Kaleidoscope : shaping a better future through a stakeholder approach to widespread organisational change

The main focus of ‘Kaleidoscope: Reframing evaluation through a stakeholder approach to sustainable, cultural change in Higher Education’ is to develop a set of principles to guide user-led engagement in widespread organisational change and maximise its impact. The word kaleidoscope represents the unique lens through which each institution will need to view their cultural specificity and local context through an extensive process of collaboration and engagement, followed by communication and dissemination. Kaleidoscope has particular relevance when new approaches to learning and teaching evaluation are introduced by tertiary institutions. Building on the Reframe Project, which involved three years of user-led consultation and was designed to meet stakeholders’ needs, QUT successfully introduced a new evaluation framework in 2013 across the university. Reframe was evidence based, involved scholarly reflection and was founded on a strong theoretical framework. The evolution of the evaluation framework included analysis of scholarly literature and environmental scans across the higher education sector (Alderman, et al., 2012), researched development of conceptual theory (Alderman, et al., in press 2013), incorporated the stakeholder voice and framed within project management principles (Alderman & Melanie, 2012). Kaleidoscope’s objectives are for QUT to develop its research-based stakeholder approach to distil the successful experience exhibited in the Reframe Project into a transferable set of guidelines for use by other tertiary institutions across the sectors. These guidelines will assist others to design, develop, and deploy, their own culturally specific widespread organisational change informed by stakeholder engagement and organisational buy-in. It is intended that these guidelines will promote, support and enable other tertiary institutions to embark on their own projects and maximise the impact. In correlation with a our conference paper, this round table presents the Draft Guidelines and Framework ready for external peer review by evaluation practitioners, as part of Kaleidoscope’s dissemination (Hinton & Gannaway, 2011) applying illuminative evaluation theory (Parlett & Hamilton, 1976), through conference workshops and linked round table discussions (Shapiro, et al., 1983; Jacobs, 2000).

Talk in activity during young children’s use of digital technologies at home

Internet-connected tablets and smart phones are being used increasingly by young children. Little is known, however, about their social interactions with family members when engaged with these technologies. This article examines video-recorded interactions between a father and his two young children, one aged 18 months using an iPhone and one aged three years accessing an iPad. Drawing on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, analysis establishes ways the family members engage and disengage in talk so as to manage their individual activity with mobile devices and accomplish interaction with each other. Findings are relevant for understanding children’s everyday practices with mobile technologies.

Making arrangements in talk-in-interaction

Arrangement-making is understood to be a ‘closing-relevant action’ (Schegloff & Sacks 1973), but little attention has been given to how people arrive at mutually acceptable plans for the future. Telephone conversations between clients and staff of Community and Home Care (CHC) services were studied to identify how arrangements for future services were made. A recurrent sequence was observed in which clients were informed of future arrangement and were prompted to reply with ‘response solicitation’ (Jefferson 1981). Response solicitations were observed at two points: either tagged to the end of an informing, or following a recipient’s response to the informing. We show how response solicitations are routinely used in instances where recipients have some discretion in relation to the arrangement under discussion. They are a means by which an informing party can display to their interlocutor that they, as recipient, have some discretion to exercise in the matter. These findings are discussed with reference to prior research on arrangement-making in other settings, which suggests the general nature of this practice.

Cartographic Strategies of Postmodernity : the Figure of the Map in Contemporary Theory and Fiction

The last fifty years have witnessed the growing pervasiveness of the figure of the map in critical, theoretical, and fictional discourse. References to mapping and cartography are endemic in poststructuralist theory, and, similarly, geographically and culturally diverse authors of twentieth-century fiction seem fixated upon mapping. While the map metaphor has been employed for centuries to highlight issues of textual representation and epistemology, the map metaphor itself has undergone a transformation in the postmodern era. This metamorphosis draws together poststructuralist conceptualizations of epistemology, textuality, cartography, and metaphor, and signals a shift away from modernist preoccupations with temporality and objectivity to a postmodern pragmatics of spatiality and subjectivity. Cartographic Strategies of Postmodernity charts this metamorphosis of cartographic metaphor, and argues that the ongoing reworking of the map metaphor renders it a formative and performative metaphor of postmodernity.

Relationship between expectation management and client retention in online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Background Engaging clients from the outset of psychotherapy is important for therapeutic success. However, there is little research evaluating therapists’ initial attempts to engage clients. This article reports retrospective analysis of data from a trial of online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for depression. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to evaluate how therapists manage clients’ expectations at the outset of therapy and its relationship with client retention in the therapeutic intervention. Aims To develop a system to codify expectation management in initial sessions of online CBT and evaluate its relationship with retention. Method Initial qualitative research using conversation analysis identified three different communication practices used by therapists at the start of first sessions: no expectation management, some expectation management, and comprehensive expectation management. These findings were developed into a coding scheme that enabled substantial inter-rater agreement (weighted Kappa = 0.78; 95% CI: 0.52 to 0.94) and was applied to all trial data. Results Adjusting for a range of client variables, primary analysis of data from 147 clients found comprehensive expectation management was associated with clients remaining in therapy for 1.4 sessions longer than those who received no expectation management (95% CI: -0.2 to 3.0). This finding was supported by a sensitivity analysis including an additional 21 clients (1.6 sessions, 95% CI: 0.2 to 3.1). Conclusions Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, this study suggests a relationship between expectation management and client retention in online CBT for depression, which has implications for professional practice. A larger prospective study would enable a more precise estimate of retention.

Managing clients’ expectations at the outset of online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for depression

Background Engaging clients in psychotherapy by managing their expectations is important for therapeutic success. Initial moments in first sessions of therapy are thought to afford an opportunity to establish a shared understanding of how therapy will proceed. However there is little evidence from analysis of actual sessions of therapy to support this. Objective This study utilised recordings to examine how therapists manage clients’ expectations during the first two sessions of online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Methods Expectation management was investigated through conversation analysis of sessions from 176 client-therapist dyads involved in online CBT. The primary focus of analysis was expectation management during the initial moments of first sessions, with a secondary focus on expectations at subsequent points. Analysis Clients’ expectations for therapy were most commonly managed during the initial moments of first sessions of therapy. At this point, most therapists either outlined the tasks of the first and subsequent sessions (n=36), or the first session only (n=108). On other occasions (n = 32), no attempt was made to manage clients’ expectations by outlining what would happen in therapy. Observations of the interactional consequences of such an absence suggest clients may struggle to engage with the therapeutic process in the absence of appropriate expectation management by therapists. Conclusion Clients may more readily engage from the outset of therapy when provided with an explanation that manages their expectation of what is involved. Therapists can accomplish this by projecting how therapy will proceed, particularly beyond the initial session.

Helpline Discourse

Helplines are services where callers can request help, advice, information, or support. While such help is usually offered through telephone helplines, web chat and email helplines are becoming increasingly available to members of the public. Helplines tend to offer specialized services, such as responding to computer software queries, or medical and health issues, or seeking information about natural disasters. Further, they may be aimed at particular populations such as children and young people. The earliest research investigating discourse in calls to helplines in social interactional research began in the 1960s with Sacks’ early work on calls to a suicide prevention center. Since then interactional research has produced a wealth of understandings into the mundane and institutional interactional practices through which help is sought and delivered. In addition to discussing the breadth of research into helplines, this entry explores the relationship between philosophies and interactional practices of helpline services.

A discourse analysis on how the sustainability agenda is defined within the mining industry

The mining industry has positioned itself within the sustainability agenda, particularly since the establishment of the International Council of Mining and Minerals (ICMM). However, some critics have questioned this position, since mining requires the extraction of non-renewable finite resources and commercial mining companies have the specific responsibility to produce profit. Complicating matters is that terms that represent the sustainability such as ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable development’ have multiple definitions with varying degrees of sophistication. This work identifies eleven sustainability agenda definitions that are applicable to the mining industry and organises them into three tiers: first, Perpetual Sustainability, that focuses on mining continuing indefinitely with its benefits limited to immediate shareholders; second, Transferable Sustainability, that focuses on how mining can benefit society and the environment and third, Transitional Sustainability, that focuses on the intergenerational benefits to society and the environment even after mining ceases. Using these definitions, a discourse analysis was performed on sustainability reports from member companies of the ICMM and the academic journal Resources Policy. The discourse analysis showed that in both media the definition of the sustainability agenda was focussed on Transferable Sustainability, with the sustainability reports focused on how it can be applied within a business context while the academic journal took a broader view of mining’s social and environmental impacts.

Marx as a Critical Discourse Analyst : The Genesis of a Critical Method and its Relevance to the Critique of Global Capital (with Phil Graham)

In this paper we identify elements in Marx’s economic and political writings that are relevant to contemporary critical discourse analysis (CDA). We argue that Marx can be seen to be engaging in a form of discourse analysis. We identify the elements in Marx’s historical materialist method that support such a perspective, and exemplify these in longitudinal comparison of Marx’s texts.

Achieving competence: The interactional features of children's storytelling

Early years researchers interested in storytelling have largely focused on the development of children’s language and social skills within constructed story sessions. Less focus has been given to the interactional aspects of storytelling in children’s everyday conversation and how the members themselves, the storytellers and story recipients, manage storytelling. An interactional view, using ethnomethodological and conversation analytic approaches, offers the opportunity to study children’s narratives in terms of ‘members work’. Detailed examination of a video-recorded interaction among a group of children in a preparatory year playground shows how the children managed interactions within conversational storytelling. Analyses highlight the ways in which children worked at gaining a turn and made a story tellable within a round of second stories. Investigating children’s competence-in-action ‘from within’, the findings from this research show how children invoke and accomplish competence through their interactions.

Design democratisation and its understandings through the meaning of the word “design” in Portuguese colonised countries

This paper explores the literature and analyses the different uses and understandings of the word “design” in Portuguese colonised countries, using Brazil as the main example. It investigates the relationship between the linguistic existence of terms to define and describe “design” as an activity and field, and the roles and perceptions of Design by the general society. It also addresses the effects that the lack of a proper translation causes on the local community from a cultural point of view. The current perception of Design in Portuguese colonies is associated to two main aspects: linguistic and historical. Both of them differentiate the countries taken into consideration from other countries that have a different background. The changes associated to the meaning of “design” throughout the years, caused a great impact on the perceptions that people have about Design. On the other hand, the development of Design has also influenced the changes on the meaning of the term, as a result of the legacy from the colonisation period and also as a characteristic of the Portuguese language. Design has developed and reached a level of excellence in Portuguese colonised countries that competes with the most traditional Design cultures in the world. However, this level of Design is enmeshed into an elite belonging to universities and specialised markets, therefore Design is not democratised. The ultimate aim of this study is to promote discussions on how to make the discourse surrounding this area more accessible to people from non-English speaking countries that do not have the word “design” in their local language.

Kids, counselors and troubles-telling : morality-in-action in talk on an Australian children’s helpline

This article begins with the premise that morality is an intrinsic, although often invisible, aspect of everyday social action. Drawn from a corpus of fifty audiorecorded telephone calls to Kids Helpline, an Australian helpline for children and young people, we examine one call to show how the young caller and counsellor co-construct ‘morality-in-action’. Ethnomethodological understandings and, in particular, Sacks’ (1992) description of ‘Class 2’ rules and infractions show how an adolescent caller and counsellor collaboratively assemble moral versions of the caller. In puzzling out possible motives, the caller and counsellor can be seen to be attending to the implications of different moral versions of the caller. This attribution of motives is moral work in action, with motives contingently assembled, displayed and evaluated, with such work understood as displays of moral reasoning. The counselling call makes visible the counsellor’s interactional work to support and empower the client. Analysis such as this offers counsellors ways of understanding and making visible their interactional and moral work within helpline call interactions.

Parentification: Counselling talk on a helpline for children and young people

This chapter investigates counselling interactions where young clients talk about their experiences of taking on family responsibilities normatively associated with parental roles. In research counselling literature, practices where relationships in families operate so that there is a reversal of roles, with children managing the households and caring for parents and siblings, is described as parentification. Parentification is used in the counselling literature as a clinician/researcher term, which we ‘respecify’ (Garfinkel, 1991) the tem by beginning with an investigation of young clients’ own accounts of being an adult or parent and how counsellors orient to these accounts. As well as providing understandings of how young people propose accounts of their experiences of adult-child role reversal, the chapter contributes to understanding how children and young people use the resources of counselling helplines, and how counselors can communicate effectively with children and young people.

Using conversation analysis for understanding children’s talk about traumatic events

This chapter provides a theoretical overview of literature that uses conversation analysis (CA) to explore children’s interactions related to trauma and associated mental health matters. The relatively new approach of using CA to understand trauma reveals the importance of talk in the process of recovery, and also how the participants co-construct talk about traumatic experiences. The chapter will explore literature using a CA approach to investigate children’s trauma talk with professionals as well as literature specifically discussing children’s talk about their traumatic experiences with people who are not qualified therapists or psychiatrists. We conclude by calling for more research using a CA approach for investigating children’s traumatic experiences due to the insight it provides into each child’s personal sense making of traumatic events with a range of people.