Current Social Realities Research Articles

Teaching and talking about religion: strategies for teacher educators

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to outline arguments for addressing religion in social studies teacher education, including strategies teacher educators might use on how and why pre-service teachers should incorporate teaching about religion in their classes. Topics addressed are: issues surrounding pre-service teachers’ religious identities; teaching pre-service teachers about legal issues associated with religion in public school classrooms (e.g. teaching about religion vs teaching for religion, First Amendment rights and constraints); teacher education’s role in developing religious knowledge and the influence of religion in the disciplines that comprise the social studies; and an overview of strategies and resources that teacher educators can use with their pre-service teachers.Design/methodology/approachThis paper provides a literature review and arguments for addressing religion in social studies teacher education. A lesson plan and resources for teacher educators are also provided.FindingsTeaching and talking about religion can no longer be marginalized or ignored within social studies teacher education. Whether it be the importance of pre-service teachers’ religious identities, legal issues related to public schooling or the influence of religion across the social studies disciplines – religion matters to social studies teacher education. As the current social, political and cultural realities attest, the influence of religion appears to be more and more significant in our interconnected and interdependent world.Originality/valueReligious literacy is a key part of civic competence and if social studies is viewed as a way to help prepare a more informed citizenry – and a way to teach and promote dialogue across difference – then social studies teacher educators must find a way to include religion in their courses. By doing so, teacher educators encourage pre-service teachers to examine how religious identity may influence their teaching, and also help develop religious literacy and an understanding of how religion is integral to the various social studies disciplines. Ultimately, this important and often ignored work in teacher education may foster cultural understandings that will lead to a more informed and respectful society.

Debates on Religious Studies In the Phenomenology Perspective and Its Contribution to Interfaith Tolerance

The phenomenological approach in religious studies has played an essential role in uncovering the mysteries of religious experience. With the epoché concept, which refers to the meaning of "delaying all judgments", or it can be said as meaning with the intention of suspending an understanding, that is interpreted as "confinement" (bracketing), the researcher must temporarily let go of all his judgments or understanding of the phenomenon under study to obtain universal knowledge that is transcendental to the phenomenon of religion and experience the essence that they obtain. However, critics from experts for this phenomenological approach to religion still exist, in this case, summarized in three points: first, about the continuity of the phenomenology of religion as a philosophical tradition. Second, hidden theological assumptions or motives behind the phenomenological approach of religion. Third, what is the involvement of religious scientists in the public role as social scientists face current social and political realities or the challenges of religious scientists whether they accept the public role or do not face the reality of various problems faced by society.

The Quandary of Youth Participatory Action Research in School Settings: A Framework for Reflecting on the Factors That Influence Purpose and Process

Youth participatory action research (YPAR) is a form of critical participatory action research that provides young people with opportunities to identify injustices in their current social realities, to gather and analyze data about these phenomena, and to determine actions that will begin to rectify their negative outcomes. A growing body of evidence suggests that YPAR projects improve outcomes for individual youth as well as the organizations/settings they act on. Despite this, the extent to which YPAR can and should be used in institutions that reproduce dominant cultural power dynamics remains a subject of debate. Building on recent studies that explore the tensions inherent in school-based YPAR projects, in this theoretical essay Gretchen Brion-Meisels and Zanny Alter put three fundamental tenets of YPAR—participation, purpose, and level of analysis—into conversation with each other. Illustrating their points using examples from an ongoing YPAR project that explores barriers to on-time graduation at an urban high school, they describe the ways in which these tenets are central to YPAR projects and identify several elements of schooling that complicate decision making around these fundamental ideas.

A New Copyright Bargain? Reclaiming Lost Culture and Getting Authors Paid

A New Copyright Bargain? Reclaiming Lost Culture and Getting Authors Paid

Metamorphoses of the African American Identity in Post-segregation Era and the Theory of Afrocentrism

The article deals with the issue of African American identity in the post-segregation period (after 1968). The problem of African Americans’ “double consciousness”, marked for the first time yet in the late 19th – early 20th century, still remains relevant. It is that descendants of slaves, who over the centuries have been relegated to the periphery of the American society, have been experiencing and in part are experiencing an internal conflict, caused by the presence of both American and African components in their identities. The authors focus on Afrocentrism (Afrocentricity) – a socio-cultural theory, proposed by Molefi Kete Asante in 1980 as a strategy to overcome this conflict and to construct a particular form of “African” collective identity of African Americans. This theory, based on the idea of Africa and all people of African descent’s centrality in world history and culture, was urged to completely decolonize and transform African Americans’ consciousness. The Afrocentrists proposed African Americans to re- Africanize their self-consciousness, turn to African cultural roots in order to get rid of a heritable inferiority complex formed by slavery and segregation. This article presents a brief outline of the history of Afrocentrism, its intellectual sources and essential structural elements, particularly Africology. The authors analyze the concepts of racial identity, “black consciousness” and “black unity” in the contexts of the Afrocentric theory and current social realities of the African American community. Special attention is paid to the methodology and practice of Afrocentric education. In Conclusion, the authors evaluate the role and prospects of Afrocentrism among African Americans in the context of general trends of their identities transformations.

INSTYTUCJA PRZEDSZKOLA WOBEC PROBLEMÓW RODZINY WIELKIEGO MIASTA

Współczesna rodzina jest narażona na działanie wielu negatywnych czynników zewnętrznych, które w sposób gwałtowny i wieloraki wpływają na jej przemiany, powodując dezintegrację i dezorganizację. Wciąż narastające tempo życia, brak czasu i cierpliwości, jak również nieodpowiednie przygotowanie do pełnienia roli rodzica to często zbyt wysokie wymagania, którym większość osób nie jest w stanie sprostać. Osobiste pragnienia, aspiracje, pogoń za karierą, których uzyskanie ma zapewnić wyższy status materialny oraz większą akceptację i szacunek społeczny niosą ze sobą realne zagrożenia dla rodziny i wypełniania jej funkcji wobec dziecka. Warto jednak wskazać, że czas poświęco¬ny na wychowanie jest czasem bezcennym. Wspólnie spędzony czas sprzyja bliskości i budowaniu więzi. Dla prawidłowego i pełnego rozwoju dziecka najistotniejsza jest jakość wspólnie przeżytego czasu – nie tylko poświęcanie go na czynności pielęgnacyjne, ale też koncentracja na dziecku, wsłuchanie się w dziecko, w jego pragnienia i potrzeby. Jednak wielu rodziców ulega złudzeniu, że wokół jest wiele pilniejszych i ważniejszych spraw, wydaje się im, że jeszcze zdążą wycho-wać swoje dzieci. Niejednokrotnie też zdarza się, że rodzice po prostu uciekają od swoich dzieci, zasłaniając się pracą, obowiązkami i uspra¬wiedliwiając się jednocześnie, że przecież to, co robią, robią również dla dobra własnych dzieci, aby zapewnić im w przyszłości dobrobyt i bezpieczeństwo. Wiele instytucji – placówki przedszkolne, szkoły, środki masowego przekazu, środowiska lokalne, stowarzyszenia, organizacje pozarzą¬dowe, ośrodki opiekuńczo-wychowawcze, domy kultury, ośrodki pomocy społecznej, placówki kulturalne usiłują nieść pomoc rodzinom w ich działalności opiekuńczo wychowawczej. Szczególną rolę w tym procesie pomocy odgrywa przedszkole. Działalność przedszkola w swych założeniach jest ściśle powiązana i podporządkowana wycho¬waniu i socjalizacji dziecku w rodzinie, gdyż to właśnie w rodzinie realizowane powinny być funkcje i zadania wpływające na życie, rozwój, wychowanie i edukację dzieci. Rodzina to pierwsze i podstawo¬we środowisko życia dziecka, przedszkole i inne instytucje oświatowe i opiekuńcze nie przejmują funkcji wychowawczej rodziny, lecz wspierają ją w działaniach. Koncepcja przedszkola musi być więc powiąza¬na z aktualną rzeczywistością społeczną i odpowiadać na współczesne potrzeby rodzin. Prezentowany artykuł obejmuje omówienie aspektów funkcjonowania rodziny wielkiego miasta wraz z przedstawieniem wyników badań w zakresie oczekiwań rodziców wobec instytucji przedszkola.

What we see is what we choose: seers and seekers with diversity

Educators are always reminded that the act of teaching and learning has to be purposeful and highly relevant to all individuals and groups within particular societies. However, societies are highly complex, and they are traversed by varied categorical groupings based on individual and group identities. Taylor contends that categorical identity groupings have become current social realities. Hence we, as educators, cannot avoid the meaningful recognition of such social groups to mobilise relevant, accessible and purposeful educational experiences for all. As we recognise and acknowledge the categorical groups, we construct images of society by positioning these groups in particular ways. We draw upon our images to further engage in our pedagogical acts, as each image advises us how we conduct our role as educators. Thus, images of society held by us as educators become our discursive choice. In this paper, I outline the conceptual underpinnings of some of those discursive images; and I propose that identifying the conceptual relationship between educators’ images of society and their choice in educating groups is critical for the act of education to become socially just and equitable.

Recognizing and Addressing the Seismic Shift in Child Psychosocial and Emotional Wellbeing: Technological Implications and Recommendations for the Current and Future Social Realities of Twenty-First Century Children

There are new realities of the modern age that can directly and indirectly implicate the current and future psychosocial development and emotional wellbeing of children. The following discussion in this article emanates from the common position of both authors who recognize a seismic shift in the lives of children has occurred. Both authors hold the position that the social realities of children have changed and continue to change. At the core of this shift lies an advance in technology; a technological advance so fluid, which has effectively rapidly disseminated into society and transformed children’s social realities. In this article, the realities of the psychological and emotional wellbeing concerns of children will be discussed, in addition to the implications of the new social realities for children, with a specific focus on technological advances, educational and parental implications. Finally, recommendations will be presented for addressing the seismic shift that has occurred in the social realities of children. The objective of this article is to therefore recognize the seismic shift and to offer recommendations to facilitate positive psychosocial and educational developmental pathways for the current and future social realities of twenty-first century children.

MEMBANGUN KONSEP FILOSOFIS LAYANAN PERPUSTAKAAN: SEBUAH IKHTIYAR UNTUK MEMOTRET PRAKTIK LAYANAN PERPUSTAKAAN DALAM PERSPEKTIF SOSIOLOGIS

The explosion of information in the media culture that characterizes the current social realities also affect how people obtain information, either information science in the world of academia and in the industry and the corporate world.The main problem is the starting point of this study is how to shift from the library service and conventional analogue services to the digital services in the virtual space. This sociological study gives an overview of how the behavior of the user as well as service providers in the library to form a new pattern of relationship and gave birth to a new social structure in the process of sharing information. Shifting the status and role of the librarian in Library institutions transformed not only as a provider of document, but also as a regulator of the litas fl ow of information, as well as guides and information consultant.

Review

Review

Public buildings and private opportunities: some dynamics in Pompeii’s urban development

Pompeii’s urban fabric presents a complicated palimpsest of construction, amalgamation, fission, renovation, and destruction, each being a reflection of the current social, economic and political realities at the moment the work was accomplished. Taken together, these data reveal how changing socio-cultural values gradually altered the face of the urban environment over time. However, while the overall transformation of the urban fabric is clearly a collective reflection of shifting concerns, it was really the actions of individuals that served to translate these trends into the physical reality that survives in the archaeological record. It was their particular decisions, undertaken in response to localised stimuli but expressing broad cultural trends and fashions, that served to produce, piece by piece, the complex and layered tapestry of the urban environment. Yet archaeological data only rarely provide the detail necessary to be able to identify the specific, small-scale motivations behind structural changes and the sequence of development, much less the ability to assess the positive or negative outcomes of particular decisions. Cases where it is possible to do so provide a rare window onto the localised, small-scale and often personal dynamics taking place wthin the broader process of urbanisation. Such cases emphasize the central rôle of individual actors in reacting to and reifying the forces of urban transformation through their private construction activities.

Path dependency in Public Administration and Economics: Future Implications

The disciplines of American public administration and economics are not dynamic, but are instead locked into their foundational principles and practices. Both fields are path-dependent which has made them change-resistant. This paper examines the nature of change in American culture and the influence of path-dependency on public administration and economics through a theoretical analysis. In the field of public administration, path dependency is used as the framework for analyzing recent public administration reform movements, and it explains how these movements are bound by the traditional public administration doctrine crafted in 1887. In the field of economics, the limitations of both orthodox and heterodox economics are analyzed. This paper will argue that orthodox economics, grounded in the ideas of the past - The Enlightenment, natural law, and Newtonian mechanics - is insufficient for dealing with the current political, social, and economic realities. Furthermore, heterodox economics, although in opposition to mainstream theory, only challenges the neoclassical model at the edges. Because of the constrained path of American public administration and adherence to the neoclassical model of economics, both disciplines are not prepared to respond to the complexities of the 21st Century. A new framework is needed in both disciplines that can accommodate the complexities, uncertainty, and nonlinearity of the future.

Kopano Matlwa's Coconut: Identity Issues in Our Faces

This article demonstrates how Kopano Matlwa's recent novel, Coconut, highlights the faultlines that persist in contemporary South African society. The dangers of binary thinking and certain modernist approaches are discussed, and the influence of racist and colonial approaches is demonstrated. Coconut reflects current South African social and political realities, showing how the results of apartheid continue to haunt race relations, and how structures that promote inequality and fix identity survive by skilful adaptation to changing circumstances. This article espouses Stuart Hall's notion that social empowerment and justice flourish when an open society, conscious of an oppressive past, allows individual identity to adapt in organic, rather than prescriptive, ways. The article closes with an appeal by Mamphele Rampele for South Africans to embrace the past, in order to transform it.

Soil, Ashes, Commemoration: <em>Processes of Sacralization at the Former Ravensbrüück Concentration Camp</em>

Ravensbruck concentration camp, the largest women's concentration camp within the German Reich, served as one of the three major National Memorials of East Germany. This article explores how the grounds of the former concentration camp were developed into a memorial and how marking sites like Ravensbruck as hallowed ground created a cognitive matrix that enabled them to be used for commemoration ceremonies while also allowing political associations to hold rallies at their sites. Precisely because the sacred is not an autonomous, self-evident entity or a fundamental category, but a category of meaning, which is able to attain its validity through its apparent lack of connection to current political or social realities, it is important to examine what conflicts are expressed and given a framework through sacralization; which groups or individuals are excluded from public commemoration; and which particular political and social interests are involved in this process.

The legal aspects of public participation in forest management in Turkey.

Dealing with forest resources management, “participation” emerged as a central theme. There has, for some time, been a growing recognition within the government and society at large that the future of sustainable forest management in Turkey depends on more effective participation of multiple stakeholders. Along with growing appreciation of the potential benefits, these has become more systematic in understanding the factors that currently inhibit wider and more effective use of participatory techniques in Turkey. Over the last decade, there has been a succession of studies pointing to the conclusion that current forest management practices, entrenched institutional arrangements and attitudes, and poorly adapted laws are major constraints on participatory forest management. With specific reference to the legal framework, there is a growing consensus that Turkish legislation falls short of these in most developed countries. This acts as a constraint on participation because of its command and control approach, in which most decisions are made by the state. The principle of rule of law is to ensure compliance and penalise non-compliance with those decisions and the law does not fully reflect current social, economic and environmental realities. The purpose of this study is to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of Turkey’s forest law per se, by highlighting some international lessons and practices that might be useful to Turkey as it considers what future steps should be taken in improving the legal framework for participation in forest management. As a result, this study concluded that public participation requires a well established legal system, public sensitivity and local knowledge for a better participatory forest management. Key words: Public participation, forests, management, planning, legislation.

Reluctant conscripts? Service users' experiences of vocational service modernisation

Helen Bird and colleagues report on a small‐scale research project completed in west Yorkshire that examined the effects of the closure of a traditional sheltered workshop on those who attended. The closure was contentious, and the report questions the centrality accorded to ‘social exclusion’ as a central feature of current policy and practice. They argue for a more nuanced approach, which reflects both service users' actual preferences and current social realities.

Negotiating the Forbidden: On Women and Sexual Love in Iranian Cinema

Women and sexual love are time-honored - but problematic - themes in Iranian cinema. Soon after the 1979 revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran these themes were forced into the straitjacket of Islamist ideology and Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) which allowed little room for representations of current social realities. The authorities imposed hejab (a dress code) and sexual segregation and the public presence of women and the expression of sexual love became highly restricted. For almost a decade Iranian filmgoers would look in vain for screen depictions of women and love. Gradually however both came out of the shadows; and by the late 1990s they were once again leading - if highly controversial - themes in the Iranian cinema. In this essay I explore these developments through a discussion of three films which in different ways were landmarks in the passage out of the shadows and became the focus of heated debates for their transgression of the rules. (excerpt)

Career Guidance and Counselling for Youth: What Adolescents and Young Adults are Telling Us

The area of career guidance and counselling for youth is undergoing rapid change in light of evolving expectations of young people as members of society and rapidly changing educational and career opportunities. This article summarizes previous research describing the perspectives of adolescents and young adults, and concludes that there is a need to re-examine the assumptions underlying career advising, guidance, and counselling programs offered to young people; and also to re-develop these services to better reflect current economic, career, and social realities.

What Do They Want in Life?: The Life Goals of a Multi-Ethnic, Multi-Generational Sample of High School Seniors

This study investigated ethnic as well as gender and generational similarities and differences in the life goals among graduating high-school seniors. Adolescents came from six ethnic groups: White, African, Mexican, Other Latino, Filipino, and East/Southeast Asian Americans. Their self-articulated medium-range life goals were grouped into 8 major categories such as occupational, educational, familial, and material goals. Group differences in various aspects of future plans, such as priorities given to different life goals, time frame of attainment, and perceived controllability over their attainment, were also examined. Hypothesized group differences based on current social realities and small-scale qualitative studies on ethnic minorities were not found; there were very few ethnic, gender, and generational differences in adolescents’ life goals. All groups reported a higher priority for, earlier expected attainment of, and more control over their medium-range educational and occupational goals than their family-related and material goals. Further, long-term educational and occupational aspirations were high across all groups. There were moderate ethnic differences in educational expectations and none for corresponding career expectations. Thus, current inequalities in educational and occupational attainments across ethnic groups were only partially reflected in the life goals of adolescents on the brink of graduating from high school.

LEGAL STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN TURKEY

Dealing with environmental problems, "participation" has emerged as a central theme. There has, for some time, been a growing recognition within the government and society at large that the future of Turkish environmental protection depends on more effective participation of multiple stakeholders. Along with growing appreciation of the potential benefits has come more systematic understanding of the factors that currently inhibit wider and more effective use of participatory techniques in Turkey. Over the last decade, there has been a succession of studies pointing to the conclusion that current environmental practices, entrenched institutional arrangements and attitudes, and poorly adapted laws are major constraints on participatory approaches. With specific reference to the legal framework, there is a growing consensus that Turkish legislation falls short in comparison to those in most developed countries and acts as a constraint on participation because of its command and control approach, in which most decisions are made by the state and the principal role of law is to ensure compliance and penalise non-compliance with those decisions. The law does not fully reflect current social, economic and environmental realities. The purpose of this study is to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of Turkey's environmental law per se, by highlighting some international lessons and practices that might be useful to Turkey as it considers what future steps to take in improving the legal framework for participation. The 1998 case in which the environmentally damaging activities of the Eurogod Mining Company at Bergama, Western Turkey, were stopped following a petition by local people to the Appeals Court is cited as an example. This case study reflects the people's participation in environmental issues and supports the main argument of this article, from which recommendations are made for improving the legal outline for participation.