Exploring the Transferability of Competency-Based Education Model to Social Work Education in Vietnam

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam (hereafter Vietnam) has made extraordinary strides in terms of economic progress during the past two decades. Such rapid economic change has also created many social problems such as poverty, family abuse, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, and mental health problems. Vietnam has taken steps to develop workforce capacity to ameliorate such challenges by investing in social work educational programs, including participation in an international collaborative initiative, the Social Work Education Enhancement Program (SWEEP). This article describes the procedures and process of the initial stage of the development of a competency-based social work curriculum in Vietnam through SWEEP. More specifically, this paper presents the following collaborative strategies between partners in Vietnam and the SWEEP team in the United States: conducting a needs assessment; providing trainings on competency-based education (CBE) to the partners in Vietnam; and receiving feedback from the partners to grasp the challenges at the early stage of development of CBE in Vietnam. While this article focuses on Vietnam, the SWEEP project can be a reference from which to develop social work education in other countries in regard to global collaboration for development of social work curriculum based on the CBE model.     

CORRESPONDENCE OF FAMILY THERAPISTS' PERCEPTIONS WITH FRCCCS CODING RULES FOR TRIADIC INTERACTIONS

Family therapy theory, practice, and research across many orientations are concerned with multiperson interactional phenomena such as intercepts, disconfirmations, and indirect communications. This study reports a successful criterion validity test of the rules for coding these triadic features in the Family Relational Communication Control Coding System (FRCCCS) (Friedlander & Heatherington, 1989). Thirty-five experienced family therapists observed two videotaped family therapy interactions and reported their perceptions of each of 25 communications. These perceptions-the criterion-significantly corresponded with the FRCCCS coding rules about the relational control aspects of triadic communications. Discussion focuses on the future use of the FRCCCS in research on family therapy.     

Crisis management during "live" supervision: clinical and instructional matters

In this article, we illustrate two examples of "live" supervision with marriage and family therapy trainees whose clients presented in the therapy room in immediate crisis. The case examples, one a client with suicidal thoughts and the other a parent who had struck her child, demonstrate how the university-based therapy team managed the recursive clinical and supervision processes that unfolded during the sessions. We present the case examples from the perspective of both supervisees and supervisor, discussing how our different experiences of the supervision unfolded in real time. Case discussion and reflections later in the article illustrate the need for an open, transparent, dialogical process throughout supervision. A case is made for supervisory participants to create alternative formats in which multiple supervisory voices can be heard.     

Respectable Femininity and Career Agency: Exploring Paradoxical Imperatives

This paper places respectable femininity at the very centre of career enactment. In the accounts of 24 Sri Lankan women, notions of being a ‘respectable’ woman recurred as respondents described how important it was to adhere to the powerful behavioural norms for women in their organizations and society. However while such respectability was vital for women's career progression, it ultimately restricted their agency and conflicted with other requirements for advancement. Based on our empirical findings, we propose that being a respectable woman was experienced as paradox, where at times it was seen as impossible to be both a good woman and a successful careerist. We highlight the implications of our findings for women's careers in South Asia and more widely.     

A Systems Perspective on Forgiveness in Organizations

Despite the widespread interest in forgiveness across a diversity of disciplines, the study of forgiveness has been strongly influenced by a psychological (i.e. individual-level) approach. Although this has provided many fruitful insights, it has also resulted in a fragmented literature that has underemphasized the multilevel and contextual nature of this phenomenon. Drawing upon a broad multidisciplinary approach, we provide a singular definition of forgiveness and integrate research on forgiveness into a multilevel systems approach. In doing so, we demonstrate that a deeper understanding can be realized by conceptualizing forgiveness as a part of a system of interconnecting psychological, social, structural, and cultural relations. By embedding forgiveness into context, our systems perspective provides novel insights into the factors that facilitate and constrain forgiveness at multiple levels of analysis, how the interplay between contextual levels can shape forgiveness at lower levels (e.g. individual level), and how examining forgiveness in organizational contexts can highlight the importance of examining other outcomes (e.g. reconciliation, peaceful co-existence, and détente) as well as facilitate the development of actionable theory.     

Portrait of the Social Entrepreneur: Statistical Evidence from a US Panel

Social entrepreneurship is an increasingly important concept in the study of voluntary and nonprofit organizations. In spite of the growing recognition of this concept, little is known about what individual characteristics might describe or explain who in society is likely to be (or become) a social entrepreneur. This preliminary study empirically addresses this question using data from a United States online panel. Our results suggest that social entrepreneurs are likely to be female, non-white, younger, and college-educated individuals with some business experience and who live in big cities. Social entrepreneurs also tend to have more social capital, as measured by their activity in clubs and organizations other than work, and they are more likely to be happy, interested in politics, extroverted, giving (to charity), and liberal ideologically. Although exploratory, these findings help describe the social entrepreneur and suggest ways in which this important actor in civil society can be better identified, understood, and perhaps cultivated.     

Sexual Minority Women and Alcohol: Intersections between drinking, relational contexts, stress and coping

Few studies explore sexual minority women's experiences and perceptions of alcohol. Qualitative interviews were conducted with six sexual minority women who reported having sought help for alcohol problems in the past and six who did not. Themes emerged in two broad areas: stressors that contributed to heavy or problem drinking and factors that enhanced coping and reduced both stress and problem use. Alcohol use across groups was framed in terms of social context (e.g., bar patronage), stress management, and addiction. The findings of the study underscore the importance of considering the role of alcohol in managing stress as well coping factors that may inform social service interventions.