Commitment To Social Justice Research Articles

Health-care providers’ experiences with opt-out HIV testing: a systematic review

HIV is now a manageable chronic disease with a good prognosis, but early detection and referral for treatment are vital. In opt-out HIV testing, patients are informed that they will be tested unless they decline. This qualitative systematic review explored the experiences, attitudes, barriers, and facilitators of opt-out HIV testing from a health-care provider (HCP) perspective. Four articles were included in the synthesis and reported on findings from approximately 70 participants, representing diverse geographical regions and a range of human development status and HIV prevalence. Two synthesized findings emerged: HCP attitudes and systems. The first synthesized finding encompassed HCP decision-making attitudes about who and when to test for HIV. It also included the assumptions the HCPs made about patient consequences. The second synthesized finding related to systems. System-related barriers to opt-out HIV testing included lack of time, resources, and adequate training. System-related facilitators included integration into standard practice, support of the medical setting, and electronic reminders. A common attitude among HCPs was the outdated notion that HIV is a terrible disease that equates to certain death. Some HCPs stated that offering the HIV test implied that the patient had engaged in immoral behaviour, which could lead to stigma or disengagement with health services. This paternalism diminished patient autonomy, because patients who were excluded from opt-out HIV testing could have benefited from it. One study highlighted the positive aspects of opt-out HIV testing, in which participants underscored the professional satisfaction that arose from making an HIV diagnosis, particularly when marginalized patients could be connected to treatment and social services. Recommendations for opt-out HIV testing should be disseminated to HCPs in a broad range of settings. Implementation of system-related factors such as electronic reminders and care coordination procedures should be considered, and a social-justice commitment among HCPs should be encouraged.

Conceptualizing social justice: interviews with principals

Purpose – Today, as the understanding of diversity is further expanded, the meaning of social justice becomes even more complicated, if not confusing. The purpose of this paper is to explore how school principals with social justice commitment understand and perceive social justice in their leadership practices. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research design is used for this study. In total, 22 school principals in Ontario were interviewed. The interviews glean data on principals’ work context, their perceptions of social justice, and anecdotes, stories, and examples concerning social justice in their practices. Findings – The research findings draw attention to the central importance of awareness of the social injustices in schools – in structure, policy, and practices – and open space for debate on what can be considered as leadership for social justice. They also provide a useful starting point in exploring how leadership roles and practices can be improved to reverse injustices associated with the diversity of students based on race, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, and ability. Originality/value – What principals perceive may have a significant impact on the actions and practices for social justice. Therefore, it is important to gain insight into principals’ persecutions and perspectives on social justice as they may become norms and criteria that guide their actions.

From Awareness to Action: College Students’ Skill Development in Intergroup Dialogue

A central goal of intergroup dialogue (IGD) is to strengthen individual and collective capacities to foster social justice commitments by supporting new ways of thinking about oneself, others, and the social structures in which we live. Relatedly, IGD assists individuals with building multicultural competencies and skill sets that support peoples’ capacities to take action and work towards social change. The following qualitative study contributes to current research by describing the types of skills undergraduate students report learning as a result of their IGD experience and the challenges they encounter as they develop communication, cognitive, and affective skills.

Graduate Trainees’ Social Justice Supports, Beliefs, Interest, and Commitment

The present study examined the direct and indirect relationships between belief in a just world, belief in an unjust world, perceived social supports, and training supports, and social justice self-efficacy beliefs, interest, and commitment among 274 graduate counselor trainees. Structural equation modeling revealed that social justice self-efficacy had direct and indirect effects on social justice commitment by bolstering social justice interest. Furthermore, the more participants believed that the world was a just place, the less interest and commitment they expressed for social justice advocacy. Moreover, the more social support, training supports, social justice self-efficacy, and interest participants reported, the higher their commitment to doing social justice work. Finally, training supports only had a direct link to social justice commitment. Implications for theory, training programs, and research are addressed.

20대 소비자의 사회 책임적 소비행동의 실천 경로 분석: 사회정의 관심과 실천 모델의 적용

20대 소비자의 사회 책임적 소비행동의 실천 경로 분석: 사회정의 관심과 실천 모델의 적용

Differentiation of Self and Social Justice Commitment Mediated by Hope

This study tested a theoretical model of hope mediating the relationship between differentiation of self and social justice commitment among graduate students (N = 202) in the helping professions. The theory was based primarily on the social justice philosophies of Martin Luther King Jr., Cornel West, and Paulo Freire using a cultural psychology approach. Results generally supported the theoretical model. Implications are considered for both training and future research on social justice.

Pedagogical Encounters, Graduate Teaching Assistants, and Decolonial Feminist Commitments

Attempts to reform graduate teaching assistant (GTA) programs and enhance GTAs’ pedagogical experiences have been longstanding areas of interest in higher education. With the neoliberal climatic shift across US higher education, greater strains have been placed on departments to fulfill instructional roles that produce an output of quality student learners with limited investments into the development of pedagogical philosophies and praxis of the GTA workforce. Through examination of the interconnections between GTAs’ pedagogical philosophies, pedagogical experiences, and systemic structural inequalities, empirical studies can reveal spaces of struggle that speak back to institutional cultures of power and privilege and illuminate opportunities for social justice transformation in GTA programs across disciplines in higher education. Cognizant of the important role GTAs play at research universities, higher education research includes numerous empirical studies that explore the experiences of GTAs. Yet these experiential studies have customarily occurred in isolation of scholarly inquiry and dialogue on the pedagogical philosophies held by GTAs. Contemporary research on GTAs’ experiences is situated across academic disciplines and identifies the need for increased pedagogical content knowledge through early training and preparation (Dunn-Haley and Zanzuchhi) and professional development (Gardner and Jones). Current literature examines GTAs’ personal experiences and perspectives on the responsibilities associated with their role (Cho et al.; Green; Jia and Bergerson), professional identity development (Archer; Dunn-Haley, and Zanzuchhi; Green), and includes revelations of negative emotional feelings, diminished self-efficacy (Prieto and Altmaier), and classroom management challenges and concerns (Luo, Bellows, and Grady). While most studies have focused on the symbolic experiences of GTAs’ university interactions, few studies have examined those experiences through a structural analysis that centers the concept of power (Lowe and Pugh). Moreover, there remains a significant absence of literature theorizing and researching GTAs’ pedagogical experiences and development in context of their expressed pedagogical philosophies and social justice commitments, and in Pedagogical Encounters, Graduate Teaching Assistants, and Decolonial Feminist Commitments

Hope and positive religious coping as predictors of social justice commitment

The present study tested a theoretical model of dispositional hope and positive religious coping as unique predictors of social justice commitment over and above impression management in a sample of graduate students (N = 214) in helping professions at an Evangelical Protestant university in the USA. This empirical study utilised a cultural psychology approach with a theoretical framework developed from (a) an earlier cultural psychology study of hope and social justice using the social philosophies of Martin Luther King, Jr, Cornel West, and Paulo Freire and (b) several liberation and Pietistic theologians. Results supported the discriminant validity hypothesis with dispositional hope and positive religious coping each predicting social justice commitment over and above a measure of spiritual impression management. Implications are considered for contextually sensitive training and future empirical and interdisciplinary research on social justice commitment.

Differentiation-based models of forgivingness, mental health and social justice commitment: Mediator effects for differentiation of self and humility

The present study tested theoretical models of the forgivingness – well-being association with depression symptoms and social justice commitment as outcome measures and with differentiation of self (DoS) and dispositional humility as mediators. In doing so, we addressed the need to explicitly frame the study of virtues in a relational view of the self and extended the research on forgivingness and humility that moves beyond a focus on personal benefit and attends to the ways in which virtues also benefit other persons. The sample consisted of 213 graduate students from a religiously-affiliated university who completed a questionnaire of self-report measures. Results supported the proposed models as significant specific indirect effects were observed through DoS and humility. The findings support a self-regulating mechanism, as measured by DoS and dispositional humility, for the protective influence of forgivingness on depression symptoms and the promotive influence of forgivingness on prosocial relating.

Creating Campus Cultures: Fostering Success among Racially Diverse Student Populations by Samuel D. Museus and Uma M. Jayakumar (review)

Reviewed by: Creating Campus Cultures: Fostering Success among Racially Diverse Student Populations by Samuel D. Museus and Uma M. Jayakumar Pamela Petrease Felder Samuel D. Museus and Uma M. Jayakumar. Creating Campus Cultures: Fostering Success among Racially Diverse Student Populations. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2011. 240 pp. Paper: $44.95. ISBN: 978-0-4158-8820-2. Ten years after William Smith, Philip Altbach, and Kofi Lomotey (2002) published The Racial Crisis in American Higher Education: Continuing Challenges for the Twenty-first Century, Samuel D. Museus and Uma M. Jayaukumar have moved the discussion of race and culture forward by leading a discussion of how to practically minimize racial and cultural challenges on college and university campuses. In Creating Campus Cultures: Fostering Success among Racially Diverse Student Populations, Museus and Jayaukumar provide much-needed resources for diversity advocates committed to enacting strategies that address a host of pervasive historical, social, student, faculty and administrative racial and cultural challenges highlighted in Smith, Altbach and Lomotey's work. In the spirit of acknowledging the social justice commitment of critical race theory, a discussion of the transition between these two works is warranted to examine the ways in which the "crisis" has been considered. Creating Campus Cultures facilitates a discussion highlighting an evolution of research; moving from presenting racial issues and challenges (Smith, Altbach, & Lomotey) to enacting solutions that [End Page 107] foster diversity and strengthen insitutional capacity to serve marginalized constituents (Museus & Jayakumar). In fact, the foreword of Museus and Jayakuamar's work, written by race scholar Shaun Harper, aptly notes, "At this point, especially with the publication of this new book, there is a great deal that is known about the conditions, policies, and practices necessary for achieving racial equity in higher education" (p. x). This review highlights connections between these texts, and makes explicit observations about Museus and Jayakumar's intention to support diversity advocates in the construction of safe spaces conducive to learning (and thriving) in environments that are prone to marginalizing racially diverse students. In many ways Museus and Jayakumar advance Smith, Altbach, and Lomotey's vision through historical, structural, psychological, and behavioral concepts that are actualized by way of strategies, programming, and interactions through diversity advocacy. In 10 chapters, Museus and Jayakumar elicit perspectives from numerous emerging and seasoned race scholars to excavate the contemporary notion of institutional culture. For example, Chapter 1 offers several suggestions about the authenticity of culture and what this may mean in a variety of contexts. As a notable feature, the chapter encourages the reader to inquire about authenticity and the many ways it can be created, managed, and sustained through multiple intersections on his or her own campus. Chapter 2 follows with similar qualities and with the use of story-telling and counterstory-telling to depict belief systems about racist institutional norms. Together, both chapters sketch conversations about racial ideology and the challenges associated with cross-ethnic difference described by Bowman and Smith (2002, p. 103). This discussion includes what Bowman and Smith assert to be the "cultural pathology stereotypes and conservative policy values [that] may increasingly operate to undermine the racial climate and sense of community on campus" (p. 105). Museus and Jayakumar's work familiarizes the reader with the behavior associated with this pathology and how it impedes the cultivation of supportive campus cultures. The book flows from discussing notions of culture and the intersectionality of race and climate to a broad discussion of strategies for fostering and managing inquiry related to equity and student success. Effective support of marginalized sudents involves asking questions that demystify their experience. Chapters 3 and 4 provide guidance for looking deeper into institutional "best practice" approaches and their intentionality in addressing underrepresented groups. These chapters suggest that more data about marginalized student issues are not necessarily accurate data. Finding new paradigms focused on critiquing racialized theories (Smith, Altbach, & Lomotey, 2002) must be a priority in creating campus cultures. Chapters 5 and 6 focus on culture and the academic experience. Like the rest of the book, there is an active and participatory tone encouraging the reader to examine specific challenges related to creating culture within his or her interactions on campus. For example, the authors...

Role of Ethnic Statistics in Indian Anti-Discrimination Policies

This article focuses on an aspect of discrimination peculiar to India, caste-based discrimination, using the debate on caste-based census to illustrate the relationship between affirmative action policy and statistics. We begin by describing how discriminatory practices are set within the history of power relations between caste-groups; and the development of India’s anti-discrimination policy through caste-based reservation and the quota system. The interface of statistics and anti-discrimination policy is analyzed against this background using caste-based census as illustrative. While Indian census has a long history, comprehensive caste-census was undertaken first in 2011. Being relatively new, this allows us to study the political, socio-economic and practical issues such a statistical exercise throws up in social policy. Many nations are characterized by social inequalities but in India these inequalities were highly structured in the caste-system. Affirmative action in India takes the form of positive discrimination operationalised through reservations, as against non-discrimination of western democracies. However redistribution is unevenly spread and timely data is scarce. The key motivation behind caste-counting was to identify which castes are backward or improved their socio-economic status. Debates surrounding the current exercise illustrate the politics of caste. Due to its socio-economic and political consequences, it elicits intense discussions in the media and political parties. Major political parties affirm the need for caste-enumeration. Critics express anxiety about heightening divisiveness with vested interests making political capital of caste loyalties. The socio-political and ideological criticality of the census is not to be found in academic discussions; rather it is traceable more accurately in people’s reactions. During the colonial census various ambitious castes quickly perceived chances of raising their status. The contours of caste-politics are refashioned and renegotiated in response to the current census just as in the British attempt. The outpouring of caste-based demands, gatherings and statements shows caste being politicized and animated by head-counts. The fact that notionally rigid categories can be renegotiated to secure political influence reminds us that caste has always been pliable to political influence. For now it provides multiple organizations a powerful means of mobilizing support and an emotional card to play. Central to these machinations is the fact that the survey is perceived as more than a collection of numbers; and as a means of classifying and categorizing the social universe into groups entitled or not entitled to certain benefits. Incorporating caste as an enumerative criterion is likely to have major social ramifications. In a country living with the reality of caste and striving to offset disadvantages based on social hierarchy, holding a caste-census has wide appeal. The new data should enabling new policy criteria for recognizing intra-and inter-group socio-economic inequalities and discharging social-justice commitments. Caste-enumeration is undertaken with Below Poverty Line census so there is simultaneous mapping of the economic, caste, and religious backgrounds. The strongest point for caste-census was that it would help devise evidence-based social policy. The census raises procedural and practical issues. The first is data availability. Enumerative methodology requires consideration. Even more scientifically challenging is integrating the headcount with the socio-economic profile and deriving a caste’s state of backwardness. It was concluded that the Census Commission of India was equipped to handle such procedural and methodological requirements. The stand that caste-consciousness is best obliterated over time by neglect would be tenable but for the resurgence of quota-consciousness. People are familiar with categories like scheduled, backward and general; the census will just be a more factual version of information they are accustomed to providing. Aside from yielding a database, knowing caste-shares will enable a fair operation of the reservation. For now, the caste-census is already a reality. It requires a vigilant watch to see its repercussions on the fabric of Indian society.

Exploring the corollaries of students’ social justice intentionality

The preparation of students to take part in social justice advocacy has been increasingly embraced within higher education in the USA; nevertheless, the corollaries of social justice intentionality and commitment among students have yet to be investigated thoroughly. To contribute to the study of this question, data from 217 American psychology students were analyzed via a hierarchical multiple regression model that examined the ability of demographic variables, program enrollment and endorsement of structural explanations of racism and poverty to account for variability in social justice intentionality. Results indicated that awareness of structural aspects of oppression was more important than program enrollment or demographic variables in explaining social justice intentionality.

Spirituality, social justice, and intercultural competence: Mediator effects for differentiation of self

The present study tested the relationships between spirituality, differentiation of self (DoS), social justice commitment, and intercultural competence among graduate trainees in the helping professions. The sample consisted of 139 graduate students at a Protestant-affiliated university. Results supported the hypotheses that DoS would mediate the relationships between spiritual well-being and both social justice commitment and intercultural competence. DoS also mediated the relationship between spiritual instability and intercultural competence, but this was not observed for the links between spiritual instability and social justice commitment. Implications are considered for training in intercultural competence and social justice, particularly with highly religious trainees.

Beth Quitslund, The Reformation in Rhyme: Sternhold, Hopkins and the English Metrical Psalter, 1547–1603The Reformation in Rhyme: Sternhold, Hopkins and the English Metrical Psalter, 1547–1603. Beth Quitslund. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008. Pp. x+322.

<i>Beth Quitslund</i>, The Reformation in Rhyme: Sternhold, Hopkins and the English Metrical Psalter, 1547–1603<i>The Reformation in Rhyme: Sternhold, Hopkins and the English Metrical Psalter, 1547–1603</i>. Beth Quitslund. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008. Pp. x+322.

Counseling psychology trainees' perceptions of training and commitments to social justice.

This mixed methods study examined social justice commitments of counseling psychology graduate trainees. In the quantitative portion of the study, a national sample of trainees (n = 260) completed a web-based survey assessing their commitments to social justice and related personal and training variables. Results suggested that students desired greater social justice training than what they experienced in their programs. In the qualitative portion, we used a phenomenological approach to expand and elaborate upon quantitative results. A subsample (n = 7) of trainees who identified as strong social justice activists were interviewed regarding their personal, professional, and training experiences. Eleven themes related to participants' meanings of and experiences with social justice emerged within 4 broad categories: nature of social justice, motivation for activism, role of training, and personal and professional integration. Thematic findings as well as descriptive statistics informed the selection and ordering of variables in a hierarchical regression analysis that examined predictors of social justice commitment. Results indicated that trainees' perceptions of training environment significantly predicted their social justice commitment over and above their general activist orientation and spirituality. Findings are discussed collectively, and implications for training and future research are provided.

Journal Editorship: Mentoring, Democratic, and International Perspectives

This essay builds on a review of studies in education. Journal editorship is explored from the mentoring, democratic, and international perspectives. Trends are examined within the publishing culture around these three editorial functions. Theoretical groundwork is provided for exploring contemporary journal editorship and its challenges and breakthroughs. Results indicate that editors are taking crucial steps toward promoting democracy and equity in the education profession. Tangible examples of this social justice commitment are given.

Communication, Social Justice, and Joyful Commitment

Combining an overview of the history of communication scholarship with lessons learned from 20 years of experience as a prison abolitionist and peace activist, Hartnett argues that the discipline of communication can be enriched intellectually and made more politically relevant by turning our efforts toward community service, problem-based learning, and new means of collective scholarly production. Drawing from his personal experiences to address the consequences and opportunities of engaging in such work, Hartnett calls upon communication scholars to forego heroic narratives of triumph, instead focusing on what he calls “joyful commitment,” a Buddhist-inspired sense of seeking fulfillment via solidarity with others.

College students’ social justice interest and commitment: A social-cognitive perspective.

In this study, the authors examined the degree to which social-cognitive career theory (SCCT; R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1994) explained the development of social justice interest and commitment. Data from 274 college students and latent variable path modeling were used to test theoretically and empirically derived SCCT direct and indirect effects structural models. The direct effects model estimated the direct effect of social supports and barriers on social justice commitment and the indirect effects model estimated the effect of social supports and barriers indirectly through self-efficacy. Overall, the present findings supported the use of SCCT within the social justice domain, as social justice self-efficacy and outcome expectations were useful in explaining the development of college students' social justice interest and commitment. The present findings supported the indirect effects model of social justice interest and commitment over the direct effects model. Finally, unique to prior tests of SCCT in vocational and academic domains, social supports and barriers exhibited an indirect effect on commitment through outcome expectations. Study limitations, future directions for research, and implications for facilitating college students' social justice interest and commitment are discussed.

The concept of the ‘lifeworld orientation’ for social work and social care

This paper presents and examines the lifeworld orientation for social work and social care. This concept has, since its establishment in the 1970s, become dominant in German theory and practice discourses. The authors describe the theory's specific and critical view of both life situations and social care, and how this perspective stresses the subjectivity of all patterns of interpretation and practice. Social work and social care with a lifeworld orientation supports everyday coping patterns in the struggle for a successful everyday. The concept has its roots in critical-hermeneutic pedagogy, interactionism and recent social science analyses of an unjust, fragile and complex society. Practice maxims are prevention, everyday relevance, regionalisation, integration and participation. Respect and negotiation are used when shaping dimensions of the everyday: time, social environment and social relations. Learning organisation and flexibilisation principles help achieve structured open-endedness. It is noted that the social justice commitment of the lifeworld orientation is endangered by current trends: the depoliticising of social problems and the reduction of social care to controlling functions. The authors conclude by arguing for a reassertion of lifeworld orientation principles in the face of these problematic developments.

Spirituality, Life Stress, and Affective Well-Being

Recent research has explored many aspects of affective well-being, including depressive symptoms, positive and negative affect. The present study sought to contribute to this line of inquiry by investigating the role of life stress, spiritual life integration (SLI), and social justice commitment (SJC) in predicting affective well-being. Participants were 136 undergraduate students with a mean age of 18.82 (SD = 1.07), and age range of 17–22. Participants completed a questionnaire packet including the Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire (USQ), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), and Spiritual Involvement Scale which includes SLI and SJC subscales. In line with previous findings, life stress significantly predicted negative affect and depressive symptoms in hierarchical regression analyses. Contrary to previous research, SLI did not predict any aspect of affective well-being. Finally, SJC significantly predicted positive affect, negative affect, and depressive symptoms. Interpretations, implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.