Challenges,Changes, and Impact of the Council on Social Work Education Women’s Council: An Update

This article highlights the contributions of the Council on the Role and Status of Women in Social Work Education (Women’s Council) as well as the role and status of women in social work education. For this historical analysis update, the authors drew on several primary and secondary data sources. The first major theme was organizational development (e.g., organizational commitment, strategic planning, and sustainability). The second major theme was contributions to social work education (e.g., furthering the knowledge base, influencing accreditation standards, and monitoring equity). These major themes and subthemes remained constant from the previous publication on the history of the WC (Alvarez et al., 2008), underscoring the resilience, commitment and persistence of the WC to keep a sharp focus on infusing feminist perspectives into social work education.     

Towards a Lacanian Group Psychology: The Prisoner's Dilemma and the Trans‐subjective

Revisiting Lacan's discussion of the puzzle of the prisoner's dilemma provides a means of elaborating a theory of the trans‐subjective. An illustration of this dilemma provides the basis for two important arguments. Firstly, that we need to grasp a logical succession of modes of subjectivity: from subjectivity to inter‐subjectivity, and from inter‐subjectivity to a form of trans‐subjective social logic. The trans‐subjective, thus conceptualized, enables forms of social objectivity that transcend the level of (inter)subjectivity, and which play a crucial role in consolidating given societal groupings. The paper advances, secondly, that various declarative and symbolic activities are important non‐psychological bases—trans‐subjective foundations—for psychological identifications of an inter‐subjective sort. These assertions link interesting to recent developments in the contemporary social psychology of interobjectivity, which likewise emphasize a type of objectivity that plays an indispensible part in co‐ordinating human relations and understanding.     

Effects of Photovoice: Civic Engagement Among Older Youth in Urban Communities

Youth civic engagement is critical to many community empowerment initiatives. Photovoice is a popular empowerment technique for disenfranchised groups, including youth. The technique has little published empirical support. This research assesses Photovoice as a youth mobilization project within the context of an ongoing community development initiative. It was hypothesized that Photovoice participation would (a) improve students' interest in civic engagement and (b) have greater impact on older rather than younger adolescents. Thirty-three (33) youths (15–21 years of age) completed a Survey of Youth Engagement before and after Photovoice participation. Results indicate a main effect for age, with youths 18 years of age and older scoring significantly higher than youths under 18 years of age. This study suggests that Photovoice promotes significant changes in perceived civic engagement among older youths.     

Results of a survey on research practices,completed by attendees at the third conference on research policies and quality assurance

A survey was conducted to evaluate the responses of attendees at the Third Conference on Research Policies and Quality Assurance, in May, 1993, as to their perceptions of the frequency of questionable research studies, the desirability of good research practices (GRP) guidelines, and whether all research organizations should perform routine data audits. The vast majority of respondents had suspicions or evidence of other researchers performing questionable studies. Most respondents supported the development of GRP guidelines and preferred that they not be in the form of federal regulations. Most respondents also favored routine data audits.     

Effects of Placement Changes on Health Insurance Stability Among a National Sample of Children in the Child Welfare System

ABSTRACT

Children in the child welfare system have entitlements to health insurance coverage—critical because of their considerable physical and mental health needs—based largely on their placement status. This study conducted path and transitions analyses on data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (3,801 children followed-up for 3 years) to examine the interplay between placement changes and insurance stability. Children maintained in-home at Wave 1 had significantly lower odds of being insured (OR = 0.7); children transitioning from out-of-home placement to in-home care had significantly lower odds of maintaining insurance coverage (OR = 0.6). Child welfare workers working with children maintained in-home and those being reunified should safeguard the children's insurance status. Policy makers should consider extension of categorical eligibility to all children presenting to child welfare agencies in order to assure access to needed services for these vulnerable children.     

Women's Education,Marital Violence,and Divorce: A Social Exchange Perspective

Drawing on social exchange theories, the authors hypothesized that educated women are more likely than uneducated women to leave violent marriages and suggested that this pattern offsets the negative education–divorce association commonly found in the United States. They tested these hypotheses using 2 waves of young adult data on 914 married women from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The evidence suggests that the negative relationship between women's education and divorce is weaker when marriages involve abuse than when they do not. The authors observed a similar pattern when they examined the association of women's proportional earnings and divorce, controlling for education. Supplementary analyses suggested that marital satisfaction explains some of the association among women's resources, victimization, and divorce but that marital violence continues to be a significant moderator of the education–divorce association. In sum, education appears to benefit women by both maintaining stable marriages and dissolving violent ones.     

Community Literacy Resources and Home Literacy Practices Among Immigrant Latino Families

ABSTRACT

This paper reports relationships among communities, families, and Spanish-speaking children's language and literacy development in kindergarten and grade 1. Findings from a study of 35 communities show that communities with greater concentrations of Latinos are less likely to have printed materials, and available materials are more likely to be in Spanish. Communities with higher income and education levels have more literacy materials in English. Contrary to predictions, there are few associations among community literacy resources, frequency of children's home reading activities, and children's literacy achievement. This lack of association is due to within-community variation in home literacy practices and to schools' impact on home literacy. However, there are associations among community and family language characteristics and child literacy outcomes in Spanish and English, suggesting that at least in the early stages of literacy development, communities' influence on Spanish-speaking children's literacy development is through language-learning opportunities rather than literacy-learning opportunities per se.     

Policy Style and Governing without Consensus: Devolution and Education Policy in Northern Ireland

Devolved government was established in Northern Ireland in 1999 at the same time as Scotland and Wales with a varying range of powers, particularly over the major areas of social policy including education. Devolution in Northern Ireland was set up on the basis of statutory power‐sharing in the core executive with a number of mechanisms to promote involvement by all sections of the community through their political representatives. This marked a departure from the traditional majoritarian and hierarchical model of UK government. The operation of devolved government in Northern Ireland requires a consensus on major policy items requiring legislation. The main aim of the article is to assess whether or not there is a devolved policy style in Northern Ireland and to compare this policy style with the findings of similar analysis in Scotland and Wales. Consideration is then given to the impact of both the distinctive policy processes which reflect the consociational nature of the Good Friday Agreement and wider social, political and administrative factors. Decision‐making on education policy is a totally devolved function and thus serves as an important example of autonomous policy formulation and policy‐making. The three main topics of current policy debate in education are selected for analysis to determine the nature of the decision‐making process and the existence of a distinct devolved policy style.     

“As Needed” Case Management Across Aging Services in Response to Depression

A lack of clarity on how and where case management for older adults is delivered persists, even as evidence supports its use to respond to depression. We used in-depth interviews with managers (n = 20) and staff surveys (n = 142) from 17 service agencies to explore the provision of case management services in adult day services, homecare, senior centers, and supportive housing. Limited case management services were found. Barriers included limited time and resources, especially for senior centers and supportive housing. Results revealed a concern about the role, feasibility, and availability of case management for older adults within these settings.