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Examines papers published in the journal, "Teaching Sociology," from 1984-1999 to depict an emergence of a scholarship on teaching and learning. Builds on the work of Paul Baker who thought that evidence of scholarship was lacking in the journal from 1973-1983. Suggests that a scholarship is emerging. (CMK)

Most social scientists agree that case studies are useful for "theory building," but ethnographic methods papers often look to survey research for case selection strategies. This is due to a common but untenable distinction between theoretical and empirical generalization, which obscures how theoretically inclined ethnographers make implicit external validity claims. I analyze several exemplary ethnographies to show that (a) the distinction between theoretically and empirically oriented ethnography revolves around competing conventions for making claims that others accept as provisionally externally valid, (b) comparative-historical sociology provides a framework for evaluating how theoretically oriented ethnographies make such claims, and (c) each approach to making validity claims is optimized by different kinds of cases. Empirically oriented ethnographies make inductive claims via "pointy" cases wherein a phenomenon is pronounced or bifurcated. Theoretically oriented ethnographers are like post-Millian historical sociologist who triangulate past studies with resolutive or negative cases to make constitutive arguments.

Science is an ethical community whose practitioners aim to discover information about the natural world and to explain discernible patterns that might be detected. Those who pursue science generally embrace certain epistemic values that help establish the moral boundaries of the community, while the twin pillars of rationality and empiricism serve as the foundations upon which scientists establish their truth claims. Yet however robust the assertions might appear, they nevertheless are the by-products of an exclusively human endeavor directly impacted by those sociological forces that apply throughout the social universe, including the scientist's social location and the importance of enhancing one's reputation. The current paper identifies key sociological factors that help shape "scientific bias" and the nature of the justifications used to defend truth claims. A case study of one community committed to a sociological paradigm demonstrates the utility of the explanatory framework advanced. A more self-conscious awareness of the forces at play that create such biases can help mitigate their deleterious impacts that subvert the quest for explanatory knowledge and valid truth claims about observable phenomena.

This paper seeks to highlight some of the key issues of the social stigma associated with mental health-related issues, to present examples of some existing anti-stigma concepts found within mental health literature and, in turn, to begin to suggest ways in which the personal and social experience of participation within community music activities may provide a means of challenging and resisting such stigma. The research involved a literature review of existing theoretical concepts surrounding mental health stigma interventions and sought to link such concepts with examples from community music and music sociology, examining concepts such as identity construction, removal and refurbishment activities and tachytopian experiences. The work of the Me2/Orchestra (Vermont, USA) is presented as a case study, with use of some supporting preliminary interview data. While hypothetical in nature at present, the article discusses the potential of community music for addressing and erasing mental health stigma.

One year ago, Baltimore citizens took to the streets to protest not only the death of Freddie Grey, but the structural inequalities and structural violence that systematically limit the opportunities for working-class African Americans in Baltimore. The protests, though, were not just confined to Baltimore City. Borne on sophisticated understandings of intersectionality and political economy, the moral imperatives from the Baltimore Uprising resonated with students at our university in Baltimore County, where campus activists moved to both support the people of Baltimore while using the moment of critical reflection to critique racial inequalities on campus. Since students were displaying a holistic, anthropological understanding of race and inequality in Baltimore, we decided to structure our classes accordingly and brought together several courses in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice in order to examine the interrelationships between power, race, class, public space and urban development. We taught common texts, visited each other's classes, and planned events that brought students together with community leaders in Baltimore to discuss common concerns and to learn from each other. This paper reports on that experiment and suggests that a pedagogical model premised on drawing thematic linkages between existing courses is one way to address current events that impact us all while allowing students to direct the course of their own education.

In training networks, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises pool their resources to train apprentices within the framework of the dual VET system, while an intermediary organisation is tasked with managing operations. Over the course of their apprenticeship, the apprentices switch from one training company to another on a (half-) yearly basis. Drawing on a case study of four training networks in Switzerland and the theoretical framework of the sociology of conventions, this paper aims to understand the reasons for the slow dissemination and reluctant adoption of this promising form of organising VET in Switzerland. The results of the study show that the system of moving from one company to another creates a variety of free-rider constellations in the distribution of the collectively generated corporative benefits. This explains why companies are reluctant to participate in this model. For the network to be sustainable, the intermediary organisation has to address discontent arising from free-rider problems while taking into account that the solutions found are always tentative and will often result in new free-rider problems. [See: Online Submission article, at ED562559.]

In training networks, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises pool their resources to train apprentices within the framework of the dual VET system, while an intermediary organisation is tasked with managing operations. Over the course of their apprenticeship, the apprentices switch from one training company to another on a (half-) yearly basis. Drawing on a case study of four training networks in Switzerland and the theoretical framework of the sociology of conventions, this paper aims to understand the reasons for the slow dissemination and reluctant adoption of this promising form of organising VET in Switzerland. The results of the study show that the system of moving from one company to another creates a variety of free-rider constellations in the distribution of the collectively generated corporative benefits. This explains why companies are reluctant to participate in this model. For the network to be sustainable, the intermediary organisation has to address discontent arising from free-rider problems while taking into account that the solutions found are always tentative and will often result in new free-rider problems.

This paper explores the alignment of assessment practices in universities and lifelong learning as a key process and outcome for expansive student development. It outlines Boud's approach to assessment, operationalises this to analyse practices in two contrasting national contexts: the sociology departments of the Midlands University in the UK and Nam Du University in Vietnam, and reframes this framework as a guide to improving practices and better-supporting lifelong learning. The paper thus contributes to recent debates about sustainable assessment and how to change assessment to better support students for lifelong learning in different countries. The findings suggest that although more elements were found at Midlands University than Nam Du University, assessment in both cases was an imperfect realisation of this framework. Nonetheless, the paper argues that the framework can offer guidance for changes to align assessment practices with lifelong learning, but to do this it should be adapted to the education context and also expanded to include explicit social commitments to others for expansive lifelong learning.

In the following paper we argue that the conventional "Introduction to Sociology" survey course should be restructured because such courses try to survey an unsurveyable body of knowledge and they do not teach the application of sociological research. The conventional intro course should be replaced with an intro course that surveys the types of social dynamics that sociologists typically research and the methods they use to do so. We propose a semester-long intro course with four case study learning-units that are chosen for their coverage of the underlying sociological dynamics, methods, and core concepts. We contend that case study learning-units which concentrate on topical issues and core sociological concepts are better suited for an introduction course.

This research, conducted with an introductory sociology class at the University of British Columbia during the 2001-2002 academic year, explored community service-learning as a pedagogy and philosophy. The theoretical focus of this paper is Nancy Fraser's (1997) criticisms of Jurgen Habermas' (1992) bourgeois liberal model of the public sphere. We analyzed the class experiences with community service that emerged from students' contributions to a database of community organizations, concept maps, and a student-driven course evaluation. The outcomes of this research include a description of potentially useful course strategies and a narrative of a unique type of community-service learning. (Contains 3 notes and 2 tables.)

Purpose: This paper aims to discuss the challenge for the classical idea of professionalism in understanding the Chinese software engineering industry after giving a close insight into the development of this industry as well as individual engineers with a psycho-societal perspective. Design/methodology/approach: The study starts with the general review of the sociological concept of profession, professional and specialization of knowledge. Together with revealing the critical challenge from the empirical field of software engineering industry regarding its professionalization, a critique of the neglect of subjective agency in classical conception of professionalism in sociology theory and methodology is set out. Findings: A case study with interpretation of the subject's continuously developing identification with their specialization in knowledge and occupation from their narration of career experience reveals the dynamics in this development process relating to individual, social practice and societal factors. Originality/value: This paper contributes to empirical research of analyzing the professionalization process of software engineering and software engineers in relation to the concept of professionalism, and it contributes theoretically by discussing the challenge of this process to the development of professionalism within this highly knowledge-based industry in a Chinese societal context. (Contains 6 figures and 2 notes.)

In British social science degree programmes, methods courses have a bad press, and statistics courses in particular are not well-liked by most students. A nationally-coordinated, strategic investment in quantitative skills training, Q-Step, is an attempt to address the issues affecting the shortage of quantitatively trained humanities and social science graduates. Pedagogic approaches to teaching statistics and data analysis to social science students are starting to indicate positive outcomes. This paper contributes to these debates by focusing on the perspective of the student experience in different learning environments: first, we explain the approach taken at the University of Manchester to teaching a core quantitative research methods module for second-year sociology students; and second, we introduce case studies of three undergraduates who took that training and went on to work as interns with social research organisations, as part of a Manchester Q-Step Centre initiative to take learning from the classroom into the workplace.

Drawing on our experiences of interviewing elites, this article suggests that methodological reflexivity yields insights into the construction of symbolic and social hierarchies in contextualised interactions. The paper focuses on "academic culture" as the "locus" through which power relations were experienced in interview situations--more so than structures such as age, gender, race and class. We argue that academic cultural resources do not always function as valuable assets in interviews with elites, and explore how different elite interviewees mobilise a wide-ranging cultural repertoire to display status.

Purpose: This paper aims at a better understanding of expert roles in transdisciplinary projects. Thus, the main purpose is the analysis of the roles of experts in transdisciplinary projects. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis of the ETH-UNS case studies from the point of view of the psychology of expertise and the sociology of professions is based on findings and considerations from the psychology of expertise and the sociology of professions--as both lines of research are concerned with experts and the use of expertise. This paper focuses on projects in the framework of the so-called transdisciplinary case study approach that has been developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in the 1990s. Findings: It is claimed that, firstly, system experts provide important information on the local human-environmental system and have to be regarded as serious experts, that is knowledge specialists with a certain responsibility for information. Secondly, decision-making experts run into problems integrating other professionals into transdisciplinary projects and should, therefore, professionalize themselves. Practical implications: The paper encourages the use of residents, etc. as system experts in transdisciplinary projects. Originality/value: The roles of experts in transdisciplinary project are clarified. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

Argues that Truman Capote's nonfiction novel "In Cold Blood" serves as a case study of a psychopath through its close examination of the entire constellation of antisocial personality traits of the murderer, Richard Hickock. Suggests this best-seller conforms to established medical authority while maintaining its popular appeal. (NH)

Those aiming to respond to the recognised shortage in quantitative skills within the UK social sciences have increasingly focused on the content of undergraduate degree programmes. Problems occur when quantitative methods are generally confined to a dedicated module, detached from substantive topics. This model makes it hard for students to understand or engage with the contribution of quantitative research to their discipline and can perpetuate negative perceptions of quantitative training. We suggest a solution to this problem is 'quantitative embedding', in which quantitative evidence and methods are incorporated into substantive teaching in the social sciences. We illustrate quantitative embedding with case studies from an ESRC funded project based in The University of Manchester, where teaching partnerships have developed curriculum innovations in Sociology and Politics. The paper then discusses the challenges of disseminating quantitative embedding, highlighting the need to bridge separate communities of practice that can isolate quantitative specialists.

This paper draws upon the sociology of numbers, particularly work by Theodore Porter, to reveal the multifarious ways in which numbers actively constitute practices in schools. Drawing upon a case study of one low-performing school in a low-performing region in the state of Queensland, Australia, and theorising into the sociology of numbers, the research explores the complex ways in which numbers came to constitute and dominate the practices in this school site under a broader national, state and regional policy context demanding rapid improvements in various forms of standardised tests and associated practices. Specifically, the research reveals a strong and simultaneous focus by teachers upon a variety of numeric data collected at national, regional and local levels, and intricate relations between these data; multiple visualisation, triangulation and comparison approaches towards such data in virtual and physical formats; and the enumerative nominalisation of both students and their reading attainment in relation to specific, concretised levels of achievement and various types of scale scores. The research cautions against the sheer volume of such enumerative practices, which, while productive of teachers' understandings of student capacity against standardised measures of achievement, may also lead to a more reductive view of education, dominated by concerns about achievement in standardised tests (and associated practices) alone.

In this paper, we explore a sociological approach to mathematics education and offer a theoretical lens through which we can come to understand mathematics education as part of a wider set of social practices. Many studies of children's experiences in school show that a child's academic success is a product of many factors, some of which are beyond the control and, sometimes, the knowledge of the classroom teacher. We draw on the sociological ideas of Pierre Bourdieu to frame our analysis of the environment in which the pupils learn and the ways in which the practices help to create parallel worlds which are structured quite differently inside and outside the classroom. Specifically, we use Bourdieu's notions of habitus, field and capital. Using two cases, we highlight the subtle and coercive ways in which the practices of the field of mathematics education allow greater or lesser access to the hegemonic knowledge known as school mathematics depending on the cultural backgrounds and dispositions of the learners. We examine the children's mathematical learning trajectories and reflect on how what they achieve in the future will, in all likelihood, be shaped by their social background and how compatible this is with the current educational climate.

A sociological model of African-American community development, the Black Organizational Autonomy model argues that workable African-American communities have economic autonomy, internally developed and controlled data sources, a focus on African-American history and culture, females in leadership roles, and socially inclusive leadership. (56 references) (JOW)

Understanding teachers' pedagogical choice provides a new insight into the influences on student achievement. This paper presents a sociological framework developed from the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Anthony Giddens that identify the complex social interactions which surround teacher's work. The framework examines teachers' potential to act knowledgeably and intentionally and how this action also leads to unintended consequences of those actions. This is important, as both the intentional action and the associated unintended consequences affect the teacher's classroom practice and the learning of students. Application of the framework to examine the influences on teachers' pedagogical choice is presented through two school case studies from Victoria, Australia. The environment that encourages teachers to actively review their teaching practice is revealed. It was through reflective collaborative discussions that teachers reviewed their current classroom practices and trial or implement different pedagogies to enhance the learning of young people in their classrooms.

This paper illustrates how critical use of Basil Bernstein's theory illuminates the mechanisms by which university knowledge, curriculum and pedagogy both reproduce and interrupt social inequalities. To this end, empirical examples are selected from the findings of the ESRC-funded project "Pedagogic Quality and Inequality in University First Degrees" (RES-062-23-1438, November 2008-January 2012). The project investigated sociology-related social science degrees in four social science departments in universities in different positions in influential UK higher education league tables. A Bernsteinian lens throws fresh light on how university education might contribute to a more egalitarian society. (Contains 1 table and 5 notes.)

This paper provides an insight into the debate about academic work as a profession. It refers to the sociology of professions and explores how academics in a pre-1992 university in England understood their work as a profession and how they interpreted their professionalism in the context of an audit culture for teaching. It reveals that academics' professionalism has affected their attitudes towards audit-related quality mechanisms and resulted in a perceived tension between professional values and the audit. This tension was caused by the perceived bureaucracy of the audit, its time cost and the perception that the audit is a symbol of distrust in the professionalism of academics.

C. Wright Mills would be a friendly critic of service learning, acknowledging its benefits for providing students with experiential learning opportunities to connect personal troubles with social issues. Yet he would be critical of service-learning practices that perpetuate institutional power inequalities and that do not advance the social change objectives of community-based organizations. We offer an innovative approach that helps to address some of these concerns which, when used in conjunction with "best practices" of service learning, has the potential to make a greater impact on the community than most service-learning projects. This paper highlights how two sociology programs in two urban universities--a large, elite university and a smaller, minority-serving university--have completed significant community-based research projects by having classes of students at both universities work on projects both consecutively and simultaneously across several semesters to complete substantial research projects with and for community partners. We use a case study approach to identify five key practices that have enabled the two universities to effectively collaborate across institutions. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

This paper describes two teaching strategies from our workshop, "Teaching the Sociology of Gender and Work," that can help students understand the mechanisms and consequences of workplace gender inequality at the macro- and micro-levels. Cynthia Anderson's class project uses wage and sex composition data that allows students to learn actively how data are used to study general trends and changes over time. It encourages students to explore the reality of their possible careers and fields in terms of wages, proportion of women and men, and other factors. Sharon Bird's class exercise requires students to consider the interactional dynamics of everyday work life and encourages them to see the subtle processes of marginalization and exclusion while also thinking about how to overcome gender biases. Some of this information will contribute to student angst about inequality in the workplace; thus, we conclude with suggestions for decreasing potential student distress and increasing student empowerment. (Contains 1 footnote.)

In winter of 2004, the Sociology Department at California State University-Bakersfield (CSUB) conducted a student assessment using an embedded assessment technique--a technique wherein a class assignment serves as an assessment tool. The authors conducted the embedded assessment for their Five-Year Program Review. Thus, similar to many departments, their decision to measure learning outcomes was motivated by an external force, namely the university administration. In the first part of this paper they describe their assessment instrument and report assessment outcomes. Next they report on a five-point "agenda for change" generated by faculty in response to the assessment outcome. Finally they present an in-depth discussion of faculty reaction to the assessment process.(Contains 5 tables and 1 footnote.)

This study explores the concept of "outside influences" to Arts education as a legitimate and important area of research in Arts education. In this study "outside influences" is defined, generally, as those groups that choose to contribute to public school Arts education, but are not a part of the institutional system of public schooling. Specifically, this study focuses on one community Arts advocacy group, Arts Collaborators, Inc. (ACI, a pseudonym), which has as part of its mission statement a focus and desire to contribute to Arts education in the schools. The paper presents an argument for a sociological examination of the actions of ACI, the relationships between Artist and audience, and examined ACI's educative actions within this framework. It analyzes the actions of ACI from Eisner's principles of Arts education, looking for a broad Arts education purpose. It examines the idea of audience development, and what the definition of "taste" might have to do with ACI's actions. These analyses are offered in the belief that schooling, specifically Arts education, is highly contextual--that is, Arts education as enacted is dependent upon many outside influences, who may shape and or contribute to the curriculum as designed and enacted in the classroom. (Contains 1 footnote.)

The opportunities, challenges, and lessons of the pilot phase of a community development program in a small liberal arts college are presented and conceptualized in this paper. We based this program on an experiential learning model derived from Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy and Stephen Brookfield's notion of critically responsive learning. A high value is placed on students' participation, as their increasingly community-based learning enters into a fruitful dialogue with classroom knowledge and readings. Their experience of being both learner and teacher in a trusting, collaborative classroom community prepared them for their field placement. The qualities of resilience and adaptability to new needs and knowledge, modeled by their professors in class, become part of the template for their own community experiences. The qualitative data come largely from student accounts drawn from their course projects, field trips, and community journals and from the evaluations of and by the eleven participating students. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

Explores the possibility of expanding the research base in distance education through the use of three well-known and accepted qualitative methodologies used by anthropology and sociology: ethnography, case study, and grounded theory. Each methodology's characteristics and main strengths are described. (MBR)

Describes a case-study technique for teaching industrial sociology that stresses the evolution of the division of labor, or how people have come to perform different jobs. Discusses methods of examination and testing and reviews the implications and limitations of the course. (GEA)

Uses the example of Poland as a case study to show how the development of national identity follows the same laws as individual identity formation. Findings from research on Polish values and attitudes toward their own society and other countries are presented. (AM)

Set of articles consisting of an introduction (Barbara Silverstone, et al.) and case study concerning drug misuse in the elderly, and six papers examining the case from the perspectives of clinical pharmacology (William Simonson); pharmacology (Peter Lamy); psychiatry (Charles Gaitz and Nancy Wilson); nursing (Delores Alford); social work (Janet Bachur); and sociology (Frank Whittington and George Maddox). (NB)

Describes a program for teaching writing as an integral part of college sociology classes. Students do frequent free-writing exercises, participate in small weekly writing groups, and compose final papers. Suggestions for implementation are offered. (AM)

Background: Therapeutic relationships are fundamental in aphasia rehabilitation, influencing patient experience and outcomes. While we have good understandings of the components of therapeutic relationships, there has been little exploration of how and why therapists construct and enact relationships as they do. Sociological theories may help develop nuanced understanding of the values, assumptions and structures that influence practice, and may facilitate critical reflexivity on practice. Aims: To explore the potential for theoretical approaches from outside speech–language therapy to enable a deeper understanding of the nature and enactment of therapeutic relationships in aphasia rehabilitation. Methods & Procedures: An explanatory single case study of one speech–language therapist–patient dyad in an in‐patient stroke rehabilitation setting. Data included observations of five interactions, two interviews with the client and three interviews with the speech–language therapist. Analysis was guided by analytical pluralism that applied aspects of three sociological theories to guide data analysis and make visible the contextual factors that surround, shape and permeate the enactment of therapeutic relationships. Outcomes & Results: The analysis of this dyad made visible individual, interactional and broader structural features that illustrate the dynamic processes that practitioners and patients undertake to enact therapeutic relationships. Clinical practice could be viewed as a performance with each person continually negotiating how they convey different impressions to others, which shapes what work is valued and foregrounded. The patient and therapist took up or were placed in different positions within the interactions, each with associated expectations and rights, which influenced what types of relationships could, or were likely to, develop. Organizational, rehabilitation and individual practitioner structures assigned rules and boundaries that shaped how the therapist developed and enacted the therapeutic relationship. Whilst the therapist had some agency in her work and could resist the different influencing factors, such resistance was constrained because these structures had become highly internalized and routinized and was not always visible to the therapist. Conclusions & Implications: While therapists commonly value therapeutic relationships, social and structural factors consciously and unconsciously influence their ability to prioritize relational work. Sociological theories can provide new lenses on our practice that can assist therapists to be critically reflexive about practice, and to enact changes to how they work to enhance therapeutic relationships with clients. What this paper addsWhat is already known on the subjectTherapeutic relationships are critical in aphasia rehabilitation. We have a good understanding of the different components of therapeutic relationships and how relationships are perceived by patients and practitioners.What this paper adds to existing knowledgeThis study is novel in its use of sociological lenses to explore contexts and complexities inherent in building and maintaining therapeutic relationships. These are often invisible to the practitioner but can have a significant impact on how relational work is enacted and what forms of relationship are possible.What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?This study will support clinicians to critically reflect on how they enact therapeutic relationships and may enhance awareness of the often‐hidden factors which influence the ways in which they work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-world applications typically have multiple sparse reconstruction tasks to be optimized. In order to exploit the similar sparsity pattern between different tasks, this paper establishes an evolutionary multitasking framework to simultaneously optimize multiple sparse reconstruction tasks using a single population. In the proposed method, the evolutionary algorithm aims to search the locations of nonzero components or rows instead of searching sparse vector or matrix directly. Then the within-task and between-task genetic transfer operators are employed to reinforce the exchange of genetic material belonging to the same or different tasks. The proposed method can solve multiple measurement vector problems efficiently because the length of decision vector is independent of the number of measurement vectors. Finally, a case study on hyperspectral image unmixing is investigated in an evolutionary multitasking setting. It is natural to consider a sparse unmixing problem in a homogeneous region as a task. Experiments on signal reconstruction and hyperspectral image unmixing demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed multitasking framework for sparse reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I seek to delineate how the relationship between social work and sociology has been regarded in more recent years as represented by textbooks. In the light of such writing, I review the nature, themes and extent of sociological interest in social work in the past and the present. I set out a partial and provisional agenda for interlacing disciplinary and professional work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]