Finding Community: Developing and Maintaining Effective Intergenerational Service-Learning Partnerships

As intergenerational service-learning becomes an increasingly popular means for providing gerontology and health professional students with “real-life” experience, it is essential to consider the importance of strong community partnerships. Drawing upon a range of intergenerational service-learning experiences from two programs at different universities in the Midwest, this article examines the role of community partners in intergenerational service-learning and offers strategies for developing and maintaining effective community partnerships.     

A second chance for higher education: Academic preparatory programs in Israel

The Israeli academic preparatory programs (APPs) challenge the sorting regime of regular education by offering a genuine second chance for higher education to youngsters who have failed to acquire the necessary prerequisites via the mainstream. The study analyzes the success of the APPs to produce changes in their students in light of the failure of a different second-chance framework, the community college, to do so. The analysis of a sample of APP graduates indicates that background characteristics and high school history, powerful sources of differentiation upon admittance to the APPs, lose their discriminating power after graduation. All graduates join any postsecondary educational framework, regardless of their initial disadvantages. The success of the APPs in eliminating initial gaps among the students is assigned mainly to their nonconformity to the selection criteria of regular education. The purpose of this research was to assess whether second-chance educational programs that challenge the sorting criteria of the mainstream succeed in enhancing social equality in education. Outcomes of the challenging second-chance academic preparatory programs in Israel are analyzed in light of the reported failure of community colleges to moderate inequalities in higher education.     

Part and parcel of teaching? Secondary school staff's views on supporting student emotional health and well‐being

The need for schools to support children and young people's mental and emotional health is increasingly emphasised in policy initiatives, yet the role of teachers in this has been under explored. This paper reports findings from qualitative, semi‐structured interviews with 14 school staff at eight secondary schools in England, examining emotional health and well‐being (EHWB) activities in which they were involved. Three emergent themes are discussed: (1) a strongly held belief that teaching and EHWB are inevitably linked; (2) a perception that many colleagues outside the study sample are reluctant to engage in EHWB work; and (3) a concern that teachers’ own emotional health needs are neglected, leaving them unable or unwilling to consider those of pupils. The findings endorse whole‐school approaches to emotional health, with a focus on teachers’ training and support needs and clearer aims, including consideration of how such work fits with the broader goals of schools.     

Telling is compelling: the impact of student reports of bullying on teacher intervention

Research increasingly recognises the importance of student bystander and adult educator shared responsibility for successful bully prevention. The role of teacher observations versus student reports of bullying, as well as staff preparedness, as predictors of teacher involvement was investigated in 115 middle school teachers. Being told by students about bullying incidents was the strongest predictor of teacher involvement. However, the relation between being told about bullying, or observing it, and coaching students on how to manage bullying was most evident when teachers felt highly prepared to handle bullying situations. Results from this study point to the pivotal role that both teacher preparedness and student reporting play in teacher responsiveness to bullying. Implications for training school professionals and bully prevention programmes are discussed.     

The Success and Struggles of Filipino Geriatric Nurses in Nursing Homes

Geriatric nursing is a physically and emotionally demanding job in healthcare. It is a neglected field despite the growing population of the elderly, and the experiences of geriatric nurses are one of the unrecognized aspects of this field. This qualitative study purports to explore the successes and struggles of the lived experiences of a select group of Filipino geriatric nurses working in nursing homes. A total of five registered nurses selected from Philippine geriatric homes were the subjects of this qualitative study. Data were gathered from a two-part instrument: namely, a researcher-made robotfoto and a semistructured interview. Through the use of a repertory grid involving both cool and warm analyses, field texts were phenomenologically reduced in order to establish distinct conceptual clusters.

Summarily, two roles were found to be the defining elements of Filipino geriatric care nurses' sense of success and fulfillment. These include the instrumental and developmental, which describe the nurses' appreciation of their unique place in the lives of their elderly patients and, at the same time, their experiences of personal and professional growth and expansion as nurses. In regard to their struggles, the contextual conditions in the workplace typify the roadblocks of their efficient and effective delivery of quality healthcare services.