Institutional characteristics and staff behaviour in day nurseries

SUMMARY. The authors report on a research project aimed at identifying differences between day nurseries in relation to staff and child behaviour. Six day nurseries were studied in London: staff levels and behaviour were measured against child behaviour and interactions between adults and children. They conclude that management styles, group size and staff attitudes to parents affect staff behaviour and consequently problem behaviour in children. The work was supported by a grant from the Department of Health and Social Security This paper is based in part upon a presentation to the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society, Leeds, April 1988     

Some Reflections on the Crisis in Sociology*

Claims that sociology must be divided into closed ideological and paradigmatic camps are critically examined. Convergences among the major analytical approaches are considered and possible explanations explored.     

HIV and AIDS: unexpected lessons for Save the Children

SUMMARY. HIV and AIDS training is a sensitive area in which experience is all recent. Previous articles in Children & Society (issues 1. 1, 1.2 and 2.4) have looked at major concerns for children's services. This paper reports on an imaginative approach to staff training in one child care agency — Save the Children Fund. The authors' frankness about problems as well as benefits will help others to identify lessons for their organisations., particularly for those in management     

The quest for Mennonite peoplehood: ethno-religious identity and the dilemma of definitions*

La relation entre la convention et la tradition, d'une part, et l'innovation, d'autre part, est un aspect essentiel de la notion d'identité collective en tant que processus dynamique de (re)construction et de (re)présentation. Cette communication aborde dans cette optique ce que les Mennonites appellent aujourd'hui leur «crise d'identité». L'auteur insiste plus particulièrement sur l'ambiguïté et parfois le conflit qui caractérisent les tentatives des Mennonites de se donner une vision renouvelée de leur «spécificité,» empruntant à Pierre Bourdieu le concept d'habitus comme cadre d'analyse théorique des causes et des manifestations de cette lutte contemporaine pour définir la principale caractéristique distinctive de l'identité mennonite. The relationship between convention/tradition and innovation is indispensable to the notion of group identity as a dynamic process of (re)construction and (re)presentation. This paper applies this perspective to what Mennonites currently refer to as the Mennonite ‘identity crisis’ by focussing on the ambiguity and, at times, conflict which surrounds Mennonite efforts to articulate a renewed vision of peoplehood. Pierre Bourdieu's concept of Habitus provides the theoretical basis for understanding the causes and manifestations of this contemporary struggle to isolate the key defining feature of Mennonite identity.     

Children with epilepsy who have special needs

SUMMARY. About five percent of children with epilepsy are severely or multiply handicapped. Many of these probably did not go to school before the 1970 Education Act, although epilepsy had been a named category for special education from the earliest provision. This paper describes two studies of the characteristics of children attending the residential special schools for epilepsy in England and Wales before the 1981 Education Act, and discusses the provision of local services for severely handicapped children with epilepsy as a consequence of the Act and the possible continuing role for residential schools for this group.