The literature indicates that engaging parents in child/youth mental health services is crucial for achieving positive outcomes. Yet, little research exists on how providers and organizations might hinder or facilitate parental engagement. This study aims to address this gap in literature by answering three research questions: (1) how do service providers working in child and youth mental health services define parental engagement? (2) Why does engaging parents in treatment remain a challenge for service providers? (3) What organizational- and provider-level factors contribute to this challenge? To facilitate this aim, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four service providers, including those working in community-based or outpatient child and youth mental health services. Participants were recruited using a snowball sampling recruitment method. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analyzed following principles of Constructivist Grounded Theory. Study results highlighted system- (e.g., access), organizational- (e.g., expectations and constraints), provider- (e.g., stance) and parental-level (e.g., shame) factors impacting parental engagement in services. These findings coincide with the documented impacts of neoliberalism and New Public Management on shaping mental health services. This study thus challenges traditional conceptualizations of engagement and underscores the interplay of complex factors that occur between service-levels. An expanded definition of parental engagement is therefore warranted if providers and organizations intend on holistically engaging parents in their child/youth’s care. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

The treatment of eating disorders (EDs) presents many challenges. Therapists' reactions towards clients (countertransference) may further complicate treatment. Countertransference may be partially due to the therapist's own vulnerabilities. Due to the personal connection to the work, countertransference towards ED clients may be pronounced among therapists with eating disorder lived experience (EDLE). Previous research indicates that 25-50% of ED therapists have EDLE; yet, minimal research examines how therapists negotiate their experiences while treating ED clients. The existing literature largely operates from the assumption that EDLE is a liability. While therapists with EDLE have some distinct challenges, therapists with EDLE may also have a unique perspective to offer the ED profession. The present study sought to understand how therapists with EDLE use their EDLE as a resource in their clinical work with ED clients. The study was guided by the theoretical frameworks of social constructivism and symbolic interactionism, as well as the person-of-the-therapist clinical training philosophy. Using constructivist grounded theory methodology, semi-structured interviews (Mtime = 89 minutes) were conducted with 22 therapists with EDLE, who work with ED clients. Participants explored how they use and manage their EDLE during key tasks of treatment with their ED clients. Results revealed that therapists engaged in two, interconnected constellations of processes (systems) in order to use and manage their EDLE in clinical practice. The first system (The Central System) helps therapists transform their personal experiences into clinical guidance that they can use to inform their work. The second system (The Checks and Balances System) helps the therapist find a balance between connecting with the client, while also allowing for differences of experiences to emerge. Lastly, personal processes (personal meaning making, values surrounding authenticity, and stigma surrounding EDLE), existing outside of these systems, were also found to impact the ways in which therapists use and manage themselves. Findings have implications for the EDLE literature, by providing novel ways therapists can use their EDLE. Findings also have implications for the POTT framework by exploring how POTT can be adapted for therapists who share lived experiences with their clients. A POTT-EDLE is proposed for training therapists with EDLE. / Doctor of Philosophy / The treatment of eating disorders (EDs) presents many challenges (e.g., frequent comorbidity, high rates of relapse, and the life-threatening nature of the disorder). Therapists' reactions towards clients (countertransference) may further complicate treatment. Countertransference (e.g., worry, frustration, hopelessness) may be partially due to the therapist's own unresolved issues and vulnerabilities. Due to the personal and professional connections to the work, countertransference towards ED clients may be particularly pronounced among therapists with eating disorder lived experience (EDLE). Previous research indicates that 25-50% of ED therapists have EDLE; yet, minimal research examines how therapists use and manage their experiences while treating ED clients. The existing literature largely operates from the assumption that EDLE is a liability and therapists with EDLE are working from a deficit. While therapists with EDLE have some distinct challenges, therapists with EDLE may also have a unique perspective to offer the ED profession. The study sought to understand how therapists with EDLE use their EDLE as a resource in their clinical work with ED clients. Interviews were conducted with 22 therapists with EDLE who work with ED clients. Results revealed that therapists engaged in two systems in order to use and manage their EDLE in clinical practice. The first system (The Central System) helps therapists transform their personal experiences into clinical guidance that they can use to inform their work. The second system (The Checks and Balances System) helps the therapist find a balance between connecting with the client, while also allowing for differences of experiences to emerge. The Central System and The Checks and Balances System work in tandem in order for the therapist to both use and manage their EDLE. Results describe the multiple processes informing these systems. Lastly, personal processes (personal meaning making, values surrounding authenticity, and stigma surrounding EDLE), existing outside of these systems, were also found to impact the ways in which therapists use and manage themselves. Findings have clinical and training implications for how therapists with EDLE can use and manage their EDLE to inform their clinical work with ED clients.

Child maltreatment is a major issue, and it is considered a priority by public health policies around the world. Among the causes of abuse, mechanisms of intergenerational child maltreatment (ITCM) have become of central importance in research. However, although many studies have focused on this theme, there is limited exploration of the first-hand experiences of parents who have survived maltreatment, particularly in regard to their strength and resilience. The aim of my research was to provide a critical contribution to the development of the theoretical framework of ITCM by exploring the perspectives of those who appear to have interrupted it. Moreover, I sought to include groups underrepresented in previous studies, such as fathers and parents with school-aged children. For this purpose, I involved care-experienced parents, namely individuals who because of maltreatment in the family have a background in foster or residential care. We can consider care-experienced parents as ones who have been highly exposed to ITCM, with those who succeed in parenting potentially able to break such cycles. My main reference was the family practice framework (Morgan, 2011a), and I adopted a participatory research approach. I investigated my informants’ everyday parenting experiences, thereby obtaining a new understanding of how such parents handle complex situations often framed by risk factors. This approach encouraged me to consider life contexts more extensively and to move beyond an individual-focused interpretation, recognizing the socio-cultural dimensions inherent in parenting experiences. My research contributes to the debate on how to break cycles of maltreatment by introducing novel concepts, such as that of the “zero family”, whose implications for both theoretical development and practical applications are discussed. This is an article-based dissertation, and I will introduce eight publications authored during my PhD. Specifically, my research is part of a wider project (“Constructions of parenting on insecure grounds. What role for social work?”) focused on parenting in insecure circumstances, and which has been funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and University.

This thesis aims to explore three pre-teenage children’s text production in online social networking sites. Social networking is a mainstream youth activity in the UK, conducted by (at the time of writing) almost 50% of 10-12 year old internet users (Ofcom, 2011, p.44). While social networking has been the subject of much interest amongst scholars and policy-makers, little has been published that documents the use of social networking amongst pre-teenage children. The literature that does exist is largely concerned with documenting usage (Ofcom, 2011; Livingstone and Haddon, 2010), and children’s safety in these contexts (Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)/Byron 2010; DCSF/Byron, 2008; Livingstone et al., 2011a). This study aims to explore children’s text production in social networking sites with rightful regard for this concern, but with a focus on how children behave as text producers in these contexts. Working from an interpretive qualitative research paradigm, a purposive sample of three children who used (at the time) the popular social networking site Bebo was selected. The children were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule three times between June 2008 and May 2009. Interviews were transcribed using a line by line coding method. To support these data and contextualise analysis, screenshots of the children’s profile pages were also collected at each interview. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006), these data were analysed within data sets around each interview incident, and then synthesised to build a case study for each participant. This recursive process involved initial and focused coding, where following the construction of key codes for each data set, the codes were organised under thematic headings and finally used to construct tentative categories that described how the children behaved as text producers. Four tentative categories were constructed to describe the participants’ behaviour: text production to achieve social positioning; text production to achieve social control; text production to enact a text producing role; and text production for pleasure. Based upon the elaboration of these categories, a model of text production as mastery is proposed. In this model, children’s text production is regarded in relation two spectrums of mastery: a spectrum of social control and a spectrum of textual crafting. This study concludes by recommending that the social networking context must be recognised by educators as a meaningful context in which children’s mastery of these critical skills can be developed in order that they can they learn to be critical and masterful text producers in the new digital age (Gee, 2011 and Hayes, 2011).

Résumé : La schizophrénie est un trouble mental grave qui affecte toutes les facettes de la vie de la personne. En outre, le manque de soutien social est un problème important qui contribue à l’aggravation de la maladie, notamment en influençant négativement la capacité d’adaptation. Chez les personnes atteintes de schizophrénie, la capacité à utiliser des stratégies d’adaptation adéquates et efficaces est essentielle afin d’améliorer la santé, le bien-être et la prévention des rechutes. Cette recherche utilise la conception de l’adaptation de Roy (2009). De nombreuses études confirment la présence de difficultés d’adaptation chez ces personnes. De plus, le processus d’adaptation lui-même reste mal connu. La question de recherche était : Quel est le processus d’adaptation des personnes vivant avec la schizophrénie lorsque leur soutien social est limité ? Cette question sous-tendait deux objectifs : 1) décrire le processus d’adaptation des personnes atteintes de schizophrénie dans un contexte de soutien social limité et 2) contribuer au développement du modèle de Roy dans le contexte des troubles mentaux graves. Le devis de recherche était la théorisation ancrée constructiviste, auprès de 30 personnes vivant avec la schizophrénie. Les données étaient composées d’entrevues et de résultats de trois questionnaires qui ont contribué à décrire de façon plus détaillée le profil des participants. Les résultats sont une modélisation du processus d’adaptation nommée « les filtres dans le processus d’adaptation des personnes vivant avec la schizophrénie ». Cette modélisation met en lumière le fait que le potentiel d’adaptation des personnes vivant avec la schizophrénie est affecté à la fois par des éléments de l’environnement social et des éléments inhérents à la maladie elle-même. Ces éléments altèrent la possibilité et la capacité à utiliser des stratégies d’adaptation adéquates et efficaces. Ces résultats de recherche pourraient permettre d’améliorer l’évaluation des personnes atteintes de schizophrénie et de diminuer les « inconnues » dans l’effet des interventions, tout comme de favoriser les actions visant à lutter contre les conditions sociales qui nuisent à l’adaptation. / Abstract : Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that affects all human facets of life. In addition, the lack of social support is an important problem that contributes to the worsening of the disease by negatively influencing the capacity to adapt. For people with schizophrenia, ability to use appropriate and effective coping strategies is essential to improve health, well-being and preventing relapse. This research uses Roy’s adaptation model (2009). Numerous studies confirm the presence of adaptation problems for those persons. Furthermore, the adaptation process itself remains unclear. The research question was: what is the adaptation process of people with schizophrenia when social support is limited? This question underpinned two objectives: 1) describe the adaptation process of people with schizophrenia in a limited social support context and 2) contribute to the development of Roy’s adaptation model in severe mental disorders context. The research design was a constructivist grounded theory, with 30 people with schizophrenia. The data were consisted of interviews and results of three questionnaires that were helping to detail the participants profile. The results show a construct of an adaptation process called "the filters in the adaptation process of someone living with schizophrenia". This construct highlights the fact that the adaptation potential of people with schizophrenia is affected both by elements of the social environment and elements that are inherent to the disease itself. These elements affect the possibility and the ability to use appropriate and effective coping strategies. The research findings could facilitate the assessment of people with schizophrenia and reduce the unknowns in the impact of interventions, as well as fighting against social conditions that can interfere with their capacity to adapt.

This study examines boundaries and synergies between continuing professional learning contexts of academy, workplace and profession, and considers what factors and approaches of learning contribute to common good in societies. In a review of literature, historical trends in professions and professional learning, concerns of managerialism and performativity, and educational theories of socially constructivism, developmental and ethical learning were considered. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to collect and analyse data from eighty work-based student documents and from twelve semi-structured interviews with practitioners in four Scottish professions. The findings indicated that learning across contexts was disconnected, creating additional demands for professionals. Increased academic study indicated a more knowledgeable and skilled workforce, with a caveat of market-led credentialism in response to demands for higher qualifications. Professional CPD provided benefits of quality assurance and public safety, but was reported as individualised procedural accountability. Interpersonal communicative action was identified as key to workplace learning, although was afforded less significance than accredited learning in professional and academic contexts. Factors of individualism, accountability and credentialism were noted to have effect on participative workplace learning, which, the study argued, impacted on ethical agency in professions. To address these trends, adaptability, reciprocity and dialogical critical thinking were identified as necessary factors for a continuing professional learning that contributes to common good in societies.

Landbased Studies Foundation and Bachelor degrees (FD and BSc) are generally taught in specialist FE landbased colleges, with teachers typically teaching both FE (Ofqual RQF Levels 0–3) and HE (Ofqual RQF Levels 4–6). Such teachers are designated in the literature as being HE in FE (Higher Education in Further Education) or CBHE (College Based Higher Education) teachers. Using a single case study landbased college, this study adopts a qualitative, naturalistic methodology using intensive interviewing and classroom observations of six Animal, Equine and Veterinary Nursing Studies HE in FE teachers. Characterised as an under-represented group within UK education research, these teachers teach both HE and FE within a small, UK landbased college. The study examines the nature of HE teacher pedagogic practice enactments, and factors which enable and constrain them within an FE college environment. Conceived within a interpretivist socio-constructivist framework, this study is influenced by the anti-dualist social philosophy of Practice Theory (PT) whereby people, places and material objects all contribute to how practice is enacted. Rather than considering material artefacts to be merely background objects and a college being simply an inert container where teaching takes place, a sensitivity to Practice Theory considers the FE context, material aspects and teacher pedagogic practices as a whole, rather than from one or other side of the structure versus agency divide. Within this study a particular variant of Practice Theory, Practice Architectures (PA) (Kemmis and Grootenboer, 2008), has been used to sensitise the study. The study adopts a Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) approach as a means of exploring a neglected and under-theorised area of Post-Compulsory education. The CGT methodology influenced and guided the research design and interpretive data iv analysis. Using purposive sampling of teacher participants, theoretical sampling, and the iterative cycles of constant comparison associated with Grounded Theory (GT), the data was used to construct four key categories. From these categories three main theoretical themes were identified from the data; Surveillance and Control, Teacher Identity and Agency, and Pedagogic Risk Aversion. The interpretive analysis suggests that HE pedagogic practice enactments are influenced and constrained by the college as a site, by its management, and by the wider neoliberal landscape of surveillance and auditing, as well as by the teachers themselves, the HE students, and material, non-human physical spaces and artefacts. The resultant HE pedagogic practice enactments are risk averse, tending towards instrumentalism and teacher-centeredness. The final CGT theoretically accounts for the HE practice enactments of the HE in FE teachers at the college and is discussed in relation to HE in FE literature, and to a number of pertinent theories within and beyond education. The CGT contributes to an enhanced understanding of HE teacher pedagogic practice enactments, and has potential for generalisability beyond the specific college. The original contributions to knowledge consists of: devising a novel methodology whereby PT/PA and CGT are articulated; adding to the body of literature for HE in FE pedagogy; and adding to the pauce corpus of literature for landbased education.

In August and September of 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast with damages estimated at $85 billion. Hurricane Katrina was so devastating that the number of lives lost and injuries sustained is still being calculated. Hurricane Rita, which made landfall in the southwestern part of the Louisiana just a few weeks after Katrina, did not cause as much damage as Katrina but was devastating nonetheless. In both cases, two Louisiana community colleges, Nunez Community College and SOWELA Technical Community College, were damaged to the point that many doubted that either college would have a future. Both community colleges, however, continued classes and are in operation today. This study examines the actions of the institutional leadership at Nunez Community College and SOWELA Technical Community College in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to conduct case studies on each college. A substantive theory emerged from the findings explaining the resiliency of both institutions. / text

Based on the narratives of young people this research explores the rise in youth violence in Kenya's secondary school system and wider society and the potential for peacebuilding to address youth violence. Of particular concern is the gradual change in the profiles, patterns and intensity of the conflict, as evidenced by the increase in the number of youth militias. This increase is often attributed to unemployment and poverty - yet, to date, no systematic research has been produced on the extent to which the youth participation in violence occurs through choice or coercion, or indeed both. Worryingly, a significant number of young people involved in this violence are secondary school students. The findings of this research indicate that despite responses to youth violence in the school and wider Kenyan society, the violence is unabated. Notably, approaches continue to be top-down, generic, superficial and ineffectual. By marginalising the narratives of the youth who participate in and/or observe the violence, current institutional policies and approaches are decontextualised - from both the particular and the wider Kenyan context. This leaves intact the root causes of the violence. This research raises important questions concerning generic, top-down, quick-fix, outmoded cultural paradigms, hierarchical and questionable homogeneous pedagogical approaches to peacebuilding in both the schools and wider Kenyan context. In attempt to address these deficiencies the research seeks to find out approaches to peacebuilding and the Kenyan education systems that can respond to youth violence. This research proffers three key dimensions that can be incorporated in order to ensure effective and sustainable peace: experiences, worldviews and attitudes of the actors. The research, which utilises a constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006), was conducted in fourteen secondary schools in Nairobi and the Rift Valley provinces - two provinces that have been at the centre of youth violence and militia activities. These provinces were also selected in order to reflect the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic character, and the different types of schools in Kenya.

abstract: Health and healing in the United States is in a moment of deep and broad transformation. Underpinning this transformation is a shift in focus from practitioner- and system-centric perspectives to patient and family expectations and their accompanying localized narratives. Situated within this transformation are patients and families of all kinds. This shift's interpretation lies in the converging and diverging trails of biomedicine, a patient-centric perspective of consensus between practitioner and patient, and postmodern philosophy, a break from prevailing norms and systems. Lending context is the dynamic interplay between increasing ethnic/cultural diversity, acculturation/biculturalism, and medical pluralism. Diverse populations continue to navigate multiple health and healing paradigms, engage in the process of their integration, and use health and healing practices that run corollary to them. The way this experience is viewed, whether biomedically or philosophically, has implications for the future of healthcare. Over this fluid interpenetration, with its vivid nuance, loom widespread health disparities. The adverse effects of static, fragmented healthcare systems unable to identify and answer diverse populations' emergent needs are acutely felt by these individuals. Eradication of health disparities is born from insight into how these populations experience health and healing. The resulting strategy must be one that simultaneously addresses the complex intricacies of patient-centered care, permits emergence of more localized narratives, and eschews systems that are no longer effective. It is the movement of caregivers across multiple health and healing sources, managing care for loved ones, that provides this insight and in which this project is keenly interested. Uncovering the emergent patterns of caregivers' management of these sources reveals a rich and nuanced spectrum of realities. These realities are replete with opportunities to re-frame health and healing in ways that better reflect what these diverse populations of caregivers and care recipients need. Engaging female Mexican American caregivers, a population whose experience is well-suited to aid in this re-frame, this project begins to provide that insight. Informed by a parent framework of Complexity Science, and balanced between biomedical and postmodern perspectives, this constructivist grounded theory secondary analysis charts these caregivers' processes and offers provocative findings and recommendations for understanding their experiences. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Healthcare Innovation 2013