Improving Educational Opportunities for Students With Disabilities Who Are Homeless

Students who are homeless constitute a unique subset within today's school population; those who also have disabilities face even greater challenges. This article highlights the uniaue needs of students with disabilities who are homeless, legislative mandates for serving these students (the McKinney Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), and promising practices for overcoming educational and institutional obstacles to service delivery. Suggestions will focus on developing collaborative relationships at multiple levels, creating responsive systems through staff development and procedural revisions, and providing students with the social and instructional support they need to be successful.     

WHO CAN SPEAK TO RACE AND NATION?

This article examines the production and publication of the Parekh Report (2000) by drawing upon two related current debates – the decline of the public intellectual and the necessity for a public sociology. It argues that both of these debates have failed to engage with concrete examples of public intellectual labour, with the complexities of public communication sociologically and have been reticent as to which particular intellectual voices are able to enter the public sphere. The article argues that the intellectually orientated, multiculturally constituted Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain Commission which authored the report and the report's moment of publication both offer sites in which these critiques can be developed. The article foregrounds the question as to who is entitled to inaugurate, participate in and shape public debates on race, nation, and national identity and evidences the difficulties of attempting to do so in a ‘race volatile’, anti-intellectual and heavily mediated political milieu.     

Global Software Development: Commitment,Trust and Cultural Sensitivity in Strategic Partnerships

Much research has studied off-shore outsourcing from a Western client perspective. This article tries to shed light on what an Indian vendor perceives as important to manage large and complex strategic partnerships in IT outsourcing, and in particular how mutually profitable, long-term relationships with European clients are created and maintained, both at company and project levels. We investigate this issue through qualitative interviews with various vendor representatives in offshore and on-site teams in a top tier multinational company of Indian origin.In the analysis of interview accounts of close collaboration processes in two large and complex projects, where off-shoring of software development is moved to a strategic level, we found that the vendor was able to establish a strategic partnership through long-term engagement with the field of banking and insurance as well as through conscious relationship management with the clients. Three major themes describe important aspects of the strategic partnerships: 1) senior management commitment and employee identification with the projects, 2) mutual trust and transparency, and 3) cross-cultural understanding and sensitivity. The article draws attention to the important collaborative work done by people who are able to span boundaries in the complex organizational set-up of global IT development projects.     

That is What a Feminist Looks Like: Identification and Exploration of the Factors Underlying the Concept of Feminism and Predicting the Endorsement of Traditional Gender Roles

Gender Issues - The present studies identified the underlying attitudinal factor structure of the concept of feminism, providing a measure of what it means to be a feminist, and explored the...     

Maternal Mental State Language and Preschool Children's Attachment Security: Relation to Children's Mental State Language and Expressions of Emotional Understanding

Mothers’ mental state language in conversation with their preschool children, and children's preschool attachment security were examined for their effects on children's mental state language and expressions of emotional understanding in their conversation. Children discussed an emotionally salient event with their mothers and then relayed the event to a stranger. Compared to mothers of insecurely attached children, mothers of securely attached children used more mental state language and had children who used more mental state language with both mother and stranger, and who expressed more emotional understanding in the mother–child conversation. Maternal mental state language and attachment security made shared contributions to children's mental state language with their mothers. Maternal mental state language accounted for the effects of attachment security on children's expressions of emotional understanding in the mother–child conversation. Mothers’ mental state language to their children may enhance secure attachment and foster children's understanding of mental states in self and others.     

The Organizational Dynamics of the U.S. Environmental Movement: Legitimation,Resource Mobilization,and Political Opportunity*

Abstract We analyze the relationship between legitimation, resource mobilization, and political opportunity and the founding rate of national environmental organizations between 1895 and 1994. We address recent criticisms that organizational ecologists' reliance on the density dependence model—which treats legitimation as an unmeasured intervening variable—has failed to capture the active sociopolitical character of this process. We advocate a more historical approach to legitimation which relies on print media to construct direct measures of legitimation. Specifically, we use the yearly count of environmental books published as a measure of the legitimacy of environmentalism in the U.S. This count remains statistically significant and positively related to foundings even when other variables are added to the model. A negative second‐order effect of total books suggests that the recent proliferation of state and local environmental organizations is beginning to depress the founding rate of national organizations. Variations in resource mobilization and political opportunity also have affected foundings, though variables measuring the latter were not significant in the full model.     

Does Marcellus Shale Natural Gas Extraction Affect How Much Youth in Rural Pennsylvania Like Their Community?

Prior research on the impacts of boomtowns on youth provides mixed results. Recent qualitative work suggests youth are ambivalent about change associated with extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale. The Rural Youth Education longitudinal study of youth in rural Pennsylvania provides a unique opportunity to examine youth views about their communities before and during development of the Marcellus Shale. We use two waves of data from 10 rural school districts to assess differences in youth reports of how much they liked their community pre‐Marcellus (2005) and during Marcellus activity (2009), creating a natural experiment. Youth characteristics, aspirations, perceptions of job and educational opportunities, and views about their community are included in multinomial multivariate logistic regression models to predict how much youth like their community. We find no difference in youth liking their community pre‐Marcellus, but a larger share of youth in communities experiencing Marcellus activity by 2009 like their community “a lot” than those in areas not affected. The Marcellus effect strengthens when controls for other factors typically associated with extraction activity and views of community are included in the model, suggesting other, unmeasured aspects of Marcellus‐related activity influence how much youth like their community.     

Overprotection in the lives of people with intellectual disability in Malta: knowing what is control and what is enabling support

A study of overprotection in the lives of persons with intellectual disability in Malta was carried out on the principles of inclusive research. Focus groups were held with people with intellectual disability, parents of people with intellectual disability, and those working with persons with intellectual disability. Overprotection is a disabling barrier. Its effects were identified in employment, leisure time, intimate relationships, and the use of public transport, money, and mobile phones. People with intellectual disability who experience overprotection live very structured lives. They cannot develop their skills, abilities, and potential. Furthermore, they cannot live their life on their own terms, but on terms determined by others. This creates a sustained dependence on others, especially the family. It is important that a balance is achieved between protection and enabling support. Persons with intellectual disability should be given the support they need to express their wishes and act on them.