Equal Partners Research Articles

An Assortment of Meditations

An Assortment of Meditations

Mt. Rainier Sanctification

Mt. Rainier Sanctification

Partnering with refugee communities to improve mental health access: Going from "why are they not coming" to "what can I (we) do differently?".

Refugees are disproportionally impacted by trauma and its negative sequelae. Even after being resettled in the United States, refugees face disparities in accessing services due to the stigma attached to mental health symptoms and the paucity of culturally and linguistically accessible services. Thus, there is a great need to develop methods that facilitate the engagement of refugee communities. Community-Based Participatory Research recommends the forming of equal and equitable partnerships with communities and stakeholders to enhance community capacity and ownership of the research process and outcomes (Israel et al., 1998). The present article shares one approach to operationalizing these principles with the Somali refugee community. It provides a road map of best practices in collaborating with communities and the importance of colearning and cultural humility to a successful partnership. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

On the Global Community of Shared Future for Mankind under the COVID-19 Epidemic

The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly put forward that "we should advocate Community of Shared Future for Mankind consciousness, take into account the reasonable concerns of other countries when pursuing our own interests, promote the common development of all countries while pursuing our own development, establish a more equal and balanced new global development partnership, help each other in the same boat, share the responsibilities and responsibilities, and promote the common interests of mankind". The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China also mentioned that "we call on people of all countries to make concerted efforts to build Community of Shared Future for Mankind and a world of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness, tolerance, cleanliness and beauty." Over the years, China has been working hard to promote the construction of Community of Shared Future for Mankind. In 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic ravaged the world. This epidemic is a mirror, which shows us the necessity of building Community of Shared Future for Mankind, the efforts made by China, and the difficulty of building Community of Shared Future for Mankind.

Inquiring together: A pre-participation phase for a coteaching clinical practice model in teacher education

This qualitative case study focused on the pre-participation phase of a three-year trial-run of a coteaching model for clinical practice within a teacher education program in western Canada. In this two-day workshop, teacher candidates, teacher mentors and faculty mentors worked in inter-professional groups on novel activities to discuss potential advantages and challenges. They identified five key issues necessary for the success of coteaching in their local context: Time, Building Relationships, Communication, Students See Teachers as Equal Partners, Engagement and Active Contribution. This pre-participation phase provided crucial support for upcoming coteaching by allowing concerns to be voiced and breaking down hierarchies.

Anthropo­centrism as a methodological principle of higher education: theoretical and practical aspects

The essence of anthropocentrism as a key methodological principle of modern higher education, based on the elevation to the status of the goal and center of human educational activity, human development. Student­centeredness is considered as one of the main components of educational anthropocentrism. We analyzed the scientific views and demonstrated the results of our own research on the peculiarities of building equal partnerships and mutual evaluative judgments in the systemic relationships “teacher — student”, “student — student”, “teacher — teacher” to ensure the integrity of the pedagogical process, balance and responsibility of educational participants. activities, improving its quality.
 Emphasis was placed on the advantages of the latest pedagogical technologies: peer teaching, which has significant didactic potential in the system of student­student interaction, is useful for student — “student” and for student — “teacher” as well; peer coaching technique, which is aimed at partnership “teacher — teacher”.
 Conclusions are made on the growing role of anthropocentric approach as a worldview basis for developing a new strategy of higher education in Ukraine, its strategy of humanization, balancing the importance of all major actors involved in the educational process, ensuring the integrity of teaching, strengthening interpersonal communication, achieving balance and responsibility. quality of higher education. In the process of democratization of higher education in Ukraine, the anthropocentric approach is of paramount importance, the practical implementation of which will contribute to the strengthening of academic traditions and effective implementation of innovations, the establishment of partnerships between all participants in educational activities: students, teachers, HEI employees, employers and others, built on the principles of mutual understanding, mutual enrichment and development.

MODERN SINO-AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION

The nineties of the twentieth century led to changes in the global geopolitical strategy: the place of the Soviet Union, acting as the second world superpower, is gradually firmly occupied by the People’s Republic of China, which thirty years ago could count solely on the role of a regional leader. The development of international trade and economic relations between the United States and China clearly demonstrates in action the Hegelian “law of unity and struggle of opposites” - both countries, having different political systems and social structure, are forced to act as the main partners both in the world economy and in trade. The initiative in developing trade and economic relations with China is still in the hands of the United States, which, despite the availability of the latest technologies and outstanding economic achievements, still have to reckon with the requirements of its Chinese partner to establish equal partnership relations, bearing both material and reputational costs. The United States, throughout the history of US-Chinese relations, often uses provocations and unfriendly actions. The inconsistent position of the United States, primarily in support of Taiwan, makes it difficult to understand and establish trust between the countries.

THE RUSSIAN NEGOTIATION CULTURE THROUGH THE EYES OF FOREIGNERS

Foreign negotiators’ observations represent a valuable source of understanding the Russian negotiation culture. They pay attention to the duality and inconsistency of the Russian character, significant fluctuations in the mood of Russians, which determine the unpredictability of their behavior. However, foreign observers also point a significant experience of rational behavior within the Russian negotiation. Researchers notice the special attention that Russians pay to the issues of national security and their respect for “power” and “strength” (that sometimes is explained as “imperial thinking”). Also, Russian negotiators are persistent in defending their position, they demonstrate desire to realize it as fully as possible, they struggle for equal partnership relations and sometimes these efforts bring unilateral advantages for them. Russians want to play a leading and even dominant role during negotiations, they prefer to set the agenda and try to hide their weaknesses in aim to prevent a counterpart from taking advantage that may cause damage. Such approach explains the reluctance of Russians to make compromises, which they perceive as a manifestation of weakness. Russians trust and cooperate primarily with members of their community (“intracultural negotiations”) and demonstrate less openness to foreign colleagues who represents the “alien” group (“intercultural negotiations”). Western negotiators note the decisive role of opinions made by delegation heads rather than experts. The fear of making mistakes and consequently the fear of punishment holds the Russians back from risky negotiating behavior and deviations from their instructions. The Russian negotiators are taken very seriously by their foreign colleagues. Nevertheless, some experts recommend that exaggerating the “threatening” and “overwhelming” power of the Russian partners should be avoided. They advise to be firm dealing with Russians, to strive to establish trust and good personal relations, and to prove reliability in their eyes for gaining benefits from negotiations.

Men, The Missing Link In Gender-equitable Family Planning: A Scoping Review

Background: Across societies, gender norms often allow men to hold key decision-making power within relationships, households and communities. This extends to almost all domains, consisting of family planning (FP) as well. FP programs have largely engaged men as clients and rarely as equal partners or influencers although across lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and especially in South Asia, men hold key decision-making power on the domain of family planning. The objective of this article is to explore couple dynamics through the lens of spousal communication and decision-making and unpack male engagement and spousal dynamics in family planning. Methods: This review presents a synthesis of evidence from two peer-reviewed databases, PubMed and Jstor, and and insights from programmatic documents to shed light on gender equitable engagement of young married men in family planning. Inclusion and exclusion criteria for both these databases was set and search strategies were finalized. This was followed by title and abstract screening, data extraction, synthesis and analysis. Results: Study participants included unmarried men (16%, n=8), married men (19%, n=9), married women (19%, n=9), married couples (25%, n=12) or more than two respondent categories (21%, n=10). Almost three quarters (71%, n=34) of the studies selected had FP as the primary area of inquiry. Other prominent thematics on which the studies reported were around norms (n=9, 16%), couple dynamics and intimacy (n=12, 22%). Conclusions: The evidence presented provides sufficient impetus to expand on gender-equitable male engagement, viewing men as equal and supportive partners for informed, equitable and collaborative contraceptive uptake and FP choices by couples.

Marriage and Culture within the Context of African Indigenous Societies: A Need for African Cultural Hermeneutics

This article discusses the challenges which the institution of marriage faces within the African indigenous societies. Marriage is understood to be one of the most vital mechanisms in maintaining the consistency of all societies on earth. Scholars, such as John Mbiti, understand marriage to be a drama in which everyone becomes an actor or actress and not just a spectator. While this sounds truly ideal, the reality is that most Africans understand marriage to be an institution primarily knotted within African cultural norms and traditions with disparity roles between the couple. The article argues that such an imbalance unleashes toxic masculinity and manhood ideologies which are chiefly designed to deny women the rights to be fully actresses in the theatre of marriage. It also argues for the need of liberative frameworks within which to challenge the dominative traditional and cultural dogmas which are creating disparities between men and women in marriage. Musimbi Kanyoro’s cultural hermeneutics model is employed to suggest a way forward to create an equal partnership between men and women in marriage.

There and Back Again as a Free Person

The article refers to the issue of freedom from a philosophical perspective. First of all, it discusses Plato’s metaphor of the cave in Politeia, in which the philosopher writes of freedom in its individual and collective forms. Then the article indicates how the metaphor was read by such contemporary philosophers as Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt, who interpret Plato’s metaphor from existential-phenomenological and political perspectives. Heidegger stresses the freedom of a human being, who in the light of the subjective existential experience begins to live objectively in an authentic way. He frees himself up from the impersonal-I. A person, who experienced the truth as un-concealment, is not enslaved anymore to the impersonality of the crowd. He is able to face his own mortality and to take responsibility for his own fate. A special expression of freedom is shown in his care for others, even if it means risking one’s life. Hannah Arendt interprets Plato’s metaphor from the perspective of political philosophy. Her assessment becomes some kind of memento. What if the prisoners of the cave simply do not want to leave their place? Does the philosopher have a right forcefully to pull them out of the cavern? What is better, the attitude of Socrates, who dialogues with people or the attitude of Plato, who simply lectures the mob? In this way Arendt refers to the concept of freedom, as it is sketched in Plato’s cave. At the same time, she argues with Heidegger’s interpretation of the Platonic metaphor. Heidegger stresses the freedom of a human being, who in the light of the subjective existential experience begins to live objectively in an authentic way. He frees himself up from the impersonal-I. Human, who experienced the truth as un-concealment and freedom, is not enslaved anymore with the impersonality of the crowd, which reject individualism and authenticity. He is able to face his own mortality and to take responsibility for his own fate. A special expression of so understood freedom is shown in his care for others, even if this way he risks his own life. Hannah Arendt interprets Plato’s metaphor rather from the perspective of political philosophy. Her assessment, rooted in the very foundation of the political-philosophical thought becomes some kind of memento. What if the prisoners of the cave, simply do not want to leave their place? Does the philosopher have a right to forcefully pull them out of the cave of shadows? What is better, the attitude of Socrates, who dialogues with people and treats them as equal partners or the attitude of Plato, who simply lectures the mob?

Türkiye: Infrastructure Provider for Africa with Benevolence

Africa emerged as a region to which Türkiye has engaged enthusiastically since 2003 when the Justice and Development Party came to power. Although Türkiye’s policy in Africa has many dimensions such as political, economic, religious, and cultural, this study focuses on its infrastructure investments. This paper argues that Türkiye’s commitment in infrastructure development in Africa is related with the President Erdoğan’s grand narrative of “The World is Bigger than Five” in Turkish foreign policy. Türkiye is not interested in material gains in the continent but it seeks to elevate and mobilize the African states in its endeavors to reform the current world order and to build a fairer world. Türkiye brands itself as a benevolent enterprising actor in Africa. This study deals with Turkish infrastructure practices and the President Erdoğan and other officials’ emphases on mutual gain and equal partnership in the projects in Africa. It also includes the infrastructure activities of Türkiye’s main competitors on the continent, China and France. While China engages in debt-trap diplomacy characterized by gaining stakes in shares of the infrastructures in exchange of writing off debts, France seeks to maintain its hegemonic status on the continent through infrastructure investments. Türkiye differs itself from these actors with its sincere statements and responsible investments on the continent, raising its image among the African population.

Quality of Life and Well-Being for Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs and their Families: A Vision for the Future

To fulfill the promise of a life of dignity, autonomy, and independence for children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) and their families, greater value must be assigned to meaningful outcomes, such as quality of life and well-being. Despite decades of research, programs, and measurements addressing quality of life and well-being for CYSHCN and their families, there still is no consensus on how to measure, implement, or achieve them. As the US health care system strives to reach the health care goals of safe, efficient, effective, equitable, timely, and patient-centered care, youth and families must be equal partners at all levels of the health care system-from clinical decision making to designing and implementing programs and policies. The health care system must systematically measure the priorities of CYSHCN and their families. It also must incorporate data on quality of life and well-being when developing services, supports, and systems that help CYSHCN and their families to flourish rather than hindering them.

Collaborating With Children and Young People: A New Model for Co-Production

AimsChildhood and adolescence is a time in which the patterns and foundations for future health are laid. The World Health Organisation advocate for providing opportunities for children and young people (CYP) to meaningfully participate in the design and delivery of services. Co-production, in which professionals and citizens collaborate together in an equal partnership, is recommended as an approach to achieve this and is linked to better community relations. Few co-production models exist that are specific to CYP and address the relevant practical and ethical challenges. We propose a new framework which can be used by organisations wishing to engage in meaningful collaboration with CYP.To create a model for co-production with consideration of the specific needs of CYP.MethodsThe following methodology was used: i)Identification of common themes from ten existing co-production frameworksii)Detailed analysis of three co-production frameworks with reference to CYPiii)Identification of key issues from critique of the literatureResultsThe key themes incorporated into the model using the above methodology were as follows: Purpose, Assets, Capabilities, Reciprocity, Networks and Relationships, Power, Catalysts, Diversity and Inclusion and Safety and Protection. This co-production framework can be used by organisations that wish to meaningfully collaborate with CYP and assess the depth of co-production of their initiatives.ConclusionThe new model takes into account the socio-cultural challenges that must be considered when co-producing with CYP including power relations, safety and diversity and inclusion. We advocate for the model being tested, validated and further developed ideally with the collaboration of CYP.

Harmony without equality: Schiller's theory of virtue

AbstractIn this paper I reconstruct Schiller's theory of virtue from his essay “On grace and dignity” and discuss how it fits into Kant's moral philosophy. According to Schiller, a virtuous person – a beautiful soul – is characterised by harmony between reason and sensibility. I show that despite some misleading textual clues and interpretations based on them, Schiller does not regard the harmony between reason and sensibility as an equal partnership. On the contrary, just like Kant, Schiller fully recognises the priority of reason. The difference between their positions is more subtle. Whereas Kant holds that sensibility must be overtly subordinated to reason, Schiller believes that there should be a semblance of an equal partnership between reason and sensibility, provided that the latter is sufficiently ennobled.

Increasing women’s political participation in India

The equality of men and women is a matter of human dignity and a crucial aspect of the advancement of society. "Women's empowerment" refers to having full control over one's actions. India has been witnessing the empowerment of women for the past twenty years. The Government of India declared 2001 as the 'Year of Women's Empowerment' to promote a vision in which women are treated as equal partners with men. Throughout history, policy approaches have evolved from the concept of 'welfare' in the seventies to 'development' in the eighties, and to 'empowerment' in the nineties. This study focused on India’s economy is growing at a phenomenal rate with a flourishing democracy. India has undergone socioeconomic and demographic changes with the contribution of women.

Stakeholder engagement in developing a father-inclusive early life obesity prevention intervention: First Heroes

BackgroundAlthough paternal involvement in the perinatal period is associated with benefits for maternal-child health and reduced obesity risk, fathers are seldom included in perinatal or obesity prevention efforts. Engaging community leaders and fathers as stakeholders in intervention development is a critical step in designing a father-inclusive intervention that is efficacious and responsive to their needs.MethodsWe conducted a structured engagement study, including community stakeholder engagement and qualitative interviews with new fathers, to inform the development of a prospective randomized controlled trial that includes mothers and fathers as equal partners in infant obesity prevention. We interpreted stakeholder feedback through the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) framework.ResultsBetween September 2019 and April 2020, we held a Community Engagement meeting, formed a Community Advisory Board, and conducted 16 qualitative interviews with new fathers. Stakeholder engagement revealed insights across CFIR domains including intervention characteristics (relative advantage, complexity, design quality & packaging), outer setting factors (cosmopolitanism and culture), individual characteristics (including self-efficacy, state of change, identification with the organization) and process (engagement and adaptation). Stakeholders discussed the diverse challenges and rewards of fatherhood, as well as the intrinsic paternal motivation to be a loving, supportive father and partner. Both community leaders and fathers emphasized the importance of tailoring program delivery and content to meet specific parental needs, including a focus on the social-emotional needs of new parents.ConclusionsA structured process of multidimensional stakeholder engagement was successful in improving the design of a father-inclusive perinatal obesity prevention interventions. Father engagement was instrumental in both reinforcing community ties and increasing our understanding of fathers’ needs, resulting in improvements to program values, delivery strategies, personnel, and content. This study provides a practical approach for investigators looking to involve key stakeholders in the pre-implementation phase of intervention development.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04477577. Registered 20 July 2020.

Frontmedarbejdere som professionelle samskabere

Co-production is a process in which frontline employees collaborate with service users to develop welfare, remodel public service delivery to improve quality, and create self-efficacy for service users. The service users thus become – at least in theory – equal partners, who are assigned great responsibility for planning, implementing and evaluating public welfare services.In this account, the role of frontline employees is reframed as complementary to and supportive of the empowered service users. This article investigates the (new) role ascribed to frontline employees as professional co-producers by focusing on the dilemmas and pressures they may experience during the implementation of co-production. The article emphasizes the importance of frontline employees and organizations building relational and interpersonal capacities to bring service users and other stakeholders together for a common goal in situations of interdependence.

Astrocyte regulation of synaptic signaling in psychiatric disorders.

Over the last 15 years, the field of neuroscience has evolved toward recognizing the critical role of astroglia in shaping neuronal synaptic activity and along with the pre- and postsynapse is now considered an equal partner in tripartite synaptic transmission and plasticity. The relative youth of this recognition and a corresponding deficit in reagents and technologies for quantifying and manipulating astroglia relative to neurons continues to hamper advances in understanding tripartite synaptic physiology. Nonetheless, substantial advances have been made and are reviewed herein. We review the role of astroglia in synaptic function and regulation of behavior with an eye on how tripartite synapses figure into brain pathologies underlying behavioral impairments in psychiatric disorders, both from the perspective of measures in postmortem human brains and more subtle influences on tripartite synaptic regulation of behavior in animal models of psychiatric symptoms. Our goal is to provide the reader a well-referenced state-of-the-art understanding of current knowledge and predict what we may discover with deeper investigation of tripartite synapses using reagents and technologies not yet available.

Ten Years of Neonatal Intensive Care Adaption to the Infants' Needs: Implementation of a Family-Centered Care Model with Single-Family Rooms in Norway.

Ten years ago, the Neonatal intensive care unit in Drammen, Norway, implemented Single-Family Rooms (SFR), replacing the traditional open bay (OB) unit. Welcoming parents to stay together with their infant 24 h per day, seven days per week, was both challenging and inspiring. The aim of this paper is to describe the implementation of SFR and how they have contributed to a cultural change among the interprofessional staff. Parents want to participate in infant care, but to do so, they need information and supervision from nurses, as well as emotional support. Although SFR protect infants and provide private accommodation for parents, nurses may feel isolated and lack peer support. Our paper describes how we managed to systematically reorganize the nurse’s workflow by using a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle approach. Significant milestones are identified, and the implementation processes are displayed. The continuous parental presence has changed the way we perceive the family as a care recipient and how we involve the parents in daily care. We provide visions for the future with further developments of care adapted to infants’ needs by providing neonatal intensive care with parents as equal partners.