Mutual Engagement Research Articles

Understanding the Process of Acceptance Within the Nurse–Patient Therapeutic Relationship in Mental Health Care: A Grounded Theory

Background/Objective: Deepening knowledge about the meaning of acceptance in the context of the nurse–patient relationship will help us to understand the importance and value that people with mental health challenges attach to this attribute in the process of the therapeutic relationship. The objective of this study was to understand the process of acceptance as part of the therapeutic relationship between nurses and patients in the field of mental health. Methods: This study employed a qualitative research design using Strauss and Corbin’s grounded theory approach. Using theoretical sampling, data were collected through unstructured interviews with mental health nurses and with people with mental health challenges. Results: Acceptance is a complex and dynamic process that takes place when both patients and nurses feel and make the other feel like an individual human being. Acceptance is not an automatic process; rather, it requires awareness on behalf of both parties involved in the therapeutic relationship. The creation of a non-hierarchical caring environment is fundamental for fostering mutual acceptance and engagement in the therapeutic process. Conclusions: Nurses must develop self-awareness and reflect on their attitudes and biases to provide person-centered care. Nurse training and personal development are essential requirements for achieving an effective therapeutic relationship and empowering patients in their recovery process.

Extending the Triple Helix model: Collaboration through “moments of community” among edtech, university and government

Over the last few decades, the rise of educational technologies has disrupted educational practices within universities. Routinely, edtech enterprises have received criticism that their product development is more aligned with service provision of software rather than pedagogically oriented products. This paper explores collaborative and contentious practices observed in a government-funded, large-scale innovation project that enabled edtech companies to work with university researchers in critically improving their products, processes and practices, in short, their ‘efficacy’. Drawing on and challenging the Community of Practice as a conceptual framework, the thematic and discourse analysis was conducted on the semi-structured interviews and written reports collected. In this Triple Helix space, the paper frames ‘moments of community’ as a construct that reveals what makes the joint enterprise, mutual engagement and shared repertoire work to drive the success of such innovation projects. Limitations of the study will also be outlined.

Indigenous education as community of practice: a case of grassroots learning of the Manobo in the Philippines

ABSTRACT Indigenous education efforts across the world’s Indigenous communities are being implemented to address varying challenges of poverty, cultural discrimination, resource dispossession and isolation. Engaged in a decolonisation agenda, most Indigenous communities are leading diverse localised efforts that turn inwards to their own rich tapestries of knowledge, culture and relationships. In this paper, we argue for the need to broaden the conceptualisation of Indigenous education models to account for the invaluable role that social learning and practice play in sustaining grassroots efforts on how a particular Indigenous people engage with formal educational processes. This paper explores Indigenous education as a community of practice that exemplifies mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire, as crucial elements in sustaining Indigenous education endeavours. We use Lave and Wenger’s “communities of practice” as a theoretical framework to better understand how the Manobos, an Indigenous group in the southern Philippines, have been able to successfully operate their own school. Drawing from participant-observation and key informant interviews with teachers, community leaders and missionaries, we foreground examples of how the Manobos rely upon mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire of actors to show that they belong to an overarching community of practice. More specifically, we demonstrate that Indigenous education as practiced by the Manobos is a socially constituted enterprise that entails grassroots learning at the individual and collective level, collaborations with external groups, as well as strategic negotiation and compliance with government’s policies that ultimately help them sustain the school’s operation.

Revisiting directionality in China's “outward translation”

AbstractDirectionality in translation traditionally refers to whether translation occurs from the translator's second language into their first or vice versa. This paper seeks to broaden the concept of directionality in translation by examining China's “outward translation” (i.e., the translation of works for readers outside of China), and goes beyond linguistic inquiries to encompass multifaceted dimensions related to global cultural exchange. By exploring outward translation within the Chinese context, this study contends that research on directionality should transcend mere linguistic considerations and embrace a more comprehensive analysis. Drawing insights from the Chinese perspective and employing a spatial conceptualization, this paper posits that outward translation operates within a dialogical space characterized by mutual exchange and engagement between the source culture and the target culture. Within this dynamic space, translation agents (including translators, publishers, patrons, and so on) from both source and target cultures interact, fostering reciprocal relationships and facilitating cultural dialogue. In conclusion, the paper argues that outward translation should be better defined and understood as an area of research with the potential to address the imbalanced global translation flows from English to other less‐translated languages, thereby facilitating more diverse and inclusive global knowledge production and dissemination.

Cultural Mentoring as Acompañamiento: Rethinking Community Cultural Wealth

In this article, Andrea Dyrness, Jackquelin Bristol, and Daniel Garzón explore how cultural mentoring with elementary students was enacted by undergraduate and graduate students from minoritized backgrounds attending a predominantly white university. They examine how these mentors engaged with a framework of community cultural wealth and borderlands pedagogies of acompañamiento in their interactions with their mentees and in their own and collective reflections. Using testimonies and ethnographic data, the authors illustrate participants’ mutual engagement in the ongoing struggle to make sense of and confront structural injustice and argue that acompañamiento illuminates the reciprocal, transformative relationships between university and elementary students of color in the shared process of developing their critical consciousness.

Unveiling the Inner World: Exploring Emotional Intelligence, Faith, and Time Perspective among Italian Nuns

The aim of this study was to verify whether emotional intelligence and intrinsic religious orientation have a positive influence on a balanced time perspective (BTP) in the lives of Italian consecrated women. A positive, balanced time perspective, together with the ability to recognize one’s own emotions and those of others, is integral to people’s experience of religiosity in their lives. In this way, a balanced time perspective can open the experience of religiosity, contributing to a better world, along with all those who are engaged in a religious sentiment that is no longer limited to single segments of self-interest. In this study, we provided evidence that religious beliefs (not just participation in corporate religious life) can provide an alternative source of understanding emotions and perceiving time, for the religious people who live their consecrated life together. We tested whether this phenomenon was specific to the potential associations between various aspects of religious belief, emotional intelligence, and time perspective. This research was conducted on a sample of 283 Italian nuns, and it was verified that both emotional intelligence and intrinsic religiosity contribute significantly to a BTP. Furthermore, the fact that emotional intelligence is mediated by intrinsic religious orientation increases the benefits of emotional intelligence on the BTP of Italian nuns. Altogether, our results suggest that religiosity is linked to a balanced temporal profile and to a positive way of understanding emotions. More specifically, the pattern of relationships between religion, emotions, and time can influence and deepen both the individual and collective understanding of humanity among these religious women and create space for mutual engagement despite obvious differences. These results are in line with the requisites of Public Theology, as they allow us to specify selectively the developments on a more secure and empirical basis of how religiosity can affect the life of people, by exposing the submerged theological assumptions that characterize the internal beliefs of religiosity. Moreover, the research data indicate that the deep aspects of religiosity influence greatly the day-to-day living of religious women. This practical influence of religiosity confirms the urgency of opening up theological reflection in the public sphere of life. In fact, as long as the religiosity of the nuns is not reduced to private practice, theological reflection will also be opened to its public significance in the different fields of their apostolic mission.

Latent profiles of dyadic parent–child interaction and associations with triadic family interaction in early childhood

AbstractObjectiveThis longitudinal study examined latent profiles of parent–child interaction and their associations with triadic family interaction.BackgroundA child's development is significantly influenced by early family relationships. Family systems theory emphasizes the interrelations between family subsystems, such as parent–child and parent–parent relationships, as well as the family as a whole. However, few studies have examined the relationship between each parent–child dyad and triadic family interaction.MethodFathers and mothers were separately videotaped interacting with their child (n = 120) at 4 and 18 months and assessed using the Parent–Child Early Relational Assessment. Triadic family interaction was evaluated at 18 months using the Family Alliance Assessment Scale within a Lausanne Trilogue Play setting.ResultsFour latent profiles of parent–child interaction were identified. Dyadic interaction that was characterized by reciprocity, positive affect, and low negativity was associated with higher family coordination. However, interaction characterized by a lack of reciprocity, negativity, and dyadic tension was related to less coordinated triadic family interaction.ConclusionsWell‐functioning parent–child interaction contributes to higher‐quality triadic family interaction. In contrast, challenges in early father–child interaction, including emotional distance, a lack of positive paternal involvement, and limited mutual engagement, are linked to lower‐quality triadic family interaction.ImplicationsThis study highlights the importance of supporting early parent–child relationships to promote well‐functioning and coordinated triadic family interaction, and the inclusion of fathers in interventions aiming to improve family dynamics.

Theoretical Perspectives Underpinning Research on the Physician-Patient Relationship in a Digital Health Practice: Scoping Review.

The advent of digital health technologies has transformed the landscape of health care, influencing the dynamics of the physician-patient relationship. Although these technologies offer potential benefits, they also introduce challenges and complexities that require ethical consideration. This scoping review aims to investigate the effects of digital health technologies, such as digital messaging, telemedicine, and electronic health records, on the physician-patient relationship. To understand the complex consequences of these tools within health care, it contrasts the findings of studies that use various theoretical frameworks and concepts with studies grounded in relational ethics. Using the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines, we conducted a scoping review. Data were retrieved through keyword searches on MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase, IEEE Xplore, and Cochrane. We screened 427 original peer-reviewed research papers published in English-language journals between 2010 and 2021. A total of 73 papers were assessed for eligibility, and 10 of these were included in the review. The data were summarized through a narrative synthesis of the findings. Digital health technologies enhance communication, improve health care delivery efficiency, and empower patients, leading to shifts in power dynamics in the physician-patient relationship. They also potentially reinforce inequities in health care access due to variations in technology literacy among patients and lead to decreases in patient satisfaction due to the impersonal nature of digital interactions. Studies applying a relational ethics framework have revealed the nuanced impacts of digital health technologies on the physician-patient relationship, highlighting shifts toward more collaborative and reciprocal care. These studies have also explored transitions from traditional hierarchical relationships to mutual engagement, capturing the complexities of power dynamics and vulnerabilities. Other theoretical frameworks, such as patient-centered care, and concepts, such as patient empowerment, were also valuable for understanding these interactions in the context of digital health. The shift from hierarchical to collaborative models in the physician-patient relationship not only underscores the empowering potential of digital tools but also presents new challenges and reinforces existing ones. Along with applications for various theoretical frameworks and concepts, this review highlights the unique comprehensiveness of a relational ethics perspective, which could provide a more nuanced understanding of trust, empathy, and power dynamics in the context of digital health. The adoption of relational ethics in empirical research may offer richer insights into the real-life complexities of the physician-patient relationship, as mediated by digital technologies.

Entangled worlds: the becoming of interpretive spaces in pupils’ engagement with literature through process drama

ABSTRACT This article explores the potential for engaging 7 and 8-year-old school pupils in performative literature interpretation through process drama. Inspired by new materialism and affect theory, we focus on how literature interpretations come into being in dramatic fiction, and on how these becoming interpretations merge with the classroom. The study explores interpretive spaces as entangled worlds in mutual engagement of pupils, teachers, and researchers in interpretation through process drama. The study establishes a theoretical framework in pointing out ways in which process drama performances contribute to engage the youngest school pupils in literature interpretation and present social problems.

Measuring mutual engagement in the context of middle-school pair programming: Development and validation of a self-reported questionnaire

With the increasing importance of equipping young learners with computational thinking skills through learning to code, pair programming has emerged as a prevalent collaborative learning strategy in this context. Successful pair programming interventions necessitate mutual engagement between partners within a dyad. However, the measurement of mutual engagement in dyadic collaborative learning remains an under-researched area. This research represents a foundational stage in bridging this gap by developing a comprehensive 20-item Pair-Programming Mutual Engagement Questionnaire (PPME-Q) as a measure of mutual engagement in pair programming at the activity level. The questionnaire was validated through a sample of 86 eighth-grade students. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the existence of a four-factor structure comprising of the behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and social engagement factors. The findings demonstrate the validity (χ2/df = 1.32) and reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.888) of the PPME-Q, establishing it as an effective tool for assessing eighth graders' mutual engagement in pair programming activities. As this tool is in the nascent stages of development the measurement, we emphasize the need for further empirical studies to establish criterion validity. We also discuss the implications of these findings for future research and educational practices. This targeted instrument can then potentially be adapted or scaled to other age groups based on the insights gained.

Indigenous onto-epistemology and the Niyamgiri Movement in India

Climate crises and other manifestations of environmental degradation are inextricably linked to the universalizing technoscientific paradigm underpinning capitalist industrialization and modernization. This study aimed to problematize the modern/colonial ontological dualism underpinning environmental crises and advocates the indigenous/Adivasi relational onto-epistemology. It offers a different reality that questions the virtues of science, capitalism, the colonial narrative, and its continuation in subjectivities and social relations with the modern state. Drawing from the new materialist insights of human and non-human imbrications and the framework of political ontology, this study further analyzed the Dongaria Kondh people's political success in defending their relational way of worlding against corporate-driven extractivism. The state perpetuates violence and takes development initiatives in this mineral-rich eastern Indian province. While other political movements have succumbed to combined corporate and state power, the Dongaria's political struggle continues in different forms. Finally, the article makes the point that knowledge and insights born out of political struggle against a particular ontology, masquerading as universal, press the need for engagement between different realities, knowledges, and recognition of a pluriverse, a world of multiple ways of worlding, where each ontological story exists not as superior or inferior, but as equal, with space for mutual engagement and dialogue.

Leveraging qualitative approaches to guide sustainable international research collaborations.

Qualitative research approaches were used to launch an international research collaboration between the U. S. and Cambodia. Cambodian officials requested assistance in learning qualitative approaches to complement the research skills of Cambodian mental health providers. This article provides a description of how U. S. researchers responded to that request and engaged with Cambodian psychiatrists to explore mental health needs and interventions in both countries and initiate a sustainable relationship. The early focus on qualitative research methodologies may be an avenue that mitigates some of the challenges that can characterize international research. In this study, early communications involved developing a plan to teach qualitative methods while also collecting and analyzing data in both countries that would address the mental health concerns experienced by respective care providers. A case study exemplar was embedded with a scripted focus group guide to collect data from U. S. focus groups, then share with Cambodian psychiatrists. Components of hermeneutic phenomenological interviewing and descriptive content analysis were used to simultaneously teach and enact the research methods, gather data in both countries to analyze, and inspire participants to replicate the methods in their ongoing work. Cambodian psychiatrists were able to demonstrate competence in facilitating focus groups after being participant-observers. Researcher/practitioners from both U. S. and Cambodian teams gained new understandings about the mental health needs of their patients. The mutual engagement of a research focus is an effective way to establish cross-cultural relationships. The challenges of staying with stable teams over times remain, but the content shared and learned in a participatory structure yields understandings that cross cultural boundaries. Anticipated and unexpected challenges may be offset by an intention of reciprocity and mutual engagement. The use of qualitative methodologies, early and repeatedly, can facilitate relational understanding.

Experiences of Undergraduate Nursing Students on Clinical Placement as a Formal Community of Practice

Background: Through their academic journey at their academic institutions and clinical practice placements, nursing students experience mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire that marks a community of practice. As a result of this interaction and activity, students develop an interprofessional identity as they also become active members of this interprofessional community. Method: A descriptive qualitative approach was used to study the experience of 12 student nurses following clinical practice placements. Purposive sampling was adopted and the data from individual interviews was analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Five themes emerged, namely: Bridging the Theory-Practice Gap, Feeling Welcomed and Wanted, Belongness and Support, Chance of Being Selected and Need for Further Collaboration. Conclusion: Through practical placements and engagement with other healthcare professionals, the student’s ability to utilize interpersonal skills and professional skills are highly developed and by becoming part of a community of practice, they develop to become an essential asset in today’s health workforce.

Learning in the palm of your hand: an exploration of the value of online education-related X/Twitter chats for professional learning

ABSTRACT Since Twitter’s 2006 inception, educators have used the platform, more recently rebranded as X, for multiple purposes related to teaching and learning. Social media such as X have proven to be flexible sources of just-in-time learning for many educators across sectors. Education-related X hashtags and the synchronous and asynchronous chats associated with many of them have played host to various kinds of interactions amongst participants. Educators access ideas, share resources and connect with colleagues. Chats related to hashtags can function as Social Learning Spaces, where members drive the learning agenda and learning is rooted in mutual engagement. However, little is formally known about the value participants gain from being involved in these chats and how they contribute to their professional learning. They remain a relatively unrecognised form of professional learning. This qualitative study sought to explore participants’ experiences and determine what learning they gained from their chat involvement. A thematic analysis revealed participants were in two main categories: those who used X chats to gain ideas for teaching, and more experienced teachers who valued chats for their broad discussion of theory, issues, and challenges around their practice. These findings provide insight into how such forms of professional learning should be recognised and validated in educational contexts.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS): Assessing patient satisfaction and socioemotional benefits in the hospital setting.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is an imaging modality used to make expedient patient care decisions at bedside. Though its diagnostic utility has been extensively described, POCUS is not yet considered standard of care in inpatient settings. Data from emergency department settings suggest that POCUS may yield socioemotional benefits beyond its diagnostic utility; furthermore, elements of the POCUS experience are known to promote placebo effects. These elements likely contribute to a placebo-like "POCUS positive care effect" (PPCE) with socioemotional benefits for receptive patients. Our objective is to provide the first characterization of the PPCE and its facilitating factors in an inpatient setting. In this novel mixed-methods study, we recruited 30 adult patients admitted to internal medicine floors in an urban academic medical center, recorded observations during their routine POCUS encounters, and administered post-encounter surveys. We conducted complementary quantitative and qualitative analyses to define and assess the magnitude of the PPCE. We also aimed to identify factors associated with and facilitating receptiveness to the PPCE. The results indicated that POCUS improves patients' satisfaction with their hospital providers and care overall, as well as perceived care efficiency. Mutual engagement, strong therapeutic alliances, and interpreting POCUS images to provide reassurance are most closely associated with this PPCE. Patients who have lower anxiety levels, less severe illness, and received efficient care delivery during their hospitalizations are most receptive to the PPCE. We conclude that diagnostic POCUS has the potential to exert a positive care effect for hospitalized patients. This PPCE is associated with modifiable factors at the patient, provider, and environment levels. Together, our findings lay the groundwork for an optimized "therapeutic POCUS" that yields maximal socioemotional benefits for receptive patients.

Evolutionary Game Analysis of Ecological Governance Strategies in the Yangtze River Delta Region, China

Under integrated ecological and green development in the Yangtze River Delta, the regional ecology is adversely affected by ineffective synergistic governance. Regional environmental governance is a collaborative process involving multiple stakeholders and mutual engagement, with each participant pursuing their interests and common goals simultaneously. This study employed stakeholder theory. A tripartite evolutionary game model of the public, enterprises, and local governments was constructed to analyze the behavioral strategies and influencing factors for the parties involved, and the impacts of key factors on the stability of the evolutionary game system were evaluated. The results indicate that ecological environmental governance in the Yangtze River Delta region is a complex and evolving system involving multiple stakeholders, within which system stability is influenced by stakeholders’ behavioral strategies. The interests of each party are affected by the cost of public involvement in ecological environment governance and the benefits and subsidies that enterprises receive for active environmental governance. The costs and penalties paid by local governments for lax regulations impact their behavioral strategies. This study provides policy recommendations for ecological governance in the study region, including the government–enterprise co-construction of liquid regulatory funds, government–enterprise–public partnerships in low-cost regulatory models, and the sharing of high-quality regulatory outcomes.

What Can Chaplains Teach About Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy?

This essay considers how chaplains embody the core tenets of cross–cultural religious literacy. This work begins with empathy and humility and in its ideal supports individuals and institutions in their mission driven work. Every day chaplains and spiritual care providers work across many axes of difference, ideally embodying the mutual engagement which builds mutual respect, mutual reliance, and resilience. This essay provides a brief description of chaplains and their work as well as changes in their training and preparation needed to better prepare them to do this everyday work of covenantal pluralism.

Salons 1: Mutual Engagement, Co-creation, and Yielding Authority for Representation: Strategies and Practices

Abstract Public folklore practice increasingly emphasizes enabling communities to shape and determine the direction of a project from inception through implementation. The “Mutual Engagement, Co-creation, and Yielding Authority for Representation: Strategies and Practices” salons, organized by the Fellows of the American Folklore Society, explored how folklorists are sharing and yielding authority with community members, with an overarching objective of decentralizing power structures. They stressed the importance of recognizing that communities are not monolithic, containing differential perspectives, conflicting agendas, and internal hierarchies. Participants called for equity in planning and payment for project partners. They spoke about the role that folklorists can play in establishing networks among various stakeholders. Discussions embodied realistic understanding of the constraints of the institutions where folklorists work, while considering strategies for productively overcoming these limitations.

The characteristics of community practice in a professional development unit for teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic

The research field selected for this study has been a professional development (PD) unit, for science teachers, during the COVID-19 pandemic, in a well-established educational institution that promotes science education. The goal of this research was to diagnose the function of the three dimensions of community of practice: mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire during the COVID-19 period. The findings show that the features of mutual engagement remained solid, yet the COVID-19 crisis somewhat undermined the joint venture of the practical community that was perceived as a luxury in times of crisis.

Exploring the Sharing and Legitimacy of Experience-Based Knowledge of Living with Acquired Brain Injury in Two Practice Communities

Background. Involving people with acquired brain injury in service development has the potential to improve service and give experience-based knowledge legitimacy. The objective of this study was to explore experiences of sharing experience-based knowledge of living with acquired brain injury with others, with a particular focus on the conditions for sharing and learning, and the legitimacy of experience-based knowledge. Materials and Methods. Using a single case study design, the processes in two groups that were part of a Swedish supportive network for people with acquired brain injury were explored. One group consisted mainly of people with acquired brain injury who authored a blog and the other group consisted of healthcare staff who produced educational material with the involvement of a person with own experience of acquired brain injury. The data consisted of forty-one collective blogs, fifteen semistructured individual interviews, and ten observations from meetings. The data were analysed by utilizing the community of practice framework and the concepts of legitimate peripheral participation and epistemic injustice. Results. The findings showed that both groups developed learning processes with a focus on everyday rehabilitation as a joint enterprise. Mutual engagement developed from doing activities together and legitimacy in the groups came from engagement in these activities. In the education group, the ambition to involve people with own experience of acquired brain injury was never realized in practice. Hence, experience-based knowledge of living with acquired brain injury never got legitimacy in the group. Conclusions. We conclude that integrating experience-based knowledge from people with own experience of acquired brain injury demands careful and deliberate planning with specific consideration to existing power asymmetries between healthcare professionals and people with own experience. Mitigating epistemic injustice and gaining legitimacy for such knowledge require that people with experience of living with acquired brain injury are recognized as knowledge producers.