Working the System: School counselors aligning to advantage

Susan Braube Stillman, Ed.D. Abstract This study, based in the substantive area of school counselors, was conducted using classical grounded theory, an inductive, systemic method of data collection and analysis. The core variable, or the school counselors’ main concern and how they were resolving it, emerged as the need to develop and implement a comprehensive program within the complex ecology of a school. Working the system: Aligning to advantage was discovered to be the school counselors’ resolving process. The data revealed that as school counselors work the system, they engage in strategic actions of aligning to advantage themselves, others, and/or the overall system. Working the system comprises three stages: accessing, engaging, and sustaining, each associated with aligning behaviors, which have personal, interpersonal, and structural dimensions. The theory is useful to school counselors and other leaders engaged in systemic change in complex ecological systems. Keywords: alignments, systems, leadership, school counselors Introduction In the past few years, the profession of school counseling has undergone a substantial transformation, culminating in the development of a unified program model (American School Counselor Association (ASCA), 2005; Stone & Dahir, 2006). School counselors, no longer focused solely on the provision of mental health services to a select group of students in need, are now trained to develop and implement comprehensive programs that align with the educational mission of the school and meet the developmental needs of all students. They are expected to take a leadership role in school reform efforts, work collaboratively to remove systemic barriers to achievement (ASCA, 2005; Educational Trust, 2003), and address the personal/social, academic, and societal challenges that impede learning (Brown & Trusty, 2005). Transformative changes have occurred as school counselors move from a position model to a program focus (Gysbers & Henderson, 2005; Stone & Dahir, 2006) and adopt a systems perspective (ASCA, 2005). Consequently, many school counselors struggle to understand their role and function within the school system. The purpose of a grounded theory study is to discover a theory that explains the main concern faced by people in a substantive area, and how they are attempting to resolve this concern (Glaser, 1978, 1998). The purpose of this particular study was to understand the main concern of school counselors as they attempted to meet the aforementioned demands and obligations within the complex ecology of school systems amidst challenging times. Methodology Grounded theorists seek to develop a theory that explains a pattern of behavior “which is relevant and problematic for those involved” (Glaser, 1978, p. 93). This emerging theory is one of related abstract concepts, not descriptions of people, incidents, or results (Glaser, 1978, 2002). Starting with as few preconceptions as “humanly possible” (Simmons, 2008, p. 13), researchers systematically follow the data from the first data source, and, through theoretical sampling, decide where to go next to retrieve additional data, and see “what is there and emerges” (Glaser, 1998, p. 4). As the interrelatedness of concepts takes shape, grounded theory researchers discover, and then expand, a core variable that explains the main problem that people in a substantive area are facing and how they are attempting to resolve this concern. Researchers must continually ask of the data: First, does it “fit?” (Glaser, 1978, p. 4). Do the concepts derive directly from the data and skillfully reveal patterns? Second, does it “work?” (Glaser, 1998, p. 4). Do the concepts adequately explain the main concern of the participants and their resolving process, and third, does it have “relevance” (Glaser, 1978, p. 5), thereby...

Authenticizing the Research Process

Nora Elizondo-Schmelkes, MA, Ph.D. Candidate Abstract This study reflects the main concern of students (national and international) who are trying to get a postgraduate degree in a third world (or “in means of development”) country. The emergent problem found is that students have to finish their thesis or dissertation but they do not really know how to accomplish this goal. They resolve this problem by authenticizing the process as their own. The theory of authenticizing involves compassing their way to solve the problem of advancing in the research process. Compassing allows the student to authenticize his/her research process, making it a personal and „owned. process. The main categories of compassing are the intellectual, physical and emotional dimension patterns that the student has, learns and follows in order to finish the project and get a degree. Authenticizing implies to author with authenticity their thesis or dissertation. Compassing allows them to do this in their own way, at their own pace or time and with their own internal resources, strengths and weaknesses. Introduction In Mexico, many postgraduate students finish their programs but never get a degree because they don’t finish a research project. The percentage of this happening is much higher in third world or developing countries, where there is a graduation ratio from as low as 2% to 21%, creating an average in the last ten years of 16%. In first world countries, this ratio goes from 31% to 64%, creating an average for the same period of 40% (World Bank, (WB), 2007). This contributes to the fact that the level of education in third world countries is lower. The lack of development in third world countries is partly because lower education implies a lack of researchers. Out of the top 100 research universities, 99 are in first world countries. Regarding knowledge flows, 93% of the published articles in the past five years come from first world countries (Guardian, 2010). I was invited to work as a supervisor for master degree students doing their research, in order to get their degree in a third world country. Most of the students assigned to me were researchers who had not finished their thesis during the expected time and were long overdue and stuck somewhere in the process. As I had never supervised a thesis and my own thesis supervisor had not been very helpful during my research process, I tried learning about the implications of this job. The literature that provides information on how to be a supervisor is mainly related to concepts, structure and methods. Both in English (Wisker, 2008) and in Spanish (Schmelkes, 2010), handbooks on research projects include the basics as to how to get organized and what to do when doing research. Although this information had been previously provided to the students, by teachers and supervisors, it had not been enough to help them advance in their studies. When interviewed about what it was that they needed in order to continue with their research, students themselves didn’t exactly know what it was they needed. The population I worked with in general for this stage of the study (see methodological notes) consisted of students in different institutions, trying to get a masters degree in Mexico. Of these, 65% had spent over five years in their project. Students from other third world countries were interviewed as well and all complained about the same thing: no time, no knowledge of how to write a thesis, or how to write in general....

Re-Vitalizing Worthiness: A theory of overcoming suicidality

Evelyn Gordon, RPN, Reg. Fam. Ther. & Sup. (FTAI), MSc, Ph.D.; John R. Cutcliffe, RMN, RGN, BSc (Hon), Ph.D.; and, Chris Stevenson, RMN, CPsyc., BA (Hons), MSc, Ph.D. Abstract Rates of suicide and suicidality have risen in many countries in recent years and in Ireland this trend has been particularly evident among young men (NOSP, 2005), focusing attention on how best to respond to this group. Although mental health professionals have been identified as a key group to respond to the suicidal person, it has been suggested that they are ill-prepared for working in this area (Maltsberger & Goldblatt, 1996; Ting et al., 2006; Cutcliffe & Stevenson, 2007). This study aimed to address these issues by developing a theoretical understanding of suicidality among young men to inform professional practice. Using Classic Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), in-depth one-to-one interviews were conducted with 17 young men who had been suicidal and had been in contact with the mental health services. The substantive theory that emerged, re-vitalizing worthiness in overcoming suicidality, describes the psychosocial process that young men go through to resolve their main concern, which centres on their painful pull between life and death. Overcoming suicidality involves moving from a death orientation to a life orientation while incorporating the inevitability of death into their new sense of being. This transition entails identity re-configuration whereby young men emerge as individuals of value who are deserving of life. The process is influenced significantly by personal insights and interpersonal interactions that influence their suicide trajectories and life pathways. The theory contributes to the fields of suicidology and mental health by providing a theoretical understanding of overcoming suicidality and identifying professional and social practices that facilitate and impede this process. Key Words: suicidality, young men, recovery, suicide prevention, suicide intervention. Introduction There has been a notable increase in suicide and suicidality rates in many countries, including Ireland, in recent years. This trend has been particularly evident among young people and, in Ireland young men between the ages of 16-34 years are a specific group identified as being at higher risk. This group of young men accounted for almost 40% of deaths by suicide in Ireland in 2003 (NOSP, 2005), focusing attention on how best to respond. Although in Western societies mental health professionals have a prominent role in responding to the suicidal person, it has been argued that their lack of training in the specific area of suicide renders them ill-prepared for this work (Maltsberger & Goldblatt, 1996; Ting et al., 2006; Cutcliffe & Stevenson, 2007). This study aimed to address these issues by developing a theoretical understanding of suicidality among young men to inform professional practice. Using Classic Grounded Theory (CGT) (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), in-depth one-to-one interviews were conducted with 17 young men who had been suicidal and who had been involved with mental health services. Participants were, to varying extents, transitioning away from suicidality, hence the substantive theory that emerged, re-vitalizing worthiness in overcoming suicidality, refers specifically to this process. It captures how these young men resolve their main concern, which centres on their torturous pull between life and death. This conflict is conceptualized as negotiating a dialectic of destiny and is resolved by undergoing a complex non-linear psychosocial process. This process involves confronting ambivalence about living and dying and re-establishing oneself anew in the world, thereby re-configuring one.s identity. For young men moving from a death orientation to a life orientation, this also means incorporating an awareness of the...

The Theory of Social Control and the Social Psychology of Dissatisfaction: Inhibition, regression and isolation in a cultural context...

Orsolya Selymes, PhD Candidate Abstract The Theory of Social Control (TSC) is grounded in satisfaction and happiness research. The study investigated the reasons behind relatively low levels of civil and personal satisfaction, subjective social well-being and experienced happiness in the post-communist Hungarian social context. The basic social process uncovered in the research is self-situating, which involves a continuous assessment of social control, which occurs on three psychological dimensions: activity, fairness and connectedness, operated via social flow. The culturally salient outcome of self-situating in Hungary is self-victimizing, meaning a subjective loss of control on all three dimensions. Some of the most important emotional-motivational consequences of self-victimizing are inhibition, regression and isolation, which contribute to various socio-cultural phenomenon such as distrust, bystander strategies, pessimism or anomie across a number of social situations. Based on the emerging theory, the concept of subjective social control is introduced and an expanded three-dimensional model of civil satisfaction, comfort and contribution, along with psychological and cultural implications, are discussed. Key words: social control, self-situating, self-victimizing, activity, fairness, connectedness, inhibition, fury, isolation Introduction Happiness, satisfaction and subjective well-being stem from the social aspects of everyday life as much (or even more significantly) as they are tempered by individual goals, emotions and evaluations (Ryff, 1989; Ryff and Keyes, 1995; Diener and Diener, 1995; Diener, Oishi and Lucas, 2003). Regardless of whichever particular aspect of happiness we are trying to grasp (the emotional or the evaluative,) one thing will be salient across any scientific viewpoint: that happiness is a social phenomenon. It is both timely and desirable therefore to expand the scope of happiness research so that it includes the social and the public aspects besides the individual features of our subjective experiences. The aim of my research was to discover and highlight the social psychological mechanisms behind happiness and to determine the main factors (main social psychological processes) behind social, political and personal satisfaction and civil comfort. The antecedent to such a concept of social well being exists in the research on cultural aspects of subjective well-being (Diener and Diener, 1995; Diener, Oishi and Lucas, 2003). By cultural aspects, I refer to culturally transmitted psychological predispositions that determine subjective well-being of people on a large scale. Compared to other countries with similar economical performance, similar system features and levels of political freedom or even with similar historical and political background, Hungary falls behind in most cross-national studies that examine differences in subjective well-being and civil/personal satisfaction (Andorka 1994; Rose es Haerpfer 1994; Rose, Mishler es Haerpfer 1998; Speder es Kapitany, 2002; Sagi, 2002). With these in mind the main question of the research was: what is going on in the Hungarian socio-cultural setting that explains such deficiencies in the subjective and personal well-being of the citizens? I was looking for social, cultural, psychological patterns that are salient in people’s experiencing of their social circumstances, and in the affects and reactions of people to the various personal, societal and political changes and events in their lives. Methodology Classical (Glaserian) Grounded Theory (CGT) was used as general methodology in the study (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Glaser 1978; Glaser, 1998). CGT, rather than beginning with developing a hypothesis, starts out with data collection through various methods (in-depth interviewing, direct observation, text analysis, questionnaires, statistical data, and so on). From the collected data, key points are marked by codes that emerge from the transcribed interviews. Coding is followed by conceptualizing (memo writing and sorting), during which further observations and field notes are...

Dynasting Theory: Lessons in learning grounded theory

Johnben Teik-Cheok Loy, MBA, MTS, Ph.D. Abstract This article captures the key learning lessons gleaned from the author’s experience learning and developing a grounded theory for his doctoral dissertation using the classic methodology as conceived by Barney Glaser. The theory was developed through data gathered on founders and successors of Malaysian Chinese family-own businesses. The main concern for Malaysian Chinese family businesses emerged as dynasting . the building, maintaining, and growing the power and resources of the business within the family lineage. The core category emerged as dynasting across cultures, where founders and successors struggle to transition from traditional Chinese to hybrid cultural and modernized forms of family business from one generation to the next. The key learning lessons were categorized under five headings: (a) sorting through different versions of grounded theory, (b) educating and managing research stakeholders, (c) embracing experiential learning, (d) discovering the core category: grounded intuition, and (e) recognizing limitations and possibilities. Keywords: grounded theory, learning, dynasting, family business, Chinese Introduction My journey towards grounded theory began in my doctoral studies after I had engaged in and published several quantitative survey research projects and found the approach to explaining human behavior to be too limiting. First, the questions and response-choices were pre-established; second, I had no access to the respondents to ascertain how they interpreted the questions or to clarify the reason behind why they chose the responses they did; and third, the theories that guided the development of the questionnaires also seemed somewhat disembodied from the people I was studying. As a result, I decided to change my dissertation methodology to one that would better satisfy my longing to really understand what was going on for the people. I turned to qualitative methodologies at first, not expecting to end up doing a grounded theory study. Neither did I anticipate the many challenges I would have to go through along the process of learning grounded theory when I finally decided to do it. Early in my dissertation, I started an anonymous blog to keep myself motivated and connected to other graduate students. I made entries of my grounded theory learning process as I experienced it. For relief, I added touches of humor and sarcasm to my entries. Given its personal nature, I struggled as to the appropriateness of identifying my blog in this article. Surprisingly, in researching for this article, I discovered that an editor of a recent textbook on qualitative research mentioned my blog in the preface of her textbook (Lichtman, 2011, p. viii). I reasoned that if my blog had enough value to be mentioned in a textbook, I might as well fully embrace the spirit of collaborative and open learning and reveal my authorship publicly. My blog, The Lonely Dissertator, can be accessed at http://lonelydissertator.blogspot.com (I stopped updating my blog shortly after I completed my dissertation defense in May 2010). My dissertation was entitled Dynasting Across Cultures: A Grounded Theory of Malaysian Chinese Family Firms (Loy, 2010). Data were gathered from interviews, participant observations, opportunistic conversations, and also relevant literature. There were a total of 22 formal interviews with 25 different participants: 10 male successors (aged 20s-70s), 3 female successors (aged 30s-50s), 4 male founders (aged 60s-70s), 1 female founder (aged 60s), 3 family members no longer in the business (1 founder-wife in her 70s, 1 daughter aged 50s, 1 niece aged 40s), and 4 non-family members of the business (1 male staff aged 60s, 1 female staff aged 50s, and 1 friend...

Stigma in Access to HIV Treatment in African Settings: The importance of social connections...

Kingsley Oturu, MD, MBBS, MSc. [This paper partly forms basis for winning the New Investigator in Global Health Award 2011 awarded by the Global Health Council, USA] Abstract Access to antiretroviral therapy is desperately needed in Nigeria. Increased access to anti-retroviral therapy for HIV treatment contributes to improved quality of life and reduced health care costs. It may assist in reduction of stigma and risk of HIV transmission. Although a lot of global funding has been mobilised to improve access to HIV treatment, many people in Nigeria still do not have access. The HIV treatment access rate in Nigeria is 16.6%. It is often assumed that with the provision of antiretroviral therapy, patients will readily access HIV treatment. However, as this grounded theory (GT) study suggests, stigma stands out as a major barrier to HIV prevention and treatment services in Nigeria. The main concern of the participants that emerged in this GT study was the fear of different types of stigma that stand as barriers to access. Self stigma, familial stigma and community stigma, institutional stigma and organisational stigma surfaced as issues that influence access. The participants were also able to overcome stigma and other barriers to accessing HIV treatment through the use of social connections. Social connection emerges as the core category of this theory. The core determinant to engaging with social connectors is the type of disclosing strategy utilised by the research participants. The social connection theory on access developed from this study suggests that although stigma poses a major barrier to HIV treatment, social connectors can play a major role in supporting the patient in overcoming barriers to access HIV treatment. Social connectors were identified as trusted acquaintances that influenced how and when HIV patients access treatment. I therefore argue in this paper that in African settings, social connectors should be targeted in access programs and not just the individual patient. The theory may be adapted for other diseases associated with stigma, such as leprosy or mental illnesses. It may also be relevant for African patients living in western or non-African contexts or in contexts within developed countries where there is strong social capital. Introduction Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection is a global health issue that affects 33.4 million people worldwide. Sub-Saharan Africa bears the main brunt of the epidemic accounting for 67% of the HIV infections and contributing to 75% of all AIDS death in 2007 (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS [UNAIDS], 2009). With a population of 140 million and a HIV prevalence rate of 4.4%, Nigeria has the 3rd largest number of People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in the world (UNAIDS, 2009). The impact of an unchecked HIV epidemic include increasing number of AIDS orphans, increasing funeral costs, loss of time and resources caring for the sick, reduced economic productivity and stigmatization of those infected and affected by the HIV virus (Oturu, 2006; Tindyebwa, et. al., 2006). With the advent of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) for HIV treatment, people infected with HIV infection are able to live longer and have better quality of life (Alonzo, A., & Reynolds, R. (1995). However, despite a lot of initiatives, many PLWHA in Nigeria still do not have access to ARVs (POLICY, 2004). Although there are currently about 215 ARV treatment sites in Nigeria, it is estimated that only 16.6% of the 550,000 people who require ARV treatment are actually on the drugs (United Nations General Assembly Special Session, [UNGASS], 2007). This GT study discovers that stigma still...