CONTRADICTIONS OF CONCERN TO BENCHMARKING IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN BACHELOR OF SOCIAL WORK DEGREE

An extensive process in benchmarking the qualification for the South African Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) in accordance with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) was undertaken from 2001 to 2003 by a standards-generating body (SGB) for social work (Lombard, Grobbelaar & Pruis, 2003). The BSW was registered with the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in 2003. By 2007 all social work educational institutions were required to implement the BSW. An essential part of the scrutiny is that Social Work departments at the universities as the training institutions offering the BSW play an active role in applying and monitoring its criteria on a continuous basis. The SA Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP) initiated quality-assurance benchmarks for the BSW at the training institutions in 2011. The quality-assurance process is intended to be an interactive one, with the SACSSP dependent on the experience of educators and learners in monitoring criteria. In the light of the fact that the BSW is to be revised in 2012, it is important that a rich dialogue be generated at this stage to guide its formation

Murrow and Friendly’s Small World: Television Conversation at the Crossroads

Small World (1958–60), an Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly television production, brought together political and entertainment figures from around the world, boasting technological innovation and a high level of public affairs discourse. The author discusses critical reception, producers’ ideals, cultural and historical context, and relation-ships to evolving notions of public service broadcasting

Cooking Class: The Rise of the ‘Foodie’ and the Role of Mass Media.

I frame this chapter by asking three questions. First, is it new? One way to problematize this subject for readers is to challenge the notion that “foodie-ism” is a late 20th century phenomenon. I think it is a common misperception that this is a new development/trend/interest/hobby, and while it is certainly arguable that it has reached new heights and gone mainstream in unprecedented ways, foodie-ism (but must find a more timeless word for it for discussion!) has really ebbed and flowed in varying waves over the 20th century (and earlier) and therefore is not entirely new. Food and cooking have been seen as forms of entertainment long before the Food Network, in both radio and magazine formats. The advent of new technologies – television and now the internet via blogs, webcasts, social networking – have allowed the interest to proliferate and to reach new and larger audiences. This essay will focus on some of the crucial points in the 20th century that led to apparent peak at beginning of the 21st century, some of them perhaps less well-known or preserved in the cultural mythology. This includes the different “waves” of food interest throughout the century and what spurred them as well as what effect concurrent technology – radio, TV, internet, social media – had on each wave. Examples of “waves” include the advent of radio, Gourmet magazine, television, interest in ethnic identity and health, restaurants and celebrity chef, organic/slow food movements, etc. There may be other, lesser known tipping points to discover. Second, is it passive? The concept of the passive/active in food as entertainment can also be complex. It is passive? If not how not, and what is the impact of either active or passive consumption and proliferation of food as entertainment? It is a common but questionable assumption that the consumer-viewer is passive. The essay would discuss ways in which the viewer has helped to shape the culture and television/media offerings as well as the ways in which he or she uses the information possibly for creativity or self-improvement. Just because someone might not be cooking while watching TV (it’s all too common to hear people describing their spouse who watches the Food Network all day but never cooks anything) nor dive into a recipe as soon as a program ends, does not mean they are not actively learning something while watching. A parallel is when consumers began eating out in restaurants more (1980s), where they broadened their horizons just being seeing everything offered on the menu even if they ordered the roast chicken. In sum, it’s a challenge to outdated, simplistic theories of mass media effects. When it comes to blogs and social media, it becomes even more difficult to argue that consumers are passive. It is also crucial to examine exactly what people are learning when they watch food TV. In addition to recipes and food knowledge, there are plenty of intangibles. I argue that they are learning what it means to be an ideal middle-class or upper- middle class consumer and citizen in today’s world (according to programmers). And third, is it democratic? While many perceive the present day to be the apogee of the “foodie” phenomenon, what is really being witnessed is the saturation or mainstreamization of this culture of heightened awareness and attention paid to food and cooking (“foodie-ism?”). What may seem like a democraticization of food culture still propagates a hierarchical system that might not be immediately observable (the way high society restaurants in the early 20th century would be clearly off limits to those who were not rich and did not read French). Food is still a divided, classist arena with a high dose of aspiration (vs. the much inspiration as touted by programmers) with political, economic and cultural causes and effects

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The Trouble with Archie: Locating and Accessing Primary Sources for the Study of the 1970s US Sitcom, All in the Family

The US television sitcom, All in the Family was groundbreaking in its social relevance with regard to contemporary issues of race, class, gender, sexual orientation and politics, among others. The interest in All in the Family continues into the 21st century, and television historians and fans continue to seek out elusive historical video of the show. The author addresses the challenges in discovering, locating and accessing primary source visual material for its study and speculates on the future of accessibility of historical broadcasts, the impact on television studies and potential solutions. Reprinted by permission of the publisher

A CRITICAL ETHIC OF CARE FOR THE HOMELESS APPLIED TO AN ORGANISATION IN CAPE TOWN

The situation faced by homeless people within South Africa is one complicated by numerous social, economic and political problems interacting to form a unique situation. The researcher volunteered within the church-based organisation U-turn, interacting with clients at a soup kitchen in Cape Town, South Africa. Using an ethnographic approach, the researcher was faced with dilemmas emerging from Tronto’s (1993) “ethic of care”. Discussing this organisation’s mixed results at providing transformative care within this ethic and their own theoretical framework brings to light the merits of providing any service at all to clients who have very little else

A Kitchen of One\u27s Own: The Paradox of Dione Lucas

First appearing on the air in 1947, Dione Lucas was one of the earliest television cooking-show hosts. As a business owner, single mother, influential salesperson, and highly respected professional in her field (Julia Child referred to Lucas as “the mother of French cooking in America”), Lucas was a pioneer and potentially powerful role model. Given this profile, however, she was an anachronism and out of sync with the majority of contemporary women and home cooks. She was likewise out of sync with her television peers, as most homemaking programs were hosted by home economists and were contexts wherein thrift and pleasing and feeding family members were paramount. Lucas was unconventional in her exhortations, adamantly advocating that the traditional female province of cooking be embraced as an art and an outlet for creative expression. In this way, she exhibited unusually empowering messages for homemakers. Through the persona of Dione Lucas as a historical example and, for brief comparison and relevancy, the second- and third-wave cooking shows hosts—for example, Julia Child, Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray, and Giada De Laurentiis—the article explores the social role of women cooking-show hosts, the line between performance/entertainment and instruction/information on television, and the position of host on television in relation to audience, temporality, and the notion of home and self

Healing from Heterosexism Through Expressive Writing

Simply by existing within our society, LGBTQ people encounter widespread exposure to heterosexist attitudes, behaviors, and policies on a daily basis that ignore, invalidate, or outright discriminate against them. This marginalization contributes to myriad psychological consequences such as depression, suicidality, anxiety, and substance abuse. Despite the fact that LGBTQ people experience mental health issues and some subsequently seek treatment, few interventions exist that specifically address LGBTQ minority stressors; those that do exist tend to treat mental health consequences of societal heterosexism, rather than offering ways to heal from heterosexist experiences directly. In the current study, I explored the ability of three variations of online expressive writing exercises to reduce distress related to experiencing a heterosexist event. In addition to comparing baseline to post-intervention and follow-up scores on measures of psychological distress (including depression, negative affect, trauma-related distress, and internalized homophobia scales) between the three writing conditions and between demographic groups, I conducted a qualitative task analysis on participant responses to study the process by which participants benefitted from the writing exercises. This study contributes to the development of population-specific interventions for LGBTQ people, as well as to the understanding of the processes by which LGBTQ people derive benefit from writing about heterosexist experiences