The School Experiences of Same-Sex Attracted Students in the 14- to 19-Year-Old Secondary Sector in England: Within and Beyond the Safety and Tolerance Framework

SUMMARY

This article examines the social and political context within which lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) youth find themselves and, in doing so, a number of key issues are identified which have profound implications for the functions and responsibilities of schools in the United Kingdom. This article also considers how one secondary school and one Sixth Form College in south-east England are facilitating the gradual visibility of LGB students within a framework of safety and tolerance. In addition, attention is focussed on homophobic victimization identified by students and their experiences when disclosing sexual identity. Methods of data collection are outlined including focus groups with adolescent LGB identifying students, and a questionnaire survey distributed to 116 students (both heterosexual and LGB). Methodological issues are considered together with the difficulties of accessing same-sex attracted respondents and the ethical considerations which emerge as a consequence. Implications for policy and practice within the 14- to 19-year-old secondary sector and the possibility of moving beyond the framework of safety and tolerance are examined.     

A bivariate gamma mixture distribution

In this paper we construct a bivariate gamma mixture distribution by allowing the scale parameters of the two marginals to have a generalized Bernoulli distribution. We study the statistical properties of this distribution and discuss the estimation of the parameters. The distribution is then fitted to two bivariate data sets. Data on the age and lactation period of cows are described well by the proposed model, but it fails to fit Johansen's bean data properly because of theoretical constraints on the correlation.     

Global Hakka: a case study

This paper is based on a case study of a small group of Hakkas who have left the village-town of Beruas in the state of Perak on the west coast of the Malaysian Peninsula to make their homes overseas – mostly in cultures which are very different from the Hakka environment in which they grew up. It looks at: the reasons why they left their hometown; how they identify themselves in their new place of residence; who they married; their offspring in relation to the their mother tongue (Hakka) and traditions; how they see the future of ‘Hakka culture’ and the social and cultural costs of living overseas and marrying outside the dialect.     

Social Communities and Homelessness: A Broader Concept Analysis of Social Relationships and Homelessness

Pathways to and from homelessness were examined from the perspective of people who were both employed and homeless in Calgary, Alberta. Based on data collected through semi-structured open-end interviews (n = 61) with employed homeless people (N estimated at 2,400), we found that respondents identified aspects of five predominant social relationships that had the greatest impact on their present homeless situation: relationships with friends and family, acquaintances in shared accommodation, landlords and employers, other homeless people, and the social service delivery system. The findings provide a model for beginning to understand the complex social communities in which homelessness exists. Further research needs to explore the relationship between service providers and individuals' other social relationships and the role those can play in finding a pathway from homelessness.