Supervisors info:
Παπαδοπούλου Καλλιρόη, Επίκουρη καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Εκπαίδευσης και Αγωγής στη Προσχολική Ηλικία, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών.
Summary:
This assignment adopts the theories of Foucault, Goffman, Du Plesis, Malacrida, De Waele & Van Hove regarding the characteristics of institutional life. According to their theories institutional life is characterized by the exercise of control on the residents by the members of the staff, and the development of distance between the two groups. Moreover, according to these theorists in the institutional setting the process of care is professionalized, repetitive and depersonalized.
This assignment is an attempt to describe the activities of personal care for people who have been diagnosed with Autism, as they take place in a residential setting. The central question of this paper is if and how the members of the staff and the residents form roles in their interactions as well as what kind of roles do they form. Moreover, our interest concentrates on the behavioral patterns of the members of the staff regarding the process of control, distance and care as a professionalized procedure.
In order to answer these questions a qualitative research is conducted. The method of the research is the non-participant observation. The observation focuses on the activities of personal care of autistic people who live in a residential facility. Through observing specific activities of personal care (brushing their teeth, getting off their clothes and getting dressed), for three months, an attempt to approach the natural environment of the residential setting is made, in order to understand the interactions that develop between the members of the staff and the residents, as well as the roles that the members of the staff and the residents construct during the residents’ activities of personal care. During the observation, the attention focuses on the behavioral patterns of the staff regarding issues such as the exercise of control over the residents, the distance between the two groups and the process of care.
According to the findings of this research there is an important difference regarding the interactions that developed between the participant-employee No 1 and the residents and the interactions that developed between the participant –employee No 2 and the residents.
Specifically, the first employee formed a dominant role in her interactions with the residents, during the process of their personal care, through the use of specific verbal (i.e. giving orders) and non-verbal (constant gaze) elements.
This resulted in the formation of a passive role for the residents in the same interactions. Moreover, her behavioral patterns constructed control over the residents and distance between her and them. Through her behavioral patterns she constructed care as a depersonalized, repetitive, professionalized procedure.
The second employee, in her interactions with the residents constructed a cooperative-supportive role with elements of the metriarchical role being present as well. Through her behavioral patterns she exercised control over the residents in a lower degree and sometimes she minimized the distance between her and the residents. Regarding the process of care it was constructed both as professionalized and as support.
One of the main conclusions of this research is that up to a point an employee is able to overpass the culture that characterizes the residential setting, what cannot be questioned is the philosophy of normalisation.
Keywords:
autism, residential setting, processes of personal care, control, distance, care.
