Browsing by Author "St. George, Sally"

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    Are We Failing FAmILy?: A Situational Analysis of Family Perspectives on Functioning While in Out-of-home Care
    (2022-07-19) Westelmajer, Chloe; St. George, Sally; Wulff, Daniel; Ewashen, Carol; Archer-Kuhn, Beth; Raffin Bouchal, Shelley
    Despite Canada having the highest rate of children living in out-of-home care throughout the world (Brownell & McMurtry, 2015; Gilbert et al., 2012; Thoburn, 2007) there is scant Canadian data or research pertaining to these children and their families. Research has shown that a child’s family functioning level is highly correlated with successful out-of-home mental health care treatment outcomes, discharge, behavioural improvement, and stability (Sunseri, 2004, 2019). Family functioning models and assessments that have not been normed upon Canadian families, or that organise family functioning related to task accomplishment, are being utilised to make life-changing decisions within out-of-home care settings. Harnessing my experiences as a front-line counsellor, family therapist, manager, administrator, and passionate out-of-home care advocate I set about asking the research question “What aspects of functioning as a family unit are most important and most immediate to families with a child in out-of-home mental health care?” in order to create theory that could provide better comprehension of what functioning means for these families. I utilised Adele Clarke’s (Clarke, 2005, 2007, 2009; Clarke et al., 2015, 2018) methodological extension of Situational Analysis, Kathy Charmaz’s (2014) Constructivist Grounded Theory Coding structure, and Nora Bateson’s (2016) concept of “warm” and contextualised data to get as close as possible to the situated knowledge of family functioning with a child in out-of-home care. Following maximum variation theoretical sampling, 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 families and 42 individual family members engaging in out-of-home mental health care. Through my analysis 72 family functioning tasks, or core competencies, practiced by families arose and were categorised within five core areas: coping with disconnected systems, managing stigma and blame, attending to the emotional needs of the whole family, living through and living with mental health issues, and creating togetherness through separation. The resulting theory is that families, as the unacknowledged and silenced front-line workers, have to function with, and within, the many elements that surround the reality of living with a family member in out-of-home mental health care.
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    Blood, Sweat, and Oil: An Ethnographic Examination of Worker Well-being and Culture in Alberta’s Petroleum Industry
    (2022-11-25) Wright, Alysia C.; St. George, Sally; Archer-Kuhn, Beth; McDerrmott, Mairi
    Natural resource extraction is an industry that provides crude oil, minerals, and gas for global consumption. Despite the increasing visibility of the environmental, economic, and political harm attributed to the petroleum industry writ large, each of us, in one form or another, benefits from its products and the labour of the workers invisible beyond the veil of industry. This study aimed to elucidate the human and social costs associated with working in the petroleum industry, specifically related to the relationship between workers’ well-being, the demands and challenges of work, and the culture of the petroleum industry. Using a critical ethnographic methodology, I gathered the stories of 19 oil workers who talked about how the demands and challenges of working in the petroleum industry affected their well-being. I developed three broad thematic statements from these interviews: (a) oilfield culture was a vital aspect of working in the petroleum industry that determined psychosocial enforcement of identity, norms, and expectations among workers, (b) labour superseded well-being to ensure continuity of production, and (c) surviving in a petroeconomy bred singular reliance upon the petroleum industry and necessitated increasingly adaptive and resilient workers. I conclude this dissertation with a discussion about the implications of these findings and recommendations for future research focusing on workers' lived experiences at work and home.
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    Portfolio: Research and Scholarship Leave, January 1 - June 30, 2014
    (2014-10-01) St. George, Sally; Wulff, Dan
    Using this portfolio format, we present some ideas that we believe are relevant to the way social work education is and will be organized and delivered at the Faculty of Social Work. These ideas were the focus of our six-month Research and Scholarship Leave. We believe that the ideas within this portfolio can be usefully applied to any level of post-secondary curriculum, from bachelor’s level through doctoral. Considered as resources, we hope the ideas and exercises herein can serve as material for experimentation and further conversation and dialogue within the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. Our ideas expressed in this portfolio are evolving and can provide encouragement that we, in the Faculty and beyond, can reflect on our research, practices, and teaching initiatives to make the educational environment we offer even more nourishing.
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    Qualitative Research Ethics: An Heuristic Inquiry Exploring the Meaning and Application of Ethics in Qualitative Research
    (2012) Snyder, Lynda-Joy; St. George, Sally
    In this study, 10 Canadian qualitative researchers discuss how they identify, understand, and manage ethical concerns that arise in ethically important moments that occur over the course of the qualitative research process. Accounts of ethically important moments involving personal struggles, relational challenges and methodological complications are presented in this heuristic inquiry. The dynamic nature of qualitative research ethics is portrayed using a metaphorical balancing scale. On one side are ethical factors that relate to social or human aspects of qualitative research. On the other side are ethical factors that relate to qualitative research as science and focus on methodological aspects of qualitative research. The emphasis placed on each of these factors varies depending on the nature of the study, the researcher, the participants, the contextual factors influencing the research and the ethical concerns being addressed. Ethical decision-making is full of complexities and goes beyond ensuring no harm is done to conducting research for the purpose of the betterment of people. Qualitative research ethics is also about relational accountability, honoring others’ experience and the pursuit of social justice. Qualitative research ethics cannot be separated from the people involved. It is a philosophy and a way of being as a researcher.