scholarly journals Exploring Asian Female Pastors' Leadership Roles in the Church: Using Deborah's Story

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Fen Lin ◽  
Chi-Sing Li ◽  
Beverly Irby ◽  
Genevieve Brown
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
Female Pastors ◽  
Theological Thought ◽  
The Church

Women in many Christian cultures are told that men are strong and should lead the church. Consequently, some women rationalize that they should not assume top leadership roles in the church. When they do assume such roles, many female pastors experience challenges. The purpose of our qualitative case study was to give voice to Asian female pastors (AFPs) by having them share challenges they experienced in the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church and relate those challenges to the experiences of Deborah in the biblical story found in Judges 4 and 5. Reported in this paper are the results of focus groups centered on a feminist commentary of Deborah's story. The voices of the AFPs speak to reconstruct traditional patriarchal theological thought.

scholarly journals Experience-based co-design to improve a pulmonary rehabilitation programme

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 778-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Williams ◽  
Alice M. Turner ◽  
Helen Beadle
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Pulmonary Rehabilitation ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Rehabilitation Programme ◽  
Patient Perspectives ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programme ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate patient perspectives on attending pulmonary rehabilitation (PR). This qualitative case study identifies the benefits and challenges to attending PR and presents areas of improvements as recommended by patients. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative case study of a UK case study based on a PR programme based on undertaking focus groups (n=3) and interviews (n=15) with current and former patients. Findings The findings report patient perspectives of the challenges and benefits of attending a PR programme along with recommendations on how the service could be improved. Research limitations/implications The authors focussed solely on a UK PR programme, so the findings might not be applicable to other countries if PR is organised and provided in a unique way or setting. Practical implications This paper provides valuable insights to patient perspectives offrom patients attending PR programmes, which are useful to those running and designing these services. Originality/value The findings identify the benefits and challenges for patients attending PR programmes and suggest areas where improvements can be made.

scholarly journals Building a Mission-Oriented Church in Ghana in the 21st Century: The Role of Theological Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 190-199
Author(s):  
Seth Asare-Danso
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Theological Education ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
Qualitative Research Methodology ◽  
Education In Ghana ◽  
To Receive ◽  
The Church

This study examined the role of theological education in building a mission-oriented church in Ghana in the 21st century. The study sought to find answers to the goal of theological education in Ghana; the motives for the church in embarking on missions; the models of theological education in Ghana; the structure and content of theological education in Ghana; how theological education in Ghana could be mission-oriented. The qualitative research methodology was employed with a focus on a case study of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the Anglican Church of Ghana. Observation, Interview and Content Analysis of documents were used for data collection. The findings were that the goal of missions was to alleviate poverty, ignorance and hardships. The motives for missions were cross-cultural, international, co-operative and holistic. Different models of theological education were used. The study recommends theological education be provided for pastors and lay leaders in fulfilment of UN SDG 4, which seeks to provide equitable quality education; and equal opportunity be given to females to receive theological education, in fulfilment of UN SDG 5, which seeks to achieve gender equality.

scholarly journals Lens or prism? How organisations sustain multiple and competing reputations

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 821-844 ◽  
Author(s):  
William S. Harvey ◽  
Marwa Tourky ◽  
Eric Knight ◽  
Philip Kitchen
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Corporate Reputation ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Global Management ◽  
Stakeholder Groups ◽  
Multiple Stakeholder ◽  
Cross Country

Purpose This paper aims to challenge singular definitions, measurements and applications of corporate reputation which tend to be reductionist. The authors rebuff such narrow representations of reputation by showing the multiplicity of reputation in the case of a global management consulting firm and demonstrate how it has sustained such reputations. Design/methodology/approach Using a large cross-country qualitative case study based on interviews, focus groups, non-participant observations, workshops and a fieldwork diary, dimensions of reputation are highlighted by drawing on perceptions from multiple stakeholder groups in different geographies. Findings The authors find significant differences in perceptions of reputation between and within stakeholder groups, with perceptions changing across dimensions and geographies. Originality/value The theoretical implications of the research indicate a plurality of extant reputations, suggesting that a prism is more suited to representing corporate reputation than a singular, lens-like focus which is too narrow to constitute reputation. This paper offers theoretical and practical suggestions for how global firms can build and sustain multiple and competing corporate reputations.

scholarly journals The role of paediatric nurses in medication safety prior to the implementation of electronic prescribing: a qualitative case study

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Farre ◽  
Gemma Heath ◽  
Karen Shaw ◽  
Teresa Jordan ◽  
Carole Cummins
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Medication Safety ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Electronic Prescribing ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Paediatric Hospital ◽  
Medication Process

Objectives To explore paediatric nurses’ experiences and perspectives of their role in the medication process and how this role is enacted in everyday practice. Methods A qualitative case study on a general surgical ward of a paediatric hospital in England, one year prior to the planned implementation of ePrescribing. Three focus groups and six individual semi-structured interviews were conducted, involving 24 nurses. Focus groups and interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, anonymized and subjected to thematic analysis. Results Two overarching analytical themes were identified: the centrality of risk management in nurses’ role in the medication process and the distributed nature of nurses’ medication risk management practices. Nurses’ contribution to medication safety was seen as an intrinsic feature of a role that extended beyond just preparing and administering medications as prescribed and placed nurses at the heart of a dynamic set of interactions, practices and situations through which medication risks were managed. These findings also illustrate the collective nature of patient safety. Conclusions Both the recognized and the unrecognized contributions of nurses to the management of medications needs to be considered in the design and implementation of ePrescribing systems.

scholarly journals Digitally-mediated parent–baby touch and the formation of subjectivities

2021 ◽  
pp. 147035722096141
Author(s):  
Carey Jewitt ◽  
Kerstin Leder Mackley ◽  
Sara Price
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
The Body ◽  
Parental Anxiety ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

This article examines how the use of emergent smart baby monitors re-mediates parent–baby touch, notions of connection, parental sensing and the interpretation of babies’ bodies, and contributes to the formation of subjectivities. Domestic baby monitors are a mid 20th-century phenomenon which normalizes parental anxieties. While baby monitoring is not new, the ‘next generation’ of wearable bio-sensing baby monitors offers a different relationship to the body via the physiological tracking of babies, and the sending of information or alerts to parents’ via connected mobile apps. These devices have been associated with creating unnecessary parental anxiety and the digital ‘replacement’ of parental touch, although little research exists on their use in the context of parent–infant interaction or touch. The authors present a qualitative case study of one such technology, Owlet, to explore how parents experienced, understood and negotiated the discourses of parent–infant touch that circulate around and through Owlet, with particular attention to the relationship between visual and tactile resources. The study focuses on both its multimodal design and take-up by parents through analysis of interviews with the Owlet designer, Owlet as a product, focus groups with parents and families’ home experiences of Owlet. Data is analysed through a tri-part lens, which first combines multimodal social semiotic and sensory ethnographic approaches, and then the analytical concept of governmentality. The findings are discussed in relation to four analytical themes: (1) creating a desire for digitally mediated touch; (2) spatiality of digitally mediated connection; (3) formulating the ‘right kind’ of touch; and (4) reconfiguring ‘knowing touch’. The authors discuss multimodal discourses pertinent to the shaping of parent–baby touch practices including: rationality and efficiency; individualism, autonomy and freedom; and self-improvement and empowerment. They conclude that the discourses that coalesce around Owlet contribute to the reconfiguration of parent–baby touch and the formation of neoliberal subjectivities.

scholarly journals Young people at a revivalist summer gathering: Rituals, liminality, and emotions

2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Nissilä
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Visitor Experiences ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
The Church

This article examines the religiosity of young people at a summer gathering of a Christian revivalist movement. Studies on religious mass events as social phenomena, as well as research on youth participation, are still quite few. The open-air summer gatherings of the traditional Finnish revivalist movements operating within the national Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland attract masses of people from all generations simultaneously as the church itself sustains losses in attendance at the more institutional collective practices. This article seeks to answer why one of these gatherings is appealing for a group of active young people by investigating their visitor experiences and the meanings attached. The study regards the event as an arena for expressing, negotiating, and reviving religious meanings. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and narratives, this qualitative case study seeks to illustrate current religiosity and, in general, to contribute to the comprehension of collective religiousness in people’s somewhat individualized and private religious lives.

scholarly journals MISSION COUNCILS – A SELF-PERPETUATING ANACHRONISM (1923-1971): A SOUTH AFRICAN CASE STUDY

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 22-32
Author(s):  
Graham Duncan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
The South ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
God's Mission ◽  
Black Christians ◽  
The Church

If ever mission councils in South Africa had a purpose, they had outlived it by the time of the formation of the Bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa (BPCSA) in 1923. However, autonomy in this case was relative and the South African Mission Council endured until 1981. It was an anachronism which served little purpose other than the care of missionaries and the control of property and finance. It was obstructive insofar as it hindered communication between the BPCSA and the Church of Scotland and did little to advance God’s mission, especially through the agency of black Christians. During this period blacks were co-opted on to the Church of Scotland South African Joint Council (CoSSAJC) but they had to have proved their worth to the missionaries first by their compliance with missionary views. This article will examine the role of the CoSSAJC in pursuance of its prime aim, “the evangelisation of the Bantu People” (BPCSA 1937, 18), mainly from original sources.

Selecting from their toolbox of interventions – A realist study of the role of occupational therapists in reablement services

2021 ◽  
pp. 030802262110543
Author(s):  
Lisa Dibsdall
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Goal Setting ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Occupational Therapists ◽  
Case Study Design ◽  
Shared Purpose ◽  
Synthesis Approach

Introduction Reablement services support people to regain skills and increase their independence. This aim resonates with occupational therapy philosophy. This article presents results of a study of the role of occupational therapists in reablement services that involve two organisations. Method Theories on the role of occupational therapists in reablement were identified using a realist synthesis approach and were tested and expanded using a qualitative case study design. Each of the three case studies consisted of one reablement service in England. Methods of the study included observations and interviews with occupational therapists, interviews with managers in both organisations and focus groups and interviews with reablement support workers. Findings Findings conclude that occupational therapists’ education and experience underpin their ability to undertake assessments and person-centred goal setting. They utilise a range of intervention techniques selecting from their toolbox of interventions to support people. Occupational therapists have a role in training reablement support workers to work in an enabling way. Regular communication and co-location support levels of trust and shared purpose between members of the reablement team. Conclusion The conceptual framework developed from the study can be used by organisations when commissioning and developing reablement services to consider the different contextual layers of reablement.

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