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Traditional and nontraditional interdisciplinary teams bring together varied professionals with diversity in expertise and thought. The purpose of interdisciplinary teams within healthcare settings is to support clients or patients in the achievement of physiological, psychological, and spiritual health. However, in absence of cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity, the physiological, psychological, and spiritual health needs of clients or patients can go unmet. Hence, it is imperative that interdisciplinary teams seek consultation when team members are unfamiliar with the culture of patients or clients to whom the team is assigned to provide care. Increasing cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity must be a collaborative effort between the interdisciplinary team and the client or patient. Nontraditional interdisciplinary teams conceptually examine teams that impact others in settings outside of education and health care.

Larger numbers of students are entering higher education with more diverse learning needs. While laws are in place to create equal access to education for all, government-mandated learning supports for students with documented disabilities vary significantly from K-12 education to higher education. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a course design framework based on Universal Design in architecture, neuroscience research, and the latest technology, to design learning environments and curriculums that are accessible to all students in every learning environment. This chapter reviews literature on the history of Universal Design concepts, starting with Universal Design in architecture and moving into UDL. A review of the learning preferences of Millennial students, along with the neuroscience of learning and its connection to the principles of UDL, is also included in the literature review. This chapter also includes a section on Dr. Buckland Parker's study which documents four faculty members who chose to work with a small team of faculty development specialists to redesign their large enrollment courses using the principles of Universal Design for Learning.

With confidence in the British Political system in decline, it is more important than ever that the top-down approach to decision-making and service strategy in public services is challenged. In this chapter, we examine how coproduction of services can be achieved using Get Talking, an approach to participatory action research that utilizes creative consultation techniques to engage with publics. We explain how the approach enabled Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) to involve young people in the development of a Children and Young People’s Strategy. The case study approach, building on qualitative methods including focus groups and semi-structured interviews, demonstrates how creative approaches were used by public sector staff to engage young people and partners in strategy development. Creative consultation techniques were used to facilitate the focus group activity. While using Get Talking as an approach to policy development required a resource investment in terms of staff time, it provided SFRS with insight into the needs of service users. This resulted in a more relevant strategy being developed and a cultural shift in how the organization works with young people. Engagement with the Get Talking process had a positive effect on staff, providing them with a sense of ownership over the resulting strategy, enhanced the reputation of SFRS with partners, and improved relationships with young people through demonstrating that they were valued partners in coproduction. While the approach was well received by all parties, challenges of using Get Talking in a public service setting resulted in pragmatic adaptations to a traditional PAR approach.

This chapter offers descriptions of many current uses of video conferencing technology for the delivery of assistive technology (AT) services at a distance. It begins with definitions of remote AT services, virtual teams and virtual teamwork and moves to a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of remote AT supports for individuals, teams and organisations. A review of research regarding the outcomes of remote services helps to clarify ways that assistive technology providers can enhance function and build agency capacity by working, at least in part, in a virtual support environment. The chapter provides a discussion of various aspects of virtual teamwork that affects how individuals work together remotely as well as potential barriers to the provision of remote AT services. Multiple examples are provided throughout as well as descriptions of specific features of video conference technology options that should be considered before adoption. A planning form for the integration of remote assistive technology supports into the array of AT support services is included.

This chapter charts the recent evolution of research focused on reflective supervision provided to practitioners delivering services to young children and their families through early intervention programs. The authors explore research focused on defining reflective supervision, identifying five essential elements or “active ingredients” of reflective supervision as a professional development model and demonstrating the impact on practitioners. The impact studies described in this chapter have produced empirical data demonstrating an increase in reflective supervision behaviors as a result of participation. In addition, the studies provide qualitative accounts of practitioners’ experiences, conveying positive effects on intervention practice and reduction of practitioner job stress.

Previous research has demonstrated that communication failure and interpersonal conflicts are significant impediments among health care teams to assess complex information and engage in the meaningful collaboration necessary for optimizing patient care. Despite the prolific research on the role of effective teamwork in accomplishing complex tasks, such findings have been traditionally applied to business organizations and not medical contexts. This chapter, therefore, reviews and applies four theories from the fields of organizational behavior (OB) and organization development (OD) as potential means for improving team interaction in health care contexts. This study is unique in its approach as it addresses the long-standing problems that exist in team communication and cooperation in health care teams by applying well-established theories from the organizational literature. The utilization and application of the theoretical constructs discussed in this work offer valuable means by which the efficacy of team work can be greatly improved in health care organizations.

This chapter describes the emergence and functioning of an interinstitutional research group. The topic of this research group, which was started by five large universities of applied sciences (UAS) in the western metropolitan area of the Netherlands, is the study success of ethnic minority groups. With only minor funding by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science a dedicated research team, representing each of the UAS involved, set out to address several unresolved research questions and issues. The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture did also provided access to an essential national research data which is normally not accessible for individual institutions. Besides working together on study success research, regular consultation started at the corporate/board level and at the strategic level (directors of education policies) on various study success-related topics, such as new legislation and diversity issues. What differentiates this cooperation from other networks is its multilayered structure and the sharing of detailed data about sensitive strategic issues, policymaking and institutional research by competing UAS. This chapter provides insights on effective working methods, dilemmas and first year achievements of this intensive interinstitutional collaboration. The chapter concludes with ten factors for success in the context described.

The speed of integration has been a salient and longstanding topic in the literature on managing mergers and acquisitions. Yet over the decades, speed has also been the subject of extensive debate. While many have advocated for fast integration, others have recommended a more measured pace. In this chapter, the authors reflect on the discussion by canvasing the variety of views on the speed of integration. The work is positioned at the nexus of the literature on mergers with that on stakeholders, in particular its attention to urgency in stakeholder management. It approaches urgency in mergers and acquisitions as a “dilemma of stake,” a new lens on a well-established but challenging topic. The study draws on ethnographic research to examine accounts of speed of integration in a New Zealand public sector merger. The chapter juxtaposes varied views on the topic against the respective arguments within the merger literature. It examines the overarching themes of “go slow” and the “need for speed” by attending to the tensions between a prosocial service ethos on the one hand and a managerialist ethos on the other. The explication of the respective dilemmas of stake shows how participants articulate their views on urgency both in terms of its effects on their individual professional role, their own stake, as well as in terms of the effects on employees as internal stakeholders. The analysis also explores the role of internal and external context in shaping the views on urgency in merger integration. The work concludes by outlining an agenda for future research.