Undertaking Sensitive Interviews: Reflections on Interviewing Bereaved Parents

Paediatric palliative care is a rare experience for many GPs. Although they recognise that they have a role to play, and can be is value in providing palliative care, their ability to fulfil this role can be hindered by a lack of role clarity. A qualitative study set in the West Midlands, examined the role of the GP in children's oncology palliative care from the perspective of the GP who had cared for the child receiving palliative scare for cancer at home and the bereaved parent. One-to-one semi-sturcured interviews were undertaken with 18 GPs an 11 bereaved parent following the death. A ground theory data analysis was undertaken: identifying generated themes through chronological comparative data analysis. Reflecting on my experiences working with bereaved families both as a paediatric Macmillan nurse and a researcher, the challenges of undertaking sensitive research, in relation to the vulnerability of the particular group and the nature of questions being asked will be explored.

Critical incident analysis: reflections of a teacher educator

As a teacher educator I consider myself an advocate for research-informed education, and strongly believe that it starts with one’s own critical self-reflection and analysis of one’s own teaching practice. Critical incident analysis is a pedagogical theory developed by Tripp (1993), whose analytical approaches allow reflection on teaching situations – ‘the critical incident’ – so that teachers can develop their professional judgments and practices. This article examines the concept of critical incident analysis through a teaching situation, with the aim of improving the teaching practice of students on teacher education programmes. I conclude that although critical incident analysis is a useful tool in navigating teaching practices, often challenges need to be addressed at much broader levels than the teaching context itself.

Reflections on inclusion: how far have we come since Warnock and Salamanca?

In England, inclusion has once again become a much discussed topic following the publication of the 2015 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice. There have been successes and improvements in inclusion since the Warnock Committee first published its findings on special educational needs in 1978, but many argue that these improvements are not enough. When the state of inclusion today is compared to the ideals advocated by both the Warnock Report and the Salamanca Statement it is clear that the education system has fallen short of the expectations outlined in these documents. There have been efforts to reduce the level of segregation between special schools and mainstream schools such as the establishment of resourced provisions, but these settings often have their own difficulties when considering inclusion.

Reflections on migration in the global south

How can we achieve a better understanding of the variations in international migration to, from, and within the Global South? To facilitate a dia-logue about this topic, we asked a number of contributors to write or to provide a video statement about their region of expertise. To some we explicitly posed the following question: Is it possible to distinguish current or historical experiences or patterns of migration in the Global South that differ from patterns in the Global North?

Symposium commentary : reflections on the theory of deliberative systems

Researching a segmented market: reflections on telephone interviewing

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to review the effectiveness of telephone interviewing for capturing data and to consider in particular the challenges faced by telephone interviewers when capturing information about market segments. Design/methodology/approach The platform for this methodological critique was a market segment analysis commissioned by Sport Wales which involved a series of 85 telephone interviews completed during 2010. Two focus groups involving the six interviewers involved in the study were convened to reflect on the researchers’ experiences and the implications for business and management research. Findings There are three principal sets of findings. First, although telephone interviewing is generally a cost-effective data collection method, it is important to consider both the actual costs (i.e. time spent planning and conducting interviews) as well as the opportunity costs (i.e. missed appointments, “chasing participants”). Second, researchers need to be sensitised to and sensitive to the demographic characteristics of telephone interviewees (insofar as these are knowable) because responses are influenced by them. Third, the anonymity of telephone interviews may be more conducive for discussing sensitive issues than face-to-face interactions. Originality/value The present study adds to this modest body of literature on the implementation of telephone interviewing as a research technique of business and management. It provides valuable methodological background detail about the intricate, personal experiences of researchers undertaking this method “at a distance” and without visual cues, and makes explicit the challenges of telephone interviewing for the purposes of data capture.

The Gospel treasury, and expository harmony of the four evangelists : in the words of the authorised version : having Scripture illustrations; expository notes form the most aproved commentators; practical reflections; geographical notices, copious index, etc. /

Includes index.

Reflexiones e interrogantes sobre la construcción interdisciplinaria en la praxis: Reflections and questions on the interdisciplinary construction in praxis

Las reflexiones e interrogantes presentes en este artículo devienen del interés de analizar y problematizar al respecto de la construcción interdisciplinaria en la praxis desde la perspectiva de la Psicología Social Comunitaria. En esta comunicación lo propuesto es convocar al intercambio, en tanto este proceso de producción académica se plantea a partir de una investigación que definió como objetivo general comprender cómo se construye la interdisciplina en la praxis desde el análisis de un caso integrando la perspectiva de referentes calificados. Si bien este estudio cumplió con lo propuesto también potenció el interés en comprender y dialogar con otros, lo que se constituyó en motor para la escritura de este trabajo. Se definió como punto de partida de la reflexión teórica priorizar los enfoques latinoamericanos y realizar sin pretensión de exhaustividad una aproximación conceptual a los términos de interdisciplina y praxis. Se integran algunos principios de la Psicología Social Comunitaria en tanto se pretende identificar los aportes que desde esta perspectiva se puedan realizar a la construcción de la interdisciplinariedad en la praxis. Flexibilidad, incertidumbre, movimiento en clave en transformación, apertura, diálogo, hacen a la caja de herramientas a considerar si lo propuesto es trabajar con otros. Las consideraciones finales se plantean en clave de interrogantes en tanto el desafío es preguntarse para procurar generar alternativas transformadoras en los procesos de construcción interdisciplinar.

Future consumers’ perceptions of sustainability, and their reflections on buying decisions

The purpose of this quantitative study is to study future consumers’ perception of sustainability in relation to business in general and specifically concerning the forest industry. The aim is to understand, what they feel is important for sustainable business and how the forest industry, in their opinion, is performing in this respect. Further, it aims to study how these perceptions reflect in their buying decisions. The research was conducted by a quantitative survey in two countries, Finland and Hong Kong, in the spring of 2015. All data used in the research is primary. The result indicate that consumers see sustainability issues important today and in the future. Sustainability is seen important both for business in general for the forest industry. The industry is considered sustainable now, but room for improvements exists. The appreciation of sustainability does not reflect to buying decisions, however. The buying of ecological products seems to be more up to chance than to intention. Consumers are not proactive in searching for more ecological or responsible options. Information needs to be taken to them. Ecologicalness as such is still not a strong selling point.

Spiritual reflections on the several chapters of Holy Scripture.

v.1. Genesis to Psalms.--v.2. Proverbs to Revelation.

Beyond hope: Rhetorics of mobility, possibility, and literacy

When writing teachers enter the classroom, they often bring with them a deep faith in the power of literacy to rectify social inequalities and improve their students’ social and economic standing. It is this faith—this hope for change—that draws some writing teachers to locations of social and economic hardship. I am interested in how teachers and theorists construct their own narratives of social mobility, possibility, and literacy. My dissertation analyzes the production and expression of beliefs about literacy in the narratives of a diverse group of writing teachers and theorists, from those beginning their careers to those who are published and widely read. The central questions guiding this study are: How do teachers’ and theorists’ narratives of becoming literate intersect with literacy theories? and How do such literacy narratives intersect with beliefs in the power of literacy to improve individuals’ lives socially, economically, and personally? I contend that the professional literature needs to address more fully how teachers’ and theorists’ personal histories with literacy shape what they see as possible (and desirable) for students, especially those from marginalized communities. A central focus of the dissertation is on how teachers and theorists attempt to resolve a paradox they are likely to encounter in narratives about literacy. On one hand, they are immersed in a popular culture that cherishes narrative links between literacy and economic advancement (and, further, between such advancement and a “good life”). On the other hand, in professional discourse and in teacher preparation courses, they are likely to encounter narratives that complicate an assumed causal relationship between literacy and economic progress. Understanding, through literacy narratives, how teachers and theorists chart a practical path through or around this paradox can be beneficial to literacy education in three ways. First, it can offer direction in professional development and teacher education, addressing how teachers negotiate the boundaries between personal experience, theory, and pedagogy. Second, it can help teachers create spaces wherein students can explore the impact of paradoxical views about the role of literacy on their own lives. Finally, it can offer direction in public policy discourse, extending awareness of what we want—and need—from English language arts education in the twenty-first century. To explore these issues, I draw on case studies and ethnographic observation as well as narrative inquiry into teachers’ and theorists’ published literacy narratives. I situate my findings within three interrelated frames: 1) the narratives of new teachers, 2) the published works of literacy educators and theorists, and 3) my own literacy narrative. My first chapter, “Beyond Hope,” explores the tenuous connections between hope and critique in literacy studies and provides a methodological overview of the study. I argue that scholarship must move beyond a singular focus on either hope or critique in order to identify the transformative potential of literacy in particular circumstances. Analyzing literacy narratives provides a way of locating a critically informed sense of possibility. My second chapter, “Making Teachers, Making Literacy,” explores the intersection between teachers’ lives and the theories they study, based on qualitative analysis of a preservice course for secondary education English teachers. I examine how these preservice English teachers understood literacy, how their narratives of becoming literate and teaching English connected—and did not connect—with theoretical and pedagogical positions, and how these stories might inform their future work as practitioners. Centering primarily on preservice teachers who resisted Nancie Atwell’s pedagogy of possibility because they found it too good to be true, this research concentrates on moments of disjuncture, as expressed in class discussion and in one-on-one interviews, when literacy theories failed to align with aspiring teachers’ understandings of their own experiences and also with what they imagined as possible in disadvantaged educational settings. In my third and fourth chapters, I analyze the narratives of celebrated teachers and theorists who put forth an agenda that emphasizes possibilities through literacy, examining how they negotiate the relationship between their own literacy stories and literacy theories. Specifically, I investigate the narratives of three proponents of critical literacy: Mike Rose, Paulo Freire, and Myles Horton, all highly respected literacy teachers whose working-class backgrounds influenced their commitment to teaching in disenfranchised communities. In chapter 3, “Reading Lives on the Boundary,” I demonstrate how Mike Rose’s 1989 autobiographical text, Lives on the Boundary, juxtaposes rhetorics of mobility with critiques of such possibility. Through an analysis of work published in professional journals, I offer a reception history of Rose’s narrative, focusing specifically on how teachers have negotiated the tension between hope and critique. I follow this analysis with three case studies, drawn from a larger sampling, that inquire into the personal connections that writing teachers make with Lives on the Boundary. The teachers in this study, who provided written responses and participated in audio-recorded follow-up interviews, were asked to compare Rose’s story to their own stories, considering how their personal literacy histories influenced their teaching. My findings illustrate how a group of teachers and theorists have projected their own assessments of what literacy and higher education can and cannot accomplish onto this influential text. In my fourth chapter, “Horton and Freire’s Road as Literacy Narrative,” I concentrate on Myles Horton and Paulo Freire’s 1990 collaborative spoken book, We Make the Road by Walking. Central to my analysis are the educators’ stories about their formative years, including their own primary and secondary education experiences. I argue that We Make the Road by Walking demonstrates how theories of literacy cannot be divorced from personal histories. I begin by examining the spoken book as a literacy narrative that fuses personal and theoretical knowledge, focusing specifically on its authors’ ideas on theory. Drawing on Bakhtin’s notion of the chronotope—the intersection of time and space within narrative—I then explore the literacy narratives emerging from the production process of the book, in a video production about Horton and Freire’s meeting, and ultimately in the two men’s reflections on their childhood years (Dialogic). Interspersed with these accounts is archival material on the book’s editorial production that illustrates the value of increased dialogue between personal history and theories of literacy. My fifth chapter is both a reflective analysis and a qualitative study of my work at a men’s medium-high security prison in Illinois, where I conducted research and served as the instructor of an upper-level writing course, “Writing for a Change,” in the spring of 2009. Entitled “Doing Time with Literacy Narratives,” this chapter explores the complex ways in which literacy and incarceration are configured in students’ narratives as well as my own. With and against students’ stories, I juxtapose my own experiences with literacy, particularly in relation to being the son of an imprisoned father. In exploring the intersections between such stories, I demonstrate how literacy narratives can function as a heuristic for exploring beliefs about literacy between teachers and students both inside and outside of the prison-industrial complex. My conclusion pulls together the various themes that emerged in the three frames, from the making of new teachers to the published literacy narratives of teachers and theorists to my own literacy narrative. Writing teachers encounter considerable pressure to align their curricula with one or another theory of literacy, which has the effect of negating the authority of knowledge about literacy gleaned from experience as readers and writers. My dissertation contends that there is much to be gained by finding ways of articulating theories of literacy that encompass teachers’ knowledge of reading and writing as expressed in personal narratives of literacy. While powerful cultural rhetorics of upward social mobility often neutralize the critical potential of teachers’ own narratives of literacy—potential that has been documented by scholars in writing studies and allied disciplines—this is not always the case. The chapters in this dissertation offer evidence that hopeful and critical positions on the transformational possibilities of literacy are not mutually exclusive.