A Review and Proposal for a New Measure of Poll Accuracy

This article proposes a new measure of the predictive accuracy(A) of election polls that permits examination of both accuracyand bias, and it applies the new measure to summarize the resultsof a number of preelection polls. We first briefly review pastmeasures of accuracy, then introduce the new measure. Afterthe new measure is described, the general strategy is to applyit to three presidential elections (1948, 1996, and 2000) andto compare the results derived from it to the results obtainedwith the Mosteller measures. Then, the new measure is appliedto the results of 548 state polls from gubernatorial and senatorialraces in the 2002 elections to illustrate its application toa large body of preelection polls conducted in "off-year" raceswith different outcomes. We believe that this new measure willbe useful as a summary measure of accuracy in election forecasts.It is easily computed and summarized, and it can be used asa dependent variable in multivariate statistical analyses ofthe nature and extent of biases that affect election forecastsand to identify their potential sources. It is comparable acrosselections with different outcomes and among polls that varyin their treatment or numbers of undecided voters.     

Semiotic Theory and Environmental Evaluation: A Proposal For a New Approach and a New Method

People evaluate their physical, urban environment through processes of interpretation. The environment is considered a collection of signs with symbolic content. With meaning neglected as a central issue, current theories are lacking. The theoretical background of this study is semiotics, while elements are drawn from symbolic interactionism and phenomenology. By means of a case-study the author has attempted to describe a new approach and methodology. The aim is to elucidate the processes underlying positive and negative evaluation of a modern shopping center. The analysis successively demonstrates differences in affective response, sign-vehicles, codes and meanings and, lastly, in beliefs and values connected to structures of relevance and life-situation of the consumer. The long-term purpose of the study is to identify the codes and values that operate within the consumption and production of the urban environment, and to describe the function of urban elements as a potential counterbalance against the colonization processes of the life-world.     

Teachers and Students: a Preliminary Analysis of Collective Reciprocity

On a construit un modele theorique qui propose l'existence de relations recip-roques; pour expliquer l'interaction entre les etudiants et les enseignants dans les ecoles secondaires. II fut postule que les influences prioritaires de la carriere sur les professeurs de meme que la conception des fonctions instrumentales de l'education chez les etudiants, suscitent une reciprocite qui se caracterise par un curriculum de routine et des precedes devaluation. Etudiants et enseignants de trois ecoles secondaires furent examines a l'aide d'un questionnaire, d'un inventaire d'attitude et d'une entrevue dans le but de verifier la validite opera-toire du modele. Les facteurs, carriere, ideologie et “1'instrumentalite” de l'education sont des construits operatoires et les elements de la reciprocite y furent reperes. A model proposing the existence of reciprocal relationships was derived to explain interaction between students and teachers in secondary schools. It was postulated that the priority influences of career on teachers and the conception of education as instrumental on students produce a reciprocity characterized by routinized curriculum and evaluation procedures. Students and teachers from three secondary schools were surveyed by questionnaire, attitude inventory, and interview to test the construct validity of the model. The factors, career, ideology, and the instrumentality of education were supported as operational constructs and the elements of the reciprocity were found to be present.     

When Religion Enters the Dialogue: A Guide for Practitioners

Several factors, including Freud's debunking of religion and social work's discomfort with its religious roots, have resulted in a trend of avoiding religious issues in social work education. The result is compromised care. In this paper, clinical vignettes are utilized to illustrate some of the difficulties which may occur. A series of guidelines is offered, with the aim of increasing therapists' comfort level in negotiating religious issues in practice. Areas of discussion include assessment, resistances, object relations, and countertransference. Case examples demonstrate application of guidelines.     

Authentic assessment: partners in developing a web-based guide

Field education in practice settings and its assessment are essential for the education of social work students. Many challenges in providing consistent, transparent and equitable assessment in field education have been identified in the international literature. This paper discusses the findings from an Australian three stage participatory action research project between social work and teacher education which aimed to develop authentic assessment tools. This paper focuses on the social work component of the research. The research process resulted in the development of 10 generic assessment frameworks presented as an online resource (socialworkfieldassessment.net). Each framework links specific learning challenges with relevant practice standards, suggested learning strategies, types of evidence produced by these strategies and ways of making a judgement based on the evidence produced. The frameworks provide guidelines with ideas, suggestions and resources which can be adapted to specific placement contexts. By examining the frameworks utilising Darling-Hammond and Snyder’s four criteria for authentic assessment, it is concluded the frameworks contribute to authentic assessment as well as being a useful resource for assessment in field education both nationally within Australia and internationally.     

Doing Sociological Films: A Proposal

This essay in an attempt to define, termino‐logically and methodologically, a certain sociological way of producing videos.

The aim is to clarify the possibility of making cinematographic products as sociological practice; trying to transcend the “autodeceit” caused by the cine‐eye. This is a methodological proposal that confronts the risk of misunderstanding reality, through the paradoxical adoption of a method based upon theatre and fiction.     

Intergroup Dialogue for a Just and Diverse Democracy

If media attention is any indicator of public trends, then the mid- to late 1990s would have been the age of intergroup dialogue in the United States. But as one steps back from all the media attention, it is important to consider more carefully what is meant by the term "intergroup dialogue," why this work is important for democracy, and in what ways it addresses issues of social justice. Intergroup dialogue is a positive and powerful process in which different groups come together from various walks of life to build a strong democracy. Democracy is a powerful but fragile political arrangement, requiring careful maintenance, regular nurturance, and continuing advancement and improvement in the areas of social justice and equality. This paper presents a framework for thinking conceptually and pragmatically about intergroup dialogue by (1) exploring the place of intergroup dialogue in creating a just and diverse democracy, (2) examining what does and does not constitute intergroup dialogue, and (3) discussing critical issues in approaches to intergroup dialogue.     

An Obstacle Race: A Case Study of a Child's Schooling in Australia and England

This account of the struggle by a 'disabled' child to experience a normal education, to lead a normal life, is the basis for a critique of science and the professions, for her struggle has been against those specialists who shape our ideologies, the high priests of the religion of science. Her story reveals the deep-seated prejudices of our society, prejudices which derive from the increasing domination, since the sixteenth century, of a mechanistic, phallogocentric scientism which, in the name of reason, denies individuality, creativity, spirituality, variability, defining and thus condemning those suffering physical or perceptual disabilities beyond the pale. They are deemed 'unnatural', 'negative', 'abnormal' through recourse to a narrow, mechanistic and artificial view of nature. A disabled child sets out on the race through life weighed down by ruthless handicappers but in her triumph shows how ignorant the medical model is of humanity and how restrictive our schools are of creativity. Her success questions our most deeply-rooted assumptions.     

Associate and Baccalaureate Degree Education for Social Work: A Tentative Proposal

This paper provides a preliminary model which may be an effective approach to some of the problems which have to be solved in relating two- and four-year programs in undergraduate social work education. First, a baccalaureate program for students of the social professions is described. Then, two- and four-year programs are related and a set of predictions for the future of higher education which underlie the proposal is discussed. Finally, an appraisal is made of inherent problems in interdigitation which arise in part from the model and in part from a misapplication of management theory which characterizes much of organizational planning for social work manpower development and utilization. Because the purpose here is to explore structures and structural relationships, specific content of courses is elaborated only to the extent required for illustration of intent. The analysis is incomplete which may make it more useful for the various contingencies in “live” schools than a tightly logical model could be.     

Reciprocity Counseling: Practice and Research*

This paper reviews the literature on reciprocity counseling. Evidence is presented for the usefulness of reciprocity counseling with young, well educated, white clients with slight to moderate marital distress. Research into the effectiveness of several components of reciprocity counseling including contracting, problem solving training and feedback is reviewed. Findings suggest that contracting alone is an important positive influence in increasing couples' reciprocating reinforcement. The impact of problem solving training is unclear. Sex of the therapist may influence husband and wife outcomes in problem solving training differentially. Couples' performance of problem-solving behavior appears to be under the control of other as yet unspecified variables. Feedback as a single treatment has unpredictable and sometimes negative results. Therefore use of feedback alone or without careful supervision appears questionable at this time. Issues raised for further research include use of token economies for more severely distressed couples, use of multiple therapists, and the development of a classification scheme for the severity of marital distress.     

Contradictions in Caring: Reciprocity and Interdependence

In this article the author draws on research into the experiences of women with learning difficulties and shows that they very often find themselves in caring roles, and like other women find them both sustaining and frustrating. Drawing a clear distinction between carer and dependant is frequently impossible: both parties in the caring relationship both give and receive. There can be reciprocity and interdependence. Care and dependence are seen as false dichotomies. A plea is made for the interests of carers and those cared for to be considered together, not in opposition to one another.     

Schooling and violence in South Africa: Creating a safer school

The legacy of the brutality of apartheid in South Africa is a violent social context characterized by high levels of unemployment, extremes of wealth and poverty, continuing racism, the easy availability of guns and patriarchal values and behaviours. Violent crime is widespread in South Africa and schools in disadvantaged areas suffer from serious problems of gang-related crime. This article discusses a pilot project with a cluster of three schools in Durban which investigated whether intervention and training coupled with mutual support between cooperating schools, and between schools and the police, can reduce incidents of crime and violence. The idea behind the project was to see whether a small-scale, simple and inexpensive intervention could help to improve security in a relatively short time span. The article describes the nature of the project, evaluates its outcomes and discusses emergent issues for South African education. The overall conclusion stemming from the project is that South African schools are not helpless in the face of an onslaught of crime and violence. While there is no complete and foolproof solution to the problem, schools can nevertheless be helped to find simple, relatively cheap and practical measures to reduce crime and violence.