The Impact of Family of Origin on Social Workers from Alcoholic Families

This study draws on the experience of six social workers who are adult children of alcoholics, to demonstrate that childhood learned responsibility and the capacity for attachment are translated into later professional acuity. The place of resilience in developing an understanding of the linkages between the experiences of adult children of alcoholics and social workers is examined and the consequences for social work practice and the education of social workers is outlined. Undeniably, prior life experience impacts on practice. Less well understood is the positive impact of negative experience. In the case of social workers who are adult children of alcoholics we argue that being part of an alcoholic family may significantly contribute to, rather than detract from, later practice competence.     

Inequalities,Democracy, and Fieldwork in the Chicago Schools of Yesterday and Today

Barriers to public discourse and participation in a democracy were central to the social reform concerns of Mead. Urban ethnographies of the last thirty years that are associated with the University of Chicago and the Chicago School contribute to this aspect of Mead's work. These ethnographies help to illuminate how extreme poverty and racism affect public discourse between groups. The Chicago tradition linked to the work of Park and Wirth has emphasized the importance of persistent inequalities and a lack of public discourse and participation rather than a symbolic interactionist approach that emphasizes the ability of people to create a place for themselves in an open, fluid world. Through field research in poor, often minority urban communities, the sociologists linked more closely to the former group have explored issues of the maintenance of patterns of extreme inequalities, the muting of public dialogue, and blockages to participation while maintaining a focus on the agency of the poor and their efforts to create their social worlds.     

Book Review: Charity Law Matters. By Ronan Cormacain,Kerry O'Halloran,and Arthur Williamson. The Stationery Office,Belfast, 2001

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

How to Get Published: Practical Advice

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Gesture in Instruction: Evidence from Live and Video Lessons

Previous studies have shown that teachers’ gestures are beneficial for student learning. In this research, we investigate whether teachers’ gestures have comparable effects in face-to-face live instruction and video-based instruction. We provided sixty-three 7–10 year old students with instruction about mathematical equivalence problems (e.g., 3 + 4 + 5 = __ + 5). Students were assigned to one of four experimental conditions in a 2 × 2 factorial design that varied (1) instruction medium (video vs. live), and (2) instruction modality (speech vs. speech + gesture). There was no main effect of medium: The same amount of learning occurred whether instruction was done live or on video. There was a main effect of modality: Speech instruction accompanied by gesture resulted in significantly more learning and transfer than instruction conveyed through speech only. Gesture’s effect on instruction was stronger for video instruction than live instruction. These findings suggest that there may be a limit to gesture’s role in communication that results in student learning.     

Teaching in Iran: culture and consequences

The purpose of this paper is to examine cultural effects on interactions within a Canadian MBA programme delivered in Iran. The analysis helps illuminate some of the important cultural differences between the countries and their importance for international education. The study also illustrates how single cause explanations often provide simplistic interpretations of culturally influenced behaviours. Results indicate that underlying cultural differences create issues for teaching and learning, but that their impact is subtle and complex.     

Introducing the Strata Approach to Dialogue Analysis (SADA): the case of political NGOs in Israel

ABSTRACT

While research on dialogue has been flourishing over the past few decades, critics contend that this scholarship often misses the core philosophical idea of dialogue, focusing instead on the absence or presence of dialogic principles in various organizational settings. This study has both empirical and methodological objectives: a) to solve a built-in lacuna in on-going dialogue research that frequently addresses important aspects of PR and dialogue in a blended manner, thereby undercutting the ability to develop in-depth critical research and examine the issues of dialogue more comprehensively; b) to provide an empirical contribution to understanding dialogue within the context of political NGOs’ public relations in Israel’s divided society. We suggest a layered approach as a methodological solution to this void by introducing a Strata Approach to Dialogue Analysis (SADA). Israel’s divided society, comprising various opposing groups, serves as a case study to demonstrate the advantages of SADA over current analyzes of dialogue. By revealing the differences between dialogic potential (features), actual dialogue (process), and the perception of dialogue (orientation), SADA enables the development of in-depth, critical research, i.e. examining the issue of dialogue more accurately and comprehensively.     

Facebook or loss of face?

Based on paradigmatic claims of group dynamics as well as experiences in group dynamic training groups and discussions with students and trainers, in reflexive form we deal with the dialectic of direct and indirect communication and its influence on the identity formation of young people. We are concentrating on the connection between border-limiting globalisation, an identity search in the jungle of self-optimisation possibilities and the role of the virtual, indirect communication, when it is about to develop the greatest possible degree of affiliation in the greatest possible freedom and the desire for individuality which overexert the world wide web. We are not focussing that much on the characteristics of the generations “why” or “what” – this discussion can be critically connoted as well as being described as a hype – we are more interested in the historic, socio-political and economic background which control and influence our communication processes and therefore these developments, especially in the group dynamic context deserve increased attention.     

Masculinity and Class in the Context of Dirty Work

Through an ethnographic study of ‘dirty work’ (refuse collection and street cleaning), this article explores how masculinity and class intersect — how, in a mutually constitutive sense, they produce attitudes and practices, strengths and vulnerabilities, which are shaped by shifting relations of privilege and power. We find resistance to class subordination through adherence to traditional forms of masculinity and through esteem‐enhancing social comparison (e.g., with women; with migrant workers). Men also mobilized powerful nostalgic themes around the loss of traditional jobs as well as trade union power. We argue that displays of masculine resilience in the face of devaluation are less indicative of a culture of masculine dominance but more an expression of vulnerability and social dislocation, serving both as a source of resistance whilst simultaneously reinforcing anchors of social disadvantage that characterize forms of dirty work. We suggest that combining social comparison with intersectionality can potentially highlight how categories of difference are strategically deployed in response to varied and unequally valued social positionalities.