Focus Groups are often under-used as a valuable tool for research. This practical and extremely well-written guide offers advice on: * planning and organising focus groups * what types of questions ...to use* the limitations and advantages of using these groups as research methods* collecting the data at group sessions* how to analyse the data produced.
•Textbook gender representations of family have hardly changed over 50 years.•Our corpus showed merely one depiction of homosexuality.•Teachers generally think that they appreciate gender diversity ...in class.•But they mostly ignore gender-biased representations in gendered texts.•We expand Sunderland, Cowley, Abdul Rahim, Leontzakou and Shattuck (2001)’s model on gendered teacher talk in class by adding categories and usage frequencies.
The language classroom offers a rich environment for deconstructing language- and culture-specific gender and sexuality models in action. The present study responds to calls for diachronic textbook studies and classroom based research in this area. We first examine gender and sexuality in text (types and tokens) and images in ‘family’ chapters in 15 Dutch language textbooks published between 1970 and 2018. Second, we examine under-explored ‘teacher talk around gendered text’ through observation of 32 Dutch language lessons in high schools in Germany and interviews with 9 participating teachers. Results show few changes in gender representations in textbooks over the past 50 years; and significant discrepancies between teachers’ self-articulated gender ideologies (e.g., gender equality is important) and teacher talk in class, which mostly ignores gender-biased representations in texts. We aim to further debate in this area, by extending an existing theoretical model on ‘teacher talk around gendered text’ and discussing implications for inclusive language education.
Induction of labour (IOL), the process of starting labour artificially, is one of the most commonly performed procedures in maternity care in the United Kingdom (UK), yet there is debate whether ...inducing labour at ‘term’, in the absence of specific medical indication, is beneficial and reduces risk of stillbirth. Moreover, rates of routine IOL are rapidly rising in the UK, despite uncertainty about the evidence base and parents reporting receiving a lack of balanced information about the process. As a contested area of maternity care, the language used to debate, describe and discuss IOL takes on added significance and requires in-depth examination and analysis. To address this, we conducted a feminist critical discourse analysis on policy and professional writing about IOL in the UK, focusing on how these both reflect and construct social practices of pregnancy and birth. Our analysis identified a double discourse about IOL, which we term ‘explicit-implicit discourse of care’, revealing the differences between what is expected to be said and what is really said. Though most texts displayed an explicit discourse of care, which espoused women-centred care and informed choice, they also conveyed an implicit discourse of care, primarily composed of three key dimensions: women as absent actors, disembodiment, and evidence as a primary actor. We argue that this explicit-implicit discourse functions to preserve healthcare professionals' control over maternity care and further alienate women from their own bodies while maintaining a discursive position of women-centred care and informed choice.
•This feminist critical discourse analysis explores professional writing about induction of labour policy and practice.•A double discourse was identified that operates at both explicit and implicit levels.•There are differences between what is stated (explicit) and underlying messages (implicit).•Women are afforded little agency within their own experience of induction by many of the authors.•Discourse often functions to preserve clinicians' control over maternity care.
Background
The speech and language therapy/pathology (SLT/SLP) profession is characterized by extreme ‘occupational sex segregation’, a term used to refer to persistently male‐ or female‐dominated ...professions. Men make up only 2.5% of all SLTs in the UK, and a similar imbalance is found in other countries. Despite calls to increase diversity in the allied health professions more generally, research into the reasons for occupational sex segregation and gender as a potential key factor remains scarce.
Aims
This study aims to explore the potential role of gender/gendered discourses in people's decision to pursue a career in SLT/SLP. It seeks to illustrate how gendered assumptions/expectations/discourses continue to construct SLT as a ‘gendered’ profession, and to make some recommendations in this area for SLT recruitment and practice.
Methods & Procedures
The study adopted a qualitative design which elicited research participants’ views, knowledge and experiences (in their own words) in relation to the research questions. Data collection involved two iterative phases: a preliminary data phase—which involved semi‐structured interviews with newly qualified SLT graduates and practising SLTs, and the completion of questionnaires by undergraduate SLTs—and a main/focus group phase. In the focus group phase reported in this paper, six focus groups in total were held with SLTs, teachers of SLT, and careers advisors in London, UK. The data were analysed qualitatively using grounded theory principles, thematic analysis and discourse analysis.
Outcomes & Results
The findings extend our knowledge and understanding of gender as a parameter of people's motivations and perceptions, which can influence their choice of career (e.g. as regards pay and flexibility). The findings also show that discourses around women as carers, nurturers and communicators constitute key ways through which the SLT profession continues to be constructed as ‘women's work’. The topic of structural gender inequalities in the profession was also discussed in the data. Some recommendations for change, with implications for SLT recruitment and practice, were made by the participants themselves.
Conclusions & Implications
Gender imbalance in SLT needs to be researched further in order to help address inequalities, re‐evaluate professional practices and develop service delivery in the profession. This area also needs to be researched via analysis that goes beyond gender distribution in numerical terms to consider the complex perceptions or discourses around gender and work. Cross‐disciplinary and comparative perspectives in future research would also be fruitful.
Abstract Building on recent investigations of the role of gendered discourses in constructing and maintaining sex-segregated professions this article highlights the significance of small story ...analysis for the identification of positioning acts which function as rhetorical warrants for career choices and trajectories. It analyses small stories told by Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) and investigates the tensions expressed in the negotiation and performance of their gendered professional identities. Small stories act as a medium of professional identity construction, rapport-building and as a site of contestation, employed to (re)appraise the social order, particularly with respect to 'women's' and 'men's' work. Gendered discourses are shown to impact not only on the amount of men entering the SLT profession but also the specialisms and progression routes that men and women pursue. The analysis points to the reproductive and regulatory power of gendered discourses on individuals' experience of their gendered subjectivity and professional identity.
Much research on gender-based violence, especially sexual assault, indicate that women are often blamed for their predicament (Ehrlich 2002; Clark 1998). Prominent among the reasons given is ...'indecent dressing' - which lures 'innocent' men to commit such crimes. Context therefore plays a major role in who is blamed. To contribute to this discussion, I discuss the role of context in apportioning blame in the two cases of sexual assault on a Ghanaian female artiste (Mzbel). This is done through the analysis of linguistic data from media reports, readers and Mzbel herself. The analysis shows that people view these cases differently depending on their personal ideologies and the context within which they operate. Whereas most of the text producers draw on the socio-cultural context to either directly or indirectly 'justify' the actions of the perpetrators, others draw on the legal to condemn the crimes.
Gender and discourse interface in many more epistemological sites than can be represented in one collection. Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis therefore focuses on a principled diversity of key ...sites within four broad areas: the media, sexuality, education and parenthood. The different chapters together illustrate how taking a discourse perspective facilitates understanding of the complex and subtle ways in which gender is represented, constructed and contested through language. The book engages critically with long-running and on-going debates, but also reflects and develops current understandings of gender, identity and discourse, particularly the shift from 'gender differences' to the discoursal shaping of gender. Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis thus offers not only insights and methodologies of new empirical studies but also careful theorisations, in particular of discourse, text, identity and gender. The collection is a valuable resource for researchers, postgraduates and advanced undergraduates working in the area of gender and discourse.
•AI implementation in medical imaging/radiotherapy is impeded by lack of training.•There is a distinct lack of knowledge of AI governance frameworks.•Different professionals identify different ...priorities for AI adoption.•Customised training and governance frameworks can accelerate AI implementation.
Medical Imaging and radiotherapy (MIRT) are at the forefront of artificial intelligence applications. The exponential increase of these applications has made governance frameworks necessary to uphold safe and effective clinical adoption. There is little information about how healthcare practitioners in MIRT in the UK use AI tools, their governance and associated challenges, opportunities and priorities for the future.
This cross-sectional survey was open from November to December 2022 to MIRT professionals who had knowledge or made use of AI tools, as an attempt to map out current policy and practice and to identify future needs. The survey was electronically distributed to the participants. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics and inferential statistics on the SPSS statistical software. Content analysis was employed for the open-ended questions.
Among the 245 responses, the following were emphasised as central to AI adoption: governance frameworks, practitioner training, leadership, and teamwork within the AI ecosystem. Prior training was strongly correlated with increased knowledge about AI tools and frameworks. However, knowledge of related frameworks remained low, with different professionals showing different affinity to certain frameworks related to their respective roles. Common challenges and opportunities of AI adoption were also highlighted, with recommendations for future practice.
This article introduces the concept of postfeminism and highlights its value for research in language and gender studies. After discussing theoretical, historical and backlash perspectives, we ...advance an understanding of postfeminism as a sensibility - a patterned-yet-contradictory phenomenon intimately connected to neoliberalism. We consider elements widely theorised as constituting the postfeminist sensibility, alongside concerns shared by those who take postfeminism as their object of critical inquiry, in addition to an analytic category for cultural critique. The article then illustrates how the postfeminist sensibility may operate empirically, in the context of the doing and undoing of gender equality policies in workplaces. The article responds to calls for the field of language and gender to reinvigorate its political impetus, and to engage with feminist scholarship on postfeminism, particularly as recently developed in media and cultural studies.
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