Community development--action research in community settings

This paper considers the concept of resilience and how the natural qualities supportive of resilience in children and families can best be nurtured. It argues that there is an emerging crisis in bureaucratised child protection systems that alienates and undermines both social workers and clients, and that runs counter to the spirit of resilience‐led practice. Responding to this crisis requires a new emphasis on relationships, strengths and the clients' social context in child and family social work. It also requires practitioners and students to reflect carefully on the nature of helping. The paper explores some of the implications of these ideas for social work practice, education and policy.     

Searching for a Capacity Building Model in Social Work Education in China

This paper contains our reflections about our experiences in employing a capacity building model for training social workers to conduct community development work in rural China. Unlike the conventional approach to social work practicum, our approach advocates an educational practice of capacity building; not only for local people and learners, but for educators as well. It stresses that the educator should assume a non‐expert role in relating to his/her students so that the students will do the same with local people. We challenge the concept of the social work educator as an expert because it gives a teacher the power and authority to dominate students, which disempowers students during the learning process. In the same vein, we challenge the desire of social work students to become experts in rural development, which in turn disempowers local people from taking charge of the future direction of their lives in rural China. The capacity building approach subscribes to a critical pedagogy that calls for a re‐invention of self by challenging tradition and culture, and by developing academic knowledge, the habit of inquiry and critical curiosity about society, power, inequality, and social change.     

Making Records Meaningful: Creating an Identity Resource for Young People in Care

Abstract

The Who Am I? research was an interdisciplinary, action research project focused on the past and present record-keeping practices for people growing up in out-of-home care in Australia. This paper reports on two of the nested projects directed at current record-keeping practices. For the 100+ Points of Identity study, a tool was developed (the Document Accessibility Exercise or “Daesy”) to determine the number of personal records critical to identity that could be accessed by practitioners prior to a young person leaving a placement. The Backpack of Identity project developed a further iteration of the action research cycle, as the first project identified the vulnerability of the record when placements for the young person changed. A number of implications for practice arose, including the need for greater attention to the development of personal records (as against an administrative record) and the need for practitioners to understand their responsibilities for the story “of the record” as well as the story “in the record”.     

Water Insecurity: A Case for Social Policy Action by Social Workers

Abstract

This article discusses the nationally and internationally urgent water insecurity issue, and why it represents a highly relevant area for social policy action by social workers, both at local and global levels. Drawing on secondary data analysis, the paper explores the nature and scope of water insecurity as a global social work issue, discusses its social policy dimensions, and suggests a framework for social policy action by social workers. It argues that, due to the complex nature of the water insecurity issue and its consequences, particularly on the poor and disadvantaged groups, and on ecosystems, it is critical to analyse it from conservation, distribution, and access perspectives and to act. Social workers need to think creatively about the application of their knowledge, skills, and virtues to the water insecurity issue in order to bring about necessary changes in human and institutional behaviour relating to water.     

“无为”思想与当代中国学校教育

"无为"思想是老子哲学的精髓,老子从道法自然的观点出发提出并论述了"无为"的政治主张。"无为"并不是无所作为,而是有为的最高表现,"无为"是为了达到无不为的目的。深刻地理解"无为"思想的内涵,积极吸取其有益营养,对当代中国学校教育有着十分重要的意义,即要实现学校管理的"无为"、教师教育艺术的"无为"、学生作为学习主体的"有为"。     

清远市清城区赤岗村、清新县大树墩村出生性别比情况的调查

清远市部分农村出生性别比偏高的主要原因是重男轻女的传统观念在许多地方依然有深厚的根基。计划生育政策堵塞了人们通过多育得男的途径 ,一些村民利用胎儿性别选择等手段人为地提高了出生性别比。但具体的情况往往在经济发达地区与山区有所不同。全面推广落实“关爱女孩行动”对出生性别比升高有明显的抑制作用。     

“被”字连动句中动词的排列组合规律

"被"字连动句中的动词排列次序总体上是遵循时间顺序的。典型"被"字连动句中动词的排列次序依次是获得动作词、一般处置动词、转态处置动词。获得动作内部也有一个次序问题。非典型"被"字连动句中的动词表现为按一定规律顺向截取获得、一般处置、转态处置中的动词链,又由于受作用对象的不同,呈现出不同的特点。     

一种估计连续策略博弈的两阶段方法

 最近实证博弈研究的迅速发展为分析市场中的策略互动、进行政策分析与反事实实验提供了有效的工具。本文提出一种估计不完全信息连续策略博弈的两阶段方法,它可以处理私有信息的影响。第一阶段通过非参数分位数回归估计局中人的策略与期望支付函数;第二阶段利用贝叶斯——纳什均衡不等式构造模拟最小距离估计量,最终获得结构参数的估计。数值模拟显示本方法有良好的小样本表现。与现有文献的嵌套固定点方法相比,本方法不需计算均衡,极大地降低了计算量,并减轻了多重均衡的干扰。本方法既可以用于估计离散状态博弈,也适用于连续状态博弈。     

初任期外语教师自主发展之路:反思性行动研究

初任期外语教师都有一定的职业焦虑感。对教学日记反思的行动研究是青年教师摆脱初任期职业焦虑感,实现自主发展的有效途径。     

Introduction. Ce que les écrits font au travail

As is known, large numbers of writings circulate within every kind of professional environment. As a result, there is extensive research on the formats, uses and roles of writings in work. However, the approach taken here is not to describe what is done with writings in work. The central hypothesis rests on a performative vision of writings, one that gives them the power to act, agency. It can be summed up as follows: what do writings “do” to work? Studying work through its writings is a way to connect two dimensions that are too often kept separate: situated activities on the one hand, organizational functions on the other. Indeed, writings are material and robust — though not always lasting — traces of concrete activities, and they provide a handhold for the rigorous analysis of work as close as possible to its conditions of realization. However, writings travel and circulate. They form links between workers, groups, workshops, services, firms, without which production could not take place. They stretch work beyond its source. To track them is therefore to shift the field of enquiry to moments other than the present of the observed situation, and also to other nearby, surrounding workspaces. This brings out the procedural and interactive dimensions of organizations, their integrating capacity. Exploring what writings do to work is therefore not only to place oneself at an intermediate level between situated action and organized action. For the sociologist, it is a way of connecting these two perspectives “on paper”, by embedding the analysis of the actual work in spatially and temporally broader collective actions, and by documenting organizational analysis on the basis of observed work situations. It is a way of contributing to a more extensive ecology of activity, more clearly anchored within its organizational envelope.