Pastoral Care in Doctoral Education: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Belonging and Academic Identity

Aim/Purpose: It is increasingly recognized that doctoral education programs should better support doctoral students. In particular, it has been noted that students experience significant isolation during their PhD, which negatively affects their educational experiences and their personal wellbeing. Doctoral writing groups are collaborative learning communities that have in recent years received increasing attention to address this issue. This collaborative autoethnography explores the affective benefits (i.e., benefits associated with emotions and feelings) of these doctoral writing groups, particularly focused on the pastorally supportive nature of these learning communities. Background: Writing groups have been shown to promote academic writing skills and build reflective practice, personal epistemology, and academic identity. We have found that a much more significant benefit of our writing groups has been the pastoral care we have experienced, particularly in relation to the turbulent emotions often associated with academic writing. This should, perhaps, not be surprising since it is clear that academic writing is a form of identity work. There is, therefore, a clear need to better support doctoral students, particularly with regard to the more affective components of academic writing. This prompted us to write this collaborative autoethnography to showcase what we consider to be the primary role of doctoral writing groups: pastoral care. Methodology: We employ a collaborative autoethnographic methodology to integrate our personal reflections into the existing literature in the field. Contribution: We argue that doctoral writing groups are vehicles of pastoral care as they promote wellbeing, foster resilience, provide academic care, and build social capital. Findings: We demonstrate that doctoral writing groups foster students’ sense of belonging through self-reflection and the sharing of experiences in a safe space, which builds perceived self-efficacy and self-awareness. Furthermore, through the self-reflection and discussion that is inherent in doctoral writing groups, students also develop a better understanding of themselves and their place within the academy. Recommendations for Practitioners: Our research highlights that writing groups may be designed to teach academic communication skills, but they provide an affective benefit that cannot yet be quantified and which should not be underestimated. Incorporating writing groups into doctoral education programs can, therefore, have a positive influence on the educational experiences of PhD students and improve their overall wellbeing. This paper concludes by providing practical suggestions to help practitioners implement writing groups into doctoral education programs, particularly focused on how these groups can be made more pastorally supportive. Recommendation for Researchers: This paper also extends the theoretical understanding of pastoral care by providing a framework for pastoral care within the doctoral writing group environment. We show how pastoral care can be conceptualized as the promotion of self-awareness, self-efficacy, reflection, and empowerment of doctoral students through nurturing communities where all members are valued, encouraged, guided, and supported. Our experiences, which we have integrated throughout this paper, also highlight the importance of relationship-building within the educational community, particularly when these relationships are characterized by mutual respect and shared responsibility. Impact on Society: The poor well-being of doctoral students has now been well-established across the world, but strategies to improve the academic environment for these students are still lacking. This paper provides evidence that implementing writing groups as a strategy to embed pastoral care in a doctoral education environment helps doctoral students flourish. Ultimately, this can lead to an improved academic research culture into the future. Future Research: Future research should explore other methods of better integrating pastoral care interventions into doctoral education programs in order to reduce isolation and promote student wellbeing.

ASSESSMENT OF JOURNALISM STUDENTS’ WRITING PROJECTS COMPLETED INDIVIDUALLY AND IN COLLABORATION

The authors discuss the issues and benefits of collaborative writing in journalistic education, comparing the texts written by students in different conditions: in group collaboration, individually after prewriting group discussion, and individually without any collaboration. We used a survey for collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. The participants were 21 second year and 15 third-year students, who wrote 18 fiction stories for preschool children (3 were written in the collaborative writing groups of 4, where the students were allowed to choose partners for small groups; 3 in the collaborative writing groups of 4, where the students were not allowed to choose partners; 6 after prewriting group discussion, and 6 without any collaboration). 12 six-year students evaluated delivered texts. We also interviewed 12 teachers of the Department of Publishing and Editing about the collaborative writing tasks at the meeting of the Department. Teachers’ interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed. The students and teachers expressed positive attitudes towards collaborative writing, that contributes to students’ learning outcomes and prepare them for teamwork. The highest score got the texts written individually after the prewriting discussion. The stories written by the students who were allowed to choose partners in a group work gained higher scores than texts prepared in randomly created groups. The participants in the self-selected conditions reported that they enjoyed а high level of participation, sharing the workload and supportive behaviour. We also observed the evidences of unequal participation of students in collaboration in small groups where the partners were not familiar. The lowest average score got the texts written with no collaboration. So, we proved that there is a need for implementing prewriting group discussions in the learning process. It is necessary to differentiate the role of each student in collaborative writing to evaluate individual results correctly.

Malaya Sadovaya in the History of Leningrad Unofficial Culture

Malaya Sadovaya, a short street in Leningrad/St. Petersburg, is similarly the name for a loosely organized social and cultural scene encompassing, among other frequent visitors, a number of young poets. In the history of Leningrad unofficial culture, the Malaya Sadovaya poets represent a significant shift from a primarily “oral” culture of informal public and semipublic readings to a new orientation toward printed works: in 1965, several of the MS poets published a samizdat “almanac” of their work, Fioretti. Along the same lines, Malaya Sadovaya can be seen as marking a path from officially sponsored creative-writing groups to a self-consciously unofficial culture, implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) opposed to the mainstream Soviet aesthetic.

Management of Edoxaban Therapy in Patients Undergoing Major Surgery: A Sub-Analysis of the Prospective, Observational, Multinational Emit-AF/VTE Study

Introduction Periprocedural management of patients on direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) undergoing major surgical procedures is mainly based on pharmacokinetic considerations, clinical experience as described in the Dresden Registry (Beyer-Westendorf et al. Eur Heart J. 2014;35: 1888-186.) and the PAUSE study (Douketis JD et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2019;2019;179:1469-78), and on expert opinion. The objective of this study was to describe the background characteristics, periprocedural management, and outcomes of patients taking edoxaban who underwent major surgery in routine clinical practice. Methods Patients evaluated were participants in the EMIT AF/ VTE study (Colonna P et al. Clin Cardiol. 2020 Jul;43:769-80) which analyzed data on the risks of bleeding and thromboembolic events in 1,479 patients taking edoxaban who underwent unselected diagnostic or therapeutic procedures in routine clinical practice. Patients undergoing major surgery were compared with those who underwent non-major surgery. Physicians directed management of edoxaban, especially for dosing interruption, in accordance with locally approved labelling and guidelines such as those of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA). Patients were evaluated from five days before until 29 days after the procedure. The primary outcome was the incidence of major bleeding as defined by the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis; secondary outcomes included the incidence of clinically relevant non-major bleeding (CRNM), acute coronary syndrome (ACS), acute thromboembolic events (ATE) as well as the perioperative interruption times and use of bridging agents. Results Of the 1,478 patients, 128 (8.7%) underwent major-surgery as defined in the Dresden registry and PAUSE study. Background characteristics are summarized in Table 1 and medical history in Table 2. Surgeries by medical specialties are listed in Table 3. Major surgery vs non-major surgery patients had more often atrial fibrillation and dyslipidemia and exhibited higher CHA 2DS 2-VASc and HAS-BLED scores. Peri-procedurally, heparin was used significantly more often in patients with major surgery vs non-major surgery (42/128 (32%) vs 142/1351 (10.5%), p<0.001). Outcomes are summarized in Table 4. There were no significant differences in severe adverse outcomes between the two groups. Pre-procedural and post procedural interruption of edoxaban was longer in the major surgery group. See Table 5. Discussion The edoxaban interruption pattern was statistically different between major and non-major surgery patients. The rates of peri-procedural bleeding and acute thromboembolic events were low when patients were managed according to a clinical experience-driven management protocol. This is in line with the results in prior publications evaluating other direct oral anticoagulants. These results are important to optimize clinical management of patients undergoing elective procedures and will help to support guidelines for the peri-procedural management of edoxaban. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures von Heymann: Daiichi Sankyo: Honoraria, Research Funding; Bayer AG: Honoraria, Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb: Honoraria, Research Funding; CSL Behring: Honoraria, Research Funding; NovoNordisk Pharma: Honoraria, Research Funding; Mitsubishi Pharma: Honoraria, Research Funding; Biotest GmbH: Honoraria, Research Funding; Grunenthal GmbH: Honoraria, Research Funding; HICC GbR: Honoraria, Research Funding; German Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine: Honoraria, Other: Other Mandated to write several guidelines and part of writing groups of guidelines, Research Funding; European Society of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiologists: Other: Other Mandated to write several guidelines and part of writing groups of guidelines; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gynäkologie und Geburtshilfe: Honoraria, Research Funding; European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC): Other: Mandated to write several guidelines and part of writing groups of guidelines. Unverdorben: Daiichi Sankyo: Current Employment. Colonna: Boehringer: Honoraria, Research Funding; Bayer: Honoraria, Research Funding; European Society of Cardiology: Other: Mandated to write ESC-Guidelines on AF; Daiichi Sankyo: Honoraria, Research Funding; Pfizer: Honoraria, Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb: Honoraria, Research Funding. Ortiz: Bayer: Consultancy; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy; Boehringer: Consultancy; Pfizer: Consultancy; Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy. Saxena: Recor Medical Inc: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; The Medicines Company: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Ablative Solutions Inc: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Vascular Dynamics Inc: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Esperion Inc: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Vifor Pharma: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. Vanassche: Bayer: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Boehringer Ingelheim,: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Pfizer/BMS: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Weitz: Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Wilkins: Daiichi Sankyo: Honoraria. Chen: Daiichi Sankyo: Current Employment.

Academic Writing Groups in Higher Education: History and State of Play

Over the past twenty years, graduate studies have seen significant growth, with student numbers more than doubling worldwide. Unfortunately, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development continues to report dropout rates averaging 50% for PhD and 40% for master’s programs, in all disciplines combined. Among the reasons quoted for abandoning study programs are deficient academic writing competencies that could not only hinder how graduate students progress through their academic journey, but also how they integrate with the scientific community as novice scholars. Accordingly, this article will present an overview of studies related to academic writing groups, which have been identified as one of the strategies to benefit graduate studies. Based on a systematic literature review, we present a chronological account of key issues and concepts that have influenced the phenomenon throughout history. Thereafter, we explain the various characteristics of academic writing groups in order to delineate this phenomenon through the description of its inherent elements and propose an all-encompassing definition. The analysis of 72 documentary sources also allows the observation of trends through the examination of geographical, disciplinary, and methodological factors drawn from scholarly publications. Finally, we highlight considerations for future exploration of academic writing groups used as a pedagogical strategy in the context of higher education, from disciplinary, sociocultural, and gender perspectives.