Record writing and professional socializ

The International JOURNAL of INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES Volume 3, Number Record-Writing and Professional Socialization in Social Work Bonnie D Oglensky www.socialsciences-journal.com THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES http://www.SocialSciences-Journal.com First published in 2008 in Melbourne, Australia by Common Ground Publishing Pty Ltd www.CommonGroundPublishing.com © 2008 (individual papers), the author(s) © 2008 (selection and editorial matter) Common Ground Authors are responsible for the accuracy of citations, quotations, diagrams, tables and maps All rights reserved Apart from fair use for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act (Australia), no part of this work may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher For permissions and other inquiries, please contact ISSN: 1833-1882 Publisher Site: http://www.SocialSciences-Journal.com THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES is a peer refereed journal Full papers submitted for publication are refereed by Associate Editors through anonymous referee processes Typeset in Common Ground Markup Language using CGCreator multichannel typesetting system http://www.CommonGroundSoftware.com Record-Writing and Professional Socialization in Social Work Bonnie D Oglensky, York College, City University of New York, New York, UNITED STATES Abstract: Despite increasing awareness of the importance of clinical documentation to the delivery of effective social work services, little attention has been paid to training social work majors in professional writing In this article, I present an overview of efforts to address this gap through a workshop series for undergraduate social work students called “Writing in the Field.” Applying the concepts of genre and cognitive apprenticeship from writing composition and learning theories, I outline the theoretical underpinnings of the workshops Based on an analysis of “encoded ways of knowing” found in the structure and conventions of content of one social work record known as the “Psychosocial Assessment Report,” I argue that competent clinical report-writing reflects the development of cognitive processes that are aligned with and uphold the logic and values of the social work field As students learn how to write clinical records, they learn how to think about clients, behave like social workers, and begin to develop a sense of what it feels like to be a member of the profession Viewed in this way, clinical documentation is considered a powerful tool for the professional socialization of social work students Keywords: Professional Socialization, Writing to Learn, Field Writing, Record as Genre, Psychosocial Assessment Report Introduction OCIAL WORK EDUCATORS and practitioners have become increasingly aware of the importance of professional writing to the effective delivery of social work services (e.g., Beebe, 1993; Reynolds, et al, 1995) The advent of managed care and ever-expanding systems of accountability have served to underscore the critical role of documentation and report writing (e.g., Callahan, 1996; Swain, 2005) Yet, several have noted that social work student skills are weak in this area (Alter & Adkins, 2006; Ames, 1999; Rompf, 1995) My experience as Director of Field Education in the Social Work Program at York College (CUNY) over the past five years unfortunately confirms this Supervisors at internship sites often complain about the quality of student writing—some even feel the need to limit their writing of agency records until some level of proficiency is demonstrated Beyond our duty to prepare students for the everyday demands of social work jobs, the acquisition of report-writing skills—particularly clinical report-writing skills–can be viewed as a way for students to learn about the profession in a broader sense A means of communicating with colleagues, competent clinical report-writing reflects the development of cognitive processes that are aligned with S and uphold the logic and values of the social work field Hence, as we learn how to write clinical records, we can learn how to think about clients, behave like social workers, and begin to develop a sense of what it feels like to be a member of the profession Consequently, both the employability and professional socialization of social work graduates would seem to depend upon mastery of these skills Given its centrality to professional functioning, it is surprising that so little attention has been paid to training social work majors in this kind of writing Supported by a university grant and in collaboration with a Writing Fellow,I developed and piloted a workshop series called “Writing in the Field”1 to soon-to-be graduating baccalaureate social work students during spring 2008 on a voluntary, nongraded basis Designed like a professional conference–replete with a light breakfast, packets, badges, certificates of completion, and “shmooze” or networking time—21 students attended the series which featured workshops held one month apart—entailing 6-hours of in-class training, video-role play activities, the use of a rubric outlining 12 reportwriting competencies, and a take-away writing task in which students were asked to apply skills they learned in the workshop to assemble, analyze, and write a “Psychosocial Assessment Report” based on a social work case on the Internet.2 The goal of the This project is supported by a federal Title III grant administered through the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at York College, City University of New York Thanks to Title III grantee group members and Dr Debra Swoboda as well as colleagues and students in the Social Work Program for helping to get this project off the ground Special thanks to CUNY Writing Fellow Jennifer Worth for her commitment and fine collaborative work on this project The simulated on-line case material was developed by Dr Annette Bailey, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield , Ct THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES, VOLUME 3, NUMBER 6, 2008 http://www.SocialSciences-Journal.com, ISSN 1833-1882 © Common Ground, Bonnie D Oglensky, All Rights Reserved, Permissions: cg-support@commongroundpublishing.com THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES, VOLUME workshop series is to strengthen clinical recordwriting skills while building habits of thinking and practice that instill professional identity, role, and a sense of practice responsibility in budding social workers “Writing in the Field” is also conceived as an action-research project focused on the design, implementation, and outcomes of the workshops A forthcoming paper will present the project outcomes and research findings This article will focus on the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of the “Writing in the Field” workshop series I will outline the relevant literature, explicate concepts from writing composition theories that are fundamental to my pedagogical approach, and offer a set of proposals as to how training in clinical documentation can groom students to think and behave like professional social workers I conclude with considerations about future direction and challenges ahead Literature Review There is a relatively sparse literature on pedagogical work on professional report-writing in social work This is probably due to the fact that there are few educational initiatives addressing this kind of writing While some universities offer courses in professional writing in social work, a review of syllabi reveals that these tend to skim the surface, covering a range of written products such as research papers, advocacy letters, brochures, and resumes (e.g., Sarnoff, 2007; George Mason University Social Work Dept, 2007; Ohio University, 2007) Among these courses, one class session is usually devoted to report–writing and within that session, the aim is to offer general guidelines about various types of records social workers write And there are many Hence, coverage tends to be quite superficial Of course, “Writing Intensive” or discipline-specific writing courses are now offered at a number of colleges An extension of the Writing Across the Curriculum movement in higher education, these courses offer students the opportunity to practice and improve writing skills, yet the “writing-in-the-discipline” focus is on gaining knowledge of relevant content material (Carter, et al., 2004) So, for example, in the writing intensive “Generalist Practice” course offered in the social work program at my college, writing assignments are focused on social work interventions with formal organizations and communities—not the acquisition of professional writing skills Even courses expressly designed to teach professional writing such as one (also at my college) called “Research and Writing for Professional Programs”—neglect the more practical kinds of writing—concentrating instead on the skills of writing a research paper A review of course bulletins and syllabi from a cross-section of colleges in the U.S reveals that when writing is explicitly addressed in social work curricula, the emphasis is almost always on academic, not workplace writing Still within the realm of academic writing, a segment of social work literature deals with experiential writing—in which low-stakes writing approaches designed by social work faculty to teach or use writing in coursework are evaluated Broadly speaking, the goal of these pedagogical projects is either to help students improve writing in a general sense, for example, by gaining confidence in their ability to write (e.g., Rompf, 1995), or by using the process of writing to help students enhance other social work practice capacities For example, writing journals (Dolejs, et al., 2000) or reflective papers (Rai, 2004) has been shown to expand capacity for self-awareness—a crucial skill in building rapport and a working alliance with clients Notwithstanding the dearth of scholarship on the pedagogy of record-writing in social work, there is an emerging literature on social work documentation itself A fair number of articles and books deal with the nuts and bolts of record-writing in social work and related professions These tend to be how-to oriented (e.g., Reynolds, et al., 1995, Beebe, 1993; McKane, 1975), offering the practitioner technical guidelines, focused on mechanics Some of these publications (e.g., Beebe, 1993) appear on the syllabi for social work courses in professional writing and in this sense, could be considered instructional material There are also a few studies which look at documentation through the lens of audience or context; for example, the need for social workers to write reports that can pass muster in managed care, court, or legal proceedings as social workers advocate for (or sometimes unwittingly against) their clients (e.g., Cumming, et al., 2007, Callahan, 1996, Swain, 2005) Concerns about risk and liability are in the forefront of these Principles for training students and practitioners to write records that simultaneously protect social workers, clients, and agencies while upholding professional ethics are proposed While technical assistance with report writing is helpful, the use of report-writing as a tool for continuous learning and reflection on one’s own practice and development is seldom mentioned in this literature Unpacking the ‘Psychosocial’ Taking seriously the opportunity to learn from record-writing, this project introduces a novel approach to professional writing in social work honing in on the competencies needed to write one document in particular This narrative record, known as the “Psychosocial Assessment Report” is a prototype in the social work field (Vourlekis & Hall, 2007) The most universal and comprehensive record that prac- BONNIE D OGLENSKY titioners are expected to write, the “psychosocial”—as it is commonly referred to—has evolved historically as a staple of social work practice (Crisp, et al., 2004) Most other social work reports contain subsets of the kinds of information and assessment material contained in the psychosocial, so learning to write this document can provide a solid foundation for writing most other clinical reports in the field A few words on the role and functions of the psychosocial are in order The psychosocial is actually a process, one outcome of which is the report Social workers write this document after gathering information about the client—from interviews with and observations of the client, exchanges with individuals associated with the client (e.g., family members, friends), collateral contacts (e.g., other professionals who have knowledge of or are also working with the client in some capacity), and review of written records (e.g., from the agency, referral source documentation, and other documents including: psychological, psychiatric, medical and educational tests, and court and legal records) The process of gathering this information typically occurs within the first few weeks after the social worker has met the client and the report is generated shortly thereafter The psychosocial assessment report has several functions Similar to a medical history, it is the professional’s protocol for compiling information relevant to arriving at some educated guesses about what the client “clinically speaking” is dealing with (in medical fields this is known as diagnosis; in social work—it is called assessment) ultimately for the purpose of generating a treatment plan including interventions and recommendations for service As such, it serves as the initial study of the client Because it is written at an early point in time, the psychosocial also functions as a baseline document Assessments of client progress based on goals from the original report can be made Intervention approaches and the goals themselves can be re-examined against the original report, and revised as fitting The commonplace view of the psychosocial is that it is a means of communication with agency colleagues; when the social worker is not available, the record can be consulted to access information about the client From a bureaucratic standpoint, however, the psychosocial record—like any other official record—is a testament to the fact that even though the social worker has been assigned to work with the client and this person becomes “his or her client”, that person is, in fact, a client of the agency The record has a clear formal dimension of accountability: it can be inspected in an agency audit, forwarded to insurance companies, subpoenaed by attorneys, and increasingly—with the advent of federal patient protection regulations—reviewed by clients Little has been made of the fact that the psychosocial, apart from its official status as an agency document, has a critical function in how a social worker metabolizes casework practice Recently, I met up with a colleague who shared a story about the importance of writing to her understanding of one of her clients A seasoned therapist in private practice, the colleague had just finished seeing a client who she felt “stumped” by She said she “could not put her finger on what the client was dealing with”—she “couldn’t get a handle on him.” It wasn’t until she wrote out her report and in so doing brought to light and thought through her more nascent impressions, that she understood how to frame the client’s difficulty This story—a version of which I have heard repeatedly from students and colleagues alike—underscores the invisible function of the psychosocial as a structure and process of figuring things out about the client In this sense, writing the psychosocial is ‘doing social work.’ Conceptual Sketch Framed by the norms and customs of social work practice, I am viewing the psychosocial as a “writing genre” defined by Schryer as a “specific literary practice—evolving within a specific context” (1993, p 200) Using this definition, other writing genres include, for example, the English composition in a college classroom, a peer-reviewed paper given at a professional conference, and a rejection letter sent by a corporate headhunter to a job applicant As a routine and conventionalized way of communicating, a writing genre is “a dynamic patterning of human experience” (Devitt, 1993, p 573) Put another way, a writing genre shapes our thinking, sensing, and sense-making of the “thing itself”–that is, whatever it is we are writing about (Paré, 2000) For biology professors Carter, Ferzli, and Wiebe (2007), the lab report is a writing genre; it is not only a set of mechanical and literary conventions but in the process of learning how to write it and in the actual writing of it, it is also a way of informing and shaping how biologists think, appraise, consider, interpret, understand, render opinions about, make sense of, and communicate about experiments As such, learning to write the lab report is part of what Carter, et al., (2007) refer to as “cognitive apprenticeship.” Challenging the traditional dichotomy in the academy between learning versus doing, the learning model of cognitive apprenticeship is “based on the principle that the ways of doing that define an authentic activity in a knowledge domain embody the ways of knowing that domain” (p 283) 10 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES, VOLUME My work takes off from these precepts as I have adopted the perspective that in-depth, hands-on training in writing the psychosocial is “a way of bringing authentic activities of a knowledge domain to the classroom” (Carter, et al., 2007, p 283) Students are offered instruction in how to compose a quality report and thus develop marketable skills for the jobs they will likely hold Just as importantly, in the process of undergoing such a training, students are exposed to the inner workings of the specific record-writing genre This includes it logic, the purpose of various sections, the rationale for its sequence, the rules and norms for gathering, presenting, and evaluating client material, the role of evidence, objective fact, and subjective impressions, and the standards and expectations for arriving at and articulating treatment decisions and recommendations Moreover, the social work values of respect, transparency, empathy, objectivity, humility, and accountability are also are a part of the inner workings of the psychosocial—embedded in the competencies needed to write the report This kind of integrative training linking the conceptual and ethical underpinnings of report-writing with work-specific conventions and guided practice offers the student a unique type of anticipatory socialization—that is, a “rehearsal” opportunity to transition into the profession and to begin to view oneself as a member in it (Merton, 1957) Grounded in the language of dialectical thinking, this project thus views learning to write and writing to learn as inverse processes that should not (and cannot) be pulled apart from each other, except for heuristic purposes Teaching social work students how to write the psychosocial, while certainly a worthy end in and of itself, takes on a loftier role as it offers a cognitive apprenticeship and mode of socialization into the professional community The Psychosocial as a Tool for Professional Learning So how, then, can training in writing the Psychosocial Assessment Report prepare social work students to think and behave like full-fledged practitioners? What is it about writing the psychosocial that encourages professional socialization? I am proposing that this occurs as the student learns about and practices writing with a consciousness of two distinct aspects of the genre: the psychosocial report structure and its conventions for content According to Carter et al (2007), the genre of the report “encodes a way of knowing in its structure.” What this means is that the way the report is built—its format, list and sequence of topics, and discursive conventions—becomes a guide for knowing the work of social work In perhaps the most elemental way, the specific topics addressed in the psychosocial reflect areas of concern and expertise that a social worker is expected to possess The social work student must become familiar with these topics and must organize the data he or she collects from the client in terms of these categories of the trade As Goodwin (1994) notes, classification is a basic human cognitive activity involving sorting and transforming various phenomena “into the categories and events that are relevant to the work of [a] profession” (p 608) The topics on the psychosocial (see Figure I) include client background and current functioning with respect to: family relationships, education, employment, psychological issues, medical concerns, social connections, basic necessities, coping capacities, spirituality, legal matters, and community supports This particular variety of topics—bridging individual and community/societal considerations—is a hallmark of the social work profession, historically distinguishing it from psychology and psychiatry whose central focus has primarily been on the individual Hence, the social work student learns about and takes part in reaffirming the profession’s commitment to understanding human suffering and growth in the context of both individual and environmental factors—each time he or she writes up an assessment Moving through the sequence of the psychosocial report also encodes a social work way of knowing The guidelines here are implicit The report has three main sections of material concerning the client: demographic information, the body of the report which is divided into subsections regarding the client’s background and current functioning with respect to the range of “psycho-social” areas including those listed above, and a final segment dealing with the social worker’s summary, assessment, recommendations, and plans for service In terms of clinical reasoning, each section follows purposefully from the section prior Salient identity facts come first Issues like age and language spoken by the client, for example, are characteristics which should direct choices about gathering and recording assessment material; the social worker would not necessarily ask about or complete the subsection of the report regarding employment, for instance, if the client is a young child But the social worker should—when exploring and documenting all the subsequent areas—present material that takes into account demographic characteristics of the client such as age, race, socioeconomic status—that are likely to affect the client’s life experiences and developmental capacities These demographics should trigger certain lines of questioning, that is, when the social worker is gathering the data and writing up the report BONNIE D OGLENSKY Although probably obvious, it is worth highlighting that in anticipation of writing the psychosocial, the social worker engages in the process of collecting the data about the client; in this sense, the psychosocial report organizes the clinical experience of interviewing client—e.g., what questions to ask and how to ask them, which questions to follow-up on and which are less pressing, what non-verbal behavior to observe and how to watch for patterns Hence, as mentioned earlier, the genre is not only a set of mechanical and literary conventions, but penetrates into the practice of clinical social work Training students to write the psychosocial, therefore, is embedded with training in practice skills The case material presented in the body of the report builds a picture of the client’s “story”—e.g., his or her view of the “presenting problem”—that is, the reason/s that the client has come to the agency for help—as well as the client’s strengths, weaknesses, support systems, resources, coping skills, and historical events and milestones as they relate to the report topics The genre is organized such that the social worker presents material about the client and then—considering all of that material—synthesizes, prioritizes, hypothesizes, and offers an overall assessment and plan The key point here is that the social worker needs to develop a comprehensive description of the client before impressions and treatment plans can be proposed This final section is the place where the social worker “makes something of the data” in the report, summarizing the main issues and rendering professional opinion about what should be done to assist the client The overall sequence of the psychosocial, thus, forms a logic—a series of steps (though not necessarily distinguished as such consciously) for constructing and thinking through a client’s story—to arrive at a set of clinical opinions and recommendations, preliminary ones, at least, about how to help This is where the record comes to its final point—and the social worker is supposed to navigate through the record, understanding the need to connect the dots Beyond the structure of the report, the second way that writing the psychosocial serves as a socialization tool relates to issues of content—what data should be included and how should it be expressed The 11 12 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCES, VOLUME conventions of how a psychosocial should be written—including the appropriate use of language, facts, impressions, detail, quotations, illustrations, interpretations, speculations, and opinion—also encode a way of knowing the field of social work As my collaborator and I identified and delineated “competencies” for a rubric to be used in the workshop series (see Figure II), we became keenly aware of the fact that the conventions for writing a good psychosocial are in synch with and when applied, reinforce core values, ethics and practice principles in the social work field I shall offer a few examples Some of the alignments are obvious First, “uses non-judgmental language and offers a non-biased presentation” (Rubric Competency #4) fits with a number of tenets in the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics (1999) The section on “Social Workers’ Ethical Responsibility to Clients,” contains a subsection on “Derogatory Language” (p 13) which clearly states this expectation for the psychosocial genre: “…social workers should not use derogatory language in their written or verbal communications to or about clients Social workers should use accurate and respectful language in all communications to and about clients.” Another subsection on “Cultural Competence and Social Di- versity” (p 10) which states that “social workers should understand culture and its function in human behavior and society, recognizing the strengths that exist in all cultures” is also enacted and upheld as the student learns to recognize and use a bias-free language and approach in his or her presentation of the client in the psychosocial report The ability to “use clear, descriptive, vivid language and quotes” (Rubric Competency #3) to depict the client in ways that acknowledge his or her unique qualities also adheres to an NASW ethical principle, that is, to “respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person” (NASW, 1999, p 8) By learning to avoid stereotypes and bland descriptions, the social worker is compelled—by the norms of the psychosocial —to continue developing and demonstrating in writing a “mindfulness of individual differences” (p 8) In addition to its value-basis, research findings support the clinical rationale for this principle–when people are lumped into labeled groups, the perceived range of possible behaviors decreases (Wilder, 1984) Keeping open to the individuality of clients—and gaining practice in how to capture that in writing—socializes the social work student to reflect upon and question ingrained assumptions about social groups BONNIE D OGLENSKY Rubric Competency #5—”is informationally accurate”—also accords with a social work value—one that has to with pledging not to distort, exaggerate, or misrepresent what a client says or does; to be truthful in reporting This is plainly stated in the NASW Code of Ethics subsection on “Client Records,” “Social workers should take reasonable steps to ensure that documentation in records is accurate…” (p 18) While this might seem self-evident—any reporter would be encouraged to strive for absolute accuracy; it is valued on its own terms—in social work it carries another charge as it is related to how one represents and therefore “treats” the client If documentation is viewed as an “integral part of clinical practice,” writing about the client must be considered part of treatment, “not merely an administrative side-task” (Cumming, et al., 2007) A final example can be found in Rubric Competency #10—”is judicious”—which deals with a social worker’s capacity to neither “make too much nor too little” with the data More nuanced perhaps than the other examples, this competency emphasizes the values of humility and risk The professional social worker must say something about the client in the psychosocial, she is expected to offer some professional viewpoint or hunch (stated as such, if appropriate) Yet the social worker must not be flagrant or sloppy in clinical interpretation A scientific ethic grounds clinical reasoning in social work practice Hypotheses, opinion, and interpretation must be supported by evidence, as stated in NASW Code 4.01, “[s]ocial workers should base practice on recognized knowledge, including empirically based knowledge…” When evidence is not clear, the social work student and practitioner learn to acknowledge uncertainty in the psychosocial process and as they so, they enact a professional stance of humility Concluding Thoughts and Challenges Ahead Following the recommendations of social work scholars (Dolejs & Grant, 2000; Levy-Simon, 1989) “Writing in the Field” is a cross-disciplinary project rooted in writing composition and learning theories I have developed an argument in this article, based on notions of genre and cognitive apprenticeship, that a propitious relationship between writing, thinking, and professional socialization in social work can be cultivated by teaching social work stu- dents the craft of clinical report-writing, specifically the psychosocial assessment While forthcoming project outcomes and research findings will shed light on the impact of our workshops—that is, the extent to which social work students do, in fact, improve in clinical record writing skills and build habits of thinking and practice that enhance socialization into the profession—important pedagogical questions remain A key question is whether it makes sense for social work educators to continue to teach the classic narrative style of the psychosocial record or adapt to and train students to use standardized formats that are de rigueur in many social service agencies As in much of our efficiency and accountability driven society, the trend is social work administration is to require that social workers fill out check-off forms (Kagle, 1993), a method that may shrink down the effort and time that goes into writing about clients, but probably also lessen the thought that goes into it This emerging transformation of the psychosocial process to a standardized format is patently anti-social work as it dehumanizes the client—referring to the client impersonally in categorical terms, reducing the rich, clinically relevant description of a client to labeling, and quashing the opportunity for the social worker to use the writing process and time for thinking about the client in ways are needed for perceptive and helpful assessment Institutional demands…suppress narrative, speculation, elaboration—all the lengthy and messy uses of language that promote exploratory thought (Paré, 2000, p 161) As this analysis suggests, continuing to teach the “messier” narrative genre of the psychosocial report may offer students a powerful opportunity to develop reflective, transparent, value-anchored clinical reasoning skills These skills are not confined to the pen and paper work of social work, but are likely to infiltrate into how the social worker views the client and defines his or her outlook on professional responsibility Moreover, they lend themselves to modes of thinking that are crucial for understanding the inevitable complexities and ambiguities of the human condition My hope is that this project with its new way of looking at the value of report-writing can help us counter the bureaucratic trend 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Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 12(2), 125-138 Sarnoff, S (2007) Four years of teaching a hybrid, discipline-specific writing course (Unpublished paper) Schryer, C F (1993) Records as genre Written Communication, 10(2), 200-234 Snyder, C.R., Ritschel, L.A., Rand, K.L., and Berg, C J (2006) Balancing psychological assessments: Including strengths and hope in client reports Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62(1), 33-46 Swain, P.A (2005) ‘No expert should cavil at any questioning:’ Reports and assessments for courts and tribunals Australian Social Work, 58(1), 44-57 Vourlekis, B and Hall, D.M.H (2007) Outcomes from a baccalaureate program’s writing improvement initiative The Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work, 13(1), 67-80 Wilder, D.A (1984) Predictions of belief homogeneity and similarity following social categorization British Journal of Social Psychology, 23, 323-333 About the Author Dr Bonnie D Oglensky Dr Bonnie Oglensky is a professor and Director of Field Education in the Department of Social Sciences at York College, City University of New York, U.S Trained as a sociologist and social worker, Dr Oglensky’s primary research interests are in pedagogy and professional socialization, authority and workplace relationships, and the socio-emotional dynamics of long term mentoring relationships She is co-author along with Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Carroll Seron, and Robert Saute, of The Part-Time Paradox: Time Norms, Professional Life, and Gender (Routledge, 1999), and has published articles in journals such as Human Relations (Tavistock) and Management Learning (Sage) EDITORS Mary Kalantzis, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA Bill Cope, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Patrick Baert, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK Norma Burgess, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY, USA Vangelis Intzidis, University of the Aegean, Rhodes Paul James, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia José Luis Ortega Martín, Universidad de Granada, Spain Francisco Fernandez Palomares, Universidad de Granada, Spain Miguel A Pereyra, Universidad de Granada, Spain Constantine D Skordoulis, University of Athens, Athens, Greece Chryssi Vitsilakis-Soroniatis, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece Please visit the Journal website at http://www.SocialSciences-Journal.com for further information about the Journal or to subscribe THE UNIVERSITY PRESS JOURNALS International Journal of the Arts in Society Creates a space for dialogue on innovative theories and practices in the arts, and their inter-relationships with society ISSN: 1833-1866 http://www.Arts-Journal.com International Journal of the Book Explores the past, present and future of books, publishing, libraries, information, literacy and learning in the information society ISSN: 1447-9567 http://www.Book-Journal.com Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal Examines the meaning and purpose of ‘design’ while also speaking in grounded ways about the task of design and the use of designed artefacts and processes ISSN: 1833-1874 http://www.Design-Journal.com International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations Provides a forum for discussion and builds a body of knowledge on the forms and dynamics of difference and diversity ISSN: 1447-9583 http://www.Diversity-Journal.com International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability Draws from the various fields and perspectives through which we can address fundamental questions of sustainability ISSN: 1832-2077 http://www.Sustainability-Journal.com Global Studies Journal Maps and interprets new trends and patterns in globalization ISSN 1835-4432 http://www.GlobalStudiesJournal.com International Journal of the Humanities Discusses the role of the humanities in contemplating the future and the human, in an era otherwise dominated by scientific, technical and economic rationalisms ISSN: 1447-9559 http://www.Humanities-Journal.com International Journal of the Inclusive Museum Addresses the key question: How can the institution of the museum become more inclusive? 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