Evaluation of Student Learning Outcomes in MSW Programs

Abstract

The Nation is experiencing a rural crisis of severe proportions. Initially, that crisis was tied to depressed commodity prices and the demise of family farms but current developments indicate that it is of greater scope. Farm closures have caused the exodus of citizens, businesses, banks and services from small towns, particularly in the Heartland and the agricultural South. Despair among farmers has resulted in suicide and homicide; a traditional way of life is under threat of extinction. Additionally, depressed oil and other mineral prices have changed the rhythm of many rural lives and caused displacement of workers in non-agricultural yet rural states. This paper reports the results of a national survey of social work schools and programs and assesses the response of social work education to this crisis. Programmatic innovations are inventoried; regional comparisons are offered on practitioner and program responses; factors that facilitated or hindered those responses are reviewed; and the purported anti-rural bias of social work is assessed.     

On constructing ageing rural populations: ‘Capturing’ the grey nomad

The world’s population is ageing, with forecasts predicting this ageing is likely to be particularly severe in the rural areas of more developed countries. These forecasts are developed from nationally aggregated census and survey data and assume spatial homogeneity in ageing. They also draw on narrow understandings of older people and construct the potential impact of ageing (such as increased dependence on the health care system) as negative. The construction and reinforcement of such stereotypes have obscured public policy debate about ageing and also the rural. This paper considered how, through using a mixed method approach, narrow understandings of rural ageing could be extended and refined. Using a case study of grey nomads in rural Australia, the strengths and weaknesses of various research approaches were reviewed. The investigation concluded that both quantitative and qualitative data could be used to extend contemporary understandings of rural population ageing and move constructions of this phenomenon beyond an impending rural crisis.     

Does Class Consciousness Exist in Rural Communities? The Impact of Restructuring and Plant Shutdowns in Rural Canada1

Abstract This paper examines qualitative data on class consciousness derived from a study of corporate restructuring and the impacts of layoffs in rural Ontario communities. In particular, the study examines how the rural environment might impinge on the development of class consciousness among the workers there in the context of severe economic stress brought on by plant shutdowns. It is argued that an ideology specific to a farm and small town environment plays a significant role in shaping their response to crisis. The more standard predictors of class consciousness such as age, gender, past union membership, and employment status are also considered. The paper aims to deepen our understanding of the seemingly contradictory belief structures of working class people.     

Strangers asking strange questions? A methodological narrative of researching belonging and identity in English rural communities

This paper emerges from a current research project that examines the relationship between contemporary English rurality and notions of identity and belonging. While this is primarily a methodological narrative we argue that this narrative speaks to an analysis of current rural relations. The paper concerns itself with two key methodological issues that have arisen during the ‘doing’ of the research. First, it examines our own relationship, as ‘outsider’, urban-based researchers, to the rural and the use and/or relevance of our biographies as resources for making ourselves seem less ‘strange’ and for accessing, and being in, rural environments. At the same time as providing us with a map into our micro rural worlds the paper draws on this biographic-research relation in order to problematize notions of homogenous rural identities and polarized rural/urban identities. The second part of the paper argues that who we were/how we were perceived had a relation to what ‘truths’ and accounts we were told by our respondents. More particularly, we show how our use of focus group interviews had a direct role in the rehearsal and presentation of these ‘truths’. Given the current contestations and tensions over what and who ‘the rural’ is, it was clear that those involved in the focus group discussions wanted to give us particular stories that often fell into a consensus pattern of either ‘rural idyll’ or ‘rural crisis’ narratives. Drawing on Simmel's notion of the stranger and focus group data we argue that for these narratives to be told we, as researchers, were ascribed by the group members to shifting positions of intimacy and remoteness.     

Providing mental health care to veterans in rural areas: using telehealth in mobile clinics

The purpose of this article is to provide information to improve the quality of care of veterans living in geographically isolated areas who require treatment for mental health issues. Because interactive care solutions are currently hot topics in the health care community, they should be viewed as possible strategies to meet the needs of this specialty group of veterans. An intervention using a mobile clinic and clinical video telehealth reduces distance barriers by making it possible for mental health specialists to come to rural veterans instead of the veteran attempting to find a way to get to the practitioner, who may be located in a clinic or hospital many miles away. This article focuses on an alternate strategy-telehealth in mobile clinics-as a possible solution to the mental health crisis of veterans in rural areas.     

Did Growing Rural Poverty and a Disruptive Climate Spur an Expansion in Rural Sociology? A Comparative Historical Analysis

Rural sociology first gained wide recognition during the 1930s when the intersection of economic depression and environmental crisis underlined the suffering of rural peoples. The historical conjuncture of growing rural poverty and environmental crisis has reappeared in the twenty‐first century. What does this recurring combination of circumstances portend for rural sociology? Does it imply a revival of the policy‐oriented sociological analyses of the 1930s? A comparative historical analysis of rural sociology during the New Deal, the post−World War II period, and the contemporary era suggests a qualified answer to this question. The contemporary era resembles the 1930s in providing compelling rationales for engaged scholarship, but the cross‐class coalitions between government social scientists and the rural poor that characterized the 1930s have not materialized in the twenty‐first century. Despite this difference, some common themes, such as a growing emphasis on interdisciplinary research, a primary concern with rural poverty, and an increased interest in the distinguishing features of resilient communities, have characterized scholarship during both periods. These similarities suggest that the practice of applied and engaged scholarship, so prevalent in the rural sociology of the 1930s, has found new traction in dealing with the social and ecological problems of twenty‐first‐century rural communities.     

Adaptive responses and asset strategies: the experience of rural micro-firms and Foot and Mouth Disease

The 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) epidemic effectively closed large parts of the UK countryside for several months. Local firms found their operations disrupted and suffered losses of trade. The individual and collective experiences of affected firms provide vivid insights into how rural businesses and the local economies they constitute operate and react in times of crisis, with important lessons for small business policy and support. Drawing upon survey and case study research the paper presents a critical incident analysis of the impacts of FMD on rural micro-businesses and a review of the resulting adaptive responses. The paper explores the role of variable endowments in influencing the choice of responses available to micro-businesses and identifies those assets which proved to be crucial in enhancing coping capability. The analysis confirms the importance of households in providing resilience to micro-businesses. Households acted as a buffer to many firms, absorbing revenue and employment effects, through adjustments in the wage taken from the business, restrictions in household spend, the deployment of personal savings and the use of household members as a flexible labour reserve.     

Risking the rural: nature, morality and the consumption of unpasteurised milk

The BSE crisis, concern over genetically modified foods, and E. coli and Salmonella food scares have prompted widespread public disquiet over food safety. For consumers, this has led to a demand for new ‘safer’ foods which are usually ‘local’, ‘natural’ and/or organic. Research into reactions to food risk has to a large degree focussed on this ‘quality turn’. In doing so, there is a danger of failing to fully problematise risk and providing a dualistic appreciation of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ natures, rather than exposing nature's fluid and multiple identities. Moreover, it suggests that consumers always attempt to minimise risk and do not challenge the need to change their behaviour. Instead, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from an English village, the paper uses a case study of unpasteurised milk to analyse why rural consumers continue to buy foods labelled by official scientific discourses as ‘risky’. The paper argues that food risks in rural areas are configured by a concern to protect a rural identity from one implicated in scientific discourses of safety. These identity-related definitions of risk are also constructed by various moral behaviours which are integral to the process of becoming rural. In particular, the paper shows that these moral behaviours include establishing relations with specific forms of nature, maintaining community relations and adopting rural knowledgeabilities which together configure food safety and define rural status.     

Impacts of the Triple Global Crisis on Growth and Poverty: The Case of Yemen

Yemen is an oil‐exporting and food‐importing country with the highest levels of poverty in the Middle East and North Africa. The impacts of the triple crisis are likely to further complicate pre‐existing conditions of conflict, oil depletion and governance failure. Using a dynamic CGE model, this article finds that oil‐driven growth in 2008 dominated the negative growth impacts of the food crisis, but that growth was not pro‐poor. The financial crisis of 2009 slowed growth sharply and raised the poverty rate to 42.8%, up from 34.8% in 2005/6. Poverty continues to be higher in rural areas, where almost half the population live in poverty.     

Social welfare in rural Europe

Rural development has been identified by EU leaders as one of the priorities of European structural policies, and as one of the objectives of cohesion policy. Yet despite this commitment, we are very poorly informed about how ordinary people live across the rural areas of Europe, their incomes and quality of life, and their perceptions of policies and economic and social change. This paper argues that greater attention should be devoted to issues of poverty, disadvantage and social exclusion in rural Europe by both policymakers and researchers. This is particularly crucial at the present time as rural Europe is subject to major structural changes deriving both from changes in rural economy and society and from policy initiatives such as the Maastricht Treaty and the Single European Act. These are over and above the wider trends operating throughout Europe in relation to employment, fiscal crisis and ageing, for example. A central requirement is for the articulation of policies for tackling economic and social exclusion (e.g. Poverty 3, Exclusion 1), on the one hand, with those directed towards rural development (e.g. Leader 2), on the other. Fundamental household survey work is required to increase our understanding of what constitutes rural disadvantage, which client groups are affected, and how policies can contribute towards relieving their disadvantage, preferably through client-based instruments rather than less appropriate area-based approaches. The last part of this paper presents preliminary results of such a survey, focusing on issues of employment, housing, poverty and quality of life.     

Intimate Violence against Rural Women: The Current and Future State of Feminist Empirical and Theoretical Contributions

Rural crime in general ranks among the least studied social problems in the social sciences; however, a growing body of research shows that rural woman abuse is a major problem. The current state of progressive critical feminist social scientific knowledge enhances an empirical and theoretical understanding of intimate violence against rural women. Revealing the complexities of rural women's experiences and struggles with violent relationships reconstitutes violence against women as a public crisis that requires continued serious attention with regard research, theory, and policy. Three primary objectives of this article are as follows: (i) briefly review recent feminist social scientific literature on research, methodology, and theoretical contributions on violence against women in rural areas, (ii) suggest new directions in researching and theorizing rural women's experiences with intimate violence, and (iii) offer creative practical and policy solutions towards a broad vision of social change.     

The Farm Crisis and Mental Health: A Longitudinal Study of the 1980s1

Abstract This paper examines rural/urban differences and trends in mental health during the farm crisis of the 1980s in a large panel sample from a midwestern state. A community research perspective, which attributes differences to life styles, culture, and community context, is contrasted with an economic stress perspective, which focuses on individual differences in economic circumstances as determinants of rural-urban differences in mental health. Survey samples from 1981, 1986, and 1989 are used to examine differences among seven categories of community type. Multiple regression analysis of the trend and panel data provide support for both the individual economic distress and community context models.     

A general moodel of crisis intervention

This article presents a general model of crisis intervention designed to be used in most practice settings. The model is a synthesis of what has previously been written about crisis intervention theory and practice along with the author's own contributions. The various definitions of what constitutes a crisis and the stages of a crisis reaction are discussed. In the beginning phases of crisis treatment it is suggested that the clinician should complete six tasks, one of which is identifying with the client and precipitating event that led to the crisis. As the treatment process continues it is suggested that the clinician should complete six tasks, one of which is designing psychological and behavioral tasks that will reduce stress and help the client resolve the crisis. Finally, the termination process is reviewed.     

Social Work and Disadvantage: Addressing the Roots of Stigma through Association

Abstract

This paper reports on a small-scale research study that explores the impact of climate change on rural women. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with 7 women, who came from a regional centre and were either employed by women's services or who had activist roles within the community pertaining to women's services. Outcomes of the study identified a range of areas of impact, including increased hardship for rural women, implications of household roles, and subsequent organisational responsibilities. A high level of concern, particularly for the vulnerability of women in crisis, was identified among participants. We contend that the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly relevant to the social work profession and that specific groups such as women are at risk of further disadvantage unless collective action is taken to circumvent the impact of climate change. Strategies for social work practice and policy initiatives are considered.     

Family crisis intervention

Family crisis intervention is based on crisis theory and involves the use of individual crisis intervention techniques with one or more family members starting with the person who initiates the request for help. In addition, the relationship between the crises of the individuals involved is formulated and articulated, including the identification of distinct and common hazards and themes. The usual emphasis with children and young adolescents in crisis is on helping their parents to help them. The paper does, however, treat the issue of direct work with children. As in individual crisis intervention, the treatment contact is limited to six weeks, clients are self-selecting, and the goal is the most adaptive resolution of an immediate problem that is possible given the existing inner and outer resources of the family and its members. This implies that the resolution should not impair the functioning or well-being of any individual family member.     

The relationship of interpersonal acting-out to the process of decompensation

Summary This paper grew out of work in a psychiatric crisis clinic. It was noted that in individuals who characteristically use relationships as a defense against anxiety, decompensation may be triggered by a process in which the person who has been used as a protection against a threatening figure appears to become that figure.Decompensation in such cases can be arrested by quick and appropriate crisis intervention which may lead to restoration of the usual defenses or to a temporary resolution and referral for treatment of the characterological problems.     

网络危机公关探析

网络危机公关是指对由网络虚拟世界里形成的网络危机事件所引发的、对现实世界产生实际影响的公关危机(网络公关危机)的预防、识别和处理。通过对网络危机事件、网络公关危机和网络危机公关的分析,探讨了网络公关危机管理之道。     

Factors that influence organisational crisis perception from an internal stakeholder’s point of view

This paper starts from the premise that crisis is a perception and that one of the best ways to conquer a crisis is not to allow it to develop in the first place. By detecting or perceiving a crisis before other stakeholders do, an organisation can prevent or mitigate a crisis. Few studies have considered the question of whether organisations put the right people in the right places to be able to see a crisis coming. Within an organisation, managers are usually well placed to take decisions to initiate crisis communication, but they seem to be reluctant to do so or may not wish to see an impending crisis. Communication professionals should have a better perception of a crisis, but they rarely find themselves in a position to have a substantial impact on the management decision to communicate during a crisis. In this paper, we study crisis perception by individuals in a large governmental organisation during various stages of an unfolding crisis and compared perception scores to individual profiles based on study background, professional situation and crisis experience. This study involves a large-scale scenario-driven survey with ‘crisis perception’ as the main dependent variable. The results of this specific case indicate that an academic communication degree, a high hierarchical position in the organisation and crisis experience are positively related to an augmented perception of an impending organisational crisis.     

“Everyone was Pounding on Us”: Front Porch Politics and the American Farm Crisis of the 1970s and 1980s

This essay analyzes agricultural politics and activism in the United States during the farm crisis of the 1970s and 1980s. Although journalists and social scientists studied farm activism at the time, historians have neglected it. As this article demonstrates, however, the farm crisis is valuable for analyzing why ordinary Americans mobilized as citizens and activists in a period of economic dislocation. Informed by the recent “emotional turn” in social movement studies, the essay frames farm organizing as an archetypal example of “front porch politics”. Mostly, farmers organized out of a sense of being wronged; the resulting sense of injustice fueled a rural uprising.