EXPRESS: “And we gossip about my life as if I am not there.” An autoethnography on recovery from infidelity and silence in the academic workplace

In this autoethnography, I engage with betrayal trauma from my husband’s infidelity as it relates to my recovery and my academic identity, and my work performance. As I navigate between the trauma, the stigma and taboo, the shame and lack of knowledge, my responsibilised academic self, the collegial interactions, and the question whether keeping silent robbed me of my voice, I distinguish toxic secrets, hurtful silencing, and healing silence. Although the exploitative nature of the academic workplace had never been more visceral, I also found that a tending silence contributed to my protection and my recovery. In silence, my academic life is opening up to embracing needs rather than enduring hardships, to inviting rather than striving, to vulnerability rather than empowerment.

Interpersonal Racism in the Healthcare Workplace: Examining Insidious Collegial Interactions Reinforcing Structural Racism

The traumatic stress experienced by our black healthcare colleagues is often overlooked. This work contextualizes workplace racism, identifies some interpersonal barriers limiting anti-racist growth, and calls for solidarity.

Physician engagement in regularly scheduled rounds

Background: Physician participation in regularly scheduled series (RSS), also known as grand rounds, was explored with a particular focus on physician perceptions about the elements that affected their engagement in RSS and the unanticipated benefits to RSS. Methods: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis examined physicians’ perception of their knowledge and educational needs and the factors that contributed to engagement in their local hospital RSS. Results: Physician engagement in RSS was affected by four major themes: Features that Affect the RSS’ Quality; Collegial Interactions; Perceived Outcomes of RSS; and Barriers to participation in RSS. Features that Affect RSS’ Quality were specific modifiable features that impacted the perceived quality of the RSS. Collegial Interactions were interactions that occurred between colleagues directly or indirectly as a result of attending RSS. Outcomes of RSS were specific outcome measures used in RSS sessions. Barriers were seen as reasons why physicians were unwilling or unable to participate in RSS. All of the elements identified within the four themes contributed to the development of physician engagement. Physicians also identified changes directly and indirectly due to RSS. Discussion: Specific features of RSS result in enhanced physician engagement. There are benefits that may not be accounted for in continuing medical education (CME) outcome study designs

Learning of academics in the time of the Coronavirus pandemic

This article explores academics’ learning. Specifically, it focuses on how academics have come to practise differently under the abrupt changes caused by responses to the Coronavirus pandemic. We argue that people’s practices—for example, academics’ practices of teaching and research—are ordinarily held in place by combinations of arrangements that form practice architectures. Many existing practice architectures enabling and constraining academics’ practices were disrupted when the pandemic broke. To meet the imperatives of these changed arrangements, academics have been obliged to recreate their lives, and their practices. We present case stories from four individual academics in Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Australia. Building on a view of learning as coming to practice differently and as situated in particular sites, we explore these academics’ changed practices—working online from home with teaching, research, and collegial interactions. The changes demonstrate that academics have learned very rapidly how to manage their work and lives under significantly changed conditions. Our observations also suggest that the time of the Novel Coronavirus has led to a renewal of the communitarian character of academic life. In learning to practise academic life and work differently, we have also recovered what we most value in academic life and work: its intrinsically communitarian character.

A Self-efficacious TESOL Professional in the Arabian Gulf: Evidence from the Literature

This article reflects on the notion of self-effectiveness as a substantial aspect of language teachers in ESL/EFL contexts. It introduces and defines the construct of teacher self-effectiveness, which can be derived from four different sources; a) enactive experience, b) vicarious experiences, c) social persuasion, and d) physiological states. The present study takes into consideration various skills, knowledge, and exposure that ESL/EFL teachers need in order to apply communicative language teaching (CLT) techniques and improve learners linguistic competence. The review of literature brings into light a broad range of factors that might influence self-effectiveness beliefs of the teachers in a school context, and consequently their teaching outcomes. These factors include supportive organizational culture, collegial interactions, participation in continuous professional learning activities, high-level of English language proficiency, years of teaching experiences, and reflective pedagogical practices. It is also shown how self-efficacious teachers can impact EFL/ESL learners motivation and their academic achievement.

Moving From Theory to Practice

Technology integration continues to be a professional development concern, especially in elementary schools. It remains unclear why there is a difference between how teachers talk about using technology and how they apply it in teaching reading. The purpose of this investigation was to explore professional development options that would help teachers connect theory to practice by studying their decision-making process. In a case study design, 10 K-4 teachers participated in one 60-minute interview, one follow-up interview, and one 45-minute focus group. With the use of typological analysis, transcripts were coded for initial and emerging themes. Results indicated that integrating mobile devices was highly dependent upon teachers being self-directed learners. Teachers relied on informal collegial interactions when deciding to use mobile devices. Continuous professional development that addresses adult learning styles was recommended by the teachers to support technology adoption.

“Craving to hear from you…”

This study examines the feasibility of mobile technology for interpreter education. While interpreter education and its use of technology is well-established and documented in developed countries, educational opportunities for signed language interpreters in developing countries are scarce. One innovation, mobile phone technology, appears to be changing patterns of technological adoption in developed and developing countries, connecting those previously denied access by geography or income. Education through mobile applications, or m-learning, was used to provide professional development to interpreters from the U.S. and Ghana in an action research pilot study. Surveys, discussions, and reflections were analyzed to identify the types of technologies employed, challenges encountered, evidence of learning, and collegial interactions. While successful outcomes were documented, findings indicate feasibility is still dependent on several factors.

#CGS2015: An Evaluation of Twitter Use at the Canadian Geriatrics Society Annual Scientific Meeting

BackgroundTwitter is a microblogging platform increasingly used in medicine to overcome geographic barriers and promote international connections. Tweets, the 280-character microblogs, are catalogued by hashtags (#). This study evaluates and describes the participation, content, and impact of Twitter at the 2015 Canadian Geriatrics Society (CGS) Annual Scientific Meeting, during which #CGS2015 was the official conference hashtag.MethodsTwitter transcripts of #CGS2015 were obtained from Symplur to prospectively analyze tweets for content and quantitative metrics. TweetReach was used to retrospectively analyze tweets with the hashtag #CGS2014 from the 2014 meeting for growth analysis. The impact of Twitter on the conference experience was derived from questionnaires.ResultsThere were 1,491 #CGS2015 tweets, 40% of which were original. Tweet content was categorized into conference sessions (38.8%), networking (29.2%), resource sharing (17.6%), and conference promotion (14.3%). Of the 279 participants, 60% were non-Canadian. The questionnaire data from 86 respondents demonstrated generally positive experiences with Twitter, particularly with facilitating collegial interactions, resource sharing, and insight into sessions not attendedlive. The most cited drawback was divided attention when using personal devices. Analysis comparing #CGS2014 to #CGS2015 demonstrated increases in total participants (50 to 279), number of tweets (434 to 1,491) and impressions (155,600 to 943,825).ConclusionsTwitter engagement at the CGS 2015 annual meeting enabled international participation in networking, resource sharing, and online discussions of sessions. Future conferences may benefit from a workshop on Twitter basics for attendees and presenters.

No time to talk! Teachers’ perceptions of organizational communication: Context and climate

Teachers’ perceptions of organizational communication were assessed using a tailored questionnaire, sampling 401 primary and lower secondary school teachers from two municipalities in Sweden. Overall, the teachers were satisfied with the workplace communication climate, the communication structure, and collegial communication; however, a lack of time for communication was reported. Using a job demands–resource framework and hierarchical linear regression, the organizational communication variables were shown to predict job satisfaction even when controlling for relevant work environment indicators. In total, the model predicted 49.2% of the variance in job satisfaction. It is argued that school leaders should focus primarily both on providing opportunities for collegial interactions and working actively to improve the communication climate in schools.