History and Living

Increasing diversity in the United States means that all students must understand multiple cultural perspectives and identities. Educators need to facilitate learning engagements that highlight the complexities of culture and cultural identity, going beyond surface characteristics such as foods, holidays, and clothing that are often the focus in schools. Culture is a complex concept that includes linguistic and communicative patterns, belief systems, values, and many other aspects. Because it is so complex, students need multiple opportunities to explore the concept of culture and how it shapes their own lives and the lives of others. One way to do this is through mapping engagements that explore family and community traditions, the role of technology, and the development of particular aspects of cultural identity. These maps, which can be created based on the students’ own lives or on book characters, foster discussion and thoughtful consideration of how culture impacts the way we live our lives.     

Spiritual but not religious seek unrestricted connection to selves,others, and earth: Formative research on the explosive growth of an ‘inactive public’ beyond the organization

In the last half century, we have observed an explosive growth in individuals who identify as spiritual but not religious. Today, over one in four U.S. adults fall into this category. This phenomenon is an influential component of our modern and changing society, as spiritual beliefs are associated with health, well-being, goals, feelings, and attitudes. In this formative research study, we apply the public relations’ approach of Sense-Making of an ‘inactive public’ beyond the organization to explore how these individuals define themselves, how their beliefs influence their behaviors (such as political, environmental, communal) and how they feel they are perceived by those around them. Amongst others, our main findings reveal that the spiritual but not religious have disparate specific beliefs and often struggle or resist articulating who they are, yet more broadly share a common belief in connection to others, the natural environment, and one’s self. The majority emphasize acceptance, tolerance, compassion, and the importance of each individual embracing their own spiritual positions. The participants report feeling misunderstood, misrepresented, or ignored by others and media, and that their behaviors (perspective on the world, actions, political ideologies, etc) are influenced by their spiritual beliefs.     

A conceptual tool: Making social workers' assumptions explicit

This paper emphasizes the importance for social work practitioners of making their assumptions about human nature explicit and of taking responsibility for the clinical consequences of using these assumptions. More specifically, it proposes a conceptual tool to help practitioners examine both the assumptions that guide their deliberations and the practical implications of these assumptions. This conceptual tool is based on nine fundamental assumptions about the human condition pertaining to matters such as freedom-determination, subjectivity-objectivity, proactivity-reactivity, and so forth. Each assumption is presented on a continuum along which practitioners can locate themselves. By deliberately placing themselves on each of the nine continua, the practitioners are encouraged to articulate their clinical concepts. This articulation enables them to maintain a critical dialogue with themselves about the ideas they use to understand and help their clients and makes the underlying concepts, and the decisions that stem from them, more amenable to the practitioner's conscious evaluation and control. The framework can also be used to compare the assumptions of practitioners to different theoretical approaches and can thereby help practitioners to better understand their own theoretical predilections. Finally, I propose that this framework be employed as an educational aid for the professional development of students and practitioners in social work education.     

The Taping Project

This article describes and evaluates the effectiveness of a “Taping Project,” a teaching method for student self-evaluation in racism courses. The project offers students the opportunity (a) to hear in private the assumptions about themselves and others that they have brought into the course, (b) to reexamine these assumptions in the context of what they learn in the course, and (c) to consider if and how these assumptions have changed. Formal evaluation of the project’s effectiveness in helping students observe and reflect critically on their own development is reported in two ways: content analysis of 53 student essays using grounded theory analysis, and student and faculty evaluations of the assignment.     

The Care of the Patient

Abstract

The author recently became aware of many MBA students who expressed feelings of not belonging, of being different from others in their program. At the same time, articles began appearing in the press about changing the MBA curricula to include more consideration of morals and ethics. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the conflict aroused in many students who choose a business career for economic reasons and find it difficult to reconcile the societal stereotypes and expectations of the business world with their own values and self-concepts. Much has been written about career choice and identity consolidation, of the ways in which ideals are incorporated into a professional identity in, for example, medicine, law, humanities, and science. A literature search revealed little related to business, where most of the articles concern gender differences. Some of the issues noted here seem more akin to the way in which creative artists struggle with producing commercial forms of their art to survive. In psychodynamic terms, the ambivalence seems to be related to the incapacity of some students to internalize certain concepts and goals in such a way that they can proceed, in the more usual way, to employ the imitative processes that facilitate learning and promote meaningful identifications. Anecdotal case material is included to illustrate the author's belief that a brief therapeutic contact may be useful toward helping such students remedy a temporary imbalance by regaining a sense of self-esteem which permits greater resolution of integration.     

Personal assistance in Sweden

This article provides an overview of the Swedish personal assistance program for persons with severe impairments, introduced in 1994. The personal assistance program makes it financially possible for people with severe disabilities to appoint a personal assistant, by themselves or through a provider, to create support adapted to the individual and to optimize the person's influence over how the support is arranged. The article describes how the reform has increased the opportunity for people with severe disabilities to choose their own way of living. Overall, the personal assistance has enhanced the quality of life for people with severe disabilities and their families.     

DOUBLE MAJORS: ONE FOR ME,ONE FOR THE PARENTS?

At least a quarter of college students in the United States graduate with more than one undergraduate major. This article investigates how students choose the composition of their majors conditional on pursuing more than one major, that is, whether the majors that they choose are substitutes or complements. As the students use both their preferences and expectations about the realizations of future major‐specific outcomes when choosing their college majors, I collect innovative data on subjective expectations from a sample of Northwestern University sophomores. Although there is substantial heterogeneity in beliefs across students, they seem to be aware of differences across majors and have sensible beliefs about the outcomes conditional on major. Students believe that their parents are more likely to approve majors associated with high social status and high returns in the labor market. I incorporate the subjective data in a choice model of double majors that also captures the notion of specialization. I find that enjoying studying the coursework and gaining approval of parents are the most important determinants in the choice of majors. The model estimates reject the hypothesis that students major in one field to pursue their own interests and in another for parents' approval. Instead I find that gaining parents' approval and enjoying studying and working in a field of study are outcomes that are important for both majors in a student's major pair. However, I do find that students act strategically in their choice of majors by choosing majors that differ in their chances of completion and difficulty, and in finding a job upon graduation. (JEL D8, I2, J1)     

“We have to take these guys out”: Motivations for Assaulting Incarcerated Child Molesters

We know very little about how incarcerated men justify assaults against at‐risk inmates such as child molesters. For this article, we fill this gap in the literature by examining how men describe these assaults as a way to align their own violent behavior with more conventional mores. We find that formerly incarcerated men justify violence as a way to raise their own social status and promote cultural norms against child abuse. When inmates attack someone convicted of child molestation, they do so to punish him and provide a “service” to their community. Furthermore, they elevate their own social status and distance themselves from these offenders. Theoretically, this work broadens our understanding of verbal justifications for violent action.     

Unequal Englishes in the Philippines

In this paper, we show how the notion of unequal Englishes can be deployed as an alternative way of accounting for the global spread of English. Through our data, we show how call‐center agents in the Philippines espouse conflicting ideologies in the workplace that invoke unequal Englishes. On the one hand, they espouse ideologies of privilege by seeing themselves as being able to exploit the resources of English in the call‐center workplace, thus celebrating themselves as proficient users of the language. On the other hand, they also espouse ideologies of delegitimization borne out of pressures to subscribe to American Standard English and the belief in the inherent superiority of ‘native speaker’ Englishes and their varieties. By mobilizing the paper towards unpacking inequalities of Englishes as invoked in the statements of call‐center agents, we hope to contribute to critically engaged discussions of the role of English in the world today.     

Healing the Hidden Injuries of Class? Redemption Narratives,Aspirational Proxies,and Parents of Low‐Income,First‐Generation College Students

Existing scholarship has examined how low‐income individuals conceptualize their socioeconomically constrained positions in relation to the meritocratic ideologies and stratified mobility structures of the United States, but little is specifically known about how these individuals' ideas regarding their own status may be impacted by raising children who surpass their educational and occupational achievement levels. Drawing on interview data from both low‐income first‐generation (LIFG) college students and the parents of those students, this article examines how parents framed the achievements of their upwardly mobile, college‐going children in relation to their own experiences of socioeconomic, educational, and occupational constraint. Engaging qualitative understandings of the “hidden injuries of class,” the analysis demonstrates how parents of LIFG college students reconciled their own experiences of limited mobility despite hard work with their steadfast beliefs in meritocratic ideals by (1) invoking narratives of personal “redemption” from past “mistakes” or “failures” in relation to their children's educational accomplishments, and (2) conceptualizing their upwardly mobile children as “aspirational proxies” through whose accomplishments they measured their own success.     

Going beyond a tale of two sectors: a reflective career planning toolkit for social work students

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to make the case that social work students would benefit from thinking beyond the binary of statutory sector vs voluntary sector when thinking about their future career. It argues instead that they should think in terms of their own philosophical worldview, their own preferences in terms of the mechanics of day-to-day practice, and the reasons for those preferences. Drawing on reflection literature, Johns’ Model of Reflection (2017) and an element of Motivational Interviewing, and informed by a value pluralist perspective, the paper sets out a reflective process for social work students to use. The process supports students firstly to explore their own core values and worldview, then to consider their feelings about more practical aspects of the social work role, and finally to find the connections and possible dissonances between the two. It is hoped that the article and the reflective process here advanced can contribute to students being able to plan for their professional futures in a way that does not depend principally on having to choose between statutory or voluntary sector practice, but on a much wider array of factors and values.     

Examining Familial-Based Academic Success Factors in Urban High School Students: The Case of Puerto Rican Female High Achievers

ABSTRACT

This article works to dispel the myth that Puerto Rican female urban high school students living in poverty are not capable of performing at high academic levels. This article attempts to counteract these beliefs by describing the four success factors that seven Puerto Rican female high school students attribute to their high academic achievement. These success factors are: (1) religiosity and extracurricular activities as sources of social capital, (2) affirming and maintaining a Puerto Rican identity, (3) maternal influences on students' academic achievement and, (4) the potential for caring teachers and other school staff to influence high academic achievement. Finally, our findings suggest that opportunities for Latinas and other youth of color are still inequitably structured in large, comprehensive high schools. Hence, we argue that schools must continue to bridge the large gap between themselves and the families/communities they serve and utilize the funds of knowledge and social capital that their students already bring to school.     

Disabled yet intact: Guidelines for work with congenitally physically disabled youngsters and their parents

This paper presents the viewpoint that congenitally physically children, having never been nondisabled, may experience themselves disabled yet intact, with the disability an integral part of their identity. However, society, with its pervasively negative attitudes toward disability, perceives disabled people as incomplete, defective, and deviant. Hence, congenitally disabled children face the difficult dilemma of integrating these two divergent views of themselves. Parents and professionals are offered guidelines to facilitate the resolution of this dilemma; however, they must first carefully scrutinize their own attitudes toward disability so that these do not unwittingly impede the parenting and treatment processes.Harilyn Rousso is director, Disabilities Unlimited, Counseling and Consultative Services; consultant on women and disability, YWCA of N.Y.C.; chairperson, Association of Mental Health Practitioners with Disabilities.     

The identity career of the graduate student: Professional socialization to academic sociology

The pathway through graduate school is challenging and difficult. Nearly everyone, at one point or another, confronts the existential question of whether they want to drop out or to continue. Several challenges emerge as key to graduate students’ success in progressing through their programs. p]The first is moving from the secure but sometimes suffocating structure of a core graduate cohort into the role of independent student. This requires navigating an individual pathway into areas of specialization and a mentor. Programs can do no more than make faculty and courses available; from there, students must make connections and decisions on their own. The second critical transition involves moving from absorbing to creating knowledge. Accomplishing this requires that students grasp the conceptual foundation of the perspective (the “sociological eye”), learn how to gather data, to master the challenge of moving from immersion in the specificity of their research to contribute to more abstract theory, and to understand the conventions through which they must present their scholarly work. Along the way there are myriad interpersonal challenges for them to negotiate. Allegiances that they forge are then relinquished to make way for new, more stage-relevant ones. Students often undergo radical changes in their values and consciousness as they progress through their programs. They are bonded into an equalitarian model of evaluation and support in their cohesive, early years in the cohort. But as they forge scholarly accomplishments and turn their eyes increasingly toward the discipline, they recognize that their democratic ideals must yield to the meritocratic reality of the profession.     

Culture in Science Education

Classrooms in South Africa are becoming increasingly diversified. Students come to the science class with a variety of practices and beliefs. Although many of these beliefs have no direct link with the science the students are being taught at school, students belief that such beliefs and practices are in some way linked to science. This would require that the teacher has to develop strategies through which the beliefs and practices of the students could be addressed in the science class.     

Linking research,theory and practice in personal and professional development: Gender and sexuality issues in social work education

It is important for social work students to learn how to articulate and develop their own personal theories for practice. It is also important for them to learn how to handle their own personal issues (which they often find difficult and prefer to avoid); and to incorporate them into their theories. In this paper we will explore some of the links between research, practice and theory by considering gender and sexuality issues in social work education. We offer some suggestions on introducing these issues to social work students in such a way that the development of personal social work theories is encouraged. Using examples from our current teaching practice about child abuse, bullying and domestic violence, it will be argued that the importance of theory for understanding and applying research, as well as for addressing difficult personal issues, has been seriously undervalued in social work education.     

“Armed Now with Hope …”: The Construction of the Subjectivity of Students within Integration

Students who are integrated into the regular system have traditionally been constructed in a variety of ways that reflect the philosophies and the policies (both stated and implied) of the relevant educational systems. Within these systems though, students have also constructed views of their own subjectivity, yet their perspectives and perceptions students have seldom been considered. Progressive integration policies, such as that in Victoria, Australia, have attempted to change the way students integrated into the regular education system are constructed. Such constructions however, may still be largely incongruent with the ways students construct themselves. This paper explores the integration policy in Victoria over the last decade, and in order to gain greater insight into the way students are constructed, and construct themselves, by and within the policy, draws on the poetry and diaries of a teenager who has been integrated into the regular school system.     

Nursing staff's attitudes toward seclusion & restraint

1. Staff preferred to treat patients as they themselves wanted to be treated. 2. More than one third of respondents did not view seclusion and restraint use as a time for a therapeutic intervention. 3. If staff are practicing from their belief patterns, they will choose interventions to avoid use of seclusion and restraint. 4. The majority of respondents preferred using medication to treat out-of-control behavior because they considered it less restrictive.     

Perceptions of Parental Intimate Relationships and Their Affects on the Experience of Romantic Relationship Development Among African American Emerging Adults

The quality of romantic relationships that parents maintain has an impact on their children. Emerging adult children base their relationships on similar values and/or opposing beliefs of their parental romantic relationships. This phenomenological study aimed to identify how African American emerging adults experience their parental romantic relationships and how they find meaning in the romantic relationships of their parents. Results suggest that African American emerging adults develop both positive and negative perceptions about romantic relationships from their parents’ relationships, which affect the way these adults perceive, develop, and maintain their own romantic unions. African American emerging adults also find meaning in their parental couple relationships as they share similar experiences in their relationship quality, mate choice, and/or personal or mate characteristics and personality traits as their parents.     

‘Do you really want me to tell ya!’ critical learning in engaging young people in contact with the justice system as peer educators with social work students

ABSTRACT

This paper outlines and evaluates an active and experiential learning project, which gave young people involved with the justice system, a voice as peer educators engaging with social work students outside of the traditional educational institution. The project had two key interconnecting elements. Firstly, by engaging a hidden population of young people in a realistic and meaningful way, it enabled them to share their experiences, and allowed students to understand the complexity of what it means to be socially excluded. Secondly, through this active participation process the young people began to see education as a desirable goal.

The project took place over three months and included 10 social work students and 13 young people involved with the justice system. Creative use of multimedia facilitated production of a learning resource to capture the young people’s lived experiences with statutory social work and justice systems. Young people were fundamentally challenged in their beliefs about themselves being involved in education to achieve a qualification. Students were challenged in their creativity and versatility responding to the task, when collaborating with ‘hard to reach’ young people. They were furthermore challenged in terms of their attitudes and assumptions in relation to offending and social justice.