Kashmir and the Kashmir Impasse

Social studies educators are responsible for successfully teaching students the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to be effective citizens. The National Council for the Social Studies urges educators to design technology-enhanced experiences that address social studies content and prepare students for effective citizenship. In this paper, we give examples from a piratical unit designed for a fourth-grade social studies classroom to highlight the role digital technology can play in enhancing social studies teaching and learning. We use Internet workshops as structures for students to meaningfully research social studies content, and we use blogs as technological tools to publish and showcase authentic student work, and ultimately, to develop students' higher order thinking skills and creativity.     

Relationship between peer victimization and school adjustment in sixth-grade students: investigating mediation effects

Peer victimization is a common occurrence in school settings. This study investigated the relationship between peer victimization and school adjustment in a sample of 1,022 sixth-grade students. Measures used in this study include peer victimization, perceived peer non-support, school attachment, inattention problems, and academic achievement. Multivariate path analyses were conducted to test direct and mediation effects in the over-all model and to explore gender differences. The results provided support for the hypothesized model indicating that the relationship between peer victimization and school attachment is mediated by perceived peer non-support, and that school attachment is related to inattentive school behaviors and poor academic achievement. Paths indicated invariance across models for gender. Prevention and intervention implications of these findings are discussed.     

Doublebreasted operations and the decline of construction unionism

Labor relations in the construction industry are conducted under a legal framework that is both different and more favorable to unions than is that in industry generally. One aspect of this favored union environment is that construction employers are more subject to challenge than other employers if they operate both union and nonunion subsidiaries (“doublebreasted operations”). For almost a decade, the construction unions have attempted to obtain legislation disallowing this practice on the erroneous claims that it is unique to the construction industry and responsible for the decline of construction unions. This article examines the facts of the case and concludes that having both union and nonunion construction subsidiaries is no different from having both union and nonunion manufacturing subsidiaries insofar as the structure and operational organization of such companies are concerned; that the initial National Labor Relation Board decision in regard to doublebreasted operations in the construction industry was merely an application of precedent of some years previous in other industries; and that construction industry doublebreasted operations are much more a result than a cause of union decline. Professor Emeritus of Management; formerly, Professor of Industry; Director, Industrial Research Unit; and Chairman, Labor Relations Council.     

Robustness of linear models in dynamic multivariate predictions

Linear aggregation models employing unit and equal weights have been shown to be superior to human decisions in a surprising range of decision situations. In addition, decisions based on these models have often been found to be superior to those based on linear regression models (LRMs). This general issue was explored for repetitive decisions in production planning. The problem considered differs in several aspects from the types of problems investigated previously: (1) the problem is dynamic rather than static; (2) a set (or vector) of interactive decisions dependent on previous decisions is required to be made, where a decision in stage t, the dependent variable, becomes an independent variable in stage t + 1; and (3) the criterion function is cost with a quadratic loss function (rather than the correlation measure of R²). Moreover, since repetitive decisions were involved, the parameters of the models were estimated using past human decisions. These were used to predict specific values of the decision variables (rather than rank order), which in turn were employed recursively to predict values of the decision variables at subsequent stages. While decisions from equal weighting rules were found to be superior to human decisions and not greatly inferior to decisions from linear regression models, decisions from unit weighting rules performed poorly. The rationale for such performance is discussed, indicating that previous theoretical and empirical research on linear weighting models is not generally applicable to dynamic, multivariate interactive decisions problems with lagged variables.     

Accounting for a Nonviolent Mass Demonstration*

A 1963 nonviolent mass demonstration for civil rights at Durham, N.C., is here described on the basis of interviews with participants, businessmen, and political figures. A utility model to help account for the personnel, form, and site of such a protest includes the processes of evolution, contagion, and reinforcement.     

Measures of Work Satisfaction among Economic Development Practitioners*

From data collected in a mail survey of 327 urban based economic development practitioners, four dimensions of work satisfaction are proposed. Predictive correlates of these four dimensions–the expectation that practitioners create economic miracles, the rejection of formalistic activity, the sense that practitioners can be effective, and the belief that their bosses are helpful–are introduced. Overall satisfaction is highest in communities in which economic development practitioners feel they have successfully brought about public-private cooperation. This finding is interpreted in terms of the differences between process and outcome measures in evaluating work satisfaction for administrators responsible for non-routine activities.