Search results

This chapter explores how different aspects of middle manager identity relate to knowledge, research and practice. It argues that effective leadership depends more upon the person than the role.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 middle managers at a single school of healthcare in a research-intensive, chartered UK university.

The middle managers revealed both core and situated identities. Their core selves included various personality traits such as curiosity, a competitive streak, optimism, sociability and a sense of humour. Their situated selves were shaped by socialization, life history, critical people, and incidents and chance. In a symbiotic relationship with these core and situated components was a complex, tri-partite professional identity, as a healthcare professional, a higher education (HE) academic, and an education manager. All the participants greatly valued professional development and ongoing academic study.

This chapter illustrates how the best postgraduate courses develop exemplary education managers/leaders. They do this not by giving students role-specific skills but by developing their analytical and critical thinking skills. Through a process of deep learning and experience, individuals undertaking a doctorate are able to develop into reflexive and reflective practitioners who can act with personal integrity.

Little has been published about the relationships between the career background, the identity and the role of a university middle manager, and virtually nothing from the field of healthcare. The figure presented in this chapter offers a new framework for understanding the relationship between self, professional identity and role.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

This case study was made possible by the co‐operation of the managing director of Cosyfeet, Mr David Price, to whom we are very grateful. The case was prepared as a basis for class discussion and as an illustration of what may or may not constitute success in a small business context.

This study aimed to investigate the sensemaking strategies employed by early-career employees working within organizationally constrained environments.

Grounded in the sensemaking-as-accomplishment framework, a longitudinal multi-case study was conducted, involving three early-career employees. These participants were interviewed multiple times concerning tasks they themselves identified as anomalous and ambiguous.

The study's findings illuminate how early-career employees utilize sensemaking strategies to accomplish anomalous-ambiguous tasks. These strategies are interwoven with deliberate efforts to mitigate organizational constraints that exist in the organization or arise during the execution of complex tasks.

Notable limitation pertains to the time gap between task completion and the interviews. Conducting real-time interviews concurrently with task execution or immediately afterward was not feasible due to constraints in participant availability. This research has implications for organizational learning initiatives, particularly those encompassing employee-driven self-learning components. Insights derived from studies like this can inform the development of effective self-learning schemes within organizations.

Previous sensemaking research focused on what takes place in high-reliability organizations. This study explored sensemaking strategies in workplaces that are organizationally constrained.

Diana Betout is a graduate student at the University of Illinois, Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She is studying teacher education. She plans to pursue her career as an elementary teacher.

The aim of this case study is to present one library's experiences consulting with a usability expert during the design and implementation phases of a new academic library website and the lessons learned during the process.

The library staff worked with the consultant so that he understood the work of the librarians and goals for the website. Together the consultant and library staff developed a series of tests to measure the usability of the site. The librarians implemented the tests, gradually taking the leadership role in the process.

The study confirms the value of usability testing as a tool to bring to light some of the ambiguities and complexities of a library website for users. The study demonstrates that librarians have developed an expertise and knowledge base that transfers well to the evaluation of websites and online resources. The experience of the University of Michigan AAE Library reveals that usability testing should be an ongoing exercise so that the website remains relevant to the users.

This study advises librarians of the value of testing and that, on the one hand, test results confirm what one imagines about the users' experiences, but on the other hand they reveal the unexpected strategies and understandings of the users.

This case study provides a useful example of the value of working with a usability expert, a discussion of what to expect during the process, and advice about the role of the librarian in such an endeavor.

The purpose of this paper (i.e. Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service; Pimentel, 2016) is to detail a camping trip during which Tie Sing, a Chef, worked with Stephen Mather, a millionaire concerned about conserving national resources, to convince a group of influential Americans to create a National Park Service.

This lesson plan, based in the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) C3 Framework, encourages third grade students to investigate the geography of the camping area in what is now Sequoia National Park. Students also analyze and determine whether or not the National Park Service is a good idea. Students move through four stages of inquiry in the C3 Framework as guided by their teacher.

During Dimension 1, students determine the types of sources that will help them answer the inquiry questions. Next in Dimension 2, students are engaged in a read-aloud of Mountain Chef while learning how to gather information from the text and record evidence in an I-Chart through teacher modeling (Hoffman, 1992). Students use a text set in Dimension 3 to gather evidence in response to inquiry questions. The lesson concludes in Dimension 4 with students using research evidence to create a WPA-like poster of the camping area and students communicating ideas via social media.

Think-aloud – “Students who are exposed to think-aloud outperform their peers who do not receive the same instruction on measures of reading comprehension” (Ness, 2018). The teacher implements the think-aloud strategy within Dimension 2 of the lesson plan. Think-aloud is a metacognitive strategy that requires a teacher to verbalize thinking processes to scaffold students to perform a learning task on his or her own later. The portions of text that were selected for think-aloud were identified as “juicy stopping points,” points that may pose a challenge for students, or points where there were comprehension opportunities related to inquiry questions. Teachers may adjust this lesson to increase or decrease scaffolding through think-aloud at their professional discretion.

Mountain Chef was selected as the 2017 winner of the Carter Woodson Book Award in the Elementary category. This lesson plan was presented at the NCSS 2017 annual conference at the Carter Woodson and Notable Tradebooks: Engaging Early Grade Lesson Plans session.

This paper explores the experiences of people who have been homeless and in contact with learning disability services. The research adds to the very limited evidence, particularly in the UK, on how services can better meet the health and social needs of this group. All people with learning disabilities who were homeless and known to either local social services or health learning disability services in a large city in the North East of England were identified. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 14 participants at their current accommodation. Content analysis was used to identify common themes. Interview data indicated that breakdown of social support was the main cause of homelessness, and that in temporary accommodation people with learning disabilities were vulnerable to exploitation by other residents. Concerns were also expressed about the quality of housing, mental health was a recurring theme and the importance of ensuring that people with learning disabilities receive adequate treatment for these difficulties is discussed. Access to health care in general is facilitated by support in arranging and attending appointments. Mediation services may play a key role in preventing people with learning disabilities from becoming homeless through relationship breakdown. The study also suggests that improvements in temporary accommodation are needed, including housing designed specifically for people with learning disabilities, in order to react effectively to episodes of homelessness.