The role of social community and individual differences in minority mentoring programs

Researchers have examined various outcomes of undergraduate minority mentoring programs. However, there is a significant gap in research about how program members with different demographic backgrounds may not have the same experiences or outcomes as other members despite being subject to the same program elements. To address these gaps, we employed a social community framework to examine the differences across the perceptions of connectedness to a social community and participant outcomes of members of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Merit Program (MP) for Emerging Scholars. An ANOVA was performed for a study sample of n = 179 current and past MP participants. Results indicated a need to: (a) find ways to translate experiences to lower performing groups, (b) identify other approaches to build resilience and encourage connections and engagement in communities of practice, and (c) explicitly educate all participants in the importance of social community in their professional development.     

The Effects of an Environmental Education Program on Students,Parents, and Community

Abstract

This study evaluated the impact of an environmental education program on students, parents, and the community. The program, in place for 5 years in 5th and 6th grade classes, was designed to help learners take an in-depth look at environmental issues in their community, make data-based decisions about those issues, and participate in resolving those issues. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies were employed (including student, parent, school personnel, and community member interviews). The authors discuss program connections to students' critical thinking, environmental literacy, and participation in the community; reading, writing, and speaking skills; student and teacher characteristics; and parent and community viewpoints.     

Creating a Ninth-Grade Community of Care

ABSTRACT

This qualitative case study analyzed how one large high school created a community of care for ninth-grade students. Data were collected during the 2006–2007 school year, including observations, individual interviews, and focus group interviews of 1 female teacher and 9 of her students. Findings suggest the Freshman Focus teachers and program helped to establish three caring relationships (teacher to program, teacher to student, program to student) that promoted a community of care. The development of positive teacher beliefs about students, supportive teacher–student relationships, and the promotion of academic and life skills may help create a caring community in which students are the primary receivers of care.     

关于城市社区自治立法的思考

在新形势下,中国社区法制建设的重要性、迫切性与复杂性日益凸现。现有社区自治的主要法律依据是1989年颁布的《中华人民共和国城市居民委员会组织法》。本文从该法的特点开始,分析其存在的若干问题;对该法从宏观和微观角度进行了思考,认为它已不适应我国社会发展的需要,完善该法已是刻不容缓。     

Community engagement: mentor beliefs across training and experience

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this quantitative study was to understand how training and the development of the mentoring relationship impacts mentor beliefs across time within a therapeutic mentoring program called Campus Connections, a community engagement program that pairs university undergraduate and graduate students with youth from the local community in a mentoring relationship for an academic semester. Specifically, we studied how mentor beliefs are constructed at the start of the mentoring program, how these beliefs shift after four weeks of training, and how mentor beliefs change after participating in the mentoring process during an academic semester. Results indicated mentors held unhelpful mentoring beliefs prior to training and that training combined with the mentoring relationship created a positive impact on mentoring beliefs. Implications for the mentoring relationship and community engagement programs are discussed based on the trajectory of mentor beliefs within the study.     

用周丛原生动物群落监测水污染的研究

本文根据1983～1985年，用周丛原生动物群落对珠江广州河段、广州市内两个人工湖和广州市郊流溪水库等3种水体进行生物监测，通过分析周丛原生动物的群落结构特征．以及用模式识别法评价，识别这些水体的污染程度，并与1982年和1989年的研究结果对比，进一步说明不同污染类型水体的周丛原生动物的群落结构是稳定的，以及这两种方法对水污染的评价和识别是有效可行的．     

Peer mentoring in engineering: (un)shared experience of undergraduate peer mentors and mentees

In this qualitative study, we explored the experiences of 26 engineering student mentors and mentees in a peer mentoring program. We found that mentors and mentees exploited the mentoring program’s fluid structure and situated social relationships to enact a specific type of academic/professional goal and identity conducive to their entry to one of two communities of practice, the on-campus engineering program community and the community of professional engineers. The mentoring program functioned as a social space in which identities of these students converged and diverged, creating a subtle tension and self-reflection in relation to the two different communities of practice that they pursued.     

Training program in child abuse for community health workers

A wide range of health workers in the community provide care for families that abuse or have a potential for abusing their children. Frequently these workers are unable to work effectively because of difficulty dealing with feelings aroused by contact with such families.An experimental child abuse training program for community health workers was designed by a pediatrician, a social worker, a public health nurse and two child psychiatrists. This program included a six-month study group which met weekly to focus on feelings and conflcts aroused during the course of work with abusing or potentially abusing families.Through analysis of the group experience, the leaders identified eleven sets of feelings or conflicts which seemed to interfere consistently with effective delivery of care: 1)anxieties about a) being physically harmed by angry parents and b) about the effects of a decision; 2) denial and inhibition of anger; 3) need for emotional gratification from clients; 4) lack of professional support; 5) feelings of incompetence; 6) denial and projection of responsbility; 7) feeling total responsibility for assigned families; 8) difficulty separating personal from professional responsibility; 9) feelings of being a victim; 10) ambivalent feelings a) toward clients and b) about one's professional role; 11) need to be in control.This type of group experience seems to be an effective method for exploration and resolution of feelings and conflicts.     

Assessing the impact of a program designed to develop sustainability leadership amongst staff members in higher education institutes: a case study from a community of practice perspective

This study focuses on the impact of a sustainability leadership development program (SLDP) designed to develop staff members as leaders who encourage sustainability practices within institutions of higher education (IHE). Using the framework of community of practice (CoP), we explored the program’s contribution by interviewing 16 staff members who had attended the program. At the individual level, we found that the SLDP provided participants with opportunities to learn from and with other members of the CoP and to engage them in debate about the various meanings of ‘sustainability’, increasing their environmental awareness and their environmental involvement within the IHE’s community. At the institutional level, the SLDP disseminated the college’s socio-environmental mission statement, increased its administration’s commitment and involvement, served as a platform for addressing local socio-environmental problems and initiated an Education-for-Sustainability (EfS) activists’ network. However, the participants indicated that the SLDP had limited impact on the environmentalism of other staff members and that the on-going mentoring and support from the college administration was insufficient. This study highlights the importance of such EfS professional programs to the development of both staff members and entire institutions as sustainability leaders. It also suggests ways to increase staff involvement in institutional EfS discourse.     

和谐视角下的高校学生公寓社区党建研究

当前不同付费层次公寓的多元选择和学分制的推行,使得不同办学类别、不同教育层次、不同家庭背景的的学生群居于同一公寓社区。大学生们在公寓楼群内进行着深层的文化互动和生活休闲,逐渐形成了不同文化特质的社区共同体。当前大学生公寓社区党建应当有效地规避工作偏差;要探索建立入党积极分子的日常考察体系、学习型社区培育体系、党员责任区和党员形象工程、社区党建多维互动体系和公寓和谐文化支持系统等创新性工作载体,构建和谐的大学生公寓社区;要让"学生党员工作坊"成为培育公寓社区精神、展示党员先进性的窗口。     

美国的社区教育活动

近年来,一种名为社区教育的与社区相关的科研活动作为传统教育的补充方式越来越受到美国各学校的关注。这种教育方式要求学生作为社区的一员为社区创造产品、服务社区或通过自己的活动创造一定的社会价值。本文通过介绍健康社区网络的活动、与社区相关的科学探究以及社区科研描画了美国社区教育的概貌。     

Re-presenting the ‘forgotten estate’: participatory theatre,place and community identity

In this article, we discuss the work undertaken in the first phase of a participatory theatre project which took place on a council housing estate in the Midlands of England, in which residents were invited to share their memories for a production which would present the history of the estate. This community is often characterised as deficient, ageing, welfare-oriented, low in educational attainment and aspiration. Interviews and field notes suggest that there was not a great amount of hope within the community for the success of a participatory arts project such as this. However, the performance attracted a large number of participants who performed to full houses over five nights. Using a place-based approach, we argue that a model of open participation led to the presentation of alternative, more positive, narratives of this community as a place to live.     

基于社会生活共同体的社区文化建设研究——以福州市台江区洋中街道金斗社区为例

随着社会转型、社会变迁、现代化进程的加快,按照社会生活共同体建构的目标把社区建构成居民社会生活的共同体,是社区文化在这一共同体中形成、维系的关键。以福州市台江区洋中街道金斗社区为研究案例,分析在社会生活共同体下金斗社区文化建设取得了一定的成效以及存在的问题,提出加强社区基础设施、人才队伍、信息化、组织机构等方面建设的解决方案。     

学习共同体研究热点知识图谱分析

为科学清晰地展现国内外学习共同体研究成果,以中国知网（CNKI）与科学引文数据库（WOS）为文献来源,运用 CiteSpace V 软件的关键词共现聚类分析、研究机构共现分析和关键词时区共现分析等方法绘制知识图谱。研究发现,国内外学习共同体研究前沿包括教师专业学习共同体、网络学习共同体以及实践共同体 3大主流方向。研究热点聚焦教师专业发展、项目教学、合作学习、情景学习、教学策略开发等理论。未来学习共同体将与深度学习、泛在学习、自组织等理论结合产生新的生长点,对教师专业发展和网络学习具有重要推动作用。     

Intersecting communities of practice in distance education: the program team and the online course community

This article is a case study that aimed at understanding the dynamics of two complementary communities involved in a distance education graduate program: one community of practice formed by the instructors and instructional developers, who designed and developed the program, and another created by the students and instructor in one of the online courses. The relationship between both communities and the evolution that occurred within the online course are analyzed. Emergent themes are discussed and recommendations are made for similar contexts and communities.     

Extending the Possibilities of Multicultural Community Partnerships in Urban Public Schools

To combat the sociocultural tensions that the city of Changeton is facing, an effort is being made by the school district to create a systemwide multicultural education program. A volunteer group has been established to shape what it hopes will provide a foundation for working toward mitigating the cultural strife that plagues the schools and community. Through a 3-year qualitative study, this research has documented the developments in the committee's work. The specific area addressed here is the group's efforts to create a partnership between the school and the community. This article provides practical ideas to urban educators interested in such an endeavor and shows that the critical problem is that parental involvement is often not recognized as being determined within specific and unequal relations of power—that attempts at school/community partnerships are often based on white, middle-class assumptions about parents' outlooks, language, resources, and time available for schoolwork. The focus and intent here are to acknowledge that it is crucial to recognize the multiplicity of groups and issues that are present in every town and city. Without being open to all differences of opinion andperspective, the idea of community involvement and public deliberation is fruitless.     

It takes a village: supporting inquiry- and equity-oriented computer science pedagogy through a professional learning community

This article describes the importance that high school computer science teachers place on a teachers’ professional learning community designed around an inquiry- and equity-oriented approach for broadening participation in computing. Using grounded theory to analyze four years of teacher surveys and interviews from the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program in the Los Angeles Unified School District, this article describes how participating in professional development activities purposefully aimed at fostering a teachers’ professional learning community helps ECS teachers make the transition to an inquiry-based classroom culture and break professional isolation. This professional learning community also provides experiences that challenge prevalent deficit notions and stereotypes about which students can or cannot excel in computer science.     

More than experiential learning or volunteering: a case study of community service learning within the Australian context

Community service learning is the integration of experiential learning and community service into coursework such that community needs are met and students gain both professional skills and a sense of civic responsibility. A critical component is student reflection. This paper provides an example of the application of community service learning within an undergraduate health unit at the Queensland University of Technology. Based on survey data from 36 program participants, it demonstrates the impact of CSL on student outcomes. Results show that students benefited by developing autonomy through real world experiences, through increased self‐assurance and achievement of personal growth, through gaining new insights into the operations of community service organisations and through moving towards becoming responsible citizens. Students expect their CSL experience to have long‐lasting impact on their lives, with two‐thirds of participants noting that they would like to continue volunteering as part of their future development.     

社会资本与社区脱贫——对社会资本独立性功能的分析

社会资本是当代西方社会科学研究的一个重要概念和分析工具。在不同学者那里,社会资本的概念有着不同的界定。西方有关社会资本的主流理论认为,社会资本具有独立于其他资本的独立性功能,但是最近大量的实证研究发现,社会资本是否真正具有独立性功能在社区脱贫项目的实践中面临着许多现实的困难,主要的问题在于社会资本的积累,特别是对社区经济发展有重要影响的跨越型和垂直型社会资本在很大程度上都依赖于行动者所处的社会和经济阶层。由此可见,西方主流社会资本理论可能存在着一些内在的缺陷,而这些对我们进一步探讨社会资本理论在中国社区经济研究领域的价值具有重要的借鉴意义。     

Evaluating knowledge,attitudinal, and behavioral change effects from a multinational HIV/AIDS education program for youth

This project tracked the mid-term evaluation processes, practices, and products of a multinational program to reduce at-risk behaviors for HIV/AIDS among children in Kenya, Tanzania, and Haiti. It focused on participant and community perceptions; program effectiveness in promoting abstinence and monogamy decisions; and factors supporting ongoing resistance, decision persistence, and program sustainability. Instrumentation included focus groups and interviews with 731 participant youth, parents, community stakeholders, and staff; program documents; and expert on-site observations. Program efforts are effective in influencing informational, attitudinal, and behavioral changes across stakeholder groups. Data underscore process effects of specific program tools and features, through participant attributions. Critical relationships between internal and external factors, and collective local practices grown from program knowledge and skills, support risk reduction awareness and behaviors. Systematic evaluation, including design features, can inform similar efforts across national and cultural boundaries. Effective strategies are highlighted and linked to community perceptions and program outcomes.