Children's rights and educational policy in Europe: the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

This article aims to shed light on the impact of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on education policy in Europe. The findings are based on a documentary analysis of the published reports of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (the Committee) on the implementation of the education rights in the CRC in every EU state. This included: a review of the state of children's rights to education in Europe as perceived by the Committee; a summary of the Committee's key recommendations for governments; and an assessment of whether the CRC can be considered to have influenced domestic education law and policies. The findings suggest that the CRC is having an impact on domestic education policy and that the child rights framework could be harnessed further by those seeking to influence government. The article concludes by reflecting on the factors which affect the processes of translating the CRC into policy and practice and explores the role that educationalists, both academic and practitioners, might play in its implementation.

Educational professionals’ understanding of childhood traumatic brain injury

Primary objectives: To determine the understanding of educational professionals around the topic of childhood brain injury and explore the factor structure of the Common Misconceptions about Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire (CM-TBI).

Research design: Cross sectional postal survey.

Methods and procedures: The CM-TBI was posted to all educational establishments in one region of the United Kingdom. One representative from each school was asked to complete and return the questionnaire (N = 388).

Main outcomes and results: Differences were demonstrated between those participants who knew someone with a brain injury and those who did not, with a similar pattern being shown for those educators who had taught a child with brain injury. Participants who had taught a child with brain injury demonstrated greater knowledge in areas such as seatbelts/prevention, brain damage, brain injury sequelae, amnesia, recovery, and rehabilitation. Principal components analysis suggested the existence of four factors and the discarding of half the original items of the questionnaire.

Conclusions: In the first European study to explore this issue, we highlight that teachers are ill prepared to cope with children who have sustained a brain injury. Given the importance of a supportive school environment in return to life following hospitalisation, the lack of understanding demonstrated by teachers in this research may significantly impact on a successful return to school.

Preparing for the future:Challenges and opportunities for management and leadership skills

The development of effective leaders is essential for all healthcare professions and increasingly is becoming a key focus for the UK dental profession. There is comparatively little research about dental leadership in a UK context and the paper below should begin to help to redress the balance and to highlight areas for future consideration.
The aim of the study was to explore dental leaders’ perceptions of the current position of leadership in the dental profession and used a qualitative key informant study to do this. Three broad emergent themes are described and discussed - characteristics and behaviours of dental leaders; challenges for dental leaders; education and training for dental leadership. The findings show that whilst recognising that a lack of focus on leadership skills has caused problems in the past, current dental leaders are prepared to lead the profession forward. They view education at all levels as vital to this process and education for leadership at undergraduate level is perceived as an important way forward.

Deconstructing national leadership: Politicians’ accounts of electoral success and failure in the Irish Lisbon Treaty referenda

The Self Categorization approach to national leadership proposes that leaders rhetorically construct national identity as essentialized and inevitable in order to consensualize and mobilize the population. In contrast, discursive studies have demonstrated how national politicians flexibly construct the nation to manage their own accountability in local interactions, though this in turn has neglected broader leadership processes. The present paper brings both approaches together to examine how and when national politicians construct versions of national identity in order to account for their failure as well as success in mobilizing the electorate. Eight semi-structured conversational style interviews were conducted with a strategic sample of eight leading Irish politicians on the subject of the 2008/2009 Irish Lisbon Treaty referenda. Using a Critical Discourse Psychology approach, the hegemonic repertoire of the ‘settled will’
of the informed and consensualized Irish nation was identified across all interviews. Politicians either endorsed the ‘settled will’ repertoire as evidence of their successful leadership, or rejected the repertoire by denying the rationality or unity of the populace to account for their failure. Our results suggest national identity is only constructed as essentialized and inevitable to the extent that it serves a strategic political purpose.

Psycho-educational group intervention for family caregivers of hospitalized palliative care patients:pilot study

Family caregivers of patients requiring palliative care commonly experience physical, social, and psychological burdens. Although family caregivers are acknowledged as valid service recipients of palliative care, many have unmet needs, and systematic reviews have shown there are limited evidence-based supportive interventions.