BU Research Blog | social sciences | Bournemouth University

May 5, 2015

Datalabs 3: Digital Storytelling with Data

BU research, Featured academics, Knowledge Exchange, R & KE Operations afeigenbaum

Digital transformations in communications have led to the increasing popularity of data visualisations and the use of maps and other multimedia interactives for representing complex data. Often, these visual data stories can better communicate the significance of research findings to policy-makers and the public. Beyond engendering greater comprehension, this turn to the visual can also tap into our emotions and cultural values.

Next week the Fusion CCCP funded Datalabs project brings you Datalabs 3: Digital Storytelling with Data. Bringing together academic colleagues, learning support and IT staff, UG and PG students, as well as external stakeholders and community participants, the Datalabs project is co-creating digital skills and data literacy through hands-on workshops. Our first two events have been oversubscribed, so please register early to secure your participation!

Datalabs 3 hosts two events.

Thursday

14 May 2015 register here

MASTERCLASS: Turning Numbers into Narratives: An introduction to digital storytelling with data
Time: 11:00-14:00 (Please note there will be lunch served at 12:30)
Location: KG01, Kimmeridge House, Talbot Campus
In this Masterclass, we will introduce the audience to the emerging interdisciplinary field of data storytelling research. Drawing on a range of contemporary examples, we will present a variety of techniques and technologies for creating data stories.

Friday 15 May 2015 register here

WORKSHOP: Digital Storytelling with Data
Time: 10:00-16:00 (Please note there will be lunch served at 12:30)
Location: W403, Weymouth House, Talbot Campus
In this hands-on workshop we will engage with data visualisation tools, gaining insight into the process that data storytellers use to get information online and out into the public. We will take participants from spreadsheet to headline, looking at how narrative practices shape the ways we design visualisations to tell stories with data. We will also reflect on the ethical questions that come with turning numbers in narratives.

April 30, 2015

The social sciences at BU

BU research, Research assessment brichards

In response to an open email invitation, a group of social scientists from across BU met on Tuesday 17 March to discuss prospects for inter-Faculty collaboration. As in previous meetings between FMC and HSS colleagues, it was apparent that there were opportunities for more collaborative work than currently exists, and that there is considerable enthusiasm for developing links. A growing presence of the social sciences in BU, and of BU in the social sciences, was felt to be essential to BU’s development as a university with a rich intellectual community. If you haven’t received the report from this meeting by email, and would like to do so, please email Prof. Barry Richards (brichards@bmth.ac.uk)

April 29, 2015

New paper by Dr. Mastoureh Fathi

BU research, Publishing, Research communication Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Mastoureh Fathi for her latest paper: “I Make Here My Soil. I Make Here My Country” in Political Psychology.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

April 29, 2015

Dr Jeffrey Murer: Guest lecture on political violence

Global engagement brichards

The Politics and Media Research Group in FMC has a very stimulating guest speaker lined up for Monday 11^th May. Dr. Jeffrey Murer is Lecturer on Collective Violence at the University of St. Andrews, in the School of International Relations. He is unusual for an IR specialist in that he draws deeply on ideas from psychoanalysis in his studies of violent political conflict. The title of his talk is “The Politics of Splitting: Anxiety, Loss and the Anti-Semitic, Anti-Roma Violence of Contemporary Hungary”. While focussing on the situation in Hungary, his talk will illustrate how an interdisciplinary, psycho-social approach can be applied to generate insights into violence in many other contexts.

The talk will be in P406. It will start at 5.00 and be followed, until 6.30, by questions and discussion.

All staff and students are welcome.

April 27, 2015

Representations of PR – online resource

REF Subjects, Research communication, Uncategorized Tom Watson

Representation of professions and employment takes many forms and is often shaped by books and visual and aural media.

In the public relations field, characters such as Edina in Absolutely Fabulous and the foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It are well known, as are terms like “PR success” and “PR disaster”, even though the events may have little to do with public relations practices or activities.

Apart from one US researcher, Professor Joe Saltzman of the University of Southern California, there has been little investigation of representations of public relations in books and entertainment media.

Working with colleagues in Australia, Sweden and the US, Professor Tom Watson of the Faculty of Media & Communication developed the PRDepiction blog: https://prdepiction.wordpress.com/ in 2012.

“We wanted to create a resource that would offer a catalogue of books, films, TV and radio, as well as articles, and encourage interdisciplinary research,” said Professor Watson.

As the blog has a relatively simple structure, additions and amendments can be made quickly. It has just been overhauled with a new look and revisions and more entries.

“PRDepiction has grown over the years and become more international. The latest additions include TV series in Australia and the UK, and a three-book series on a fashion PR guru from Australia,” said Professor Watson.

Additions can be sent to PR Depiction as blog Comments or to twatson@bournemouth.ac.uk. The blog also has a Twitter address, @PRDepiction.

PRDepiction's Twitter logo

April 26, 2015

Major earthquake in Nepal: Help needed

BU research, Global engagement, Public engagement, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

Yesterday’s earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter Scale, killed thousands of people. It is now 9 AM on Sunday morning and just had a report from friends in Nepal about a major after shock whilst the number of reported deaths is increasing by the hour. The number of causalities in rural areas will only become known over the next few weeks, because of the remoteness of some of the affected areas and the damage to infrastructure (roads, power cables, telephone, and internet links). We know from previous disasters in low-income countries like Nepal that help will be slower to reach rural areas.

The Government of Nepal has asked for international aid and the first aid arrived yesterday from neighbouring India. Yesterday the United States has made one million US$ available for the most immediate aid according to USAID, whilst the Belgian government activated its so-called B-Fast team (Belgian First Aid & Support Team). Like many countries, the UK has offered support. These big relief efforts are vital, especially for the immediate support in finding people under the rubble, and bringing in clean water, blankets, food, medicine and other supplies.

Only last month we published an editorial arguing that Nepal needs a greater focus on health protection to tackle emerging public health hazards.¹ In this editorial we observed that “whilst Nepal has made some head way in disaster planning, much of this seems to be focused mainly around earthquake disaster planning only.” The coming weeks and months we teach us to what extent this earthquake disaster management has been effective.

Researchers at BU have been working in Nepal for over ten years and in that period, have come to know many people and made lots of friends. We are worried about those we know personally, friends across Nepal, especially in our field sites, former and current Green Tara Nepal staff, the shop keepers next door to the Green Tara office, former and current students, and so on. Like so many people our first reaction was that we need to do something, starting with collecting money for the people of Nepal. We have decided that unlike a general appeal for help, like many friends of Nepal will set up over the next few days across the globe, we would stick to what we are good at: (a) improving maternity care in rural Nepal; and (b) stimulating health promotion. The former because women will continue to become pregnant and babies will continue to be born, the latter because the risk is that any disaster relief will focus on the here and now. Moreover, we want our disaster relief to be based on the same principles as outlined in Table 1 as the rest of our work.²

Table 1: Underlying philosophy of the Green Tara programme

The desired intervention or programme needs to be:

Community-based.
Culturally appropriate.
Women-centred, including working with those affecting women’s access to improved health (e.g. mothers in law, husbands).
Small-scale.
Sustainable.
Making best use of existing resources, both from the government and others in the locality.
Low cost.
Involve stakeholders at all stages to increase ownership and maximise chances of sustainability.

Donations can be made to Green Tara Trust (London) through the official donation web page:

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/donate/makeDonationForCharityDisplay.action?charityId=1008396

This money will be used to implement sustainable low-cost, health intervention projects, working in close collaboration with local communities. There need to be projects on the ground now which are focusing immediately on the long-term preventative approach.

Please give generously!

Karunamati (Green Tara Trust, UK)

Padma Dharini (Green Tara Trust, UK)

Padam Simkhada (Liverpool John Moores University & Green Tara Nepal)

Edwin van Teijlingen (Bournemouth University, UK)

References:

Simkhada, P., Lee, A., van Teijlingen, E., Karki, P., Neupane C.H. (2015) Need and importance of health protection training in Nepal, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology (editorial) 5(1): 441-443.
van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P., Stephen, J., Simkhada, B., Woodes Rogers, S., Sharma, S. (2012) Making the best use of all resources: developing a health promotion intervention in rural Nepal. Health Renaissance 10(3): 229-235.

April 20, 2015

BNAC conference reported in Nepal

BU research, Global engagement, PG research, Publishing, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

Last week FHSS PhD student Ms. Preeti Mahato and I attended the 13th Annual Conference of BNAC (Britian-Nepal Academic Council) in London. The conference venue was held at SOAS in central London. In total 28 papers on nine wide-ranging themes concerning Nepal and its global connections were presented and debated by a large number of participants ranging from post-graduate students to established professors and researchers from the UK, Nepal and some other EU countries. The conference was reported upon in Nepal on an online news website called eKantipur.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

April 15, 2015

BU presence at BNAC conference

BU research, Global engagement, PG research, Public engagement, Research news, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

BU Visiting Fellow Prof. Padam Simkhada (based at Liverpool John Moores University) and BU Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen will be presenting the paper ‘Health and Welfare of Nepali Female Returnees from Gulf Countries: A Mixed-Methods Study’ in collaboration with two Nepal-based co-authors at the latest BNAC conference. The paper is based on over 0ne thousand records of Nepali women who have returned from work in countries on the Arabian sub-continent. The records have been collected by a charity based in Kathmandu called Pourakhi that supports female migrant workers. The 13th Annual Nepal Study Days will be held at SOAS (University of London) on Thursday 16th April and Friday 17th April, and the programme can be found here.

Whilst new BU PhD student Ms. Preeti Mahato has been assigned Dr. Ben Campbell as ‘Study day tutor’ at this BNAC conference to help her focus her thesis research question and methods and any issues and queries she may have. We think this opportunity will be very helpful to her.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

April 7, 2015

Writing workshop in Kathmandu

Featured academics, Global engagement, Knowledge Transfer, Publishing, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

We regularly conduct workshops and training sessions on academic writing at home and abroad. Yesterday afternoon I did one in Kathmandu for staff at Social Science Baha and Green Tara Nepal. There were the usual comments and queries about authorship, references, length of papers or sections of papers, how to target the ‘best’ journalfor my article, etc. One interesting question I had not been asked before was: “How did you feel when you had your first paper published?”, followed by the question: “Who did you tell about it?” I thought that was a very nice question, and also reminded me why we do these kind of workshops for those who haven’t had the pleasure yet of getting a paper in print.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

April 5, 2015

Invited talk Easter Monday

BU research, Featured academics, Global engagement, Publishing, Research news Edwin van Teijlingen

On 6th April, Easter Monday, professor Edwin van Teijlingen will present the process and selected findings of research capacity building work conducted in Nepal. The invited lecture at Social Science Baha in Kathmandu was originally planned for early January, but unfortunately had to be cancelled at the last moment due to a national strike in Nepal.

PARI (Partnership on improving Access to Research Literature for Higher Education Institutions in Nepal) refers to a project to support and enhance health research in Nepal; a partnership between Tribhuvan University, three UK universities (including Bournemouth University), and the Development Resource Centre (Nepal). The British Council and DFID (UK) funded PARI to help build research capacity over a three-year period.

Nepal has limited capacity in health research, which restricts ability to implement evidence-based health care. PARI aimed to move university lecturers away from textbook teaching and make them more critical of the academic literature available on the Internet.

PARI workshops delivered to Nepal universities introduce the foundations of evidence-based practice and outline key electronic databases of health care and health service literature available to Nepalese academics. These workshops were informed by: (1) a curriculum review of all health-related courses at the major universities in Nepal; and (2) a needs assessment with lecturers, librarians and students of the major universities.

Key message included that We need to move away from textbook teaching in health care and teach health-care discipline students how to find the most appropriate evidence-based treatment for each patient.

The PARI team:

Ram Sharan Pathak,Tribhuvan University,Nepal

Padam Simkhada, Liverpool John Moores University, UK.

Bhimsen Devkota, Development ResourceCentre,Nepal

Edwin van Teijlingen,Bournemouth University,UK

Julie Bruce,University of Warwick, UK

Pramod Regmi, Development Resource Centre, Nepal

Amudha Poobalan, University of Aberdeen, UK

Trilochan Pokharel, Nepal Administrative Staff College, Kathmandu Nepal

The work has resulted in two academic publications:

Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Devkota, B., Pathak, R.S., Sathian, B. (2014) Accessing research literature: A mixed-method study of academics in Higher Education Institutions in Nepal, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 4(4): 405-14. http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/11375
Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Pokharel, T., Devkota, B., Pathak, R.S. (2013) Research Methods Coverage in Medical & Health Science Curricula in Nepal, Nepal Journal Epidemiology 3(3): 253-258. www.nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/article/view/9185

April 2, 2015

Publishing an academic book in a low-income country

Featured academics, Global engagement, Publishing, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

Earlier this year our book ‘The Dynamics of Health in Nepal’ was published by Himal Books for Social Science Baha in Kathmandu.¹It is an edited collection covering a range of current health topics in Nepal, including issues such as maternal health, HIV/AIDS, sexual health, road traffic accidents, non-communicable diseases and the role of the media and migration.

One of us had published several books, with for example international publishers such as Elsevier, Routledge (part of Taylor Francis) and Oxford University Press.^2-4All editors authors are UK PhD graduates from the universities of Aberdeen (van Teijlingen), Southampton (Simkhada) and Sheffield (Wasti) respectively. All three of us were based in the UK at the time of conception of the book. Padam Simkhada was Senior Lecturer in International Health at the University of Sheffield, Edwin van Teijlingen still is professor at Bournemouth University and Sharada Prasad Wasti was a PhD student at ScHARR (University of Sheffield). So it made sense to talk to publishers in the UK, which is what we did. However, it rapidly became clear that we could get a deal for an expensive hardback book, a book which would sell way above what the average academic in Nepal could afford. After some soul searching we decided to look into getting the book published in Nepal.

One of the advantages of publishing Nepal is the same most outsourcing to low income-countries, namely it keeps the production costs down. Rather than increasing our profit margins by keeping the low production costs, as it the typical case in the global market, we used this to keep the retail price low. The book retails for 800NR (about £5.50) in Nepal which means it is affordable to academics and postgraduate students in Nepal. Similar books from international publishers sell for at least £20!

We had some trepidation about the potentially quality of the book before we signed the contract with Social Science Baha. These low expectations were based on the quality of printed text books we had seen for sale on small stalls outside the Kittipur Campus of Tribhuvan University. One of these shoddy looking books was based on lecturers given by our Nepalese colleague Prof. Dr. Bhimsen Devkota. When we passed one of these stalls many years ago he pointed at a particular book and said: “See that book, a student who had attended my lectures two years in a row, copied all I said, and the materials I handed out, all of it word for word. That student then got it published as a book.”

However, our expectations were wrong. From the outset the publishing process was impressive. Social Science Baha employed a very professional proof-reader/copy-editor who picked up a lot of minor style and language issues even after we had most of the chapters professionally proof-read in the UK. The classic example of the thoroughness of his checking was the name of one for the chapter contributors ‘Sally Woodes Rogers’, he came back to us and said, “But her name on the web pages of the University of Aberdeen is ‘Sarah’ not ‘Sally’, are you sure?” At which point we had to assure him that ‘Sarah’ was her correct birth name but that she wanted herself to be known as ‘Sally’.

The final version of our book looks very good. The cover is beautifully printed; the font, chapter lay-out and overall style are of a very high quality. Our book has the feel of a typical academic book published in Europe or North America. There is really nothing about it that says this book is published in a low-income country.

The book has been well received at its launch in Kathmandu in January 2015. The first published book review was also very complementary.⁵ Last but not least, having produced a great looking book, for us the final feel-good factor is that we agreed to donate all profits from the sale of the book to the charity Green Tara Nepal.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Prof. Padam Simkhada

Dr. Sharada P. Wasti

References:

Wasti, S.P., Simkhada, P.P., van Teijlingen, E.(eds.) (2015)The Dynamics of Health in Nepal,Kathmandu, Nepal: Social Science Baha&Himal Books
DeVries, R., Benoit, C., Teijlingen van, E., Wrede, S. (eds.) (2001) Birth by Design: Pregnancy, Midwifery Care and Midwifery in North America and Europe,New York: Routledge.
Taylor R., Smith, B.,Teijlingen van, E. (eds.) (2003) Health & Illness in the Community: an Oxford Core Text, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Alder, B. Abraham, C., van Teijlingen, E., Porter, M. (eds.) (2009) Psychology & Sociology Applied to Medicine: An Illustrated Colour Text (third edn), Edinburgh: Elsevier Science.
Pradhan S. (2015) Book review The Dynamics of Health in Nepal, Public Health Perspective 5(2) on line journal: http://www.phpnepal.org/index.php?listId=943

March 20, 2015

‘And the walls came tumbling down’ – BU involved in Palestinian-Israeli peace and reconciliation dialogues

Global engagement, Women's Academic Network Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict represents one of the most protracted and volatile in contemporary global politics. In Europe, we witness events from the outside through the shock and glare of television newsflashes. We are uncomfortably aware of the huge gulf between the world we inhabit of quotidian demands and trivial, micro conflicts – and that other world that vibrates terrifyingly with the devastating and cataclysmic, horrifyingly symbolised by the bodies of the killed, so many of them young children.

Given my academic interests I was therefore deeply honoured to be invited on an all-expenses paid trip to Israel recently, by our Visiting Professor to the currently named Centre of Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy (CSWSSP) in FHSS – Professor Alean Al-Krenawi – a world renowned social work scholar of Bedouin heritage. The invitation was to give a keynote lecture in Jerusalem at the final conference/workshop under the ‘Building Peace Through Knowledge Program’, a Palestinian-Israeli project, under the auspices of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and generously funded by the USAID Conflict Mitigation and Reconciliation Program. This three-year project was developed by Professor Al-Krenawi and his impressive colleague, Dr Tawfiq Salman, the General Director of the Palestinian Neuropsychiatric Rehabilitation Center (PNRC) Bethlehem and President of the Palestinian Association for Child & Adolescence Mental Health (PACAMH). The aims of the project have been to bring together participant dialogue groups in conference workshops – and this final event would seek to embed, encapsulate and take forward the good work developed so far.

The invitation therefore was both a great privilege and honour – and an undeniably challenging one, replete with huge, raw sensitivities to acknowledge and yawning pits for the vigilant, let alone unwary, to carefully negotiate. Here, to a large mixed audience of Israeli and Palestinian professionals working across the domains of human services, education and health disciplines, I presented a paper entitled ‘Chaos and coalescence in the narratives of hardship: a new pedagogy for human services’. The aim was to begin to create a meta-narrative of hardship and suffering in order to recognise fully the humanity and the pain of the ‘other’; and to find a universal commonality transcending the barriers of ethnicity, religion and years of violent oppression and conflict.

A highly ambitious undertaking therefore, which could only be attempted with great humility to be open to truly hearing and acknowledging the stories and accounts from participants – often exceedingly painful and occasionally inflammatory to others. The potential for offence was extremely high, but so too were the stakes for greater understanding and accord together with individual commitment to working towards a more peaceful and equitable future.

Following my talk the audience were then encouraged to break into small, mixed ethnic discussion groups to discuss narratives of hardship and suffering that they had encountered, engaged in or witnessed – and to reflect on these in terms of the impact upon individuals at the personal and professional levels. An excellent omen, I wryly noticed, was that one of the conference rooms where I was helping to facilitate discussion groups was called ‘Jericho’ – and thus together we began to bring down the walls.

I was deeply impressed by the willingness of the audience to engage in these difficult discussions. A few Palestinian and Israeli participants had already been able to develop close friendships through these dialogue encounters, maintained even across the worst of the fighting of the Intifadas. Yet, as we learn, there have been more peace and reconciliation dialogue groups taking place in Israel than in any other country globally – and sadly to little overall effect. Worse still such dialogues by the very act of breaking down personal-political barriers can exacerbate the huge of sense of (now) personal betrayal felt by participants in ensuing violence.

A key component of success we heard about is to ‘scale up’: in other words to increase the social impact of the good will developed in dialogue groups by expanding their influence externally. Accordingly, the aim is to expand both horizontally by creating meta-networks and vertically to reach government levels for necessary policy change. At the moment extremely aggressive hawks have been in the ascendance but the Israeli general elections are being held very soon. Accordingly many Israeli participants at the workshop expressed the hope that the political landscape would soon be changed by a more moderate government through democratic processes. Sadly, however, some of the Palestinian colleagues at the workshop had no voting rights despite being life-long Jerusalem residents. There is clearly still much work to do in such a troubled and unequal region of the world.

Dr Tawfiq Salman & Prof Alean Al-Krenawi

Bringing down the walls in Jericho

On a final constructive note, BU Sociology+ academics are able to continue some of this important work in Israel. Via these connections BU is now the British partner for a Palestinian-Israeli, USA and UK conference on diversity and multiculturalism (a key research theme within CSWSSP) to be held in 2016 under the auspices of the Achva Academic College, whose President is our much-esteemed colleague and friend, Alean Al-Krenawi.

Professor Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

March 18, 2015

MIDWIFERY: Top five most down-loaded articles for 2014

BU research, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

Today academic publisher Elsevier sent round an email with the top five most downloaded articles from the international journal Midwifery.

We were pleased to see that the fifth paper on that list is a BU paper jointly written with Dr. Helen Bryers, Consultant Midwife in Scotland.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

February 26, 2015

Social science research at BU

BU research Julie Northam

During the consultation on Faculty structures it became evident that there is an interest across the University in closer cross-Faculty collaboration amongst those whose work is based in or influenced by the social sciences. To this end, Prof. Barry Richards of FMC and Prof. Jonathan Parker of HSS are convening a meeting at 2.30 (note start time) on Tuesday 17th March (in PG11, Talbot Campus) to discuss cross-Faculty collaborations in social science-based research. There are already a number of such collaborative projects underway, and the aim of this meeting would be to explore the prospects for developing existing links and shared activities in a more strategic way. This could create new synergies, raise BU’s profile as a place where ‘4*’ social research and thought leadership can be found, and strengthen our hand in funding bids. It could also have implications for research organization and REF planning.

So if you are engaged in or planning some research which you think might benefit from an environment with stronger inter-Faculty links and a richer interdisciplinary context, or would just like to know more about SS research across BU, do put this meeting in your calendar.

February 11, 2015

BU Faculty of Health & Social Sciences’ academics on Andalusian scientific committee

BU research, Global engagement, Women's Academic Network Jonathan Parker

BU Faculty of Health & Social Sciences academics, Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree and Prof Jonathan Parker, have been invited to join the scientific committee of Universidad de Málaga’s Project PASOS (Proposals for actions and sustainability parameters in the access and housing rehabilitation in Andalusia) led by the Centre for Social Work, Sociology and Social Policy’s visiting fellow Prof Dr Maria Luisa Gomez-Jimenez. This important project seeks to relieve housing distress and improve accessibility in Andalusia at a time of continued austerity.

A description of the project follows and the full web-site can be found at: http://www.pasosvivienda.uma.es.

Social exclusion increases as evictions do, and the right to housing, established in Statute, is now in question. Thus, in synergy with policies that have been developed by the Andalusian Autonomous Government in defense of the right to housing the project brings to the fore debate and research for enhancing housing policies through various cognate areas: legal, economic, geographical, social, architectural and in the sustainable and green economy.

The PASOS project seeks to:

Promote studies and research for the development of accessibility policies in the field of housing that contribute to social cohesion and provide the improvement of life quality for citizens.
Develop studies and research related to “sustainable building” as strategic line define by the PAIDI (Andalusian Plan of research and development and innovation) in the area of competencies of the Building and Housing Counselling.
Improve the processes of building and preservation applying new technologies to building.
Improve efficiency in energy consumption in building processes and the production of renewable energy in building.

February 7, 2015

Recent methods papers at BU

BU research, Publishing, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

In the past six weeks we saw the publication of three methods papers by BU academics. BU’s Joanne Mayoh and her colleague Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie in the USA published a paper on mixed-methods approaches in phenomenology.¹ They argue that phenomenological research methods work extremely well as a component of mixed-methods research approaches. The purpose of this article is twofold, they provide: (1) a philosophical justification for using what they label mixed-methods phenomenological research (MMPR); and (2) examples of MMPR in practice to underline a number of potential models for MMPR that can practically be used in future research.

In the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences Catherine Angell and Jane Hunt with Professor Emerita Jo Alexander offer methodological insights into the ‘draw and write’ research method.² Their literature review identified that the method has been used inconsistently and found that there are issues for researchers in relation to interpretation of creative work and analysis of data. As a result of this, an improvement on this method, entitled ‘draw, write and tell’, was developed in an attempt to provide a more child-orientated and consistent approach to data collection, interpretation and analysis. This article identifies the issues relating to ‘draw and write’ and describes the development and application of ‘draw, write and tell’ as a case study, noting its limitations and benefits.

Finally, BU Visiting Faculty Emma Pitchforth and CMMPH’s Edwin van Teijlingen together with Consultant Midwife Helen MacKenzie Bryers published a paper advocating mixed-methods approaches in health research.³ This paper outlines the different paradigms or philosophies underlying quantitative and qualitative methods and some of the on-going debates about mixed-methods. The paper further highlights a number of practical issues, such as: (1) the particular mix and order of quantitative and qualitative methods; (2) the way of integrating methods from different philosophical stance; and (3) how to synthesise mixed-methods findings. This paper is accompanied by an editorial in Nepal Journal of Epidemiology.⁴

Professor Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

References:

Mayoh, J., Onwuegbuzie, A.J. (2015) Toward a Conceptualization of Mixed Methods Phenomenological Research, Journal of Mixed Methods Research 9(1): 91-107.
Angell, C., Alexander, J., Hunt, J.A. (2015) ‘Draw, write and tell’: A literature review and methodological development on the ‘draw and write’ research method. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 13(1): 17-28.
MacKenzie Bryers, H., van Teijlingen, E. Pitchforth, E. (2014) Advocating mixed-methods approaches in health research, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 4(5): 417-422.
Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Wasti, S.P., Sathian, B. (2014) Mixed-methods approaches in health research in Nepal (editorial) Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 4(5): 415-416.

February 3, 2015

BU research, Publishing, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

Tourism, a global industry, brings with it a number of public health problems, one of which is the spread of sexually transmitted infections transmitted between travellers and hosts.
Previous studies have largely focused on sex workers and sex tourists. This latest paper ‘Nepalese Trekking Guides: A Quantitative Study of Sexual Health Knowledge And Sexual Behaviour’ published yesterday in the Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences assesses sexual behaviour, knowledge and condom use among male trekking guides in Nepal.

A self-administered questionnaire survey (n=324) was conducted using snowball sampling amongst men working as mountain trekking guides in Nepal. Most respondents (59%) had initiated sex before the age of 18. Most (84 %) reported sexual relations with a woman other than their partner, 46% reported foreign partners, 43% had Nepalese partners, and 28% had concurrent foreign and Nepalese partners. Most (70 %) reported ever having sex with a foreign woman and two-thirds had had sexual intercourse with foreign women in the previous 12 months. Participants’ age, education status, age of first sex, smoking and drinking habits and English proficiency were significant predictors of having sex with foreign women.About 60% reported condom use during their most recent occasion of extra-martial sex. A similar proportion had used a condom during last sexual intercourse with a foreign woman. The likelihood of condom use was associated with a guide’s age, educational level, ethnicity, age of first sex and work experience. Most trekking guides reported sexual relations with foreign women as well as irregular use of condoms. Although sexual health knowledge about among trekking guides is high, some misconceptions still result in unsafe sex. Hence there is an urgent need to revise the existing training for trekking guides and implement appropriate health promotion programmes.

Reference:

Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Regmi, P., Bhatta, P., Ingham, R., Stone, N. (2015) Sexual health knowledge and risky sexual behaviour of Nepalese trekking guides. Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences 1 (4): 35-42.

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

January 26, 2015

31 publications by January 31st!

BU research, PG research, Publishing, Research news, student research, Uncategorized Edwin van Teijlingen

My contribution to the BU Research Blog this year started on 3-1-2015 under the heading First BU publicatio n of 2015. I soon discovered that with loads of journals publishing their first issue of the new year in early January and books being published early in the new year (rather than late in the previous one) the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences had quite a few new publications lined up. It seems a nice idea to write another BU Research Blog under the title ’20/20′ referring in our case to twenty publications by January 20th with wordplay on the 20-20 perfection vision. But before January 20th the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences had already more than 20 publications.

The plan changed to report 25 publications by January 25th. This time the title in my head was ‘In the month 25-25 …’ a poor wordplay of the song ‘In the year 2525’. In The Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus) was a hit in my youth (in the late Sixties by the US duo Denny Zager and Rick Evans). Unfortunately, this plan was short-lived too as I was made aware of several publications by Faculty of Health & Social Sciences colleagues in the space of three days.

Hence the final attempt ’31 publications by January 31st!’ (published today 26th January) before I find out about further publications!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health

Faculty of Health & Social Sciences

The list of 31 Faculty of Health & Social Sciences publication for early 2015, comprising 21 papers and ten book chapter:

Hemingway, A., Norton, L & Aarts, C. (2015) Principles of Lifeworld Led Public Health Practice in the UK and Sweden: Reducing Health Inequalities Nursing Research & Practice, Vol. 2015 Article ID 124591, 4 pages
Jonathan Williams and his colleagues at Cardiff University published: ‘Development of a computation biomechanical model for the investigation of infant head injury by shaking’ Medicine, Science and the Law, http://msl.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/12/30/0025802414564495.abstract
Bernardo G.L., Pacheco da Costa Proença R, Cristin M, Calvo, M., Fiates, G.M.R., Hartwell H. (2015),”Assessment of the healthy dietary diversity of a main meal in a self-service restaurant”, British Food Journal, 117(1): 286 – 301.
Ashencaen Crabtree, S., Parker, J. (2015) Reflections on Social Work and Human Rights, SUHAKAM Malaysian Journal of Human Rights Journal, pp.19-30 (forthcoming)
Ashencaen Crabtree, S., Parker, J., Azman, A., Masu’d, F. (2015) Typologies of learning in international student placements, Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work & Development. Advanced access/online Doi: 10.1080/02185385.2014.1003393
Ashencaen Crabtree, S. and Parker, J. (2015) Being male in female spaces: Perceptions of male students on masculinity on a qualifying course. Revista de Asistenţă Socială, anul XIII, 4/2014, pp. 7-26, www.swreview.ro
Simkhada, P.P., van Teijlingen, E., Marahatta, S.B. Mental health services in Nepal: Is it too late? Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (accepted).
Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen E., Winter, R.C., Fanning, C., Dhungel, A., Marahatta S.B. Why are so many Nepali women killing themselves? A review of key issues Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (accepted).
Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. Wasti, S.P., Sathian B., Mixed-methods approaches in health research in Nepal (Editorial) Nepal Journal of Epidemiology (accepted).
Galvin, K., Todres L (2015) Dignity as honour-wound: An experiential and relational view Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.
16. Worswick, L., Little, C., Ryan, K., Carr, E. (2015),Interprofessional learning in primary care: An exploration of the service user experience leads to a new model for co-learning Nurse Education Today
Murphy, J., Pulman, A., Jeffery, J., Worswick, L., Ford, G., 2015. Translating research into practice: Evaluation of an e-learning resource for health care professionals to provide nutrition advice and support for cancer survivors. Nurse Education Today, 35(1), 271-276.
Hundley, V., Luce, A., van Teijlingen Do midwives need to be more media savvy? MIDIRS (accepted).
Rachel Arnold published from her PhD research: Arnold, R., van Teijlingen, E.R., Ryan, K., Holloway, I. (2015) Understanding Afghan health care providers: A qualitative study of the culture of care in a Kabul maternity hospital, BJOG 122: 260-267.
Angell, C., Alexander J, Hunt J (2015) ‘Draw, write and tell’: A literature review and methodological development on the ‘draw and write’ research method, Journal of Early Childhood Research 13(1): 17-28.
Gyawali, B., Keeling, J., van Teijlingen, E., Dhakal. L., Aro, A.R. (2015) Cervical Cancer Screening: Ethical Consideration, Medicolegal & Bioethics 5 :1-6
Grylka-Baeschlin, S., van Teijlingen, E.R., Stoll, K., Gross, M.M. (2015) Translation and validation of the German version of the Mother-Generated Index and its application during the postnatal period. Midwifery 31(1): 47–53.
MacKenzie Bryers, H., van Teijlingen, E. Pitchforth, E., Advocating mixed-methods approaches in health research, Nepal Journal of Epidemiology (accepted).
Hall, J., Hundley, V., van Teijlingen, E. The Journal editor: friend or foe? Women & Birth (accepted).
Marsh, W., Colbourne, D., Way, S., Hundley, V., 2014. Would a student run postnatal clinic make a valuable addition to midwifery education in the UK? A systematic review. Nurse Education Today. (In Press)
Bevan A.L., Hartwell H, Hemingway, A., Rossana Pacheco da Costa Proença (2015) An exploration of the fruit and vegetable “foodscape” in a university setting for staff: A preliminary study British Food Journal, 117(1): 37-49.

Book chapters:

Edwin van Teijlingen published a chapter on ‘Sociology of Midwifery’ in: Sociology for Midwives, Deery, R., Denny, E. & Letherby, G. (eds.) published by Polity Pres
PhD student Sheetal Sharma is co-author of a book chapter called ‘Customs and believes surrounding newborn babies in rural areas’ published The Dynamics of Health in Nepalet al. by Himal Books, Nepal.
Benoit, C., Sandall, J., Benoit, C., Murray, S.F., van Teijlingen E., Wrede, S., & Declercq, G. New directions in global policy: maternal health. In: E. Kuhlmann, E., Bourgeault, I. (eds.) Palgrave International Handbook on Health Care Policy & Governance, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan (forthcoming 2015)
Jenny Hall has a chapter forthcoming ‘Spirituality and compassion and maternity care’ in The Roar behind the silence: why kindness, compassion and respect matter in maternity care, S. Byrom & S. Downe (eds.) published by Pinter and Martin: http://www.pinterandmartin.com/the-roar-behind-the-silence.html?
van Teijlingen, E, Simkhada, P., Wasti, P.P. (2015) Nepal is Changing: Modernisation and Diversity in Healthcare. In: Wasti, S.P., Simkhada, P.P. & van Teijlingen, E. (Eds.) The Dynamics of Health in Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal: Social Science Baha & Himal Books: 1-15.
Wasti, S.P., Simkhada, P.P. & van Teijlingen, E. (Eds.) (2015) Socio-Cultural Aspects of HIV/AIDS. In: The Dynamics of Health in Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal: Social Science Baha & Himal Books: 47-62.
Simkhada, B., Sharma, A., van Teijlingen, E., Silwal, R.C., Simkhada, P. (2015) Exploring Maternal Mortality Reduction. In: Wasti, S.P. et al. The Dynamics of Health in Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal: Social Science Baha & Himal Books: 95-121
Devkota, B., van Teijlingen, E. (2015) Exploring Rebel Health Services during the Maoist People’s War. In: Wasti, S.P. et al. (Eds.) The Dynamics of Health in Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal: Social Science Baha & Himal Books: 122-130.
Devkota, S., Maharjan, H.M., van Teijlingen, E. (2015) Media and Health. In: Wasti, S.P., Simkhada, P.P. & van Teijlingen, E. (Eds.) The Dynamics of Health in Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal: Social Science Baha & Himal Books: 169-184.
Parker, J. (2015) Single Shared Assessments in social work. In J.D. Wright (ed.) The International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edn, Elsevier, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.28105-1 .

Tagged / social sciences

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