Understanding and working in welfare organisations: Helping students survive the workplace

In preparing students to function as competent social workers, educational establishments have to be mindful both of the need to communicate the ideals and values of the profession and the requirement to produce practitioners who are capable of functioning productively within the organisational environment. It cannot be assumed that these two tasks are necessarily complementary. Feedback from former students suggests they feel less well prepared for the latter. This paper explores the way in which one Diploma in Social Work programme attempts to prepare its students for the realities of the organisational context of their work with service users. It focuses on a module which aims to teach students about some of the key tensions inherent in social welfare organisations by arranging for them to interview managers and practitioners in their chosen pathway setting. Their findings are analysed in relation to the theoretical teaching given at the start of the module. The positive feedback from the students suggests the overall learning experience for the student group is very positive.     

Developmental Trajectories of Sympathy,Moral Emotion Attributions,and Moral Reasoning: The Role of Parental Support

We examined the role of parental support to children's sympathy, moral emotion attribution, and moral reasoning trajectories in a three‐wave longitudinal study of Swiss children at 6 years of age (N = 175; Time 1), 7 years of age (Time 2), and 9 years of age (Time 3). Sympathy was assessed with self‐report measures. Moral emotion attributions and moral reasoning were measured with children's responses to hypothetical moral transgressions. Parental support was assessed at all assessment points with primary caregiver and child reports. Three trajectory classes of sympathy were identified: high‐stable, average‐increasing, and low‐stable. Moral emotion attributions exhibited high‐stable, increasing, and decreasing trajectories. Moral reasoning displayed high‐stable, increasing, and low‐stable trajectories. Children who were in the high‐stable sympathy group had higher self‐reported support than children in the increasing and low‐stable trajectory groups. Children who were in the high‐stable moral emotion attribution group or the high‐stable moral reasoning group had higher primary caregiver‐reported support than children in the corresponding increasing trajectory groups. Furthermore, children who were members of the high‐stable group in all three moral development variables (i.e., sympathy, moral emotion attribution, and moral reasoning) displayed higher levels of self‐reported parental support than children who were not.     

Voices from Segregated Schooling: towards an inclusive education system

Romantown LEA, like other authorities in England and Wales, is adopting a policy of 'inclusion' in providing education for young disabled people. The reorganisation has involved the closure of Adamston, an all-age school for pupils with physical disabilities. This article addresses the meaning of 'inclusion' from the viewpoint of disabled people who have experienced segregated education. We draw first on the literature to offer an analysis of the documented views of survivors of special schools. Secondly, we explore the views and experiences of Adamston pupils prior to the closure of the school. In presenting what clearly represents a wide range of experiences we seek to take the debate beyond the sterile analysis of 'pros and cons' of special schools. We argue that voices from experiences of segregation are central in constructing 'inclusion' and essential in any process of change towards an education system which is truly inclusive.     

Capitalizing on Culture: How Cultural Capital Shapes Educational Experiences and Outcomes

Social reproduction theory suggests that the educational system perpetuates inequality by rewarding the cultural capital of students from privileged social classes. This article reviews the empirical evidence for this view of education, highlighting debates in the field and directions for future research. Questions of exactly what cultural attributes constitute cultural capital, why cultural capital is linked to improved educational outcomes, and what kinds of students benefit from cultural capital are addressed.     

Culturally Competent Parenting: A Test of Web-Based Training for Transracial Foster and Adoptive Parents

This study tested a web-based parenting course called FosterParentCollege.com (FPC) Culturally Competent Parenting (CCP) for transracial foster and adoptive parents. Research indicates that transracial children, whose parents practice culturally competent parenting, have positive outcomes. A mixed methods pretest posttest treatment and control group design were implemented to determine if there was a difference in parent scores on openness to cultural receptivity after completing the course in comparison to parents assigned the control group. Cultural receptivity is defined as the effort that parents are willing to put forth to learn about CCP. Additionally, parents who participated in the treatment course completed 2-month follow-up interviews on self-reported application of techniques. Results of the study showed that parents enrolled in the treatment course had significantly higher scores for openness to cultural receptivity after completing the course than before. Themes identified in follow-up interviews indicated parents' efforts to learn more about CCP.     

Monitoring of autocorrelated general linear profiles

A collection of quality data represented by a functional relationship between response and explanatory variables is called a profile. In the literature, the errors of profiles are often assumed to be independent. However, quality data often exhibits time correlations in real applications. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate a general linear regression model with a between-profile autocorrelation. We propose a multivariate exponentially weighted moving average chart for monitoring shifts in the regression parameters, and an exponentially weighted moving average chart for monitoring shifts in the standard deviation. A simulation study reveals that our proposed schemes outperform competing existing schemes based on the average run length criterion. An example is used to illustrate the applicability of the proposed scheme.     

Intra-household income inequality and preferences for redistribution

Review of Economics of the Household - We empirically analyze the relationship between income inequality and individual preferences for public redistribution, focusing on intra-household income...     

Resisting Neoliberalism from within the Academy: Subversion through an Activist Pedagogy

Teaching and learning in the neoliberal academy means that educators in non-market-oriented departments, such as social work, face several constraints and challenges when trying to implement an anti-oppressive, social justice focused curriculum. This article considers challenges that can arise with an introductory social work course in the current context of neoliberalism, especially when open to both social work and non-social work students. With a particular focus on larger class sizes, the use of precarious labour and the depoliticization of the classroom, the authors use an inductive, reflective approach to analyse observations made about shifts in the behaviour and engagement of students in the course. The authors surmise possible explanations for these shifts, considering changes made to the substantive content and pedagogical practices of the course. Through this process the authors propose that these changes represent an ‘activist pedagogy’ which may offer potential for anti-oppressive education with students both inside and outside social work. As such, the authors propose ‘activist pedagogy’ as a possible way to resist and subvert the neoliberal educational paradigm and to better integrate the principles and practices of social justice and anti-oppressive social work into the classroom.