“Just because people are old, just because they're ill…” dignity matters in district nursing

Purpose This paper aims to explore the concept and practice, of dignity as understood and experienced by older adults and district nursing staff. The paper adds a new, nuanced, understanding of safeguarding possibilities in the context of district nursing care delivered in the home. Design/methodology/approach The research used an ethnographic methodology involving observations of care between community district nursing clinicians and patients (n = 62) and semi-structured interviews with nursing staff (n = 11) and older adult recipients of district nursing care (n = 11) in England. Findings Abuse is less likely to occur when clinicians are maintaining the dignity of their patients. The themes of time and space are used to demonstrate some fundamental ways in which dignity manifests. The absence of dignity offers opportunities for abuse and neglect to thrive; therefore, both time and space are essential safeguarding considerations. Dignity is influenced by time and how it is experienced temporally, but nurses are not allocated time to “do dignity”, an arguably essential component of the caregiving role, yet one that can become marginalised. The home-clinic exists as a clinical space requiring careful management to ensure it is also an environment of dignity that can safeguard older adults. Practical implications District nurses have both a proactive and reactive role in ensuring their patients remain safeguarded. By ensuring care is delivered with dignity and taking appropriate action if they suspect abuse or neglect, district nurses can safeguard their patients. Originality/value This paper begins to address an omission in existing empirical research regarding the role of district nursing teams in delivering dignified care and how this can safeguard older adults.

Druze Women and Gender in Druze Society: A Systematic Literature Review

This systematic literature review on Druze women and gender in Druze society reviews central conceptual themes from existing publications to chart future research trajectories. Using a meta-ethnographic methodology, this literature review covers Druze women’s experience of gendered realities in higher education, economic participation, marriage, family life, and health. Our systematic literature review allows us to offer two propositions on existing published knowledge pertaining to Druze women and gender in Druze society. First, we propose that scholarship on Druze women and gender in Druze society constructs Druze women’s experience of gender as not only discursive but material. We incorporate the process of women’s relationship with prohibitive mechanisms of gendered space and men’s experience of masculinist subjectification into an existing term: the spatialization of everyday life. Second, quantitative analysis reveals a disparity in publications between Israel and other countries such as Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. We propose that this disparity relates to the concept of “Druze particularism” while emphasizing their difference vis-à-vis Islamic religion and Arab culture. We suggest that future research thoroughly covers other national contexts and inter-national comparisons of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the diaspora, especially in education, economy, and health. Future research trajectories could include examining contemporary sociolegal research on the legal regime that governs family life, research on Druze men from an explicitly feminist perspective, or publications of influential Druze women.

Language norms in L2 education for adult migrants – translanguaging pedagogy in the age of mobility

International mobility has caused a need for language education where adults can learn the language(s) used in their new country. In Sweden, the language programme SFI (Swedish for immigrants) provides basic second language education for adult immigrants. For those learners who are not yet functionally literate, basic literacy education is included. This article aims to explore the concept translanguaging pedagogy in relation to the articulated and embodied language norms of one SFI teacher. The empirical data, produced by ethnographic methodology, consists of classroom observations and semi-structural interviews. The method of analysis comprises a set of sociolinguistic questions, three categories of language norms (double monolingualism, integrated bilingualism and polylingualism) and discourse analysis, centering on deictics, indexical signs and reported speech. Findings show that although the teacher does engage in translanguaging practices, her teaching practices cannot be referred to as translanguaging pedagogy because she has made no deliberate decision to include the students’ full linguistic repertoires and there are contradictions both within and between her articulated and embodied language norms. It is concluded that it is crucial for educational development in contexts characterised by mobility that teachers in linguistically heterogeneous classrooms increase their awareness of their language norms and the students’ linguistic resources.

Property of Corrections: The Experience of Incarceration for Female Inmates in a New Zealand Prison

<p>This thesis examines what it means to be an inmate as experienced by female inmates serving sentences at Christchurch Women’s Prison. Using an auto-ethnographic methodology, combined with a mixed-methods approach, 82 female inmates completed a questionnaire and 10 were interviewed via semi-structured conversations. The data from the questionnaire are presented and analysed within the context of research from overseas studies. The conversations are further analysed and complemented by my own insider knowledge of prison life. This study was undertaken when I was a serving inmate and I made the decision to situate myself in this body of research. Excerpts from my prison journal entries, consisting of shared personal reflections from my years of imprisonment, are interspersed throughout the thesis. Three primary motivations drove this research. The first was to discover and interrogate what it means to be a prisoner from the prisoner’s perspective. The second was to explore how the prison experience relates to the possibility of future successful reintegration and, finally, I wanted to give women inmates a platform to share their stories in the hope that it would empower them. It achieves all three. The stories that the women shared, and their understandings of lived prison life, illustrate the ineffectiveness of incarceration and its inability to serve as a foundation for successful future reintegration. The findings provide a preliminary platform for further studies in this area and contribute to the extant academic understanding of an often misunderstood population.</p>

Property of Corrections: The Experience of Incarceration for Female Inmates in a New Zealand Prison

<p>This thesis examines what it means to be an inmate as experienced by female inmates serving sentences at Christchurch Women’s Prison. Using an auto-ethnographic methodology, combined with a mixed-methods approach, 82 female inmates completed a questionnaire and 10 were interviewed via semi-structured conversations. The data from the questionnaire are presented and analysed within the context of research from overseas studies. The conversations are further analysed and complemented by my own insider knowledge of prison life. This study was undertaken when I was a serving inmate and I made the decision to situate myself in this body of research. Excerpts from my prison journal entries, consisting of shared personal reflections from my years of imprisonment, are interspersed throughout the thesis. Three primary motivations drove this research. The first was to discover and interrogate what it means to be a prisoner from the prisoner’s perspective. The second was to explore how the prison experience relates to the possibility of future successful reintegration and, finally, I wanted to give women inmates a platform to share their stories in the hope that it would empower them. It achieves all three. The stories that the women shared, and their understandings of lived prison life, illustrate the ineffectiveness of incarceration and its inability to serve as a foundation for successful future reintegration. The findings provide a preliminary platform for further studies in this area and contribute to the extant academic understanding of an often misunderstood population.</p>

Alternative Development Practice: The Role of Personal Conceptions of Development and Self-Understanding

<p>It seems to be a favourite past time of development studies lecturers to begin their courses with the question: “What is development?” This old chestnut invariably serves its purpose of challenging and complicating our understandings of development and stimulating a good deal of debate. It is rare however, if this question is ever followed by any real guidance on how to answer it or consideration of what the answer might mean for one’s practice. For those seeking an alternative development practice in the context of a ‘development’ that grows ever more theoretically complex and morally ambiguous, I argue that engaging with and answering this question at a personal level is of vital importance. Within development studies, debate continues to grow over the definition of development’s ends and means, and over who controls it, defines it and benefits from it. In particular, alternative development approaches originating from Another Development thinkers of the 1970s are concerned with challenging the conceptualisation of development by opening its interpretation to multiple value systems and realities. At the same time there is an increasing awareness of the ‘primacy of the personal’ (Chambers, 1994 p3) through the implication of personal ethics and awareness in development practice. I argue that the combination of these factors gives rise to a personal challenge for alternative development practitioners to engage with and understand their own conceptions of development. A challenge that practitioners are not equipped to meet as they lack the conceptual and methodological tools required to move from abstract development theory to concrete practice. In response to these challenges my research draws on my personal experience as an intern in Latin America and employs an innovative auto-ethnographic methodology to examine the potential of development ‘theorias’ for orientating alternative development practice. Theorias are personal conceptions of development that allow practitioners to work with their own understandings of good change and structure these in relation to development and development practice. Employing reflective practice methods, I draw on my own experience as a novice development practitioner to investigate the elaboration of development theorias and their consequences for alternative development practice. The results suggest that theorias could provide practitioners with appropriate ‘tools’ with which to reflect upon, work through and explore personal conceptions of development as the basis for alternative development practice. My research indicates that theorias could also form the basis of an ‘alignment based approach’ to alternative development that facilitates cooperative processes aimed at co-creating and working towards new conceptualisations of development. The overall result is a unique contribution to the field of development studies which provides an example of reflective processes and conceptual tools for practitioners to constructively engage with the central questions of development’s ends and means from within the context of their own practice. The lack of literature regarding reflective engagement with practitioner conceptions of development highlights the importance of this research and its potential to contribute to alternative development practice and theory.</p>

Alternative Development Practice: The Role of Personal Conceptions of Development and Self-Understanding

<p>It seems to be a favourite past time of development studies lecturers to begin their courses with the question: “What is development?” This old chestnut invariably serves its purpose of challenging and complicating our understandings of development and stimulating a good deal of debate. It is rare however, if this question is ever followed by any real guidance on how to answer it or consideration of what the answer might mean for one’s practice. For those seeking an alternative development practice in the context of a ‘development’ that grows ever more theoretically complex and morally ambiguous, I argue that engaging with and answering this question at a personal level is of vital importance. Within development studies, debate continues to grow over the definition of development’s ends and means, and over who controls it, defines it and benefits from it. In particular, alternative development approaches originating from Another Development thinkers of the 1970s are concerned with challenging the conceptualisation of development by opening its interpretation to multiple value systems and realities. At the same time there is an increasing awareness of the ‘primacy of the personal’ (Chambers, 1994 p3) through the implication of personal ethics and awareness in development practice. I argue that the combination of these factors gives rise to a personal challenge for alternative development practitioners to engage with and understand their own conceptions of development. A challenge that practitioners are not equipped to meet as they lack the conceptual and methodological tools required to move from abstract development theory to concrete practice. In response to these challenges my research draws on my personal experience as an intern in Latin America and employs an innovative auto-ethnographic methodology to examine the potential of development ‘theorias’ for orientating alternative development practice. Theorias are personal conceptions of development that allow practitioners to work with their own understandings of good change and structure these in relation to development and development practice. Employing reflective practice methods, I draw on my own experience as a novice development practitioner to investigate the elaboration of development theorias and their consequences for alternative development practice. The results suggest that theorias could provide practitioners with appropriate ‘tools’ with which to reflect upon, work through and explore personal conceptions of development as the basis for alternative development practice. My research indicates that theorias could also form the basis of an ‘alignment based approach’ to alternative development that facilitates cooperative processes aimed at co-creating and working towards new conceptualisations of development. The overall result is a unique contribution to the field of development studies which provides an example of reflective processes and conceptual tools for practitioners to constructively engage with the central questions of development’s ends and means from within the context of their own practice. The lack of literature regarding reflective engagement with practitioner conceptions of development highlights the importance of this research and its potential to contribute to alternative development practice and theory.</p>

Workplace ergonomics problems and solutions: Working from home

Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, many employees were required to work from home (WFH). During this WFH period, some employees encountered health issues related to sprains and neck or back pain owing to poor working conditions at home. As the WFH trend may continue over a prolonged period, the underlying causes and solutions to ergonomic issues must be addressed to reduce injuries. This study aims to identify the ergonomic issues encountered when working from home and suggests several solutions to minimise these issues. Methods: A qualitative ethnographic methodology was adopted. This study used focus group discussion and the panellists were among experts from the fields of higher education, healthcare, human resources (HR), and ergonomics patient in Malaysia. The most common ergonomic issues identified were based on diagnoses and observations in previous studies. Results: The panellists agreed on ergonomics issues, comprising the use of unergonomic chairs, incorrect sitting postures, irregular arrangement of key objects, improper reach distances of the laptop/keyboard/mouse, poor desk designs, footrest absence, distortion/noise, poor lighting, and poor work environment. Over time, WFH ergonomics issues may lead to burnout, carpal tunnel syndrome or other cumulative trauma disorders, high blood pressure, and stress on the cervical spine and neck. The proposed solutions include a complete WFH ergonomics and wellness checklist for employees and employers, webinar sessions on WFH ergonomics, meet-up sessions with ergonomics or HR experts, workspace rentals for co-workers, implementation of the 20-20-20 rule and job-sharing practices, and the involvement of employers or the government in procuring ergonomic equipment for WFH employees. Conclusions: This is a preliminary study and the researchers are exploring the root causes of WFH ergonomics issues and proposed solutions. While previous studies have examined workplace ergonomics, this study focuses on WFH ergonomic issues and solutions during the ongoing pandemic.

Walking Backwards on Uneven Ground

<p>All place has embedded meaning – it is a reflexive method for understanding ourselves through existence in space. We create meaning in place by associating it with (personal and/or collective) memory. As we frame our worlds in context of our places and spaces, architects have an ethical responsibility to their clients, and to the wider society whom they serve. This thesis posits that contemporary architecture in Aotearoa must respond to a need to diversify views on aesthetic preference. This research investigates memory and meaning creation as considered through nostalgia, and subsequently, the cumulative knowledge gained through impressions or experiences. This research utilises an auto-ethnographic methodology to explore personal experience – through memory – as the building blocks of the self. This self-construction is inextricably related to the development of personal aesthetic preferences and is extrapolated out to the collective aesthetic preference or norm. This work reflects on - and moves us towards - a critique of form, function, and meaning-making processes, that claim objectivity; in support of subjectivities.</p>

Walking Backwards on Uneven Ground

<p>All place has embedded meaning – it is a reflexive method for understanding ourselves through existence in space. We create meaning in place by associating it with (personal and/or collective) memory. As we frame our worlds in context of our places and spaces, architects have an ethical responsibility to their clients, and to the wider society whom they serve. This thesis posits that contemporary architecture in Aotearoa must respond to a need to diversify views on aesthetic preference. This research investigates memory and meaning creation as considered through nostalgia, and subsequently, the cumulative knowledge gained through impressions or experiences. This research utilises an auto-ethnographic methodology to explore personal experience – through memory – as the building blocks of the self. This self-construction is inextricably related to the development of personal aesthetic preferences and is extrapolated out to the collective aesthetic preference or norm. This work reflects on - and moves us towards - a critique of form, function, and meaning-making processes, that claim objectivity; in support of subjectivities.</p>