“Where’s the beef?”: A reply to Heinich

The following is an unsolicited reaction by Richard Clark to the article “The Proper Study of Instructional Technology” by Robert Heinich that was published as the ERIC/ECTJ Annual Review Paper in the Summer 1984 issue of this journal.     

African healing and western psychotherapy: Meetings between professionalsGuérison Africaine et Psychothérapie Occidentale: Rencontres entre ProfessionnelsCuración Africana y Psicoterapia Occidental: Reuniones entre Profesionales

The institutions of traditional healing, as practiced in Black Africa, and psychotherapy, as practiced in Western culture, are compared in terms of their relative positions within the broader health care systems of the respective cultures, and in terms of their therapeutic techniques. Data is based on personal work experience in East Africa 10 years ago and on eight recent interviews with mental health professionals and healers in West Africa. (The author is an American-trained clinical psychologist.) It is concluded that these two institutions carry on the same function in their respective cultures, but differ in format according to the different dominant family configurations of the two cultures.     

Racial stereotypes revisited

Fifty-one black and 66 white college students were administered the Katz and Braly Checklist (1933) and instructed to select five adjectives that best described first themselves, second, black Americans, and third, white Americans. They then rated each adjective on a favorability scale from 1 to 5. Changes in the content of stereotypes were determined by calculating the 10 most frequently checked adjectives for black and for white Americans and comparing that with data from Katz and Braly (1933), Bayton (1941) and Maykovich (1972). Currently, black Americans are described as musical, loyal to family ties, very religious, progressive, ambitious, and quick-tempered. White Americans are described as intelligent, materialistic, ambitious, industrious, conventional, and conservative. The content of the white stereotype remained more stable over the years than the black stereotype. The white stereotype has slowly decreased in favorability over the years while the black stereotype has increased. Black and white students rated themselves more favorably than they rated the other or their own race.     

Why fund heritage? The role of research in the Heritage Lottery Fund

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) distributes money from the National Lottery to heritage. Since 1995 the HLF has given some £3 billion to 15,000 projects. As a small organization with a relatively large remit, applied research has been critical to the work of the HLF, helping it set priorities, make decisions and evaluate its programmes. Key research issues include: defining the needs of the heritage, the best means of evaluating projects and programmes, and capturing the economic and social benefits of heritage. Young people can be a difficult audience for heritage funders to reach, and it is shown how evaluation informed a dedicated new programme. The example of its support of parks shows how a need identified through research became a priority for the HLF, and has since been taken up by government. Finally, the HLF has developed a distinctive approach based on a very open concept of what heritage is and means to people. Research into public attitudes to heritage has been central to this.

The Lottery will be reviewed in the lead up to the licence review in 2009 and inevitably questions will be asked about the future of funding. In another context, the Secretary of State has asked how it is possible to capture the value of culture. In common with organizations who deal with sports, art and culture, the HLF needs to capture the benefits of funding in a way that makes sense to both politicians and the public. Doing this depends upon robust research.