The author’s recent participation in a doctoral course on epistemology and the nature of social work knowledge produced an inner struggle regarding the validity of positivist and evidence-based approaches to social work practice and research. This article seeks to share some of this struggle as many social workers, students, and researchers have and continue to encounter debates regarding the use of evidence-based approaches in social work practice and research. The dichotomous nature these debates often take has often resulted in the exclusive embracing, defending and perpetuation of evidence-based approaches or the complete rejection and discarding of such approaches. The author suggests in this article that social workers, researchers, and academics consider an alternative approach to the debate.
One of the most common practices in spiritual care involves welcoming or greeting others. Despite this, there is little literature exploring this practice in terms of how it is experienced by those we greet, how it impacts people and relationships, and how it should occur. By reflecting on several stories of handshakes and greeting, this paper seeks to call to attention the experience, impact, and “how-to” of greeting in spiritual care.
The use of story, and the use of art or various arts-based techniques have become popular in a number of helping professions, including spiritual care. There remains a gap in the literature, however, in which an approach comprised of both story and art or objects is explored. This paper addresses this gap by discussing the experience, theory, benefits, and technique of combining story and art or object-based techniques for the provision of spiritual care.
Various impacts of COVID-19 have been explored throughout the literature; however, no research has yet considered the impact of COVID-19 on greetings in education. This paper represents an attempt to address this gap.
Using a lens of Relational Engagement, this paper explores the findings of a recent survey (n = 67) that asked how teachers have historically greeted students and how they will go about doing so upon return to a physical classroom space. Findings suggest that COVID-19 has significantly impacted teachers’ beliefs about greetings in the context of education, that teachers’ greeting behaviours are likely to change, and that it is possible if not likely that many teachers may experience various intra- and interpersonal conflicts when they next encounter students face-to-face.
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