bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Monitoring Frequency of Client Problems
Authors: Sullivan J. Michael , Snowden Lonnie R.
Published: March 2007

As a test of their validity, four methods for evaluating client aggregates, or caseloads, to determine frequency of psychosocial problems, were applied jointly. In the context of a small mental health agency planning to expand, client problems were assessed by soliciting staff estimates and client self ratings, comparing the psychometrically measured functioning of clients and controls, and tabulating problem reports from agency records. The methods were systematically implemented and rested on a common scheme for defining problems. Inter-method agreement was evaluated by testing the agreement between estimates of problems, and by comparing the rank orderings ofproblems. In both cases, five of six comparisons revealed inter-method disagreement. Also, comparison of the variance attributable to differences between problems, between methods, and error, showed methods to be a more important determinant of results than problems.
Single-Case Experimental Designs and Program Evaluation
Authors: Horn Wade F. , Heerboth Joel
Published: March 2007

Single-case experimental designs have received little attention in the program evaluation literature. This article provides an overview of single-case methodology, with a specific focus on the A-B-A and multiple baseline designs. The potential utility of these designs for evaluating social programs is discussed, and several examples are provided. Internal validity, statistical conclusion validity, external validity, construct validity, and cost-effec tiveness are considered. Single-case designs offer essentially equivalent protection against threats to experimental validity compared to traditional randomized group designs. It appears that these designs offer, at a minimum, viable methodological alternatives in situations where traditional randomized group designs are infeasible.
Client Satisfaction With Mental Health Treatment
Authors: Lebow Jay L.
Published: March 2007

This article critically assesses the evaluation of consumer satisfaction in mental health treatment settings. Methodological problems addressed include uniformity myths, inclu sion of items not measuring satisfaction, ambiguity in response alternatives, lack of precision in the use of terminology, failure to distinguish dissatisfaction and lack of satisfaction, failure to sufficiently probe, poor psychometric practice, the absence of accepted measures, failure to identify norms for satisfaction, lack of control over proce dure, sampling bias, biasing responses, the lack of variability in responses, and primitive design , analyses, and reporting. Consumer satisfaction emerges as an important indicator of the quality of care, but one that must be interpreted with caution.
Differential Attrition
Authors: Yeaton William H. , Wortman Paul M. , Langberg Naftali
Published: March 2007

The differential attrition of persons from comparison groups severely restricts the inferences that can be made from results of evaluative research. This problem is particularly troublesome in the evaluation of medical technologies, such as coronary artery bypass graft surgery, since a substantial percentage of medical or control patients cross over to the surgical group. A procedure using worst case assumptions is developed that allows researchers to estimate the maximum effect of differential attrition, and therefore enhance the quality of their inferences. The article first illustrates theprocedure, then concludes with a discussion of the generality of the estimation procedure to other instances in which differential attrition is a problem, and points out the limitations of the approach.
The Problem of Defining the Problem
Authors: Kennedy Mary M.
Published: March 2007

Much of the day-to-day work of evaluators and policy analysts consists not of conducting large discrete studies but rather of conducting iterative ad hoc analyses of existing data bases. One such analysis, described here, used a variety of different data bases to estimate probable teacher shortages m math and science. Because all of these data-files on emergency certificates, records of new graduates from colleges ofeducation, and statistics on teacher vacancies-were gathered originally for other purposes, each data source required some analytic adjustments. This article describes the full set of compromises needed in order to use the data and the conclusions eventually drawn from the full array of data.
The Power of Student's t and Wilcoxon W Statistics
Authors: Rasmussen Jeffrey Lee
Published: March 2007

A previous study indicated that the Wilcoxon W test showed a power advantage over the student's t-test when they were calculated on samples drawn from a common mixed-normal distribution. The present study investigates the effect of correcting for outliers in the mixed-normal samples. The results indicate that the t-test corrected for outliers shows a superior power curve to the Wilcoxon W.
An Evaluation of Federal Pretrial Services Agencies' Impact On Pretrial Decisions and Outcomes
Authors: Sherwood-Fabre Liese
Published: March 2007

In 1966 Congress created demonstration pretrial services agencies in ten federal district courts to aid judges in complying with the Bail Reform Act of 1966. This article used secondary analysis of data collected as part of the demonstration project to determine its impact on pretrial release decisions and defendant conduct. The results suggest that the agencies did create changes in the type of release conditions through changes in judicial decision making. Furthermore, these changes did not create significant increases in the rates of pretrial misconduct as feared by some. The final discussion focuses on the relationship between the agencies and the earlier Bail Reform Act of 1966.
Containing Attrition in School-Based Research
Authors: Ellickson Phyllis L. , Bianca Domenica , Schoeff Diane C.
Published: March 2007

This article describes a successful approach for tracking a highly mobile group of junior high school transferees and thereby minimizing attrition in a longitudinal study of adolescent behavior. Students were tracked through the home or the new school. When students were located through the latter route, we sent the surveys directly to the school itself instead of askingfor a home mailing address. This approach avoided asking school officials to give out personal information and enhanced the likelihood of the survey being delivered. Overall, the tracking effort cut nonresponse attributable to between-school mobility by two-thirds and reduced the attrition rate by one-half. The new-school strategy, which was a particularly effective technique for finding student transferees, accounted for a significant proportion of that improvement.
Lessons From the Rockefeller Foundation's Experiments On the Minority Female Single Parent Program
Authors: Boruch Robert F. , Dennis Michael , Carter-Greer Kim
Published: March 2007

Randomized field experiments have been undertaken to assess the effectiveness of the Rockefeller Foundation's Minority Female Single Parent Program. This article reviews problems engendered by the randomization and discusses the ways they have been resolved. The lessons should help to make randomization easier when community based organizations are an integral part of a field experiment.
Using Two Instruments To Measure Student Gains in Reading Achievement When Assessing the Impact of Educational Programs
Authors: Mulkey Lynn M.
Published: March 2007

Instrumentation frequently occurs in evaluation; however, its potential consequences in educational evaluation (i.e., misappropriation of large sums of state-levied tax money, and delimiting of long-range educational and occupational opportunity for young children) are relatively serious. Several cautions are discussed for equating and interpreting test scores from two different measures of achievement, to circumvent spurious attribution of outcomes of the treatment, in an investigation of the impact of classroom functional/ability grouping on academic performance of special education students in elementary, middle, and high schools, Baseline findings of the 200.6 Evaluation (New York City Board of Education,1987) indicated reading gains were lower for classes grouped by achievement than for those not grouped by achievement.
Lifeline Rates in California
Authors: Hennessy Michael , Keane Dennis M.
Published: March 2007

The article begins by reviewing the legislative history of lifeline (later "baseline') electric rates in California. It then evaluates the ability of the current baseline tariff to target low-income households and proposes two low-income-targeted baseline rate designs that would collect the same revenue and directly assist low-income households. Using representative billing and demographic survey data, these alternatives are simulated and com pared with the current baseline rate. The simulation results are then discussed in light of three "dilemmas"that are raised when the attainment of policy ends are combined with the pricing of electricity.
The Effective Combination of Macro- and Microstudies in Assessing National Training Programs
Authors: Guzmán Alba
Published: March 2007

The Indigenous Women's Program in Mexico provides education and training to women of 56 different ethnic groups through 265 centers located in 23 states of Mexico. The Centers, known as CECMI (Centers for the Education and Training of Indigenous Women) are staffed by 540 young, indigenous women with roughly the equivalent of a junior high school education. The assessment of the program provided here was intended both to aid official funding policymakers and to describe how the staff, known as promoters, learned by participating in the evaluation.
Program Evaluation With Nonexperimental Data
Authors: Moffitt Robert
Published: March 2007

Statistical methods for program evaluation with nonexperimental data have been studied by economists and econometricians over the last 20 years. These methods are concerned with laying out the precise circumstances under which valid nonexperimental estimates of the effects of an intervention can be obtained, and then with methods for determining when and if those circumstances hold. This article provides a simple exposition of the methods of identification that have been developed and draws the lessons of those methods for future evaluation designs, data collection, and analysis.
Inmate Classification
Authors: Berecochea John E. , Gibbs Joel B.
Published: March 2007

This evaluation of an objective inmate classification system indicates that the inmate's classifi cation score is a (weak) measure of the inmate's risk of misbehavior. Introduction of the classification system in California's prisons for men in 1980 produced a closer tie between inmate risk level and institutional placement. Institutional security level seems to affect prisoner misconduct. Introduction of the system apparently reduced the rate of increase in the incidence of serious prisoner misconduct. Departmental experience was used to revise the classification scale to reduce "overclassification " (false positives). The authors urge conduct of experimental studies with random assignments to determine the predictive validity of the items used in the classification scale and to strengthen the conclusion that institutional level has an effect on prisoner misconduct. The authors recommend empirical investigations of alternative classifica tion policies which would consider system costs in relation to differentially weighted errors of prediction and multidimensional criteria.
Evaluating Personalized Risk Messages
Authors: Weinstein Neil D. , Roberts Nancy E. , Pflugh Kerry Kirk
Published: March 2007

An experiment was conducted (N = 766) to compare three different strategies for delivering radon test results to homeowners. The three strategies examined were a form letter, a personalized letter, and a personalized letter with telephone follow-up. Evaluation criteria were recall of the action recommendation, compliance with the action recommendation, and satisfaction with the program that provided the test. The more ambitious strategies increased satisfaction with the program that provided the free tests, but did not affect recall of the action recommendation or compliance with the recommendation. Risk communication situations in which the extra effort required by personalization and telephone follow-ups may have greater benefits are discussed.
Faculty Productivity and Costs
Authors: Noble John H. , Cryns Arthur G. , Laury Bertha S.
Published: March 2007

There is increasing pressure on higher education to document results and to rationalize them within specific budgetary constraints. At margin, how much can universities influence the productivity of faculty through budgetary allocations? Are allocations for senior faculty more or less productive than for junior faculty, and in which sectors of performance — teaching, research, or services to the university and the community? A methodology is presented for analyzing faculty productivity and costs at the level of a department or school. Its application provides mixed support for the notion that university administrators can use annual budget decisions to influence faculty productivity and costs.
Counting the Homeless
Authors: Devine Joel A. , Wright James D.
Published: March 2007

S-Night in New Orleans was similar to that in other cities. Perhaps because New Orleans is the smallest and most geographically compact of the five cities, the S-Night enumeration was more complete in that more "decoys" were enumerated in New Orleans than in the other cities. Still, even here, the census counted only 19 of the 29 teams of decoys (65.5%). As elsewhere, the teams also observed numerous (evidently) homeless people who were never seen, approached, or counted by the census. Finally, among the homeless persons the authors interviewed the following morning, not one who had spent the night out-of-doors reported having been enumerated. The count of homeless persons in shelters appears to have been reasonably complete in New Orleans (within some limits), but the count of street people was flawed.
Evaluating a School-Based Gang-Prevention Program
Authors: Winfree L. Thomas , Esbensen Finn-Aage , Osgood D. Wayne
Published: March 2007

Theory-based evaluations of gang intervention and prevention programs are rare. In this article we argue that the Gang Resistance Education and Training program, as developed by the Phoenix, Arizona, Police Department and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, consists of pedagogical elements with strong conceptual and operational ties to two mainstream criminological theones, social learning theory and self-control theory. Moreover, we provide a model that, with a httle help from opportunity theory, integrates the two theories so as to take advantage of each other's conceptual richness. Finally, we address the implications for both criminological theory and anti-gang policies and practices.
Implications of Increased Infectivity in Early-Stage HIV Infection
Authors: Pinkerton Steven D. , Abramson Paul R.
Published: March 2007

Recent reports suggest that the infectivity of sexually transmitted HIV (i.e., the probability of transmission on a single sexual contact) may be up to 1,000 times greater during thefirstfew months of infection than during the long asymptomatic period that precedes the development of AIDS. Assuming the validity of this estimate, a simple Bernoulli-process model of HIV transmis sion indicates that, in some cases, the expected number of secondary infections is greater for the brief period of primary infection than for the much longer asymptomatic phase. The implications of these findings for current HIV/AIDS prevention practices are analyzed with particular attention to the role of condom use in preventing HIV transmission.
Summing Up
Authors: Holder Harold D. , Treno Andrew J. , Saltz Robert F. , Grube Joel W.
Published: March 2007

This article provides recommendations and observations about evaluation of a locally based prevention project to reduce problems at a total community or aggregate level. The shift from targeting specific individuals or subpopulations to the overall structure and environment of a community is most demanding. Evaluation tools and analysis techniques have lagged behind program development because community-level interventions are not linked to a specific target group who can be separately studied. Thus assumptions about using random assignment and/or comparison communities as means to control for confounding variables are weakened when the unit of analysis is the community itself and dependent measures are subject to trending and the effects of history.
Development Assistance Evaluation and the Foundations of Program Evaluation
Authors: Rebien Claus C.
Published: March 2007

This article explores the possibilities of improving development assistance evaluation theoreti cally and conceptually by exchanging the experience with the evaluation discipline in general. Aid evaluation is analyzed within the overall framework of the foundations of program evalu ation. By placing aid evaluation into the framework of the general evaluation discipline, it is thus demonstrated that aid evaluation can be strengthened as it concerns its conceptual and theoretical structure, and it is found that attaining greater theoretical and conceptual stringency in aid evaluations will contribute toward improved quality and the usefulness of such evaluations in the future.
Cost-Benefit and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Drug Abuse Treatment Services
Authors: Cartwright William S.
Published: March 2007

The foundations of cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis (CB/CEA) for drug abuse treatment are developect An economic model of addict choice and drug markets is presented. This model is synthesized with the current "cost of illness" methods used to measure the burden of the disease to society. The problem of doing cost-effectiveness studies in the presence of large nonhealth benefits is examined, and guidance is offered to clinical studies with a cost-effectiveness component or to stand-alone cost-effectiveness studies. References and an extensive bibliography on drug abuse treatment-related CB/CEA studies are appended.
Returns To Education and Training for the Highly Disadvantaged
Authors: Heinrich Carolyn J.
Published: March 2007

The author presents an evaluation of a job-training demonstration program that targeted highly disadvantaged individuals residing in a high unemployment community for delivery of custom ized job-training and intensive case-management and supportive services. She found that geographical targeting aided the effort to recruit and cost-effectively serve the highly disadvan taged. Despite their disadvantages, demonstration program participants achieved significantly higher wages and eamings at termination than did comparison group members, and the program produced a statistically significant earnings impact for participants over a 2-year period. Participants who received on-the-job training experienced the largest earnings gains, although on average, the program's effects diminished over time. The author recommends extending the provision of intensive case-management and supportive services into the postplacement period to increase employment retention.
Trauma and Addiction Experiences of African American Women
Authors: Davis Ruth E. , Mill Judy E. , Roper Janice M.
Published: March 2007

Substance abuse affects African American women at an increasingly alarming rate. The interaction of substance abuse and traumatic events requires exploration. For many African American women, early life trauma plays a critical role in how and when they fall victim to the ravages of substance abuse. This article aboutaphenomenological study ofi SAfrican American women uses intense narratives to disclose experiences of incest, rape, abuse, and other horrors that led to drug and alcohol use to extinguish pain. The themes includefamily history ofsubstance abuse, lack of a caring childhood environment, pain resulting from trauma, and coping and recovery. The womens'stories provide insightsfor nurses in practice and research related to the psychosocial health of women.
The Oldest Old, ADL, Social Network, and Loneliness
Authors: Bondevik Margareth , Skogstad Anders
Published: March 2007

This study examined the influence of activities of daily living (ADL) and frequency of social contacts on the loneliness and social relationships in a sample of very elderly individuals. Associations between finctional ability, social contacts, and emotional loneliness and social loneliness were also assessed. The sample was composed of 221 participants age 80 to 105 years, residing in the greater Bergen area in Norway. Results demonstrated that dependence on the environment in ADL is related to low levels of emotional loneliness, whereas only dependence in activities of toileting and transfrrring corresponded with low levels of social loneliness. High frequency of social contacts with family, friends, or neighbors was negatively related to both emotional and social loneliness. Results show that frequency of such contacts appeared to buffer the effect of continence on emotional loneliness and the effect of toileting and transferring on social loneliness.
Graduate Student-Faculty Collaboration in Research and Publication
Authors: Whitley Georgia G. , Oddi Lorys F.
Published: March 2007

The nursing profession advocates developmewnt of theoretical knowkdge as a basisfor nursing practice and promotes preparation of graduate students as nursing scholars. his study explored the influence of selectedfactors on the publishing efforts of student authors who published in the Weste Joual of Nursing Resnch during a 5-yearperiod Assignments, particularlyfora dissertation, provided a signfficant impetusfor publishing. Se#f-sececton ofa topic of interest also was an important factor. Approximately one third of the student authors had collaborated withfaculty as coauthors. Graduate students make a significant contribution to the creation and dissemination of nursing knowledge. The influence of collaboration with faculty, the defining elements ofcollaborative mentorship, and inherent ethical issues should be investigated infuture studies.
Axial Coding and the Grounded Theory Controversy
Authors: Kendall Judy
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this article is to describe the similarities and differences between two approaches to grounded theory research: grounded theory as espoused by Glaser and grounded theory as espoused by Strauss and Corbin. The focus of the article is the controversy surrounding the use of axial coding. The author proposes a resolution to the controversy by suggesting that one does not need to view either approach as right or wrong; rather, the qualitative and grounded theory researcher can choose an approach, and that choice is based on the goal of the researcher’s study. Examples of both approaches, from the author’s research study on the experiences of living in a family with a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), are provided.
Spectacular Recuperation: Alex Cox's Sid & Nancy
Authors: Goss Brian Michael
Published: March 2007

This article takes several approaches in analyzing Alex Cox's 1986 independent film, Sid & Nancy. It first examines the tension between illusion and allusion that resides in the film's aestheticized interpretation of the title figures and the milieu in which they lived. While hewing to many of the facts about Sid and Nancy, the film also engages in mythologization of them and the early punk era of which they were a part. Second, the author applies a critique of the society of the spectacle to both the punk era and Cox's presentation of it; in this respect, the film understates at least some of the class-oriented politics through which punks engaged and critiqued the commodification of culture. Third, it unpacks the ambivalent politics of the film with respect to the right-wing Thatcher/Reagan ascendencies that were already in motion by the time of the film's release in 1986.
Accidents Should Happen: Cultural Disruption through Alternative Media
Authors: Makagon Daniel
Published: March 2007

In this article, I chart the continual reemergence of social disruption and cultural critique in the twentieth century, critically examining how this history provides insight into Jenny Holzer's and Krzysztof Wodiczko's use of alternative media in their critical public art. This analysis points to the historical reemergence of a desire to comment on urban life vis-à-vis media practices in a way that allows us to reimagine alternative uses of media. I argue that Holzer and Wodiczko are part of an important cultural tradition, yet a combination of revanchist urban programs and the failure of mainstream media to facilitate democratic participation provide a significant contemporary context for Holzer's and Wodiczko's alternative media practices.
Meaning and Mass Culture: The Search for a New Literacy
Authors: Vincent Tim
Published: March 2007

The present mass culture can be characterized by its resistance to meaning or, perhaps more accurately, its resistance to a clear separation between information and meaning. A central goal of literacy education will be to develop minds that can create meaning, not merely become more proficient at processing received information. Faced with the trend toward corporate takeover of culture—begun in earnest in the 1930s and reaching global proportions today—where can educators turn for help in the search for a new literacy that can begin to address the struggle for control of culture that will be a central issue for democratic societies in the years ahead?
The Logic of Pragmatism in Mental Health Policy
Authors: Ramon Shulamit
Published: March 2007

The Logic of Pragmatism in Mental Health Policy: The implications of the government policy on mental health in the 1959 debate for the 80s.
Crime, community and the multi-agency approach: a critical reading of the Broadwater Farm Inquiry Report
Authors: Stubbs Paul
Published: March 2007

A dangerous consensus is emerging on the desirability of a 'multi-agency' approach to community crime problems. In this article, the recent report of an inquiry into the Broadwater Farm Estate is criticised. Behind an apparently radical, oppositional stance lies a simplistic approach to 'community' , crime, and policing and 'the multi-agency approach.'
Class struggle and the welfare state: some theoretical problems considered
Authors: Wetherly Paul
Published: March 2007

Over the recent period there has been a considerable growth of literature which seeks to account for the development of the welfare state from a marxist perspective. One of the major themes of much of this work is a view of the welfare state as an outcome and/or arena of class struggle. The aim of this paper is to assess the usefulness of this type of approach through an examination of some of the conceptual problems. It will be argued that while this approach is indispensable there is a need for greater refinement of concepts such as class, class interest and class struggle; it is to this end that the paper is directed.
The assessment of black foster parents: The relevance of cultural skills - comparative views of social workers and applicants
Authors: Rhodes Penny
Published: March 2007

Social workers ' delineation of the problem of the recruitment of black foster parents in terms of cultural differences resulted in their professionalism being challenged on several counts. Social workers, themselves, were divided over the relevance of cultural skills to the assessment process and over the need to employ black workers. Although they paid lip service to the idea of cultural pluralism, their commitment was superficial (Roys, 1988; Ely and Denney, 1978). Culture and ethnicity were treated as the predominant; if not the only, dimensions relevant to the client-worker encounter but, for applicants, culture was only one of a set of intricately related and interactive dimensions which structure the realtionship between practitioner and client. A cultural pluralist approach which failed to address questions of representation and power sharing not only undermined confidence in white social workers' cross-cultural competence but weakened black social workers opportun ities for long-term incorportion into mainstream work. Applicants own mistrust of a cultural diagnosis of their situation helped to shift the frame of reference to a more general reappraisal of family assessment skills where personality and common sense were set against professional train ing. It was in this area that social workers faced the more serious chal lenge to their authority as professionals.
Body rights, social rights and the liberal welfare state
Authors: Shaver Sheila
Published: March 2007

The post-war expansion of many welfare states has seen 'reproduction going public', the development of social policies making reproduction a public and political concern. Though the phrase 'going public' has been applied most commonly to care work, it also describes the politi cisation of needs associated with biological reproduction. The present article is concerned with one such service, abortion, and what it can tell us about the development of the welfare state. The article focuses on a particular, 'liberal' type of the welfare state found in countries sharing the combined heritages of the British common law tradition and welfare residualism maintaining the primacy of market and family. This article explores the interplay of abortion rights, politics and services in the liberal welfare states of Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States. It considers the relationship between liberalism and gender, and the distinction between abortion as a medical entitle ment and a 'body right'. The civil right to an abortion is examined in the light of services supporting a social right to abortion services. The form these rights have taken, however, also appears to have been shaped by the ideologies and institutional forms of the broader social policy framework of the liberal welfare state.
Universalism, selectivism and particularism
Authors: Thompson Simon , Hoggett Paul
Published: March 2007

The impact of postmodernism on theories of social policy has called into question the established basis of welfare provision. Existing compromises between universalism and particularism, equality and diversity, have been unsettled. This paper re-examines the question of the appropriate balance between these values in light of the issues postmodernism raises. Although postmodernists provide good reasons to reject crude forms of universalism, it remains possible to defend a sophisticated universalism that, while committed to equality, is able to be sensitive to diversity by incorporating significant elements of both selectivism and particularism. While the realization of such a social policy would also require an ap propriate form of welfare governance, this form can only be briefly sug gested here. In sum, it is argued that, by learning from an encounter with postmodernism, contemporary social policy can begin to combine uni versalism with particularism, equality with diversity, and consistency of treatment with group empowerment.
Chinese and western notions of need
Authors: Tao Julia , Drover Glenn
Published: March 2007

In this article, we compare Chinese and western notions of need, by look ing at the theoretical underpinnings of need in western and Chinese moral thought. We do so, first, by outlining a theory of need developed by Doyal and Gough (1984, 1991), second, by examining the notion of autonomy, third, by considering social obligations, and, fourth, by look ing at the social construction of need. We conclude by arguing for a con sideration of a theory of need based upon Confucian principles of con nectedness.
Young offenders, punitive policies and the rights of children
Authors: Littlechild Brian
Published: March 2007

This article examines the increasing tendency of the Conservative Party and the new Labour Government to deny the social basis of youth crime, and to emphasize punitive approaches in relation to young offenders. It examines the relationship of such policies to the United Kingdom's status as signatories to the UN Convention on the Rights of The Child and the European Convention on the Rights of the Child. An argument is presented for a greater commitment to the spirit and letter of the Conventions, with their emphasis on the rights of young people and on the importance of their reintegration within their communities, rather than the present policies of social exclusion.
“Dewey Defeats Truman”
Authors: Colston Herbert L.
Published: March 2007

When a speaker restates another person’s inaccurate remark, for example, “Sure, Ronald Reagan was president during the 1970’s,” he or she runs a risk of being misunderstood—people might understand the response as verbal irony, but they also could readily interpret it literally. This study investigated an Ironic Implicature Hypothesis that speakers opt for this form of verbal irony because of the unique pragmatic functions it performs. The hypothesis states that speakers use conversational implicature to suggest that erroneous speakers should not have made the mistake in the first place. Ironic restatement was found to indicate a speaker’s belief that another erroneous speaker actually knew the correct statement that was expected (Experiment 1), which, in turn, suggests that the erroneous speaker should not have committed the speech error (Experiment 2). The implications of these findings for theories of verbal irony are discussed.
On Thinking and Doing: Cognitive Science and the Production of Social Behaviour
Authors: Greene John O. , Cody Michael J.
Published: March 2007

The aims of this paper are, first, to make a case for cognitive approaches to the study of social behaviour, and, second, to overview the articles in this special issue. We suggest that issues of behavioural production are crucial to our understanding of social interaction. Further, because the problems of behavioural production implicate mental structures and processes, a theoretical approach that admits such constructs is desirable. Finally, we suggest that within the general orientation of cognitivism, some approaches are more likely than others to yield general, powerful principles. The framework articulated in pursuit of these points is then applied to a brief overview of the remaining papers in this issue.
Learning to be Responsive
Authors: Robinson Viviane M.J. , Timperley Helen
Published: March 2007

Radical changes in the administration of New Zealand education in the late 1980s were motivated, in part, by the desire to make schools more responsive to the communities in which they were located. The principal mechanisms intended to enable this were, first, setting up of Boards of Trustees and, second, the gradual relaxation of restrictive policies of zoning. The consequences of these policies are described in this paper and illustrated by evidence drawn from a 3-year study of a particular high school. It is concluded that structural changes of the kind described above are neither necessary nor sufficient to achieve an educationally acceptable concept of responsiveness.
Quantitative Measures of Secondary School Performance Using School-Level Data
Authors: Richmond Jeremy
Published: March 2007

School performance criteria, established from legislation contained within the Education Reform Act of 1988, are used to provide an analytical framework for examining school effectiveness in the UK. Fifty secondary schools in a large metropolitan education authority provided the data for the analysis. The findings suggest the criteria chosen by the government are not mutually exclusive measures of aspects of a school's performance. Instead, they are found to be highly sensitive to socio-economic influence. These findings, it is suggested, have implications for other, and less doubtful means of measuring school effectiveness.
Gender Differences in Mentoring
Authors: Woodd Maureen
Published: March 2007

This paper proposes that different gender cultures can create dilemmas for women in the workplace. Mentoring can be one means of coping with this. But there are various and sometimes very different approaches to mentoring available. An examination of basic definitions and alternative models of mentoring leads to a discussion of the grounds upon which choices between alternative mentoring scenarios might be made. These choices are described as dilemmas because of the difficulties they present for women. The author draws upon her own biography to illustrate what can be entailed.
Development in Schools
Authors: Tuohy David , Coghlan David
Published: March 2007

An individual's participation in school, it is argued, can be analysed on four levels—the individual, the team, inter-team coordination and the management of the school's interaction with the environment. These levels represent different intensities of participation and levels of complexity in the commitment of the individual. This paper explores each of these levels and also inter-level dynamics which entail that an intervention at any one level will have effects at the other levels, with attendant consequences for the management of change.
Inquiry in Educational Administration
Authors: Willower Donald J.
Published: March 2007

Inquiry in a field like educational administration draws on philosophy and science, since it deals with both moral and empirical issues. As an applied field of study, educational administration is highly complex. It is concerned with what educational organizations and settings ought to be, how they work and what can be done to make them better. The nature of the field and of the times creates pitfalls for inquiry. In this paper a number of these pitfalls are considered. It is argued that when pitfalls are avoided, new possibilities are opened up. Every pitfall has its reciprocal possibility. Those examined represent the author's thinking as a longtime student of the field.
Principal's Leader Power, Teacher Empowerment, Teacher Compliance and Conflict
Authors: Johnson Patsy E. , Short Paula M.
Published: March 2007

This paper reports on a study which investigated the relationship among the principal's bases of leader power, teacher empowerment, teacher compliance, and the amount of conflict within self, with peers and with the principal. Factor analysis and regression analysis revealed a strong association for expert power and referent power with each conflict dimension and teacher empowerment. Teacher compliance and teacher empowerment were strongly associated with all three conflict dimensions. Implications were derived for the preservice and inservice education of school principals and their evaluation.
Approaches to Leadership
Authors: Macmillan Robert B.
Published: March 2007

Day and Bakioglu have suggested that career life cycles for headteacher follow patterns similar to those found for teachers by Huberman. Taking this work as a basis, five principals were interviewed. In the analysis of their perceptions of their leadership, differences in their beliefs about their roles emerged and appeared to be influenced by the length of their experience in the role. In trying to understand the nature of these differences, Senge's notion of `creative tension' between current reality and vision seems to be one means for explaining such differences. In effect, experience may lead to the lessening of creative tension by the intrusion of current reality into principals' vision of schools and of what is achievable.
The Maltese Primary School Principal
Authors: Bezzina Christopher
Published: March 2007

This paper reports some of the main findings of an observational study conducted in Malta which looks into the work patterns of a group of primary school principals in the state sector. The study attested to the multi-varied, hectic, discontinuous and essentially superficial nature of the principal's role. Their main energy was devoted to keeping the schools ticking over in the short run with little time being devoted to matters of direct relevance to the teaching and learning process. The dominant model was of a transactional, and not a reflective or transformational, leader engaged primarily in fixing things.
Sovereignty and Emergency
Authors: Turner Bryan S.
Published: March 2007

The Huntington thesis of the clash of cultures and American foreign policy analysis are both aspects of the legacy of Carl Schmitt's distinction between friend and foe. This article explores Schmitt's political theology as the theoretical basis of modern politics in terms of the concepts of state sovereignty and the idea of a permanent emergency. Within this Schmittian framework, the analysis of Islam as presented by writers such as Huntington, Fukuyama and Barber is critically analysed. Their analysis of fundamentalism and political Islam fails to grasp the complexity and diversity of modern Islam. The article concludes by examining a number of social and economic processes that make the political division between friend and foe untenable.
Realism, Naturalism and Television Soap Opera
Authors: Longhurst Brian
Published: March 2007

This paper argues that the concept of soap-opera realism, as developed in some of the recent critical writing on soap opera, is central to the understanding of this form of television drama. However, in its present form, this concept is insufficiently nuanced. In developing the concept, the work of Raymond Williams is drawn upon to delineate three sub-types of soap-opera realism: soap-opera realism in the subjunctive mode, soap-opera realism in the indicative mode, and soap-opera naturalism. The latter is then discussed in detail with particular attention being paid to Coronation Street. In the course of this analysis, two key naturalistic elements in Coronation Street are considered: the nature of living spaces and the connection of character to environment.
'Risk Of Harm' And Domestic Violence: An Issue For The Family Court?
Authors: Mosley Sheila
Published: March 2007

Sheila Mosley considers how the Family Courts utilise the 'welfare checklist' to address the risk of harm to children exposed to domestic violence. She uses the results of a small-scale survey to illustrate her contention that an over-emphasis on notions of 'justice' and 'evidence-led' practice is increasing the risk of harm to children. She argues that this should be substituted with a more discursive and speculative approach to report writing.
Sexual Problems and the Probation Service
Authors: Crolley Terry , Paley John
Published: March 2007

Dealing with a client's sexual problems and experiences demands honesty and openness, yet in a study of probation officers' training needs the authors found officers were unable to deal professionally with such experiences. Typically, officers retreated into strategies of avoidance, neglect and frustrated communication.
Conciliation: Taking it Seriously?
Authors: Shepherd Graham , Howard John , Tonkinson Joan
Published: March 2007

Further evidence of the importance of conciliation, not simply as an exercise prior to a traditional investigation, but as a crucial stance transcending the unsatisfactory legalistic framework.
Clacton Problem Drinkers Group
Authors: Stewart Annette
Published: March 2007

Clients with a drink problem tend to be demanding, and it is difficult, given the time constraints of the job, to meet their needs purely by one-to-one work. The author describes three years experience of specialist group work in her team, links this to other available help, and demonstrates what is possible in a medium-sized town with very limited resources.
Time for a Quiet Revolution
Authors: Lodge Philip
Published: March 2007

How can the Service combine diversion from custody, efficient use of resources, fair workload assessment and continue a commitment to clients with high need and deprivation? This account of current attempts at resolution in the Greater Manchester Service suggests ways forward through changes in organisation, resource allocation and worker autonomy.
Specialisation: Merits and Doubts
Authors: Atkinson David , Chidgey Paul
Published: March 2007

The proposers of AGM Resolution 22 debate the advantages and drawbacks of wholesale specialisation, in the light of experience in a Probation Area which has pioneered this means of rationalising the workload. The implications for clients and staff are fundamental, and the authors remain agnostic and sceptical.
The Handicap of Ignorance
Authors: Schofield Helen
Published: March 2007

Writing from the perspective of a practitioner with a disability and their team manager, Jo Newall and Martin Scott of Milton Keynes Probation Office describe discriminatory pressures upon the practitioner to 'keep up' and the Service's failure to provide appropriate resources.
A comparison between reading from paper and computer screen by children with a visual impairment
Authors: Douglas Graeme , Kellami Effrosyne , Long Rachel , Hodgetts Irene , Douglas Graeme
Published: March 2007

Acknowledgements: This research was funded by the RNIB. We would like to thank the staff and students who took part in the study.
Working on the job
Authors: Simkiss Philippa
Published: March 2007

The link between occupational information and assessment is weak in the UK. Take Incapacity Benefit for example - eligibility is assessed by medical doctors who are unlikely to understand job accommodations, using a test that gives little consideration to the labour market and actual occupations. Yet the result can declare someone as incapable of work. So how is occupational information gathered, recorded and presented to visually impaired people throughout their assessment and are the tools available for use in vocational rehabilitation suitable for use by and with visually impaired people? In this information age how can occupational information be made accessible, relevant and useful to visually impaired people, employers and service providers? This paper proposes a Vocational Information System that could draw these disparate groups, with wide-ranging needs, a little closer together.
A system for remote sighted guidance of visually impaired pedestrians
Authors: Garaj V. , Jirawimut R. , Ptasinski P. , Cecelja F. , Balachandran W.
Published: March 2007

Sighted guidance is arguably the most efficient method for aiding visually impaired pedestrians in mobility. A sighted guide's verbal instructions compensate comprehensively for the insufficiency of visual input in navigation. Moreover, the companionship entails sharing of responsibilities and thus increases the blind traveller's sense of security during a journey. The disadvantages of the sighted guidance are that a sighted guide may not always be available or their presence may not be desirable because it restricts personal independence. This paper presents a novel system for navigation of visually impaired pedestrians, whereby advanced technologies were combined to allow a visually impaired user to remotely access the sighted guidance service. The user can choose when and for how long to use the system. The remote sighted guidance system is enabled by the integration of a remote vision facility with the Global Positioning System, the Geographic Information System and the third generation telecommunication network. A user trial is also reported in which the contribution of the system to the mobility of a visually impaired pedestrian was assessed. The results obtained lead to the conclusion that the remote sighted guidance is potentially a highly usable mobility aid.
Elderly people and visual impairment: some issues for social service provision
Authors: Stevenson Olive
Published: March 2007

The following article is an edited version of the SRAB Annual Lecture given at the National Westminster Hall, London on 18 July 1985.