Digital Commons Network^™

Interaction Within Individualized Education Program Meetings: Conversation Analysis Of A Collective Case Study, Christopher Charles Plum

Harold L. Hodgkinson Award for Outstanding Dissertation

Current research provides little insight into interaction during Individual Education Program (IEP) meetings. This lack of insight may impede decision-making regarding student placement. This collective case study addressed that problem by analyzing interactions of participants in IEP meetings. Rooted in a conversation analytic (CA) theoretical framework, research questions centered on ways IEP teams interacted, oriented to identities, and ascribed to potential power asymmetries, with analysis focused on talk preceding a child's educational placement. Six hours of IEP meeting footage from 13 meetings distributed across 3 Detroit area charter schools were transcribed in CA Jeffersonian notation and analyzed using CA methodology. …

An Analysis Of Physicians' Reluctance To Follow Terminally Ill Patients' Advance Directives, Norma Poirier

Harold L. Hodgkinson Award for Outstanding Dissertation

This explanatory study examined the reasons why physicians have difficulty respecting the wishes of terminally ill patients who refuse treatment. Consistent with the relevant literature, three alternative explanations were hypothesized in answering the question: fear of litigation, religious beliefs, and medical professional values.

Evidence was gathered from three different sources. Semistructured interviews were carried out with 24 emergency physicians from the Moncton Area in the Canadian province of New Brunswick and submitted to both quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Nineteen cases of terminally ill patients whose wishes not to be treated were not respected were collected and submitted to content …