Critics’ and public perceptions of violence in television programs

The following article is one of the first fruits of a million dollars’ worth of research by some two dozen investigators that was sponsored by the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee in an attempt to examine the possible links between the mass media and violence. The research upon which this particular publication is based was performed pursuant to Contract No. HSM 42–70–32 with the National Institute of Mental Health, Health Services and Mental Health Administration, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Dr Greenberg, associate professor in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University, and a frequent contributor to the Journal, was the principal investigator. Mr. Gordon, a Ph.D. candidate, was senior research assistant in the same department.     

Timothy C. Campbell,Wireless Writing in the Age of Marconi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000.

This article examines the FCC's evaluation of broadcast allocation from 1934 to 1939, focusing on the participation of non-commercial and commercial interest groups in the debate. Its two major themes are: 1) how the commission, while pledging to consider “social and economic” concerns, in actuality gave them only cursory attention and 2) how the commercial interests in the industry began to fracture into individual groups, each arguing for policies advantageous to them. It argues that the commercial industry had vanquished the threat from non-commercial interests in the early 1930s and was now free to splinter into individual factions.     

TEACHING RESEARCH IN GERONTOLOGY: TOWARD A CUMULATIVE MODEL

In this article, we consider different approaches to teaching research methods in gerontology across a continuum of educational program levels. Our goal is to offer a conceptual framework and stimulate productive discussion of key issues and challenges in teaching research in gerontology. It is our belief that education in gerontology should include some level of training in research methodologies across all levels of gerontology instruction. Therefore, we have sought to identify those components of research training most appropriate for each level of gerontological education. Thus, basic understanding of research methods is appropriate at the associate's degree level and introductory exposure to basic issues involved in conducting research with elders provides a necessary backdrop to undergraduate programs. More in-depth understanding of gerontological research methods, particularly those involved in applied research, is a component of quality master's level programs. Finally, in-depth knowledge and the ability to apply distinctively gerontological research methods are necessary for conducting advanced original research at the doctoral level.     

A Life-Course Perspective on Physical Activity Promotion: Applications and Implications

This article illustrates how a life-course perspective can be infused more fully into the research field of physical activity promotion. A life-course perspective is particularly promising in connecting, organizing, and supplementing current knowledge and can potentially stimulate and direct future research and intervention efforts by using a time-sensitive, opportunistic, and developmental approach. The first section summarizes this approach into five key life-course principles including human agency, linked lives, time and place, life-span development, and timing. The second section takes a closer look at three time-based components: trajectories, transitions, and turning points. The final section highlights some of the implications of a life-course perspective for research methods and interventions, especially among children and older adults.     

Recipients, agents, or partners?: The contradictions of teacher participation in Mexican secondary education reform

The countries of Latin America have been no exception to global calls for educational transformation and teacher professionalization at the secondary level. One of the newest of these reforms is Mexico’s Reforma de la Educación Secundaria (RS) (Reform of Secondary Education), launched in 2006. This article examines portrayals by various actors of the nature and extent of the participation of both teachers and the teachers’ union in the different phases of the RS, beginning with the initial formulation of the reform through the implementation and the “follow-up.” Findings indicate that in spite of efforts to provide more transparency and opportunities for teacher participation, for the most part secondary teachers in Mexico neither felt like agents nor partners in the RS, nor did they function as such in the reform process. As in previous reform efforts, teachers mostly felt that they were recipients of plans formulated by government officials, and as a result many have evidenced neither complete compliance nor full commitment to the reform. The national teachers’ union, meanwhile, claims to represent teachers’ voices and thus a form of teacher participation, but this claim is denied in the findings. The discussion and conclusions emphasize the multiple significations of teacher “participation” and the need to overcome system-wide contradictions, while drawing on theory about the conditioned state, bureaucracy, and democratizing civil society to help situate and explain the findings.     

Assessing the SB‐V factor structure in a sample of preschool children

The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure of the Stanford‐Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition (SB‐V), based on the Cattell‐Horn‐Carroll (CHC) theory of intelligence using a sample of 200 preschool children. The CHC framework uses three different models: one similar to Spearman's g, one similar to the Gf‐Gc model, and one representing the hierarchical three‐stratum CHC model. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), utilizing these three models, was conducted to determine which theoretical model best described the ability structure measured by the SB‐V. Results of the CFA revealed that, although the two‐stratum model provided the best fit statistics, a large amount of overlap existed among the broad CHC factors in this model. Therefore, these results suggested that a simple, overall ability model may be the best representation of ability for preschool children when using the SB‐V because the factors appeared to be indistinct with this age group. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The implicated advocate: the discursive construction of the democratic practices of school principals in the USA

Changes in the public service sector during the last stages of the twentieth century contributed to an international reconfiguration of state-centric governance. Supported by the discourses of individualism, marketization, national governance, and competition, this (re)shaping of governance presents a specific dilemma for the political identity of educational leaders. In response to the troubling lack of international scholarship focused on the political role of educational leaders, this article provides insight into the ways in which the political identity of school leaders within the USA is influenced by dominant discourses. The understandings highlight the ways in which educational leaders are expected to realize their roles as resolute implementers of state policy, while also being directed to act as deliberative advocates within the jurisdiction of educational policy making. We believe that these competing discourses have altered the identity of educational leaders into what we have labeled as the implicated advocate. The purpose of this article is to provide the field of the politics of educational with a concept that may expose the double bind that is experienced by the educational leaders.