First Things First: a framework for successful secondary school reform

If youth development initiatives are going to focus on outcomes that we know are important in settings that we know can change these outcomes, the first outcomes should be educational, and the first setting should be school. School reform presents the most feasible, defensible, and informed opportunity for public policy to improve the life chances of children and youth in disadvantaged communities. This chapter introduces First Things First (FTF), a school reform framework grounded in research about how young people develop and how schools promote students' engagement and learning. The chapter explores four critical features of FTF that focus on students: (1) continuity of care; (2) increased instructional time; (3) high, clear, and fair standards; and (4) enriched opportunities for students. The critical features of FTF are implemented through three strategies: small learning communities, a family advocate system, and instructional improvement.     

Children's participation in foster care placements

This article presents results from a study of the birth children of foster carers and their experiences of growing up with foster siblings. Data were gathered from focus groups (17 participants), discussion groups (16 participants), a questionnaire (684 responses) and eight individual interviews. The children's participation in the fostering placements is in focus. Accounts from the children show that several of them participate in care-giving activities in everyday life. Their participation in the official assignment is however limited and can lead to children taking on responsibility with no support from adults. The tension between children's agency and position in society is addressed. The study shows how power relations between children and adults come into play, how both children and adults (re)-produce positions where children's rights to have a say in questions that concern them are not reflected within fostering processes.     

Using focus groups to explore the nature of prayer in late life

The purpose of this article is to present results from a series of focus groups that were designed to explore the nature and personal meaning of prayer in late life. Eight focus groups were conducted consisting of 63 adults age 65 and older. Three major themes associated with prayer emerged from the group discussions. First, study participants identified a number of beliefs about how prayer operates, including beliefs about the timing and nature of answers to prayers. Second, some participants felt it was important to distinguish between group and individual prayers. In the process, they discussed several ways in which the nature and impact of group and individual prayers may differ. Third, participants in our focus groups helped clarify what initially appeared to be a rather passive approach to the use of prayer during difficult times.     

Human dimensions of forest management: an empirical study of stakeholder perspectives

Although much has been written on the human dimensions of forest management, there has been little empirical investigation of how forest stakeholders themselves conceptualize this domain. We used a conceptual content cognitive mapping (3CM) task along with a short survey to explore the perspectives of 23 forest stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest on the human factors relevant to appropriate forest management. Study participants were chosen from three groups: employees of the U.S. Forest Service at the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie Forest, employees of a large timber company, and area environmentalists. Three distinct human dimensions emerged: Traditional intangible benefits (aesthetic concerns, recreation and cultural resources), Values and expectations (considering multiple values, maintaining public expectations, considering social acceptability and maintaining public confidence in forestry), and Process issues indecision making (public involvement, communication across boundaries, collaboration and taking an interdisciplinary approach). In this article, we discuss these three dimensions, the differences found among the stakeholder groups in the importance they placed on each of these dimensions, and the benefits of the 3CM method in this context.     

From historical injustice to local conflict: mobilization-countermobilization dynamics surrounding the 2005 Melbourne ‘Trianon Protest’

This article explores the key to the successful mobilization process of the Trianon demonstration, organized by local Hungarians in Melbourne’s CBD in 2005. I argue that mobilization–countermobilization (hereafter MCM) dynamics holds the key to the understanding of the relatively high number of protest participants. In particular, I argue that we need to take a closer look at the dialogic framing activities within the MCM dynamics in order to understand this case of mobilization. It was not until a particular form of frame developed within the MCM interplay between the organizers and the protest opposition that the mobilization attempts gained a clear local focus and target. Equally importantly, it is argued that emotions, embedded in and as a reaction to particular framings, significantly contributed to the success of the mobilization. The article shows that as a response to the CM framing toward the end of the mobilization process, a strong moral outrage was generated and felt, which allowed the supporters to focus their blame and anger on their opponents and to create a particularly resonant enemy figure.     

A Practical Approach to Public Sector Reform: Following the Dollar in Reforming Road Maintenance

This article presents a new approach to designing public sector reform programmes, which we call a capacity map (CM). This approach focuses on the flow of public funds from the point of ‘extraction’ through to their ‘disbursement’, with specific attention to ‘leakages’ in that overall system. The CM is a modest attempt to provide development partners and their partner governments with a relatively simple, but effective, tool that complements other oft‐used tools in the programme design process. To elucidate the CM approach, development partner attempts to support the establishment, or reform of, road maintenance regimes are focused on. The CM unpacks the process of road maintenance to identify leakages in the overall road maintenance system, thus enabling development partners to focus on institutional root causes beyond a singular focus on insufficient funds. It is contended that this tool enables the programme designer to develop focused interventions, whether in roads or other infrastructure projects, that move beyond ‘quick fixes’ that may avoid the difficult questions and hard choices that need to be made for sustainable institutional and policy reform.     

Inter-American Cooperation in Health Work

This article is a quick overview of the Chicano Movement (CM) with specific analyses of the five major strategies employed by its adherents to effect social change. The CM was a social movement that occurred in the United States with increased activity in the southwest and midwest during a time frame: 1950s to 1980s. Persons of Mexican ancestry residing in the U.S. were its participants and self-identified as Chicanos. The term Chicano stems from the ancient Nahuatl language of the Meshica (Meh Shee Ka) peoples, also known as the Aztecs. Shicano is a shortened version of Meshicano; later pronunciation changed to Chicano and, for some in spelling, Xicano. As a social movement, the CM had as its ultimate goals the acquisition of political power with which to change the power relations between them and the Euro-Americans, also known as the Anglos.     

Embodied versus Disembodied Information: How Online Artifacts Influence Offline Interpersonal Interactions

This article examines how the sheer volume of personal information recorded and searchable online (online artifacts) has transformed the situated activity system central to Goffman's dramaturgical theories. In‐depth interviews reveal that individuals believe disembodied information based on online artifacts is a more accurate representation of others than embodied information from spatially and temporally bounded face‐to‐face (FTF) processes because they represent how others have behaved over time and are attested by their online contacts. However, the n‐adic structure of online interaction leads to mismatched expectations about whether disembodied information is taken into account during FTF encounters, and consequently can result in embarrassment.     

The Management of Confidentiality and Anonymity in Social Research

This article explores the ways in which social researchers manage issues of confidentiality and the contexts in which deliberate and accidental disclosures occur. The data are drawn from a qualitative study of social researchers’ practices in relation to informed consent. It comprised 31 individual interviews and six focus groups as well as invited email responses with researchers working with vulnerable groups or with an interest in research ethics. Researchers reported feeling compelled to break confidentiality when participants were perceived as being at risk of harm but not in cases of involvement in illegal activity. Situations in which accidental disclosures occurred were also identified. Researchers reported varying ways in which they protected the confidentiality of their participants in the dissemination of their research, including omitting data and changing key characteristics of participants. The implications of researchers’ practices on data integrity and relationships with participants are discussed.     

Adolescent Residents Negotiate the Construction of Social Problems in a Low-Income Community: Making Claims on the “City of Sadness”

The social constructionist approach to research on social issues provides a conceptual means in understanding how specific problems are generated and handled by institutional claims-makers, including the state and mass media. In neighborhood research, the voice of adolescent residents is seldom heard, let alone the value of their claims in relation to the state's construction. This article endeavors to address this in several steps: by outlining the specific developmental trajectory of low-income community in Hong Kong; by examining the dominant state discourse on the nature and “solution” of community problems; and by analyzing the voice of adolescent residents. Empirically, 54 Chinese adolescents (aged 12 to 17 years) were recruited to participate in eight focus groups to express how they saw community conditions. Furthermore, a random sample of 22 parents of the participants was surveyed as comparison. Finally, the article suggests that adolescents' constructions provide significant opportunities developing more critically informed, “bottom-up” agendas for community revitalization.     

Ethical Issues for Qualitative Research in On-line Communities

Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth in Internet technologies, which offer new possibilities for researching hard to reach groups. However, research guidelines, which could aid research in this new forum, have not yet been fully developed. The focus of the article will be ethical issues that may arise from using the Internet as a research tool if we are to protect and respect our participants. Questions surrounding gaining informed consent, privacy of participants and new power differentials, which may arise through interaction in an on-line forum, are raised. These are supplemented by reflections from work conducted by the authors using on-line discussion formus as method of research with people with autism.     

Building Career PATHS (Postschool Achievement Through Higher Skills) for Young Women With Disabilities

The PATHS (Postschool Achievement Through Higher Skills) curriculum is designed to address the career development needs of young women with disabilities and other barriers. Participants (N = 110) in a pilot test of the curriculum showed increases in vocational self‐efficacy, social efficacy, and awareness of disability/gender issues related to career planning, whereas those in the comparison group did not make similar gains. Qualitative findings from focus groups (N = 68) revealed that PATHS participants improved in self‐confidence, self‐awareness, ability to identify strengths, knowledge of multiple career options, and the capacity to set goals and plan for future careers.     

Assessing participants’ perceptions on group-based principles for action in community-based health enhancing physical activity programmes: The APEF tool

In community-based health enhancing physical activity (CBHEPA) programmes, group-based principles for action such as active participation, enjoyment, and fostering group processes are widely advocated. However, not much is known about participants’ perceptions of these principles as there are no assessment tools available. Therefore, this article describes the development of the APEF (Active Participation, Enjoyment, and Fostering group processes) tool and reports on its implementation in a Dutch CBHEPA programme. Indicators for the principles have been identified from literature research, interviews with professionals, and secondary analysis of three group interviews with 11 practitioners. To address the identified indicators, the APEF tool was developed, pretested, and used in 10 focus groups with 76 participants.The APEF tool consists of eight statements about group-based principles for action, on which CBHEPA participants vote, followed by in-depth discussion. The voting procedure engages participants. Spider diagrams visualise participants’ perceptions of group-based principles.The APEF tool addresses the challenge of relating group level outcomes to individual outcomes such as physical activity behaviour. The tool facilitates as well as evaluates group-based principles for action, it stimulates dialogue and is culturally sensitive, but it needs strong facilitating skills to manage group dynamics.     

The use of focus groups in rehabilitation research

In this article, the authors explore the applications of focus groups to rehabilitation and disability research. Key issues in designing focus group research (e.g., methodological considerations, strategies for conducting focus groups, data analysis procedures) are highlighted. The authors then discuss specific considerations for conducting focus groups with people with disabilities. The article concludes with a review of three research studies in rehabilitation that used a focus group methodology.     

Using concept mapping as a planning tool: Child welfare citizen review panels

Citizen Review Panels (CRPs) are groups of citizen volunteers authorized by U.S. federal law to examine state child welfare agencies. These groups inspect policies and practices related to child protection responsibilities and are tasked with making recommendations for systemic improvement. Despite the federal mandate for each state to develop a CRP and the potential of these groups to positively impact child welfare practices, there is a dearth in the literature related to CRPs. Consequently, planning and evaluation processes of these groups vary widely. This study reports on the use of concept mapping (CM) to outline a framework for planning and subsequently evaluating the CRP in one southeastern state. CM is a mixed-method research approach that uses multi-dimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analyses to explore an area of study. Through these analyses, the method creates visual depictions of conceptual relationships between ideas. Data yielded a seven cluster concept map that CRP members (N = 36) utilized for planning processes, and subsequently for developing an internal evaluation tool. Results from this study offer a unifying framework by which CRPs, and similar groups in other areas can utilize for planning and evaluation purposes. After a review of pertinent literature on CRPs, this article explicates CM processes utilized in this study, describes results, discusses lessons learned, and outlines apposite areas for future CRP research.     

Planning an organizational wellness initiative at a multi-state social service agency

Increasingly, organizations in general, and social service organizations, specifically, are recognizing the importance of planning and evaluating organizational wellness initiatives. Yet, few participatory models for carrying out these aims exist. For this study, researchers utilized concept mapping (CM) to explicate a conceptual framework for planning, and subsequently evaluating, a wellness initiative at a multi-state social service organization. CM is a participatory approach that analyzes qualitative data via multi-dimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analyses. Outputs include a number of visual depictions that allow researchers to explore complex relationships among sets of the data. Results from this study indicated that participants (N = 64), all of whom were employees of the agency, conceptualized organizational wellness via an eight-cluster solution, or Concept Map. Priority areas of this framework, specifically importance and feasibility, were also explored. After a brief review of pertinent literature, this article explicates the CM methodology utilized in this study, describes results, discusses lessons learned, and identifies apt areas for future research.     

Construction of Peer Support Groups in Child Protection Social Work: Negotiating Practicalities to Enhance the Professional Self

This paper reports on a research project that was developed between a cohort of child protection social workers in the Republic of Ireland and the authors. The focus of the research was on researching participants’ experiences of developing peer support groups (PSGs) in child protection social work. Eleven participants formed two PSGs; one group had six participants, the other had five. This qualitative research study involved focus groups with each of the peer groups at the beginning, middle and end of the 12-month period. Data from the focus groups were analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Findings from the research indicate that the organic development of a PSG involves negotiating a range of practicalities which, working together, help to promote reflective practice and to advance the development of the professional self. A number of important and interconnected subthemes emerged within the texts of the focus groups. These included: the establishment of PSGs as a work activity; consideration of logistical matters in forming PSGs; identification of the influence of group dynamics in structuring and negotiating PSGs; PSGs as a conduit for integrating personal and professional values and as a context for facilitating and enabling an increased consciousness of self in practice. Drawing on these findings, the authors consider the implications for integrating PSGs within child protection agency services.     

Examining the relationship between child maltreatment and severity of attachment difficulties among children five years of age and older

The target population in this study were foster or adoptive parents who were caring for a child who had experienced CM and/or disruptions in a primary caregiver. Participants (N = 223) were categorized as caring for a child who had a history of CM and/or disruptions in a primary caregiver before/by age 5 or as caring for a child who had a history of CM and/or disruptions in a primary caregiver after age 5. Participants were administered the Attachment Disorder Assessment Scale-revised to assess for the presence of AD among the children that they were caring for. Two separate between groups ANOVAs were conducted to examine the differences between the scores on the ADAS-R (dependent variable) for those participants caring for a child who had 1) a history of CM before/by age 5 vs. after age 5 and/or 2) disruptions in a primary caregiver before/by age 5 vs. after age 5 (independent variable). Results indicated that those children who were older than 5 when they experienced CM and/or disruptions in a primary caregiver actually had more substantial AD than those children who had these experiences by/before age 5.