Failure to Learn: A System View*

Educational psychologists, remedial teachers and others working with children who are considered to have learning difficulties tend to regard the problem as being within the child and disregard the importance of the social/educational context. This paper argues that contextual factors are very important and classifies these factors in terms of the subsystems within the educational system. Typical subsystem structures and interactions are discussed and illustrated with case studies. The roles and interventions of the therapist working within the educational system are described. The numerous difficulties in working with a large system are discussed as well as some strategies for dealing with them.     

School Failure as an Adolescent Turning Point

Abstract

Recently, researchers have devoted significant attention to the influence of turning points such as marriage, employment, and military service on criminal desistance in adulthood. Because offending peaks in adolescence, the relative lack of research on influential adolescent turning points is notable. Given the extensive research linking school failure to deleterious adult development, we propose that school failure (late grade retention and school dropout) is a marked transition in adolescence, with the potential to operate as a turning point in the life course. Using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), we first examine structural, relational, and individual predictors of school failure in adolescence. Second, we assess whether school failure amplifies delinquency in late adolescence. We find evidence supporting our contention that school failure operates as an adolescent turning point, and we confirm that school failure is significantly predicted by structural, relational, and individual factors. Although school failure may be thought of as the end result of a long-term process of academic disengagement, our research suggests that it is also a pivotal, negative turning point in the life course.     

The Therapist's Response to The Family's Aggression*

Within our own bodies our cells are constantly in a process of repair and disassemblage. It is this process of disassemblage which is the physical analog of psychological destructive ness. In some families, the primary interchanges are not aimed at encouraging constructive ness, and if the family is uncomfortable with this state of affairs they may seek professional help. If the counselor does nothing to relieve the anxiety engendered by their hostile interchanges, the family may view him as just one more discordant element in their unhappy system and leave him very quickly. They may take up the gauntlet with another counselor or they may go on to continue to engage in the process of feeding their energy into the perpetuation of a system which takes up so much of the family's energy that it permits the family to accomplish little else besides maintaining the status quo.     

Parsons' Economic Sociology: A Failure of Will*

In the Marshall Lectures and in Economy and Society Parsons endeavored to demonstrate that economic theory was a special case in the general theory of social systems. He then attempted to show that the parameters of macroeconomic theory could be analyzed as variables within a general social systems theory. But Parsons’economic sociology failed to redeem its promise. He did not succeed in using macro-economic theory as the basis for the formulation of a propositional macrosociology; nor did he sociologically reconstruct the logic of utilitarian, neoclassical economic theory.     

Self‐control and Resistance to School*

Dans cet article, on examine la relation entre l'autocontrôle, le contrôle social et la résistance au système scolaire. Les données d'étude sont tirées d'un sondage réalisé auprès d'étudiants des premier et deuxième cycles du secondaire en Alberta. Les résultats de ce sondage penchent fortement en faveur de la General Theory of Crime (Gottfredson et Hirschi, 1990), selon laquelle la perte d'autocontrôle est le prédicteur le plus sûr de tous les types de résistance. Les résultats soutiennent l'hypothèse voulant que, si le lien entre classe sociale (ou bien genre ou appartenance ethnique) et résistance est ténu (au Canada du moins), c'est peut‐être parce que les mécanismes d'autocontrôle qui suscitent ou rejettent le phénomène de résistance ne sont pas intimement liés à la classe sociale (ou bien au genre ou à l'appartenance ethnique). Toutefois, le sexe, l'âge, la classe sociale et l'appartenance ethnique restent étroitement liés à certains ou à l'ensemble des aspects de la résistance au système scolaire même en présence d'autocontrôle. Les conclusions de la General Theory of Crime et leurs répercussions sont également abordées ici. This paper tests the relationship between self‐control, social control and resistance to school. The data source is a survey of senior and junior high‐school students in Alberta, Canada. Results offer strong support for the General Theory of Crime (Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990) in that lack of self‐control is the strongest predictor of all types of resistance. The results support the hypothesis that if the link between social class (or gender and ethnicity) and resistance is low (at least in Canada), it may be because self‐control mechanisms that produce or repudiate resistance are not strongly linked to social class (or gender and ethnicity). Nevertheless, gender, age, class and ethnicity maintain a significant relationship with some or all aspects of resistance to school even after controlling for self‐control. Implications of the findings for the General Theory of Crime are discussed.     

Conformist and Deviant Behaviour in High School: the Merton Typology adapted to an Educational Context*

A l'aide de donnees recoltees aupres de 3 465 etudiants de lOe annee pour une autre etude, on examine la valeur heuristique de la typologie mertonienne de la conduite dans un contexte scolaire. La valeur qu'accordent les etudiants a l'instruction en tant qu'objectif defini par la culture fut identified et comparee a leurs attentes vis-a-vis l'acces aux etudes collegiales comme etant le moyen institutionnel approprie pour realiser cet objectif. Les etudiants furent classes en quatre groupes: les conformistes sont ceux qui accordent une grande importance a l'instruction, et dont le niveau des aspirations est eleve; les innovateurs tout en valorisant l'instruction exhibent un bas niveau d'aspirations; les ritualistes valorisent peu l'instruction mais nour-rissent de fortes ambitions; les retraitistes entretiennent peu d'attentes et ont peu d'attrait pour les etudes. Un certain nombre d'hypotheses decoulant du modele de Merton furent verifiees par les donnees utilisees. On espere ainsi inviter d'autres etudes qui pourront examiner la validite de ce modele dans le domaine scolaire. Data collected from 3465 grade ten students in connection with another study were used to examine the heuristic value of Merton's typology of behaviour in an educational context. The value students have for education as a “culturally definied goal,” was identified and compared to their expectations concerning the use of college attendance as the “institutionally appropriate means” of achieving the goal. Four classifications of students were developed: conformists are those with high value for education and high educational expectations; innovators have high values, but low expectations; ritualists have low values, but high expectations; and retreatists are those with low values and low expectations.     

Retaining State Hegemony in Canada in the 1990s: Government Response to an Agricultural Disaster*

De nos jours, les analyses des mouvements sociaux au Canada portent surtout sur les moyens employés à l'intérieur des mouvements pour remettre en cause les pratiques hégémoniques de l'État dans le but de modifier les rapports de force. Par conséquent, on n'a pas accordé beaucoup d'attention aux moyens mis en ?euvre par l'État pour contenir ces mouvements et les canaliser dans des directions qui déterminent en grande partie les orientations qu'ils adoptent et, en dernière instance, leur réussite ou leur disparition. Dans cette communication, l'auteure examine un type d'intervention préventive de l'État à l'égard de groupes qui pourraient devenir de veritables mouvements sociaux, intervention qui consiste à les intégrer en en faisant à toutes fins utiles de simples groupes d'inte-rêts. Elle illustre son propos en présentant un cas dans l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard, où l'État a réussi à empêcher un mouvement social potentiel de prendre forme. Current analyses of social movements in Canada focus primarily on the internal methods by which state hegemonic practices are challenged in an attempt to transform the relations of power. As a result, little attention is given to the methods by which the state increasingly constrains and channels social movements into particular directions that are crucial to the direction and ultimate success, or demise, of social movements. This paper looks at one way in which the state now intervenes to pre-empt antagonistic groups that have the potential to become full social movements, by co-opting them into little more than interest groups. Specifically, this paper attempts to show how the state successfully prevented a potential social movement on Prince Edward Island from reaching fruition.     

A Structural Approach to a Family with an Encopretic Child*

This article describes brief therapy using a structural approach. During the course of therapy the encopretic behavior of a pre-adolescent boy was observed in relation to the interactionand structure of the family system. The presenting problem was analyzed as a sign of family dysfunction and of the stress consequent to the parents separation. The success of the therapy didnot consist only of the disappearance of the encopretic behavior, but also in the discovery of different modalities of relating which produced a liberating effect on the identified patient and on other members of the family.     

Separate but Equal: Durkheim's Response to the Woman Question*

This article reexamines Durkheim's views on gender relations within the context of nineteenth century French feminism. Durkheim's response to the woman question reflects the sociopolitical discourse on individual rights and responsibilities, the family, and women's roles in the private and public spheres. Durkheim's perspective on gender relations is predicated on a biologically differentiated conception of gender role complementarity that emphasizes the couple, not the individual. This perspective, shared by feminists, is best characterized by the phrase, separate, but equal.     

Labour-Market Problems and Crime in the Transition from School to Work*

Le passage du monde des études au monde du travail constitue une étape importante dans la vie des jeunes adultes. Les problèmes liés au marché du travail tels que le chômage et la précarité de l'emploi, qui surgissent au cours de cette phase transitoire, peuvent favoriser des comportements criminels, en particulier chez ceux et celles qui ont certaines attentes et convictions vis-à-vis du marche du travail. Les théories sur le contrôle social et les tensions sociales permettent de faire des hypothèses sur l'interaction entre les expériences vécues sur le marché du travail et les comportements menant à des actes criminels. L'hypothèse d'un lien entre l'apparition de problèmes liés au marché du travail et la présence d'amis délinquants fait égale-ment l'objet d'une analyse multivariable qui neutralise les antécédents de délinquance. Les données sont tirées d'une étude longitu-dinale sur de jeunes Canadiens venant de trois villes différentes, qui ont eté suivis pendant quatre ans à la suite de l'obtention de leur diplôme du secondaire. Les résultats fournissent quelques éléments qui appuient la théorie des tensions sociales ainsi que l'influence durable de l'entourage dans le développement de la criminalité au cours de cette période de transition. The transition from school to work represents an important phase in the life cycle of young adults. Labour-market problems, such as unemployment and job instability experienced during this transition may be a source of criminal behaviour, particularly among those who have certain attitudes and beliefs about the labour market. Social-control and strain theories are used to develop hypotheses regarding the interaction between labour-market experiences and attitudes leading to crime. An interaction between labour-market problems and the presence of delinquent friends is also tested in a multi-variate analysis that controls for prior delinquency. The data derive from a longitudinal panel study of Canadian youth from three cities who were followed for four years subsequent to their high school graduation. The results provide some support for strain theory arguments, as well as for the continued importance of delinquent friends for crime in this period of transition.     

Interim Response to a Mail Questionnaire: Impacts on Variable Relationships*

Nagging doubts continue on the utility of the mail questionnaire, although advances in this technique provide response rates of 70 percent or higher. Return bias, a factor in attacks on the mail questionnaire, has been depicted as a necessary evil of such magnitude that the technique should be abandoned. But few studies using mail questionnaires have examined the impact of interim response on variable relationships. To test for return bias, data are reported from 931 residents of five small Iowa communities. Four mail requests elicited a 78.2 percent completion rate; interviews were attempted with terminal mail nonrespondents, yielding a final response rate of 92.8 percent. In a statistical sense, only minor differences are evident on correlation coefficients and unstandardized regression coefficients for the first and second response waves compared with data accumulated for all respondents. But when substantive conclusions are examined, the impact of interim response does not subside until the first three response waves are accumulated. Thus, attention must be given to the potential influence of return bias in mail-questionnaire studies, but calls for discontinuing use of the technique are unwarranted.     

Are Rural Schools Inferior to Urban Schools? A Multilevel Analysis of School Accountability Trends in Kentucky*

Abstract Recent research does not provide clear evidence that rural schools are inferior to urban schools. For example, one prominent study finds that students in rural schools perform less well than their urban counterparts, but other studies using the same national data set have reached divergent conclusions. The present study reassesses the issue using a time series approach to school performance. We investigate the effects of location on school‐level performance and improvement indicators between 1999 and 2003 using a sample of 1,111 Kentucky public schools nested in 170 school districts. Repeated‐observations HLM analysis reveals that rural schools achieve mean annual gains in performance that equal or better their urban counterparts. Furthermore, schools in some nonmetro locations perform on par with metro schools in between‐school baseline score comparisons. A simple answer to the question “Are rural schools inferior?” is not feasible, however, since standards for assessing school quality are changing as a consequence of education reform initiatives at the state and national levels.     

A Self-Consistency Approach to Prisonization*

A theoretical model is developed in which prisonization is determined by the self-concepts which inmates bring to the prison. This model was substantively tested using a Likert-type scale of Inmate Reference Group Identification as an index of prisonization. Self-concept was measured by the Twenty Statements Test and scores were trichotomized to form groups having legitimate, low and deviant social anchorage. The sample consisted of 257 male inmates from two adult prisons. The data were gathered by questionnaire in groups of 15–45 using a cross-sectional design. Four hypotheses were tested relating prisonization to type of social anchorage according to three institutional career phases. Using analysis of variance and contrasts it was found that prisonization was the greatest and increased in a linear fashion during successive career phases among those with deviant social anchorage. Those with low social anchorage showed an increase in prisonization during the middle phase and a decrease during the late phase. No change in prisonization according to career phase was found among those with legitimate social anchorage. The results suggest that self-concept plays a crucial role in defining both the likelihood and form of attitude change following imprisonment.     

Fear and Misbehavior in a High School*

Traditional studies of deterrence have investigated the impact of severity and certainty of punishment. This study considers the impact of these variables on misbehavior, and includes an analysis of legitimacy, seriousness of misbehavior, and fear of consequences. Although deterrence is usually investigated in the criminal justice system, a large public school was chosen for this investigation. Fourteen classes were sampled, with 271 students completing questionnaires on self-reported misbehavior and their perceptions about the control structure in the high school. Perceptions of school and classroom climate were found to predict misbehavior. Perceptions about punishment explained the fear of consequences. Severity and certainty of sanction were found to be less important in the explanation of fear than the perceived seriousness of misbehavior, legitimacy of rules, and the celerity of sanction. These findings have important implications for future research on deterrence.     

Effects of Social Influence and Measured Exposure Level on Response to Radon*

The eclectic theoretical model presented indicates that responses to hazards are affected by friends, the mass media, and by the measured level of exposure to the hazard. This model guides the analysis of survey data garnered from a New York State county whose residents were offered free tests to determine the level of radon in their homes. Results indicate that measured radon level is consistently correlated with specific responses to a direct threat of radon on one's home, whereas the influence of family or the mass media have little effect. The situation is reversed when radon is regarded as a diffuse hazard without specific reference to the respondent's own home.     

Ambivalence Toward Integration: the Sequence of Response to Six Interracial Situations*

White liberals (N=204) believing in integration and living in Los Angeles County expressed their attitudes toward six interracial situations: (1) busing in the schools for the purpose of ending de facto segregation; (2) the entrance of blacks into the respondents' occupational fields; (3) blacks moving into the respondents' neighborhoods; (4) the quota system as the basis for college admission for minorities; (5) rentals to blacks in white-occupied apartment buildings; and (6) hiring of blacks. A scalogram analysis indicates that the attitudes common to white liberals as a group form a systematic ordering of adherence to or retreat from anti-discriminatory principles, with the underlying dimension being the degree of attitudinal favorableness toward the situations and integration in general. We found a predictable pattern of complexity of attitudes toward the situations, with progression from the most difficult to the least difficult situation as follows: quota, busing, residence, apartment, hiring, and occupation. We reject a situational, direct threat hypothesis in favor of a general attitude hypothesis since retreats from anti-discriminatory beliefs follow a cumulative sequence, irrespective of the respondents' particular life circumstances or the nature of the specific situation. We conclude that the cultural definitions of the situations and the degree of clarity of emergent norms are primary factors determining attitudinal expressions which are consistent or inconsistent with a general belief in integration.