Reflections on Allen and West’s paper: ‘Religious schools in London: school admissions,religious composition and selectivity’

This paper is a reflection upon the research findings of Rebecca Allen and Anne West in relation to religious schools in London. While welcoming this contribution to the systematic study of faith schools (a neglected area of empirical inquiry), the paper argues that the use of ‘religious schools’ as a unitary category is problematic for the analysis. It also suggests that certain historical and cultural contextual knowledge is required when analysing the characteristics of different categories of religious schools. This response is intended to be helpful for future researchers into the different types of faith school.     

THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN A PROGRAM TO TREAT DEPRESSION IN OLDER WOMEN

This article reports on the crucial role of education in the Social Health Outreach Program (SHOP), a social network intervention designed to treat clinically depressed older women. The role of education in current psychological and medical therapies for depression is discussed, as is the educator's view that education is interventionist by nature and indispensable in transformative programs that aim to strengthen personal, economic, and social resources. The evolution of the role of education in SHOP'S social therapy is outlined, and its modalities—information‐sharing, skills training, and intellectual stimulation—are described. We show how, as a result of participant demand, the educational content of SHOP has gradually expanded during the program's four‐year history. We point out that, in SHOP, education functions as a tool for perspective transformation, during which participants are sensitized to “blame‐the‐victim” biases inherent in psychological and medical approaches to treating depression. Participants learn they are not the problem; rather, they suffer from a role‐determined, social identity deficit. SHOP'S current format is described, and the program is recommended to adult educators for use in a variety of settings. We conclude that, though not therapeutic in and of itself, education acts as an “enabling tool,” playing a crucial role in implementing SHOP'S social‐change therapy.     

“Is the friendship worth keeping:” Gender differences in communicating forgiveness in friendships

Although forgiveness plays an integral role in friendship maintenance, interpersonal communication scholarship has largely overlooked how transgressions and forgiveness are negotiated between friends. This study focuses on gender differences to develop a typology of relational transgressions in friendships. Two hundred and thirty survey respondents (116 women and 114 men) described relational transgressions in their friendships, the perceived severity of these transgressions, and strategies used to communicate forgiveness. A combination of MANCOVA and inductive analyses reveals gender differences. While male transgressions typically involve encroaching on other intimate relationships and theft, female transgressions emphasize disclosing personal communication beyond the friendship’s boundaries. Conflicts between male friends could escalate from verbal to physical aggression, whereas female friends were likely to sabotage other close relationships that threatened the friendship. Finally, males preferred to communicate forgiveness using the minimizing strategy, while female friends generally favored the discussion and conditional forgiveness strategies. Overall, the perceived severity of a transgression was positively related to use of the discussion and conditional forgiveness strategies, and negatively related to the minimizing strategy. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Linking early alert systems and student retention: a survival analysis approach

Higher education institutions are increasingly seeking technological solutions to not only enhance the learning environment but also support students. In this study, we explored the case of an early alert system (EAS) at a regional university engaged in both on-campus and online teaching. Using a total of 16,142 observations captured between 2011 and 2013, we examined the relationship between EAS and the student retention rate. The results indicate that when controlling for demographic, institution, student performance and workload variables, the EAS is able to identify students who have a significantly higher risk of discontinuing from their studies. This implies that early intervention strategies are effective in addressing student retention, and thus an EAS is able to provide actionable information to the student support team.     

Teachers' Perspectives on Working with Children Experiencing Loss

This paper investigates one aspect of the teacher's role which is likely to cause stress and in many cases some personal grief. A significant number of teachers at some point in their career find themselves offering support to pupils who have experienced loss. Using a small-scale questionnaire, the writers investigate teachers' personal perspectives on this work. The results showed the personal distress that teachers can experience and the high self-expectations they are likely to have of themselves. The kind of support that the teachers felt they needed is described, as is the proactive work which teachers might undertake.     

Making Connections for Future Directions: Taking religion seriously in the sociology of education

This article argues that a problem for the contemporary sociology of education is that it has operated within a 'secularisation of consciousness paradigm'. This has limited both the depth and the scope of its intellectual enquiries. Sociological analysis which elides a religious dimension not only presents an over-simplified view of social relations in 'the Modern West', but it also fails to make an authentic engagement with many socio-cultural and educational situations internationally, where God is far from dead. The article suggests various ways forward for a reorientation of sociological writing and research.     

English,French and German summaries of major articles in this issue

Science has a role to play in the resolution of many of the issues deemed controversial in all societies. However, evidence of a lack of public confidence in science and scientists as effective problem‐solvers continues to accumulate. This paper speculates that this lack of confidence might in part be due to the way in which science educators present controversial issues. In particular, we argue that current approaches to teaching about controversy do not sufficiently acknowledge the nature of the issues themselves. The paper proposes a set of principles as the basis for a reconceptualization of the teaching of controversial issues and gives an example of how they might be applied.