Mother–Child Conversations of Emotionally Salient Events: Exploring the Functions of Emotional Reminiscing in European-American and Chinese Families

This study explores the functional variations in mother–child conversations of emotionally salient events in European‐American and Chinese families. Thirty Chinese and 31 European‐American 3‐year‐old children and their mothers participated. Mothers were asked to discuss with their children at home two specific one‐point‐in‐time events in which they both participated. One event was extremely positive to the child, one extremely stressful. American mothers initiated more interactive and elaborative conversations that focused on the child's roles and predilections in the story, and they employed a ‘cognitive approach’ to emotional regulation by providing explanations for the cause of children's feeling states. Chinese mothers took a directive role in posing and repeating memory questions and focusing on social interaction, and they used a ‘behavioral approach’ to emotional regulation by emphasizing discipline and proper conduct to their children. Findings are discussed in light of cultural influences on the functions of emotional reminiscing for self and relationship construction and emotional regulation.     

Change Makers? Women's Microenterprises in a Bolivian City

If entrepreneurs are society's innovators, what is the role of businesspeople in poor countries — particularly, the ‘micro’ businesspeople that make up the majority? What hope for decreasing poverty and improving livelihoods do microbusinesses offer? In particular, what is the role of women microentrepreneurs, whose incomes have been understood to contribute a great deal to the well‐being of poor households? This paper is based on case studies collected in the late 1990s in Sucre, Bolivia, a context in which many women are the owners of independent microenterprises. Women in Sucre control a range of microenterprises in the commerce, production and service sectors and are recognized as businesspeople by their spouses, families and people in their community. Under such conditions of ‘empowered’ business ownership, what is the potential of these businesses to decrease poverty? The study explores the business experiences of women microentrepreneurs, their priorities, entrepreneurial abilities and the obstacles they face. It suggests the kinds of business activities which women in Sucre are most likely to undertake and the income levels which these activities generally attract. Finally, it indicates that, while women in Sucre can control resources and take advantage of opportunities as businesswomen, other constraints mean that most women's businesses have only a limited ability to decrease poverty. ‘Microenterprise development’ alone is insufficient to address the complex relationships affecting how these women and their households access resources.     

Mental health service users' experiences of returning to paid employment

Research into mental health and employment has focused largely on people who are unemployed. This paper reports the experiences of 20 clients of employment support agencies who had succeeded in returning to work. A number of barriers to getting back to work were identified, but receiving employment support could enable people to overcome them. There was consistency with previous studies of factors associated with high and low levels of job satisfaction. Even those participants who were less satisfied with their jobs identified benefits and none described any negative effects. The quality of the employment support provided was important, including advice and counselling during the job search, enabling informed choice about disclosure and support in work. Job retention targets are required for funding programmes in addition to placement targets. Further research into the timing and processes of disclosure and into occupational health screening processes would be helpful.     

Trends in International and Internal Teacher Mobility in Three Pacific Island Countries

High‐skilled migration has increasingly been the subject of migration research over the past decade, but the focus has tended to be on health and IT professionals. In this paper, we address the mobility of schoolteachers in a region that has so far received little attention, the Pacific Islands. It is timely to examine trends in teacher mobility in the Pacific, given the shortages that are occurring elsewhere. In particular, the tailoring of immigration policies to attract highly skilled workers in areas of shortage could impact on the Pacific. The focus of the paper is on emigration and we argue that of three countries studied, only Fiji is negatively affected by teacher mobility. The Cook Islands and Vanuatu are currently experiencing low levels of international teacher emigration. Levels of internal mobility are also investigated in an attempt to see if remote areas and outer islands are experiencing teacher shortages. The preference for working near one’s land or on one’s home island is a strong drawcard in bringing people back home to teach. A problem arises, however, when not enough people are trained from a region/island and the incentives to encourage others to go and work there are less than effective.     

Language,culture and access to mathematics: a case of one remote Aboriginal community

For many students, coming to learn mathematics is as much about the pedagogical relay through which concepts are conveyed as it is about the mathematics per se. This relay comprises social, cultural and linguistic norms as well as the mathematical discourse. In this study, I outline the practices of one remote school and how the teaching practices scaffold Indigenous learners whose home language is different from the language of instruction (Standard Australian English) as they come to learn mathematics. Through various strategies, teachers have created positive learning environments that celebrate the home languages of the students while supporting the transition into Standard Australian English and the discourse of mathematics.     

Borders, margins and bridges: Possibilities for change for marginalized young women

This paper interrogates the notion of exclusion with a particularfocus upon the experiences of young women. It focuses on thepotential that community processes hold for drawing marginalizedyoung people back into mainstream life. It considers two examplesthat were each concerned with the development of community facilities.One sought to remove young people from an inner city area, theother was intended to provide community facilities for youngpeople. Each adopted a different approach to the participationof young people and had different outcomes. The discussion exploresthe potential that public planning processes hold for encouragingthe participation of young people and for providing effectiveavenues for the diverse realities of young people to be validatedand to contribute to decision-making. The successful participationof young people in public life is a challenge, yet they arerarely encouraged to participate in defining solutions to theproblems they are identified as causing. The experiences reportedin this paper therefore offer insights into effective strategiesfor engaging young people in the resolution of community issues.     

Use of risk assessment and life cycle assessment in decision making: a common policy research agenda.

Quantitative risk assessment (RA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) are both analytical tools used to support decision making in environmental management. They have been developed and used by largely separate groups of specialists, and it is worth considering whether there is a common research agenda that may increase the relevance of these tools in decision-making processes. The validity of drawing comparisons between use of the tools is established through examining key aspects of the two approaches for their similarities and differences, including the nature of each approach and contextual and methodological aspects. Six case studies involving use of each approach in public decision making are described and used to draw out concerns about using RA and LCA in this context. The following categories of concern can be distinguished: philosophical approach of the tools; quantitative versus qualitative assessment; stakeholder participation; the nature of the results; and the usefulness of the results in relation to time and financial resource requirements. These can be distilled into a common policy research agenda focusing on: the legitimacy of using tools built on a particular perspective in decision making; recognition and role of value judgments in RA and LCA; treatment of uncertainty and variability; the influence of analytical tools in focusing attention on particular aspects of a decision-making situation; and understandability of the results for nonspecialists. It is concluded that it is time to bring together the experiences of RA and LCA specialists and benefit from cross-fertilization of ideas.     

A curriculum model for a community development approach to community-based rehabilitation

Community-based rehabilitation (CBR) is not a new concept but has become the focus for groups such as the World Health Organisation and other international aid agencies in facilitating the availability of rehabilitation services in developing countries throughout the world. Although much of the literature debates institutional versus community-based services and auxiliary versus fully trained personnel, little information is available to address the curriculum issues relating to training personnel to undertake CBR activities. The purpose of this paper is to present a curriculum model for preparing and implementing short programme workshops to encourage the development of CBR in different cultural settings. The curriculum model has foundations which are firmly rooted in curriculum and educational theory and concepts. It provides a flexible adult learning approach to introduce the broad concepts of CBR, providing the participants with culturally relevant, concrete, practical tools to allow the implementation of CBR activities. The workshop model has been used successfully with participants from diverse or homogeneous backgrounds.