John S. Drummond

The cyclical process of action research The contribution of Gilles Deleuze

Action Research is normally described as both a cyclical process and a participatory (democratic/egalitarian) undertaking. This article does not seek to contest the idiosyncrasies and pragmatics of the cyclical process involved in action research. Rather, it seeks to enrich it by developing further the idea of action research as a process that engages with problems and learning in the act of creating change. To do this we draw primarily on aspects of the work of the French philosopher, Gilles Deleuze. Deleuze has argued that all learning is essentially a direct apprentice-type engagement with the problematic nature of the material or project under consideration. We argue that an explication of what Deleuze means by this can augment our understanding of the contingencies involved in both the participatory and cyclical dimensions of action research. To give explanatory substance to Deleuzes potential contribution to action research, we use illustrative moments based on a hypothetical scenario of the development of a large piece of waste-ground into a community gardening project. We seek to connect aspects of Deleuzian philosophy to the cyclical process of action research to show the dynamic relationship between action researchers and an action research project. Our argument is that in doing this, an understanding of the variables involved in the cyclical process of action research may be enhanced.

Care of the Self in a Knowledge Economy: Higher education, vocation and the ethics of Michel Foucault

© 2003 Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA Blackwell Publishing Ltd Oxford, UK EPAT ducational Philosophy and Theory 0013-1857

Revisioning, reconnecting and revisiting: the psychosocial transition of returning home from hospital following a stroke.

Abstract Purpose: This study aimed to investigate and improve understanding of the experiences of patients and their carers during the first month at home following discharge from hospital, thereby enhancing appropriate care from a more informed perspective. Method: In-depth interviews and self-report diaries were used to capture data from 12 patient/carer dyads. Four survivors with marked communication problems were included in this number, two requiring the use of pictures and diagrams to express their views. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to capture and interpret survivor and carer experiences. Findings: Three superordinate themes were derived from the data. Stroke survivors and their carers described the first month at home as a very dynamic time, recounting a process that involved revisioning (re-examining their identity and the reality of their new situation, including an awareness of their own mortality), reconnecting (with important relationships and previous activities) and revisiting (their past lives, and the stroke event and hospital experience). These three activities assisted in making and finding sense in their new situation; participants’ vision of their lives was revised and revisited as they attempted to reconnect with as much of their past selves and past activities as possible. Conclusions: This study contributes to understandings through in-depth individual accounts of the psychosocial transition of returning home. Details of how people make sense of their altered situation can make a valuable contribution to research, and the knowledge base for care provision. Implications for Rehabilitation Supporting people to revision their future can assist with psychosocial transition following a stroke. Assisting patients to reconnect and reintegrate in a way that is meaningful to them is an important part of the rehabilitation support that can be offered by professionals, and can be informed by awareness of their vision of what the future may now hold. Offering people the opportunity to reflect on what has occurred, either verbally or in the form of a diary, can assist adjustment and help people to make sense of their changed situation.

Social perception in the clinical dental encounter: the matched-guise technique re-visited

This study investigated whether student dentists’ ratings of a female putative patients personality, communication skills and dental condition in an audiotaped dentist–patient interaction related to patient socio-economic status (SES), as operationalised by accent type. Thirty-nine student dentists in their second pre-clinical year of study, and 62 with two or three years of clinical training in the BDS programme at a British University Dental School took part. Pre-clinical students judged the ‘working class’ patients condition to be more psychosomatic in origin than experienced students. All students rated the ‘middle class’ patients communication skills more highly, e.g. grammar. Personality judgements were not a function of perceived patient SES, save for intelligence. Context effects in experienced students’ stereotyping of the putative dentist were also found: he was perceived as friendlier and more informative when interacting with the ‘middle class’ patient. These findings have relevance for both the clinical literature, which has sometimes under-represented the complexity of stereotyping processes operating in practitioner–patient encounters, and for theory-building in social cognition/perception.

Political Economies of Health: a consideration for international nursing studies

This article introduces and explores the concept of political economy. In particular it focuses upon the political economy of health while also considering the implications for international nursing studies in the context of health care more generally. Political economy is not only about budgets, resources and policy. It is also about particular kinds of political power that can be difficult to grasp. Often, analyses of power in the nursing literature relate to power at the interpersonal level between say nurses and patients, the interprofessional level between nurses and medics, or at the institutional level between managerial policy and actual practice that often, if not always, relates also to national issues in health care. While acknowledging the value of these analyses, this article seeks to add the dimension of the power of political economy of health at both the national and global level. No political economy is without its underlying political philosophy or ideology which defines the means–end rationality of both desired outcomes and financial pragmatism. This is particularly the case in services such as education and health, in which the differences between various ideological approaches can often be quite remarkable, and not without impact on actual services. The purpose of this article therefore is to firmly place the concept and practice of political economy into international nursing studies by giving examples of its changing nature, its various manifestations and the challenges they present.