Back to the Future: Re-appropriating Religious Education—A Case Study Using the Black Church

The article suggests that Religious Education, in practice and as a field, will benefit by exploring the history and practice of Religious Education in the Black church. Using examples from the history, curriculum, and process of Religious Education in the historic Black church, the article argues that the Black church offers a dynamic educational example for religion scholars and religious educators. The importance of reinvigorating Religious Education in the Black church is discussed and recommendations for future practice are made.     

The impact of situational dimensions on compliance‐resisting strategies: A comparison of methods

This study replicated and extended a study on compliance‐resisting and found that the factors of Intimacy and Rights to Resist each had predictable influences on strategy construction. Utilizing both constructed strategies and preference rating methods, similar situational effects on strategy selection were determined for negotiation, justification, and positive identity management strategies. For example, both procedures indicated that positive identity management strategies were selected more frequently in intimate situations than in nonintimate situations and both procedures indicated that rights to resist was not associated with this strategy selection. However, comparison of the methods indicated that participants underreported the likelihood‐of‐use of negative relational strategies in intimate situations and generally overreported the likelihood‐of‐use of positive identity management strategies. Recommendations for future research were discussed.     

What students think when teachers get upset: Fundamental attribution error and student‐generated reasons for teacher anger

Using a sample of college students (N = 301), this study examined students' attributions about and explanations for teachers' expressions of anger in the classroom. These displays of anger were evaluated based on the extent to which they were aggressive (e.g., Distributive or Passive) or assertive (e.g., Integrative). Consistent with the fundamental attribution error, students assigned internal attributions to teachers who used Distributive Aggression (e.g., yell and scream) and Passive‐Aggression (e.g., show anger with cold looks) to a greater extent than teachers who were Assertive (i.e., calmly discuss the problem with the students). When students were asked to identify why they thought their teacher was angry, the overwhelming majority of reasons involved student‐related problems. In fact, the most frequently cited reason was Student Misbehaviors followed by Lack of Student Effort. Surprisingly, students acknowledge that something they did triggered the teacher's display of anger; however, consistent with fundamental attribution error, students still attributed the teacher's expression of anger to internal causes. The implications of these findings for negative emotional expressions in the instructional context in particular and for teacher‐student relationships in general are discussed.     

“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.     

Putting words in their mouths: The alignment of identities with system goals through the use of Individual Learning Plans

This article analyses the role of Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) in teachers' work in the Skills for Life sector. It shows how ILPs, originally a means of formative assessment, have become part of a system of performance indicators and function as a key mediating mechanism between local interactions and system goals. The article draws on theoretical perspectives from the new literacy studies and the sociology of science to reveal the pivotal role of texts in projects of social ordering. The methodology is a version of institutional ethnography, whereby an artefact (the ILP) is tracked as it circulates across the different sites of its production and use. Documentary and interview evidence are used. The article concludes that, in its current form, the ILP shapes teaching and learning relationships and aligns both tutor and student identities. Permissive guidance, combined with a core curriculum, the demands of audit and inspection, positions tutors uncomfortably as active mediators between student experience and the policy discourse.     

Understanding School Counseling Internships From a Communities of Practice Framework

School counseling interns are on the boundary of communities of practice. This study explored how school counselors develop competence during internship experiences by analyzing an online dialogue taking place among a small group of interns. Feelings of being on the boundary intensified with unsatisfactory supervisor‐intern relationships (lack of mutuality of engagement) or when interns experienced a sense of powerlessness to effect change at their internship placements (negotiating their repertoire). As boundary dwellers, interns turned to peers to make sense of their experiences (accountability to the joint enterprise). Implications include the importance of the supervisor‐intern relationship and the relationships among internship peers.     

Beyond the skin bag: on the moral responsibility of extended agencies

The growing prominence of computers in contemporary life, often seemingly with minds of their own, invites rethinking the question of moral responsibility. If the moral responsibility for an act lies with the subject that carried it out, it follows that different concepts of the subject generate different views of moral responsibility. Some recent theorists have argued that actions are produced by composite, fluid subjects understood as extended agencies (cyborgs, actor networks). This view of the subject contrasts with methodological individualism: the idea that actions are produced only by human individuals. This essay compares two views of responsibility: moral individualism (the ethical twin of methodological individualism), and joint responsibility (associated with extended agency theory). It develops a view of what joint responsibility might look like, and considers the advantages it might bring relative to moral individualism as well as the objections that are sure to be raised against it.     

The Mobile Reference Service: a case study of an onsite reference service program at the school of public health

The School of Public Health at Saint Louis University is located at a greater distance from the library than other programs on the main medical center campus. Physical distance diminishes the ease of access to direct reference services for public health users. To bridge the gap, the library developed the Mobile Reference Service to deliver onsite information assistance with regular office hours each week. Between September 2006 and April 2007, a total of 57 in-depth reference transactions took place over 25 weeks, averaging 2 transactions per week in a 2-hour period. Overall reference transactions from public health users went up 28%, while liaison contacts with public health users doubled compared to the same period the year before. The Mobile Reference Service program has improved library support for research and scholarship, cultivated and strengthened liaison relationships, and enhanced marketing and delivery of library resources and services to the Saint Louis University School of Public Health.     

Therapeutic Alliance: A Concept for the Childbearing Season

This analysis was conducted to describe the concept of therapeutic alliance and its appropriateness for health-care provider-client interactions during the childbearing season. The concept has been defined in other disciplines. A universal definition suggested a merging of efforts directed toward health. A simple and concise definition evolved, which is applicable to the childbearing season as well as to health-care encounters across the life span. This definition states: Therapeutic alliance is a process within a health-care provider-client interaction that is initiated by an identified need for positive client health-care behaviors, whereby both parties work together toward this goal with consideration of the client''s current health status and developmental stage within the life span.