(An item from ISHN Member information service) In this web site, we often refer to "non-rational decision-making" as a concept that helps to explain decision-making in large systems such as schools or health systems. The concepts helps to broaden our understanding of the processes that influence systems, organizations and individuals in maintaining or modifying theior practices. This week, we came across a similar concept being developed by the National collaborating Centre on Public Policy in health promotion in Canada. Their video presentation on "deliberative processes" is an excellent overview of this deeper understanding that goes beyond simplistic expectations that research evidence alone can persuade us to make changes. Read more.
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(An item from ISHN Member information service) Action learning is an educational process whereby people work and learn together by tackling real issues and reflecting on their actions. Learners acquire knowledge through actual actions and practice rather than through traditional instruction. Action learning is done in conjunction with others, in small groups called action learning sets. It is proposed as particularly suitable for adults, as it enables each person to reflect on and review the action they have taken and the learning points arising. This should then guide future action and improve performance (Wikipedia). This AL concept is discussed in several ways a special issue #3, 2012 of Action Learning, Research & Practice. Concepts discussed in the issue include the connection between AL and critical thinking, systems and organizational change, power, the development of personal insights and more. Read more
(An item from ISHN Member information service) Regular readers of this information service will know that we have been tracking articles that discuss "school connectedness" and made the argument that it is different from generalized efforts to improve "school climate" and is more about the relationships (social attachments) that are formed at school, which can be negative, positive or non-existent. An article in the October 2012 issue of Advances in Mental Health adds to this discussion while suggesting that connectedness can be a mediating factor with children who are involved with child protective services. Using an eight year old definition, the authors argue "School connectedness is the belief among students that teachers and other adults within the school care about them as individuals and about their learning (Wingspread Declaration on School Connections, 2004). Despite the use of a variety of different terms within the research literature, including school connectedness, school attachment, school climate, school environment, or school bonding, the underlying concern is with perceptions of the social and learning environment". Later in the article they note "As experiences of adversity accumulate and the range of problem areas expands, the negative effects on future outcomes climb. Within such circumstances, small encouragements and attachments at school may play a large protective role, providing supportive social networks, routines, structured environments, and positive role models. Schools are a practical alternative for youth seeking connections and a sense of belonging". Even with these few sentences, the need to clarify the concept and describe the actual interventions more specifically about connectedness becomes clear. In our view, it is not about exhorting teachers to care more, or general efforts to make the school climate happier. It is about carefully structuring activities, attachments, routines, series, opportunities, recognitions around students in school who are already on a negative trajectory. There are multi-intervention programs such as Positive Behaviour Support, that do this. It is also recognizing that the accreditation/student evaluation function of schools will mean that some students will inevitably not experience success at school. This means that, despite the pressure on schools to raise "standards, they must also offer meaningful pathways to other forms of employment and vocation as well as recognize alternative forms of social achievement thatn only athletics and academics. Read More.
(An item from ISHN Member information service) Several years ago, the process of inter-group collaboration was described in depth and the slogan "Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing" was used to capture the various stages of cooperation. However, as with many other health and social issues, this accumulated wisdom is not real until someone in that particular discipline or network reinvents the idea. Such may be the case of an article in Issue #5, 2012 of Administration & Policy on Mental Health Services/Mental Health Services Research, where the authors explored the process involved in inter-agency collaboration when providing Integrative Family and Systems Treatment (I-FAST) for families with severely emotionally or behaviorally disturbed children. Data were collected through a series of eight focus groups with 26 agency collaborators across 11 counties in Ohio. Data analysis revealed two emergent phenomena: the process of developing collaboration, consisting of making initial contact, a trial period and developing trust. As well, the authors suggest that the key ingredients of collaboration are focused on interpersonal and professional qualities. Hopefully, the full text of the article or the details of the study reveal an evolution in our knowledge that is not apparent in the abstract. Read more..
(An item from ISHN Member information service) As we deepen our understanding of complex, ecological systems in order to better design well-embedded, sustainable multi-intervention approaches and programs in the school setting, we will need to develop new methods to understand some of the aspects of these systems. Informal and formal networks, including those related to policy, workforce development, knowledge exchange, inter-organizational cooperation and other functions, are among these aspects. Several articles in Issue #3, 2012 of Policy Studies Journal provide an explanation of statistical modelling that could be used to understand network composition, behaviour and results. Most RCT studies do not consider such diverse, constantly evolving networks because of their complexity, elusive control mechanisms and other features, so we need to consider these statistical methods for analyzing networks as one the new research methods of the future. Read more..
(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #4, 2012 of Critical Public Health opens the door to a discussion of how public health systems need to divest themselves of terms, practices, structures and underlying assumptions imported from the health care system. The authiors note that "Public Health specialists have increasingly deployed the concept of ‘dose–response’ in areas such as diet (‘five-a-day’), alcohol (‘21 weekly units’) and physical activity (‘150 minutes of weekly activity’). Using these examples and a case study that sought to establish an optimal dose of physical activity for mental health gain, this article offers a critical assessment of the nature, robustness and function of ‘dose’ in public health. Drawing on a ‘sociology of knowledge’, the article argues that dose–response can best be considered an analogy that does not necessarily translate favourably from its original expression in toxicology to some public health domains – an over-extended analogy. Rather than having technical robustness, its attractiveness and utility is seen to lie in it possessing ‘cultural capital’ (ie sounding medical). Here, the ability to link behavioural concerns to clinical practice, to simplify complex ideas and to act as a regulatory form of behavioural governance. The article is skeptical of further empirical pursuits in identifying optimal doses and offers an alternative course for public health framing. Read more..
(An item from ISHN Member information service) One of the characteristics of large "professional bureaucracies" such as education, health and social service is that knowledge is a source of power and influence within those layered and loosely-coupled structures. Consequently, it makes sense that knowledge management (KM) strategies can be helpful in coordinating these systems and enabling the local agencies and professionals to work together. An article in Issue #5, 2012 of Health & Social Care in the Community reports on the use of KM strategies to integrate the efforts of two systems. The authors completed a critical review of the literature to identify theoretical insights and models in this field. The findings were then used to explore the approach to KM. This case study involved an interrogation of relevant documentary material, together with 25 in-depth interviews with managers and professionals. The authors no planned KM strategies for learning and KM, but rather, interventions and mechanisms at different levels to support integration processes. These included formal activities, training and appraisal, but also informal ones within communities of practice and networking. Although structural enablers such as a co-location of facilities and joint appointments were important, the value of trust and inter-personal relationships was highlighted especially for tacit knowledge exchange. The conclusion to the article uses Nonaka’s knowledge conversation model to reflect on the research findings, to comment on the absence of an explicit approach to learning and KM, and to develop a template to assist policy-makers with the design of planned strategies" Read more..
(An item from ISHN Member information service) Earlier this month, we noted a debate about the usefulness of RCT's in real world conditions that was initiated by a leading authors of systematic reviews, Sarah Stewart-Brown. Two articles in Issue #6, 2012 of the American Psychologist continue these revolutionary thoughts. One article questions the wisdom of basing scholarship and knowledge development on an ever-increasing number of research reviews, that examine different interventions in different contexts and often clumped together in inappropriate ways. The second article suggests that rather than trying to reframe systems in the light of accumulated evidence from research, we seek to identify "disruptive innovations" such as micro-clinics in retail chain drug stores, $2 generic eyeglasses and automatic teller machines that fit into real world situations and offer practical convenience to the intended users. Read more..
(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in the September 2012 Issue of Educational Policy discusses how school systems both respond to new small demands while resisting large scale reforms. The article is actually a review of the 2010 book, Someone Has to Fail, which examines while many efforts to reform school systems have failed. The authors note that: "Someone Has to Fail offers a reinterpretation of the complexities of education reform, one that is full of useful counterpoints to many of the most common claims made by today’s business-minded reformers. Thus, the work is well worth reading. However, we still wish that Labaree had more deeply explored the contexts within which his education “consumers” were making their system-shaping decisions. Such an effort would have offered a more compellingly critical assessment of the importance of curriculum and the struggles over knowledge and culture. It would have brought the experiences and movements of the marginalized closer to the center of its account. And in the process, it might have engendered a somewhat less gloomy perspective regarding the roles that schools might still play in efforts to create a more just society." Read more..
(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in the September 2012 Issue of the Journal of School Health analyzes the submissions made to a 2009 Parliamentary Inquiry into "the opportunities for schools to become a focus for promoting healthy community living. Submissions to the Inquiry varied widely in their positions about school health promotion. The aim of this review is to analyze the submissions to identify core themes in the debates about school health promotion and how stakeholders saw schools becoming a focus for promoting healthy communities. The submissions (N = 159) were downloaded from the Inquiry website. Open coding was used to code the data. The codes were then refined into conceptual categories to create themes. The Inquiry's terms of reference were used as an organizing framework. RESULTS: Emergent themes included barriers and enablers to school health promotion including the need for stronger leadership from the Departments of Health (DoH) and Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD). CONCLUSION: Rather than supporting the idea that schools could have a wider role in communities, submissions pointed to the acute need for increased resource allocation to support health promotion in schools, and for coordinated approaches with stronger leadership from the health and education sectors. Without these structures, schools can only address health in an ad hoc manner with limited resources, capacity, and outcomes" Read more..
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