Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Critical Reflection (critical + reflection)
Selected AbstractsConservation, Neoliberalism, and Social Science: a Critical Reflection on the SCB 2007 Annual Meeting in South AfricaCONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2008Bram E. Büscher No abstract is available for this article. [source] Introduction: A Post-crisis Critical Reflection on Business SchoolsBRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 2010Graeme Currie No abstract is available for this article. [source] State Collapse and Fresh Starts: Some Critical ReflectionsDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 5 2002Martin Doornbos In examining the incidence of state collapse, two central themes emerge, one concerned with the search for causalities and the other concerned with appropriate responses. There is often a misplaced tendency to look for single causes and explanations of state collapse, and similarly to propose single, preferably ,quick,fix' solutions. Instead, what seems to be called for is a more nuanced scrutiny which differentiates the factors leading to collapse in specific instances, and a reconsideration, in the light of this scrutiny, of responses and possible external actor involvement. This article addresses these two themes. Firstly, it takes a preliminary look into the complex web of conditioning and facilitating factors that may or may not set in motion a chain reaction eventually leading to state collapse, examining the extent to which any emerging patterns can be identified. Secondly, it looks more closely at the response side to incidences of state collapse, specifically external responses. Whilst external actors, notably the ,donor community', are trying to better prepare themselves for the eventualities of crises of governance and state collapse in various countries, and to design more effective strategies and instruments, it remains to be seen to what extent there is a ,fit' between the determinants and dynamics of state collapse and the responses and solutions for restoration which are offered. [source] Geographies of the New Economy: Critical Reflections , Edited by Peter W. Daniels, Michael J. Bradshaw, Jonathan Beaverstock and Andrew LeyshonINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2008Richard Le Heron No abstract is available for this article. [source] Critical reflection in planning information systems: a contribution from critical systems thinkingINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009José-Rodrigo Córdoba Abstract This paper presents a methodological framework to support the process of information systems (IS) planning in organizations. It draws on the ideas of critical systems thinking (CST), a research perspective that encourages the analysis of stakeholders' understandings prior to the selection and implementation of planning methods. The framework emphasizes continuous identification of concerns from stakeholders, and facilitates critical reflection in the exploration of possibilities for improvement. Some of these possibilities might require the support of IS and communication technologies. To define the framework, two systems theories are used: boundary critique and autopoiesis. The first one enables critical reflection on values and assumptions about potential situations or marginalization. The second one fosters continuous dialogue, listening and mutual collaboration between participants. With these theories, the framework enables people to reflect on issues of inclusion, exclusion and marginalization, and to participate in the design of plans for improvement. Ultimately, the definition of this framework suggests the importance of critical reflection about ethics to improve the practice of IS planning. [source] A critical view of how nursing has defined spiritualityJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 12 2009Janice Clarke Aims., To offer a detailed discussion of the issue of ,lack of critique' in the literature on spirituality in nursing. The discussion will include the limited use of sources from theology and religious studies and the demand to separate spirituality and religion and will go on to examine the consequences of the resulting approach. The drive for unique knowledge to further professionalisation and the demands of inclusiveness are suggested as possible reasons for the development of the current model. The dangers and pitfalls of definition are explored. The paper suggests that theology could provide insights into explaining spirituality. Background., The last four decades have seen a proliferation of definitions of spirituality in the nursing literature. Recently, in response to their own concerns and prompts from outside the ,spirituality' community authors have suggested that we revisit this literature with a more critical stance. This paper is in response to that suggestion. During the course of a PhD supervised from a department of practical theology I have critically analysed the literature from several perspectives and this paper is one result of that review. Design., Literature review. Methods., Critical reflection on how spirituality has been defined. Conclusion., The lack of critique has produced a bias in the literature towards broad, generic, existential definitions which, together with the intentional divorce from religion and theology have led to definitions which have the tendency to result in a type of spiritual care which is indistinguishable from psychosocial care, hard to explain to patients and difficult to put into practice. Relevance to clinical practice., The acceptance of a diverse range of understandings of spirituality and a greater focus on practical ways of using it in nursing care are the direction the profession should be moving into. [source] Mobilizing Foucault: history, subjectivity and autonomous learners in nurse educationNURSING INQUIRY, Issue 4 2008Chris Darbyshire In the past 20, years the impact of progressive educational theories have become influential in nurse education particularly in relation to partnership and empowerment between lecturers and students and the development of student autonomy. The introduction of these progressive theories was in response to the criticisms that nurse education was characterized by hierarchical and asymmetrical power relationships between lecturers and students that encouraged rote learning and stifled student autonomy. This article explores how the work of Michel Foucault can be mobilized to think about autonomy in three different yet overlapping ways: as a historical event; as a discursive practice; and as part of an overall strategy to produce a specific student subject position. The implications for educational practice are that, rather than a site where students are empowered, nurse education is both a factory and a laboratory where new subjectivities are continually being constructed. This suggests that empowering practices and disciplinary practices uneasily co-exist. Critical reflection needs to be directed not only at structural dimensions of power but also on ourselves as students and lecturers by asking a Foucauldian question: How are you interested in autonomy? [source] Critical reflections on practice: the changing roles of three physical geographers carrying out research in a developing countryAREA, Issue 1 2009Jayalaxshmi Mistry To date, discussions on positionality and the relationship with research collaborators have been very much in the human geography realm. In this paper, we explore issues of expertise, positionality, collaboration and participation from our perspective as physical geographers working in a developing country context. We trace our journey from identifying ourselves as top-down ,experts' to participatory ,facilitators', and the difficulties and dilemmas encountered during this journey as we coped with the contrasting challenges of academic demands and local necessities. Our experiences highlight the many assumptions we make about doing research in developing countries and the real lack of capacity in these places to undertake typical short-term research projects designed in the developed world. We conclude with a call for a longer term and deeper commitment by physical geographers to the people that we engage with in our research. [source] Complexity and Educational Research: A critical reflectionEDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 1 2008Lesley Kuhn Abstract Judgements concerning proper or appropriate educational endeavour, methods of investigation and philosophising about education necessarily implicate perspectives, values, assumptions and beliefs. In recent years ideas from the complexity sciences have been utilised in many domains including psychology, economics, architecture, social science and education. This paper addresses questions concerning the appropriateness of utilising complexity science in educational research as well as issues relating to the ways in which complexity might be engaged. I suggest that, just like all human endeavour, approaches to research emerge out of discursive communities and can be understood as self-organising, dynamic and emergent over time. In this formulation, complexity represents one such newly emergent approach. I argue that it is important that researchers partake in critical and reflective discourse about the nature of education and conceptual frameworks, as well as about impacts and legacies of utilising complexity, so as to participate in and influence the ongoing emergence of educational endeavour. I conclude by suggesting a series of caveats for researchers considering using complexity in educational research. [source] Organic solvents in CEELECTROPHORESIS, Issue S1 2009Ernst Kenndler Abstract In this contribution some fundamental aspects are discussed serving for a critical reflection and elucidation of the role of organic solvents in CE. The implications of the solvent on the parameters governing peak resolution are discussed based on the concepts describing migration and zone broadening in capillary zone electrophoresis. This discussion includes the solvent-dependent influence of the ionic strength on the mobility. The role of the solvent on the plate number in case of the inevitable diffusional peak dispersion is outlined, and its effect on other peak broadening contributions is briefly examined. This paper also deals with the problems of conductance, applicable voltage and analysis time upon application of organic solvents, and tries to clarify some misunderstandings common in the literature. [source] Virtual team collaboration: building shared meaning, resolving breakdowns and creating translucenceINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2009Pernille Bjørn Abstract Managing international teams with geographically distributed participants is a complex task. The risk of communication breakdowns increases due to cultural and organizational differences grounded in the geographical distribution of the participants. Such breakdowns indicate general misunderstandings and a lack of shared meaning between participants. In this paper, we address the complexity of building shared meaning. We examine the communication breakdowns that occurred in two globally distributed virtual teams by providing an analytical distinction of the organizational context as the foundation for building shared meaning at three levels. Also we investigate communication breakdowns that can be attributed to differences in lifeworld structures, organizational structures, and work process structures within a virtual team. We find that all communication breakdowns are manifested and experienced by the participants at the work process level; however, resolving breakdowns may require critical reflection at other levels. Where previous research argues that face-to-face interaction is an important variable for virtual team performance, our empirical observations reveal that communication breakdowns related to a lack of shared meaning at the lifeworld level often becomes more salient when the participants are co-located than when geographically distributed. Last, we argue that creating translucence in communication structures is essential for building shared meanings at all three levels. [source] Critical reflection in planning information systems: a contribution from critical systems thinkingINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009José-Rodrigo Córdoba Abstract This paper presents a methodological framework to support the process of information systems (IS) planning in organizations. It draws on the ideas of critical systems thinking (CST), a research perspective that encourages the analysis of stakeholders' understandings prior to the selection and implementation of planning methods. The framework emphasizes continuous identification of concerns from stakeholders, and facilitates critical reflection in the exploration of possibilities for improvement. Some of these possibilities might require the support of IS and communication technologies. To define the framework, two systems theories are used: boundary critique and autopoiesis. The first one enables critical reflection on values and assumptions about potential situations or marginalization. The second one fosters continuous dialogue, listening and mutual collaboration between participants. With these theories, the framework enables people to reflect on issues of inclusion, exclusion and marginalization, and to participate in the design of plans for improvement. Ultimately, the definition of this framework suggests the importance of critical reflection about ethics to improve the practice of IS planning. [source] Implementation of oral health recommendations into two residential aged care facilities in a regional Australian cityINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVIDENCE BASED HEALTHCARE, Issue 3 2006Tony Fallon BAppSc(Hons) PhD Abstract Background, Residents of aged care facilities usually have a large number of oral health problems. Residents who suffer from dementia are at particular risk. A systematic review of the best available evidence with regard to maintaining the oral health of older people with dementia in residential aged care facilities provided a number of recommendations. Objectives, The aim of the implementation project was to introduce evidence-based oral hygiene practices for patients with dementia in two publicly funded residential aged care facilities and monitor for changes in nursing awareness, knowledge, documentation and practice to improve patient outcomes and ensure appropriate accreditation standards were met. An additional aim was to identify barriers and strategies to overcome barriers to implementation of evidence-based recommendations. Methods, Two facilities, a 40-bed facility and a 71-bed facility in the health service district of the regional Australian city of Toowoomba, provided the setting. A quality improvement approach was taken, using a number of strategies from the National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines for implementation studies. The implementation involved a number of stages, including project development, interactive oral health education, oral audits of residents, changes to oral hygiene practice via care plans and critical reflection. Results, The multidisciplinary approach to improving oral healthcare appeared to improve knowledge and awareness and move oral health practices in facilities closer to best practice. Specialised training in oral health was provided to a Clinical Nurse Consultant. Regular oral audits were introduced and facility staff were trained in the use of the oral audit tool. Care plans at one facility were of better quality and more comprehensive than before the intervention. Comments made during critical reflection suggested improvements in the oral health of residents, increased use of oral swabs and saliva substitutes, improved care of dentures and mention of the use of mouth props in resident care plans. There was also some evidence that changes brought about by the implementation are sustainable. Conclusion, The majority of recommendations provided in the systematic review of oral healthcare for dementia patients were applicable to the applied context. The importance of day-to-day leaders was highlighted by the apparently varied outcomes across target facilities. The quality improvement approach would appear to have considerable advantages when applied to improving practice in residential aged care. [source] Standardized routine outcome measurement: Pot holes in the road to recoveryINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 4 2004Richard Lakeman Abstract: Routine ,outcome measurement' is currently being introduced across Australian mental health services. This paper asserts that routine standardized outcome measurement in its current form can only provide a crude and narrow lens through which to witness recovery. It has only a limited capacity to capture the richness of people's recovery journeys or provide information that can usefully inform care. Indeed, in its implementation nurses may be required to collude in practices or account for practice in ways which run counter to the personal recovery paradigm. Nurses should view a focus on outcomes as an opportunity for critical reflection as well as to seek ways to account for recovery stories in meaningful ways. [source] Identity and resistance: why spiritual care needs ,enemies'JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 7 2006John Swinton PhD Aims., This paper explores certain key critiques of spirituality-in-nursing as they have been offered by people outside of the discipline. It argues that nurses have not taken seriously enough the recent criticism of the nature and role of spirituality in nursing. Not to listen to the ,enemies' of spirituality-in-nursing is to risk stagnation and a drift into obscurity. Background., The area of spirituality has become a growing field of interest for nurses and has produced a burgeoning body of research literature. Yet, whilst much has been written about the positive aspects of spirituality, nurses have offered almost no critique of the ways in which spirituality and spiritual care are understood, despite the fact that there are clearly certain key issues that require robust critique and thoughtful reflection. Almost all of the major criticisms of spirituality-in-nursing have come from people outside of the discipline of nursing. The paper argues that nurses need to listen carefully to the criticisms of spirituality and spiritual care offered by the ,enemies' of spiritual care in nursing. When listened to constructively, they highlight issues that are vital for the development and forward movement of this important area of nursing practice. Methods., Literature review and critical reflection on current critiques of spirituality in nursing practice. Conclusions., The paper concludes that nurses need to begin to develop spirituality as a specific field of enquiry with its own bodies of knowledge, methodologies, assumptions and core disciplines. Relevance to clinical practice., In listening to and taking seriously its ,enemies', nursing has the opportunity to establish spirituality as an important, creative and vibrant aspect of nursing practice that has the capacity to grow and respond constructively to its ,enemies', in ways that make whole-person-care a real possibility. [source] The interplay between learning and the use of ICT in Rwandan student teachers' everyday practiceJOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 6 2009E. Mukama Abstract The paper describes a study conducted in Rwanda involving 12 participants selected from a larger cohort of 24 final-year university students who were part of a group-based training programme. The programme was about how to search, retrieve, and use web-based literature. Empirical data were collected through interviews and focus group discussions. The purpose was to explore ways of using information and communication technology (ICT) in student teachers' everyday learning practice. The study draws from a sociocultural perspective and emphasis is put on a literature review involving ICT in teacher education. The findings reveal that utilization of ICT pertains to three major types of variation among student teachers who use ICT: passive, reluctant, and active users. The active ICT users demonstrated a capacity to cross group boundaries and play a central role as agents of change in learning practice. The point is that more experienced student teachers can assist their colleagues in the zone of proximal development and, therefore, enhance the integration of the new technology in teacher education. This implies that having access to ICT together with some instruction is not sufficient to prompt students to start using this technology as a pedagogical tool. Moreover, confrontation of different experiences regarding the use of ICT can spearhead change in student teachers' learning practice through critical reflection. [source] Closing the gap: collaborative learning as a strategy to embed evidence within occupational therapy practiceJOURNAL OF EVALUATION IN CLINICAL PRACTICE, Issue 2 2006Amanda Welch Dip COT Pg Dip ED MSc Abstract Rationale, The principles of clinical governance apply as guidelines for good practice to all practitioners. However, evidence-based practice (EBP) is proving a challenge for practitioners who lack the confidence to consume published research. For therapists not wishing to undertake formal study there is a risk of becoming disempowered within a culture of EBP. Opportunities to develop skills in consuming research have focused on the information dissemination model that has limited effect. Mutual reflective learning processes are recommended to empower practitioners to bridge the theory-practice gap. Aim, An action research approach investigated practice based collaborative learning as a catalyst to increase therapist's competence and confidence in consuming research and to explore the transition toward EB practitioner. Method and Results, A diagnostic survey reaffirmed therapist's lack of confidence in EBP. Formative interviews (n = 5) found an over reliance on professional craft and personal knowledge. Research knowledge was not included in participants' construct of a good practitioner and engagement in higher order critical reflection was limited. Collaborative learning groups (n = 6) embedded in practice integrated research, theory, practice and critical reflection. Supported by the collegial learning environment, a learning package developed participants' confidence and competence in consuming published research. Summative interviews (n = 5) evaluated the group and found that therapists were empowered to incorporate propositional knowledge into their clinical reasoning, engage in critical reflection and challenge their practice. They felt confident to incorporate EBP into their continuing professional development plans. Sustainability of these changes requires commitment from the therapists and the workplace. [source] Violence education in nursing: critical reflection on victims' storiesJOURNAL OF FORENSIC NURSING, Issue 1 2008Angela Frederick Amar PhD Abstract Violence against women is a major public health concern. This paper describes an educational strategy to increase nursing students' understanding of the experience of violence and to foster recognition and intervention with victims of violence. Students in an elective course were asked to critically reflect on the personal stories of victims/survivors of violence. The assignment provided four learning opportunities that include examination of societal myths on sexual victimization, understanding the lived experience of the victim, exploration of personal beliefs and values, and the relationship of the individual's experience to theoretical content of the course. Students gave permission for the use of quotes from papers to illustrate the learning opportunities. [source] The World Development Report: concepts, content and a Chapter 12,JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2001Robert Chambers The World Development Report (WDR) process set new standards for openness and consultation. Its concepts and content are a major advance on its 1990 predecessor. The intention that its concepts and content should be influenced by voices of the poor was partly fulfilled. Conceptually, the VOP findings support the multidimensional view of poverty as ,pronounced deprivation of wellbeing', and the use of income-poverty to describe what is only one dimension of poverty (though this welcome usage is not consistent throughout in the WDR). Two concepts or analytical orientations were not adopted: powerlessness and disadvantage seen as a multidimensional interlinked web; and livelihoods. On content, three areas where the influence fell short were: how the police persecute and impoverish poor people; the diversity of the poorest people; and the significance of the body as the main but vulnerable and indivisible asset of many poor people. A weakness of the WDR is its lack of critical self-awareness. Chapter 11 is self-serving for the International Financial Institutions: it lumps loans with grants as concessional finance; it makes liberal use of the term donor, but never lender; and it does not consider debt avoidance as a strategy. The Report ends abruptly, a body without a head. Its multidimensional view of poverty is not matched by a multidimensional view of power and responsibility. A Chapter 12 is crying out to be written. This would confront issues of professional, institutional and personal commitment and change. It would stress critical reflection as a professional norm, disempowerment for democratic diversity as institutional practice, and personal values, attitudes and courageous behaviour as primary and crucial if development is to be change that is good for poor people. A new conclusion is suggested for the WDR, and a title for the World Development Report 2010. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] ,A Benevolent Institution for the Suppression of Evil': Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent and the Limits of PolicingJOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 3 2003Stephen Skinner The study of law in literature stimulates critical reflection about law and the limits of its institutions by expanding contextual analysis to include the emotive discourses of fiction. This article starts from the premisses that the orthodox separation of literary expression from social scientific writing is not immutable and that different temporal settings are not barriers to exploring themes that traverse them. It uses Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, a story of policing and anarchism in late nineteenth-century London, in order to discuss the limits of policing today. This novel is read in parallel with two modern police studies to show how it prefigures current concerns, portraying policing as an imperfect totem of security, immaterial to the individual's emotional crises, which, by extension, can be seen to illustrate the limits of law itself. This article thus raises methodological and theoretical issues of general interest to the study of law in society and suggests how reading literature can thicken' legal analysis by offering experience of the emotional beyond that law ignores. [source] Understanding the essential elements of work-based learning and its relevance to everyday clinical practiceJOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 6 2010BSc (Hons) Nurse Practitioner, CAROLINE WILLIAMS RN, Dip N, MSc (Nursing), PGCE (FE), PGCert (Facilitation & life-long learning) williams c. (2010) Journal of Nursing Management 18, 624,632 Understanding the essential elements of work-based learning and its relevance to everyday clinical practice Aim, To critically review the work-based learning literature and explore the implications of the findings for the development of work-based learning programmes. Background, With NHS budgets under increasing pressure, and challenges to the impact of classroom-based learning on patient outcomes, work-based learning is likely to come under increased scrutiny as a potential solution. Evidence from higher education institutions suggests that work-based learning can improve practice, but in many cases it is perceived as little more than on-the-job training to perform tasks. Evaluation, The CINAHL database was searched using the keywords work-based learning, work-place learning and practice-based learning. Those articles that had a focus on post-registration nursing were selected and critically reviewed. Key issues, Using the review of the literature, three key issues were explored. Work-based learning has the potential to change practice. Learning how to learn and critical reflection are key features. For effective work-based learning nurses need to take control of their own learning, receive support to critically reflect on their practice and be empowered to make changes to that practice. Conclusions, A critical review of the literature has identified essential considerations for the implementation of work-based learning. A change in culture from classroom to work-based learning requires careful planning and consideration of learning cultures. Implications for nursing management, To enable effective work-based learning, nurse managers need to develop a learning culture in their workplace. They should ensure that skilled facilitation is provided to support staff with critical reflection and effecting changes in practice. Contribution to New Knowledge, This paper has identified three key issues that need to be considered in the development of work-based learning programmes. [source] Eye-rollers, risk-takers, and turn sharks: Target students in a professional science education programJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 8 2006Sonya N. Martin In classrooms from kindergarten to graduate school, researchers have identified target students as students who monopolize material and human resources. Classroom structures that privilege the voice and actions of target students can cause divisive social dynamics that may generate cliques. This study focuses on the emergence of target students, the formation of cliques, and professors' efforts to mediate teacher learning in a Master of Science in Chemistry Education (MSCE) program by structuring the classroom environment to enhance nontarget students' agency. Specifically, we sought to answer the following question: What strategies could help college science professors enact more equitable teaching structures in their classrooms so that target students and cliques become less of an issue in classroom interactions? The implications for professional education programs in science and mathematics include the need for professors to consider the role and contribution of target students to the learning environment, the need to structure an equitable learning environment, and the need to foster critical reflection upon classroom interactions between students and instructors. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 819,851, 2006 [source] Environmental adult education: Women living the tensionsNEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT & CONTINUING EDUCATION, Issue 99 2003Lee Karlovic When women who share common concerns for the environment come together, powerful learning occurs through critical reflection on tensions between daily-life decisions and emotional connections to social and ecological concerns. [source] Falling forward: Lessons learned from critical reflection on an evaluation process with a prisoner reentry programNEW DIRECTIONS FOR EVALUATION, Issue 127 2010Barbara Hooper A formative evaluation of life-skills learning modules with men and women in a residential prisoner reentry program where careful attention was given to voice, power, and engagement, is described and analyzed. The author reflects on the evaluation process through the critical theory lens of "being self-critical can illuminate how practices maintain oppressive conditions." Questions about whose voices remained dominant and whose power was suppressed are discussed. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc., and the American Evaluation Association. [source] Making Them More Vulnerable: Nursing Insights on the Irony of Using QuestionnairesNURSING FORUM, Issue 2 2007Pam McGrath BSocWk TOPIC.,Nursing insights on the experience of using standardized questionnaires during hospice care. PURPOSE.,To explore and describe the experience of hospice staff using questionnaires on hospice clients: whether such instruments help or hinder the holistic, compassionate hospice practice and to set this topic on the research agenda in the hope of generating critical reflection on this important aspect of hospice care. SOURCES.,A cross-section of hospice staff interviewed about their experience with administering the questionnaires. (Findings from research conducted with hospice clients on their experience of questionnaires are published separately.) CONCLUSIONS.,The initial findings indicate that staff perceive questionnaires as negatively impacting on their efforts to engage in holistic and compassionate hospice practice and point to a major irony that questionnaires, designed for the supportive care of the vulnerable, actually make the vulnerable more vulnerable. [source] Continuing nursing education policy in China and its impact on health equityNURSING INQUIRY, Issue 3 2010Lily Dongxia Xiao XIAO LD. Nursing Inquiry 2010; 17: 208,220 Continuing nursing education policy in China and its impact on health equity The aim of this study was to evaluate the mandatory continuing nursing education (MCNE) policy in China and to examine whether or not the policy addresses health equity. MCNE was instituted in 1996 in China to support healthcare reform was to include producing greater equity in health-care. However, the literature increasingly reports inequity in participation in MCNE, which is likely to have had a detrimental effect on the pre-existing discrepancies of education in the nursing workforce, and thereby failing to really address health equity. Despite a growing appeal for change, there is lack of critical reflection on the issues of MCNE policy. Critical ethnography underpinned by Habermas' Communicative Action Theory and Giddens' Structuration Theory were used to guide this study. Findings are presented in four themes: (i) inaccessibility of learning programs for nurses; (ii) undervaluation of workplace-based learning; (iii) inequality of the allocation of resources; and (iv) demands for additional support in MCNE from non-tertiary hospitals. The findings strongly suggest the need for an MCNE policy review based on rational consensus with stakeholders while reflecting the principles of health equity. [source] Cultural safety and the challenges of translating critically oriented knowledge in practiceNURSING PHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2009Annette J. Browne PhD RN Abstract Cultural safety is a relatively new concept that has emerged in the New Zealand nursing context and is being taken up in various ways in Canadian health care discourses. Our research team has been exploring the relevance of cultural safety in the Canadian context, most recently in relation to a knowledge-translation study conducted with nurses practising in a large tertiary hospital. We were drawn to using cultural safety because we conceptualized it as being compatible with critical theoretical perspectives that foster a focus on power imbalances and inequitable social relationships in health care; the interrelated problems of culturalism and racialization; and a commitment to social justice as central to the social mandate of nursing. Engaging in this knowledge-translation study has provided new perspectives on the complexities, ambiguities and tensions that need to be considered when using the concept of cultural safety to draw attention to racialization, culturalism, and health and health care inequities. The philosophic analysis discussed in this paper represents an epistemological grounding for the concept of cultural safety that links directly to particular moral ends with social justice implications. Although cultural safety is a concept that we have firmly positioned within the paradigm of critical inquiry, ambiguities associated with the notions of ,culture', ,safety', and ,cultural safety' need to be anticipated and addressed if they are to be effectively used to draw attention to critical social justice issues in practice settings. Using cultural safety in practice settings to draw attention to and prompt critical reflection on politicized knowledge, therefore, brings an added layer of complexity. To address these complexities, we propose that what may be required to effectively use cultural safety in the knowledge-translation process is a ,social justice curriculum for practice' that would foster a philosophical stance of critical inquiry at both the individual and institutional levels. [source] Race, Worldviews, and Conflict Mediation: Black and White Styles of Conflict RevisitedPEACE & CHANGE, Issue 1 2008Mark Davidheiser The article offers a wide-ranging, critical reflection on intercultural mediation theory and practice. Rather than following the standard format of literature review and discussion, the author uses his experiences as a mediator and researcher to frame the culture question and analyze intercultural practice models. We begin with the White American author's realization that culture is important, following a mediation session in which the other participants were Black. Reading Kochman's Black and White Styles in Conflict reinforced that realization, and, combined with other works, suggested a relatively straightforward relationship between culture and mediation managed through cultural competency. However, original field research on third-party peacemaking in West Africa complicated the issue by indicating that worldviews and associated conflict styles are highly diverse, varying both within and across social groups. The second half of the paper examines the nature of cultural perspectives or worldviews and considers proposed methods for intercultural mediation. By analyzing prominent responses to the issue of sociocultural variation, the paper explores the challenge of creating a broadly applicable mediation methodology that addresses the complexity of worldviews. [source] Star Wars: About Anthropology, Culture and Globalisation,THE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2000Bruce Kapferer This paper explores the connection between debates within anthropology and larger political processes affecting the universities frequently relating to contemporary globalisation. Such connection is important in order to evaluate some directions in critical reflection within the discipline. It is claimed that anthropological positions concerning ,fieldwork' and ,culture', often devalued in the climate of current discourse, are significant epistemologically for the discipline and important for its radical potential as offering a continual challenge to the hegemony of metropolitan thought. This kind of challenge may be lost in certain redirections in anthropological approaches that often seem to be more dictated by the managerial revolution in universities than otherwise realised. [source] Between Pinochet and Kropotkin: state terror, human rights and the geographersTHE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 3 2001John Wiley Lecture The lecture develops a civil perspective on states engaged in systematic but arbitrary armed violence against their home populations: what the Nürnberg Tribunal called ,government by terror. Civilians, or most of them, appear uniquely vulnerable to such violence and the gross violations of human rights accompanying it. Moreover, this, rather than wars as usually understood, involved the largest uses of armed force in the twentieth century. It was the main cause of violent death of civilians. Two geographical concerns are addressed: the ,geographic' nature of such violence, and its implications for the thought and practice of geographers. They are explored especially through the work of two geographers whose lives bracket the past ,century of violence, Peter Kropotkin and Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile fully illustrates the scope of state terror. Geographies of coercion are seen in the system of political prisons and torture, the making of a society and landscapes of fear, and the unmaking of civil life. The atrocities also violated Chile's former commitment to human rights initiatives. Pinochet's geographical work, especially the geopolitics, is in accord with, or offers no counter to, the repressive, authoritarian regime he headed, Kropotkin's descriptions of imperial Russia show many parallels to the Chilean case, and the kind of repressive state power that he rejected to dedicate his life to its vulnerable and innocent victims. Almost alone among geographers he developed a coherent, influential vision of violence, social justice and interpersonal ethics, based on geographical investigations as well as an anarchist perspective. These two may also seem to represent conceptual and lived extremes - respectively, an extreme deployment of state violence, and a total rejection of the state because of the facts and potential of violent repression. Unfortunately, enquiries into violence and the state, let alone terrorist states, are virtually absent from contemporary geographical scholarship. Its emergence as an essentially ,civil field' has reinforced this - when it should have had the opposite effect. In part this involves a failure to temper our long, and less-than-critical, service to the state in all areas, and a continuing governmental mind-set. It is suggested that the absence of critical reflection on the contested relations of civil society and the state, especially as they involve state violence, undermines the intellectual value and ethical standards of our work. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||