The Role of Supervision in Professional Development of Social Work Specialists

The professionals use social services supervision as an educational and administrative process, meant to support. Supervision is a relatively new field introduced in the Romanian social welfare institutions. The article approaches the role of supervision in the process of professional development of social workers, following a research based on Grounded theory. We conducted this research into an elite NGO, in the North-Eastern Romania, in the domain of child protection. Supervision is a social practice based on the relationship between a person with extensive professional experience and a professional effectively involved in case management. Supervision is seen as a prerequisite to quality social services organization. Effectiveness of the supervision process may be an indicator of the quality of social work practice in an organization. The data were collected through interviews of participants in the research. The interviewed subjects operate with a definition of the supervision as being a practice based on individual or group interview, formal or informal, consisting in a series of specific phases (initial, development, end). Supervision involves the establishment of professional relationships between the participants and the quality of services and training received. This definition is partially different from those in the literature.     

Observing Tacting Increases Uninstructed Tacts in Children with Autism

The effects of observing an adult emitting tacts on children’s rate of uninstructed (i.e., “spontaneous”) tacts were examined in three children diagnosed with autism. Each participant was exposed to two conditions in four settings each: in condition 1, participants received 20 trials of teacher-initiated interactions in which the child was asked to tact 20 objects during 5 min. Condition 2 was identical to condition 1 except that the teacher also tacted 20 objects interspersed with the 20 tact trials. The number of uninstructed tacts was recorded in both conditions. Children emitted between 1.58 and 2.68 times more uninstructed tacts in condition 2 than in condition 1. These results indicate that teachers’ emission of tacts increases the emission of uninstructed tacts in children with autism.     

Emerging Tacts and Selections from Previous Learned Skills: A Comparison between Two Types of Naming

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - Naming consists of tacting an object and selecting it upon hearing its name as a result of emergence. After acquiring naming, children learn object–name...     

Organization as hypertext: A metaphor from visual cultures

This article argues that visual cultures exert a profound influence at the level of the metaphorical conceptions of organizational life. It investigates two metaphors of the organization which have their roots in visual cultures: the metaphor of taking a photograph of the organization, and the metaphor of the organization as a hypertext. The diversity of these two metaphors in their conceptualisation of organizational life is illustrated, as well as their shared link with the aesthetic understanding of organization. It emerges that the metaphor of the photograph highlights the organizational knowledge which is incremental, objective and ‘subject-less’. On the contrary, the metaphor of the hypertext shows that organizational knowledge ‘always has a subject’, and that this subject may be conceived as internal to the organization and not as exclusively external to it.     

Let's stay close: An examination of the effects of imagined contact on behavior toward children with disability

In line with current developments in indirect intergroup contact literature, we conducted a field study using the imagined contact paradigm among high-status (Italian children) and low-status (children with foreign origins) group members (N = 122; 53 females, mean age = 7.52 years). The experiment aimed to improve attitudes and behavior toward a different low-status group, children with disability. To assess behavior, we focused on an objective measure that captures the physical distance between participants and a child with disability over the course of a five-minute interaction (i.e., while playing together). Results from a 3-week intervention revealed that in the case of high-status children imagined contact, relative to a no-intervention control condition, improved outgroup attitudes and behavior, and strengthened helping and contact intentions. These effects however did not emerge among low-status children. The results are discussed in the context of intergroup contact literature, with emphasis on the implications of imagined contact for educational settings.     

Réglementation et avenir du travail: la relation de travail facilite l'innovation

La transformation numérique et la réorganisation des entreprises font apparaître de nouvelles modalités de travail fort éloignées de la relation de travail typique. Selon les partisans de la rupture numérique, le cadre juridique actuel n'est pas adapté aux formes de travail et modèles d'entreprises «innovants». Pourtant, la réglementation du travail peut faciliter l'innovation et la flexibilité, comme l'emploi typique peut être un moyen d'améliorer l'efficacité et de réduire les coûts. En effet, la relation de travail permet le plein exercice des prérogatives de l'employeur et le déploiement interne de la main-d'œuvre; c'est aussi un bon moyen d'assurer formation et montée des compétences.     

The Social Construction of the Profession of Probation Counsellor: An Analysis of the Instrumental and Institutional Framework

The purpose of this article is to develop an interpretative model regarding the institutional and instrumental frameworks of the social construction of the profession of probation counsellor in N.E. Romania and the Republic of Moldova. The research was conducted after a major penal reform in both countries, which significantly changed the function of the probation system, which is very new. The research was conducted through individual and group interviews with the probation counsellors and other people involved in applying non-custodial punishments. The data analysis starts from the Grounded Theory method. The most important results have targeted the modifications of the regulatory frameworks of probation, a fact which leads to a series of problems related especially to the inadequacies between the different normative frameworks applied, the case overloads and the partial inadequacy of the models of practice based on the experience of other states (especially the U.K. and Norway) to the Romanian and Moldavian reality. The research highlights a mixed model of probation with elements of restorative justice, which interferes with the retributive model, and with the model of justice centred on human rights.     

The Features of Development in the Pacific Countries of the African,Caribbean and Pacific Group

In this article we present a new proposal for the measurement of development, applied to the Pacific Countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP), conditional on their insularity, and with privileged relations with the European Union. Our index has been constructed attending to the criteria defined in the Goals of the Millennium Declaration. For this purpose we will use the P₂ distance method for the year 2007, the last year for which data are available. This index integrates socio-economic variables that permit a territorial ordering of the Pacific ACPs, in terms of those partial indicators.