bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SEXUAL ATTITUDES:
Authors: HOWARD JUDITH A.
Published: March 2007

This article reevaluates research on gender differences in sexual attitudes, a literature characterized by misuse of attitude scales and misinterpretation of those gender differences that are obtained. A study by Hendrick, Hendrick, Slapion-Foote, and Foote (1985) is used to illustrate these pitfalls. The gender differences in sexual attitudes obtained in this study, characterized by Hendrick et al. as indicative of women's greater sexual conservatism, are interpreted here as reflections of the different social structural positions of women and men.
INFERTILITY:
Authors: GREIL ARTHUR L. , LEITKO THOMAS A. , PORTER KAREN L.
Published: March 2007

Using qualitative data based on interviews with 22 married infertile couples living in western New York State, we describe the ways in which husbands and wives interact in the process of constructing their infertility. The wives experienced infertility as a cataclysmic role failure. Husbands tended to see infertility as a disconcerting event but not as a tragedy. Couples tended to see infertility as a problem for wives. Frustration and lack of communication were typical consequences of the confrontation of husbands' and wives' perspectives on infertility. Interactions with medical professionals tended to reinforce these consequences. These interactions between wives, husbands, and medical professionals may lead to taking wrong directions in treatment and to ignoring treatment options. Some of the problems we describe could be lessened by adopting a model of couple-centered treatment in a setting that incorporated routine counseling.
WOMEN'S SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CARE OF OLD PEOPLE:
Authors: ARONSON JANE
Published: March 2007

Drawing on a qualitative study of women who cared for their elderly mothers, this article explores women's experiences of feeling responsible for elderly relatives. The minimal provision of public services for old people and the relative absence of brothers and husbands from family caregiving emerge as material constraints shaping women's sense of obligation. This is affirmed by ideologies and assumptions about women's association with caring and family ties that permeate subjects' accounts of their situations. Translating their sense of obligation into their lives is a contradictory process characterized by ambivalence and guilt that stifle complaint. Further exploration of the social processes that sustain the inequitable division of caring labor can contribute to interpretations, practices, and policies that benefit rather than constrain women.
OVERCOMING PATRIARCHAL CONSTRAINTS:
Authors: HONDAGNEU-SOTELO PIERRETTE
Published: March 2007

This article examines how gender shapes the migration and settlement experiences of Mexican immigrant women and men. The article compares the experiences of families in which the husbands departed prior to 1965 to those in which the husbands departed after 1965 and argues that the lengthy spousal separations altered (albeit differentially for each group) patterns of patriarchal authority and the traditional gendered household division of labor. This induced a trend toward more egalitarian conjugal relations upon settlement in the United States. Examining the changing contexts of migration illuminates the fluid character of patriarchy's control in Mexican immigrant families.
GENDER AND SEXUALITY:
Authors: MARTIN KARIN A.
Published: March 2007

What is the relationship between gender and sexuality? Some theories claim that they are two distinct systems of stratification, whereas others claim that they are bound tightly together. By looking at medical opinion on homosexuality in men and women from 1900 to 1950, this article examines the relationship between sexuality and gender. Interpretive analysis of articles on homosexuality appearing in medical journals during this time suggests that the relationship between sexuality and gender varies in historically and socially specific ways.
FAMILIAL HEGEMONY:
Authors: LEE CHING KWAN
Published: March 2007

Drawing on Burawoy's framework of “factory regimes” and concepts of power and practice from Foucault and de Certeau, this article depicts a production regime of “familial hegemony” found in a Hong Kong electronics factory. It suggests that the social construction of gender has to be inserted into a theory of production politics if the specific forms and processes of this hegemonic regime are to be explained. In this particular case, ethnographic data capture how an everyday culture of familialism, built around notions of gender norms and behavior, is actively constructed by management and workers to serve their respective interests on the shopfloor.
SEPARATE, BUT LESS UNEQUAL:
Authors: SANDELOWSKI MARGARETE
Published: March 2007

Fetal ultrasonography has made women's and men's relationship to the fetus more equal. Drawing on information obtained from multiple conjoint interviews with 62 childbearing couples, I suggest that although women and men are both advantaged by fetal ultrasonography, expectant fathers' experience of the fetus is always enhanced, whereas pregnant women's experience may also be attenuated. For men, fetal ultrasonography is like a prosthetic device: an enabling mechanism that permits them access to a female world from which they have been excluded because of their limited biological role in reproduction. For women, fetal ultrasonography is enabling, but it may also be a disabling mechanism that disrupts their privileged access to the fetus.
IDEOLOGY, AUTONOMY, AND SISTERHOOD
Authors: SERED SUSAN STARR
Published: March 2007

All known women's religions provide transient help for specific women. Some women's religions also affect, or at least work toward, permanent and structural advantages to women as a group. A variety of factors explain these two models. Those women's religions that offer long-term collective betterment for women tend to be situated in societies in which women form ongoing “sisterhoods,” in which women have autonomy regarding their own sexuality and fertility, and in which women control significant economic resources. Moreover, these religions tend to elaborate and institutionalize gender as a cultural category. Women's religions that provide only short-term and individual assistance tend to attract women through illness and to emphasize spirit possession rituals.
“DEAR LOVE, DEAR LOVE”
Authors: DEEGAN MARY JO
Published: March 2007

The history of women in sociology is explored here through the correspondence written by Sophonisba P. Breckinridge to Marion Talbot in the summer of 1936. Their loving letters reveal the ideas and practices of feminist pragmatism and the female world of love and ritual located in Chicago in the twentieth century. This world of professional women flourished around the social settlement Hull House and the University of Chicago during the founding years of sociology. Their lives and social thought challenge our understanding of the emergence of sociology at the University of Chicago, and their ideas remain a rich resource for analyzing society today.
WHEN WIVES ARE MAJOR PROVIDERS
Authors: BOLAK HALE CIHAN
Published: March 2007

Based on a series of interviews with blue-collar women and their husbands in Istanbul, Turkey, this article examines the negotiation of family work in households in which the wives are major providers. The relationships between provider status, women's expectations, and the actual configuration of family work are complexly mediated by cultural constructions, perception of women as providers, marital dynamics, and extended family relationships. Three different discourses characterize family work. Woman's evaluation of her husband as “responsible” or “irresponsible” informs the construction of the male role in the household. Conflict is heightened when men default on both domestic and economic grounds. This study makes a contribution toward a comparative understanding of negotiation of family work by providing an analysis of how structural conditions and cultural ideology interact to construct a gendered division of family work in the household in the context of continuities and discontinuities in sociocultural patterns.
NATIONAL CONTEXT AND GENDER IDEOLOGY
Authors: PANAYOTOVA EVELINA , BRAYFIELD APRIL
Published: March 2007

This study uses a comparative framework to examine the relationship between individual-level attributes and gender-role attitudes in a state-market society (Hungary) and in a capitalist society (the United States). Data from the 1988 International Social Science Program (ISSP) indicate significant differences in attitudes between the two populations. Both women and men in the United States were more supportive of women's employment than their counterparts in Hungary, despite the Hungarian government's policy of full employment during communist rule. Nevertheless, the level of agreement between women and men (the gender gap) was uniform across national contexts: Women were more supportive of women's employment than men. We also found that individual-level attributes, such as employment status and marital status, differentially affected gender-role attitudes in the two countries. This study contributes to a broader dialogue about the dynamic relationship between social structure and gender ideology.
Addressing the Ethical Challenges of Clinical Trials That Involve Patients with Dementia
Authors: Karlawish Jason H. T. , Casarett David
Published: March 2007

Research subjects face uncertainties, risks, burdens, and indignities, and research protocol requirements inhibit the physician's ability to make individualized treatment decisions. To address these problems, investigators and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) should justify research risks using informed consent and the judgment that the risks of research are reasonable with respect to the potential benefits, if any, to subjects and to the expectation that the research will produce important knowledge. But clinical research in Alzheimer's disease (AD) presents inves tigators and IRBs with significant challenges to achieve these two requirements. Broadly, these challenges are the result of the impact of patients' cognitive impairment and the caregiving experience on decision making and the indeterminacy of defining clinically meaningful treatment benefits. In this article, we review the data that begin to answer whether and how patients' cognitive impairments and the caregiving experience impact on their decision making and what kinds of research results justify research risks. We will use these data to suggest changes to the design and conduct of clinical research in AD that can meet the challenge of justifying research risks. ( J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 2001; 14:222-228).
Mechanical Failure in PEEK and Its Short-Fiber Composites
Authors: Motz Heike , Schultz J.M.
Published: March 2007

Four commercial PEEK systems—two grades of neat PEEK and short GF and CF-fiber composites—were compression-molded. Compact tension fracture tests were performed, with temperature and specimen thickness as variables. The dependences of the critical stress intensity factor KQ and of mechanical nonlinearity on these variables are re ported. The filled systems show both nearly constant KQ and low ductility from —90 to +125°C. For all materials, KQ varies more slowly with temperature than does the tensile strength. Specimen thickness, varied from 0.29 to 1.25 cm, has a profound effect on neat PEEK, as it changes from plane stress to plain strain behavior Thickness has essentially no effect on the composites, which show plane strain behavior over the entire thickness range.
Intraorganizational Influence
Authors: Johanson Jan-Erik
Published: March 2007

This study explored the influence of communication networks on job-related opinions in a public organization. Theoretical discussion pointed out that opinions of one’s own work and opinions of the organization represent two types of job-related opinions that might be differently attuned to social influence. Moreover, discussion of social influence mechanisms has suggested that current measurement of positional social influence suffers from a serious conceptual problem. According to the empirical results, job-related opinions were affected by social influence after controlling for other relevant variables. Opinions of the organization were more vulnerable to social influence than opinions of one’s own work. Structural equivalence was the most prominent mechanism of social influence. This study offers an alternative method of measuring positional social influence.
African American Women Executives’ Leadership Communication within Dominant-Culture Organizations
Authors: Parker Patricia S.
Published: March 2007

This research examined African American women executives’ leadership communication within majority White, male-dominated organizations in the United States. Study participants were 15 African American women executives, one or more of their subordinates, and, in four cases, their supervisors. Analyses of in-depth interviews, observations, and archival data revealed five themes related to the executives’ leadership communication that challenge views of women as master collaborators who shun control-oriented leadership. From participants’ perspectives, collaboration is worked out at the intersections of control and empowerment, where control is (re)defined as interactive and personal rather than as competitive and distant, and is viewed as a necessary strategy for managing their positions as Black women leaders within dominant-culture organizations. Implications of this study for leadership theory, research, and practice are offered.
Discursiveness, Contradiction, and Unintended Consequences in Successive Downsizings
Authors: Fairhurst Gail T. , Cooren François , Cahill Daniel J.
Published: March 2007

In this study, the authors explore the idea that organizations perform in contradictory ways because they must satisfy contradictory expectations. The authors present a case study of three successive downsizings within a single organization, the last two of which involved contradictory downsizing strategies. These included a voluntary-involuntary downsizing strategy and a velvet boot strategy. The article also examines several internal organizational contradictions over missions, values, job expectations, and resources and shows how their management yields both contradictory solutions and unintended consequences. Finally, the authors adopt a contradiction centered view of organizations that focuses on the oppositions organizational members construct as their organizational realities, evidence for which can be found in their situated discourse.
Managing the Boss
Authors: Lamude Kevin G. , Daniels Tom D. , White Kim D.
Published: March 2007

To what extent are subordinates inclined to attempt compliance-gaining with superiors in upward communication? What factors are related to their selection of compliance-gaining strategies? This study sought answers to these questions by investigating inclination toward compliance-gaining as a function of subordinate locus of control (internal versus external) and situation (policy circumvention versus policy enforcement). Hypotheses predicted that (a) internal subordinates would exceed external subordinates in inclination to use strategies based on relationships/identification and values/obligations, and (b) locus of control and situation would interact, with external subordinates demonstrating less inclination to attempt compliancegaining with superiors in a policy circumvention situation than in other conditions. Results lend qualified support for hypothesized differences between internal and external subordinates, but also suggest that subordinates in general prefer only a few specific strategies in compliance-gaining attempts with superiors. Directions for future research are suggested.
Examining the Communication Audit
Authors: DeWine Sue , James Anita C.
Published: March 2007

The authors discuss criticisms of the ICA Communication Audit and present a modified version of the survey instrument, retitled Survey of Organizational Communication (SOC). The researchers present the descriptive statistics on 1,500 subjects from 17 regional organizations using the ICA Communication Audit instruments. Reliability tests and factor analyses suggest revisions in the instruments. Reliabilities on this regional sample are higher than the national data bank. T-tests between the old and new data bank suggest that the data is significantly different. The researchers suggest the use of centrally controlled data collection procedures and regional data banks. Results are discussed and new procedures for administering the audit and developing recommendations are included.
Upstream Facilitation
Authors: Friedman Paul G.
Published: March 2007

This article proposes an “upstream” or preventive orientation to problem-solving group facilitation within organizations. The author recommends three major strategies: (1) facilitators should investigate contextual influences on the group well before the group first meets, (2) facilitators should help install norms that will enhance group problem solving, and (3) facilitators should then manage “breakpoints” in the group's progress. Finally, the researcher describes interventions that focus on the past, present, or future group interaction, depending on the kind of breakpoint encountered.
The Power of Language in Computer-Mediated Groups
Authors: Adkins Mark , Brashers Dale E.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of “powerful” and “powerless” language on small computer-mediated groups. Subjects ( n = 27) were placed into 1 of 3 conditions with 2 confederates and asked to communicate via computer in a decision-making context. In the first condition, both confederates used power ful language, in the second both used power less language, and in the third condition one confederate used power ful language and the other used power less language. Our results lead us to two general conclusions. First, language style has a significant impact on impression formation in computer-mediated groups. Generally, the user of a powerful language style in a computer-mediated group is perceived as more credible, attractive, and persuasive than the user of a powerless language style. Second, contrasting language styles caused perceptions to be more extreme than if users shared a common language style.
Organizational Codependency
Authors: McMillan Jill J. , Northern Nickol A.
Published: March 2007

Organizational scholars have lamented that modern organizations are havens for unhealthy psychological and social behaviors (e.g., workaholism, alcoholism, dysfunctional relationships), thereby creating organizational systems that “behave” or operate much like an addicted individual. Despite these systems being symbolically constituted, communication scholars have been noticeably absent from this dialogue. This study initiates the investigation of communication and organizational codependency by (1) exploring the literature which presents human organizations as both “open” and “closed” systems; (2) reviewing the literature which describes the symbolic construction of organizational systems; (3) identifying and describing those communicative behaviors and strategies that fuel codependent behavior in the organization; and (4) explaining how codependency functions to “close” the organizational system and predisposes it to operate dysfunctionally.
Organization Symbols:
Authors: Vaughn Mina A.
Published: March 2007

This study examines the organizational symbolism that is reflected in corporate discourse. Specifically, the researcher discovers and describes the types of symbols and the functions they served over time. The investigation demonstrates how a symbolic analysis can provide a better understanding of, and make a contribution to, existing research on organizational concepts such as organizational change, leadership, and organizational metaphors. In addition, it provides a fruitful research method for analyzing the functions of symbolic discourse and proposes some areas for future research.
Accounting for Untoward Managerial Actions
Authors: Tata Jasmine
Published: March 2007

When managers deny employees' requests, employees may evaluate the action as unfair, attribute responsibility to the manager, and engage in negative reactions such as anger and disapproval. Managers can minimize employees' negative reactions through the use of social accounts. This article empirically tests a model of the relationships between social accounts, appraisal of actions (perceptions of fairness and attributions of responsibility), and two reactions to untoward actions (anger and approval). The results suggest that the influence of social accounts on employees' anger and disapproval is mediated by perceived fairness and responsibility.
Total Quality Management, Organizational Commitment, Perceived Organizational Support, and Intraorganizational Communication
Authors: Allen Myria W. , Brady Robert M.
Published: March 2007

As the Total Quality Management (TQM) movement sweeps through American businesses, much of the practitioner-oriented TQM literature discusses ways to improve intraorganizational communication while enhancing employee attitudinal organizational commitment and perceived organizational support. This study investigates such claims comparing employee responses from an organization which was not implementing TQM with those from two organizations which were implementing TQM. Organizational commitment and perceived organizational support were significantly higher in the organizations implementing TQM. Employees in the organizations implementing TQM indicated more positive employee-top management and coworker communication relationships, as well as more quality information from top management. Further, these communication elements explained more of the variance in organizational commitment and perceived organizational support in the organizations implementing TQM. However, different communication elements were important in commitment and perceived organizational support regressions depending on the TQM or non-TQM setting.
Dialogue through Standpoint
Authors: Dougherty Debbie S.
Published: March 2007

It is important to rethink sexual harassment by addressing the following question: Because most men do not harass women, why do men tend to be resistant to admitting the breadth and depth of sexual harassment in organizations? The author posits that because men and women do not understand each other’s standpoints on sexual harassment, a gap exists between men’s and women’s understanding of what sexual harassment means. Specifically, men’s power over standpoint and the related fear of marginalization clash with women’s power with standpoint and the related fear of physical harm. The author concludes by suggesting that engaging in a dialogue with the goals of understanding and accepting other standpoints is necessary before sexual harassment can be approached in a humanistic manner.
Directions for Nursing Theory Development in the 21st Century
Authors: Meleis Afaf I.
Published: March 2007

The development of the discipline of nursing has gone through four stages: theorizing, developing a syntax, concept development, and philosophical debate. These stages helped in shaping the characteristics of the discipline as a human science, a practice science, a science with social goals to empower nurses to provide effective and quality care, and one in which gender differences and the need for understanding minorities are areas of primary concern. Further theoretical development in the discipline will be driven by population needs and will be characterized by reaching out to meet the integrative and interdisciplinary nature of these needs. Sources of theories of the future are practice, theory and research. It is anticipated that two models will evolve to guide the development of phenomenon-driven theories in the future and that third generation theorists will utilize these models.
Enfolding Health-as-Wholeness- and-Harmony: A Theory of Rogerian Nursing Practice
Authors: Carboni Judith T.
Published: March 2007

The theory of enfolding health-as-wholeness-and-harmony has been derived from the science of unitary human beings and provides an evolutionary understanding of Rogerian nursing practice that recognizes the existence of subtle and gross manifestations of field pattern and the dynamic matrix of subtle configurations of patterning identified as health-as-wholeness-and-harmony. Evolutionary change is specified to be a dynamic, non-linear, and acausal process characterized by the movement of gross manifestations of patterning to new syntheses of subtle manifestations of patterning. Rogerian nursing practice is identified as the nurse and client knowingly participating in evolutionary patterning of the human and environmental fields for the purpose of enfolding health-as-wholeness-and-harmony.
Parse's Theory of Human Becoming in Practice with Hospitalized Adolescents
Authors: Arndt Mary Jo
Published: March 2007

This article demonstrates the use of Parse's theory of human becoming in the care of hospitalized adolescents and their families. The practice dimensions of the theory are described and scenarios from nursing practice serve to illustrate the usefulness of the theory with the adolescent population. Strengths and limitations of the theory are discussed within the context of nursing practice.
Parse's Research Methodology and the Nurse Researcher-Child Process
Authors: Baumann Steven L.
Published: March 2007

The Parse research method is a human science based nursing research methodology which views young children as partners in research about universal lived experiences. To view children in this way requires a considerable revision of the view of children assumed in many traditional theories of childhood and in research with children. In the human science paradigm, persons of all ages are viewed as human beings who make choices and assign meaning. In accord with the assumptions of the Parse research method, children are considered the experts about their health and capable of contributing to nurses' understanding of the human-universe-health process. The remarkable variation of children's thoughts, feelings and actions testifies to the complex and open nature of human becoming at all ages. Children's thoughts, feelings, and imaginings are made more accessible with the aid of art, stories, and play when offered in true presence.
"Catching My Wavelength": Perceptions of the Excellent Nurse
Authors: Jensen Kirsten Pryds , Back-Pettersson Siv , Segesten Kerstin
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this article is to describe essential characteristics of an excellent nurse as perceived by women with breast cancer. A descriptive-exploratory research design was used, and 10 Danish women who had breast cancer surgery and treatment more than one year previously and who were still in secondary treatment but not hospitalized participated in semi-structured interviews. Four main concepts were identified: The excellent nurse was perceived as competent, compassionate, courageous, and concordant. Concordance was more important to the subjects than expected and was described as directly related to their perception of an excellent nurse and excellence in nursing
The Efficacy of Therapeutic Touch for Improving Functional Ability in Elders with Degenerative Arthritis
Authors: Peck Susan D. (Eckes)
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this Rogerian study was to determine whether therapeutic touch improved functional ability in elders with arthritis as compared to routine treatment and progressive muscle relaxation. Eighty-two non-institutionalized elders were randomly assigned to therapeutic touch or progressive muscle relaxation treatments. Subjects served as their own control for 4 weeks, then received six treatments at 1-week intervals. Pain, tension, mood, and satisfaction improved after therapeutic touch and progressive muscle relaxation. Hand function proved after therapeutic touch; walking and bending improved after progressive muscle relaxation. Functional ability was significantly different between the two groups for mobility and hand function. Lower scores (indicating better function) were attained by the therapeutic touch group.
The Georgia Story of P-16 Partnerships
Authors: Kettlewell Jan S. , Kaste Janine A. , Jones Sheila A.
Published: March 2007

This article recounts accomplishments of state and local P-16 partnerships toward improving teacher quality, raising educational aspirations, and improving student achievement. Work on teacher quality is emphasized, and a plan is in place for having a qualified teacher in every public school classroom by 2006. Although primary, work on teacher quality is insufficient. It must be coupled with efforts to raise and align academic standards for students, pre-school through postsecondary education.
Resistance in the Trenches: What Shapes Teachers' Attitudes Toward School Choice?
Authors: Hess Frederick M. , Maranto Robert , Milliman Scott
Published: March 2007

Choice-based reforms are the most controversial proposals to improve American education, yet little is known about how teachers view choice. The authors present the first systematic analysis of the factors that determine teacher attitudes toward school choice. Using a 1995 national mail survey of 900 public high school teachers (325 responded, a 42% response rate), we found that more experienced teachers and those who identify themselves as Democrats, majored in education as undergraduates, or who have never worked in a competitive educational environment are more likely to oppose public school choice. More experienced teachers and those who identify themselves as Democrats are also more likely to oppose private school choice, as are union members and teachers who teach in school cultures they deem negative. These findings are significant because teachers, both as classroom implementers of public policy and as political actors, help determine the impact of changes in education policy.
God's Educational Reforms?
Authors: Apple Michael W.
Published: March 2007

This year we have inaugurated a new feature in Educational Policy. Michael W Apple, John Bascom Professor of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of our advisory board since the journal's beginnings 14 years ago, will regularly write an essay on significant new books or documents that deserve critical attention. "Reviewing Policy" will go beyond the book review format to provide a stimulating look at current scholarship and policy. One of the aims of "Reviewing Policy" will be to engage in critical reflection on the broader ethical, political, and educational implications of specific policies and practices.
Do Schools Really Need More Volunteers?1
Authors: Brent Brian O.
Published: March 2007

Although educational policy makers are trying to involve more volunteers in schools, surprisingly little is known about the nature, scope, and efficacy of volunteer activities. For example, the literature offers policy makers only anecdotal answers to the following important questions: Who is volunteering in our schools? What do volunteers do? How do volunteers benefit schools? Are there costs associated with using volunteers? Are volunteers distributed equitably among schools? This article reports on a study that provides answers to these questions. Using multiple methods to analyze data from volunteers and administrators in New York elementary schools, this study shows, for example, that volunteers benefit schools in a number of important ways, including improving school-community relations. However, the study also reveals that high poverty schools have fewer volunteers than other schools. The policy implications of these and other findings are discussed.
Powerful Actors Versus Compelling Actions
Authors: Stone Clarence N.
Published: March 2007

The term interest group is closely associated with the idea that politics is fundamentally about "power over" in the form of a struggle among contending collectivities. The word interest implies something fixed. An alternative view of politics emphasizes "power to " and treats understandings of interest (or preferences) as something malleable. In the latter view, actors are empowered by the relationships they form and these relationships help shape preferences. Because the interactions accompanying some relationships are less cumber some than others, some relationships and the practices they support are more sustainable than others. These might be called compelling action. Sustainable relationships shape preferences, and a rule of viability appears to work in such a way that the policy mandates emanating from group struggles may not necessarily take hold. Lasting school reform ultimately depends on sustainable relationships as a basis for desirable practices.
Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Interest Groups
Authors: Mawhinney Hanne B.
Published: March 2007

The evolution of theorizing by political scientists about the role of interest groups in US. politics is explored in this article. Critiques of pluralism and the problems of measuring power are described. The dynamics of mobilization and refinements to incentive theory are outlined. The changing conceptions of how influence is structured through subgovernments, issue networks, and advocacy coalitions are examined. Models of lobbying and changing conceptions of group-state engagement are discussed. The article concludes with a discussion of the need to reframe conceptions of interest and influence to reflect new economic, political, and social contexts that are better captured by postpluralist and social movement theory.
Parents' Motives for Choosing a Privatized Public School System: An Israeli Example
Authors: Goldring Ellen B.
Published: March 2007

In recent years, Israel has seen the growth of a movement calling for greater parental choice and more diversity in the public school system. This article examines the state-supported TALI (or reinforcing Jewish studies) schools, which were created in response to the public demand for an alternative to the public orthodox and secular schools. The study on which this article is based looked at the motives behind parental choice and at the effects of parental choice on the social and cultural composition of student populations. The Israeli case is compared with characteristics and outcomes in the Netherlands, Japan, and Australia.
Educational Policy as Text and Action
Authors: Griffith Alison I.
Published: March 2007

Concern over the complicity of mass compulsory schooling in the reproduction of social inequality prompted the development of educational policies that increased resources for schools attended by students considered to be at risk of school failure. This article examines one such policy that provided for the differential distribution of educational resources in the inner city of Toronto, Canada. It is argued that while this policy addressed systemic inequality through schooling by placing increased resources in the hands of inner-city school staff it also structured educational knowledge about families. As such, it reaffirmed a normative relation between mass compulsory schooling and the nuclear; two-parent family. Other family forms, such as single-parent families, were constructed as deviant from the normative order embedded in the educational policy. Data are derived from interviews with principals, teachers, administrators, and school social workers involved in developing, implementing, and administering the policy.
National Equity and School Autonomy
Authors: Porter Andrew C.
Published: March 2007

Porter supports Clune's focus on outputs, rather than inputs and procedures. However, he feels that national and state standard setting and systemic reform would lead to more school improvement and education equity than would the one-school-at-a-time approach. The focus on outcomes leaves much room for local discretion in curriculum, regardless of the level at which the outcomes are specified. Porter proposes holding schools accountable for student achievement against national achievement standards. He agrees with Clune that schools not meeting the standards need to be given technical assistance, while acknowledging the difficulty of finding needed resources. Porter further proposes high standards-excellence-rather than minimums. He acknowledges that excellence with equity might require uniformly excellent education available to all students-at a much higher price than that for true adequacy.
Beyond a Legislative Agenda: Education Policy Approaches of the Clinton Administration
Authors: Smith Marshall S. , Levin Jessica , Cianci Joanne E.
Published: March 2007

Federal education policy is often described in the relatively narrow terms of education program legislation and regulations. The heart of the article is a set of case studies that illustrates and explains the U.S. Department of Education 's increasing reliance on a variety of approaches, in addition to legislation, to promote its education reform strategies. The case studies also demonstrate the department's trajectory toward a new policy-making model-one that combines a relatively small piece of legislation with a major public campaign significant both in its intended scope and level of involvement across all sectors. These case studies reveal a critical, albeit far less known, federal presence in education policy that may prove essential to forging greater common ground in education in the future.
Will Educators Ever Unmask that Determiner, Technology?
Authors: De Vaney Ann
Published: March 2007

Technology enters the classroom today in a whirl of public discourses that valorize or demonize computers and the Internet. Structuring subjectivity in a bi-polar fashion, these discourses offer educators only two positions: either proponents or opponents of new technology. Both positions are deterministic and construct similar romantic subjects that exhibit little agency. Because the reach of these opposite stances is so broad, this article interrogates the history and contemporary presence of the debate. By questioning and comparing subjectivity, the author examines these positions and indicates some rhetorical moves that set the tone for the arguments. Because bipolar discourses often yield overblown arguments and improbable scenarios, they provide little assistance to citizens and educators attempting to understand technology in the schools. The author recommends a more complex sociocultural discussion to guide the use of technology in the schools.
Collaboration and Progressive School Reform
Authors: Gitlin Andrew
Published: March 2007

For many educational scholars collaboration holds the key to school reform. This seeming agreement about the benefits of collaboration, however, obscures some significant differences about the meaning, form, and purpose of this process. This uncertainty about collaboration suggests the need to look carefully at the relation between specific forms of collaboration and the articulated purposes for this reform process. By looking at collaboration in this way, the author found that "robust "forms of collaboration can achieve broadly defined progressive ends when the effects of collaboration on the intensification of teachers' work are limited, when teachers play a significant role in setting the agenda for the collaborative process, and when the issues raised as part of the collaborative process emerge from the contextual realities of a particular school. The key to progressive reform, in this regard, is developing forms of teacher collaboration that reflect progressive values and purposes thereby setting the stage for some teachers to develop similar relationships with students.
California's Class-Size Reduction Initiative: Differences in Teacher Experience and Qualifications Across Schools
Authors: Ogawa Rodney T. , Huston Deborah , Stine Deborah E.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this study was to determine if the experience and qualifications of teachers in reduced-size classes, resulting from California's Class Size Reduction Program, varied across schools and, if so, to identify school characteristics that are associated with that variation. The results indicate that teachers in reduced-size classes are less experienced and less qualified and suggest that schools with higher percentages of Hispanic students have reduced-size class teachers with less overall teaching experience and less experience in their current districts. The study also revealed that district characteristics are strongly associated with the experience and credential status of teachers in reduced-size classes. This study, although exploratory, has implications for future research and suggests the need to train teachers in reduced-size classes and to enact policies to equalize a valuable resource-experienced and qualified teachers-across districts and schools.
Compromised Positions: The Ethics and Politics of Designing Research in the Postmodern Age
Authors: Emihovich Catherine
Published: March 2007

Three cross-cutting issues—bias and objectivity in social science research, normative standards to guide policy development, and subjectivity applied within moral contexts—are examined in relation to 2 research studies conducted in school and community settings. In each case, the focus of the study (health services in schools, teen pregnancy prevention programs) raised complex ethical and political concerns in designing and conducting research on topics that were highly contested and emotionally charged. Successful resolution of these issues depends upon the development of a new framework that allows researchers and policy makers to balance ethical, political, and scientific concerns in ways that do not privilege one over the other.
Drug Poisoning and Overdose for the Health Professional: Review of Select Over-the-Counter (OTC) and Prescription Medications
Authors: Laven David L. , Oller Lisa
Published: March 2007

Exposure to over-the-counter and prescription medications can pose significant therapeutic and health hazards to patients, and present health care professionals with scenarios that require proper assessment and treatment. Knowing when an exposure to or overdose of a drug requires emergency medical attention is equally as important as to knowing when such assistance is not necessary—that simple treatment measures performed at home will suffice. This current discussion is intended to highlight select principles and clinical information pertaining to common drug exposures and overdoses, but not replace the full spectrum of information that would be available to health care professionals (and the lay public) by contacting their nearest poison control center. Many of the basic principles and concerns that are encountered with exposures to chemicals (i.e., route of exposure, patient medical history, quantity of the substance involved, elapsed time since the initial exposure, etc.) apply equally well to drug exposures. Likewise, evaluating each of these variables will determine which type of treatment approaches are, and are not, considered in situations of drug (or chemical) exposure and overdose.
Pharmacoeconomic Guidelines and Principles: An International Comparison
Authors: Bobula Joel
Published: March 2007

This article compares and contrasts the PhRMA Methodological and Conduct Principles for Pharmacoeconomic Research and the pharmacoeconomic guidelines/principles from Australia, Great Britain, and Canada. Whereas the UK Guidance is the most general and the least prescriptive of the four sets of guidelines/ principles, the Canadian Guideline is the most detailed and prescriptive in nature. The PhRMA Principles consists of a set of broad principles that will foster high quality pharmacoeconomic research without impeding further methodological development of the field. The main focus of the PhRMA Principles is to rely on full disclosure and transparency of methods to permit knowledgeable readers to judge for themselves the adequacy of the methodological approach or to alter key parameters of the analyses to determine their impact. Copyright © 1995 by W.B. Saunders Company
The Pharmacist as Executive Director of the Board of Pharmacy
Authors: Kinkade Kevin E.
Published: March 2007

As with other health-related professions, the states regulate the practice of pharmacy through the oversight of a board of pharmacy. While the board is charged with policy development, actual implementation of day-to-day responsibilities is delegated to a chief executive officer who may or may not necessarily be a licensed pharmacist. The functions of this individual will vary as will the amount of autonomy granted by the board, though many duties are similar from state to state. The position of board executive director offers a well-motivated pharmacist several opportunities for a distinctly different practice of pharmacy. Interaction with policymakers at the state and national levels creates the ability to mold the direction of the profession, leading to a high level of professional satisfaction.
Coming to Terms with Perceived Danger
Authors: Eaves Yvonne D. , Kahn David L.
Published: March 2007

Little attention has been given to the topic of perceived or imagined dangers in fieldwork, even though such dangers may significantly affect both collection and interpretation of data in qualitative research. Furthermore, methodological arguments persist in regard to interpreting qualitative research that gives voice simultaneously to the research participant and the researcher. In this article reflexivity and narrative methods were used to examine the concept of perceived danger(s) in a field setting using naturalistic inquiry. First, reflexivity and narrative methods were used to retrospectively construct a personal narrative that describes the impact of the field experience on the researcher. Then, narrative analysis was used to interpret this personal narrative and to further examine why the researcher “perceived” certain dangers, and how she came to know that these risks and dangers were presumed but unwarranted. This narrative is an example of how qualitative researchers can give voice to their field experiences.
Healing Presence
Authors: Godkin Jennie
Published: March 2007

Since the introduction of presence as a concept in nursing literature in the early 1960s, nurse philosophers, theorists, and researchers have attempted to define and describe presence as it relates to nursing practice. Understanding of nursing presence and its link, if any, to nurse-patient interaction is basically subjective and intuitive. This article is based on the assumption that nursing presence fully understood may result in greater patient satisfaction and healing potential. A three-stage, hierarchical model culminating in healing presence is used to understand the nurse-patient dyad. The model is calibrated in terms of nursing maturity using Benner’s novice nurse/expert nurse idea, Hanneman’s expert nurse/nonexpert nurse view, Zaner’s vivid-presence/copresence, and Doona, Chase, and Haggerty’s nursing presence.
Spirituality of Healing Touch Participants
Authors: Wardell Diane Wind
Published: March 2007

Nurses and nonnurses involved in Healing Touch training were studied to determine if there was a difference in their perception of spirituality. There was no difference between the nurses and nonnurses on either the Spiritual Perspective Scale (F = .001,p = .970) or the Questionnaire on Spiritual and Religious Attitudes (F = .024,p = .878). There was a significant difference between the six levels of training in Healing Touch classes completed by the participants on the Spiritual Perspective Scale (F = 7.079, p = .000). The upper-level classes had higher scores than the lower levels. There was a difference on the Questionnaire on Spiritual and Religious Attitudes between levels of instruction completed (F = 3.326, p = .003). This suggests that there is a heightened sense of spiritual awareness in those in the higher levels of the program. It may be that involvement in an energy-based therapy is one way to develop spiritual awareness.