The three Rs of conflict management for department chairs and faculty

This article presents an introduction to understanding and addressing conflict in academic departments. Current philosophies toward conflict in organizations include a principled approach encouraging the positive benefits that conflict may bring to institutions. To utilize this approach it is important to understand the nature of conflict, identify effective response options, and develop skills in principled conflict resolution. This paper identifies the structures within organizations which inherently cause conflict. In addition, various strategies for dealing with conflict are outlined based on the Thomas/Killman response modes. Finally, Fisher and Ury's foundation for principled conflict resolution is applied to departments in higher education.Walter H. Gmelch received an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in the Educational Executive Program from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is currently professor and chair of the Educational Administration Department at Washington State University and directs the University Council for Educational Administration Center for the Study of Department Chair. His area of interest is in leadership development, managerial stress and academic department chairs. James B. Carroll received his Ph.D. in educational administration from Washington State University. He is currently the associate director of the Center for the Study of the Department Chair, Washington State University. His area of interest is in investigating role orientations and careers of department chairs.     

Effects of an art-based environmental education camp program on the environmental attitudes and awareness of diverse youth

ABSTRACT

This study used a combination of surveys and drawing-based metrics to evaluate whether integration of art-based activities into EE camp programing could enhance environmental orientations of diverse youth ages 6–12 (n?=?285) in Athens, GA, USA. Compared to a control group, art-based EE had a positive effect on children’s eco-awareness and environmental knowledge. However, effects of the art-based EE were comparable to those observed for a conventional EE summer camp. Interactions between the treatment and demographic variables (e.g., gender, age, race/ethnicity) were minimal, suggesting that both types of EE programing worked well for different groups of youth. Results highlight the potential value of art in EE research and practice.     

Bringing action research to the curriculum development process

As new communication technologies enter the classroom, teachers must attend to how digital platforms impact the interpersonal practices of teaching and learning. In this article, I study email exchanges with three of my students – Jorge, Adriana, and Jason – over the course of one year in an 11th-grade English class at River High School, a struggling American school subject to intervention for failing to meet the federal No Child Left Behind requirements. I ask several questions: what role does email play in my relationships with students; what does email reveal about the ideological content of my communication with students; and how could I use email transformatively? When I studied these email exchanges, I found that while email has the potential to transform literacy instruction, it can also perpetuate a poor student/teacher relationship and reproduce neoliberal narratives that narrowly imagine students as test-takers, workers, and consumers.     

Cost Analysis of a Distance Education MSW Program

The use of technology to facilitate education and the provision of an entire higher education degree has exploded in the last two decades. Social work educators have been a part of that trend and have started to utilize distance education (DE) technologies. There is a growing literature regarding the efficacy of DE instruction in social work, and scholars are actively developing best practices. However, there is little research in general to support the cost of DE, no cost studies in social work, and none comparing costs of DE delivery to costs associated with a face-to-face program. This study hopes to fill this gap by providing an analysis of the direct costs of an MSW DE program in comparison to similar costs of a face-to-face program.     

Theory of mind,executive function and social competence in boys with ADHD

Abstract

Twenty-two boys with a diagnosis of ADHD were com-KEYWORDS pared with 22 typically developing boys on an advanced theory of mind task and on two tasks measuring aspects of executive function. Parents completed rating forms measuring general social competence, as well as mentalizing and non-mentalizing social behaviours. There were no differences between the groups on the advanced theory of mind measure.The children with ADHD scored more poorly than controls on an inhibition task but not on a planning task once age and IQ had been covaried. Ratings of social competence were correlated with theory of mind and executive function ability for the typically developing controls but not for the children with ADHD. The results are discussed in terms of inhibitory and social information processing accounts of ADHD.     

Complexities in the Judgement of School Effectiveness∗

ABSTRACT

This article examines the aims and goals of school effectiveness research and definitions of effectiveness. Five issues in school effectiveness research which are relevant to the development of better methods of judging and measuring relative effectiveness, drawing on evidence from studies in different countries and contexts, are reviewed. These are (1) size and significance of effects; (2) consistency across outcomes; (3) stability over time; (4) the long term effects of schools; and (5) differential effects for different student groups.

It is concluded that effectiveness is best regarded as a relative concept dependent upon time period and age groups studied, and the choice of educational outcomes and intake measures

     

Motivational aspects of community support for school‐based comprehensive sexuality education

Various surveys have documented widespread support among US parents, students, teachers and health professionals for school‐based comprehensive sexuality education. In many school districts, however, the sexuality education provided is minimal, incomplete or fragmented, and essential topics are often omitted or inaccurately presented. To help explain the discrepancy between support and accomplishment, this study develops a set of theory‐based research hypotheses regarding the potential motivational roles of stakeholders' goals, emotions and personal agency belief patterns in explaining this lack of achievement. A series of exploratory interviews and focus groups with 36 California parents, adolescents and professionals was conducted. A modified grounded‐theory approach was used to guide the collection and analysis of qualitative data, and the development of a theoretical framework anchored in Martin Ford's motivational systems theory. This framework suggests the complexity of the interacting factors involved, and provides a basis for specific hypotheses for further research. Potentially important goals, emotions and personal agency belief patterns are identified and discussed.     

Books on Broadcasting

Eric Reade's Australian Silent Films: A Pictorial History, 1896-1929 (Melbourne: Lansdowne, 1970—$6.20)

Andrew Bergman's We're in the Money: Depression America and Its Films (New York: New York University Press, 1971—$7.95)

James Robert Parish's The Fox Girls (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1971—$14.95)

Peter Cowie The Concise History of the Cinema: Volume II, After 1940 (Cranbury, N.J.: A.S. Barnes, 1971—$3.50, paper)

Louis M. Sarary and J. Paul Carrico Contemporary Film and the New Generation. (New York: Association Press, 1971—$2.95, paper)

Richard Rudisill, Mirror Image: The Influence of the Daguerreotype on American Society (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1971—$30.00)     

Weak Ties in Networked Communities

Communities with high levels of social capital are likely to have a higher quality of life than communities with low social capital. This is due to the greater ability of such communities to organize and mobilize effectively for collective action because they have high levels of social trust, dense social networks, and well-established norms of mutuality (the major features of social capital). Communities with “bridging” social capital (weak ties across groups) as well as “bonding” social capital (strong ties within groups) are the most effective in organizing for collective action. People who belong to multiple groups act as bridging ties. When people with bridging ties use communication media, such as the Internet, they enhance their capability to educate community members and to organize, as needed, for collective action. This article summarizes evidence from stratified household survey data in Blacksburg, VA, showing that people with weak (bridging) ties across groups have higher levels of community involvement, civic interest, and collective efficacy than people without bridging ties among groups. Moreover, heavy Internet users with bridging ties have higher social engagement, use the Internet for social purposes, and have been attending more local meetings and events since going online than heavy Internet users with no bridging ties. These findings may suggest that the Internet—in the hands of bridging individuals–is a tool for enhancing social relations and information exchange, and for increasing face-to-face interaction, all of which help to build both bonding and bridging social capital in communities.