Community as text: using the community as a resource for learning in community schools

The community can serve as a resource to help students become more engaged in learning and strengthen connections between schools and community.     

Creating caring institutions for community informatics

This paper explores the potential affordances of applying a feminist ethics of care approach to community informatics practices in public internet access facilities. As feminist technology scholars have long observed, technology and technoculture are strongly encoded as masculine, privileging traits such as scientific knowledge, rationality, objectivity, and distance. These characteristics are expressed in traditional infomediary practices in a variety of ways, including notions of expertise, ways of conceptualizing technology, emphasis on skills attainment, and deficit-based models of user behavior. In contrast, ethics of care emphasizes the importance of relational and situated knowledge, pluralistic voices and experiences, and relationships bound by mutual interdependence. Traditionally, caring has been feminized and thus necessarily excluded from technoculture and relegated to invisible and unpaid labor. Caring and associated affective labor practices remain an under-examined subject in infomediary practices. Public libraries and community technology centers are logical places to explore for care work, given that they share many characteristics of the spaces where care work has historically been performed. We argue that an ethics of care framework has several possible affordances for infomediary practices in these institutions, including highlighting the gendered power dynamics that define and shape existing practices; distributing care work and making existing care work visible; and envisioning a more holistic and ethical approach to engaging diverse publics. We translate Tronto’s seven warning signs for ‘bad care’ in institutions into seven positive guidelines for providing ‘good care’ in public internet access facilities, then contextualize these for community informatics institutions and practices.     

Built community: architecture,community, and participation in a permanent supportive housing project

Housing and the social processes that create it are an important part of a better world. The permanent supportive housing movement holds that housing, in addition to a variety of human services, is the most dignified and effective way to help people without homes. But the design of such initiatives matters. This community-based, qualitative research project investigates the connection between space, participation, and community. It draws on the experiences of residents of an innovative housing organization on Skid Row in Los Angeles, California. Residents of the program find community space to be both promising and contested. Their experiences also reveal the way that institutional space can be trauma-informed and impact their overall wellbeing and opportunities for interacting with others. However, their feelings of being a part of the community and their involvement in activities are not always connected, as identity and social context can cause residents to identify or dis-identify with their community despite how involved or uninvolved they are. Intentionally designed community spaces in permanent supportive housing units can respond to trauma and set the stage for interaction, but they cannot solve all problems.     

Building community: a conceptual framework for child protection

This paper proposes a community-building framework as an innovative strategy to begin to re-claim children and families at risk. It is a strategy that identifies a purpose, a value base, knowledge and theoretical dimensions, and methods of practice that present as an approach for child welfare systems to consider shifts in thinking in order to meet what is considered the most important challenge of the next century: that of rediscovering community. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Repositioning culture for development: women and development in a Nigerian rural community

Most studies on women have ignored women's view of themselves in relation to their roles in community development. This study uses interview and ethnographic data from Nigeria to investigate women's narratives of themselves concerning their position in a rural cultural space in relation to community development. It explores ways of repositioning patriarchal or gender unresponsive cultures for eliciting women's potentials in community development. It emphasises how women's cultural constrains in a patriarchal community have led to a rare survival strategy – that is, the evolution of an invisible matriarchy. As a recommendation, it presents a framework for culture repositioning and a map of actors' responsibilities for its achievement. It contributes to ongoing debates on women in rural community development. It raises conceptual questions about customary practices that affect women's values in communities in Nigeria's rural areas. Finally, it presents three main lessons that can be drawn by women (and men) in traditional communities in non-Western societies.     

Banking on community: The use of time banking as an innovative community practice teaching strategy

ABSTRACT

This article explores the use of a classroom-based, experiential time banking project as an innovative community practice teaching strategy. It presents a preliminary, qualitative evaluation of a seven-week, time banking project among 40 students enrolled in a Master of Social Work community practice course, spanning two academic years. Findings highlight challenges (e.g., lack of time) and benefits (e.g., building a sense of community) associated with the model specifically, as well as the ways in which participation expanded understandings of and appreciation for the power and potential of community practice more generally. Recommendations for future teaching and research applications are offered.     

Social work guanxi: a reflexive account of the social work relationship in the Chinese context

ABSTRACT

In a guanxi-driven acquaintanceship, the worker, the client, and the community are tied together more closely than they are in mutually agreed-upon service contracts. This paper re-examines the contemporary boundaries in the social work relationship, especially in Asian nations such as China, where ‘relationships’ are generally translated and perceived as ‘guanxi’. The indigenisation of social work must be managed with care when translating from West to East. Drawing from the experiences of community development projects in rural Hong Kong, this paper discusses how guanxi among social workers, clients and other stakeholders in Chinese communities might challenge the professionalism of social work and breach the boundaries of social work relationships.     

Client-led Spiritual Interventions: Faith-integrated Professionalism in the Context of a Christian Faith-based Organisation

Focused on the professional practice habits of Christian social workers and counsellors, this article explores the question of good practice when working therapeutically with clients asking to discuss spirituality and faith. Interviews with 10 senior practitioners who are practising Christians as part of a qualitative study revealed several common experiences when working with clients actively seeking to explore faith and spirituality: (1) using flexibility, discernment, and a client-led approach; (2) trust in God and spiritual receptiveness; and (3) managing tensions between professional, personal, and organisational values. The implications of the study highlight the requirement for professional integrity, to include practising within one’s range of competence, and the value of ongoing professional development to support good practices when working with religious clients.     

Multifunctional teasing as a resource for identity construction in the talk of British Bangladeshi girls1

This paper explores how multifunctional teasing is used as a resource for the construction of linguistic identities, establishing a link between previous research on teasing and the field of language/discourse and identity. I draw on a corpus of 38 episodes of teasing contained in 80 minutes of spontaneous talk between five adolescent Bangladeshi girls who formed a friendship group at their comprehensive school in East London. The qualitative analysis of the data reveals that the teasing in this group can serve four main functions: an accomplishment of fun‐based solidarity; a release of underlying tensions; a display of toughness; but also a display of respect for other speakers’ dispreference for taboo subjects. Building on Ochs’(1992) notion of indirect indexicality my discussion of the data will focus on the social meanings of these different functions of teasing which range from maintaining and managing friendship to (re)negotiating class and culture‐related identities. I shall argue that the identity work achieved by and in the teasing needs to be seen in relation to stereotypical notions and ideologies about class, gender and culture‐specific (language) practices which shape the girls’ construction of themselves as British Bangladeshi working‐class adolescents.     

Creating a community of practice among college campus food pantry directors in Michigan

There is increased awareness of hunger and food insecurity on college campuses. Recent estimates suggest that food insecurity affects as many as 4 out of 10 college students. As a result, over 650 US colleges have established campus food pantries. The College and University Pantries (CUP) research team at the University of Michigan–Dearborn has worked to create a community of practice in Michigan among campus pantry directors by hosting 2 summits designed around networking, problem-solving, and sharing best practices. This article describes the Michigan community of practice as an example for other regions doing similar work.     

Antecedents of gender gap in workforce participation: A phenomenology of psychologists and medical doctors in urban Pakistan

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the participation of young women in education has been on the rise and yet many of them do not end up joining the workforce. This is particularly true for the fields of medicine, and psychology. Using a qualitative research design, we explored underlying social and psychological reasons (antecedents) for this lack of professional participation by females who had or are graduating in medical and psychology degrees. The sample of this qualitative study consisted of 67 female informants including medical doctors, medical students, psychologists, and psychology students. The results based on interpretive phenomenological analyses (IPA) indicated multiple key antecedents that play a crucial role in keeping women from their professional participation in the two fields. Results based on IPA indicated that Gender Role Beliefs and Strain, Economic Decision Making, Women’s Mobility, Role of Society, Objectification of Women and explicit Discrimination and Violence were key thematic antecedents. There were multiple subthemes that emerged as reasons why women’s participation and stay in these fields was difficult, hence creating a substantial gender gap in professional participation and success in the workforce. Knowledge and understanding of these antecedents and their role in prevalence of gender gap in workforce participation is crucial for building policies and strategies on how to engage and retain women in professional work-force. Cultural relevance and societal implications of our findings are discussed with their policy recommendations.     

The role of marriage in linguistic contact and variation: Two Hmong dialects in Texas1

The role of marriage in linguistic contact and variation has been under‐represented in sociolinguistic research. In any practice‐based analysis, individual interactions and relationships are crucial. Therefore, marriage relationships – small but intense communities of practice – deserve variationist attention for their role in dialect construction and identity. This investigation of cross‐dialectal marriages explores how dialect practices and choices are negotiated between partners. The results show the importance of viewing this linguistic behavior in terms of community ideology, culture, and individual choice, rather than primarily as a matter of the amount and intensity of contact. Likewise, the study shows how less commonly studied minority communities can bring new insights to the study of dialect acquisition and linguistic contact. Specifically, this investigation focuses on marriages between speakers of two different dialects of Hmong, a Hmong‐Mien language of Southeast Asia. On the basis of home visits to ten Hmong immigrant households in Texas, the study analyzes lexical and phonetic contrasts and ethnographic interviews. Results suggest that macro‐level shifts in Hmong social organization and gender roles are being reflected and constructed by gendered, marriage‐level dialect practices. The linguistic behavior in these marriages is best viewed as a matter of community ideology in tension with individual choice: individual wives are choosing to challenge the traditional Hmong ideology regarding language behavior in cross‐dialect marriages.     

Urban community as resource: Evaluation of the mentors in Toledo schools program

We report findings from an evaluation of the Mentors in Toledo Schools program (MITS), which pairs adult community volunteers with elementary school students in need of reading support. Begun in 2012, MITS now operates in five elementary schools in Toledo Public Schools. A quasi-experimental study of 379 students (n = 128 mentored, n = 251 comparison) tested the effectiveness of MITS, using changes (fall to spring) in students’ scores on STAR Reading. Multilevel models demonstrate students who participated in MITS made statistically significant, and educationally meaningful, reading gains compared to students who did not participate. Further, an investigation of the importance of dosage revealed that number of mentoring sessions is related to students’ outcomes; students who participated in reading mentoring at least once per week showed the most educationally meaningful improvements. We also report qualitative feedback from adult program participants, including teachers, mentors, and site coordinators, to help contextualize the STAR Reading results. These findings speak to the opportunity for community volunteers to act as low-cost and effective supports for urban elementary school students who are at-risk for reading failure.     

Promoting Gender Equality without a Gender Perspective: Problem Representations of Equal Pay in Finland

The current locus of promoting equal pay in Finland is the workplace. Legal instruments, like gender equality planning and its pay surveys, are to be implemented in workplaces. This development raises important questions about the central role of the local trade union representatives as promoters of equal pay. This article analyses how local trade union representatives construct the problem of unequal pay and their role in narrowing the gender pay gap and their possible agonistic adversaries in negotiations on equal pay. Different problem representations concerning equal pay are analysed and evaluated on the basis of their potential to fracture the gender‐blind wage bargaining culture and ability to cash in on the promises made towards narrowing the gender pay gap.     

Science as a Strategy for Social Work

For more than one hundred years, various forms of science have been promoted to boost social work’s status as a profession. Evidence-based practice and talk about the science of social work are only the most recent manifestations of this pattern. Counter to this trend, this article argues that the latest upsurge of interest in scientific social work is no more likely than any of its predecessors to address the problems of the profession. Beginning with a linguistic analysis of the words science and scientific as positive signifiers, the article traces social work’s long history of science talk as a means of reassuring funding agencies and bolstering the profession’s status. Drawing on a critique of this discourse as the latest example of abstracted empiricism, it then contends that while scientific social work can only rarely capture what occurs in the field, its attempt to do so actually undercuts practitioners’ professional judgment and discretion. Last, after rejecting science talk as counterproductive, the article concludes with recommendations for an alternative strategy that might better position social work to reconcile its advocacy of social justice with its concerns about its professional status.     

Creating a culture of participation: Early childhood education and care educators in the face of change

This study reports on critical participatory research in an early childhood education and care centre in Finland. The objective was to study which elements are critical in the development and construction of a culture of participation. The data comprise conversations, team meetings and educators' diaries. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The results indicated that a culture of participation requires four elements: (a) a shared understanding of the image of the child, (b) a shared understanding of professional development, (c) leadership and (d) a shared we-narrative that enables the comprehensive understanding, promotion and maintenance of a culture of participation.     

Social network and content analysis of the North American Carbon Program as a scientific community of practice

The North American Carbon Program (NACP) was formed to further the scientific understanding of sources, sinks, and stocks of carbon in Earth's environment. Carbon cycle science integrates multidisciplinary research, providing decision-support information for managing climate and carbon-related change across multiple sectors of society. This investigation uses the conceptual framework of communities of practice (CoP) to explore the role that the NACP has played in connecting researchers into a carbon cycle knowledge network, and in enabling them to conduct physical science that includes ideas from social science. A CoP describes the communities formed when people consistently engage in shared communication and activities toward a common passion or learning goal. We apply the CoP model by using keyword analysis of abstracts from scientific publications to analyze the research outputs of the NACP in terms of its knowledge domain. We also construct a co-authorship network from the publications of core NACP members, describe the structure and social pathways within the community. Results of the content analysis indicate that the NACP community of practice has substantially expanded its research on human and social impacts on the carbon cycle, contributing to a better understanding of how human and physical processes interact with one another. Results of the co-authorship social network analysis demonstrate that the NACP has formed a tightly connected community with many social pathways through which knowledge may flow, and that it has also expanded its network of institutions involved in carbon cycle research over the past seven years.     

Sense of community: Issues and considerations from a cross-cultural perspective

Behaviour settings such as work, family, church and community are primary settings in which we participate, they provide us with meaningful roles, relationships, and social identities. In fact, these are settings that provide us with a sense of community (SOC). SOC has been heralded as the guiding value for community research and action. It reflects the integration of people into networks and structures that provide feelings of belonging, identification and meaning. The concept has received much attention since the introduction of McMillan and Chavis' initial formulation. It is argued that research into SOC has been hampered by relying on the Sense of Community Index at the expense of the SOC model. Insights are drawn from cross-cultural psychology and research to highlight conceptual issues and to encourage exploration and the utilisation of alternative modes of investigation. Contex-tualist approaches including substantive theorising and narrative psychology, which have their roots in pragmatism, are promoted as frameworks for bringing community and SOC into focus as central to social and community development.     

Primary Care Screening of Depression and Treatment Engagement in a University Health Center: A Retrospective Analysis

Abstract

Objectives: This retrospective study analyzed a primary care depression screening initiative in a large urban university health center. Depression detection, treatment status, and engagement data are presented. Participants: Participants were 3,713 graduate and undergraduate students who presented consecutively for primary care services between January and April 2006. Methods: A standardized 2-tiered screening approach for an inception cohort of students utilizing primary services. Primary care providers were trained to triage students with depressive symptoms. Results: Six percent of participants had clinically significant depressive symptoms (CSD). Severe depressive symptoms were found in less than 1.0% of participants. Male rates of severe depressive symptoms were more than double that of females. Only 35.7% of untreated depressed participants started treatment within 30 days following identification. Conclusions: Systematic primary care depression screening in a college health center is a promising approach to identify untreated students with depression. More study is needed to improve rates of treatment engagement.