Schools must include faculty and staff in sexual violence prevention efforts

Creating a normative campus environment intolerant to sexual violence is important for prevention. While prevention initiatives focusing on students are vital, faculty and staff have a central role in supporting and sustaining a comprehensive strategy for preventing campus sexual violence. Nationwide, colleges and universities recently implemented campus climate surveys. At Emory, we decided to survey faculty and staff as well as students, motivated by our use of an ecological framing of campus sexual violence. Faculty and staff are long-term members of the community, and can provide stability and continuity that reinforces prevention efforts prioritized for students. We recommend that schools use a trauma-informed approach to guide the involvement of faculty and staff in prevention. We encourage colleges and universities to consider the experiences and needs of their faculty and staff, as professionals who serve as leaders on campus and as those who guide students through their academic experiences.     

Teaching without being taught how: social work practice faculty voices

ABSTRACT

Social work practice faculty have an important role in socializing MSW students to the field and practice of social work. This study, based on interviews with 15 faculty teaching an advanced clinical practice course in the United States, examines how faculty conceptualize teaching and learning. Faculty were asked about the theories or frameworks that guided their teaching, their own journeys to teaching and the resources that support their teaching. The study found that participants drew largely on their own experiences as student learners and social work practitioners and did not have much formal training in teaching and student learning. Furthermore, while half of the participants were able to identify a learning theory that guided their teaching, the other half were not. Finally, while participants articulated the need for support regarding their own teaching, many of the schools did not have formal faculty development opportunities. The paper ends with recommendations for supporting current and new faculty regarding teaching and student learning.     

An Experiment in Curriculum Innovation in Graduate Social Work Education

This paper reports on the results of an experiment in student-centered learning. Students were randomly assigned to one of nine groups and one faculty member was assigned to each group for a six-week term. A case example served as a point of reference for selecting seminar content. Evaluation of the experience centered on the extent of student learning and the degree to which students and faculty met their objectives. The students showed evidence of learning but future efforts in this area should concentrate on the clear explication of objectives as well as the faculty facilitator's role.     

Academic Hiring Networks and Institutional Prestige: A Case Study of Canadian Sociology

This article examines the academic job market for Canadian sociology through its PhD exchange network. Using an original data set of employed faculty members in 2015 (N = 1,157), I map the hiring relationships between institutions and analyze the observed network structure. My findings show that institutional prestige is a likely organizing force within this network, reflective of a disproportionate number of faculty coming from a few centralized high‐status institutions, as well as predominantly downward flows in hiring patterns. However, further investigation is needed to understand the role of prestige in Canadian higher education, which has been previously characterized as having a flat social structure. This requires attention toward the interrelationships between institutional prestige, scholarly competence, and department size situated within a segmented academic field in Canada. Overall, this study aims to encourage collective self‐reflection and motivate discourse about status‐based inequalities in our own discipline.     

Student pursuers: an investigation of pursuit and stalking in the student-faculty relationship

Data from faculty and students provide information on the prevalence of unwanted pursuit and stalking in the student-faculty relationship. Among faculty, 67.8% reported unwanted pursuit. For the most serious case, 6%-11% met criteria for stalking. Among students, 4.1% reported engaging in unwanted pursuit of faculty. Both faculty and students perceived anger (especially for male students) to be the motive for student unwanted pursuit/stalking, with some endorsement of romantic interest and concern about the role of mental illness. Sex differences suggest female faculty members are more often a target of unwanted pursuit or stalking and more likely to experience fear.     

Faculty allyship: Differences by gender,race, and rank at a single U.S. University

Within the growing literature about allyship in the workplace, few studies have specifically addressed faculty allyship for faculty colleagues. Previous studies on faculty allyship for inclusive academic environments address only men's contributions as allies. Using an expansive definition of faculty allyship and including any faculty members with membership in at least one dominant social group, we sought to better understand how faculty members perceive allyship, their concerns about allyship, and how those perceptions vary by gender, race, and rank. We examined the responses of faculty who participated in an allyship training program that was offered at a university in Ohio, USA as part of a National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant intended to reduce gender inequity among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics faculty. We framed this study by employing Hardiman et al.'s (2007) three-dimensional matrix of oppression and used a mixed-method research design. Participants' primary concerns about engaging in allyship related to their academic rank. We offer several implications for policies, practices, and future research on faculty allyship for faculty colleagues by considering positional power and rank as well as race and gender.     

RESPONDING TO PLAGIARISM IN SCHOOLS OF SOCIAL WORK: CONSIDERATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Recognizing the challenges of addressing plagiarism within schools of social work and diverse faculty opinion on the issue, our school of social work engaged in several efforts to clarify issues and establish consensus among the faculty. Issues that required clarification included: definitions of plagiarism, steps to take when confronted with suspected plagiarism, the role of the administrative disciplinary committee, and the range of consequences. At a minimum, consensus was needed regarding faculty steps in confronting suspected plagiarism to ensure equitable treatment of students and to fulfill the school's role as a gatekeeper to the profession. This article describes the concerns, steps, and outcomes of the work that was conducted. We offer recommendations and invite further professional discussion about this educational issue.     

The Use of Students in Admissions Interviewing

This paper examines the role of second-year MSW students in group preadmission interviews as cointerviewers with faculty members. The initial findings of these experiences indicated that the ratings of applicants for entry into the MSW program by both students and faculty were very similar and that most applicants, student cointerviewers and faculty saw such a process as valuable in selecting candidates for the program.     

Crisis communication in higher education: The use of “negotiation” as a strategy to manage crisis

This case study examined the crisis response strategies of Louisiana State University after its women's head basketball coach resigned amid charges of inappropriate conduct with former basketball players. This case study draws on relationship management and negotiation as the theoretical lens to examine the efforts of the University in managing relationships and restoring its image. Data for this study was collected through opened-ended questionnaires from students, faculty, and staff at the University. The findings from this study indicate that the good reputation of the University was responsible for the positive evaluation of the crisis management. In addition, results from this study suggest that “negotiation” can play an important role in managing a crisis when the conflicting parties are not willing to participate in a dialogue.     

The Ethnic Composition of Science and Engineering Research Laboratories in the United States

The United States has been a top destination country for science and engineering (S&E) graduate education for foreign talent for many years. Despite the clear existence of foreign students in the USA, relatively little is known about the factors influencing the flow of foreign students. In this study, we examine foreign doctoral students in science and engineering, and test whether “ethnic affinity” plays a role in the ethnic composition of research laboratories (in what follows, “labs”) in US universities. In order to test this hypothesis, we conduct a web search, and select 164 science and engineering laboratory web pages for analysis. Among these 164 labs, 82 are directed by foreign‐born faculty (Korean, Chinese, Indian or Turkish). These 82 are matched with labs that are in the same department of the same university, but directed by a native (US origin) faculty member. We find strong evidence that labs directed by foreign‐born faculty are more likely to be populated by students from the same country of origin than are labs directed by native faculty. The percentage of students working in a lab from a nationality (foreign or native) is higher when they share nativity with the director. We seek to draw attention to the effect of affinity on the ethnic composition of research labs at the micro level that translates into the ethnic composition of the scientific community at the macro level. Further, these results emphasize the role of lab directors in future enrolments, creating scientific human capital, and contributing to the “brain circulation” phenomenon in the global context.     

Contests for Professional Status: Community College Faculty in Sociology

Community colleges are playing an increasingly important and visible role in higher education in the United States. However, the additional attention to community colleges has not produced the same degree of recognition regarding the importance and needs of the faculty within those institutions, who make up about 27 percent of all faculty members nation-wide. This article examines factors influencing the professional status of community college faculty. We argue that understanding the position of community college faculty in higher education today depends upon understanding that professional status is a dynamic and contested terrain, rather than a series of static characteristics. Following Abbott’s (1998) analysis of the efforts of librarians to achieve professional status, we consider how the changing structure of higher education in the United States may impact community college faculty as professionals, both positively and negatively. As one example of community college faculty raising their issues within a discipline-wide professional organization, we examine the current state of community college faculty with the American Sociological Association (ASA). We consider potential status changes for community college faculty in sociology within the context of the broad threats to the professional status of faculty across the higher education landscape. Paradoxically, these threats might result in an opening for efforts by community college faculty to improve their professional status, perhaps in coalition with faculty in other sectors of higher education.     

Undergraduate Social Work Faculty in the USA React to the War with Iraq

The role of social workers in political activism has been characterized with ambivalence, and few studies have addressed political activism within the social work academic setting. The purpose of the current study was to explore how social work educators responded to the war with Iraq from an educational perspective as well as a personal perspective. Undergraduate social work faculty (N = 65) from accredited social work programs in each state throughout the USA completed a brief quantitative survey via email about the war with Iraq including the following topics: educational responses; personal responses; personal views; academic freedom; and demographic data. Findings revealed that 70% of respondents felt that social work faculty had a responsibility to educate students about the war with Iraq, however, only 36% of respondents felt that social work faculty had a responsibility to advocate for or against the war with Iraq. The majority of the faculty surveyed incorporated the war with Iraq in their class activities (88%) and participated in war activities outside of class on their own campus (80%). A significant minority of faculty felt restricted by their institution from expressing their views of the war with Iraq during class time (14%) and on their own campus (17%).     

Student-Centered Teaching: The Analog to Client-Centered Practice

A team of faculty explain the use of a developmental curriculum design to teach a direct practice methods course. The design is based on the principles of andragogy, which highlights self-motivated adult learning. Students and faculty collaborate in setting and implementing course objectives. The authors differentiate between the developmental design and the more traditional structured curriculum. These two approaches are compared according to their course objectives, specific content, role of faculty, and learning process. Illustrations from the course are used for clarification purposes.     

A Case-based Collaborative Learning Model for Teaching Advocacy

Social work graduate school programs focusing on clinical practice have traditionally attended less to the profession's advocacy role. Masters-level clinical social work students, therefore, may not receive adequate training to understand their roles in advocating for or against policies that directly impact their practice. This article proposes a collaborative learning model called ‘Advocacy Week’, which prepares students for a statewide NASW-sponsored Advocacy Day. Using case presentations prepared in collaboration with clinical and policy social work faculty, aspiring clinical social work practitioners are exposed to the relevance of advocacy. Preliminary findings suggest that graduate students exposed to this model become aware of their advocate role as part of their clinical practice, a knowledge which has implications for social work education.     

The research to teaching initiative: infusing faculty research into the MSW curriculum

Social work educators have a responsibility to facilitate student utilization of research‐based knowledge. Tremendous research based knowledge is generated at many schools, but due to multiple responsibilities, faculty often find it difficult to share their findings with fellow faculty outside of their immediate project team, or to inquire into the research efforts of their colleagues within the school. This paper describes the development, implementation and preliminary evaluation of Research to Teaching, an initiative to infuse the curriculum of a school of social work with current research findings from its faculty. The goal of the Research to Teaching initiative is to take current publications from faculty, and distill them into easy‐to‐use lecture materials including slides summarizing the content, teaching notes, discussion questions, and group activities such as skill practice, simulation, and other integrative activities. These lectures are placed on a site within the school's larger website, and are accessible to all faculty, students, alumni, and other interested individuals.     

Theory and Methods of Social Research. John Galtung. New York: Columbia University Press,November 1967. 534 pp. $10.00 Hardbound

Electronic media are expected to play an increasingly important role in professional education. Recent developments in videorecording technology have brought the ownership of small closed-circuit television systems well within the reach of most schools of social work, challenging them to develop ways to utilize this medium.

To promote the utilization of electronic media, two schools of social work cooperated in offering a joint seminar in videorecording. This led to the formulation of a strategy for media development that relies on student interest and effort to generate faculty and administrative acceptance and support for television in social work education.     

The Writer's Guild: A Model of Support for Social Work Faculty

The retention and promotion of social work faculty is partially dependent upon their success in publishing. Because of a perception among junior faculty at one Midwestern university that writing barriers posed a threat to their career development, they developed a Writer's Guild. The Guild model represents a collaborative, non-hierarchical approach to supporting scholarship. In this article, the authors describe the model, discuss some of the challenges involved in its formation, and offer recommendations for transplanting the model to other schools.     

Violence in Predominantly White Institutions of Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter examines the patterns of violence associated with the tenure process for the African American professor in traditionally white higher education institutions. In this article, violence is examined in the context of its psychological and demeaning effects. The following dimensions are reviewed: recruitment of African American faculty; the review process for tenure; the politics of tenure; socialization and orientation of faculty; junior faculty as victims and tenure denial. Intervention strategies for addressing the problems of violence are recommended.