Dissemination Of Policies Research Articles

Effects of the Implementation of a Smoke-Free Policy in a Medical Center

The implementation of a smoke-free policy in this medical center was associated with a decrease in the prevalence of regular cigarette smoking from 16.7 percent to 13.8 percent and a smoking cessation rate of 22.5 percent among regular smokers over the 2 1/2 years since the policy was announced. This decrease in prevalence is the result of both smoking cessation among existing employees and less frequent regular smoking among new employees. At two-year follow-up, the policy was overwhelmingly endorsed by medical center staff overall but was viewed less favorably by those who continued to smoke. Nevertheless, over the 2 1/2 years, many of these smokers have been in the action stage of cessation (37.1 percent made a serious attempt to stop smoking, 20.7 percent had used nicotine polacrilex in a smoking-cessation effort, and 13.8 percent had attended a formal cessation program). The implementation of a smoke-free policy has made a significant contribution toward providing a healthful work environment and toward encouraging nonsmoking behavior in staff and patients.

Sweden: Social Democracy in Practice, by Henry Milner

The economics of social democracy values and politics organizations and collective bargaining equality and mobility on the Swedish labour market investment capital and industrial democracy the dissemination of knowledge social policy and social democracy.

The relation of early childhood training and experience to the professional development of child care workers

This study investigated (a) the extent to which personnel in licensed group child care centers engage in conventional professional development practices and (b) the relation of formal training in early childhood education and child care experience to variations in professional development behaviors. Questionnaire data from 533 directors, teachers, and teacher aides indicated limited involvement in conventional practices of professional development. The majority used printed information sources, particularly lay publications, and conferences; coworkers were the most helpful information sources. A minority reported membership in a professional organization. Higher levels of both training and experience were associated with high involvement in conventional forms of professional development. Increased levels of training and experience were related independently to use of professional publications, membership in professional organizations, and conference attendance. Higher levels of training but not experience were associated with decreased use of center information sources, professional reading during nonwork hours, and the helpfulness of conferences. No or limited training was related to use of lay sources for information and determining job effectiveness. Implications for child care policy and information dissemination practices are discussed.

Making the language of education policies more user‐friendly

The problem of making education policy documents more explicit is addressed in this paper. As a vehicle for discussion the paper examines a contemporary policy that has major shortcomings in the explicitness of its language: Australia's ‘Participation and Equity Program’, a policy directed at increasing access to education by post‐compulsory level students. Problems in making policies explicit are discussed. Policies are seen as complex messages whose meanings routinely become scrambled for implementers remote from the language community of policy framers. The paper suggests the use of a sociology of policy language in education to assist in policy design and dissemination. Its concluding sections recommend the kinds of applied work that might be undertaken to improve the explicitness of policy language generally.

Participation and equity towards a sociology of policy language in education

The problem of making education policies explicit and context independent is addressed in this paper. As a vehicle for discussion the paper examines a contemporary policy that has major shortcomings in the explicitness of its language: Australia’s “Participation and Equity Program”, a policy directed at increasing access to education by post-compulsory level students. Problems in making policies explicit and context independent are discussed. Policies are seen as complex messages whose meanings can become scrambled for implementers remote from the language community of policy framers. The links between speech communities and the limited contexts of policies are examined. The paper suggests the inauguration of a sociology of policy language in education to assist in policy design and dissemination. Its concluding sections recommend the kinds of applied work that that sub-discipline might engage in and strategies for improving the explicitness of policy language generally.

Teacher Attitudes to Multicultural Curriculum Development

This study reports teacher attitudes towards multicultural curricula developments in a sample of New South Wales state primary schools and the assimilation orientation of the respondents prior to the publication and dissemination of the state Multicultural Education Policy document. In general, teachers were favourably disposed to non-English-speaking minority children maintaining their ethnic identity, particularly through the use of their ethnic language. However they were negatively disposed to schools being actively involved in teaching ethnic languages, and to schools extending multicultural curricula. Teachers of English as a second language were more favourably disposed to the propositions than either of the other two groups (administration and class teachers). Class teachers were less favourably inclined to community language teaching and to the development of multicultural curricula. The second part of the study measured the assimilation orientation of teachers on a three-point scale: angloconformism, interactionism and pluralism. The most popular alternative was interactionism, with pluralism being an unpopular choice. The argument is presented that little attitudinal change has occurred since the implementation of the Multicultural Education Policy.

Presidential policy and information dissemination: An analysis of the Reagan moratorium on government publishing

Abstract In 1981, President Reagan declared a moratorium on the production of new government-financed pamphlets, periodicals, and audiovisuals. This study examines the impact of that action on the format and content of printed publications, issued during the freeze, by the Department of Health and Human Services. Analysis of those publications distributed to Government Printing Office depository libraries during the moratorium reflected: (1) no significant reduction in the number of documents produced, (2) a shift toward smaller, less-costly print formats, and (3) no significant reduction in the release of publicity/advertising materials. Changes observed in the quantity, format, and content of Department of Health and Human Services publications issued during the moratorium were not those expected given the presidential guidelines.