MeritPatch - Family Collaborative Activities

There is no doubt that the modern family is very busy and disrupted by outside influences. Social trends and expectations have caused many families to become disconnected. There is research that points to overuse of technology as one culprit. Other research suggests that lack of spiritualism has negatively affected families. Regardless of the cause, it can be argued that the more disconnect within a family, the more likely it is for family members to experience negative social, emotional and/or health related issues as well as broken relationships. This study seeks to define family interactions and activities that support a healthy family lifestyle for all members and to create a system by which a family can feel a sense of accomplishment and pride through shared interactions. The study will use design thinking methodology to research through advice interviews and iteratively design based on feedback

Interactions around a contextually embedded system

This paper discusses observations of visitor interactions around a museum installation, focusing on how physical setup and shape of two variants of the installation, a telescope-like viewer and a barrier-free screen, shaped visitor experiences and interactions around and with the system. The analysis investigates contextual embedding, and how the two system variants affected people's ability of sharing the experience and negotiating use

Working in partnership through early support: distance learning text: working with parents in partnership (book chapter)

This is a chapter from the distance learning text for the 'Working in Partnership through Early Support' accredited training programme. "Our intention in this chapter... is to provide a theory of helping, known as the Family Partnership Model. It is based upon the notion that the most effective relationship between parent and helper is a partnership, as first discussed by Mittler, Cunningham and others in the 1970s. It is an explicit and relatively simple framework intended as a guide for all people working with children and their families. Having described the theory, we will look briefly at its implications for service development, training and professional support, the use of the Early Support materials in promoting partnership and the evidence for working in this way." - pp. 2-

Controlling service work: An ambiguous accomplishment between employees, management and customers

In order to understand the control of service work, most service literature has focused on its production while treating the customer as secondary. The consumption literature emphasizes the customer’s role but lacks empirical evidence for its claims. Using an ethnographic study of an ‘exclusive’ department store, this article aims to reduce the gap between these two bodies of literature by investigating how employees, management and customers control service work. The findings suggest that the maintenance of class difference combined with competing expectations of managers, employees and customers makes the management of service work highly ambiguous and reveals a continuing instability between managerial practices of control and consumer culture

The sport coach

Chapter Objectives After completing this chapter you should be able to: 1. Understand some of the core differences between coaching requirements in participation and performance domains. 2. Discuss diverse models of sports coaching and how these differ in terms of their emphasis, strengths, and limitations. 3. Describe a range of key factors which impact on the coaching process and how these can be integrated through a focus on professional judgment and decision making. 4. Describe some crucial skills that can help coaches to understand and manage the complex and dynamic environments in which they work and best lead performers

Identity and sense of self: the significance of personhood in rehabilitation

Recovery from conditions leading to illness/disability is often defined in terms of physical improvement; however, people themselves describe their own recovery as more than this alone: it is a returning to the life they led before their illness. These two approaches highlight a potential mismatch between the way we as health care professionals perceive our world (the observable) and the way the people we are caring for perceive their world (often hidden from us). In this presentation I will explore how we can access the subjective world of those who use our services by exploring the role of life narratives within rehabilitation. I will share ideas from research linked to life changes, sense of self, and agency which we can use to inform our practice and support people in their recovery and rehabilitation