Complicated narratives of ‘Korean-ness’: towards strategic provisionality in parental involvement

The purpose of this paper is to advance the discourse on parental involvement drawing from Butlerian notion of strategic provisionality. In developing a new approach to understanding cultural differences and their relation to Korean parental involvement, the authors analyze qualitative and quantitative data from five New York metropolitan elementary schools. The authors examine the ways in which ‘Korean-ness’ and Korean parental involvement are discursively constructed and embodied in sociopolitical and historical contexts in the United States. We present two themes related to Korean parental involvement: (a) the double-edged component of respect for teachers and (b) biopolitics related to English language and parental involvement. By challenging normalized understanding about Korean-ness, the authors suggest a different approach to ethnoepistemology in order to enrich discourses concerning parental involvement and ethnic/racial studies.     

ESTIMATING TEMPORAL FARM INCOME DISTRIBUTIONS USING SPATIAL SMOOTHING TECHNIQUES

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural & Resource Economics (ABARE) has conducted the annual Australian Agricultural and Grazing Industries Survey, covering the broadacre sector, in a consistent format since 1978/79. In this period the incomes of farmers have fluctuated considerably. Interest has focused on temporal income variation because of its relationship to the inherent riskiness of farming. Part of these income fluctuations can be explained by changing commodity prices and by highly variable climatic conditions. This paper outlines a method of measuring the magnitude of this income variation and how it relates to other variables. Due to rotation within the sample of farms surveyed, data are limited for determining the income variability of any particular farm. This paper, using spatial locations of surveyed farms, shows how kernel smoothing techniques can be adapted to estimate the distribution of a farm's income. This analysis uses data collected from 1978/79 to 1991/92. Summary information from these distributions is cross-tabulated against several other variables. This shows that income variability is strongly related to the production mixture of farming businesses.     

AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF CLIENT AND THERAPIST PERCEPTIONS OF THERAPY EFFECTIVENESS IN A UNIVERSITY-BASED TRAINING CLINIC

The purpose of this study was to explor client and therapist evaluations of direct practice in a university-based training center using an ethnographic research methodology. Client and therapist perceptions about the strengths and limitations of ethnographic practice evaluation were also analyzed. A domain analysis was performed on postsession interviews with both clients and practitioners over a 4- month period. Six core categories of client and therapist perceptions of therapy effectiveness emerged from a domain analysis: (a) changes associated with counseling, (b) important practitioner qualities, (c) effective interventions or techniques, (d) ineffective interventions or techniques, (e) recommendations for future sessions, and (f) strengths and limitations of ethnographic practice evaluation. Implications of this study for clinical practice, training, and future research are discussed.     

The Impact of Authority Relations and Feedback Delivery Method on Performance

ABSTRACT

The proliferation of technology has been changing feedback delivery methods in organizations. However, the effectiveness of feedback delivery methods can vary depending on social dynamics (e.g., authority relations) in the organization. The current study was designed to examine the impact of authority relations and feedback delivery methods on performance. A total of 120 participants were recruited to work on a simulated cell-phone assembly task and were exposed to one of the four feedback conditions: (a) authority figure with face-to-face feedback, (b) authority figure with e-mail feedback, (c) non-authority figure with face-to-face feedback, and (d) non-authority figure with e-mail feedback. Results showed that while both feedback delivery methods resulted in high performance with the presence of an authority figure, only face-to-face feedback resulted in high performance with a non-authority figure. Practical considerations for effective feedback delivery methods in relation to authority figures are also discussed.     

Computation of percentage points

In this note, it is proved that in computing percentage points of a distribution, Halley's method yields convergent solutions under most conditions, and we demonstrate the efficiency of the method with some examples.     

The Effect of a Mediation-Blocking Task on the Acquisition of Instructive Feedback Targets

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - The inclusion of instructive feedback in discrete-trial training has been shown to increase the efficiency of learning. However, the behavioral mechanism...     

Animals as the Symptom of Psychoanalysis Or,The Potential for Interspecies Co-emergence in Psychoanalysis

Harold Searles urged psychoanalysis to incorporate animals and the nonhuman environment within the clinical space, claiming we ignore the nonhuman at our peril. But as Searles outlined, our relationships with these nonhuman entities is fraught with ambivalence. This paper details some of the ambivalences within Searles’ writings, including the ways he both described and seemed to enact defenses around human exceptionalism on the one hand and our chaotic merging with the world on the other. Searles described this conflict as occurring not only within the family romance but also shaping our relationships with the nonhuman objects and animals in our environment. In this light, polluting the Earth, according to Searles, is an unconscious act designed to foreclose the future for our progeny whom we unconsciously hate and envy. Integrating Searles’ conflicting ideas with current work on the nonhuman in cultural studies, this presentation explores the ambivalent dependence of the human on the nonhuman, the co-emergence of these categories and subjectivities, and ways to consciously link these areas of experiencing in our clinical and theoretical work.     

Financial Planners and Philanthropic Planning

This article reports findings from a survey of Canadian financial planners. The focus of the study is learning more about the depth and breadth of philanthropic planning that is included in their advising services to their high-net worth clients. The findings indicate that a minority of financial planners (1) regularly broach the topic of philanthropy in their counseling, (2) believe their clients are interested in philanthropy, and (3) feel sufficiently knowledgeable to assist their clients with philanthropic planning. The implications of these findings and recommendations for improvement are discussed.