Managing Dualities in Planned Change Initiatives

Dualities play an important role in creating the conditions for change and managing planned change initiatives. Building on Seo, Putnam, and Bartunek's (2003) work, this study focuses on the dualities associated with managing change processes. A case study of a planned change process called the Circle of Prosperity Initiative, a multi-stakeholder dialogue designed to bring information technology to Indian country, was analyzed. Three dualities emerged regarding the structuring and management of the change initiative: (1) inclusion–exclusion, (2) preservation–change, and (3) centrality–parity. The findings suggested that these dualities were managed using Seo et al.'s (2003) strategy of connection. Notably, the strategy of connection relied heavily on the ability of change agents to set context within and between the different phases of the initiative and involved three specific practices for setting context setting: (1) commonplacing, (2) bounded mutuality, and (3) reflexive positioning.     

TRAGEDY AND THE MEANING OF SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

School shootings are traumatic events that cause a community to question itself, its values, and its educational systems. In this article Bryan Warnick, Benjamin Johnson, and Samuel Rocha explore the meanings of school shootings by examining three recent books on school violence. Topics that grow out of these books include (1) how school shootings might be seen as ceremonial rituals, (2) how schools come to be seen as appropriate places for shootings, and (3) how advice to educators relating to school shootings might change the practice of teaching. The authors present various ways of understanding school shootings that may eventually prove helpful, but they also highlight the problems, tensions, and contradictions associated with each position. In the end, the authors argue, the circumstances surrounding school shootings demonstrate the need for the “tragic sense” in education. This need for the tragic sense, while manifest in many different areas of schooling, is exemplified most clearly in targeted school shootings.     

The Conditions of Movement: a Discussion of Academic Mobility between Two Early Career Scholars

Academic mobility is an increasingly crucial topic to the current and future dynamics of doctoral study and the professoriate. Much of the research has focused on US, UK and European contexts. This research explores academic mobility and the manifold issues that arise between the jurisdictions of Canada and the US, in ways that parallel and diversify previous research based on various understandings of mobility. The qualitative perspective is grounded in a reflective narrative approach that enables exploration of powerful themes. The findings indicate that there are costs, tensions and benefits to academic mobility that serve to emphasise specific personal and professional elements to the pursuit of academic life that need explicit articulation. These findings encourage additional scholarly and practical attention to the changing nature of doctoral study and of academic work and life across jurisdictions.     

Homesickness as a construct of the migrant experience

This paper is an exploration of the concept of homesickness and the migrant's relation to the idea of home. It draws on the writer's personal experience of Caribbean migration—discussing different phases and facets in the evolution of the construct that includes notions of essence and hybridity. It suggests how a return to ‘home’ and roots can broaden the understanding of what it means to inhabit the modern world—and also help in the continuous process of reconstructing identity.     

Opportunities and Challenges for Libraries: An Open Letter

This article asks questions and invites discussion of important issues that must be addressed for our profession to continue to keep pace with the needs of a rapidly changing landscape. These broad questions invite discussions about: space, staffing, facilities and our changing roles. It looks at space in our facilities and how we use that space as both are pressing issues for libraries. The examination of our space includes the virtual spaces we create via resources on the web. Staffing and how staff will work together in the changing landscape are issues that will shape what our profession and libraries look like in the future. The questions and suggestions are intended to spark conversations in libraries about these important issues.     

“Burke's perspective on perspectives: Grounding dramatism in the representative anecdote”

Rhetorical scholars have taken Burke's discussions of the “representative anecdote” in A Grammar of Motives, and have devised from them a systematic procedure for use in criticism. However, I believe that we can read the representative anecdote in a different way‐by examining the work the term does for Burke himself. I suggest that Burke is not offering a method as much as justifying dramatism dramatistically. Ultimately, based upon my reading of the Grammar, I argue that the representative anecdote‐taken in conjunction with the pentad‐supports Burke's claim to provide the most adequate vocabulary for the study of motives.     

Examining the effectiveness of home-based parent aide services to reduce risk for physical child abuse and neglect: Six-month findings from a randomized clinical trial

Objective

This study set out to carry out a feasible, real-world, randomized clinical trial to examine the benefits of home-based paraprofessional parent aide services in reducing physical abuse and neglect risk in high-risk parents.

Methods

Families were randomly assigned to receive either parent aide plus case management services (n = 73) or case management services only (n = 65), collecting in-home data on physical child abuse and neglect and proximal risk and protective factors, just prior to service initiation, and again after six months of services.

Results

Mothers receiving parent aide and case management services reported significant improvements from baseline to six-month follow-up in self-reported indicators of physical child abuse risk, as well as improvements on parental stress, mastery, depression, and anxiety, whereas mothers receiving only case management services did not. The slopes of such observed changes across groups, however, were not found to be statistically significantly different. No discernable improvements were found with regard to indicators of risk for child neglect.

Conclusions

As the first randomized clinical trial examining the effectiveness of parent aide services, this study provides the first controlled evidence examining the potential benefits of this service modality. This study suggests promising trends regarding the benefit of parent aide services with respect to physical child abuse risk reduction and related predictors, but evidence does not appear to suggest that such services, as they are presently delivered, reduce child neglect.

Practice implications

These findings support the continued use of parent aide services in cases of physical child abuse and also suggest careful consideration of the ways such services may be better configured to extend their impact, particularly with respect to child neglect risk.     

Supporting Self-Regulated Learning for College Students with Asperger Syndrome: Exploring the “Strategies for College Learning” Model

In this study, I piloted the feasibility, effects, and perceived acceptability of a peer mentoring intervention targeting academic achievement and self-regulated learning (SRL) for three college students with Asperger syndrome. The approach, dubbed Strategies for College Learning (SCL), features individualized assessment of academic performance in target courses and direct instruction of learning and self-regulation strategies under the provision of a peer mentor. The pilot study resulted in successful implementation of SCL and the acquisition of numerous learning strategies among participants. Qualitative data indicated participants felt SCL was both useful and acceptable. As the incidence of autism spectrum disorders increases, so has the need to accommodate students with highly individualized learning needs. The pilot is among the first to explore peer mentoring as an approach at bolstering SRL and academic achievement for college students with Asperger syndrome. The limitations of the study are discussed as well as implications for future research and practice.