Most people would probably agree that participation in quality youth programs and neighborhood-based, informal relationships and opportunities is a good thing for young people. The problem is that not nearly enough children and youth are engaged in these growth-enhancing opportunities. What can educators learn from young people about designing…

Purpose: This paper aims to describe a qualitative study of a four-year, state-wide portfolio evaluation system for new principals. The State of Ohio (USA) was one of five states that participated in a field test of the Portfolio Assessment for School Leaders designed by the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) and the…

The understanding of expert knowledge as shared, distributed and contextualised has gained ground. The case description in this article focuses on developing expert knowledge in a situation in which both knowledge needs and the definition of expertise fields changed radically in the public sector within a social crisis. The article examines an…

Purpose: This article seeks to discuss the role that line managers take up concerning human resource management issues among Greek firms and to propose ways for enhancing the synergistic relationship between human resource (HR) and line managers. Design/methodology/approach: It presents the trends of line management involvement in Greek firms,…

Researchers conducted a qualitative study of students' in- and out-of-class experiences in a residential learning community at a mid-sized public institution. Focus group interviews were conducted to explore (a) the outcomes of learning community membership from participants' point of view and (b) the connections between participants' reported…

This paper is an attempt to evaluate the Emotional Intelligence (EQ) In-Service Program on the basis of experiences of 20 secondary school teachers who attended the program in a private school in Turkey. A phenomenological approach, with a focus group method was used. The first objective of this study was to evaluate EQ program on the basis of…

This study describes the support of parents and other community members for child pedestrian safety measures, their willingness to pay in terms of volunteer time and money for efforts to make child pedestrian safety improvements in their neighborhood, and their views on how to affect child pedestrian safety improvements in their communities. In…

This article presents findings from an empirical study exploring student and teacher perspectives on positive learning experiences in practical theological education. Forty-five students and twenty teachers were interviewed in focus groups in four educational institutions delivering programs in practical theology. The findings indicated that…

Plagiarism by students is an increasing problem at higher education institutions. However, the development of academic misconduct policies has done little to reduce the incidence of plagiarism as many incidents result from ignorance and poor skill development rather than intentional misconduct. Our purpose in embarking on this research project was…

The effect of national or local standards and guidelines on job satisfaction among professional and faculty academic advisors was studied using an on-line survey, focus group, and individual interviews. Findings support the proposition that the more connected advisors are to standards of practice, the greater their job satisfaction. Findings also…

"Setting" A single primary school which serves a mixed socioeconomic area in the north of Scotland. "Method" Parents gave demographic details about their family and information about whether their children had been breastfed. Twenty- three children, aged 6, took part in three focus groups which were conducted by two…

Wilderness therapy program theory is reasoned to be, as Weiss (1997) describes, a tacit theory, or one which is implied and not clearly articulated. This is evidenced by several meta-analyses which have consistently found either very limited or no detailed descriptions of the wilderness therapy programs under investigation. The purpose of this…

High-risk behavior in youths related to HIV transmission continues to occur despite large-scale efforts to disseminate information about safe sexual practices through education. Our study examined the relationships among knowledge, decision-making strategies, and risk assessment about HIV by youths during peer group focused discussions. Two focus…

Objective: This study examines the issues influencing psychiatrists' decisions to provide care to the under-served geriatric population. Methods: Community-based psychiatrists who see geriatric patients participated in focus group discussions exploring factors that influence the characteristics of their current practices. Results: Personal themes,…

Objective: This paper reports women seafarers' experiences of sexual harassment. Design: Data reported in this paper were collected as part of a larger study exploring company policies and practices relating to women seafarers and the experiences of women seafarers themselves. Setting: Data reported here was collected with women from seven…