Companion piece: Convention on the Rights of the Child special protection measures: overview of implications and value for children in the United States

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is an international treaty that commits ratifying states parties to uphold the rights of all children under the age of 18. This article discusses the issues of highest relevance to the United States and reviews the pros and cons of ratifying, from the perspective of the convention's intent and potential, sovereignty of states, and national public policies, and regarding the special protection recommended for particularly vulnerable children. Specific implementation issues discussed include training, accountability, and monitoring.     

Companion piece: The education landscape and the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Converging influences in the public policy environment in the United States have generated renewed interest in ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Although considerable overlap exists between the goals of education in the United States and the goals articulated in the CRC, education has not had a central role in ratification efforts. The article highlights the relevance of the CRC to education in the United States and discusses shared interests, differences, controversies, and implications of ratification on education.     

Children's health in the United States: assessing the potential impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

This article examines the potential implications of U.S. ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on the health and well-being of children in the United States. The article reviews the relevant provisions of the CRC and U.S. law, along with the health status of U.S. children. It finds that ratification could lead to measures that most Americans already support and that could improve the health status of children.     

U.S. ratification of the CRC and reducing child poverty: can we get there from here?

If the United States finally ratifies the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), will it improve the country's to effectively combat child poverty and thereby improve child well-being? This article addresses this and related questions in two ways. First, the authors examine how ratification of the CRC has influenced the efforts of other wealthy Anglophone countries to reduce child poverty. Second, they draw on lessons learned from these other countries' efforts to generate predictions about America's postratification future. The authors conclude that, while the CRC is a compelling, practical tool, a communications strategy and business plan are necessary complements to achieve desired results.     

Statutory leave entitlements across developed countries: Why US workers lose out on work–family balance

Using a composite index of legal provisions for annual and family leave in western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and the Republic of Korea, the authors rank legislative support for this aspect of work–family balance. The United States ranks last: its employers are not required to grant annual leave and employees can take no more than 12 weeks' family leave per year. The United States' comparatively low labour standards, the authors argue, may be due to the dominance of a market‐based conception of employment and the assumption of equal employer–employee bargaining power, neither of which is fully shared by the other industrialized democracies.     

Leaks,legislation and freedom of speech: How can the law effectively promote public‐interest whistleblowing?

Attention is increasingly being focused on leaking, whistleblowing and associated compliance and incentives questions. The authors outline the differences between leaking and whistleblowing, notably on protection of the disclosers. They review provisions of international conventions on human rights and corruption, and compare approaches to protecting freedom of speech in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Their findings highlight the complex, sometimes conflicting issues involved: public, individual, commercial and financial interests; abuse of power; security; confidentiality; the individual as law enforcer; and the employment relationship.     

The Affordable Care Act: Implications for African Americans Living with HIV

This article reviews the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), 2010. It highlights the implications of the ACA for African Americans living with HIV/AIDS. This law is a practical step toward decreasing disproportionate chronic disease in vulnerable communities. Proper implementation of provisions will help the United States catch up to other industrialized nations with well-established public health care programs. Included is a concise table referencing notable provisions that support increased access to treatment, health education, and quality of care for clients. Social workers can use this information to ensure that clients benefit from this legislation.     

Organizational responses to the Convention on the Rights of the Child: international lessons for child welfare organizations.

This article describes ways several large, international, child-focused institutions have responded to the nearly universal ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Although governments (with the exception of the United States and Somalia) are the actual signatories to the CRC, non-governmental organizations played an active role in drafting the CRC, and continue to monitor its implementation and integrate it into their own work. Many have expanded their own human rights/child rights program approaches in recognition of the CRC's principles. Children's participation in organizations, perhaps the most radical element of the CRC, is a challenge to all groups.     

Teaching Disability History: The Case of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Abstract

This article addresses the teaching of disability history, specifically concerning the historical figure of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Drawing upon literature from multicultural education, disability history and disability studies in education (DSE), the authors discuss historical content and teaching ideas for instruction about FDR. The authors present findings from a content analysis of six middle level and secondary United States history textbooks, noting unanimous coverage of FDR’s disability resulting from polio. These textbooks noted how he overcame his disability and strengthened his character, referenced his decision to conceal his disability, and quoted FDR directly regarding his disability. The authors follow this analysis with discussion of several middle and high school teaching ideas that might augment textbook coverage and representation about FDR. This article explores how teachers of United States history might further develop their teaching of history through the inclusion of disability history within the context of a famous historical figure.     

Educating the adult minority professional: a case study of the national rural fellows program

The authors describe the critical issues that emerged during the first years of the National Rural Fellows Program at its academic base, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, and how these issues were subsequently addressed.The Program is designed to provide intensive training leading to a Master's degree for adult minority professionals from rural backgrounds throughout the United States. As a case study, the paper has implications for other departments considering innovations of this sort. It particularly describes the pedagogical and socio-cultural issues regarding the education of adult minority professionals, the potential for new faculty perspectives to be gained from such interaction, and the challenge to traditional regional planning curricula for rural planning across the United States.     

Migration from Latin American countries to the United States: the economic,social and reproductive lives of Hispanic female immigrants, 1980

The authors describe the socioeconomic characteristics and fertility patterns of female immigrants from Latin America to the United States, with a focus on reasons for fertility differentials. "Using the one per cent public use sample from the 1970 and 1980 United States census, we first compare changes in socio economic characteristics from 1970 to 1980, and then examine the determinants of fertility of female immigrants to the United States, aged 16-49, from four Latin American areas or countries of birth.... The findings...suggest that there are direct effects of demographic, assimilation, and socioeconomic variables beyond those mediated by the variables in each of these sets. Further, regardless of the model, the effect of the clusters of demographic characteristics is most apparent. Age categories and marital status are the strongest indexed determinants of immigrant fertility.... The effect of education and employment is strong. Among assimilation variables, duration of residence and language ability are significant determinants of Hispanic immigrant fertility." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

The British are not coming!: UK higher education and the nonprofit sector

The rationale for the growth of nonprofit management education in the United States has recently been charted by O'Neill (2005). Ten years previously, the United States and the United Kingdom were at similar levels of development. By 2006 the parallel lines had been broken. Why has nonprofit management education expanded in the United States while provision of graduate education for the voluntary sector in the United Kingdom has stood still? This article explores the factors that have prevented parallel growth in education provision. It argues that the university as an institution, both in terms of its nature and its power structures, is one of those factors. It presents the story of the closing of the world's first voluntary sector course at the London School of Economics and concludes with reflection on the likely future of voluntary sector management education provision in the United Kingdom.     

Bridging the Intergenerational Gap: Reflections for the Field

In this paper, the authors describe the first year of a project and the process undertaken to implement intergenerational (IG) programs in two sites: a continuing care retirement community and an early care and education center, which are located geographically close to one another in a small Midwestern town in the United States. The authors discuss the application and results based on the management framework for IG programming articulated by Jarrot and colleagues (2006) and its utility for planning and implementing IG programming in both sites. Reflections about the planning and implementation and outcomes of IG programs are also included.     

Scope of practice issues in forensic nursing

1. There is significant role variation, across the Western world, in relation to how forensic nurses practice. 2. The authors conducted a pilot survey of forensic nurses in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom to examine forensic nursing practice, role definition, and role boundaries. 3. Issues arising from the data include the visibility of forensic nurses, the client group, forensic-specific education, and role development.     

Under Two Flags: Dual Nationality in Latin America and Its Consequences for Naturalization in the United States

This article surveys the practice of dual nationality in the Western Hemisphere, particularly as it impacts the naturalization rates of immigrants in the United States. The article begins by looking at the extent and spread of dual nationality provisions and the pathways for its implementation. Next, the article turns to a discussion of the multiple (and at times conflicting) interests – of immigrants, sending states and receiving states – in dual nationality. While immigrants and sending countries are in general agreement on the positive benefits of dual nationality, commentators in receiving countries like the United States continue to express deep unease at the spread of dual nationality and its consequences for American citizenship. Are these concerns justified? Not according to U.S. naturalization rates. Data from 1965 to 1997 indicate that immigrants from countries recognizing dual nationality average higher naturalization rates in the United States than countries that do not.     

Seven strategies for facilitating access of nontraditional students to graduate education in social work

Undergraduate academic performance as a principal criterion guiding admission to graduate social work education may result in the exclusion of otherwise strong candidates for involvement in graduate education. This paper presents seven strategies for strengthening the admission status of nontraditional students, that is, those students who do not possess adequate undergraduate grade point averages to justify admission. These strategies are particularly important in the United States given the elimination or substantial limitation of affirmative action policies in higher education. Schools of social work, like other educational institutions, must become more creative and proactive to ensure that candidates for graduate education who can make important and substantive contributions to the profession gain entry. Using adult learning theory, the authors offer a rationale that underscores the need to look at an individual's vocational background and professional experience as well as professional commitment to serving vulnerable populations in order to assess readiness for admission. And, the authors identify the importance of offering opportunities to these individuals to strengthen their post-undergraduate academic records in order to be more competitive in the applicant pool. Each of the seven strategies is discussed in terms of its key processes and outcomes in relationship to developing these individuals as viable candidates who can compete in the admission process. The strategies are based on the logic of empowerment theory and they underscore the necessity of building on the strengths and assets that these individuals bring to graduate social work education. The authors illustrate the inclusion of these strategies into the admissions process of a school of social work in the United States and suggest that the use of these strategies can facilitate 'affirmative access' to social work education.     

Global interaction,global inequality,and migration of the highly trained to the United States

The authors "argue that national variation in the size of highly trained migration can be explained by interaction and inequality between nations, both reflecting the process of global integration. Guided by this analytical framework, we tested the structural determinants of highly skilled migration to the United States. The evidence confirms our hypotheses that economic and educational interactions between sending countries and the United States increase the flow of the highly trained to the United States. Results also provide mixed proof for our hypotheses that levels of professional migration are positively associated with disparities between sending countries and the United States in living conditions, research conditions, children's educational opportunities, political conditions, and professional employment opportunities."     

Faculty in the Middle

This study was designed to explore how organizational life in university-affiliated graduate social work education programs in the United States is affected by the stress of heightened caregiving roles. Analysis of data from 69 schools demonstrated deleterious effects of caregiving stress on organizational effectiveness, including missed obligations, feeling overwhelmed, and distracting others by seeking social support for specific problems. The authors identify two variables that provided partial amelioration of caregiver stress and appeared to contribute to increased organizational effectiveness: larger faculty size and on-site child care.     

Everyday terrorism: Campus sexual violence and the neoliberal university

This article investigates the ways sexual violence experienced on college campuses in the United States is situated within the neoliberal university. Feminist theories are utilized to explore the relationship between sexual violence and neoliberal ideologies. The authors evaluate how neoliberal tenets imbedded in higher education have contributed to, and exacerbated, an environment where sexual victimization is common. An institutional level of analysis is utilized to examine the neoliberal influence on campus sexual violence and investigate the utility of the term everyday terrorism. The authors also address “crimes of omission”, institutional betrayal, and the significance of institutional bravery/courage. The authors provide recommendations for future research in the areas of everyday terrorism and campus violence.