Echoes from the Past: Intergenerational Memories in Cyprus

The purpose of this article is to describe young people's awareness of their parents’ and grandparents’ stories of the events of 1974 in Cyprus and to evaluate the extent to which they perceive teachers as other key figures in their lives endorsing family accounts of history. The article is based on focus group discussions with 20 Turkish Cypriot and 20 Greek Cypriot teenagers from two schools in Cyprus. The article describes how in some cases, young people appropriate these memories as their own, while in other cases, they acknowledge how the passing of time dilutes the significance of past events and allows some young people to envisage a different collective future.     

Job-search Networks and Wage Attainment in China: A Comparison of Job Changers and Non-changers

This article examines job-search networks and entry-level wage attainment using data from a large-scale survey conducted in eight cities in China in 2009. Two key issues are addressed: (i) how the use of social networks is associated with entry-level wage attainment in urban China, and (ii) whether the patterns of network effects on entry-level wage differ between job changers and first-job seekers. The results show that both strength of ties and social resources of job-search networks are significantly associated with entry-level wage attainment, and that the network effects on entry-level wage are greater for job changers than for first-job seekers. This study offers a solid empirical verification of the associations of weak ties with information and strong ties with influence in an analysis of entry-level wages for job changers and first-job seekers.     

Political Violence and Legitimation: The Episode of Colonial Cyprus

Guerrilla warfare often becomes popular despite the fact that many aspects of it are morally objectionable. Guerrilla groups too, instead of being considered terrorists, often become legitimate political actors. How does this happen? How does the process of legitimation of political violence work? I argue that this process is social and cognitive at the same time, and that a framework for its explanation must be able to account for this dualism. I build such an analytical framework on McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly’s approach to social movement studies and on the general sociology of Pierre Boudieu. I use it to analyze the legitimation process of the guerilla anti-colonial campaign in Cyprus. In the legitimation process of Cyprus, two social mechanisms proposed by McAdam et al. played a critical role at an early stage—the mechanisms of certification and of boundary-drawing. Later, a social mechanism that I term “valorization” was central as well. To appreciate the effectiveness of these mechanisms, however, I argue that the dispositional facet of the legitimation process must be accounted for as well. I do this through field analysis, focusing in particular on positions of social and symbolic power. The analysis of the legitimation process in Cyprus offers lessons for the study of other similar processes. By showing how the three mechanisms worked effectively, and also showing the limits of their effectiveness, this analysis offers readily comparable causal analogies     

The accelerative and integrative use of marketing public relations in Cyprus

This paper concerns the development of marketing public relations (MPR) and its usage, relevance and significance in Cyprus. By case and interview research, the findings show movement, toward and emphasis upon MPR which is perceived to be more cost effective and efficient in achieving campaign objectives.     

Household Structure and Children's Educational Attainment: A Perspective on Coresidence with Grandparents

Children from alternative households complete fewer years of schooling. Yet little is known about the implications of coresidence with grandparents for educational attainment. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 10,083), this study found that extended households with two biological parents were not detrimental to high school completion or college enrollment. Although coresidence with grandparents did not compensate for not living with two biological parents, it seemed to be beneficial for the educational attainment of youth from single‐mother households. In contrast, skipped‐generation households were associated with a persistent disadvantage for educational attainment. Limited socioeconomic resources partially accounted for the adverse effects of alternative households, whereas parenting quality did not explain these effects. Interactions of gender by household structure suggested that stepfather households could have negative consequences for high school completion and college enrollment only for girls.     

Relative Deprivation and Career Decision Self‐Efficacy: Influences of Self‐Regulation and Parental Educational Attainment

Nearly 70% of Korean women pursue postsecondary education, yet they occupy lower‐status positions than do men (K. Kim & Han, 2008 ). Therefore, the authors examined relative deprivation in equal opportunities and its effect on career‐related self‐efficacy among 603 Korean female college students. Self‐regulation was hypothesized to mediate the effects of relative deprivation on career decision self‐efficacy. This effect was hypothesized to differ according to parents’ educational attainment due to different degrees of parental support. As expected, self‐regulation mediated the relationship between relative deprivation and career decision self‐efficacy for participants whose parents had high education levels. However, participants whose parents had low education levels demonstrated less involvement in resolving relative deprivation. Findings suggest that career counselors should use different interventions based on parental education level to influence students’ self‐regulation and to enhance career decision self‐efficacy.     

Trauma Events, Residence in Refugee Camps, and Educational Attainment as Predictors of Trauma Symptoms of Albanian Refugees in Macedonia

Adult members of 79 Albanian families who had fled from Kosovo to Macedonia during the immediate postwar period (June–August 1999) were interviewed. In conjunction with therapeutic intervention, the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) and the General Health Questionnaire (GTQ) were administered. Trauma symptoms as measured by the HTQ and psychological distress as measured by the GHQ were highly correlated. The best predictor of psychological distress was severity of the trauma experienced. Refugees with high educational attainment had fewer trauma symptoms than those with lower educational attainment. Refugees who lived with host families in towns showed fewer trauma symptoms than those who lived in camps, but they were also more highly educated. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses suggested that educational attainment may mediate the effect of place of residence. Educational attainment may be an indicator of resourceful and effective coping strategies that ameliorate the effects of trauma.     

Mind the gap: financial London and the regional class pay gap

The hidden barriers, or ‘gender pay gap’, preventing women from earning equivalent incomes to men is well documented. Yet recent research has uncovered that, in Britain, there is also a comparable class‐origin pay gap in higher professional and managerial occupations. So far this analysis has only been conducted at the national level and it is not known whether there are regional differences within the UK. This paper uses pooled data from the 2014 and 2015 Labour Force Survey (N = 7,534) to stage a more spatially sensitive analysis that examines regional variation in the class pay gap. We find that this ‘class ceiling’ is not evenly spatially distributed. Instead it is particularly marked in Central London, where those in high‐status occupations who are from working‐class backgrounds earn, on average, £10,660 less per year than those whose parents were in higher professional and managerial employment. Finally, we inspect the Capital further to reveal that the class pay gap is largest within Central London's banking and finance sector. Challenging policy conceptions of London as the ‘engine room’ of social mobility, these findings suggest that class disadvantage within high‐status occupations is particularly acute in the Capital. The findings also underline the value of investigating regional differences in social mobility, and demonstrate how such analysis can unravel important and previously unrecognized spatial dimensions of class inequality.     

Difference and equality: Icelandic parents' division of parental leave within the context of a childcare gap

Iceland's parental leave system, granting mothers and fathers equal benefits, may be interpreted as part of the development in the Nordic countries towards a dual-earner/dual-caregiver model. Even though uptake studies show fathers' increased participation in childcare, the use of the entitlement varies and a gendered pattern persists. This paper is based on interviews with 14 Icelandic couples who find themselves in a situation where they have to bridge a care gap between parental leave and state-subsidized childcare. While mothers tend to stretch their part of the leave on the argument that six months is too short a leave, fathers generally find three months to be long enough. The discussion revolves around the question of the relationship between difference and equality, inspired by Andrea Doucet's (2006) concept of strategic essentialism. May we envision a policy system that takes into consideration the way people invest in gender and at the same time develop policy measures that facilitate gender equality?     

Information seeking in secondary schools: A multilevel network approach

In this study, we investigate information seeking interactions in secondary schools from a multilevel network approach. Based on network-related theories, we examine the facilitating role of formal subunits. We apply exponential random graph models for multilevel networks and summarize our findings by using a meta-analysis technique. Our results indicate that formal subunits (e.g. subject departments) can, to some extent, facilitate interactions, in loosely coupled organizations (e.g. secondary schools). Finally, this study shows that a multilevel network approach can provide a more informative representation of information seeking ties in knowledge-intensive organizations.     

Framing the Other: cosmopolitanism and the representation of difference in overseas gap year narratives

This paper engages with debates surrounding contemporary cosmopolitanism and the outcomes of cultural encounters. It considers if overseas gap years, often put forward in the UK as a way of becoming a global citizen, enable young Britons to ‘broaden their mind’. I explore representations of the people and places encountered during these periods of time out through an analysis of young people's travel blogs. Four key themes are highlighted in these narratives: the exotic place; feeling ‘out of place’; the importance and outcomes of local interaction; and the historical legacies that are implicated in constructing places as ‘different’. Gappers display a willingness to interact with and gain knowledge about their host communities. Yet as gap years are designed to be distinct from the normal course of things, they also demonstrate the ‘difference’ of places. This can often result in the reproduction of established ways of representing the Other in order to frame them as meaningful. There is a tension in the narratives between ‘globally reflexive’ and ‘globally reproductive’ representations of difference, and I suggest that we might question the development of cosmopolitan attitudes and competencies through undertaking a gap year.     

School counsellors and cultural diversity management in Spanish secondary schools: the role of relations with other educators and intervention models used in care of immigrant students

During the last 20 years, the influx of immigrant pupils in Spanish schools has taken up much of school counsellors’ agendas. This leads us to reflect upon the status and role of educational guidance in terms of cultural diversity management, particularly focusing on two elements that may potentially help understand the situation: relations with other educational agents and the intervention model applied. The field work for this study was carried out during an academic semester in four secondary schools in Huelva. In addition to the analysis of official school documentation, remarks and field notes, semi-structured interviews were carried out and a discussion group was held with the four counsellors. Counsellors are trying to overcome an intervention model that is mainly therapeutic in nature and make space in their schedules for a way of working that is more focused on prevention and advisory services, incorporating the participation of other educational actors. But this is not an easy task. The possibility of generating changes would encourage better integration of cultural diversity in the life of schools, rather than treating it as a negative/deficit view, as an occasional issue, individual and isolated from the sum of school activities and other members of the education community.     

Whose knowledge is valued: a critical study of knowledge in elementary school textbooks in China

This study critically examines knowledge in elementary school textbooks in China. Language analysis and story‐line analysis are used to examine how the knowledge related to minority groups and how the knowledge related to the Han group are introduced and interpreted. This study finds that the Han knowledge dominates elementary school textbooks in China and that minority knowledge and culture are under‐represented, which demonstrates that the dominant Han group’s knowledge is seen as the ‘truth’ while minority knowledge is seen as backward. Moreover, through the dominant Han group’s selection and construction of school knowledge, the Han group reproduces its ideology and legitimates its hegemonic control over minority groups. Minority knowledge and culture are, therefore, subjugated.     

Public–private wage differential and gender gap in Latin America: Spoiled bureaucrats and exploited women?

This paper uses a rich collection of household surveys to investigate the wage differential between the public and private sectors in 13 Latin American countries. It also studies how the sector of employment affects the gender wage gap. Contrary to what is commonly thought, it is found that, in the majority of Latin American countries, there is a premium associated with working in the public sector. It is also found that the premium is often higher for women than for men but that this difference does not compensate for the wide gender gap.     

Intercultural education and academic achievement: a framework for school-based policies in multilingual schools

The paper reviews quantitative and qualitative research evidence regarding the relationship between intercultural education and academic achievement among students from socially marginalized communities. Intercultural education is conceptualized as including a focus both on generating understanding and respect for diverse cultural traditions and challenging inequitable distribution of resources and educational opportunities across social groups. As such, intercultural education incorporates notions such as critical literacy and culturally responsive education. By definition, socially marginalized communities have experienced social exclusion and discrimination, often over generations. Thus, educators who adopt an intercultural education orientation are also committed to challenging the operation of coercive relations of power within their school environments. The operation of societal power relations that affect marginalized group students’ academic achievement can be conceptualized along a continuum ranging from structural/societal, through structural/educational, to interpersonal. Structural/societal forms of discrimination are largely outside the scope of what educators can influence directly (e.g. housing segregation). However, the research evidence suggests that educators have considerable power to resist and challenge coercive power relations operating at both structural/educational (e.g. curriculum materials) and interpersonal (e.g. classroom interactions) dimensions of the continuum. Thus, the proposed framework represents an explanatory model to account for patterns of school success and failure among marginalized group students and a predictive model to specify educator behaviors that are likely to promote academic achievement.     

Interculturalism in Italian primary schools with a high concentration of immigrant students

The present article focuses on quantitative research carried out on a statistically representative sample of Italian primary schools with a high concentration of immigrant students. Research data show that schools with a higher number of immigrant students offer a greater number and a wider variety of intercultural initiatives. The presence of immigrant students serves as an effective stimulus in enhancing intercultural approaches. Furthermore, the opinions of head teachers about the proposal of ‘separate classes’ for immigrant students and the proposed ‘limit of 30% on the presence’ of immigrant students are negative. These judgements do not change in a statistically significant manner in relation to concentration of immigrant students: in particular, higher rates of immigrant students are not related to more positive opinions. Continuing education on intercultural issues is widely adopted, mainly on behalf of teachers and less often on behalf of head teachers and other school personnel. Finally, activities by ‘linguistic facilitators’ and ‘linguistic and cultural mediators’ are not significantly related to a decrease in perceived concern regarding problematic situations.     

Intercultural policies and the contradictory views of teachers: the Roma in Catalonian schools

In this article, we examine the contradictions and lack of consistency between various levels of discourse relating to Roma educational policies. Policy-makers have claimed that political interventions would positively impact the progress of Roma. However, the results have been mixed. We argue here that teachers need to re-evaluate their roles as politically aware and culturally informed agents in order to guarantee social justice to a historically disadvantaged ethnic minority. Based on ethnographical fieldwork carried out over a two-year period with Spanish Roma children, both in schools and in their families, this study shows how intercultural policies have failed to impact the educational realities of Roma children.     

Research note: how Muslims are perceived in Catholic schools in contemporary Australia: a national survey

This paper presents results from a large-scale national survey of attitudes of students in Catholic schools in Australia towards Muslims and Islam. Over 2232 students completed questionnaires which were obtained from students in 42 Catholic schools throughout Australia. These schools were drawn from both rural and urban areas in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland and South Western Australia. The findings include evidence of goodwill on several indicators, with a variation in response between boys and girls, religious identifiers and ‘others’, and stereotyping of one’s own mainstream/Catholic community vs. Muslims. Positive, neutral and other stereotypical attitudes were included in the analysis. A number of negative attitudes suggest that relative recent migration to Australia contributed in large measure to a poorly informed response, while the long-standing multicultural posture of educational policy suggests otherwise.     

Polarization and progress in the black community: Earnings and status gains for young black males in the era of affirmative action

We examined the occupational mobility and earnings attainment of young black and white male workers in the period 1974–1981 for evidence of class polarization among blacks in the era following the 1960s' antidiscrimination legislation. Our model links occupational status and earnings to the social resources of education and father's socioeconomic status, using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, 1968–1981. The results suggest that such resources operated more strongly for advantaged blacks than for whites. But for less advantaged blacks, race remained a significant barrier. As predicted by the polarization hypothesis, enforcement of affirmative action guidelines was beneficial, but only to more qualified blacks.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meetings of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, August 1987.     

At a crossroads of civilizations: multicultural educational provision in Cyprus through the lens of a case study

This paper aims to explore the issue of multicultural education in Cyprus and how it is treated within school environments. It explores attitudes from and towards non‐indigenous pupils and perceptions that exist within the indigenous population. A case study approach was used to achieve these goals. Teachers completed a semi‐structured questionnaire, and pupils and parents were interviewed. The results revealed serious deficiencies in the system, with particular emphasis on the lack of academic and psychological support for non‐indigenous pupils. The results also point to a lack of skills among teachers to function in multiethnic classrooms