Fieldwork In Settings Research Articles

Dangerous Fieldwork: Reflections on Ethnographic Research with Irregular, Nigerian Streetwalkers and Madams in Spain

Recent calls have been made to investigate the lived experience of migrant sex workers, to broaden the scope and inclusivity of macro-level conceptualizations, and to develop contextually grounded forms of understanding. Our ethnographic study sought to explore the lived perspectives of an under-researched occupational group: migrant women working as irregular streetwalkers in a European city. Nineteen Nigerian Edo women working as prostitutes and Madams in Spain participated in an ethnographic, longitudinal study spanning five years of data collection. In this article, we focus on some of the key challenges, including ethical considerations, of undertaking ethnographic work in a hazardous fieldwork setting that presents psychological and physical dangers to both participants and researchers, including threats of violence, and researcher burnout.

Initial Professional Education for Youth and Community Workers: Exploring Academic’s Experiences

AbstractThis paper reflects on a small-scale piece of research into the experience of academics involved in the initial professional education of youth and community workers in England during the period 2015–2016, when multiple factors were affecting degree-qualifying youth and community worker education. Interviews with six academics identify the influences of funding issues, changing contexts for fieldwork settings, varied perceptions of professional youth work to ongoing pressures within higher education which inform their experience. This research draws on Bourdieu’s thinking tools of habitus and illusio as a theoretical lens to explore academics’ ongoing commitment to professional youth and community worker education. The actions and messages from the research participants offer an insight into the varied situations academics are navigating at this point in time, and resonate with a contemporary, post-pandemic context. The paper concludes with areas for further research into the ongoing development of initial professional youth and community worker education.

Collaborative Partnerships During Fieldwork Experiences to Promote Evidence-Based Practices

AbstractIn early childhood education, implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs) is crucial for enhancing children's developmental outcomes. While educator preparation program coursework often covers the content knowledge of EBPs, the application of this knowledge in fieldwork settings is limited. This results in infrequent implementation of EBPs in early childhood settings, highlighting the need for better strategies. One effective way to promote educators' implementation of EBPs is integrating the behavioral skills training (BST) model during fieldwork experiences. Incorporating BST into early childhood educator preparation programs can foster strong collaborative partnerships among team members, facilitating the identification and intentional use of EBPs to support individual children's learning and development. We describe this new collaborative partnership model in fieldwork experiences to demonstrate how preservice educators, in-service educators, and teacher educators play pivotal roles in influencing each other's performance. This collaborative effort aims to promote the implementation of EBPs that lead to the children's improved developmental outcomes.

'Patient' or 'professional'? Negotiating accommodations and identity in fieldwork education.

Despite legislation mandating accommodation policies in postsecondary education, support for students with disabilities is often not implemented within health and human services (HHS) education programs, particularly in fieldwork settings. As part of a Canada-wide study exploring the experiences of disabled students in 10 HHS programs, we examined how HHS students described their experiences accessing accommodations in fieldwork to understand how conceptions of disability relate to students' fieldwork experiences. Using a critical disability studies framework, we explored how HHS fieldwork education understands disability, accommodations and professional competence and what those understandings reveal about the discrepancy between mandated accommodations and what happens in practice. Thirty-five students requiring accommodations in HHS fieldwork education participated in interviews. Through a critical interpretive analysis of interview data, we developed first-person composite narratives to show the richness and complexity of the students' diverse, yet similar, subjective experiences with fieldwork accommodations. Two composite narratives demonstrate how conceptions of disability incommensurate with professional competence expectations influenced student experiences with disclosing disability and obtaining accommodations in fieldwork. Fear of stigma and having one's competence questioned, or having accommodation requests denied for being misaligned with professional expectations, demonstrate how HHS fieldwork education and practice are upheld by ableist systemic structures. The dominant medical model of disability in HHS education creates institutional barriers that require students to constantly (re)construct their 'professional' identity in relation to their 'patient' identity. This patient-professional identity construction relates to HHS professional competency standards and assumptions about what makes a 'good' professional. Suggestions include reworking competency standards and implementing critical pedagogical approaches to teach future and current HHS professionals to question both personal and practice assumptions. With institutional backing, such changes may support diversity within HHS and a culture shift toward more equitable education and health care.

Emergency obstacle avoidance system of sugarcane basecutter based on improved YOLOv5s

The basecutter collides with obstacles in the field while sugarcane harvesters operate, easily damaging the blades of the basecutter. The design of an emergency obstacle avoidance system with machine vision and deep learning for sugarcane basecutters was used to identify obstacles in the cane field. The embedded system then was used to control the lifting and lowering of the basecutter to complete the real-time obstacle avoidance work. The YOLOv5s target detection model was structurally optimized in a real field trial environment. With a weight file that is 8.4 M, 41.6 % smaller than the original model, and a detection speed increase of 7.98 fps, the improved detection model generally satisfies the real-time needs of the field detection tests. The detection model used on the Raspberry Pi in the field test can achieve better detection accuracy with an inference delay of just 0.2 s, ensuring both detection accuracy and speed while accounting for the size of the model memory. A better obstacle avoidance effect can be achieved under light to moderate occlusion conditions and the positive obstacle avoidance rate can be greater than 80 % when the harvester is moving at a speed between 0.25 m⋅s−1 and 0.35 m⋅s−1. The effect of obstacle avoidance is diminished when the harvester is moving at its general top speed and comes into contact with severe occlusion conditions, but it may still satisfy obstacle avoidance requirements in field work settings and fully protect the blade.

At home in the field, in the field at home? Reflections on power and fieldwork in familiar settings

Critical epistemologies and methodologies have over time challenged the static and mono-dimensional approaches to fieldwork, allowing researchers to contemplate and conduct their research in spaces of in-betweenness. Despite this important shift, the essentialist idea that both ‘the field’ and ‘home’ in a fieldwork setting must be actual places persists. In this article, we challenge the conceptualization and operationalization of ‘home’ not only as the juxtaposition to ‘the field’, but also as the embodiment of a place in a specific temporality. We argue that the postulation of ‘home’ as a constant disregards the non-predetermined and unpredictable nature of fieldwork relationships that are often complicated by implicit and explicit power dynamics, especially in places researchers identify as ‘home’. We demonstrate that unequal power relations, especially (1) between the Global North and Global South, (2) between majority and minoritized groups, (3) among genders, and (4) between elites and non-elites, require us to envisage ‘the field’ and ‘home’ in relative terms. We propose the reconceptualization of fieldwork place as a hybridized space that conjoins ‘the field’ and ‘home’ as ‘field-home’, particularly at a time when research mobility is restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this way, we extend the literature on issues related to power, positionality and reflexivity in qualitative research, and provide practical insights for those preparing for fieldwork.

The Revised American Occupational Therapy Association Fieldwork Performance Evaluations: Evaluation of Internal Structure, Response Processes, and Precision-Part 2.

There is an evidence-based need to assess the validity and reliability/precision of the revised American Occupational Therapy Association's Fieldwork Performance Evaluation (FWPE) items for the occupational therapy student (OTS) and the occupational therapy assistant student (OTAS). To evaluate evidence of validity in relation to response processes, internal structure, and precision of the FWPEs. Cross-sectional study design. OTS and OTAS fieldwork practice settings, United States. Two hundred sixty-seven fieldwork educators participated in total, providing 228 OTS evaluations and 39 OTAS evaluations. A Rasch model was used to evaluate aspects of validity and precision. The rating scales provided evidence of the tools' overall validity. Thirty-two of 37 items on the FWPE for the OTS, and 27 of 31 items on the FWPE for the OTAS demonstrated acceptable fit, but the evidence of unidimensionality in the subscales and in the total scales was not fully supported. The total/reduced FWPE scales were able to separate students into at least four distinct groups of fieldwork performance. The relationships between the current and revised FWPEs indicate that the new scales measure different but related constructs of student fieldwork performance, compared with the current version. The findings support that the revised FWPEs for the OTS and OTAS demonstrate preliminary evidence of internal structure, response processes, and precision, supporting evidence-based practice in fieldwork evaluations. What This Article Adds: This article highlights evidence demonstrating the validity and precision of the revised American Occupational Therapy Association's Fieldwork Performance Evaluation items and supports academic and fieldwork settings for occupational therapy students and occupational therapy assistant students.

The influence of occupational therapy students' preferred language on academic and clinical performance in a Canadian university program.

The Occupational Therapy Program at this Canadian university is a French program however, students must be bilingual to function in English or French clinical fieldwork settings. An understanding of the role of language in successful completion of program requirements was needed to effectively support students' education. The study objectives were to identify the role of linguistic factors in students' academic and clinical performance and to provide recommendations for strategies to address areas of learning difficulty. A multimethod approach used 4 data sources: (1) Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) informal language assessment scores, (2) grade point average (GPA), (3) fieldwork evaluation reports, and (4) an online survey of program graduates. The GPA on admission and MMI scores of 140 students predicted respectively only 20% and 2% of the variation in GPA on program completion. The areas of poorest performance in failed clinical fieldwork reports were in clinical reasoning and communication competencies. Among survey respondents (n = 47), 44.5% reported that a clinical placement in their second language with related charting (51.6%) and client communication (40.9%) were the most significant difficulties encountered in the program. Clients with mental health issues (45.4%) were the most challenging population to work with, attributed to communication barriers in the students' second language. Strategies are proposed to support occupational therapy students' academic and clinical language proficiency, including conversational training courses, problem-based learning activities in students' second language, focussed teaching on the clinical reasoning process and reflective skills, and language coaching to address early signs of difficulty in clinical fieldwork.

The Need and Importance of Field Work Practice in Field Settings for Social Workers

Students educate and progress when performing in social service organizations, and social works professors and field teachers must comprehend these procedures. By knowing the mechanisms by which learners grow and improve when functioning in social service organizations, instructors and field trainers can fully understand individuals' academic goals and determine the more efficient strategies to assist students during learning in practice. In that sense, the essay looks at field studying in social service training in terms of the two most common adult learning techniques, personal learning concepts and sociocultural training methods, and how they are utilized in the workplace in-field assignment contexts. Consequently, the paper highlights the diverse character of field learning while claiming that sociocultural methods vary by nation, depending on the demands and realistic goals of social work practice. In Pakistan, social work has to be recognized as a realistic strategy in private as well as public sector. Promoting a realistic study strategy for field situations has been a primary obligation of those connected with social practice. As a consequence, Pakistanis will begin to know their actual pedagogy earlier or later, which is similarly crucial for the advantage of corporate social work training. They connect with customers, colleagues, and mentors throughout their practical experiences, and these encounters help them build communication abilities. Keywords: fieldwork, social work, field work setting, fieldwork placement DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/13-10-04 Publication date: May 31 st 2023

Reimagining Policies, Practices, and Culture to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment at NOAA

Sexual assault and sexual harassment (SASH) in STEM is a well-documented problem, particularly in academic and fieldwork settings (NASEM, 2018; Kelly and Yarincik, 2021; Ackerman et al., 2023). Historically marginalized groups in STEM (i.e., white women; Black, Indigenous, and other people of color; LGBTQ+ individuals) are particularly vulnerable to SASH due to underrepresentation and persistent, long-standing cultural norms shaped by dominant male and white identities. For individuals who hold multiple marginalized identities, the risks and impacts are compounded (Cech, 2022). SASH results in negative impacts to individual mental health and physical safety, productivity, and employee retention, and represents a barrier to entry, retention, advancement, and success of a diverse STEM workforce. To address this, culture change within STEM, the process of shifting organizational norms to promote improved employee wellness, inclusion, and productivity, is needed.

Weaving Together Knowledge Through Collaborative Archaeological Research in the Shúhtagot'ine Cultural Landscape

We describe collaborative archaeological research on caribou hunting sites in the homeland of the Shúhtagot'ine in the central Mackenzie Mountains of Canada's Northwest Territories. Shúhtagot'ine Elders and cultural resource managers are working together to investigate important cultural places that are at risk of destruction from climate-driven landscape changes. We use 3 case studies to illustrate how knowledge production in the context of long-term, place-based research has led to key insights about ancestral caribou hunting sites, including perennial alpine ice patches and wood hunting structures, and how that knowledge is being mobilized to help conserve important values in the Shúhtagot'ine cultural landscape. Archaeological research promotes the sustainability of Indigenous cultural landscapes through the preservation of cultural heritage, via the recall of “landscape memories,” and by unlocking archives of ancient biological material. The process of knowledge coproduction is mutually beneficial for all participants, especially when Indigenous Elders and youth are brought together in fieldwork settings.

Measuring the perceptual, physiological and environmental factors that impact stress in the construction industry

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to highlight and demonstrate how the study of stress and related responses in construction can best be measured and benchmarked effectively.Design/methodology/approachA range of perceptual and physiological measures are obtained across different time periods and during different activities in a fieldwork setting. Differences in the empirical results are analysed and implications for future studies of stress discussed.FindingsThe results of this study strongly support the use of multiple psychometrics and biosensors whenever biometrics are included in the study of stress. Perceptual, physiological and environmental factors are all shown to act in concert to impact stress. Strong conclusions on the potential drivers of stress should then only be considered when consistent results apply across multiple metrics, time periods and activities.Research limitations/implicationsStress is an incredibly complex condition. This study demonstrates why many current applications of biosensors to study stress in construction are not up to the task and provides empirical evidence on how future studies can be significantly improved.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to focus explicitly on demonstrating the need for multiple research instruments and settings when studying stress or related conditions in construction.

Preparing Teachers to Facilitate Engagement in Reading Intervention Through Embedded Behavioral Supports

Reading intervention sessions are most effective when students are engaged. Combined interventions that target both reading and engagement may produce stronger outcomes in both domains than separate interventions for each goal. They also have advantages of being efficient, thus requiring fewer resources. However, planning and executing combined interventions may be challenging to novice teachers. This article presents guidance for teacher educators to address combined reading and engagement support interventions in the context of a university reading methods course and applied fieldwork setting. The article outlines the importance of engagement to reading instruction and offers a framework for training teachers to implement reading interventions with embedded engagement supports, toward the overall goal of maximizing effectiveness of the reading instruction. Resources, tools, and sample activities are presented to further illustrate these concepts and facilitate their application in classrooms.

Debt and Emotional Labour in Present Day Serbia

This article deals with the affective aspects of indebtedness in present-day Serbia. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Belgrade and Šabac during the period 2016-19, it analyses gendered aspects of affective states created and triggered by indebtedness. Indebtedness is here conceptualized to involve not just material and financial obligation, but also asymmetry in emotional labour. That way, the article contributes to the line of research that challenges understandings of debt as a binary relationship between creditor and debtor and argues for a perspective that encompasses the complex affective involvements of indebted subjects and the imbrication of indebtedness, emotional labour, love and care in the everyday life. The ethnographic fieldwork setting is kafana, a tavern with the live neofolk music, which is a space for reflection, expression or venting of the affects, but primarily for their modification, and therefore a primary site for research on postsocialist affect(s). Through the ethnographic vignettes of requesting, performing and consuming songs, as well as material obtained from the pre- and post-performance conversations with employees and customers who found themselves in different situations of debt, it analyses the affective registers of indebtedness and points out that the gendered asymmetry in care debt is formulated in the language and logic of emotional capitalism.

Looking Back

Next year will be the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Working for Ford and these two new reviews of the book came as something of a surprise. However, the issues they raise have forced me to return to the time when I was conducting research in Liverpool, a place which was emerging from its position as a Tory city. Autobiographical references are used to locate the book within my other writings at a time when the critical industrial-relations issues were very different from today. The central theme of the debate related to the intense militancy of the Ford workers, and particularly those based at the Halewood plant during the 1970s and particularly between 1969 and 1975. Explanations of this have a contemporary relevance, and both reviewers reveal this in highlighting the contested influences of the workplace and local circumstances upon workplace behaviour. In reflecting upon this I draw upon more recent historical research and also make use of the extended case method as used by Michael Burawoy to locate the Halewood study more firmly within my other fieldwork settings. Like Paul Edwards, I end with consideration of how these workplaces and localities have changed since Working for Ford was published.

Linking Antiracist Action From the Classroom to Practice.

In the wake of sociopolitical movements to address health inequities and race-based violence in the United States, there have been calls to take up antiracist practices in the occupational therapy profession. This call aligns with Vision 2025 and requires intentional dialogue and instruction on racism and antiracism, beginning in occupational therapy academic programs. Although it is important to engage in discussions on racism and antiracism, it is equally imperative that members of the profession take action to ameliorate the consequences of racism. In this column, we argue for the need for occupational therapy educators to take immediate action. We provide specific recommendations and strategies to broach these topics, examples of classroom activities, and practical approaches for translating these skills to fieldwork settings. Continued work is needed to establish robust policies and practices to ensure that all occupational therapy program graduates enter the workforce prepared to promote health equity through antiracism.

OT Students’ Perception of the Value of a Fieldwork Placement in a Role-Emerging Practice Setting

Abstract Date Presented 04/02/2022 This qualitative study found that Level II OT fieldwork students (N = 14) perceived that role-emerging placements are beneficial in terms of preparing for the profession across settings. In fact, these students noted that they acquired soft and hard skills in this setting that they would not have acquired in a traditional fieldwork setting. Primary Author and Speaker: Alexis Morales Additional Authors and Speakers: Marie-Christine Potvin, Mika Kalimi Contributing Authors: Erin West

Is It Reasonable? Reasonable and Unreasonable Accommodations for Occupational Therapy Students in Clinical Settings

Despite the growing number of graduate students with disabilities, little is known about what accommodations are considered reasonable in various occupational therapy fieldwork settings. This study explores which accommodations fieldwork educators perceive as reasonable or unreasonable for occupational therapy students with disabilities. Snowball sampling methodology was used to distribute a virtual survey, using a descriptive design. One hundred and sixty-two occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants answered questions relating to demographic information, clinical experience supervising fieldwork students, and their clinical judgement regarding commonly requested accommodations. Using a quantitative approach, the accommodations deemed most reasonable were allowing the use of adaptive equipment (n = 156, reasonable: 96.3%) and permission to excuse oneself from the unit to maintain health (n = 152, reasonable: 93.83%). The accommodations considered the most unreasonable were the use of an intermediary to perform physical tasks (n = 82, unreasonable: 50.62%) and the use of an American Sign Language interpreter (n = 42, unreasonable: 24.93%). Clinicians in rehabilitation most often responded “reasonable” in response to an accommodation (n = 24, reasonable: 80.20%), while those who worked in outpatient pediatrics selected “unreasonable” most often (n = 4, unreasonable: 13.51%). This preliminary data provides stakeholders information about accommodations, creating opportunities to support students with disabilities in their pursuit of becoming clinicians. This will help to better fulfill American Occupational Therapy Association's vision of inclusivity and equitability.

Strategies to Promote the Quality of Occupational Therapy Fieldwork Education: A Qualitative Study.

Background: Clinical education is a bridge between theory and practice. The purpose of this study was to develop strategies to promote the quality of occupational therapy fieldwork education. Methods: The qualitative content analysis was used to identify the promoting strategies of fieldwork quality in occupational therapy from students' and fieldwork educators’ perspectives during the 2019–2020 academic sessions. Participants were 12 fieldwork educators (mean age=39.33 yr, Male=5, female 7) and 14 students (mean age=23.28 yr, Male=7, female 7) in the code extraction phase and 16 fieldwork educators (12 of them were in code extraction phase too) in actions of strategies scoring phase. Results: Following the content analysis of the data, the prompting strategies categorized into 4 major categories and 10 subcategories: factors related to Fieldwork educators (Improving clinical teaching skills, Enhancing fieldwork management skills, Motivating fieldwork educators, and Fostering coordination between fieldwork educators), related to Educational Planning (Modifying clinical fieldwork planning, Revising curriculums), related to Students (Empowering students, Motivating students) and related to Fieldwork settings ( Improving the social environment, Improving physical environment ). Based on the qualitative content analysis and 3 expert panels. Finally, the 23 promoting actions were identified. Conclusion: Improving the quality of fieldwork education in occupational therapy needs a systematic collaboration between educators, students, and educational planners. Doing the promoting actions on fieldwork education process in occupational therapy may improve the quality of fieldwork education process.

Mental Illness: Level II Fieldwork Exposure and OT Students’ Attitudes

Abstract Date Presented 04/12/21 Stigma is a barrier to health care access for people with mental illness; OTs work with these individuals in all treatment settings. This study explored how a Level II fieldwork setting affects students' attitudes toward mental illness. Mental health settings were related to positive attitudes; pediatric settings were related to stigmatizing attitudes. Integrating mental health into the broader OT curriculum or classroom and clinic, in any fieldwork setting, may positively affect students' attitudes. Primary Author and Speaker: Christine A. Linkie Contributing Authors: Abigail Herman, Mairead Gormley, Erica Di Meo, Jessica Leonard