Teacher Support and the School Engagement of Latino Middle and High School Students at Risk of School Failure

This investigation examined the effects of social support from teachers on the school engagement of middle and high school Latino students identified as being at risk of school failure. Regression analyses indicated that social support from teachers is an important factor in affective and behavioral aspects of school engagement. Specifically, teachers exerted an important effect on school engagement, beyond the effect of parental support. This paper discusses the implications of these findings for developing more effective dropout-prevention interventions for Latino students.     

The anatomy of social network linkages

Social network analysis has developed impressively during the last quarter century, producing a variety of formal models and innumerable field studies. However problems of articulation have developed between the formal models and field studies. This paper is predicated upon the judgement that the solution to this difficulty lies in more (not less) highly elaborated formal models. The aim is to present a means for representing a very broad range of social phenomena using digraphs. Departing from an anatomical investigation of the linkages and nodes of conventionally represented network structures, and from a modified exchange-theoretic concept of sanction, means are presented for conceiving social interaction as flows of sanctions and messages which are depicted as arcs in a diagraph whose nodes represent social actors. Means are also presented for representing value systems, belief systems, and message content in digraph terms. Finally, several implications are discussed of the proposed conception of networks. It is suggested that its employment in the field may increase the range of phenomena formally expressible in network models, without thereby making excessive demands for inaccessible data. Second, means are proposed for experimentally realizing selected digraphs in the small-group laboratory and for coordinating field with laboratory investigations. Third, suggestions are made for integrating social network analysis with a formal decision theory, such as mathematical decision theory or bargaining theory. The result is formal models to which systems theory may be applied as a methodology for system simulations.     

Doing technology, doing gender: Teaching gendered technoculture

This article explores the intersection between gender and technology in a Women's and Gender Studies course. It explores the pedagogical methodologies of the course, as well as the ways in which students engage in the process of learning how society genders technology and then uses these gender roles to create a technological hierarchy. where she holds a joint appointment in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the History Department. She teaches courses in women’s history, gay and lesbian history, feminist theories, sexual politics, gender and popular culture, and gender and technology. Her current research interests include study of the uses of image, the body, and the media in the first and second waves of the feminist movements. Her essays have appeared in NWSA Journal and Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy.     

Factors affecting member perceptions of coalition impact

The purpose of this study was to identify attributes of communitybased coalitions associated with member perceptions of greater impact. Based on Hackman's model of work group effectiveness, we hypothesized that member effort, knowledge and skill, and performance strategies would affect their perceptions of coalition impact. Findings from a lagged regression on a sample of forty‐five youth‐oriented coalitions indicated that two aspects of member effort were associated with subsequent perceived impact, as were performance strategies for both coalition governance and community interventions. There were no associations, however, between member knowledge and skill and perceived impact. These results suggest that leaders may improve perceived coalition impact by encouraging member participation in discussions and interventions and by developing effective strategies for both governance and implementation.     

Taking stock: parents' reasons for and against having a third child

In developed countries with below-replacement fertility, the proportion of people who have at least three children make a substantial difference to the aggregate level of fertility. This study, based on 40 in-depth interviews with Australian parents of two children, analyses what factors influence the decision to have a third child. Using a grounded theory method of qualitative analysis, the study finds that parents who have decided to stop at two children are more able to articulate their reasons than are parents who are considering having a third child. The reasons for stopping include age and health; work and finances; and the capacity to parent another child. The weighing up of multiple factors is evidence of parents taking stock of personal and financial resources when making complex family formation decisions. The reasons for having a third child are expressed with far less elaboration and are more guarded and personal. We conclude that there is less shared or familiar language for articulating the value of family relationships. The contemporary context is one in which parents are attempting to manage risks related to having children, including the personal and financial implications of time out of the workforce. This study finds a persistent story of limited resources among parents of two children. Policies aimed at increasing fertility need to address this perception of limited resources through direct measures like affordable childcare and more generally through greater government and community support for families.     

Home, Home Ownership and the Search for Ontological Security

The central focus of this paper is the notion that the home can provide a locale in which people can work at attaining a sense of ontological security in a world that at times is experienced as threatening and uncontrollable. The paper builds on and develops the ideas of Giddens and Saunders on ontological security and seeks to break down and operationalise the concept and explore it through a set of empirical data drawn from interviews with a group of older New Zealand home owners. The extent to which home and home life meets the conditions for the maintenance of ontological security is assessed through an exploration of home as the site of constancy in the social and material environment; home as a spatial context in which the day to day routines of human existence are performed; home as a site free from the surveillance that is part of the contemporary world which allows for a sense of control that is missing in other locales; and home as a secure base around which identities are constructed. The paper also argues that meanings of home are context specific and thus the data need to be seen in relation to New Zealanders' long standing pre-occupation with land and home ownership. The paper concludes by speculating on how meanings of home may be changing.     

Psycho-soziale Faktoren von Innovation

This paper investigates the relationship between social factors and innovation. A theoretical framework augmented by an appropriate terminology is suggested. The detailed review of current literature points out concrete relations between social factors and aspects of innovation. Finally, a critical discussion of ethical aspects of innovation is explicitly emphasized.