Professional Ethos Research Articles

Social workers’ views about children’s and parents’ competence in child protection decision-making

Summary Competence is an essential part of any decision-making process. In child protection, it is challenged by the controversial nature of child removals and the vulnerable situations which children and parents experience therein. This article examines how and on what grounds social workers view parents and children to be competent to give their informed view in care order proceedings and what they do if doubts about competence arise. The analysis is based on 30 interviews with social workers in Finland. Findings The professional ethos and ethics of social work were embedded in the social workers’ descriptions of children’s and parents’ competence. The social workers were confident that the parents and children (of certain age) were competent to give their informed view about whether to consent to the care order proposal and the proposed substitute home. When they spoke about competence ascribed with hesitation, they described the vulnerability of service users, as well as their attitudes and withdrawal from contact. In the cases, social workers emphasized a strength-based view of children and parents and aimed to ‘talk more’ with them and to ‘give them more time’ to support their right to give an informed view. Applications Social vulnerability and competence should be explored reflectively in relation to decision-making in child protection. A better understanding of their interrelation makes social workers more competent to support the service users’ right to be included in decision-making. Critical awareness is needed to recognize when ‘more talk’ is not enough to realize children’s and parents’ rights.

Actors in the social world of public drama theatre in Poland during the communist period and in the 21st century. A comparative analysis

This article aims to provide a comparative analysis of the social condition of actors during the communist era in Poland and after the political transformation of 1989. The empirical material used by the author includes popular science publications devoted to actors of Polish public drama theatres as well as free-flowing interviews conducted by the author in 2015–2017 with theatre artists representing six Polish theatrical centres. Actors who remember the period of the People’s Republic of Poland well are nostalgic about the past theatrical life, they remember being on familiar terms within theatre teams, anti-rankism, and the inclusion of technical and administrative staff in the community of artists without emphasising hierarchies. Today, the social, ideological and political divides in theatre teams are more noticeable. Distinguished actors are being challenged by young colleagues, while they were held in high regard in the past. Nowadays, multi-active actors demythologise the profession of an actor and point to the decline of the professional ethos.

The physician as a neoliberal subject - A qualitative study within a private-public mix setting.

Research on neoliberalism in health care has insufficiently explored the intermediary role of physicians in neoliberal subjectification. This paper studies the construct of the physician as a neoliberal subject in the Israeli health care system, using qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 21 medical specialists. We interviewed physicians from specialties in which private practice is both less common (infectious disease and intensive care) and more common (orthopedics, cardiology, and cardiothoracic surgery). Our analysis focused on two key issues: the physician's role in society and the value placed on health care. We found a spectrum of views. At one end, some perceived themselves as entrepreneurs, managing themselves both as an enterprise and a product, and perceived health care as a commodity. At the opposite end, we found a professional ethos that considered the physician as a public servant, and health care as a human right. Both views were in constant tension with neoliberal subjectivity. Further research should investigate the association between institutional belonging, whether public or private, and the internalization of the main characteristics of the neoliberal worldview.

Diversionary Peace: International Peacekeeping and Domestic Civil-Military Relations

ABSTRACT What is the impact of international peacekeeping missions for civil-military relations at home? This article unpacks the conditions that produce positive effects of peacekeeping participation on the domestic politics of an authoritarian regime. Drawing on field research, I discuss four mechanisms that link foreign policy making to domestic civil-military relations in Ben Ali’s Tunisia. First, the deployment of troops for peacekeeping abroad presents obstacles for the coordination of coup plots at home. Second, incumbents can allocate material resources to meet officers’ economic grievances. Moreover, peacekeeping operations serve to enhance corporate institutionalization through specific training programmes. Finally, peacekeeping contributes to a professional ethos and hence the depoliticization of the officer corps. These findings give rise to the notion that contributing to peace can have similar effects for domestic politics as going to war.

The Symbolic Power of the State: Inheritance Disputes and Litigants’ Judicial Trajectories in Cotonou

AbstractOver the last 10 years, scholars have started to focus on African states’ bureaucracies by investigating public servants’ relationships with the state, their professional ethos, how they appropriate reforms, and the way they interact with citizens. With inheritance disputes as a focal point, this article highlights the users’ perspective—which is often overlooked—and asks how litigants in Cotonou (Benin) see the state, appropriate legal reforms, and use the courts. It shows that citizens, despite a general sense that the court system is corrupt and ineffective, continue to use it because state institutions convey a form of authority that allows them either to legitimize or challenge family decisions in inheritance matters.

Developing Professional Identity and Ethos through Research and Practice in Initial Teacher Education: The USW ITE Partnership Approach

Reform of the education sector in Wales has given university-school partnerships of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Wales much to grapple with conceptually and practically, in order to design new programmes of ITE that can attract national-level accreditation in line with the recommendations made by Professor John Furlong in 2015. These reforms have required a system-wide rethink of ITE, based on a philosophy for new provision. This article outlines an approach to ITE inspired by the work of Lee Shulman (2005) who argued that teacher education should prioritise the acquisition of three habits, corresponding to the 'what' the 'so what' and finally the 'who' of teaching, namely an understanding of one's professional identity, ethos and character. We describe a pedagogical model for embedding these principles in ITE, based on the work of Parker, Patton and O'Sullivan (2016). Finally, we consider the implications for mentors and lecturers, noting in particular the need to see all members of the ITE partnership as learners, both to ensure effective role models for beginning teachers, and also to remain faithful to the principle laid down in social development theory (Vygotsky, 1978) that learning is interactive and symbiotic.

Like a pro: Communication, camaraderie and group cohesion in the Amazonian esports scenario

This article discusses the processes involved in the construction of group membership and cohesion in a semiprofessional team of esports in the city of Belém, the capital of the state of Pará, in the Brazilian Amazonian territory. This effort discusses what characterizes the progression and union of a particular team in a local competitive scenario in which ephemeral teams predominate. Based on an eleven-month ethnography with a set of players engaged in professional competitive practice, and through observations from field research, we compiled a set of 12 essential characteristics filled out by the team. Also, this study points to the development of an ethos of professionalism in a peripheral context, indicating the existence of an Amazonian esports scenario – in the North Region of the Brazil, with emphasis in Belém, Pará. The results indicate the subsistence of a social fabric composed of a variety of other elements that, in turn, constitute an ethos of group camaraderie that plays a central role in the competitive dynamics that underlie the team as a group.

Entre ethos professionnel et logiques d’entreprises : La recherche et l’innovation dans les agences d’architecture

Encouragés par une politique publique, incitative et de réforme, les dirigeants d’agences montrent un intérêt certain pour l’intégration de pratiques de recherche ou d’innovation dans leurs structures. Cependant, les dispositifs de droit commun ouverts aux agences d’architecture et prévus pour valoriser la recherche et l’innovation sont jugés insuffisamment investis par le champ de l’architecture (CIR, CII, CIFRE). Pour participer à la compréhension de ce phénomène, nous interrogeons les manières dont les architectes dirigeants appréhendent ces notions, les pratiques qu’ils leur associent et leur possible intégration au sein des structures. Nous avons pu vérifier ainsi la dualité à laquelle ils se confrontent : penser l’évolution des pratiques professionnelles et des structures qui les accueillent en réponse aux multiples défis auxquels est confronté le champ de l’architecture, tout en respectant les codes, valeurs et normes hérités d’une profession libérale.

ВИРТУАЛЬНАЯ РЕАЛЬНОСТЬ КАК ДИСКУРС ФОРМИРОВАНИЯ ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОГО ЭТОСА СТУДЕНТОВ-МЕДИКОВ

The article examines the problem of the influence of virtual reality and digital society on the formation of the professional ethos of medical students. Undoubtedly, the totality of digital society, its diffusion into all spheres of existence determines the formation of a person's identity in personal, social and practical modes. At the same time, due to its Biophysics, medical activity is focused on practical activities and direct communication. Virtual reality creates conditions for any person, including students, to form an ideal narcissistic projection that exists within and according to the laws of digital society. The abstractness of the ideal Self comes into conflict with the real Self, creating new ways of alienation and hitherto unseen modes of meaning-loss and existential trauma. In addition, virtual reality limits the content of the communication process, reduces it, formalizes it, and restricts it with artificial rules. The article describes the basic content concepts through which the issues of digital society are denoted. The study sample is fairly uniform and includes 116 TvSMU students aged 19 to 22 years. The article presents data from descriptive statistics and psychodiagnostic techniques. The analysis conducted between the indicators of meaning-life orientations of the individual, the subjective feeling of loneliness and the status of ego-identity, allows us to conclude about the formation of the phenomenon of self-alienation, loss of meaning and existential trauma. The formation of professional identity is a complex symbiotic process that involves qualitative changes and a transition to a new worldview level. It is during this period that the student's psyche is most labile and subject to external influence. The dichotomy of the virtual and the real affects the formation of personality, depriving this process of concreteness and violating the integrity of the socio-cultural and professional thesaurus.

A new landscape architecture : The living fences experience in Buenos Aires

The Breathe/Respirar Project (BRP) explores opportunities to improve air quality in schoolyards using living fences, and to facilitate the multiple social and environmental co-benefits that can result from greening existing urban infrastructures, which include opportunities for environmental education and reconnecting people with nature. This exploration takes place through a series of experiments in Urban Living Labs set in schoolyards of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The experiments involve (1) engaging the school community (teachers, schoolchildren, parents, other stakeholders) to co-create the experiment; (2) designing and implementing interventions in ‘the schoolyard as landscape’; (3) including activities that enhance co-benefits; (4) monitoring integrated effects; and (5) collectively analysing outcomes. The essay discusses preliminary findings from a pilot project’s early set up. With effectiveness outcomes still in process, we focus on implications for further project implementation and wider lessons learned to inform the practice of landscape architecture in the context of interdisciplinary socio-environmental projects. These speak to a framework of three premises (making environmental commitment a central pillar; using multidisciplinary approaches for multifunctional landscapes; and communicating strong messages through landscapes themselves and complementary activities). We suggest the current relevance of this professional ethos as landscape architecture seeks to play a bigger role in meeting environmental challenges.

Nursing students' perspective on a caring relationship in clinical supervision.

Nursing students spend approximately half of their time in clinical practice. It is important that clinical supervisors understand nursing students' path of learning and can support their growth and development during the different and multifaceted learning situations offered in the clinical-practice period. Based on nursing students' perspective and rooted in the didactics of caring science, to examine how a learning and constructive caring relationship between nursing students and supervisors in clinical practice can be formed. Qualitative and quantitative concurrent triangulation design of mixed methods. Focus group interviews with Finnish nursing students (n = 21) in the qualitative part of the study. In the quantitative part, a closed questionnaire with closed answers was analysed using descriptive statistics. The analysis process was conducted using inductive content analysis. Ethical issues were considered throughout the research process according to ethical principles and scientific guidelines. Informed consent was obtained from the informants, confidentiality regarding the data material was guaranteed and quotations were anonymized. A caring relationship between nursing students and supervisors is based on mutual respect, the ethos of responsibility, motivation, willingness and professionalism. Dignity and a caring ethical approach, where nursing students feel they belong, are recognized, seen and heard enables learning and professional development. It is also significant that the supervisor's actions and reflections are ethically defensible, equal and protect nursing students from suffering and various power relationships in clinical practice. A good cooperative relationship and shared responsibility between the nurse education institution, which offers theory and prepares nursing students for the encounter with clinical practice and the healthcare organizations is crucial for enabling a caring relationship in clinical supervision.

Health and social care educators' ethical competence.

Educators' ethical competence is of crucial importance for developing students' ethical thinking. Previous studies describe educators' ethical codes and principles. This article aims to widen the understanding of health- and social care educators' ethical competence in relation to core values and ethos. The study is based on the didactics of caring science and theoretically links the concepts ethos and competence. Data material was collected from nine educational units for healthcare and social service in Finland. In total 16 semi-structured focus group interviews with 48 participants were conducted. The interviews were analysed with a thematic analysis according to Braun and Clarke. The study is approved by the Declaration of Helsinki, the legislation regarding personal data and the General Data Protection Regulation. The study received ethical permission from the University of Jyväskylä. Informed consent was obtained from all the educational units and participants in the study. The findings are presented based on three general patterns, an ethical basic motive, an ethical bearing and ethical actions. Subthemes are Humane view of students as unique individuals with individual learning, Bearing of tactfulness and firmness, Bearing of perceptiveness and accessibility, Bearing of satisfaction and joy over student learning, Valuing bearing towards each oneself and colleagues, Ability to interact and flexibility, Collegiality and a supportive work community and Educators as role models and inspirators. Educators' personal and professional ethos is crucial to student learning, personal growth and ethical reasoning. Therefore, it is important to further develop educators' training regarding ethical competence.

Hopes, beliefs, and concerns: narratives in German and Portuguese universities regarding Brexit

This article contributes to the understanding of how different actors in the academic field perceive the challenges that Brexit poses for European higher education. Based on a narrative analysis of 28 interviews, this paper highlights how actors’ narratives convene discursive elements stemming from competing discourses on cooperation and competition. In doing so, the exploratory study focuses on two countries, Portugal and Germany, which correspond to distinct cases regarding their performance in the European research and higher education landscape. The analysis highlights that there are national differences between the perceptions of Brexit and allows identifying commonalities in the narratives in both countries. In addition, we identify the presence of a pragmatic managerial attitude in response to Brexit. The three overarching narratives are the narrative of concerns, the narrative of hopes, and the narrative of beliefs. These narratives reflect the struggle of the cooperation and the competition discourses in ascribing meaning to Brexit. The competition discourse has assumed a dominant role in the perceptions of Brexit and cooperation is mainly fueled through the academics and their professional ethos.

Exploring nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and feelings towards organ and tissue donation after circulatory death within the paediatric intensive care setting in the United Kingdom: A qualitative content analysis study

ObjectiveThis study explored nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and feelings towards donation after circulatory death identifying these domains as barriers and facilitators to nurses effectively undertaking their role in the donation after circulatory death donation process. DesignA single-phase qualitative study design. SettingOne paediatric cardiac intensive care unit in a tertiary paediatric hospital in England. MethodsData was collected from eight paediatric cardiac intensive care nurses using semi-structured face to face or telephone interviews facilitated by a clinical vignette. Qualitative content analysis was undertaken adopting both inductive and deductive lenses. Key findingsThree categories were deductively generated within which eleven inductively generated themes were situated. Barriers included: knowledge deficits of both process and resources; assumptions about parental views and reluctance to facilitate sensitive discussions, facilitators included positive attitudes toward donation aligned with a strong professional ethos and family-centred values. ConclusionsThe paper identifies barriers to the donation after circulatory death process including nurses feeling unprepared for their role, anxiety over family approach and communication methods and support. Highlighted is the need for specific educational interventions, appropriate resources and development of paediatric focussed policy to guide practice. Facilitators to donation include timely, sensitive and appropriate family discussions, trusting nurse-family relationships and improved public awareness.

Managing academic identity tensions in a Canadian public university: the role of identity work in coping with managerialism

ABSTRACTResearch shows that the ascendency of managerialism in the higher education sector and its fundamental contradictions with the professional values has placed misaligning identity claims upon academics. However, the identity tension that arises from the misfit between the professional ethos and the organisations’ market-driven requirements, and the ways in which academics cope with it has received insufficient attention. In this article, grounded on a conception of identity that describes it as in-progress narratives available to people, I analyse the routine work of academics in a Canadian public university. The results reveal that they reflexively and situationally construct different versions of their professional selves to minimise the tensions between the co-existing yet contradictory identity claims. In so doing, I found that the academics undertake two discursive strategies of embracing and distancing. I explain how these ‘identity work’ mechanisms help to strike a balance between the two contradictory discourses and suggest some directions for future research.

A case for trans-local police governance

We argue that in the present conditions of differentiated societies a preferable form of police governance and accountability should both be built upon and actively strive towards universal and trans-local criteria, rather than be built upon on some local features or idiosyncrasies. The local governance of the police appears too simple a remedy for police legitimacy and accountability since it might predispose the police to unprofessionalism and heterogeneity of standards, making it vulnerable to co-optation by powerful local interests. The article is based on our experiences of the Finnish form of police governance that has functioned quite well, partly because policing is embedded in the Nordic welfare state model, which strongly supports citizens’ universal rights and social equality. However, the ideas put forward are urgently needed in differentiated societies, characterized by increasing socioeconomic inequality and multiple sources of cultural identity and belongingness. For us the concept of spatial representation appears to be a fundamental aspect in all governance. The argument rests on the idea that modern, differentiated society calls for representations of spatiality and belongingness that are inclusive rather than exclusive, universal rather than particular and trans-local rather than local. Our arguments for trans-local police governance are specified in terms of the universal rule of law, a uniform approach to policing, general professional police competencies and a general professional ethos in policing.

Influence from within? Senior managers from the Religious-Zionist community in the public administration – a phenomenological research

ABSTRACT The article examines whether or not senior managers in public administration who belong to the Religious-Zionist community operate as effective Policy Injection Agents – adopting the ‘Influence from within’ ethos that makes them a part of a policy community – or whether they perceive this discourse in another way. Thirty-five interviews with senior public administrators pertaining to the Religious-Zionist community were analysed based on the principles of Critical Discourse Analysis. A number of central themes were identified, the vast majority of which point to the ‘Influence from within’ ethos not becoming a component in the managerial identity of the interviewees and their colleagues. While it served them within their community as legitimation for attending general society to study, live and work outside the base of Religious-Zionism, from the moment they integrated in the public system – their concern became the exact opposite of the ethos: not to be perceived by their secular colleagues as part of a sector but as professional individuals who are exclusively committed to the professional ethos of their managerial community.

French Pharmacists’ and Veterinarians’ Ethical Perspectives about the Delivery of Antibiotics for Animals: A Content Analysis of Practitioner Literature

Abstract Amongst the current, most important, international priorities in public health is the issue of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. This issue is due to the wide misuse and overuse of these drugs, both in human and veterinary medicine. Veterinarians fulfil a very important role as guardians of animal health and as public health actors; if they do not use antimicrobials judiciously, animal health and welfare as well as public health will be severely compromised. Therefore it is of particular importance to study the professional ethos of veterinarians as regards the delivery of antibiotics for animals. In Europe laws and practices regarding the delivery of antimicrobial drugs for animals differ from state to state. In some states, veterinarians are not allowed to sell drugs, they only prescribe, and pharmacists deliver the drugs. In other states, including France, veterinarians are allowed to deliver the drugs they prescribe. In France, veterinarians have thus been accused of conflict of interest; of overprescribing to sell more antibiotics and thus earn more money. Therefore, it appeared particularly accurate to not only study the ethos of veterinarians regarding the delivery of antibiotics to animals, but to also compare this ethos to that of pharmacists. To the authors’ knowledge, such a study has never been carried out in any country. Veterinarians’ and pharmacists’ professional literature was studied and compared using qualitative and quantitative content analysis. A sample of comparable journals was selected for both professions. The study was carried out over a relevant five year period extending from the beginning of 2008 till the end of 2012. All papers dealing with antimicrobial resistances as well as the prescription and delivery of antibiotics for animals were objectively and comprehensively searched and collected using keywords. The selected papers were subsequently independently coded by a multidisciplinary team of coders using conventional, inductive, thematic analysis. The final coding grid was obtained after consensus meetings were held in order to ensure reliability and validity of the data. The results showed that the veterinarians’ professional literature studied reflected a primary concern for ethics whereas the pharmacists’ professional literature primarily focused on marketing. Half of the veterinary continuing education papers dealt with different aspects of ethics; the other half focused on the scientific aspects of antimicrobial resistances. Amongst other papers, more than 30% tackled ethical questions in relation with the delivery of antibiotics for animals. Conversely, in the pharmacists’ literature, half of the continuing education papers concentrated on marketing; the other half described the pharmacology of drugs. Amongst other papers, 60% addressed marketing issues. Ethical questions per se were not approached in the pharmacists’ professional literature studied. In conclusion, veterinary ethos for prescription ethics, good antibiotic use and animal welfare seems to be a feature of the profession. According to this research, the claim that veterinarians are responsible for antibiotic resistances because of conflict of interest is not true.

Organizing teachers in Pennsylvania, 1935–1941

ABSTRACTBy eliminating mandatory agency fees, the US Supreme Court’s Janus decision has created an opportunity for the American teachers’ unions to renew their commitment to organizing teachers. This article returns us to the pre-agency fee era, when on-the-ground organizational work was essential for building teachers’ unions. Drawing from archival documents, it shows how dedicated activists from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh reached out to Pennsylvania’s classroom teachers to draw them into the AFT during the later Depression years. It details the changes in their organizational strategy, the challenges organizers faced in the field, their successes and failures, and the work accomplished by a paid AFT organizer – Vivian Dahl – in 1938. Above all, it documents both the dividends of face-to-face interactions between organizers and prospective unionists and the difficulties of such work in an ideologically polarized political environment, among a group of workers dominated by the hierarchical ethos of professionalism.

Beyond Ethics: Professionalism and Social Belonging in Social Workers’ Moral Deliberations

ABSTRACTIn professional therapeutic settings, care-providers are required to work through dilemmas in light of a professional ethics that demands the suppression of other aspects that may inform their moral experiences. Drawing upon in-depth conversations with Jewish-Israeli female social workers who talked about dilemmas at work, we analyse how they carry out such deliberations. When recounting their dilemmas, social workers relied on shared professional principles for justifying their decisions, but upon closer examination, differences were apparent in their decisions. Whereas religious (observant) social workers tended to follow professional regulations, seculars (non-observant) favoured clients’ interests and took some liberty in bending rules. Accordingly, we argue that while care-providers follow shared professional ethics, they still implicitly adhere to the local moral worlds that inform their moral experiences. We analyse this discrepancy in relation to the interface between a modernist professional ethos and acknowledged and unacknowledged motives that pragmatically participate in professionals’ deliberations.