Contests for Professional Status: Community College Faculty in Sociology

Community colleges are playing an increasingly important and visible role in higher education in the United States. However, the additional attention to community colleges has not produced the same degree of recognition regarding the importance and needs of the faculty within those institutions, who make up about 27 percent of all faculty members nation-wide. This article examines factors influencing the professional status of community college faculty. We argue that understanding the position of community college faculty in higher education today depends upon understanding that professional status is a dynamic and contested terrain, rather than a series of static characteristics. Following Abbott’s (1998) analysis of the efforts of librarians to achieve professional status, we consider how the changing structure of higher education in the United States may impact community college faculty as professionals, both positively and negatively. As one example of community college faculty raising their issues within a discipline-wide professional organization, we examine the current state of community college faculty with the American Sociological Association (ASA). We consider potential status changes for community college faculty in sociology within the context of the broad threats to the professional status of faculty across the higher education landscape. Paradoxically, these threats might result in an opening for efforts by community college faculty to improve their professional status, perhaps in coalition with faculty in other sectors of higher education.     

Notebooks as Projects in a History Course

This article focuses on high school students' knowledge and notions of citizenship after taking the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Naturalization Test. The students' test results and responses show emerging support for the need to make changes to the test as well as the students' limited conceptions of citizenship. In addition, this study's methodological benefits and challenges are discussed with implications for future research and practice.     

Intergenerational Assimilation by Intermarriage: Hispanic and Asian Immigrants

Using multigenerational data, intermarriage rates were examined among non-White, non-European immigrants to test two competing assimilation theories: classic assimilation theory and segmented assimilation theory. Later generations of Asian and Hispanic immigrants were more likely to outmarry than their first-generation relatives, an outcome predicted by both theories. High achieving Asians were not more likely to engage in outmarriage, whereas educational achievement was positively correlated with outmarriage rates among Hispanics. Classic assimilation theory predicts outmarriage only after structural assimilation is achieved; therefore, this study provided more evidence to support segmented assimilation theory. However, low socioeconomic status Hispanics and Asians were not more likely to outmarry non-Whites, as segmented assimilation theory would suggest.     

The role of parental work schedule in CPS involvement

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2904), we investigated whether maternal work schedules were associated with Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement and child maltreatment indicators during the first five years of a child's life. We further examined if this association could be explained by demographic characteristics, child care arrangements, maternal health and social supports, economic and hardship characteristics, and parenting practices. Finally, we examined if this association differed by context (i.e., maternal marital status, maternal education, and family income-to-needs ratio). Our regression results indicate significant associations between maternal shift work and mother-reported CPS involvement and mother-reported psychological aggression behaviors. Economic and hardship characteristics explained some of the significant association between maternal shift work and CPS involvement. Economic and hardship characteristics and parenting practices also explained some of the significant association between maternal shift work and psychological aggression behaviors. The obtained significant associations were more pronounced for mothers who were not married, who were high school graduates, and whose family income was either below or near poverty. We discuss the broader social factors associated with employment demands and childcare arrangements.     

How schools of social work perceive and are responding to juvenile violence: a national survey

Following a trend of decreasing youth violence crimes in the 1990s, incidents of multiple victim shootings on school campuses by juvenile perpetrators brought renewed focus on the youth violence problem. Tougher criminal justice policies indicated a change in purpose of the juvenile justice system from rehabilitation to punishment and accountability. Effects of this change on the well being of youth should be a concern of social work, especially given the large number of students choosing school social work as their focus. This study surveyed all schools of social work in the continental US, Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico about their perceptions of youth violence and the methods they are using to educate their students about the problem. Findings indicated a wide diversity of perceptions and methods used to address the problem. Suggestions for incorporating juvenile violence into the curriculum and giving students interested in working with this population experience are offered.     

GENDER IDEOLOGY AND STATUS ATTAINMENT OF CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Theoretically derived measures and hypotheses concerning the connection between family ideology, gender ideals, and status attainment levels of conservative Christian women are examined in the twenty-first century. Conservative Christian women have a more intensive view of mothering, a stronger prolife stance, a younger age of childbearing, a higher number of children and a lower education level. These trends tend to intensify for women who convert to conservative churches after the age of 16 and reduce for women who engage in wage-work. A belief in Biblical inerrancy directly reduces educational attainment as does a higher intensity of mothering, a younger age of childbearing, and higher number of children. While there is no discernible direct effect of religiosity on income level, there is an indirect effect that is important to note.     

Working with Women Associated with Bikie Gangs: Practice Dilemmas

Abstract

Much has been written about bikie gangs, but there is little about the women and children who are part of gang life. The present paper describes domestic violence agency social workers’ ethical practice dilemmas when assisting women who have left bikie gangs to search for a new, safer lifestyle away from the gang culture of drug use and violence, in particular sexual violence. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ethical processes and issues in resolving such practice dilemmas.     

Contested Concepts in Violence Against Women: ‘Intimate’, ‘Domestic’ or ‘Torture’?

Abstract

Ritualistic, overwhelmingly violent bikie gang or cult-inflicted abuse of women, entrenched by co-opting third party cult or gang members, has been referred to as ‘domestic violence’, ‘intimate violence’ or ‘intimate partner violence’. The present article questions the aptitude of these terms to convey the realities of this violence, in light of the experiences of women attending a South Australian domestic violence service, all of whom were escaping violent partners who were members or associates of bikie gangs and cults. The paper asks, ‘is torture an appropriate term for such violence?’ and discusses the impact of social, legal, organisational and human rights parallel states that collaborate to make it almost impossible for these women to escape this violence and make it difficult for social workers to work effectively with them. The paper concludes that the State needs to adopt a human rights rather than legal focus when addressing the issue of violence against women.