Teaching intercultural awareness in the English as a foreign language classroom: a case study using critical reading

This paper reports on an educational intervention study that used linguistic and rhetorical approaches to critical reading, in order to teach intercultural awareness. The intervention was implemented with a group of Mexican college students learning English as a foreign language. The study focuses on changes between participants’ pre- and post-intervention articulated understandings of the targeted cultural context, namely the USA. The data was coded and analyzed using a complexity theory perspective and directed qualitative analysis. The results indicate that drawing students’ attention to the cultural situatedness of language use can increase their awareness of the multiple ideological positions existing in a cultural context. Based on these results, the paper argues that the field of intercultural education needs to take a linguistic turn in order to further its goals.     

Microcomputers and the Individual Practitioner

This paper presents the findings of a literature review conducted from December 1983 to January 1984, exploring the microcomputer uses and needs of individual practitioners in psychology and psychiatry. The review covers an overview and history of information technology requirements of the practitioner community and discusses hardware and software systems, as well as issues and barriers associated with utilization. The literature indicates that mental health practitioners are just beginning to awaken to the benefits of microcomputers to assist in their private practices, but generally do not recognize the degree to which they rely on information as a resource for conducting their clinical and administrative tasks.     

Foucault and Special Educational Needs: a 'box of tools' for analysing children's experiences of mainstreaming

Research on children with special educational needs in mainstream schools, based on simplistic notions of integration, has revealed very little about the nature of their school experiences. A Foucauldian perspective is proposed as an alternative, and the relevance of his methodology, which focuses on formal and informal discourses, and his analyses (particularly of medicine, madness and discipline) is discussed. It is argued that Foucault offers a set of strategies or a 'box of tools' (1977a, p. 205) for understanding how the discourses on special educational needs construct both the pupils' experiences in mainstream schools and their identities, as constructed subjects and objects of knowledge. The paper ends with a brief illustration, from work in progress, of what a Foucauldian analysis might look like.     

Towards building an integrated perspective on e-democracy

This paper evaluates the dominant perspectives for understanding e-democracy in practice. It argues that although these, on their own, only provide static and partial accounts of the role and implications of e-democracy, nevertheless they should not be disregarded. The paper proposes an integration of their key positions to generate a more rounded and complete account of the role of e-democracy in practice. It suggests that Giddens's Structuration Theory provides a starting point in this direction. A structuration perspective is able to integrate many of the diverse perspectives whilst simultaneously avoiding technological and social determinism by focusing attention on the interplay of social structures and agency in e-democracy practices. This perspective assists in illuminating the underlying institutional arrangements and structures in which e-democracy practices are embedded, as well as the strategies employed by human actors. It focuses attention on structures of signification, domination and legitimation that surround e-democracy practices and also how individuals are both enabled and constrained in these practices. It is argued that more complete and balanced accounts which emerge from such an integrated perspective could assist in developing a more effective e-democracy policy.     

Cross-cultural Misinformation: What does special education say about Deaf people

Special education is involved in a large scale attempt to 'educate' regular classroom teachers in addition to teachers traditionally served by special education. This paper examines the information presented in special education text books to determine how issues surrounding deaf persons are presented. Chapters addressing the Deaf in 13 special education text books were reviewed. The content of each chapter was examined to determine if a pathological view (the ear as an organism that needs to be fixed) or a cultural view (the Deaf as functioning members of society, with a legitimate language, American Sign Language, and a fully founded social structure) was the underlying theme. The majority of the chapters focused on the perspective that correction and cure are more important than positive functioning and respect for language and culture. These chapters suggest that not only is there no input from the Deaf community, but there is a systematic avoidance to include Deaf viewpoints.     

Language policy,homelessness and neoliberal urbanization: The case of San Francisco's Union Square

One example of the impact of neoliberalism on urbanization is that of the Business Improvement District (BID), where business and property owners collectively manage a district to ensure that it has an appropriate ‘business climate’. The responses of BIDs to the language practices of the homeless, such as panhandling, tend to be ambivalent because homelessness is an issue that requires sensitivity. Nevertheless, overly aggressive panhandling can have adverse repercussions for businesses. This paper focuses on San Francisco's Union Square, which is the city's commercial retail center, and makes two key points. One, language policy needs to be viewed as planned, unplanned or transgressive, where these characterizations are necessarily from the perspective of an specific actor, such as the Union Square BID. Two, there are interesting attempts to transform panhandling practices from above, pushing these towards neoliberalism with the consequence that the panhandlers themselves sometimes respond by reimagining panhandling as work or a business.     

Microcomputers as work stations for sociologists

Microcomputers are making their way into the departments, institutions and homes of most sociologists. After a brief overview of the directions of computer and microcomputer evolution and of the microcomputer's present uses, I offer specific advice about the use and purchase of microcomputers for sociologists engaged in research, teaching and administration.     

Waiting for the revolution: The use of microcomputers by social scientists

A longitudinal analysis of one academic unit is employed to assess whether the “microcomputer revolution” has affected the work of academic social scientists. In the four years since all social scientists in the multidisciplinary unit received microcomputers, average use has increased steadily to twenty-four hours per week. There is remarkable consistency in the relative distribution of uses over time, with word-processing applications and research uses remaining dominant. The social scientists report that microcomputer use has moderately increased the quantity and especially enhanced the quality of their research and that the impacts of microcomputing on their interpersonal work environments have been very positive. The data in this analysis reveal clearly that, contrary to the rather hyperbolic claims and excited projections from some social scientists, microcomputers have had benign and incremental impacts on existing patterns of work and have not transformed the nature of social scientists’ work. His recent research has emphasized the social impacts of computing and telecommunications technologies. His most recent book (co-authored with Kenneth L. Kraemer) isPeople and Computers: The Impacts of Computing on End Users in Organizations (Columbia University Press, 1986). He currently is involved in an extensive longitudinal analysis of the uses and impacts of computing technologies in American local governments. He was honored in 1987 with UCI’s first Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award for Teaching. The initial phase of this research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (IST 8317592).     

Before and after science: Admissions process to Australian university social work courses

Abstract

Application processes to Australian university social work courses provide an explicit example through which to explore the influence of two schools of thought — social work as an art and as a science — on social work processes. Using admissions literature and questionnaire data provided by Australian schools of social work, this qualitative study explored the extent to which these perspectives are reflected in admissions processes. It was found that in terms of both qualities sought and techniques utilised, schools are operating essentially from a social work as science perspective, although there exists a desire to access qualities from an art perspective. This is perceived as being the result of institutional requirements, resource constraints, academic conventions and lack of knowledge about how to effectively assess the latter qualities. It is argued that social work needs to assert its unique perspectives in claiming a right to determine application processes for social work courses.     

Encountering Microcomputers

Explored are the typical features of the experiences of first time, novice microcomputer users who are unfamiliar with basic computer equipment. Upon encountering a microcomputer for the first time such persons face a set of novel experiences including inadequate knowledge, altered sense of time, concerns about scarce capacity and dexterity, technological anxiety, and several other factors. Questions are raised about the consequences of encountering microcomputers among first time users in an effort to explicate the most important factors associated with successful accomodation. This analysis may provide helpful information for those engaged in computer training and staff development in the human services.     

Review Article

This study focuses on the social meaning behind the use of both Ukrainian and Russian in various media texts in contemporary Ukraine. I begin by situating the language issue within the current socio-political context; specifically, I briefly summarize recent language debates relevant to this paper. Secondly, I analyze selected media texts from television programs, films and popular magazines—all instances of the simultaneous and parallel use of Ukrainian and Russian. The analysis is then extended to a discussion of the media’s stake in framing the linguistic situation in Ukraine.

The texts in question are approached on the premise that “media usage influences and represents people’s use of and attitude towards language in a speech community” (Bell and Garrett 1998: 3). I consider the media’s choice of language an institutionalized means of framing reality (Popp 2006: 6) and therefore the use of language in the media acts symbolically, creating prevalent ideas about what language can and should do in a particular society (Woolard and Schieffelin 1994, cited in Popp 2006: 5).

My analysis of communicative exchange is carried out from the perspective of codeswitching that takes place within a larger social and political context. I address the social dichotomy of “we/they” or what Gumperz (1972) calls “metaphorical code-switching.” My analysis rests also on Auer’s code-switching framework, specifically his notions of “preference-related switching” and “sustained divergence of language choices” (1998b).     

Agents for Change and Changed Agents: The Micro‐politics of Change and Feminism in the Academy

This article explores gender politics and processes in the academy and investigates change from the perspectives of feminist academics. In particular, it explores the experiences of women academics attempting to effect change to the gendered status quo of their own institutions. Focusing on micro‐politics, the feminist movement is empirically explored in localized spaces of resistance and in the small but significant individual efforts at making changes in academic institutions. The analysis is based on interviews with female academics working in business and management schools and focuses on the challenges for change and how change attempts affect their personal and professional identities. The article explores the range of change strategies that participants use as they try to progress in their academic career while staying true to their feminist values and priorities through both resisting and incorporating dominant discourses of academic work. The analysis highlights such tensions and focuses on a contextualized, bottom‐up perspective on change that, unlike more totalizing theorization, takes into account mundane and lived experiences at the level of the individual.     

Learning to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students through cross-cultural experiences

Teacher participation in cross-cultural experiences is often associated with the broadening of perspectives and increased intercultural sensitivity. While these qualities provide an overarching and important framework for intercultural development, they remain highly abstract. What exactly do we mean when we refer to these qualities? And in what ways, if any, do they translate into the classroom or school setting? Drawing on interviews from thirty Anglophone educators working in overseas international schools, this article focuses on links between broad-based changes in perspective and concrete changes in professional practice. Findings highlight an important relationship between personal and professional transformation, with the most noteworthy instructional changes emerging in the areas of language, communication style and religious/gender considerations. Most importantly, data from the study illustrate that the prolonged cross-cultural experience was not limited to changes in general disposition but had direct implications on the professional practice of participating educators.     

Ambicultural blending between Eastern and Western paradigms: Fresh perspectives for international management research

East and Southeast Asian worldviews are distinctly different from those of the West. Westerners and Asians construct their environments differently, not least because they construct the notion of ‘self’ very differently. This paper describes and exemplifies distinctions in cognitive and linguistic styles between the East and the West and outlines the implications of these styles for environmental perspectives and research paradigms. Examples from Thailand illustrate the philosophical roots and practical implications of an indigenous Eastern perspective for local business interactions. We explore the privilege afforded in Western, Cartesian paradigms in (Asian) management research and stimulate debate on the benefits of promoting alternative Asian indigenous perspectives for both management research and management practice. We support the idea that Asian management discourse needs more self-confidence and deserves a more prominent place in international research, not least because international management research will greatly benefit from freshly ‘blended’ perspectives that incorporate Eastern and Western perspectives.     

广州市企业内外向国际化及其程度研究

从动态和静态的视角根据广州企业国际化的发展历程和现状分别建立模型对广州企业内外向国际化及其程度进行分析,研究结论为：从动态角度来看,随着时间的推移,广州企业国际化经营的规模不断扩大、质量不断提高,且在内外向国际化选择中稍偏向于内向国际化;从静态角度来看,广州市企业国际化的程度还不高,且各项指数显示出企业国际化发展不平衡,需要继续改进。     

Microcomputers in the adolescent treatment facility: Specifications and utilizations

Specifications and utilizations of microcomputers within the adolescent residential treatment facility are presented. Hardware, software, and programming are briefly described. Case management, educational and therapeutic uses, staff training, and office management in relationship to the treatment facility are explored in context of the microcomputer. Implementation of the microcomputer system is also presented.     

In the Spirit of Selden Bacon: The Sociology Of Drinking and Drug Problems

In 1943, the sociologist Selden Bacon proposed studying drinking behavior from a “sociologic” perspective. Since then, a problem-oriented approach – a sociology of problem drinking and problem drug use, not a sociology of drinking and drug use behavior – has dominated the literature on alcohol and other drugs. However, a review of the literature reveals a sociology of drinking and drug problems in the spirit of the research that Bacon proposed. This article suggests that the sociology of drinking and drug problems can be regarded as a multidisciplinary field of study and usefully divided among three primary perspectives: (1) a sociocultural perspective that considers social change, modern society, and cultural influence; (2) a socio-environmental perspective that explores social learning, social setting, and alienation; and (3) an ideological perspective that examines cultural, institutional, and professional ideologies. The sociology of drinking and drug problems exposes the considerable influence of “sociologic” factors on problem drinking and problem drug use across scientific disciplines and, in particular, that problem drinking and problem drug use, from a multidisciplinary standpoint, are not caused exclusively by biologic traits. However, the sociology of drinking and drug problems is limited by the problem-oriented approach. More research needs to analyze the normal use of alcohol and other drugs to better understand the connection between substance use and social life.     

Exploring narratives of education: disabled young people’s experiences of educational institutions in Ghana

Disabled young people in many low and middle-income countries experience significant levels of educational exclusion due to disabling social and physical environments and are more likely to be illiterate than their non-disabled peers. Most social sciences and development literature, however, tends to homogenise the educational trajectories of disabled young people and focuses predominantly on the perspectives of educationalists, development experts and carers in assessing educational needs and institutions. Consequently, the experiences of young people across multiple categories of social difference, and their agency in shaping their own educational trajectories, remain largely unknown. This article contributes to filling this gap by exploring the educational narratives of young people with different impairments in mainstream, special and integrated schools in Ghana. The article shows how exploring individual narratives provides new insights into the educational needs of and ‘appropriate’ education for disabled young people in the Global South.     

Producing Family Problems: Organization and Uses of the Family Perspective and Rhetoric in Family Therapy

This article applies and extends literature on the micropolitics of trouble and family rhetoric perspectives by analyzing how therapists in a family therapy agency practicing the brief model used family rhetoric in defining and responding to client problems. Family rhetoric is the use of images of family (the family perspective) to (1) persuade others to one's preferred orientation to issues of mutual concern and (2) attribute identities to one's self and others. The article focuses on how the therapists rhetorically enacted and applied the family perspective in interactions with colleagues and clients to define and remedy client troubles. In general, troubles were defined and remedied by treating them as products of clients' family systems, defined as enduring roles, relationships, and perspectives. The therapists sought to remedy client troubles by initiating changes assessed as appropriate for their troubles and family systems. The article concludes by considering some of the implications of the findings and analysis for the sociological study of human service work.