Marilena Fatigante

Investing in children’s future: Cross-cultural perspectives and ideologies on parental involvement in education

Drawing on two ethnographic studies of everyday middle-class family life in Los Angeles and Rome, this cross-cultural study examines parents’ practices of and beliefs about involvement in children’s education. It analyzes parents’ interviews and naturalistic video recordings of parent–child interactions at home to access parents’ perspectives on and ways of enacting involvement in school-related activities. Findings indicate that while the LA and Rome parents engaged in similar practices, their involvement in their children’s education was experienced differently and motivated by different assumptions. The article argues that differences in parents’ perceptions and practices reflect and reproduce marked cultural preferences and expectations within the local education systems and reveal distinct ideologies regarding childhood. Drawing on Halldén, the study proposes that LA parents tended to treat childhood as a period of ‘preparation’ for adulthood where there is more deliberate shaping of a child’s path, displaying a belief that children’s future much depends on present actions. Rome parents tended to view their child less as a project that they needed to work on, leaving room for children’s autonomy and freedom. Finally, the study argues that the examination of local sociocultural and institutional contexts offers a more comprehensive and situated interpretation of Italian and US parents’ choices and actions.

What counts as illness? Anamnesis as a collaborative activity

Drawing on a corpus of 35 videorecordings of cancer consultations collected in a medium-size public hospital in Italy, our analyses show how anamnesis, rather than being an automatic sequence of brief and polar (yes/no) questions addressed by the doctor to the patient, results as a challenging interpretative joint activity; in this activity, the doctor and the patient need to collaborate in order to build a shared sense of salience of what compels attention in the actual clinical situation. Results show the interplay of doctor’s and patient’s different knowledge systems and classification practices, involved in defining what an illness is. Anamnesis proves to be a suitable site for patient’s socialization in medical encounters, and a highly collaborative activity due to the amount of interaction and negotiation between the doctor and the patient (higher than those in other stages of the visit).

Rappresentazioni discorsive dell’impegno domestico e familiare in madri e padri che lavorano

Negli ultimi decenni abbiamo assistito ad un massiccio ingresso delle donne nel mondo del lavoro. Questo fenomeno ha comportato sostanziali riorganizzazioni nella vita familiare e nei modi con cui le persone impiegano il loro tempo suddividendolo fra lavoro pagato, tempo libero e attivita familiari. La pressione temporale causata dal coordinare tali diverse attivita e particolarmente pesante nel caso delle famiglie con figli in cui entrambi i genitori lavorano. L’articolo si inserisce in una linea di ricerca che esplora la divisione del lavoro domestico e familiare nella coppia e nel filone degli studi etnografici della vita quotidiana delle famiglie. I risultati, basati su analisi di diari, interviste e di interazioni videoregistrate in famiglia, si focalizzano su: 1) le rappresentazioni da parte di madri e padri delle loro pratiche di gestione e coordinamento delle attivita familiari 2) la natura cognitiva del lavoro che tale attivita di gestione e coordinamento implica, 3) le rappresentazioni identitarie delle madri e dei padri.

Transitions in and out of Games: How Parents and Children Bracket Game Episodes at Home

Drawing on a corpus of ethnographic data collected among 8 Italian middle-class families, this article analyzes transitions in and out of episodes of games played by parents and children at home. The analyses focus on game prefaces in which participants display their mutual availability to engage in the game, and game codas in which participants signal their disengagement. The article shows how game prefaces and game codas allow parents, in particular, to accomplish concurrent operations (such as, attending to housekeeping activities) while orienting to the game. Transitional sequences, then, help sustain the management of the parallel temporalities ordinarily running across family life.

Endangered Literacies? Affordances of Paper- Based Literacy in Medical Practice and Its Persistence in the Transition to Digital Technology

Under the rapid advances of digital technology, traditional paper-based forms of reading and writing are steadily giving way to digital-based literacies, in theory as well as in application. Drawing on a study of literacy in a medical workplace context, this article examines critically the shift toward computer-mediated textual practices. While a considerable body of research has investigated benefits and issues associated with digital literacy tools in medicine, we consider the affordances of paper-based practices. Our analysis of verbal interaction and textual artifacts drawn from a qualitative study of oncology visits indicates that the uses of pen and paper are advantageous for both doctor and patient. Specifically, they allow doctors to process and package information in ways that are favorable to their personal modus operandi, and they enable patients to participate in the medical visit and take an active role in managing their medical treatment. Understanding the affordances of paper-based literacy provides insights for refining digital tools as well as for motivating the design of possible hybrid forms and digital-analog intersections that can best support medical practices.

Imaginary Scenarios as Resources to Argue for Treatment Advice in Cancer Consultations

The literature suggests that medical consultation is inherently argumentative in nature as a result of doctors’ legal obligation to provide their patients with all relevant information prior to treatment. Within a discursive and conversational approach, this chapter explores how an oncologist argues for treatment advice within cancer consultations. Drawing on a data set of video-recorded post-surgical cancer consultations collected in Italy, the analysis highlights a discursive practice through which the oncologist builds imaginary scenarios, and uses them to construct and draw the patient into a complex medical field. We explored three variations of such imaginary sequences analyzing the ways in which they supported situated arguments orienting the patient toward evidence-based treatment options. We argue that imaginary scenarios are argumentative devices that help to maintain a balance between instructing and empowering the patient and facilitating patient’s acceptance of medical advice and evidence-based standards.

Diverse prospettive di oncologo e paziente: la co-costruzione di una comprensione condivisa nella fase di anamnesi

This article analyzes instances of misunderstanding between doctor, patient and accompanying person during the history taking of ‘first time’ oncology visits. History taking is a fundamental activity in these visits since it targets useful information for the oncologist to determine the patients’ current and general health status and then arrange the treatment plan most suitable for their cancer. The authors show how this activity involves all participants in the interaction: the oncologist, the patients and their care-givers. The management of this activity is not plain and straightforward: it requires complex negotiations between participants in order for them to find a shared understanding of what information is relevant to the medical history, and what is the purpose of the activity in progress. The analyses help to identify, on one hand, the characteristics of the diseases that patients do not recognize as relevant, and on the other hand, the investigative strategies and communication skills that the doctor uses to track the information. These strategies are discussed as resources to socialize patients to effectively contribute to the present visit and the future ones.

Beyond the written words of informed consent: What participants would like to know about research

Informing the participants about the research is an essential part of the activities planned and accomplished in research projects in any field, including psychological sciences. Research teams, scientific associations, and universities have increasingly equipped themselves with tools (the informed consent) that help accomplish this activity. Drawing on three different qualitative studies, we focus our analysis on both the information found in the consent sheets concerning the study aims and procedures and the questions raised by participants on the same topics while talking with the researcher. Considering informed consents as cultural artifacts, we discuss the importance of designing them in such a way that would make them more sensitive to the participants’ information demands, and not only to the researchers’ community needs.