Plant Stories are Love Stories Too: Moss + Curation

In 2020, after a year of dreaming, we officially embarked on the development of Moss Projects: Curatorial Learning + Research, an educational and philosophical space that aims at peeling away the colonial layers of the art museum, within the context of Turtle Island (now North America), to imagine something else. This initiative supports peer-to-peer pedagogies alongside Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour-led and allied inquiry and practices, valuing diverse knowledge systems and modes of organization beyond dominant parameters of curation, art, and art history. As white settler and Black Canadian curators, we are founding Moss Projects as a collaborative, reflexive, and praxis-based process, utilizing our professional resources for curatorial incubation and to establish spaces and mechanisms for sharing cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary methodologies.

Using Documentary Short Film for Health Impact: An Example for Supporting Family Caregivers

Storytelling through film is a powerful tool with potential to improve understanding, spark discussion, shape perceptions of health and illness, and influence related behavior. We developed a film discussion guide for the documentary short film Caregiver: A Love Story. The 24-minute film follows the experience of a man who leaves his job to become the primary caregiver of his 59 year-old wife, who opts out of non-beneficial chemotherapy, choosing instead to remain at home with hospice support. The 2-hour program was facilitated by an experienced social worker and offered on five different days/times using Zoom video (n=60 total attendees; 9-15/ session). At each session, we showed the film, discussed self-care and caregiver resources, and fielded a survey to assess satisfaction, format acceptability and session impact (response rates 67-100%/session). Attendees liked the session format (90%); found the film relevant to their situations (80%); intended to look for new professional resources (79%); were motivated to do something different(71%); learned something new (64%); and intended to ask for more help from family or friends (64%). Many commented that they preferred the video meeting format over in-person meetings. The film viewing and discussion format is acceptable and accessible to family caregivers who may otherwise not be able to attend given competing demands. This format also has potential to improve support access to resources. Extensions to this work are planned to tailor the film discussion guide for health care providers and students working with family caregivers across inpatient, outpatient and hospice settings.

Effective Use of MBO in the Conditions of Slovak Companies

With the variability of the business environment, the various tools that have emerged during the formation of management to support its functionality have been flexibly changed, used, or interchanged. With emphasis on the level of strategic management, it is not only the right choice of strategy and its implementation, but also the use of adequate theory or method of strategy implementation. There is a whole range of such methods, including management by objectives (MBO) by P. Drucker, a pioneer in modern management. The paper focuses on the implementation and use of a management system according to objectives in Slovak companies. Based on the content analysis of available professional resources, it defines the theoretical basis of the researched issues and the basic principles that relate to the MBO method. The analytical part is a case study of a selected Slovak company, in which we analyze the current state of management using qualitative and quantitative methods. Subsequently, based on the main findings, we propose possible recommendations for more effective management according to the objectives of the surveyed company.

Popular media as a double-edged sword: An entertainment narrative analysis of the controversial Netflix series 13 Reasons Why

13 Reasons Why is a Netflix original series adapted from Jay Asher’s 2007 young adult novel with the same title. Season 1 premiered on March 31, 2017 and featured the sensitive issue of teen suicide along with bullying, substance use, depression, and sexual assault. Unlike the typical teen dramas on popular streaming platforms, this show was created not only for entertainment, but also to stimulate conversations about taboo topics that people often shy away from. However, it also caused significant controversy, especially criticism around the main character Hannah’s suicide scene. More than three years into the initial controversy and at least two dozen scholarly publications later, this study is the first to examine the entertainment narrative content of 13 Reasons Why Season 1 to better understand how these health and social issues were portrayed in the show, what specific examples we could identify as potential behavioral modeling, and to what degree it complied with the 2017 WHO guidelines for media professionals. We used the framing theory and social cognitive theory in communication research and media studies as our guiding conceptual frameworks and a narrative analysis approach to investigate a total of 660 cut scenes in all 13 episodes. Our findings provided empirical evidence, along with contextual information and detailed examples, to demonstrate that a popular entertainment program like the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why serves as a double-edged sword. The production team’s good will and due diligence are commendable. Yet, additional steps can be taken in the future to effectively promote professional resources and reduce viewers’ risks, especially the most vulnerable groups.

ORGANIZATIONAL AND PEDAGOGICAL CONDITIONS OF EDUCATION OF PUPILS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES IN THE CONDITIONS OF COMPETENCE APPROACH

The organizational and pedagogical conditions of teaching pupils with intellectual disabilities in terms of competence approach have been analyzed. It is indicated that it is a set of certain facts, circumstances, influences, processes that allow to manage the educational process, as a result of which the child's personality is formed, by means of pedagogical and didactic influences, in order to increase the efficiency of the educational process. The state of research of the problem in the modern scientific literature has been determined. The need to develop organizational and pedagogical conditions for teaching pupils with intellectual disabilities in a competency-based approach has been substantiated by creating a comfortable environment for knowledge, skills and abilities for productive and effective application in life, including: individual approach to pupils, use of modern technological advances and professional resources needed to interest children in learning, to maintain their interest in learning in the challenges of the XXI century. The main factors of formation of key competencies of pupils with intellectual disabilities have been identified.