Professional Tensions Research Articles

Preservice teachers’ reflective processes during field experiences: a systematic review from the ONION model framework

ABSTRACT It is essential to engage in reflection to enhance preservice teachers’ awareness of their profession, which facilitates their professional development by questioning the responsibilities and agents that shape teaching. The ONION model includes six layers of reflection from superficial to deep reflection, and is used to analyze the teacher’s response to professional tensions. To understand how this framework applies preservice teachers’ reflection as they approach their field experiences in schools, we conducted a systematic review of their reflective practices. To this end, we used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol and the ONION model to systematize the research on reflection, categorize the selected studies obtained using the ONION model, and identify the most relevant studies in promoting deep reflective practices. The results show an increase in publications on the topic recently. Some studies show superficial levels of reflection among preservice teachers’ reflection, while others show deeper levels. This provides a professional awareness of their capabilities in the field experiences as pathways to understanding what awaits them in their future careers. The findings suggest that using a reference reflection framework could facilitate deeper, guided, and meaningful reflection in field experiences as a basis for improving the initial teacher education.

Identifying key health system components associated with improved outcomes to inform the re-configuration of services for adults with rare autoimmune rheumatic diseases: a mixed-methods study

Adults with rare autoimmune rheumatic diseases face unique challenges and struggles to navigate health-care systems designed to manage common conditions. Evidence to inform an optimal service framework for their care is scarce. Using systemic vasculitis as an exemplar, we aimed to identify and explain the key service components underpinning effective care for rare diseases. In this mixed-methods study, data were collected as part of a survey of vasculitis service providers across the UK and Ireland, interviews with patients, and from organisational case studies to identify key service components that enable good care. The association between these components and patient outcomes (eg, serious infections, mortality) and provider outcomes (eg, emergency hospital admissions) were examined in a population-based data linkage study using routine health-care data obtained from patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis from national health datasets in Scotland. We did univariable and multivariable analyses using Bayesian poisson and negative binomial regression to estimate incident rate ratios (IRRs), and Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs). People with lived experiences were involved in the research and writing process. Good care was characterised by service components that supported timely access to services, integrated care, and expertise. In 1420 patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis identified from national health datasets, service-reported average waiting times for new patients of less than 1 week were associated with fewer serious infections (IRR 0·70 [95% credibility interval 0·55-0·88]) and fewer emergency hospital admissions (0·78 [0·68-0·92]). Nurse-led advice lines were associated with fewer serious infections (0·76 [0·58-0·93]) and fewer emergency hospital admissions (0·85 [0·74-0·96]). Average waiting times for new patients of less than 1 week were also associated with reduced mortality (HR 0·59 [95% credibility interval 0·37-0·93]). Cohorted clinics, nurse-led clinics, and specialist vasculitis multi-disciplinary team meetings were associated with fewer serious infections (IRR 0·75 [0·59-0·96] for cohorted clinics; 0·65 [0·39-0·84] for nurse-led clinics; 0·72 [0·57-0·90] for specialist vasculitis multi-disciplinary team meetings) and emergency hospital admissions (0·81 [0·71-0·91]; 0·75 [0·65-0·94]; 0·86 [0·75-0·96]). Key components were characterised by their ability to overcome professional tensions between specialties. Key service components associated with important health outcomes and underpinning factors were identified to inform initiatives to improve the design, delivery, and effectiveness of health-care models for rare autoimmune rheumatic diseases. Versus Arthritis.

A shifting terrain: Understanding the perspectives of walk-in physicians on their roles amid worsening primary care access in Ontario, Canada.

High-quality primary care is associated with better health outcomes and more efficient and equitable health system performance. However, the rate of primary care attachment is falling, and timely access to primary care is worsening, driving many patients to use walk-in clinics for their comprehensive primary care needs. This study sought to explore the experiences and perceived roles and responsibilities of walk-in physicians in this current climate. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with nineteen physicians currently providing walk-in care in Ontario, Canada between May and December 2022. Limited capacity for continuity and comprehensiveness of care were identified as major sources of professional tension for walk-in physicians. Divergent perspectives on their roles were anchored in how physicians viewed their professional identity. Some saw providing continuous and comprehensive care as an infringement on their professional role; others saw their professional role as more flexible and responsive to population needs. Regardless of their professional identity, participants reported feeling ill-equipped to manage the swell of unattached patients, citing a lack of time, resources, connectivity to the system, and remuneration flexibility. Conclusions: As practice demands of walk-in clinics change, an evolution in the professional roles and responsibilities of walk-in physicians follows. However, the resources, structure, and incentives of walk-in care have not evolved to reflect this, leaving physicians to set their own professional boundaries with patients. This results in increasing variations in care and confusion across the primary care sector around who is responsible for what, when, and how.

Boycotting in journalism: how journalists quietly protest in an authoritarian country

A plethora of studies about boycotting exist in political science, marketing, business, and other areas of scholarship, but this theme has been largely overlooked in journalism. This case study contributes to scholarship on an underexplored aspect of journalism and its relationship with politics and public affairs by examining journalists’ boycotting behavior in a Central Asian context, focusing on Kazakhstan. This study uses interviews with journalists and editors to examine their boycotting behavior. The findings suggest that journalists and their news outlets in this politically constrained environment employ somewhat hidden, non-confrontational, or unannounced tactics to boycott certain news sources, events, and political decisions even when they consider boycotting ineffective. Accumulated professional tensions in an economically restricted and authoritarian context lead to such forms of resistance and protest, including boycotting. Financially independent journalists are more likely to boycott certain news sources, boycott the dissemination of certain language and information, challenge authorities, and protest or show resistance; their less financially secure counterparts are more reluctant to challenge external forces affecting their own professional practices. This study discusses the findings in relation to Bourdieu’s field theory.

The long journey of resistance toward acceptance: Understanding digital forensic accreditation in England and Wales from a social science perspective

AbstractDrawing on topical academic and practitioner accounts, our contribution examines the challenges of accreditation in digital forensics (DF), specifically, the adoption of ISO/IEC 17025 standard for forensic science support providers in England and Wales. We built on the debate generated by the Forensic Science Regulator's introduction of this standard in DF to reflect on the position and status of DF community of practice. We argue that a social science approach can help illuminate the organizational and professional tensions generated by this development and to understand better the implications for the role of DF specialists and their position in the wider forensic science community.This article is categorized under: Digital and Multimedia Science > Cybercrime Investigation Crime Scene Investigation > Education and Formation

Power, positionality and practitioner research: Schoolteachers' experiences of professional doctorates in education

AbstractThe growth, internationally, in professional doctorates over the last 25 years has been well documented, as are the forms, fields and disciplines that such doctorates embrace. Yet relatively little is known about the professional tensions teachers encounter, in relation to their positionality, when carrying out doctoral research in the schools where they work. This paper draws attention, not only to the contribution the Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD) makes to research as a whole, but also to the significance of teachers as invaluable members of the research community. Findings will be presented from interviews with 30 senior teachers from schools in England who are carrying out practitioner research as part of their doctoral studies. The paper draws attention to how power relations in the research process ferment the structural and agentic concerns of the participants in this study when discussing their researcher positionality. The scholarly significance of this study is its contribution to knowledge of how schools are increasingly becoming both sites of research and research‐rich environments. With its focus on researcher positionality the paper draws attention not just to the tensions and dilemmas these participants encounter on their doctoral journey, but also to the importance of teacher researchers and their role in research knowledge production.

Re(Active) Praxis: Sub Way, Teach Fresh: How Five Weeks as a High School English Teacher Sharpened My Life as an English Teacher Educator

In this essay, the author reflects on his experience as a short-term substitute teacher in a high school English classroom. He considers the personal and professional tensions that led him there, the impact of his time in the classroom, and the potential it offered to identify and navigate the teacher educators’ “radical preferences” that might occasionally need sharpening.

Midwives' recognition and response to maternal deterioration: A national cross-sectional study.

Early warning systems (EWS) are used across health care settings as a tool for the early identification of clinical deterioration and to determine the need to escalate care. Early detection of clinical deterioration and appropriate escalation of care in maternity settings is critical to the safety of pregnant women and infants; however, underutilization of EWS tools and reluctance to escalate care have been consistently reported. Little is known about midwives' use of EWS in the Australian context. Using a cross-sectional approach, we elicited the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of a purposive sample of Australian midwives (n=87) with respect to the Maternal Early Warning Trigger Tool (MEWT). Participants answered a 25-question Likert scale survey and one open-ended question. Qualitative answers were analyzed using consensus coding. Midwives reported positive attitudes toward the MEWT, describing it as a valuable tool for identifying clinical deterioration, especially when used as an adjunct to clinical judgment. However, midwives also identified training gaps; 25% had received no training, and only half of those who had received training felt it was effective. In addition, professional tension can create a significant barrier to the effective use of the MEWT. Midwives also reported feeling influenced by their peers in their decision-making with respect to use of the MEWT and being afraid they would be chastised for escalating care unnecessarily. Although the MEWT is valued by Australian midwives as a useful tool, barriers exist to its effective use. These include a lack of adequate, ongoing training and professional tension. Improving interdisciplinary collaboration could enhance the use of this tool for the safety of birthing women and their infants.

Novice OT Practitioners’ Use of Occupation in Practice: A Scoping Review

Abstract Date Presented 04/01/2022 This scoping review summarizes the current literature regarding novice OT practitioners’ use of occupation. Findings address how occupation is used and described by novice therapists. Occupation as a source of professional tension and the cognitive load of occupation-centered practice influenced novices’ experience using occupation. The results of this review will inform future efforts to support and strengthen novices’ occupation-centered perspective. Primary Author and Speaker: Noralyn D. Pickens Contributing Authors: Kristin Bray Jones, Marsha Neville, Barbara Schell

“I am Kichwa”: The Funds of Identity of an Indigenous Ecuadoran NNES Teacher

AbstractTo counter ongoing NES/NNES, NEST/NNEST dichotomies and the essentializing of NNESs (Ellis, 2016), we examine the personal and professional tensions of an Indigenous Ecuadoran NNES teaching in a dominant Spanish‐speaking context. We attend to the ways Roberto (pseudonym) responds to his students and his peers through the lens of his Kichwa identity, the historic oppressed positionality of and ongoing prejudice toward Indigenous peoples in Ecuador. In such contexts, Roberto cannot share “insider” cultural references to enhance his EFL instruction; rather, he is perpetually set as an outsider—both in the broader frame of NNES movement and more singularly and powerfully within his own professional context. We draw upon Esteban‐Guitart and Moll's (2014) “funds of identity” and teacher professional identity development (Sachs, 2005) to explore the following central tensions in Roberto's evolving professional teaching identity: (1) Roberto's sense of himself as (il)legitimate speaker of English, (2) role of structural oppression toward Kichwa as it mediates his perceptions and interactions, and (3) the increased use of communicative‐based language instruction. Attending to the multiple facets and resources that comprise “funds of identity,” EFL teacher educators can better account for the complex identity formation for EFL teachers and students.

Negotiating penal hybridity: Time–space boundary-work in parole decision making

Drawn on qualitative findings from discretionary chairpersons of parole boards in Israel, the study aims to theorize parole decision making as time–space boundary-work. Parole decision-makers were found to act within a hybrid professional environment that requires them to process distinct, and possibly conflicting, penal values, competencies and orientations. In order to address their professional tensions, parole decision-makers constantly negotiate their time and space, and thereby their professional identity. First, the parole decision-makers perform temporal boundary-work—conceptualizing their work and identity through qualitative-expansive time. Second, they perform spatial boundary-work—conceptualizing their work and identity through either (a) judicial space or (b) therapeutic space. This time–space work is used both to span and demarcate their boundaries in relation to other penal actors and to increase their visibility and legitimacy.

Расстройства адаптации у сотрудников органов внутренних дел Российской Федерации: стилистика приспособительного реагирования в условиях профессионального функционирования

The objectives of the study are to determine the resistance of personality to stressogenic factors, to prevent possible adaptation failures and to differentiate stylistic disorders of adaptive response from the formation of distorted schemes of adaptive response. Materials and research methods. The study was conducted on the basis of the polyclinic of the Federal Medical and Health Care Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow in 2019-2020. The study group included 74 employees of the Moscow subdivisions of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, suffering from adaptation disorders. Distribution of patients by sex: men — 23 (31%); women — 51 (69%); age of patients — 20-45 years; average age — 35.2 years. Mean duration of the disease was 3-4 months. Research results and their analysis. Study results showed: – all the elements characterizing the profile of adaptive response of patients with adaptive disorder turn out to be associated to varying degrees both with certain protective mechanisms and with affective states. The latter testifies to the fact that these complex and multidimensional mental states are interconnected and interdependent with the features of the adaptive response; – formed individual profile of protective-adaptive mechanisms and preferred response style in employees of internal affairs bodies allow to favourably assess the prospects of “successful” adaptation of persons of this category; – professional activity tensions and daily difficulties of employees of internal affairs bodies cause activation of adaptive mechanisms focused on stabilization of intrapersonal state. The degree of intertwining of connections within individual protective profile is closely connected with features of asthenization, anxiety and depressiveness; – process of defensive mechanisms formation is determined, in particular, by individual predisposition to certain ways of regulation, peculiarities of personal response, flexibility and stability of links formation between response variants in order to achieve effective adaptive response.

Professional Identity Tensions in EFL Preservice Teachers: A Collective Case Study of Three International Students in South Korea

ABSTRACT Using cognitive dissonance theory, this collective case study examines professional identity tensions in three international preservice teachers from a graduate TESOL program in South Korea (Korea hereafter). Reflective journals, interview transcripts, admission essays as well as participant-produced drawings were analyzed. Additionally, consultations with faculty members, interviews with government officials as well as a review of related documents were used to gain further insight into the interplay between international education and professional identity tensions. It is argued that international students in TESOL experience unique identity tensions associated with institutional, discursive and regulatory forces residing in the host country. Insights obtained from the study provide a better understanding of the support international teacher candidates need from their host institutions and can inform policymaking.

Novice Occupational Therapy Practitioners’ Use of Occupation in Practice: A Scoping Review

An occupation-centered perspective is a foundational component defining occupational therapy practice. A scoping review was conducted of research studies from 2002 − 2020 describing novice occupational therapy practitioners and occupation. Ten articles met the inclusion criteria. Novices acknowledged that using occupation was a source of professional tension, describing a mismatch between their education and workplace expectations. The cognitive load of occupation-centered practice influenced novices’ avoidance of occupation. Few articles address novices’ experiences using occupation in their practice. Existing research primarily addresses barriers limiting novices’ use of occupation such as lack of supervision and confidence.

REVISITANDO A NOÇÃO DE CAMPO DE PIERRE BOURDIEU PARA COMPREENDER A PRODUÇÃO DE CONHECIMENTOS DA EDUCAÇÃO FÍSICA BRASILEIRA

ABSTRACT: This article aimed to (re) visit Pierre Bourdieu's notion of the field to understand Brazilian Physical Education as a field of non-neutral knowledge production, full of interests in power disputes. The construction of writing took place from two methodological aspects. The first was a bibliographic review of works by Bourdieu and authors of Brazilian Physical Education who studied the author. The second is based on the sociological analysis carried out on the doctoral thesis produced by one of the authors. We consider that the exercise carried out in this article allows us to think about analytical alternatives in the theoretical and methodological construction of new studies. We point out that the field is recent, under construction and permeated by academic / professional tensions that interfere with its identity. The entire route presented explains the interests of agents and institutions that play symbolically in the fabric of their conveniences. We believe it is essential to unveil the multiple elements that intend this field, mainly concerning its institutionalization, increase, and policy.

The Human Related Conversation and The Professional Tension Between Diakonia and Nursing

This article explores how nurses experience tension in a professional collaboration between nursing and work with a diaconal profile in Filadelfia, Denmark. Filadelfia was founded in 1897 as a diaconal institution with a hospital and deaconess house. Today, Filadelfia appears primarily as a highly specialized Epilepsy Hospital unrelated to diakonia. The collaboration this article investigates is called The Human Related Conversation (hereafter THRC). It is a practice developed within a diaconal unit of the institution, Filadelfia Uddannelse, and performed by nurses at Filadelfia Epilepsy Hospital. The article is based on a discourse analysis of five interviews conducted using THRC. The analysis finds that the nurses’ experience of THRC generates different discourses, including a nursing discourse and a legitimacy discourse, and encourages them to work in a more value-conscious way.

Feeling feedback: screencasting assessment feedback for tutor and student well-being

ABSTRACT Assessment feedback in higher education has the potential to have an impact on the well-being of both tutors and students: tutors feel their feedback workloads, while students often engage emotionally as well as cognitively with their feedback. Relatively little is written about the effects of feedback practice on tutor and student well-being. This study examined law tutors’ feedback values and practices within the shifting contexts of higher education, and findings suggest that tutors experience professional tensions between their feedback values and practice. In response to this, the study also examined both tutors’ and students’ perceptions of the use of audio-visual feedback. The findings indicate that tutors may save time in providing their feedback in this way, and that students welcomed the relational dimensions of the medium, as well as asserting positive impacts on their feedback engagement. The findings are significant in that they offer a response to growing feedback demands which can threaten tutor well-being, as well as offering socio-affective feedback affordances for students.

Precarious Times, Professional Tensions: The Ethics of Migration Research and the Drive for Scientific Accountability.

How should migration scholars navigate tensions between our ethical responsibilities to research participants and growing "open science" calls for data transparency, replication, and accountability? We elaborate a three-step process to navigate these tensions. First, researchers must understand core principles behind open-science initiatives and the mandates of research ethics boards, especially those related to privacy, confidentiality, and protection from harm, and take them seriously. Second, migration researchers must think beyond routinized or mandated procedures to carefully consider the unique vulnerabilities of migrants in their study, which depend on socio-political context. Third, if vulnerabilities are significant, migration researchers should modify (or challenge) procedures elaborated in the name of open science or routinized research ethic board mandates, if inappropriate for their study. We, thus, encourage migration scholars to engage with open-science advocates but also to educate colleagues on migrants' vulnerabilities and to double-down on data security, including vis-à-vis government authorities, as evolving technologies continue to change research practices.

Off the record: The invisibility work of doctors in a patient-accessible electronic health record information service.

In this article, we draw on Michael Lipsky's work on street-level bureaucrats and discretion to analyse a real case setting comprising an interview study of 30 Swedish doctors regarding their experiences of changes in clinical work following patients being given access to medical records information online. We introduce the notion of invisibility work to capture how doctors exercise discretion to preserve the invisibility of their work, in contrast to the well-established notion of invisible work, which denotes work made invisible by parties other than those performing it. We discuss three main forms of invisibility work in relation to records: omitting information, cryptic writing and parallel note writing. We argue that invisibility work is a way for doctors to resolve professional tensions arising from the political decision to provide patients with online access to record information. Although invisibility work is understood by doctors as a solution to government-initiated visibility, we highlight how it can create difficulties for doctors concerning accountability towards patients, peers and authorities.

Qualitative Insider Research in a Government Institution: Reflections on a Study of Policy Capacity

Embarking on a qualitative Ph.D. research project in public administration is often daunting for novice researchers. For those students who consider adopting an emic or insider approach for their research, the ethical, methodological, and analytical challenges that lay ahead may seem insurmountable at times. In this article, I reflect on my experience as a Ph.D. student completing qualitative research with my colleagues to study policy capacity in a provincial government in Canada. I review how I constructed an ethical framework by integrating policy from Research Ethics Boards and government. Throughout the article, I deal primarily with ethical considerations and the personal and professional tensions associated with insider research. In addition to providing an overview of the literature on insider and emic research, I present ethical protocols that student-practitioners in other settings should consider when completing academic research with their colleagues in government institutions. Overall, the risks one must mitigate and minimize when completing insider research in government institutions are not substantially different from insider research in private institutions. While insider approaches in the study of public administration are not without their unique challenges, they do offer great potential in broadening and deepening emic knowledge of public administration practice.