Discourses of Home Education and the Construction of the Educational ‘Other’

This paper considers the discursive construction of the educational ‘other’ through home education in England and Wales. Taking the view that language is a political tool (Fairclough, 2003), this paper explores how the space of ‘other’ education is discursively created from both within and outside home education. Using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) methodology, a variety of texts (including official documents, Local Authority websites, the media and home educators’ own words) are analysed. Discursive strategies of universalism, normalisation, self-proclamation and self-censorship are identified and considered. It is argued that these strategies are instrumental in creating and maintaining the separation and difference which is used to politically position home education and home educators. The paper concludes with the argument that genuine educational plurality is partly a matter of discursive practice and that changing patterns of discourse around home education may be a way of increasing diversity, inclusion and opportunity within education

An exploration of the experience of midwifery care by women asylum seekers and refugees

Background: There were approximately 63,097 known asylum seekers in England in 2002 (Heath et aL 2003). Women asylum seekers may be more seriously affected by displacement than men, leading to increased isolation, poverty, hostility and racism (Burnett and Peel, 2001a). In England, Black African including asylum seekers and newly arrived refugees had a seven times greater chance of maternal modality than White women (CEMACH, 2004 p244). Furthermore, women from ethnic groups other than white are twice as likely to die as women in the white group. In the CEMACH report a large number of women who died spoke little English. Access to local information about asylum seekers and refugees was difficult to obtain and suggested a disorganised service provision for this group of women. Aim: It was the intention of this study to explore and synthesise the experience of midwifery care by women asylum seekers and refugees in one large maternity unit in England. Design: Longitudinal exploratory case study research utilising a series of interviews. Sample: Four women from: Afghanistan, Rwanda, Somalia and Zaire. Three women were asylum seekers and one was a refugee. One woman spoke fluent English. Setting: Liverpool Women's Hospital and the women's homes. Years: The study took place from December 2002 - July 2003. Methodology: The research was developed from a constructionist paradigm which identifies that multiple realities can exist for individuals who experience 10 a similar phenomenon. Truth within this perspective is constructed by the individual. The researcher (LB) was the main instrument of data collection. Interpretation was generated via the researcher and was verified by the women at the final interview. The underpinning foundation for this study emerged as symbolic interaction theory (Mead, cited in Morris, 1967 p43; Blumer, 1969). Methods: Following ethical approval consent was obtained with the help of professional interpreters. Exploration was facilitated by in-depth interviews at five time points throughout the antenatal and postnatal period. Photographs taken by the women themselves were used as a prompt for conversation. Analysis: The researcher's interpretation of the data identified emerging themes and categories. The process of analysis involved decontextualisation, display, data complication and re-conceptualisation (Miles and Huberman, 1994 p10). Three key themes were generated: the influence of social policy, understanding in practice and the perception of 'self. Results: Synthesis of the results suggested that social policy directly affected the lives of the women. At times, "taken for granted" communication created a barrier to understanding for the women. Stereotype was socially constructed and pervaded the care environment. The women perceived 'self as a response to social interaction. The midwife-woman relationship relied heavily on gestures and symbols and the women's descriptions are related to symbolic interaction theory. Midwives capable of understanding the subtle cues in communication may be able to negotiate negative stereotypical images generated by society. Women had little or no information around childbirth. Recommendations: Midwifery care would benefit from a deeper understanding of how the women in this study perceived 'self. An advisory post may provide the link between maternity care and broader public health issues. Midwives should engage with asylum seekers and refugees to develop partnerships in care. A collaborative partnership may assist in creating relevant information around childbirth for other asylum seekers and refugees. Innovative methods of dissemination of information related to childbirth should be facilitated by a collaborative approach with non-governmental and community organisations

Developing an open journals hosting service: a case study from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU)

The rise of the concept of ‘library as publisher’ has caused many university libraries to consider their role in the world of open access (OA) publishing and how that supports digital scholarship at their institutions. This paper outlines Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) Library Services’ first steps into that world through the offering of an open journals hosting service. It begins by explaining the background and justification for the library offering such a service and details the pilot undertaken to test the chosen system, Open Journal Systems (OJS). It considers what policies, procedures and support need to be in place in order to run a successful open journals hosting service. Lessons learned and observations gathered during the pilot are shared to help others considering setting up an open journals hosting service in their own institution. Finally it looks at the next steps for LJMU in taking this pilot forward to a full service offer

Mapping (and Remapping) Cities

A one-day workshop & discussion with invited artists Inge Paneels (University of Sunderland / National Glass Centre) and Iain Biggs (University of Dundee / PLaCE International/LAND2) This event will involve participants in map-making activities and into the debate of how mapping can be a practice and a methodology to discuss space and place. Focusing on urban spaces we intend to explore personal stories and geographies that are usually absent from official histories and maps of the city. Participants will have the opportunity to develop their own interpretations and ‘readings’ of the city, exchanging their experiences in a creative and stimulating environment

Contracting with General Dental Services: a mixed-methods study on factors influencing responses to contracts in English general dental practice

Background: Independent contractor status of NHS general dental practitioners (GDPs) and general medical practitioners (GMPs) has meant that both groups have commercial as well as professional identities. Their relationship with the state is governed by a NHS contract, the terms of which have been the focus of much negotiation and struggle in recent years. Previous study of dental contracting has taken a classical economics perspective, viewing practitioners’ behaviour as a fully rational search for contract loopholes. We apply institutional theory to this context for the first time, where individuals’ behaviour is understood as being influenced by wider institutional forces such as growing consumer demands, commercial pressures and challenges to medical professionalism. Practitioners hold values and beliefs, and carry out routines and practices which are consistent with the field’s institutional logics. By identifying institutional logics in the dental practice organisational field, we expose where tensions exist, helping to explain why contracting appears as a continual cycle of reform and resistance. Aims: To identify the factors which facilitate and hinder the use of contractual processes to manage and strategically develop General Dental Services, using a comparison with medical practice to highlight factors which are particular to NHS dental practice. Methods: Following a systematic review of health-care contracting theory and interviews with stakeholders, we undertook case studies of 16 dental and six medical practices. Case study data collection involved interviews, observation and documentary evidence; 120 interviews were undertaken in all. We tested and refined our findings using a questionnaire to GDPs and further interviews with commissioners. Results: We found that, for all three sets of actors (GDPs, GMPs, commissioners), multiple logics exist. These were interacting and sometimes in competition. We found an emergent logic of population health managerialism in dental practice, which is less compatible than the other dental practice logics of ownership responsibility, professional clinical values and entrepreneurialism. This was in contrast to medical practice, where we found a more ready acceptance of external accountability and notions of the delivery of ‘cost-effective’ care. Our quantitative work enabled us to refine and test our conceptualisations of dental practice logics. We identified that population health managerialism comprised both a logic of managerialism and a public goods logic, and that practitioners might be resistant to one and not the other. We also linked individual practitioners’ behaviour to wider institutional forces by showing that logics were predictive of responses to NHS dental contracts at the dental chair-side (the micro level), as well as predictive of approaches to wider contractual relationships with commissioners (the macro level) . Conclusions: Responses to contracts can be shaped by environmental forces and not just determined at the level of the individual. In NHS medical practice, goals are more closely aligned with commissioning goals than in general dental practice. The optimal contractual agreement between GDPs and commissioners, therefore, will be one which aims at the ‘satisfactory’ rather than the ‘ideal’; and a ‘successful’ NHS dental contract is likely to be one where neither party promotes its self-interest above the other. Future work on opportunism in health care should widen its focus beyond the self-interest of providers and look at the contribution of contextual factors such as the relationship between the government and professional bodies, the role of the media, and providers’ social and professional networks. Funding: The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme