Practising Observation in Shadowing: Curriculum Innovation and Learning Outcomes in the BA Social Work

One of the requirements of the curriculum of the new BA Social Work is that students shadow the work of practitioners before they undertake supervised practice. Shadowing provides an opportunity to observe social workers in different agencies and to learn from the experience of being in the observer role. This article focuses on the observational learning which is part of the shadowing experience. It discusses an observation curriculum designed for a new student group at an early stage in the programme. Using feedback from student assessments on the Sussex/Brighton BA, the course structure and learning outcomes are described and analysed. From initial evaluations it is argued that observation in shadowing provides an important introduction to key aspects of professional learning such as anti‐oppressive practice and communication skills.     

Preface

Being raised by a single mother is one factor that has been suggested as contributing to the plight of African American males. Yet few studies have focused specifically on African American single mothers' experiences with raising sons. This qualitative study explored the following questions: (1) What are the experiences of African American single mothers in the raising of their sons? (2) What coping strategies do African American single mothers use in the raising of their sons? Two rounds of unstructured open-ended interviews were conducted with 11 African American single mothers of at least one son. Implications for family therapy based on the interviews are presented.     

Intersectionality,Multiple Messages,and Complex Causality: Commentary on Black Sexual Politics by Patricia Hill Collins

In this article I approach gender, sexuality, and race as analytical concepts and intersectionality as an analytical framework for examining the relations between these concepts and the context within which they operate. Issues of complex causality make the disentangling of messages communicated by symbolic and everyday acts susceptible to oversimplification and paralysis of political action. Intersectionality addresses many of the pitfalls featured among intractable political problems such as racism. Patricia Hill Collins's provocative book Black Sexual Politics (2005) Collins, P. H. 2005. Black Sexual Politics, New York: Routledge.  [Google Scholar] proposes an alternative lens, that of the “new racism,” and I interrogate the utility of both frames for the analysis of African American popular culture and sexuality in the 21st century.     

The Value of Organizational Ambivalence for Small and Medium Size Enterprises in an Uncertain World

Prior literature suggests two competing mechanisms for how organizations respond to environmental forces – absorption and reduction – but there is no consensus on which mechanism is more effective. We solve this puzzle by analysing one underlying dimension of these two mechanisms – organizational ambivalence – in a small and medium size enterprise context. Specifically, we believe that because of the difference in consuming resources, organizational ambivalence can be divided into latent and active, which exhibit different uses in dealing with environmental forces and improving firm performance. We conducted two studies in four countries to test our hypotheses. These two studies yield unanimous support for our hypotheses regarding the impact of organizational ambivalence on organizational performance and mixed support for our hypotheses concerning environmental impacts on organizational ambivalence.     

Taking Your Place: A Summer Program to Encourage Nontraditional Career Choices for Adolescent Girls

A 2-week summer program for adolescent girls featuring awareness of nontraditional career choices was provided via a cooperative plan from a public school system, a community college, and a university. The program included 80 hours of activities: business and industry visitations, technical and trade shop “hands-on” activities as well as self-concept building experiences. Upon completion, a majority of the participants reported confidence in learning about and choosing an occupation, and clearer ideas about possible occupations for themselves. Implications of these results for career development practices and research are described.     

The Professionalisation of Child Care Work in Ireland: An Unlikely Development?

Child care work has developed separately from social work in Ireland and is seen as a predominantly female role. This article sets this analysis in the context of Irish Society and traditions and argues for a higher status for childcare workers. Readers in other countries will find many parallels especially as regards the relationship between the status of child care work and the status of women.     

Research note: Women's experience of the mother role

Despite the feminist critique of the assumptions implicit in the ideology of motherhood, relatively little empirical work has been done on women's own experience of this role. This research note uses data from a small scale intensive study of 51 married or cohabiting mothers aged 20-42 years old, whose oldest child was 15 years old, and who were randomly selected from medical records in a lower middle class area of North London. Building on Boulton's (1983) conceptualization, it differentiates between three aspects of this role (namely their commitment to it; its perceived identity enhancing/ destructive character and the positive/negative quality of their interaction with their children). These women's experience of the mother role was then assessed on these dimensions - using rating scales and anchoring examples (which are illustrated here). This research note suggests that even within this relatively homogenous lower middle/upper working class sample, the experience of motherhood was extremely varied: with less than half of the sample experiencing it positively at all three levels. An attempt is made to explain this variation.     

Attachment theory: Application to clinical practice with adults

An application of attachment theory to clinical practice with adults is based on psychoanalytic-object relations theory, expanding and emphasizing the influence of affectional bonds with others. The role of the therapist is to provide the conditions in which to explore current and past experiences, especially those related to attachment, separation and loss, helping patients reappraise and reconstruct their inner representations of attachment relationships with others.     

The impact of emotions and predominant emotion regulation technique on driving performance

Emotion-provoking stimuli abound on modern roadways. Driving measures, of both longitudinal and lateral control of the vehicle, have been shown to vary based on affective influences. Research, however, has yet to address how drivers' individual techniques to mitigate emotional reactions influence driving performance. To address this issue, the present study featured a dual-task protocol involving simulated driving together with processing of emotionally-valenced images with a focus on different Predominant Emotion Regulation Techniques (PERT): one adaptive strategy (task-focused coping) and one maladaptive style (emotion-focused coping). Dependent measures included mean driving speed and number of lane excursions. Results indicated that pleasant images degraded longitudinal control to the greatest extent, while unpleasant images produced the greatest detriment in lateral control. Additionally, individuals' PERT played a major interactive role in drivers' longitudinal control leading task-focused females and emotion-focused males to adhere more closely to the speed limit; yet, it did not affect their lateral control. Results hold important potential implications for the amount or variety of training necessary for driver licensure to promote and sustain safe vehicle control.