Aligning theory with practice: Understanding school-family partnerships at an inner-city high school

Ideally, theoretical constructs and real world practice should be closely related. The aim of this study was to examine the ways in which ecological principles (i.e., cycling of resources, adaptation, interdependence, and succession) were reflected in school-family partnerships. Parents (n = 15) and school personnel (n = 10) at a predominantly African American inner-city high school participated in in-depth interviews regarding their conceptualizations of parental involvement, home-school interactions and strengths and weaknesses of home-school communication. Four major themes emerged to highlight the connection between the theoretical principles of ecology and the practice of parental involvement: effective communication, initiation of contact, provide and protect, and contextual conditions. Although theory and practice overlap, study findings suggest ways in which the ecological principals might expand to better align with the practice of school-family partnerships in inner-city high schools. Future directions for theory and practice are discussed.     

Gender,conflict, and peace-building: how conflict can catalyse positive change for women

Although modern-day armed conflict is horrific for women, recent conflict and post-conflict periods have provided women with new platforms and opportunities to bring about change. The roles of women alter and expand during conflict as they participate in the struggles and take on more economic responsibilities and duties as heads of households. The trauma of the conflict experience also provides an opportunity for women to come together with a common agenda. In some contexts, these changes have led women to become activists, advocating for peace and long-term transformation in their societies. This article explores how women have seized on the opportunities available to them to drive this advocacy forward: including the establishment of an international framework on women, peace, and security that includes United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and other international agreements and commitments to involving women in post-conflict peace-building. The article is based on on-the-ground research and capacity-building activities carried out in the Great Lakes Region of Africa on the integration of international standards on gender equality and women's rights into post-conflict legal systems.     

Recruiting,engaging, and educating social work leaders: an innovative curricular model

Graduate social work student interest in administration or management studies has been low in comparison to their interest in clinical practice. Recruiting graduate students to administration or management specializations in social work education remains a challenge for social work programs. Recognizing the need to attract and prepare MSW students for administration, various curriculum models have been proposed. This study presents a unique model that was designed specifically for social work students who wanted to become competent clinical practitioners, yet were also interested in macropractice. By marketing to, and recruiting, graduate students who have a passion for the dual (macro and micro) focus of social work, the administration specialization in this large, US-based urban graduate social work program has been able to attract over 120 additional students each year, comprising nearly 24% of the graduating class. This qualitative study examined students’ rationale for selecting this specialization, their experiences in the program and their suggestions for improvement. Implications for other graduate social work programs are highlighted.     

Behavioral contracting: theory and design

An agreement binding a worker and a client, or members of a family, to change specific, measurable behaviors is an effective way to achieve mutual benefits.     

Young, Gifted and Disabled: Entering the Employment Market

This article identifies the way systems and services are designed to help disabled people simply act to increase dependency. It argues that unless service provision is based upon our needs as we interpret them then we will continue to be excluded from the labour market. It is the summary of presentation given Simon Brisenden at an employment conference organised by Southampton Centre for Independent Living.     

Storytelling, conflict and diversity

Oral storytelling can be effective as a tool in community development.The author explores the potential of storytelling in relationto a number of community projects in the UK and elsewhere.     

The Polish family: Stability, change and conflict

This article analyzes and interprets empirical findings from studies carried out in Poland over the last years to identify changes in familial support networks for the elderly. In comparison with Western Countries, the Polish family is much closer to the traditional mode and plays a key role in the supportive networks of the elderly. This analysis points to considerable changes in the model of family help. Its shape has become more symmetrical: the help given by old parents to adult children has increased visibly whereas the children's help for parents has decreased. These changes have not seriously reduced the importance of the family as a primary support group. This fact is related to cultural factors and the economic and political situation in Poland. It is concluded that while various services need to be developed along Western lines, this development should be accompanied by a strengthening of various forms of family care.     

Videotape safaris: Entering the field with a camera

In this paper, I examine how video methods are used to record what people do as a basis for generating ideas, constructing data, testing hypotheses, and developing grounded theory. Fieldwork with a camera captures emergent social structure and processes that arise from human interaction. While the discovery of serendipitous findings through video methods provokes new theoretical questions, this intrusion into the lives of others also raises ethical and legal issues for the researcher. I conclude that video methods constructively reorient the investigator to the behavior being studied.This research was supported in part by DHEW-SRS grant number 16-P-56809/5-07 NIH and National Library of Medicine grant number 5 K10 LM 0063-02. My thanks go to Doctors Henry Betts and Byron Hamilton from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago who offered strong support throughout the three years of this research effort. My appreciation also goes to Meredith Gould for editorial assistance with this paper and to Sean Keenan of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago who made the cover photo possible.     

Words matter: The impact of workplace verbal aggressiveness on workgroup relationship conflict,work-life conflict,and employee-organization relationships

Workplace verbal aggressiveness is detrimental to employees and organizations and is perceived as unwanted and unproductive. This study examined whether and how verbal aggressiveness from supervisors and coworkers influences workgroup relationship conflict, employees’ work-life conflict, and employee-organization relationships. An online survey was conducted with 392 full-time employees in the United States. The key findings of this study showed that when verbal aggressiveness abounds in a workgroup, it creates workgroup relationship conflict, which triggers individual employees’ work-life conflict and tarnishes their trust, satisfaction, commitment, and sense of shared power with their organizations.     

Being trusted: The perspectives of trusted adults about engaging with young people

Trusted adults outside the home often play an important role in young people's lives, providing motivational, emotional and practical support as young people navigate the social and economic transitions of young adulthood. Their support is developmentally appropriate as they often treat young people as adults, as they are guiding them towards that status. Yet knowledge of trusted adult relationships is largely drawn from the perspectives of young people. How do trusted adults themselves experience the relationship?Drawing on a broader study of young people's social and economic engagement during adolescence to adulthood, this paper explores the perspectives of 23 trusted adults, including those in family/friend, paid professional and community roles. It looks at how trusted adults' accounts of the relationship compare with young people's accounts. It examines some subtleties trusted adults experience in the relationship, related to their perception of their role and the roles of others, the impermanence of the relationship and personal–professional boundaries. It draws policy and practice implications regarding how to support both trusted adults and young people in the relationships they share.     

Migration,crisis and theoretical conflict

The nature of the distinction between the equilibrium and historical-structuralist positions on migration is examined. Theoretical and political differences in the two positions are considered both historically and in the context of the current global economic crisis. The proposal of Wood to focus on households as a strategy for integrating the two perspectives and for achieving a better understanding of migration and social change is discussed.     

Reverse interviewing: a white adoptive mother engaging with black birth mothers and vice versa

Abstract

Researcher reflexivity, meaning the revealing of the researcher’s assumptions and her position vis-à-vis those researched, has by now become commonplace. This article explores such issues in the context of a larger study of transnational adoption for which I conducted interviews with South African birth mothers as both a researcher/interviewer and an adoptive mother. Instead of seeking to eliminate researcher bias, I propose using it as data that could reveal novel aspects of the phenomenon under study. This article specifically explores the use of reverse interviewing, which in this case meant disclosing my double positionality and inviting the interviewees to ask me questions. It is not a matter of merely extracting information: the technique allows participants to air their concerns, and facilitates investigation of the researcher’s reactions to them. All this, in turn, carries implications with regard to how the study area is conceptualised.     

Divorce, family conflict, and adolescents' well-being

The relative effects of family conflict and divorce on the well-being of adolescents were examined in a longitudinal study of a heterogeneous community sample. Higher levels of family conflict were associated with increases in adolescents' depressed mood, anxiety, and physical symptoms over time. In contrast, neither recent divorce nor earlier divorce was associated with longitudinal changes in any health outcomes. Also, adolescents living in intact families with high conflict had significantly poorer well-being than those living in families of divorce with low conflict. Finally, the longitudinal effects of divorce and family conflict did not differ by age and sex, but Hispanic adolescents experienced more negative effects of family conflict than non-Hispanic whites, and the well-being of Asian adolescents was influenced more strongly by recent divorce.     

Moral conflict and dynamic equilibrium: Public relations as strategic conflict management

In the literature review and proposed theoretical models, the author argues that we often engage in advocacy in public relations on behalf of causes we hold dear, much like a strong defender on a soccer field becomes physical in defending the goal without violating explicit rules or our sense of what is right and appropriate in a competitive world. The author presents this image of an athlete contending in fair competition as a metaphor for a rejection of canonized thinking about accommodation in public relations in favor of public relations as strategic conflict management. This research is offered to continue the discussion in the field of public relations from the contingency theory of strategic conflict management and consider the ethical challenges faced by public relations practitioners in an ongoing cycle of conflict. This article is included in the special issue on the contingency theory of strategic conflict management.     

Blackmail,boycott and genocide: The language of group conflict

This article examines the mis‐use of language that is often encountered in conflict situations involving ethnic and national groups. The various abuses of the words ‘Blackmail’, ‘Boycott’, and ‘Genocide’ are examined in the context of a number of recent conflicts. It is pointed out that the protagonists in such disputes frequently alter the meaning of words in an effort to make a special plea for their position. The author further warns of the serious consequences for the analysis of such conflicts should observers, journalists and commentators adopt the partisan terminology of the disputants.     

Children, families, and mental health service organizations: cultures in conflict

This paper applies the concepts of culture, organizational culture, and culture conflict to a study of relationships between children, their families and a number of mental health and other social service organizations. The culture of a specific children's mental hospital ward is examined and a sample of 12 patients is followed on their course through the service system (pre- and post-hospitalization). A cultural interpretation of current mental health service delivery problems is suggested.     

Privacy,technology, and conflict: Emerging issues and action in workplace privacy

IV. Conclusion Growing employee awareness of the degree to which their personal privacy is compromised in the workplace, particularly with regards to information/telecommunicatton-system use and work monitoring, has created an organizational and political climate that may yield significant restrictions on employee monitoring and on how employers maintain and distribute employees’ personal information. While both federal and state governments have generally deferred to the right of the employer-as-owner to set conditions of employment that may include intrusions into employee privacy (Grodin, 1991), a number of statutory restrictions have been promulgated or proposed that will significantly expand employee privacy rights in the workplace. Additionally, it is probable that unions will aggressively assert employee privacy rights within the context of collective bargaining, potentially using employee dissatisfaction with privacy intrusions as a basis for organizing nonunion firms.