Great Expectations: The Growing Divide between Students and Social Work Educators

This article examines and reflects upon initial findings from a longitudinal study evaluating the experiences and views of students on professional social work programmes across four higher education institutes in the North West of England, on the BA and the MA routes. The paper focuses on one aspect of this study; the students' experience of assessment. In particular it examines how students experienced the process of learning, assessment, support and feedback, which was found to be in part shaped by previous educational experiences. The range of assessment methods previously experienced by students was diverse, some of which were more helpful than others in preparing them for their professional training. Lack of foundation subject knowledge presented a challenge to students on both courses, in particular for MA students who were being assessed at ‘M’ level. Unmet expectations of both the amount and type of support created anxiety, frustration and even anger for some. The ‘search for certainty’ led to anxiety amongst many first year students who believed that academics could facilitate the assessment process by providing ‘the answer’. This exploration of assessment reveals, we believe, a growing divide in the expectations of social work students and their educators.     

Social Work with Greek Migrants: A personal experience of the issues and dilemmas

Abstract

Parenthood is increasingly a choice being made by lesbians in Australia. Although children conceived in heterosexual relationships have been raised in lesbian-parented households since the 1970s, there is now an emerging trend of children being conceived within lesbian relationships. The emergence of new family forms has implications for individuals, families, and the broader community. The present paper draws on the experiences of 17 lesbian-parented families living in Sydney and regional New South Wales. Adopting an ecological framework towards child development, it argues that both informal and formal support systems are important in enhancing the protective factors to support these families. The paper identifies a number of critical times of vulnerability for these families. At these times, if informal support systems fracture, the formal support system can play a significant protective role towards lesbian-parented families and support lesbian-parented families to achieve optimum family and child wellbeing.     

Investigating Diversity in Social Work Doctoral Education in the United States

ABSTRACT

Despite its emphasis on social justice, social work in the United States has not always attended to issues of diversity in doctoral education. This article examines the state of the discipline’s research on traditionally underrepresented students in U.S. doctoral social work programs. An analysis of relevant peer-reviewed articles from social work journals revealed that this research has focused on demographic trends, degree motivation, student barriers, existing supports, and career navigation. Diversity in U.S. doctoral social work education is vastly understudied with the majority of scholarship focusing on ethnoracial difference. The limitations of this study are discussed, and future research directions are proposed including the need to examine various kinds of social differences and a wider range of support initiatives.     

The Psychosocial Context of Bereavement for Older Women Who Were Caregivers for a Spouse With Advanced Cancer

The psychosocial context of bereavement for older women who were caregivers for a spouse with advanced cancer was explored qualitatively with 13 older women. Interviews and diaries were analyzed using constant comparison. The psychosocial context emerged as the intrapersonal : exhaustion, loneliness, pain, and recovering physical health; the interpersonal: finding a new way through both supportive and difficult relationships; and the community/societal: a loss of identity, pressure to move on, financial concerns, and relying on formal supports. The psychosocial context of bereavement for older women who were caregivers is uniquely challenging and must be considered when providing care and programs of support.     

Life‐Cycle Channel Coordination Issues in Launching an Innovative Durable Product

We analyze the dynamic strategic interactions between a manufacturer and a retailer in a decentralized distribution channel used to launch an innovative durable product (IDP). The underlying retail demand for the IDP is influenced by word‐of‐mouth from past adopters and follows a Bass‐type diffusion process. The word‐of‐mouth influence creates a trade‐off between immediate and future sales and profits, resulting in a multi‐period dynamic supply chain coordination problem. Our analysis shows that while in some environments, the manufacturer is better off with a far‐sighted retailer, there are also environments in which the manufacturer is better off with a myopic retailer. We characterize equilibrium dynamic pricing strategies and the resulting sales and profit trajectories. We demonstrate that revenue‐sharing contracts can coordinate the IDP's supply chain with both far‐sighted and myopic retailers throughout the entire planning horizon and arbitrarily allocate the channel profit.     

Shareholders' Wealth‐Maximizing Operating Decisions and Risk Management Practices in a Mixed Contracts Economy

This paper establishes a critically important positive role for operations management practices and financial hedging. We show that operations management decisions and financial hedging are intertwined, and we advance a framework that can identify their combined effects on investors' wealth. We show that: (a) firms (publicly traded corporations) will optimally hold adequate riskless working capital (e.g., cash) to minimize the cost of obtaining non‐financial inputs, and the magnitude of this cash holding depends on operating details, and (b) operations management and financial hedging can lower firms' cash requirements, and boost productivity, defined as the wealth created in the firm per dollar of invested capital. Productivity‐enhancing practices—by “freeing up” some of the firm's cash—can maximize the investors' wealth. We show that these results obtain because firms' contracts with many of the providers of non‐financial inputs are not traded, and because investors can invest not just in public corporations but also in businesses “outside the markets” (e.g., proprietorships, partnerships, and private equity).     

A Systematic Review of Sexual Dysfunction Measures for Gay Men: How Do Current Measures Measure Up?

The measurement of subjective components of sexual functioning is of increasing importance in clinical research and practice. Differences have been reported in prevalence rates and experiences of sexual difficulties between heterosexual and gay men. The aim of this article is to identify reliable and valid measures of sexual dysfunction suitable for use with gay men. Seven measures were reviewed; details about item development, dimensionality, reliability, and validity are provided. Heteronormative and heterosexist wording were evident throughout. Several areas of concern emerged in relation to psychometric properties (e.g., questionable validity). No psychometrically robust sexual function measure was identified for use with gay populations.     

Intersensory processing of faces and voices at 6 months predicts language outcomes at 18, 24, and 36 months of age

Intersensory processing of social events (e.g., matching sights and sounds of audiovisual speech) is a critical foundation for language development. Two recently developed protocols, the Multisensory Attention Assessment Protocol (MAAP) and the Intersensory Processing Efficiency Protocol (IPEP), assess individual differences in intersensory processing at a sufficiently fine-grained level for predicting developmental outcomes. Recent research using the MAAP demonstrates 12-month intersensory processing of face-voice synchrony predicts language outcomes at 18- and 24-months, holding traditional predictors (parent language input, SES) constant. Here, we build on these findings testing younger infants using the IPEP, a more comprehensive, fine-grained index of intersensory processing. Using a longitudinal sample of 103 infants, we tested whether intersensory processing (speed, accuracy) of faces and voices at 3- and 6-months predicts language outcomes at 12-, 18-, 24-, and 36-months, holding traditional predictors constant. Results demonstrate intersensory processing of faces and voices at 6-months (but not 3-months) accounted for significant unique variance in language outcomes at 18-, 24-, and 36-months, beyond that of traditional predictors. Findings highlight the importance of intersensory processing of face-voice synchrony as a foundation for language development as early as 6-months and reveal that individual differences assessed by the IPEP predict language outcomes even 2.5-years later.