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As increasingly more upper secondary schools mainstream bilingualism via an array of strategies, databases collecting students' appraisals of their bilingual experiences become invaluable for informing practice. This paper discusses how the ADiBE Interview Protocol was adapted to efficiently collect candid appraisals from 99 students attending a high school in highly monolingual southern Italy. Students welcomed the opportunity to shape their instruction, generating a database of commentaries from which 11 thematic issues emerged: three related to improved language competence, personal growth and general satisfaction, while eight themes called for attention to methods, materials, classroom management and even scheduling. Appraisals are presented, alongside brief discussions regarding implications for teacher-training, task-diversity, task-choice and translanguaging strategies for optimizing the shared L1 in monolingual classrooms. That said, appraisals also unveiled expectations for native-speaking English-fluent Content-experts, which, in contexts such as ours, is not only unrealistic, but depreciates Content-experts who, although may not be fluent in English, know content very well. Appraisals indicate that students appreciate the opportunity for receiving bilingual instruction and are willing to put in extra work to learn 'complex upper secondary content through a foreign language', a challenge they feel could be rendered more manageable via more learner-centred, language-aware and inclusive pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food concerns practices with material and discursive effects on bodies, involving, at the same time, relations of power and care. The international debate has widely analysed food in terms of biopolitical technologies and ethics of care, paying particular attention to school meals. In particular, school canteens constitute physical and relational contested spaces, characterized by different rationalities and perspectives. Drawing from qualitative research carried out in Turin, Italy, this paper unpacks school food discourses and practices by analysing the coexistence and entanglements of biopower and care. Starting from the awareness of the fluidity of these categories, the paper suggests that food at school be neither connected nor reduced to a dichotomous and static view. It proposes a more nuanced understanding of food practices, in which forms of productive biopower and subversive care are deeply intertwined and it discusses how children, staff and parents daily negotiate these entanglements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study explores how transcultural consultation is carried out in the social services of a local Italian area. Its purpose is to deepen our understanding of whether this methodology founded on the ethnopsychological approach can be useful in strengthening the cultural competency of social workers. Based on participant observations and semi-structured interviews, this paper illustrates how this tool helps practitioners become more aware of their values and implement more collaborative interventions, through which clients with migratory backgrounds can find a space for the expression and recognition of their internalised cultures. This paper additionally points out similarities and differences between this methodology and other cross-cultural social work models. Although transcultural consultation is conducted by psychotherapists, different application paths are proposed where even social workers can play an active role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, 25 Maltese employees with physical or sensory impairments shared their experiences regarding access and use of various technologies at work, first via focus groups and individual interviews, and then through observation sessions at their workplace. The research initially rested on the premise that disabled people face various barriers related to the access and use of technology in their employment, that are not directly ensuing from their impairments. It then built on this premise by applying concepts from new materialisms in an attempt to broaden the notions proposed by the social model of disability. Through the use of vignettes, this paper shows how enabling technologies form part of assemblages, networks and entanglements of people, things and affects to produce consequences that are conducive to or limiting of dis/ability. This article is about people with physical or sensory impairments and how they use technology at their place of work. Research participants describe many difficulties they have in order to obtain and use technology at work. Difficulties using technology at work are not only due to financial, physical or attitudinal barriers but also due to difficulties that have to do with impairment such as pain and fatigue. It is difficult to understand how barriers to obtaining and using technology in work produce disability because they are entangled with many other factors, human and non-human. Stories presented show that people, things, places and feelings, can all equally produce ability or disability in the workplace depending on how they interact together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on research undertaken as part of the EU funded EPPIC project, this paper aims to update and elaborate on the relationship between drug use and offending behaviours by exploring variations within a cross-national sample of drug-experienced young people in touch with criminal justice systems. Adopting a trajectory-based approach, interviews were undertaken with 198 young people aged 15–25 in six European countries (Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, and UK). Data were analysed by applying the Bennett and Holloway categorization of the drugs-crime link, with a focus on the concept of social exclusion as developed by Seddon. Three main types of mechanisms (economic, pharmaceutical, and lifestyles) are used to interpret the data, showing how the relationship between drugs and offending can vary according to type of substances and over time. Furthermore, it can be associated with very different degrees of social exclusion and needs. The results suggest that while economic inequalities still play key roles in explaining drug use and offending, both behaviours can originate from a state of relative deprivation, resulting from the contradictions inherent in 'bulimic societies' that raise aspirations and desires while providing young people scarce opportunities for self-realisation and social recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interprofessional teamwork is one of the main characteristics of centers specialized in the treatment of breast cancer, known as Breast Units, which since 2016 European legislation has made mandatory for Member States. However, interprofessional collaborative practice (ICP) has often been applied in traditional healthcare contexts on the basis of mono-disciplinary approaches. This paper reports the results of a case study of an Italian Breast Unit carried out through a qualitative research strategy. To understand the case being studied in its complexity the data were drawn from multiple sources of evidence: documents, in-depth interviews with Breast Unit members and field notes from the participant observation of team meetings. The case study shows that, despite the healthcare organization promoting interprofessional collaboration through the creation of protocols, organizational environments and structures aimed at encouraging communication and collaboration between the professionals of the team, a series of older routine relational practices remain. These are based on traditional communication models, cultural and professional barriers between members of the team, which hinder the development of innovative ICPs, thus preventing professionals from seeing the need for change in their relational practices towards a trans-disciplinary approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the characteristics of students who withdrew from a university counselling service in northern Italy. Differences found in the socio-demographic characteristics of counselling completers and dropouts and in the scores obtained in questionnaires administered at the outset were analysed. Furthermore, in order to identify reasons for dropping out, a qualitative approach was also used. The results suggest that premature termination is not a unitary phenomenon and that dropouts are a heterogeneous group. It is important not to always consider dropouts as a negative outcome of university counselling services. Additional research on dropouts is needed to help university counselling services to serve students more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: There is a growing consensus worldwide that palliative care needs to be both more inclusive of conditions other than cancer and to improve. This paper explores some common challenges currently faced by professionals providing palliative care for patients with either cancer or dementia across five countries. Method: One focus group (n = 7) and 67 interviews were conducted in 2012 across five countries: England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway, with professionals from dementia, cancer and palliative care settings. Results: The interviews revealed five common challenges faced across the five countries: communication difficulties (between services; and between professionals, and patients and their families); the variable extent of structural/functional integration of services; the difficulties in funding of palliative care services; problematic processes of care (boundaries, definitions, knowledge, skills and inclusiveness) and, finally, time constraints. Conclusion: These are not problems distinct to palliative care, but they may have different origins and explanations compared to other areas of health care. This paper explored deeper themes hidden behind a discourse about barriers and facilitators to improving care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a qualitative analysis of classroom discourse in Italian primary schools, this paper analyses the micro-processes that are emergent moment-by-moment in the unfolding interactions between teacher and pupils. More in particular, our purpose is to identify the conditions under which the interactive orientation of a sequence changes. We argue that unpredictable emergent contributions function as turning points, re-directing and changing the sequence’s orientation. The results show that the turning points introduce changes in the sequences as far as three discourse characteristics are concerned: (a) communicative pattern; (b) lesson objective; and (c) role of primary knower. The discussion points out the importance of these results for the teachers’ work and training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses mediation in the patient–provider relationship arising from the introduction of digital technology for a specific form of monitoring: 'clinical self-tracking'. Focusing on the management of type 1 diabetes, a condition that requires significant self-management by patients, we describe how the actors negotiated a new ICT-mediated relationship in three hospital departments. The analysis followed a qualitative design and was carried out by interviewing patients, clinicians and technology developers and by analysing messages exchanged through the ICT tool. We first show how each department customised the system by drawing on already existing care practices, organisational goals and representations of the department's desired relationship with the patients. We then focus on patient–provider relationships, showing that, while the clinical self-tracking sometimes followed the path desired by the providers, at other times, it developed in unexpected ways. We distinguish among three emerging categories of self-tracking: self-tracking for remote management, self-tracking for e-learning and self-tracking as boundary setting. The analysis reveals how the new patient–provider relationship arises from an open-ended process. Providers can push self-tracking practices but cannot steer them; and patients, through an unexpected use of the self-tracking technologies, are able to negotiate a desired relationship with providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The paper complements an epidemiological analysis of secondary data that compared levels of consumption, alcohol-related mortality and morbidity in territories in Piedmont (N-W Italy), characterized by a different involvement with wine culture, and which showed lower alcohol-related risks in areas of production. Aims: The main aim is to shed light on these epidemiological results through qualitative methods, focusing on meanings attributed to drinking and on mechanisms of regulation that could explain why in wine-producing areas alcohol-related risks appear to be lower. Methods: Eighty-one in-depth individual interviews have been conducted. The sample consisted of males and females, from three cohorts (aged 18–25; 45–52; 70–77 years) and covering two areas (with higher versus lower vineyard acreage). Results: In areas characterized by wine production the traditional alcohol socialization process within the family is more persistent. In these areas, the traditional drinking culture has been not only valued, but also renewed, by emphasising the importance of proper drinking and the knowledge related to it. Conclusions: The alcohol socialisation process and the emphasis on wine as a cultural product seem to be the most relevant protective factors, contributing to the lower alcohol consumption and counteracting the widespread risk of alcohol consumption patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing sites that cover large areas or have multiple designations within their boundary can be challenging, particularly if several organisations are responsible for managing different aspects of the site. Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site (WHS) was designated for its archaeological importance which is of universal significance. The management of Hadrian’s Wall is formalised in the WHS Management Plan (2008–2014), which aims to cover different objectives, with archaeology at the core of management. This article draws on management documents of the WHS, established visitor planning frameworks and qualitative interviews with managers along Hadrian’s Wall to discuss the evolution of a values-based management approach. It is evident that managers have to balance different values, priorities and interests, and make trade-offs when they work in partnership on a multiple-use site so that conflicts can be resolved – and whilst this may look straightforward on paper, in practice, it can be much more difficult for institutions and individuals to compromise their own professional or personal values. Despite its challenges, this article advocates a values-based, or pluralistic, management approach as the most effective means of managing multiple-use sites, resolving management conflicts and working in partnership to agreed outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we discuss the unique influences of ethics assessment procedures on comparative qualitative research. These influences are particularly pronounced when researchers are from different disciplines and in different countries. Focusing on our experience conducting a study on the perceptions of young people regarding HIV/AIDS in two countries (Italy and Canada), we describe the impact of the ethics assessment procedures in our respective countries on recruitment, sampling and comparability of findings. We also raise issues related to differences in ethics assessment processes from a disciplinary perspective. We conclude by suggesting that our theory of technique approach, which focuses on studying how the choices made in research implementation influence the study findings, should be extended to include the impact of ethics assessment procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]