Reports on a study that questions whether private enterprise can maintain quality while reducing costs of providing social welfare services. Reviews three aspects of privatization: (1) competitive markets; (2) rationality; and (3) cost reduction. Concludes by questioning a central claim of economic theory: that free markets and private firms are…

This volume examines conceptual frameworks and models that flow from scholars' definitions and operationalizations of social class: status attainment theory, human capital theory, the financial nexus model, Bourdieuian theory, and critical race theory. Since students often have multiple social locations that affect their educational process, the…

While the capacity to recognize and appreciate beauty may be inborn in all of us, participation in the arts as an audience or artist usually involves a learning process. What is the relationship between childhood and early adult experiences with the arts and later participation? In 1982, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the…

After the Second World War, the field of cultural anthropology underwent an explosive development. Sociologists, psychologists, educators, and economists all added to the increasing interest in a discipline which began by assuming that culture is the foundation of social structures and that every institution manifests itself as a system of…

Defines a value system as a universal, prolonged, consistent structure of priorities that defines an individual's life plan. Reports on a study of individual values among 3,154 Russian adults in 3 major cities. Identifies four generalizations based on the data about social values and social change in Russia. (CFR)

In this response to commentaries by Ali Sammel, Jhumki Basu and Alberto Rodriguez, I present my perspective on three important issues raised by the commentators. These issues relate to the role of a researcher in her field settings and society, the critique of science and science education as oppressive dominant discourses, and co-opting…

This book is the result of a seminar on emancipatory education and the action research projects in the Department of Didactics at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. The book starts with questions regarding the nature of action research. This first chapter discusses the meaning of some crucial organizing concepts, asks questions…

This document demonstrates how social cartography can be used in social research to include individuals and cultural clusters who want their own narratives included in the social discourse. Social cartography is defined as the creation of maps addressing questions of location in the social milieu. Visual images, depicting on the two dimensional…

The study of education systems and educational programs cannot be adequate without reference to those systems' social context. This paper examines the Australian Transition Education program, enacted by the government in 1979, in light of its social context. The program's ostensible purpose was to prepare students for employment. The Liberal…

This volume represents the results of an effort to reconsider school desegregation research from a "situational" perspective--one that recognizes macro and micro processes, objective and subjective forces, and proximal and distal influences. Part I is an introduction, "The Desegregation Situation," written by Jeffrey Prager,…

In the period since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act Blacks have continued to experience severe disadvantages relative to Whites in such areas as family stability, unemployment rates, average income, poverty rates, and dependence on government transfer payment programs. From the diverse statistical indicators of relative status two sharply…

In this study of 40 fourth graders and two teachers, the influence teacher ideological differences have on how children learn to write during classroom lessons was investigated. Analysis of narrative compositions based on a picture sequence revealed significant differences between student compositions for an academic teacher and a…

The present study examined the reliability and validity of the Greek version of the Task-Specific Occupational Self-Efficacy Scale in a sample of 170 high school students. Drawing on current social cognitive career theory, the validity of the TSOSS is supported by the expected gender differences on the TSOSS factors, and their high correlations…

Discusses recent developments in the philosophy of social science, most of which reflect or grow out of the dichotomy between the empiricist and positivist schools of thought. Considers and rejects the realist response as being overly concerned with causal correlations to the exclusion of social mechanisms and processes. (MJP)

This essay synthesizes the research on intimate partner violence (IPV) in American Indian and/or Alaska Native communities using a social ecological framework. The review of literature demonstrates that American Indian and/or Alaska Native women are at an elevated risk for IPV compared to non-American Indian women and thus this essay describes…