Engaging through Learning—Learning through Engaging: An Alternative Approach to Professional Learning about Human Diversity

This paper presents an alternative framework for construing learning about human diversity as an ongoing, socially constructed, contextual process based in relational learning. The approach enables shifts in understanding for teachers, students, practitioners, client groups and organizations. Conceived to strengthen professional social workers' capacity for on the job learning, this approach provides another entry point for social work faculty to conceptualize the learning process as relational, contextual and process based. It seeks to capitalize on the learning process itself as a mechanism through which learners simultaneously engage one another around issues of culture, identity, and difference and learn through the engagement. The approach is guided by four conceptual touchstones, 14 years of social work practice in a global context, and eight iterations of teaching a masters level diversity course. Eight constructs animate this process approach. They include: exposure, engagement, emotion, empathy, narrative, personal disposition, the learning environment, and a sense of ‘self‐in‐relation’. In addition to illuminating the social structures and social processes that construct diversity, the approach can also engender the sense of relational solidarity among learners necessary for prolonged commitment to social change.     

Reports of Conferences, Institutes, and Seminars

Late winter and early spring of 2009 was a busy conference time for librarians. Some of the conferences held during that time are reported herein: the American Library Association Midwinter Conference, January 23–28; Electronic Resources and Libraries (E&RL), February 9–12; the North Carolina Serials Conference, March 27; the New England Technical Services Librarians' (NETSL) Spring Conference, April 17; and the Technical, Electronic and Digital Services Interest Group (TEDSIG) Spring Meeting, April 24.     

The Migratory Response of Labor to Special Economic Zones in the Philippines, 1995–2005

In the mid 1990s the Filipino government adopted a new export-led development policy in an attempt to attract new investments and lower the unemployment rates throughout the country. The central idea was to provide foreign investors more access to Filipino markets and labor by giving them investor tax breaks and lowering trade tariffs. In return, the government hoped that investors would bring large amounts of capital into designated areas thereby creating new jobs and stimulating the domestic economy. The Filipino created the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and Base Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) to manage the operation of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) throughout the country. Between 1995 and 2005 PEZA and BCDA approved over 200 new SEZ that have created over four million jobs throughout the country. However, these jobs are concentrated in a small number of regions. This research uses a modified Harris-Todaro model and GIS techniques to examine the inter-regional migration response to the PEZA and BCDA programs’ geographically targeted investments. We show that areas with the highest job growth have high rates of in-migration while regions with low SEZ related investments have become migration-sending areas. In addition, our analysis shows that in-migration to SEZ affected areas has tended to surpass available jobs resulting in high unemployment. We show how the Harris-Todaro model in combination with GIS might be used to identify locations for future PEZA and BCDA investments that are less likely to result in regional population loss or growth in unemployment.     

Gender Differences in Heterosexual College Students' Conceptualizations and Indicators of Sexual Consent: Implications for Contemporary Sexual Assault Prevention Education

Because sexual assault is often defined in terms of nonconsent, many prevention efforts focus on promoting the clear communication of consent as a mechanism to reduce assault. Yet little research has specifically examined how sexual consent is being conceptualized by heterosexual college students. In this study, 185 Midwestern U.S. college students provided responses to open-ended questions addressing how they define, communicate, and interpret sexual consent and nonconsent. The study aimed to assess how college students define and communicate consent, with particular attention to gender differences in consent. Results indicated no gender differences in defining consent. However, there were significant differences in how men and women indicated their own consent and nonconsent, with women reporting more verbal strategies than men and men reporting more nonverbal strategies than women, and in how they interpreted their partner's consent and nonconsent, with men relying more on nonverbal indicators of consent than women. Such gender differences may help to explain some misunderstandings or misinterpretations of consent or agreement to engage in sexual activity, which could partially contribute to the occurrence of acquaintance rape; thus, a better understanding of consent has important implications for developing sexual assault prevention initiatives.     

Indigenous Women and Professionals’ Proposed Solutions to Prevent Intimate Partner Violence in Tribal Communities

The purpose of this study was to unveil Indigenous women and professionals’ proposed solutions to prevent and ameliorate the disproportionate rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) experienced by U.S. Indigenous women. Reconstructive analysis of interview data from 29 adult Indigenous women who had experienced IPV and 20 professionals who work with those affected by IPV revealed the following themes: (a) increasing community engagement and awareness, (b) bolstering the existing service system, (c) enhancing competency and professional training, (d) child-focused prevention and education strategies, and (e) family-focused interventions. Recommendations provided alternative approaches to ameliorating and preventing IPV in Indigenous contexts.     

Combining forward and backward mortality estimation

Demographers often form estimates by combining information from two data sources—a challenging problem when one or both data sources are incomplete. A classic example entails the construction of death probabilities, which requires death counts for the subpopulations under study and corresponding base population estimates. Approaches typically entail ‘back projection', as in Wrigley and Schofield's seminal analysis of historical English data, or ‘inverse’ or ‘forward projection’ as used by Lee in his important reanalysis of that work, both published in the 1980s. Our paper shows how forward and backward approaches can be optimally combined, using a generalized method of moments (GMM) framework. We apply the method to the estimation of death probabilities for relatively small subpopulations within the United States (men born 1930–39 by state of birth by birth cohort by race), combining data from vital statistics records and census samples.