Luciana Castelli

Valori e mass media: un modello di analisi per lo studio dei processi di comunicazione

The aim of this article is to explain the importance of mass media in the study of values and social representations; mass media can be investigated by using instruments of analysis such as quantitative content analysis. We have summarized the main contributions coming from literature about the concept of value and the mass media as driver of the process of making sense: mass media contribute to build-up values and social representation. We have presented a study in which the methodology and the results explain how mass media contribute to build-up and maintain shared values. To this aim we have pointed-out some social representations related to the phenomenon of abandoning children, and the values associated to them in mass-media communications.

Validation of a Short Scale in Italian to Measure Teacher Burnout

This study creates and validates a short, Italian-language scale to measure teacher burnout. To this end, we used two scales from the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory which had already been translated into Italian in a previous study. We administered this measure to two samples of teachers (n1 = 2688 and n2 = 676) in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. The final scale consisted of 10 items that measure teacher burnout on the dimensions of work- and student-related burnout. We performed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the psychometric properties of the instrument as well as conducting analyses of invariance between the sexes and across school sectors. Results showed that work- and student-related burnout were significantly correlated with the constructs of perceived workload, optimism, and life satisfaction. Moreover, neither dimension of burnout was associated with sex, age, seniority, or family status, although both dimensions of burnout were significantly correlated with professional status and percentage of working hours per week. Overall, the analyses show that the final short scale is a valid instrument for measuring teacher burnout. Because of its brevity, this scale can easily be integrated into surveys conducted by public health institutions and education departments.

EVALUATION AND MONITORING: PROBLEMATIC ROLES IN STUDYING INNOVATION

In Ticino, the Italian speaking canton of Switzerland, in past years a reform of the secondary school system has been implemented. This reform originates from some preliminary reflection started during the ‘90ies. During the academic year 2004/2005 started the first visible transformation in school. Using a multi-focus research design a study on this process of change has been conducted during the years 2006 - 2012. This project has several aims: define a theoretical framework to study future innovations; give some feedback to stakeholders; implement a monitoring process. Different sources of information have been used: public documents; interviews to stakeholders; four case studies and data from a questionnaire administered to the teachers. This paper is mainly devoted to explore the theoretical implication and to make a general reflection on evaluation and monitoring processes. This research process has been used to reflect on the different role of researchers in evaluation and monitoring processes. The data collected make possible to validate and up-date the initial theoretical framework based mainly on the work of Fullan (1993, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003) and Huberman & Miles (1984), to demonstrate that in an organizational change the energy spent in the consolidation phase need to be proportional to the depth of the changes.