Social capital in the classroom: a study of in-class social capital and school adjustment

Social capital is generally considered beneficial for students’ school adjustment. This paper argues that social relationships among pupils generate social capital at both the individual and the class levels, and that each has its unique effect on pupils’ performance and well-being. The sample in this study consists of 1036 children in 60 first-grade classes in 46 Dutch elementary schools. Multilevel regression results show that a substantial proportion of the variance in school adjustment can be attributed to the class level and that both individual-level and classroom-level social capital have substantial effects on school adjustment. At the individual level, the size of one’s network is more important than its structure. At the collective level, social capital also has a ‘dark side’ because it can have negative effects on adjustment, lowering the academic performance in a class.     

How stable is the stratification of higher education in England and Scotland?

This paper asks whether the institutional hierarchies defined by ‘golden triangle’, other Russell Group, other pre-1992 and post-1992 universities in England, and by ancient, old and new universities in Scotland, have become weaker since the 1990s. Using indicators constructed from Universities and Colleges Admissions Service data for 1996–2010, the article finds a stable hierarchical relationship among the sectors within each country, with some indicators showing a slight widening of status differences between sectors towards the end of the period. The main exception was a slight ‘upgrading’ of new (post-1992) universities in Scotland early in the period. There was little change in the association of institutional sector with social class, but in England the association with private secondary schools became slightly stronger and the association with ethnicity weakened.     

Fostering Social and Emotional Skills for Well-Being and Social Progress

Children need a balanced set of cognitive, social and emotional capabilities to adapt to today's demanding, changing and unpredictable world. OECD countries and partner economies recognise the importance on the holistic development of individuals. However, there are big gaps between stakeholders' knowledge, expectations and practices on how to foster such skills. This paper presents evidence on the importance of social and emotional skills; on how policy makers and schools are currently enhancing and monitoring such skills; and, on the existing gaps between knowledge, expectations and practices to mobilise these skills. The paper concludes by pointing ways in which education stakeholders can do more to better develop and mobilise the skills that drive individual's well-being and social progress. The paper draws on findings and frameworks that are being published in a full OECD report entitled ‘Skills for Social Progress: the Power of Social and Emotional Skills’ in the first half of 2015.     

Predicting Day-to-Day Changes in Students’ School-Related Affect From Daily Academic Experiences and Social Interactions

This study examined the role that everyday academic successes and failures—and the interactions with family members and peers that follow these events—play in predicting day-to-day changes in children's emotional responses to school. Middle school students (N = 101; mean age = 11.62 years) completed daily assessments of their academic experiences, performance disclosures, perceptions of emotional support, and school-related affect. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Results indicated that students’ daily academic experiences and social interactions varied by both sex and interaction partner, and that students’ daily academic experiences and social interactions were predictive of day-to-day changes in both positive and anxious affect. The implications of these findings for students’ interpersonal relationships and school adjustment are discussed.     

Educating child practitioners: a (re)turn to the university disciplines

This paper analyses a specific disjunctive policy space in Scotland involving the current key children's social and educational policy agenda, Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC), and a recent national report on teacher education, the ‘Donaldson Report’. In four main parts, the paper first introduces and applies in policy review and analysis a capitals frame to identify the policy–practice discontinuities currently inherent in the ‘GIRFEC-child practitioner education’ policy space, exemplified by the Donaldson Report. Then, the same capitals frame is applied to examine the capitals resources demanded in the particular ‘child–child practitioner education’ policy space previously delineated. Next, examples of policy disconnects amongst current child practice and practitioner education policy production and implementation, which warrant a concerted integrative cross-sector project to ensure coherent social and intellectual capital relations at all levels, are discussed. Finally, the paper calls for the governing professional registration bodies and universities involved in the education of child-sector practitioners to engage in the redesign of university programmes underpinned by principles of transdisciplinarity and transprofessionalism. The methodology is policy sociology and policy text analysis.     

Inequality in Ethiopian higher education: reframing the problem as capability deprivation

The revitalization of Ethiopian higher education (HE) has been underway since the early 2000s. As well as the economic optimism evident in the ‘knowledge-driven poverty reduction’ discourse, social equity goals underscore the reform and expansion of the system. Notwithstanding the widening participation and the equity policy provisions put in place, the problem of inequality has persisted along the lines of ethnicity, gender, rurality and socio-economic background. This paper reviews major equity policy instruments and highlights the enduring inequalities in Ethiopian HE. It argues that this persistence is related in part to the ways in which the problem is represented in policy, and that redressing the problem necessitates framing inequality as capability deprivation rather than as issues of access and disparities in enrolment.     

新媒体语境特征与用户态度关系构建的实证研究

通过对上海市民进行抽样调查,并使用结构方法模型对新媒体语境下的受众社会态度倾向进行实证研究,得出如下结论：新媒体语境通过社会懈怠对用户风险偏好和群体极化倾向产生正向影响,对责任与公平意识、道德发展以及亲社会倾向产生负向影响;媒体接触频率在新媒体与社会懈怠关系中具有显著正向调节作用,而媒体接触的多样性在其中的调节作用并不明显;在主效应和调节作用中,均表现出对男性的影响大于对女性的影响,其影响大小随着年龄的增加而呈减弱趋势。     

社会转型期东北区域社会突发事件诱因探析

中国社会正经历着由传统感性社会向现代理性社会的转变过程,形成以理性为主题的现代社会。把理性主义作为行为选择,构建社会制度并扩展到社会各个层面与领域,形成理性选择、理性构建与社会秩序理性化结果,保留部分感性传统于现代社会基础层面,在现代社会转变中形成新的感性意识,两方面构成东北区域社会的理性与感性基础,并在东北区域现代社会意识类型、生成根据、目标与路径、社会秩序方面存在差异与对立,成为转型期东北区域社会突发事件生成的冲突诱因。