What Future for Social Science?

Each of the authors discussed in this review essay deplores the attempts of scholars in the human sciences to ape their colleagues in the natural sciences and economics. Their criticisms are not dissimilar, nor are they without merit, but it is important to ask the following questions: What would they offer in its place? What kind of warrantability do the alternatives promise? Can researchers avoid the dominant paradigms and still have something valuable to say to policymakers? The bulk of the review focuses on Bent Flyvbjerg's Making Social Science Matter, the best‐reasoned critique, and the one that offers the clearest alternative to the status quo.     

Christian ethos secondary schools,parental church attendance and student attitude towards Christianity: exploring connections in England and Wales

ABSTRACT

This study employs multi-level linear statistical modelling to examine the power of school-level and individual-level factors to predict individual differences in scores recorded on the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity by 6,036 students (who self-identified as either Christian or no religion) in year-seven, year-eight, year-nine, year-ten, and year-eleven classes within 10 Christian ethos secondary schools. The data demonstrate the complex relationships between school admission policies, parental church attendance (PCA), and the students’ age and sex. Overall PCA emerges as a decisive factor in promoting a positive attitude toward Christianity among students. Christian ethos schools may wish to give greater attention to the importance of parental religiosity in maintaining the Christian ethos of these schools.     

Teaching Beginning Reading: A Case for Monitoring Feelings and Attitudes?

There is a good deal of evidence that children’s feelings about and attitudes towards an activity they do in school can have a considerable bearing upon their success in that activity. Hazel Francis suggests this is true with regard to reading and reports on a study which explored the information teachers could glean from monitoring children’s feelings about reading.