How we go about labeling and conceptualizing the social problem of burnout reveals much about the underlying values and assumptions of our culture. An examination of the history of social science and related, applied fields during the last 150 years, reveals two different paradigms, i.e., ways of viewing the world based on untested assumptions and…

This study examined the experiences of faculty members in the first year of a new university. Twelve faculty at the new institution were interviewed and observed during the 1995-96 academic year. The analysis presented in this paper is based on one particular interview. Overall, six concrete universals were found during the analysis: (1) the…

This paper presents a definition of leadership in relation to power and authority and in terms of the impact of various types of influence attempts in formal organizations. The actions and reactions of superordinates and subordinates occur in terms of cultural values, group norms, and social responses derived from the social learning processes.…

Community psychology has not dealt directly with the economic forces that foster maladjustment. Instead, it has focused on changing the individual and limited segments of the population. Society supports economic structures and values that hinder community psychology programs. Individual empowerment has only limited scope because it does not deal…

Recent changes in policy and research regarding immigrants and schools in France are examined in this paper. The first part discusses changes in France's social and political context--in the immigrant population and in educational policies. The second section reviews theoretical explanations of immigrant school performance with regard to social…

This paper describes an ethnographic study of how fundamentalist Christian parents new to home schooling are socialized to norms, beliefs, and values of the Christian home schooling organizations with which they are affiliated. Research involved participant observation and interviews with "home schoolers" and educators over an 18-month…

Current theories of reading are concerned with the nature of the "means" for achieving goals--processing components, paths, practices, and strategies. If reading is understood as text-oriented cultural activities, a continuum of text use can be formulated with enabling texts (those that enable the reader to do something) at one end and…

Mexican American college students' views about the context influencing their decision to persist or leave the university were studied. Two sociologies of everyday life, symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology, guided the inquiry. Perceptions of college-going behavior before and during the freshman year were obtained from 18 students and…

Three intermountain communities in Colorado and Utah were studied to determine the impact of rapid development on residents of rural communities, especially on their views of the world and their personal well-being, and to assess the degree to which energy boomtowns experience the social disruption suggested in the classical boomtown studies. Two…

Educational administration, like many other social sciences, has traditionally followed the rubrics of classical science with its emphasis on prediction and control and attempts to understand the whole by understanding in ever finer detail how the parts fit together. However, the "new" science (especially quantum mechanics, complexity,…

Constructivist approaches to therapy that view the therapist and patient as equal participants in co-creating a new dialogue render aspects of experience invisible. What is missing is an awareness of the dominant structures in society and the dominant ways of thinking and speaking. Three key factors need to be understood: first, the way meanings…

Three theoretical perspectives guide this discussion of teacher development: symbolic interactionism, critical social theory, and theories of postmodernity. Drawing on these perspectives, key dimensions of teacher development can be addressed. Good teaching involves competence in technical skills, but it also involves moral purpose; emotional…

American race relations theory is applied to the conceptualization of assimilation in America and to problems in planning in higher education desegregation. Black colleges can be viewed as microcosms of American race relations in their patterns of conflict, accommodation, and assimilation. The conflict over the propriety of black colleges' claims…

Most theories on the low socioeconomic status of Blacks have been grounded in sociology and economics, have concentrated on largely quantitative data on occupation and income distribution among Blacks and between Blacks and Whites, and have presented a disfunctional picture of Black economic life. It is time now to turn to anthropological studies…

This examination of the reproduction of cultural norms focuses on ways in which the hidden curriculum facilitates cultural reproduction. The conceptual framework outlined in this paper emerged from a five-month observation study of a tenth-grade social studies class located in a predominantly working-class school. During the on-going data…