Challenges in theorising ‘Black middle‐class’ women: education,experience and authenticity

This viewpoint draws on discussions at two seminars to consider ambivalent attitudes amongst a group of Black women towards considering themselves and/or other Black people as ‘middle class’. The first seminar highlighted the experiences of a group of Black ‘middle‐class’ parents and the second, which was organised as a result of the reaction the first seminar received, sought to explore attendees views as to whether they thought Black people could be Black and ‘middle class’. The viewpoint contends that the concept ‘Black middle class’ is incompatible with some Black women’s notions of self, and that their ambivalence about the ‘Black middle classes’ is partly rooted in an emotional need to remain connected to the wider Black community. Whilst these women’s understandings of the ‘Black middle classes’ are informed by their gendered and racialised experiences, there is also evidence of a denial of (class) privilege.     

COMMUNITY‐BASED SETTINGS FOR TRAINING IN GERIATRIC MEDICINE

Service‐learning clinical experiences in community‐based sites are an important approach to providing medical, nurse practitioner, allied health and other professional students with an opportunity to acquire knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary for working effectively with the elderly. Such experiences provide a balance to the clinical experiences more traditionally provided to students in nursing homes and chronic care hospitals. In community‐based settings, students gain knowledge and skills in working with older people, develop a more balanced view about growing old, and learn about community resources and effective teamwork. The experiences of the George Washington University Medical School in providing these learning experiences has led to student enthusiasm for work with the elderly and has improved access to medical care for elderly persons who participate in programs in community‐based settings.     

Concerns about death among severely ill people

Personal construct psychology was used to generate a set of questions about concerns about death among severely ill people. Answers to these questions were provided by content analyses of the responses of a large group of ill people to an open-ended question about their current experiences. Comparison of their responses with those of a similar group of well people indicated that they expressed more concerns about death. More death-related concerns were reported by those ill people who were facing surgery rather than those who were not, those whose illnesses were acute rather than chronic, and those who were interviewed while in the hospital rather than at home. Gender, age, marital status, and educational attainment were all considered predictors of death-related concerns; but none was found to be significant, nor were concerns about death observed to vary according to illness type. The psychological states found to accompany greater death-related concerns among ill people proved to represent both the adaptive and the dislocative processes of mourning. People who were not ill, but who had greater death-related concerns than other well people, on contrast, showed signs only of the more dislocative processes. Some of the implications of these findings for thanatological counseling of severely ill people are discussed.     

A Review of: “ADULTHOOD: NEW TERRAIN New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education (No. 108, Winter 2005)” Edited by Mary Alice Wolf

The problem‐oriented biomedical paradigm that directs health care in most of the Western hemisphere is insufficient for clinical geriatrics and gerontology. A new framework must be constructed that is more optimistic, longitudinal, collaborative, and humane. I describe a goal‐oriented approach that achieves these objectives. This paradigm requires a functional, open‐ended definition of health. The term usual is substituted for normal, and problems are reframed as challenges. Life is viewed as a series of adventures, and illness and death are recognized to be essential features of life. An outline of general health care goals and an example of a goal‐oriented care plan format are provided to guide educators and clinicians who wish to begin to apply the model in their work.     

The Grieving Process in Children: Strategies for Understanding, Educating, and Reconciling Children's Perceptions of Death

Just like adults, children of all ages need time and understanding in order to process the concept of death and dying. This process is much different for children than it is for adults. There are 4 components relative to children's understanding of death: (a) the irreversibility factor, (b) finality, (c) inevitability, and (d) causality. These 4 components relate directly to the developmental level of the child at the time the death occurs. Knowing how children's concept of death is constructed provides parents and caregivers important information and helps them respond more sensitively to what children might feel and experience. This article provides an overview of how children understand death, concrete strategies for talking to children about death, and suggestions for teachers about how to help children through grief and mourning.     

Impediments to communication in transition to terminal illness

Viewing themselves in two hypothetical roles-as terminal patients and as family members related to a terminal patient-48 adults were surveyed on their expectations and preferences about how information should be communicated when a terminal illness is first diagnosed. Identifying with the patient role, respondents believed patients should be told the truth immediately and unconditionally. In contrast, respondents indentifying with family members perceived conditions under which the rights of patients should be abridged. In this latter role, male respondents were significantly less likely than males to imagine themselves as able to inform a loved one about a terminal illness. Nevertheless, for both sexes, early childhood experiences communicating about death and dying were found to be a better predictor of the case with which respondents can imagine communicating with a terminally ill loved one than are current adult attitudes and experiences. Regardless of personal ease in discussing death, however, most respondents thought the physician, not family members or other health care professionals, should decide when and how the terminally ill adult should be informed--a noteworthy finding in light of the fact that 83 percent of all respondents consider physicians poorly equipped for this role.     

Commercially sexually exploited youths’ health care experiences,barriers, and recommendations: A qualitative analysis

The current study sought to understand commercially sexually exploited (CSE) youths’ health care experiences, barriers to care, and recommendations for improving health care services. We conducted focus groups (N = 5) with 18 CSE youth from February 2015 through May 2016 at two group homes serving CSE youth in Southern California. We performed thematic content analysis to identify emergent themes about CSE youths’ perspectives on health care. Youth described facilitators to care, including availability of services such as screening for sexually transmitted infections, knowledge about sexual health, and a strong motivation to stay healthy. Barriers included feeling judged, concerns about confidentiality, fear, perceived low quality of services, and self-reliance. Overall, youth emphasized self-reliance and “street smarts” for survival and de-emphasized “victimhood,” which shaped their interactions with health care, and recommended that health providers develop increased understanding of CSE youth. Our findings suggest that providers and community agencies can play an essential role in raising awareness of the needs of CSE youth and meet their health needs through creating a non-judgmental environment in health care settings that validates the experiences of these youth.     

Health care delivery and deaf people: practice, problems, and recommendations for change

Due to complex individual, interpersonal, and systemic factors, deaf and hard of hearing (d/hoh) individuals often receive inadequate, inappropriate, and unethical health care. This article begins with a review of the relevant socioeconomic and legal issues and the health status of d/hoh individuals. I then review health care starting with the patient's knowledge base, personal experiences, and understanding of health care relationships. I discuss the Deaf community's perspectives, providers' views about disability, communication between providers and deaf patients, and barriers encountered in health care delivery. The article concludes by assessing these factors' effects on health care delivery to d/hoh people, reviewing the ethical implications, and making recommendations for change.     

维吾尔族服丧习俗的表现形式及其社会意义

在维吾尔族人民生活中,为了表示对死者的悼念,死者的亲属根据血缘关系的亲疏,穿孝服服丧3至40天,并通过穿黑色衣服、黑色皮帽上缠散兰（缠在头上的自布）、黑色大衣腰上系自布、出声或无声地哭泣等形式营造一种悼念的氛围。在服丧期问一般禁止男士理发剃胡、女士化妆,不能说笑和参与娱乐活动,不能擅自脱掉孝服。这种文化现象称为“服丧”。不同历史时期的服丧形式不仅各具特点,而且跟人民当时的生死观、宗教信仰、人际关系以及愿望有着紧密的联系。本文联系实际分析服丧的形成过程、具体表现形式、服丧期限、除孝的方式以及各种服丧形式所表现的社会内涵和意义等。     

Understanding Bereavement in a Christian University: A Qualitative Exploration

This phenomenological study, based on ecological systems theory, examined the college student bereavement experience in a Christian university. Undergraduate students (N = 127) from a small Christian university provided answers to open‐ended questions about their experiences regarding college following a death loss. Results indicate that students are generally successful in adapting to bereavement and prefer an environment open to discussing death and asking difficult religious questions. Implications for counselors are provided.     

Making death,compassion and partnership ‘part of life’ in school communities

Death can be considered a social taboo, a common source of fear and public avoidance. School communities are not immune to this, as the topic of death is constantly avoided. It is vital to understand how we can socially and culturally cultivate a positive regard for death, dying and bereavement in our school communities. Community members need to discuss these difficult issues and use strategies to enhance compassion, connectedness and support. In this literature review we reason that death is specifically not ‘part of life’ in school communities. Due to the dearth of school community-based literature on this issue and the progressive literature residing in palliative care, we aim to coalesce palliative care and school-based research, evaluate it and highlight compassion and partnership as a way forward for school communities. Essentially, our societal attitudes about death and dying have been profoundly altered and our community ownership of these normal life events has largely disappeared. This is demonstrated for example, by palliative care moving from the social grass roots ‘modern hospice movement’ formed in the 1960s and being reintegrated into the mainstream health care system by the end of the 1990s, resulting in an overall medicalised morphing of death, dying and bereavement issues. Therefore, we recommend that further research be conducted in how to develop compassionate schools to inform us how death may be continually made ‘part of life’ in school communities, for the benefit of students, teachers and families alike.     

MAKING SENSE OF TRAUMATIC EVENTS: TOWARD A POLITICS OF APORETIC MOURNING IN EDUCATIONAL THEORY AND PEDAGOGY

A bstract .  In this essay, Michalinos Zembylas examines how the work of mourning can evoke public and school pedagogies that provide an alternative way of relating to otherness and trauma — not through remaining fixated on simply representing the other's or one's own trauma, but in the insistence on remaining inconsolable before suffering. A major concern is the normalization of mourning in school and public discourses through the establishment of boundaries between grievable and ungrievable lives. Zembylas argues that the violence unleashed through national mourning and the reproduction of loss through rituals of commemoration in schools raise important issues about the ethics and politics of mourning embedded in public and school pedagogies. Using two examples of the workings of mourning — one in the context of the South African reconciliation tribunals and the other in the context of collective mourning of Missing Persons in his home country of Cyprus — Zembylas demonstrates that the recognition of our common vulnerability to loss can form the groundwork of school and public pedagogies of aporetic mourning.     

Bibliotherapy and Teaching Jewish Texts: “Medicine for the Mind”

Bibliotherapy is an educational approach that attempts to engage learners in meaningful discussions about relevant, compelling, and complex issues that they confront in their lives. Bibliotherapy begins with reading and reflecting on stories that can draw participants into a process of reflection, in ways that are user friendly and non-threatening. This study examines the unique educational features of bibliotherapy, and then proposes a model for implementing this approach in teaching Jewish texts. In the study's final section, we describe a teaching unit that demonstrates how to introduce bibliotherapy into the teaching about death and mourning in Jewish schools.     

Embedding resilience within the tertiary curriculum: a feasibility study

Mental health problems can significantly impact on the ability of university students to both meet their individual potential and contribute positively within society. This study evaluates the feasibility of embedding a strength‐focused resilience‐building seminar within a university curriculum. Participants were 247 students enrolled in an undergraduate psychology subject. The Staying on Track seminar, consisting of six building blocks for resilience, was delivered within a normal lecture period. Students completed post‐measures on satisfaction and usefulness, as well as follow‐up reflective journals entries noting changes made as a result of seminar participation. The seminar received high scores for satisfaction and 90% of students reported at least one of the six building blocks as being useful to them. Satisfaction also translated into self‐reported positive behaviour change for many students. Implications for the role of curriculum‐based resilience‐building programs within universities are discussed.     

Media modules: A hands-on approach to media for education students

Summary Modules One, Two, and Three have been a required part of the seminars for the past eight years at Purdue University Calumet. It has been the experience of this university, that the students feel more comfortable in seminar with the small group setting. Since the EML/IRC is open 67 hours a week including evenings and Saturday, the students find they are better able to schedule their time to complete Modules One, Two, and Three in an independent manner. Faculty feel the seminars and modules are successful because instructors take on more of a leadership role in the seminar and leave the expertise of media to the Educational Media Lab/Instructional Resource Center. Specified topics are covered in each seminar class to ensure the students are exposed to topics and problems relevant to their future teaching experiences. Revisions are made on the Module booklets to ensure the students are aware of new equipment and technology. It is through these seminars and module experiences that the students can begin to grow and prepare for their teaching profession.     

‘Where are all the men?’ A post-structural feminist analysis of a university's sexual health seminar

Set against the background of efforts to promote sexuality education and sexual health in a university setting, this paper focuses on a sexual health seminar offered at a midwestern US university. Using a post-structural feminist framework, we analysed discourses from qualitative surveys, newspaper coverage and participant observation. We argue that the framing of the seminar posed an obstacle to receiving health care, altercasted women in disempowering roles and failed to acknowledge men's voices. It is important to address entrenched gender biases, power imbalances and assumptions that undermine students' engagement with sexual health education and access to services. Based on this analysis, we developed recommendations for sexuality education of university students informed by feminist understandings of health.     

The politics of mourning in Cyprus and Israel: educational implications

This paper suggests the need for a critical analysis of the nationalization of mourning and its educational implications, especially in conflict‐ridden areas. Our thoughts are grounded in a comparative study on mourning that has been conducted as part of our long‐standing ethnographic research in schools in Cyprus and Israel during the last 10 years. Through this study on mourning, we highlight two ideas. First, we want to show how a comparison of our studies in Cyprus and Israel highlights the difficulties for alternative interpretations to be translated into educational policies and teacher practices in the absence of changes in political structures. Second, we want to show that despite the forces that nationalize mourning, there are educational openings for alternative interpretations about mourning and the encouragement of reconciliation pedagogies. To this end, the education literature on teaching controversial issues and examples of pedagogies for reconciliation might be relevant to provide concrete ideas for education theory, policy and practice on issues of mourning.     

Rebuilding New Orleans: A Community Field Learning Experience

This article examines how to set up educational seminars for social work students that expose students, first-hand, to a natural or man-made disaster's physical and human impact on a community. These short, intensive experiential seminars help students appreciate the social work role in addressing extreme cases of trauma and loss that have immediate application to their professional work and studies at home. The study also presents evidence via personal reflections of students and faculty about the value-added benefits of the seminar learning experience in terms of the students' integration of course material, readings, and field placement experiences, and their personal and professional growth and maturation as beginning social workers.     

Avoiding the humanistic aspect of death: an outcome from the implicit elements of health professions education

There is a basic incompatibility between contemporary death education and the fundamental education of health care professionals. Programs on death and dying explicitly require learners to focus on the affectual and experiential aspects of their patients and of themselves; yet there are implicit elements of health professions education that keep the attention of the student and clinician centered on technological factors. As a result, reactions to death become inadvertently linked to the models and actions prescribed for health care. Thus, humanistic aspects of death and dying are avoided because of the need to fulfill the technological expectations of the profession. These covert influences arise from the use of the medical model, the language of the health professional, and the expectations of the medicalized patient.     

Death counseling and human development: issues and intricacies

Death counseling as a specialized service appeared in the 20th century in response to new needs for assistance with death-related crises and transitions. Significant experiences with death and dying can be viewed as maturational crises through which people learn to cope with themselves during adversity and change. Because these experiences have a significant impact on developmental tasks in childhood and adult life, the death counselor needs to be knowledgeable about human development across the lifespan and sensitive to the problems of communication across differences in age, sex, culture, and cohort experiences. Knowledge about the impact of different death-related experiences on individuals, families, and providers is also essential for understanding the disruptive effects of these events on persons and groups. Yet helping others by death counseling requires more than knowledge alone. It must be based on goals reflecting the integrity of those involved.