulated for the study. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance with df = 232. The findings were as follows: 1. The Social Studies students in colleges of education in Kaduna State do not record high academic performance in the subject. 2. Students’ perception of the Social Studies curriculum does affect their academic performance in the subject 3. Students’ perception of relevance of Social Studies education has no bearing on their academic performance in the subject. 4. Students’ perception of public attitude towards Social Studies has no impact on their academic performance in the subject. 5. Students’ general perception of Social Studies does not affect their academic performance in the subject. Based on these findings the following recommendations were proffered for Social Studies researchers and policy makers. a. There is need for further research in order to determine the actual cause of students’ failure to display high performance in Social Studies. b. The NCE Social Studies curriculum should be reviewed in terms of volume and difficulty.

Mobility Among Social Education Students at the University of Girona: Taking Stock of a Decade of Fieldwork Practice Abroad

The following article is divided into five sections, each one with a specific objective. The first section briefly presents the student mobility experiences obtained basically through the fieldwork practice course in social education studies at the University of Girona. The second section delves more deeply to explore the value of the exchange and the student mobility experience over one semester of intensive fieldwork practice. The third section presents data about the students who have participated in this experience inall ten of the graduating classes. The fourth part offers an assessment of the experience and reports which aspects are considered essential to a good student mobility experience. Finally, various actions to be taken to improve these educational experiences within the social education studies at the University of Girona are specified

Scope and constraint in the diagnosis of cluttering: combining two perspectives

A chapter outlining a theoretical position on the definition of the speech language disorder, cluttering.