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Self-reported experiences of midwives working in the UK across three phases during COVID-19: a cross-sectional study
Get PDFMaternity services cannot be postponed due to the nature of this service, however, the pandemic resulted in wide-ranging and significant changes to working practices and services. This paper aims to describe UK midwives’ experiences of working during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study forms part of a larger multiple phase research project using a cross-sectional design based on an online survey. The online survey used validated psychometric tools to measure work-related quality of life, wellbeing, coping, and burnout as well as open-ended questions to further understand the experiences of staff working during the pandemic. This paper reports the qualitative data collected from the open-ended questions. The qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis and the four main themes that emerged were ‘relentless stress/pressure’, ‘reconfiguration of services’, ‘protection of self and others’, and ‘workforce challenges’. The key conclusions were that midwives experienced a reduction in quality of working life and significant stress throughout the pandemic due to a range of factors including staffing shortages, restrictions placed on women’s partners, changes to services and management support, all of which compounded workforce pressures that existed prior to the pandemic. This research recommends consultation of front-line midwives in relation to possible changes in practice and workforce planning in preparation for crises such as a pandemic and to ensure equitable and supportive management with access to practical and psychological suppor
Understanding the layers of engagement through the consumption of online cartoons
Get PDFThis article introduces the layers of engagement audiences transition through while consuming media content
online. Specifically, the consumption of short-form online cartoons. The article contributes a new layered engagement model, building from wider literature, which considers concepts including involvement, flow, and value. This
innovative model introduces the notions of deep and light engagement, as well as deep and light engagement experiences and behaviours, which influence and result from engagement. These levels of engagement represent the
extremes of different layers audiences transition through as they ebb and flow from one object of consumption
to another in highly competitive online environments. This engagement understanding is evidenced in practice
with a case study that observes the development of audience engagement with online cartoons. The case study
highlights content producers' difficulties in successfully engaging audiences with their creative ideas. This article,
therefore, has both theoretical and practical implications. From the theoretical perspective, the article contributes
a new understanding of engagement relevant to a media consumption environment subject to abstractness, subjectivity, and uniqueness and where goods are stripped of their tangible nature. From a practical perspective, the
article contributes valuable knowledge for producers working in these environments, in how engagement can be
modelled for success and foresight into the difficulties that may be faced
Re‐imagining learning: spaces of possibility
Get PDFNew spaces of possibility are opening up in the light of the pandemic, with a shared purpose to offer an alternative, creative approach to learning and researching experimental sites for pedagogical innovation. In our partnership work, our creative methodology, with everyone an artist, drives the ambition for artistic excellence. These new blended spaces, engage artists and educators in creative and reflective practice that places the arts, culture and creativity at the heart of a future pedagogy. These spaces can be interrogated to distil a repertoire of creative pedagogical characteristics that optimise agency, freedom, choice and imagination
Instilling positive attitudes to physical activity in childhood - challenges and opportunities for non-specialist PE teachers
Get PDFThis mixed methods study, which is located in England investigates the capacity primary school teachers have to lay a foundation for pupils’ engagement in active lifestyles through the delivery of quality Physical Education. The outlook is not positive as the study reveals low self-efficacy rates in the sample’s ability (n181) to teach quality PE, a lack of consensus around what underpins positive outcomes in PE and limited prioritising of established pedagogical strategies deployed effectively in other curricular areas. Glimmers of hope and inspiration are drawn, however, from the best practice examples from 5 schools that provide evidence of a strong collective teacher efficacy towards PE. The study concludes PE is a force to mitigate health inequality with pragmatic suggestions offered to ensure primary teachers’ sphere of influence is not wasted
Celebrity miscarriage listicles: the help and heartache of mothers talking about pregnancy loss
Get PDFThe ways in which celebrities speak about their experiences of pregnancy loss could provide a platform from which women in the audience can make sense of their own loss, and go some way towards helping, not the pain or grief per se, but the shame, silencing, guilt and loneliness that is often said to follow the experience. This article will examine the ways in which pregnancy loss is presented in popular celebrity listicles and, drawing on extant work from the fields of celebrity, gender and health studies, consider the ways in which they can be said to offer comfort and camaraderie to the 1 in 4 women who have experienced, or will go on to experience, a miscarriage. However, while the listicles might be applauded for drawing attention to an experience shared between female celebrities and their audience, these short-form articles routinely present miscarriage as a back story to a successful pregnancy outcome, with little health information or links to available support beyond these first-person accounts
When worlds collide: non-state actors, philanthropy and the commercial promotion of fertility control options in developing countries
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is an ethical evaluation of the role of transnational philanthropic and commercial actors in the promotion and implementation of fertility control and family planning programmes in developing countries around the world. In particular, we consider the application, extension and association of collective and individualist ethical justifications to these actors. Our aim is to achieve a better understanding of the rights and obligations that different stakeholders might hold in this arena. We use a critical theoretical lens to examine conventional ethical discourse and literature to develop a fresh conceptual understanding of the arguments applicable to philanthropic and commercial actors in the context of fertility control and family planning. Whilst complex multi-stakeholder arrangements make ethical assessment challenging, caution ought to be exercised in the application and extension of conventional state-based justifications for fertility control or family planning to these transnational non-state actors. Collective justifications or interests cannot be automatically extended to cover the activities of these organisations and actors in this context. Potential conflicts of interest and inequalities in the power dynamics between stakeholders are all too apparent. The lack of direct accountability and transparency of action also raises questions about the building of philanthropic partnerships and the appropriate degree of state and international oversight. State and philanthropic/commercial interests are unlikely to be aligned when the transformative goals of the latter promote self-sufficiency and individualist agendas. This paper contributes to ethical knowledge of and literacy in philanthropic activities in the arena of family planning, sexual and reproductive health and fertility control. It offers guidance for the evaluation of these contributions and the development of global philanthropic partnerships
Tens-tact
No full textTens-tact [Cotac-sion in Spanish] is a collaborative performative drawing between Robert Luzar and M.Lohrum in which the artists explore the notions of contact and tension, as well as the graphic language of drawing. A band of black elastic fabric about 20 centimetres wide is tied between two columns, conceptually representing a line that ‘joins’ them. The artists establish a physical relationship, in which they use their bodies to alter the line, playing with distances and exerting tensions and occasional contacts that represent conceptual points. The action poses a dialogue on graphic language (point, line, gesture, tension) in which words do not mediate. But it also involves a reflection on the relationship between the body and architecture. During the action, the performers alternate slow movements and brief static states, and use pieces of natural chalk from the cliffs of the south coast of the UK – drawing upon another ‘line’ of Continental contact and tension – to create marks on the fabric. Audiences are presented with not only a dialogue between the appearance of the columns and the material used in the performance, but also a visual relationship between the columns and the bodies of the performers. The ambiguity of the title and the action allows for an open interpretation of the artists' intention by the observers: are they using the graphic language to establish a mute dialogue between their bodies? Are they in dialogue with, or repeating as a visual echo, the structure of the space in which they perform? Are they even trying to move the columns? The two performers gradually approach each other as the action progresses, only to meet in the central zone as the action ‘draws’ to a close. The performance ends when, with the help of scissors, they cut the fabric in half; releasing the tension generated and letting the remains fall to the floor
Blank canvas: art school creativity from punk to new wave
No full textArt school Britain in the 1960s and 1970s – a hotbed of experimental DIY creativity blurring the lines between art and music. In Blank Canvas, multi-genre musician turned university lecturer Simon Strange paints a picture of the diverse range of people who broke down the barriers between art, life and the creative self.
Tracing lines from the Bauhaus 'blank slate' through the white heat of the Velvet Underground and the cutting edge of the Slits, Blank Canvas draws on interviews with giants of the genre across music, gender and race spectrums, from Brian Eno to Pauline Black, Cabaret Voltaire to Gaye Advert. Illustrated is a picture of two decades erupting in a devastatingly diverse flow of outspoken originality as an eclectic range of musical styles and cultures fused.
Does modern day music education suffocate the soul and inhibit the impact of the bohemian artist?
This book asks questions of today's artists, musicians, and educators, looking for the essence of creativity and suggests how lessons learnt in and around art school education show a path for the cultural evolution of both musicians and artists hoping to create the future