Exploring foster carers' experiences with children who have complex attachment problems

The aim of this research was to understand the key elements of effective therapeutic foster care for children who have complex attachment problems in order to enhance training and support mechanisms for foster carers. The host for the research project was a national independent fostering agency to whom the researcher has provided training and therapeutic support. An interview study of fourteen sets of foster carers was conducted to understand peak experiences and effective practice in fostering. Thematic analysis of interview data yielded thirty-six robust child behaviour codes that were combined into five themes: i) Developmental growth, ii) increased ability to manage emotions, iii) emergence of new positive behaviours, iv) developing confidence and v) the child showing that they are happy and safe. These themes were then mapped to nine carer behaviours including consistency and repetition, showing the child they are valued and important, caring for the child as an individual, showing kindness, inclusion in the family, maintaining hope and modelling good enough parenting. These findings suggest it is important to provide early focused training for foster carers that provides a trauma-informed guide to therapeutic fostering. Given the demands of effective fostering evident in the accounts of carers it became evident that training should be followed by regular and ongoing Practice Development and Therapeutic Support (PDTS) sessions involving carers, supervising social worker and therapeutic lead. The importance of effective foster carer behaviours and practice development and therapeutic support groups was illustrated through a single case study. Overall, the research findings accord with the literature that suggests that children exposed to chronic neglect in the early years require high levels of consistent, predictable, patterned, and highly repetitive interactions to address the harm caused. This suggests that therapeutic foster care requires relevant high quality training and regular ongoing support; and, that this type of training and service may allow for easier recruitment and retention of foster carers for these children. This document closes with a complete training and support package developed through this research that fulfills these criteria and that was enhanced through the findings of the present research

Context, control and the spillover of energy use behaviours between office and home settings

This paper examines how office-based lighting and computer use behaviours relate to similar behaviours performed by the same individuals in a household setting. It contributes to the understanding of energy use behaviour in both household and organisational settings, and investigates the potential for the‘spillover’of behaviour from one context to another. A questionnaire survey was administered to office-based employees of two adjacent local government organisations (‘City Council’and‘County Council’)in the East Midlands region of the UK. The analysis demonstrates that the organisational or home setting is an important defining feature of the energy use behaviour. It also reveals that, while there were weak relationships across settings between behaviours sharing other taxonomic categories, such as equipment used and trigger for the behaviour, there was no evidence to support the existence of spillover effects across settings

Queering boundaries: visual Activism and representations of sexuality in the work of contemporary South African artists

Zanele Muholi, a photographer and visual activist, and Sabelo Mlangeni, a photographer, explore the different ways of representing gender, particularly transgenderism, and sexuality, particularly homosexuality, in their photography. Muholi and Mlangeni document the daily lives and lived realities of people who are black and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) in South Africa. African sexuality remains a contested subject that is difficult to discuss in light of the controversies it provokes due to colonial attitudes toward African bodies. In this instance, colonial attitudes toward African sexuality have exoticised African bodies. Moreover, hyper-sexuality is ascribed to bodies that are black and male, whilst fetishising and objectifying black female bodies. Furthermore, representations of homoeroticism in Africa transgress and challenge dominant ideologies of sexuality and gender in an African context. In this sense, Muholi and Mlangeni directly address tension and resistance between individual and community. Such tensions are found within and between categories of African-ness, whereby homosexuality and transgenderism are regarded as being ‘un-African’ and an import from the West. For example, Muholi represents the existence of homosexuality and transgenderism in her photography in order to subvert the notion that homosexuality is ‘un-African’, attempting to complicate the conceptions of identity, gender and sexuality in South Africa. Muholi’s photography is used as a vehicle for her ‘visual activism’, which purports to create socio-political awareness surrounding homophobia, transgenderism, and epistemic injustice in South Africa. The visual imagery of these two artists investigates the boundaries that are set by various social, political and cultural constructs. These boundaries inform existing social, political and cultural attitudes toward homosexuality and transgenderism, and these homophobic and transphobic attitudes result in crimes committed against homosexual and transgender individuals, such as hate crimes, which includes ‘curative/corrective’ rape, the prevalence of which is rising at an alarming rate. Muholi’s photography and visual activism seek to create visibility in order to raise public awareness of hate crimes, victimisation, alienation and stigmatisation that homosexual and transgender South Africans, specifically those individuals living in township areas, face on a daily basis. These two artists represent sexuality as a site of contestation and, as such, heteronormative traditions, hegemonic social structures, and cultural conventions are transgressed and contested in their photography

Principal Leadership and Its Perceived Influence on Teacher Morale in Elementary Schools.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to construct a theoretical framework explaining the connection between principal leadership practices and the phenomenon of teacher morale. The study also focused on principal leadership practices and the perceived effects that style has on how teachers feel about themselves and their jobs. First, a review of extant literature defined what constitutes effective leadership in school related environments. Second, the researcher defined teacher morale, both high and low, and how it relates to work performance. Third, the researcher attempted to explore how teacher morale and the leadership style of their principals relate. This qualitative study was conducted using interviews of teachers from 7 public elementary schools. Post interview journaling was also conducted by the researcher to capture immediate author perspective. The teachers were interviewed to gain their perceptions of leadership practices that motivate them to enjoy their jobs and work beyond status quo. With information gleaned from teachers, the desired outcome of this research was for principals to self-evaluate their leadership strategies and style and to find importance in building high teacher morale for the betterment of everyone. The researcher coded transcripts into themes, patterns, and the following theoretical constructs: (a) change, (b) leadership practices, (c) mandated testing, (d) stress, (e) communication, (f) acknowledgment, (g) professionalism (h) identifying with teachers, and (i) building community

Probability of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Commercialization as a result of Participating in the Navy\u27s Transition Assistance Program

Commercialization (private sector or Non-SBIR federal funding) of federally sponsored innovations is a key congressionally mandated goal of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. While much attention has focused on quantifying and assessing the commercial outputs of the SBIR program, limited research exists on the impact that business advisory support initiatives have on project commercialization. These programs, such as the Navy\u27s Transition Assistance Program (TAP), seek to augment the business capacity of SBIR/STTR award recipients by providing information and resources focused on facilitating the commercialization process. I hypothesize that these programs increase the probability of commercialization success for participating SBIR Phase II projects. To test this hypothesis, I employed a logistic regression model exploring commercialization outcomes from participants and non-participants from the Navy\u27s Transition Assistance Program (TAP). A dataset comprised of 993 Navy Phase II projects awarded between 2005 and 2008 was used to populate the model. The self-reported commercialization outcomes contained in the dataset include 537 Navy TAP projects, and a comparison group of 456 Navy Phase II projects who opted not to participate in the program during the years covered. The resulting analysis found that the odds of success given that a project participated in the Navy TAP ranged from 1.5 to 6.2 times the odds of success for a non-participating project, depending upon firm characteristics. It was also found that for every dollar invested in the Navy TAP, $38 dollars in commercialization outcomes were generated. This research demonstrates that external business support can be an effective policy option for impacting the probability and magnitude of SBIR commercialization success

Quality Family Planning: Enhancing the Knowledge of Contraception Counseling in Primary Care

Reducing unintended pregnancies continues to be an important health initiative in the United States. National rates have demonstrated a slow decline, yet the CDC estimates rates remain near fifty percent, with rural women facing higher unintended pregnancy rates than their urban counterparts. Research demonstrates following evidence-based practice recommendations regarding family planning improves contraceptive adherence and helps women achieve desired pregnancy spacing. This mixed methods research design evaluates provider family planning knowledge levels prior to introduction of an educational video and PDF file, and following the educational tools. Results of the study showed a majority of providers were aware of CDC recommendations screening for a reproductive life plan and contraceptive need. Though, many providers are not screening women for their reproductive life plan or unmet contraceptive needs. Results also indicated providers knowledge improved following delivery of educational material. Providers also reported intent to increase reproductive life plan screening and align practice methods with CDC recommendations

Energy use by individual office workers: psychological and contextual influences on behaviour

Research into energy demand in office buildings has tended to focus on building fabric or systems, or the organisation as a whole, rather than the actions or motivations of individual building occupants. This study applies an attitude-behaviour approach used more frequently with household or travel behaviours to energy demand behaviours by individual occupants in office settings. The approach is extended to include contextual factors such as behavioural control, organisational expectations and social influences. Comparisons are drawn between the office and home settings. The study took place in the offices of two local authorities, Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council, and included a questionnaire survey (n=819), semi-structured interviews (n=9), and building surveys (n=5). Behaviours examined included switching off lights, computers and computer monitors. Lighting behaviours were reported to be carried out more frequently than computer monitor behaviours in both the office and household settings. Analysis of behaviours identified that they needed to be considered at a specific level, according to the equipment (lighting, computer monitors), setting (office, home), and triggers (finishing a task, leaving a room). The physical context of the behaviour was particularly important. Different levels of individual control over energy affected the performance of behaviours. No evidence was found to support the notion of spillover that enacting one energy demand behaviour might lead to the enactment of further energy demand behaviours, including for similar behaviours performed in different settings (e.g. the office and the home). Organisational, social and psychological/attitudinal influences on individual behaviour were also examined. Structural Equation Modelling examined influences proposed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Values-Beliefs-Norms Theory. Neither theory provided a strong explanation of the collected data. However, support was found for the Perceived Behavioural Control construct, while moral and value-led constructs had a small influence on behaviour. This thesis provides recommendations for practitioners and policy makers seeking to reduce individual-level energy demand in office settings, and for future research into energy use in organisational settings. Recommendations include promoting energy saving as an aspect of professionalism, characterising energy demand behaviours specifically by setting and equipment, and recognising the importance of the social aspects of shared office environments

Trial management- building the evidence base for decision-making

Acknowledgements Not applicable Funding Not applicablePeer reviewedPublisher PD

Queering boundaries: visual Activism and representations of sexuality in the work of contemporary South African artists

Zanele Muholi, a photographer and visual activist, and Sabelo Mlangeni, a photographer, explore the different ways of representing gender, particularly transgenderism, and sexuality, particularly homosexuality, in their photography. Muholi and Mlangeni document the daily lives and lived realities of people who are black and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) in South Africa. African sexuality remains a contested subject that is difficult to discuss in light of the controversies it provokes due to colonial attitudes toward African bodies. In this instance, colonial attitudes toward African sexuality have exoticised African bodies. Moreover, hyper-sexuality is ascribed to bodies that are black and male, whilst fetishising and objectifying black female bodies. Furthermore, representations of homoeroticism in Africa transgress and challenge dominant ideologies of sexuality and gender in an African context. In this sense, Muholi and Mlangeni directly address tension and resistance between individual and community. Such tensions are found within and between categories of African-ness, whereby homosexuality and transgenderism are regarded as being ‘un-African’ and an import from the West. For example, Muholi represents the existence of homosexuality and transgenderism in her photography in order to subvert the notion that homosexuality is ‘un-African’, attempting to complicate the conceptions of identity, gender and sexuality in South Africa. Muholi’s photography is used as a vehicle for her ‘visual activism’, which purports to create socio-political awareness surrounding homophobia, transgenderism, and epistemic injustice in South Africa. The visual imagery of these two artists investigates the boundaries that are set by various social, political and cultural constructs. These boundaries inform existing social, political and cultural attitudes toward homosexuality and transgenderism, and these homophobic and transphobic attitudes result in crimes committed against homosexual and transgender individuals, such as hate crimes, which includes ‘curative/corrective’ rape, the prevalence of which is rising at an alarming rate. Muholi’s photography and visual activism seek to create visibility in order to raise public awareness of hate crimes, victimisation, alienation and stigmatisation that homosexual and transgender South Africans, specifically those individuals living in township areas, face on a daily basis. These two artists represent sexuality as a site of contestation and, as such, heteronormative traditions, hegemonic social structures, and cultural conventions are transgressed and contested in their photography