Authentic Care Research Articles

The Power of Cultural Validation: A Global Strategy for Combating Infectious Diseases

Cultural Validation is a technique that works to increase access and break down barriers for what many policymakers and public health officials identify as “hard to reach populations.” During the COVID-19 Pandemic, policymakers and public health officials often cited “vaccine hesitancy” as a key challenge to reaching vulnerable populations, including immigrants, Spanish-speaking communities, and others who have been marginalized. Yet, community-based programs utilizing “Cultural Validation” techniques demonstrated that barriers to access – not hesitancy – were the true culprits. In fact, public health partnerships, laws, policies and funding that support the full integration of Cultural Validation techniques can ensure vaccine equity across the board. Cultural Validation can be applied to any community, and its success is made possible by four 4 key factors: • Researching and getting to know people in the community through genuine and authentic relationship-building prior to engagements. • Developing culturally relevant materials and marketing strategies. • Hosting events at places that are familiar to the community. • Providing genuine, authentic care in service delivery

Caring and connecting with multilingual families through the COVID‐19 pandemic

AbstractThis study uses authentic cariño to explore a care and connect model in a case study of a single district in Teachers Educating All Multilingual Students (TEAMS), funded by a National Professional Development (NPD) grant. Along with ESOL/dual language licensure coursework, teachers in five districts engage in family–school–community partnerships to develop multilingual family engagement. COVID‐19 required urgent shifts in how teachers and districts reached families and offered services. Accordingly, the research question is as follows: How did TEAMS teachers' conceptions of caring and connecting to support multilingual family engagement shift in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic? Data included three teacher focus groups per district, interviews with facilitators and administrators, and individual teacher interviews. Case study was used across districts, but focusing particularly on one district with high percentages of teachers of color and low‐income multilingual families, the population hardest hit and dehumanized during COVID‐19. Analysis employed critical authentic cariño to explore teachers' authentic and aesthetic care that shifted over time—from focus on technologies and translators, pity, depersonalized objectives, and academic goals to warmer relationships, personalismo, relaxing together, reaching out, persistence, and advocacy. Results suggest ways to transform structures to better meet the needs of multilingual families by organizing around authentic care with families.

Authentic caring in online professional development for early childhood teachers in South Africa

Background: The professional development (PD) of early childhood teachers is of strategic importance in higher education and the profession given the need to improve responsiveness and progress towards millennium goals.Aim: The purpose was to analyse classroom practices and teachers’ experiences of PD programmes, through the theoretical lens of the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers to construct an authentic data-based model, which can be used to understand PD challenges and guide decisions about the improvement of education quality.Setting: The study was conducted in Gauteng with teachers from a selection of early childhood centres.Methods: A phenomenological inquiry explored the settings and practices of 23 selected teachers in Gauteng province. Interview and observation data were analysed for content categories and grounded theory articulations.Results: The main finding is that teachers facing everyday educational challenges benefit from school-based support and available media but need additional learning to advance their professional aspirations. The grounded theory analyses of the data highlighted that early childhood practices and articulated development needs are best explained as authentic caring. This was conceptualised metaphorically as garden spaces where careful tending, deliberate planning and various elements of nurturing knowledge may harmoniously be blended. The model extends prevailing theories of PD and the flipped ICT Competency Framework for Teachers.Conclusion: The model of authentic caring is a grounded theory articulation based upon beliefs of practising EC teachers.Contribution: The article provides a comprehensive online teacher professional development framework for EC teachers, emphasising authenticity, care and alignment with global educational standards.

Care, kindness and collegiality in occupational therapy practice and academic life

ABSTRACT This paper explores the reflections of occupational therapy academics about the experience of kindness in academic and professional life. Data were derived from a reflective group conversation in the context of a larger overarching research project exploring occupational therapy academic development. The findings elaborate how kindness and care played out for us as participant-researcher academics, including how it was mediated by expression of values and behaviours in our roles, and how we experienced the values and behaviours of others in the academy. We found that degrees of kindness and care were distributed along a continuum from more kind to less kind. A notable aspect of our conceptualisation of kindness involves recognising others' potential and a willingness to work collectively. We argue that it is critical to create and maintain communities that value and are capable of acting with authentic care and kindness. Prioritising our time to engage in emotion-based, relational work beyond ‘duty of care’ is vital to support collective success and longevity in the academy. Recognition of, and action to challenge, the forces that erode kindness and care are vital next steps in creating academic and professional contexts that will support our flourishing.

“Normal wasn’t always productive or helpful”: teachers of Color authentically caring for the humanities of Black, Indigenous, and students of Color during the COVID-19 pandemic

As research continues to dissect the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the teaching profession, the experiences of teachers of Color remain overlooked. Thus, this article explicitly centers the lived experiences and insider knowledge of six secondary teachers of Color who taught virtually during the pandemic to answer the question, “How do teachers of Color describe the change in their practices and pedagogies as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?” Their narratives described how they cultivated humanizing relationships with students in a virtual context, how their teaching practices and pedagogies shifted to prioritize students’ needs, and how they rejected deficit, neoliberal discourses of “learning loss” espoused during the pandemic. Collectively, their actions embodied elements of authentic caring that prioritized and sustained the humanities of students of Color during a time of immense upheaval. Their narratives underscore the importance of cultivating and enacting authentic caring to challenge harmful schooling practices during times of crisis and beyond.

Hospitality in volunteer engagement: navigating complexities in residential care facilities for children

ABSTRACT This study investigates the multifaceted realm of volunteer engagement in orphanages and residential care facilities for children, as places of hospitality towards volunteers, in low- and middle-income countries. While the positive outcomes of such engagements, including assistance, economic contributions and personal growth, are acknowledged, the study critically examines the potential ethical challenges inherent in these settings. Drawing from a theoretical framework developed by Duursma and colleagues on motives for volunteering, the research focuses on 25 volunteer applications submitted to a residential care facility in Bali, Indonesia. The qualitative analysis, guided by thematic analysis, explores motives, exchanges, individual behaviour, place and space considerations, time-based dimensions and outcomes and impacts. Ethical considerations, including data anonymisation, were rigorously implemented to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of potential volunteers and child-related data. The findings reveal diverse motives among potential volunteers, encompassing moral imperatives, leisure needs, personal interests and a genuine desire to care for others. The emphasis on non-monetary exchanges and a commitment to the community echoes Duursma and colleagues’ framework, aligning with concepts of voluntary exchange, individual behaviour and place/space considerations. The study underscores the transcendence of empathy and compassion in motivating volunteers to engage with orphanages and residential care facilities for children, reflecting a dedication to making a lasting impact, and fostering substantive connections within the community. The discussion integrates the empirical findings with the theoretical framework, providing a nuanced understanding of the complexities surrounding hospitality volunteering in orphanages and residential care facilities. The study acknowledges ethical concerns and calls for continued scrutiny, ethical considerations and collaboration to ensure that volunteerism remains a force for positive change and authentic care.

WEB-BASED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR THE DORMITORY OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Management of the dorms for students is crucial to university administration. With the increase in student enrolment at schools, the management of undergrad dormitories is forced to deal with an increasing number of perplexing, complicated situations. This paper is gone at building up an Online android application Dormitory College ManagementSystem (DCMS) that is of significance to understudies in college quarters. This technique could be used to assist students in finding solutions to their challenges. This system (DCMS) is being produced for a building school to keep up and encourage simple access to data. The purpose of this system is to provide a stress-free, reliable, and automated approach. Both students and staff members in charge of registration and dormitory administration can use this dormitory system. We take care of data storage and authentication, and HTML would be used for the front-end, giving the user a graphical user experience. The efficiency, economy, and time management of the common forms and procedures for university student registration and accommodation in dorms were evaluated. The people now have access to education thanks to this development. By being more graphical-user-interface oriented, user-friendly, dependable, efficient, and safe with access control mechanisms, the proposed system solves the inadequacies of previous dormitory administration systems

"We make something with the flower, but feel like I make with myself something": The role of a community arts project supporting women who have experienced human trafficking.

Human trafficking can have multiple adverse effects on a victim's mental and physical health. The study explored how a small UK community arts project was experienced by individuals post-trafficking and the impact it had on well-being.Community-based participatory research was employed to increase understanding the experiences of six female participants taking part in a community arts project.Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Themes of Authentic Care, Building Confidence, and Creative Expression were developed. Findings suggest the community arts organization played a vital role in supporting women to build trust and social connections, as well as to feel valued. Artistic activities helped participants express individuality, had therapeutic benefits, and provided motivation, routine, and space from worries.The role of community arts organizations is important in supporting individuals in the context of limited post-trafficking services.

"Thoughts & Prayers" or " ❤️ & 🙏 ": How the Release of New Reactions on CaringBridge Reshapes Supportive Communication in Health Crises

Following Facebook's introduction of the "Like" in 2009, CaringBridge (a nonprofit health journaling platform) implemented a "Heart" symbol as a single-click reaction affordance in 2012. In 2016, Facebook expanded its Like into a set of emotion-based reactions. In 2021, CaringBridge likewise added three new reactions: "Prayer", "Happy", and "Sad." Through user surveys (N=808) and interviews (N=13), we evaluated this product launch. Unlike Likes on mainstream social media, CaringBridge's single-click Heart was consistently interpreted as a simple, meaningful expression of acknowledgement and support. Although most users accepted the new reactions, the product launch transformed user perceptions of the feature and ignited major disagreement regarding the meanings and functions of reactions in the high stakes context of health crises. Some users found the new reactions to be useful, convenient, and reducing of caregiver burden; others felt they cause emotional harms by stripping communication of meaningful expression and authentic care. Overall, these results surface tensions for small social media platforms that need to survive amidst giants, as well as highlighting crucial trade-offs between the cognitive effort, meaningfulness, and efficiency of different forms of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). Our work provides three contributions to support researchers and designers in navigating these tensions: (1) empirical knowledge of how users perceived the reactions launch on CaringBridge; (2) design implications for improving health-focused CMC; and (3) concrete questions to guide future research into reactions and health-focused CMC.

“There wasn’t a guidebook for this”: caring leadership during crisis

IntroductionIn this study, we seek to add to the descriptive literature on caring leadership through an examination of the work principals did to guide school communities through the COVID-19 pandemic. In this time, one essential role they played was as caretaker for all; not simply deciding, advising, or providing resources but responding with advocacy and compassion. Even so, they simultaneously had to consider traditional instructional leadership expectations including teacher observation and supervision as well as student evaluation.MethodsThis study examines the acts and expressions of caring leadership. Our research responds to one overarching question: What does caring leadership look like in action? Through close examination of 17 elementary principals’ recollections of work during the school closures of 2020, this study highlights the elements of their decisions and choices that embodied caring leadership as well as demonstrates how these moves both incorporated and exceeded traditional leadership work.ResultsOur findings highlight the centrality of caring leadership not merely as part of leaders’ work, but as the actual work itself. We extend a presumed tautology of caring leadership to explicate the discrete tasks undertaken by caring leaders to sustain the work of schools.DiscussionResearch on leadership practices frequently emphasizes professional work as relational and interactive to achieve instructional goals without acknowledging that much of the contemporary leadership work both centers on and draws strength from mutual, authentic caring for others to accomplish work. Thus, this investigation enhances research on leadership in education to recognize the caring work that principals perform and the value they ascribe to caring.

Collectively Building Bridges for First-Generation Working-Class Students: Pláticas Centering the Pedagogical Practices of Convivencia in El Puente Research Fellowship

El Puente Research Fellowship is a transformative program that uses culturally relevant and reflective pedagogies, curriculum, and praxis for first-generation, working-class college students beyond the traditional classroom. Drawing on the Chicana/Latina feminist epistemologies of plática and convivencia, we argue that the practice of convivencia facilitates a relational and collective learning environment that allows students to learn from one another, build relationships of authentic caring, and support one another academically and holistically. Through our plática, we illuminate the ways convivencia manifests in our pedagogical and curricular approaches. As a teaching framework, the implementation of convivencia in classes, research programs, and learning environments paves the way for new forms of teaching and learning that value and center collective and cultural learning practices from the home. We conclude with practical tools, strategies, and reformulations of classroom environments that can be applied in sociology classrooms and beyond.

On a pedagogy of authentic care in postgraduate research supervision

ABSTRACT This conceptual study examines the challenges involved in a new context of postgraduate education that emphasizes timely degree completion, skill development and employability, while still seeking to uphold a commitment to a genuine education (‘Bildung’). Findings from two recent empirical studies set the scene for this inquiry since they raise questions about the extent to which care underpins contemporary postgraduate research supervision practice, and thus render an exploration of the meaning and importance of care in the current context of postgraduate supervision especially timely. The author then reviews four models of understanding postgraduate research supervision for their compatibility and the extent to which they address ‘care’, before concentrating on five concepts highlighted in one of these models: Functional, Enculturation, Critical Thinking, Emancipation and Care. Drawing on insights from social philosophy, the philosophy of education and the literature on the professions, the author proceeds to theorize the relationships between these concepts, building an argument for prioritizing care as the core category, and demonstrating that in a context of postgraduate research supervision that emphasises the ‘functional’, to care authentically means to promote a genuine education through emancipation (‘Bildung’). Developing the notion of authentic caring further by drawing on the ancient idea that one’s own flourishing is a genuine ethical concern, it is also proposed that understanding and reconciling the tension between care for self and care for others is important to meaningful postgraduate research supervision. The study concludes with some practical and reflective questions for supervisors and those supporting their development.

A Heideggerian analysis of good care in an acute hospital setting: Insights from healthcare workers, patients and families.

This study articulates the relational constituents of good care beyond techno-rational competence. Neoliberal healthcare means that notions of care are readily commodified and reduced to quantifiable assessments and checklists. This novel research investigated accounts of good care provided by nursing, medical, allied and auxiliary staff. The Heideggerian phenomenological study was undertaken in acute medical-surgical wards, investigating the contextual, communicative nature of care. The study involved interviews with 17 participants: 3 previous patients, 3 family members and 11 staff. Data were analysed iteratively, dwelling with stories and writing and rewriting to surface the phenomenality of good care. The data set highlighted the following essential constituents: authentic care: caring encompassing solicitude (fürsorge); impromptu care: caring beyond role category; sustained care: caring beyond specialist parameters; attuned care: caring encompassing family and culture; and insightful care: caring beyond assessment and diagnosis. The findings are clinically significant because they indicate the importance of nurse leaders and educators harnessing the potential capacity of all healthcare workers to participate in good care. Healthcare workers reported that participating in or witnessing good care was uplifting and added meaning to their work, contributing to a sense of shared humanity.

Individualized Language Plans: A Potential Tool for Collaboration to Support Multilingual Students

Prior research has documented how current policies and practices reinforce deficit perspectives of multilingual students at the secondary level, particularly students who have been labeled as long-term English learners. At the same time, scholars have argued for a need to collect detailed, individualized information about multilingual students’ linguistic, academic, and cultural assets and design supports for students based on this information. However, few concrete examples exist of ways that schools and districts have implemented these ideas at a systemic level. Building from prior research about who decides the educational services youth receive and drawing from theory about aesthetic care, authentic care, and reciprocal dialogue, we describe and analyze a tool two rural California school districts developed to foster collaboration in support of students considered long-term English learners: Individualized Language Plans (ILPs). Our analysis is based on three years of data collection, including interviews with district administrators and teachers involved in the design and implementation of ILPs, as well as observations of meetings where ILPs were created. We discuss implications for research, policy, and practice.

“I Can Go Slapsticks”: Humor as Humanizing Pedagogy for Science Instruction With Multilingual Adolescent Immigrant Learners

Research shows that humor can play an important role in students’ language learning and literacy development. However, studies on how teachers intentionally enact humor as a pedagogical tool are still limited. This classroom discourse study examines the interactional construction and pedagogical functions of humor in one U.S. multilingual high school science classroom. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of languaging and affect, we took a discourse analytic approach to analyze classroom interactions and interview data to examine how the teacher used humor as humanizing pedagogy. We illustrate that the teacher held a humanizing teaching approach to working with immigrant students and viewed “slapstick humor” as part of his humanizing pedagogy. He co-constructed humor with his multilingual students in classroom interaction, and his pedagogical humor worked towards simultaneously humanizing learning, teaching scientific content, and building authentic caring relationships with students through care and empathy. We conclude the article with a discussion of the implications of this study for the research and practice of using humor in language and literacy classrooms with immigrant multilingual students.

When “Power” Masquerades as “Care”

When “Power” Masquerades as “Care”

Self-Care as a Catalyst for Authentic Caring

Self-Care as a Catalyst for Authentic Caring

Testimonios of community: empowering Latinx and Portuguese youth in a Toronto-based academic program

ABSTRACT In this article, I highlight some of the narratives that I collected from tutor-mentors and students about their experience as Spanish or Portuguese-speaking youth in the Toronto public education system and within a community-led academic success program (Our Youth Success program). I use testimonio, a method from Latina feminism, to present their narratives of marginalization from the mainstream educational spaces and community building within the Our Youth Success space. I pose that the youth in OYS engage in a pedagogy of cariño that is predicated upon authentic caring and sharing of consejos within a transnational context that promote youth wellbeing beyond academics.

Counting nature: some implications of quantifying environmental issues in corporate reports

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the role numbers play in corporate environmental reporting. To deeply examine the ontological meanings of enumeration in the context of nature, the histories of number and accounting are explored. Some key tropes emerge from these histories, namely, distancing and control.Design/methodology/approachTo explore some of the implications of quantifying nature, three years of environmental reports of ten companies from the ASX200 are analysed through a Barthsian lens. Examples of enumerating nature are highlighted and explored in terms of what this means for the corporate relationship with nature. This study has focussed on some specific aspects of nature that are commonly counted in corporate environmental reporting: carbon, energy, water, biodiversity and waste. This study explores how monetisation and obfuscation are used and how this informs the myth that nature is controllable.FindingsThis study finds that quantifying nature constructs a metaphorical distance between the company and the natural world which erodes the sense of connection associated with an authentic care for nature. These findings are critical in light of the detrimental impact of corporate activity on the natural world. The reports themselves, while promoted as a tool to help mitigate damage to the natural environment, are implicitly perpetuating its harm.Research limitations/implicationsGiven the extent to which companies are responsible for environmental damage and the potential capacity embedded in corporate communications, better understanding the implications of quantifying nature could powerfully instigate a new but necessary approach to nature.Originality/valueThe insights of this paper are relevant to those aiming to improve the underpinning approaches used in corporate environmental reporting. This paper provides new understandings of the ways quantitative expression of environmental values constructs the myth that nature is controllable.

Stepwise Design and Evaluation of a Values-Oriented Ambient Intelligence Healthcare Monitoring Platform

ObjectivesThe majority of all developed digital health technologies do not reach successful implementation. A discrepancy among technology design, the context of use, and user needs and values is identified as the main reason for this failure. Value-sensitive design (VSD) is a design method enabling to align design with user values by embedding values in technology, yet the method is lacking clear heuristics for practical application. To improve the successful design and implementation of digital health, we propose and evaluate a stepwise approach to VSD. MethodsThe approach consists of the phases: experiment, demonstrate, and validate. Experiment takes place in an office to create makeshift solutions. Demonstrate takes place in a mock-up environment and aims to optimize design requirements through user feedback. The validate phase takes place in an authentic care situation and studies how the novel technology affects current workflows. ResultsWe applied the stepwise VSD approach to the design of a hospital-based ambient intelligence solution for remotely and continuously monitoring quality and safety of patient care. We particularly focused on embodiment of the values of safety, privacy, and inclusiveness in the design. Design activities of the experiment and demonstrate phase are discussed. ConclusionsA stepwise approach to VSD enables a design to optimally meet the values of all users involved, while aligning the design process with the practical limitations of healthcare institutions. We discuss some benefits and challenges related to VSD and the potential for transfer of this approach to other digital health solutions.