Foreign Aid to Education: Recent U.S. Initiatives-Background,Risks, and Prospects

The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) is a commitment of the United States to raise its grant aid by a factor of 50% over the next 3 years and will result in a $5 billion annual increase over current foreign aid levels. Many other countries and multinational development assistance agencies will be asked to help cofinance this new account, and their participation would augment this original proposal from the United States. The MCA offers the opportunity for a quantum change in the prospects for peace, stability, and the alleviation of poverty. However, will it work? This article suggests that the MCA will work only if it addresses several important dilemmas in the nature of foreign aid conditionality and the terms of reference of foreign aid organizations.     

For the Love of Our Children: Hannah Arendt,the Limits of Freedom and the Role of Education in a Culture of Violence

This essay critically examines the underlying assumptions about freedom and democracy at the basis of those like the NRA who argue that the United States does not have a gun problem and that the second amendment protects citizens' rights to own any gun they wish. Inspired by Hannah Arendt's political philosophy, the author first discuss three problematic notions of freedom—free will, sovereignty and liberation—and show how they have been appropriated by the NRA and other pro-gun organizations to justify their agendas. Adopting Arendt's conception of political freedom, he then demonstrates how it is integrally related to the notions of civic responsibility and plurality. In the last part of this essay, the author introduces Arendt's understanding of educational authority, which she defined as assuming responsibility for our common world. He argues that this notion of educational authority can help us address the issue of the role that education ought to play in a culture that glorifies violence.     

The sociocultural factors that influence a novice teacher’s LGBT activism

Despite growing support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in the United States, the Southeastern region continues to pass legislation that discriminates against those who do not fit normative notions of sexuality and gender. This opposition affects LGBT students and the teachers who identify as LGBT activists. This study of two years of data is an analysis of one novice teacher’s efforts to advocate on behalf of LGBT students despite the resistance that she faced from sociocultural factors influencing her students, classroom, and her teaching practices. An examination of the social, cultural, and political limitations she faced suggest that research advocating curricular changes and findings suggesting that teachers resist sexuality- and gender-based topics ignore the many sociocultural factors acting on educators in the Southeastern US as they strive to be LGBT activists.     

Predictors of US teachers’ intervention in anti-lesbian,gay, bisexual,and transgender bullying and harassment

This study examines how United States (US) teachers’ experiences and beliefs may be predictive of their intervention in anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) bullying and harassment using a US national sample of teachers (N?=?726) who completed an online survey. Results from regression analysis indicated that knowing LGBT people, awareness of general bullying and harassment, awareness of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment, and self-efficacy related to intervention in homophobic remarks were significant predictors of teachers’ frequency of intervention in homophobic remarks. Teachers’ sense of obligation to ensure safe schools for LGBT youth was not predictive of intervention. Implications for teacher education include: providing opportunities for exposure to LGBT people; raising awareness of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment; and building teachers’ skills to intervene in anti-LGBT behaviors.     

Violence towards children in the United States and Sweden

This paper reports the results of a cross-cultural comparison of violence towards children in the United States and Sweden. Data from the United States are based on interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,146 households with at least one child between the ages of 3 and 17 years living at home. Data from Sweden are based on interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,168 households with a child 3 to 17 years of age at home. Violence and abuse were measured using the Conflict Tactics Scales. In general, Swedish parents reported using less violence than did parents in the United States. There was no significant difference between the two countries in the rate of reported severe or abusive violence. The paper compares factors found associated with violence towards children in the two countries, including age, marital status, education, and parents' background. The results are analyzed by considering methodological and cultural factors that explain the similarities and differences in the use of violence towards children in the two countries.     

The Changing Corporate Mind: Organizations,Vision, Missions,Purposes, and Indicators on the Move Toward Societal Payoffs

Where are the world's organizations headed? What do they see as their primary destination and contribution? What do they commit to deliver and to whom? How rigorous are they in defining their destinations? What label do they use to describe statements of their intended future? To find the answers to these and other questions, we examined 26 of the leading organizations internationally as well as 60 leading organizations in the United States. Based on this sample of world organizations, we found indications that many organizations see some aspect of societal good as basic to their future, while many others regard their own organization's well-being as what is most important. We find no clear favorite for what organizations label their statements of purpose: most use “mission” while some use “vision,” and some use “values” or “philosophy.” Few of the organizations in our sample state their intended destination in measurable performance terms. From these data, we discuss the implications in terms of an increasing emphasis in the literature on organizations having to deliver outputs that contribute to external clients and society. We also note that purpose statements must be accompanied by appropriate actions to achieve those intentions. In addition, we discuss how this move toward socially-responsive organizations is impacting the role of the performance technologist.     

Trauma‐Informed Response in the Age of Title IX: Considerations for College Counselors Working With Survivors of Power‐Based Personal Violence

Intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and stalking are pervasive in the United States, and college women are disproportionately affected by this power‐based personal violence (PBPV). Title IX mandates that colleges and universities offer support services to trauma survivors, and college counselors should be prepared to meet this need. Therefore, this article serves to explore a diverse assortment of trauma‐informed counseling techniques, based in feminist theory, for college counselors working with PBPV survivors.     

美国职业教育项目评估体系构建举措与启示

美国作为世界经济第一强国,职业教育历史悠久而且发展体系健全。美国高度重视职业教育项目的评估,通过立法强化评估的地位,并将评估与问责结合。联邦政府各部门、各州/地方政府、各院校和各类组织相互协调,制定评估指标与标准,尝试多样化的评估模型与方法,共同推进职业教育评估工作的开展。借鉴美国经验,我国应该从强化立法评估的法律地位、建立动态评价指标、实施多维度分类评估、搭建职业教育大数据系统等四个方面做好职业教育的评估工作。     

Working in separate silos? What citation patterns reveal about higher education research internationally

Higher education research is a growing, inter-disciplinary and increasingly international field of study. This article examines the citation patterns of articles published in six leading higher education journals—three published in the United States and three published elsewhere in the world—for what they reveal about the development of this field. The analysis shows that the American journals are not only dominated by American-based authors, but that they also cite predominantly articles, books, chapters and other publications published in the United States. By contrast, the three non-American journals accommodate a much broader spread internationally of both authors and citations. Possible explanations for these patterns, and whether they matter, are discussed.     

HPT and small business: Gold mine or land mine?

Performance consulting is typically applied to large organizations. Almost all of the literature on the topic discusses the art and science of human performance technology in these types of organizations. In the United States, however, 99.7% of employer organizations are small businesses. This article addresses some of the opportunities and challenges of working with smaller organizations and presents ways that performance consultants can build a sustainable practice in this market.     

The Impossibility of Muslim Citizenship

In this article I ask a seemingly simple question—How can a Muslim be a liberal citizen? In order to explore this question I define who and what was indexed by the term “Muslim” at various points in United States history. I argue that the figure of the Muslim has existed as an existential other upon which otherness, violence, and suspicion was written. I ask how the historic construction of Muslim identities fuels contemporary surveillance programs predicated on an intrinsic fear of Muslim bodies. Drawing upon a decade of ethnographic research with Muslim communities across the United States, I examine Countering Violent Extremism programs. I argue that such policing function re-inscribe and normalize White supremacy and Muslim suspicion of, and within, Muslim communities. Finally, I examine the question of citizenship in neoliberal times and ask how we might understand citizenship rights, particularly for Muslim communities, in the contemporary United States.     

Economic and Political Crisis in the Capitalist World

In April 1929, the American President Hoover in his inaugural address brashly stated: "The United States has already achieved the highest degree of comfort in history. The success of no other country is as secure as that of the United States." However, half a year later an economic crisis of unparalleled severity erupted in the United States. Beginning in the United States, the crisis rapidly spread throughout the capitalist world. The extreme destructiveness of this crisis caused over a one-third decline in the industrial output of the capitalist world, and foreign trade declined by two-thirds. This crisis was also very prolonged, lasting from 1929 through 1933.     

Centers for disease control and the epidemiology of violence

Violence is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. The Center for Health Promotion and Education, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has begun to apply epidemiologic techniques to study the problems of child abuse, child homicide, homicide, and suicide. CDC's involvement in these areas has evolved in association with significant shifts in emphasis in public health policy and planning, from areas of acute and infectious diseases to areas of chronic diseases and premature mortality. We have recently addressed the problems of reporting biases and definitional variability in regard to child abuse and have characterized child homicide in the United States. We are currently epedemiologically investigating the underrecording of child homicide in this country. Our future work will include delineation and evaluation of programs to prevent violence toward children and examination of the relationship between intrafamilial violence and extrafamilial, noncrime related violence.     

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF STUDIES,DIPLOMAS, AND DEGREES AS SEEN FROM AN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE

The aim of this article is to describe the sources of information on foreign education systems and credentials by means of which the various higher education institutions of the United States reach decisions as to the admission of foreign students and the granting of equivalences for degrees earned abroad. The information is derived from a number of sources, particularly from such national volunteer and professional associations as the American Association of Collegiate Registrars (AACRAO) including a linkage which it maintains with the Agency for International Development (AID), the National Council on the Evaluation of Foreign Educational Credentials (The Council), the National [Association of Foreign Student Affairs (NAFSA), the National Liaison Committee on Foreign Student Admissions (NLC), and the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES). The article further explains how each of these organizations reaches decisions as to the value of given foreign credentials and makes its judgments and recommendations known to those who, in general, need this information, and to specific institutions which request specific information for specific purposes. In the final analysis, the organizations in question are purely advisory; the specific decisions with regard to specific students enrolled in specific higher education institutions are the sole purview of the institutions in question.     

教育民营化的凸显及对我国民办教育的政策建议

20世纪80年代以来，教育民营化风靡英美，在短短的20多年里便传遍了全球。教育民营化是通过竞争来打破政府对教育供给和生产的垄断地位，达到满足公众对不同品质教育的需求，以实现教育资源的优化配置和高效使用的过程。公共选择理论、新公共管理理论与有限政府理论为教育民营化的诞生打下了坚实的理论基础，西方资本主义国家及其教育危机的现状直接催生了教育民营化。民营化不等同于市场化，教育民营化必须保持适当的限度。在教育民营化中，必须对政府、教育组织和教育市场进行规范。     

美英社会组织参与研究生教育治理的方式、共性及启示

社会组织是研究教育治理的重要组成部分。纵观美英两国的研究生教育治理体系可以发现,两国社会组织在参与本国研究生教育治理的具体方式和方法上虽有所差异,但在实施研究生教育质量评估、开展研究生教育咨询服务和多途径参与政策制定等方面存在诸多共性。借鉴美英两国社会组织参与研究生教育治理的方式,加快研究生教育治理体系和治理能力现代化建设,实现我国研究生教育的高质量、内涵式发展,既需要多元主体以协调思路助推社会组织长久发展,政府充分发挥自身的"元治理"作用,培养单位吸纳社会组织参与内部质量保障,更需要社会组织主动作为。     

《搏击俱乐部》中灵魂对身体的反抗——从社会学角度浅析

《搏击俱乐部》作为20世纪末集中反映社会情绪问题的经典影片,其传达的信息十分值得我们研究。尤其如今经济高速发展、民众情绪浮躁的中国,与影片中那个年代的的美国其实极有相似之处。而影片中夸张的暴力美学和末世情绪,配合社会问题本身,也是十分引人深思的。本文则试图从身体社会学的角度,分析影片中灵魂与身体的关系,并借此为社会问题的分析提供一些思路。     

Adolescents at risk for violence

Interpersonal violence among youth is a growing problem in many communities and schools across the nation. The causes of violence are multiple and complex. This paper examines the extent and nature of interpersonal violence among youth as well as the individual and societal factors which contribute to youth violence. Adolescents are disproportionately represented as both victims and perpetrators of fatal and nonfatal assaultive violence. Homicide rates among young men in the United States are vastly greater than those of other Western industrialized nations. Persons age 12–24 years face the highest risk of nonfatal violent victimization of any segment of our society. Arrest rates for homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault peak among adolescents and young adults. Further, arrest rates for murder and other violent crimes have increased substantially among this age group since the mid-1980s. Effective prevention programs will require combinations of interventions aimed at multiple factors and delivered through many channels.     

The selection and evaluation of cooperating teachers: A status report

Abstract

In the United States today, reports abound of violent acts committed by children and adolescents. Once considered safe havens, schools can no longer ensure the safety of their students or faculty. This article presents (a) the public health model of prevention as it applies to the problem of youth violence, (b) causal factors known to be associated with violence and aggression, and (c) practical strategies, which can be incorporated into existing teacher education programs, for addressing violence in the school and classroom.     

Resilience in the AESA During the Last Decades of the Twentieth Century

I belonged to several professional organizations during my career. The AESA was the one in which I engaged most deeply with people from other disciplines than my own. Through those discussions, my ideas about education developed most fully. I thank you all for that. This article explains some of what I, and others, experienced during the years of conservative reaction to both the Civil Rights Movement and the Second Women's Movement following the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan as President of the United States. I hope my ideas may prove useful to you, today.