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Asserts that the amount of deviant behavior in American society has increased beyond levels the community can afford to recognize and that society has been redefining deviancy to exempt much conduct previously stigmatized and accepting as normal behavior that considered abnormal by earlier standards. Redefinition is categorized as altruistic, opportunistic, and normalizing. (SLD)

Discusses digital imaging technologies. Topics include information technology; reprographics; scientific imaging processing; political considerations of telecommunications and the information superhighway; digital cameras; slide and transparency scanners; desktop prepress processing; digital proofing devices; direct-to-plate and direct-to-press systems; and sociological implications. (LRW)

Maintains that courses in curriculum studies should be evaluated on "why" they should be part of teacher education and "how" they should be taught. Asserts that curriculum studies occupies a more tenuous position in teacher education than do established disciplines such as sociology, philosophy, and psychology. (CFR)

Evaluates the use of computer-mediated communication in a sociology course at Henderson State University (Arkansas). Highlights include information literacy and liberal arts education; critical thinking; computer conferencing on campus networks; online teaching methods and evaluation; student characteristics; electronic mail; privacy and freedom of expression; and future possibilities. (LRW)

Turner's responses to discussion of deaf culture cover these topics: deaf perspective; approaches to description; transparency and explicitness; labeling; historical awareness; and "thinking beyond." (Contains seven references.) (LB)

Four writers (Yerker Andersson, Trevor Johnston, Leila Monaghan, and Brian Street) respond to Graham Turner's discussion of deaf culture, considering labeling categories and approaches to definitions of "deaf culture." (Contains 24 references.) (LB)

Carol Padden's influential framework for observations of deaf culture is examined. Some potentially potent socio-anthropological ideas are used to sketch implications for revisions of such a framework, adjusting concepts of culture and asking how notions of deaf culture are constructed. (Contains 55 references.) (Author/LB)

Discusses ways picture books can be utilized to teach social studies to elementary students. Discusses specific books and their uses in teaching anthropology, geography, history, and sociology. (SR)

Proposes extending the training of reading teachers to include sociological aspects. Describes three traits that training programs for reading educators could foster: ecological thinking; cultural responsiveness; and communicative competence. Suggests changes which would align the training of reading teachers with these sociological considerations. (RS)

Describes the Sociological Resources for the Social Studies (SRSS) materials developed during the "New Social Studies" period in the 1960s and 1970s. Concludes that the limited success of the program was a result of not including school administrators in dissemination efforts. (CFR)

Five educators respond to a hypothetical college classroom interaction in which the teacher struggles with students' emotional responses to course content. The comments focus on these issues: resistance to difficult concepts, optimism, the teacher's role, and the relationship of emotional response and the learning process. (MSE)

Notes that disturbances periodically occur in psychiatric Adolescent Units. Argues that, by delaying full resolution of these social disturbances, maximum therapeutic benefit may be gained. Illustrated by clinical example, shows how prolonging complete resolution can effect change for adolescent, adolescent's social network, and Adolescent Unit itself. Explains phenomenon in terms of philosophy and social structure of Adolescent Unit. (Author/NB)

Compares three social policy models (market, progressive-liberal-welfare, social redistribution); links them to adult education models (vocational-behaviorist, liberal-humanist-progressive, liberatory/social reconstruction) and to sociological theories (structural functionalism and conflict theory). (SK)

Sees traditional modernist family sociology as oppressive and reactionary. To examine responsibilities of those who study postmodern family life, explores recent material with regard to theoretical, methodological, and policy-related issues. Links sociological practice, everyday practice, and policy formation. Argues that family professionals must reconcile themselves to personal and professional responsibilities in the study of postmodern family life. (Author/NB)

A conceptual framework of adult participation in higher secondary education has six features: social origin, normative group, comparative group, age, gender, and supply. The features closest to Cross' Chain of Response model should form the primary basis for development of theories about participation. (SK)

Argues that semiotics, the science of signs, provides a suitable research tool for investigating the communication process in public libraries. Literature review identifies research using semiotic methods, as well as communication research in public librarianship that would have profited from semiotics, as a first step toward understanding the potential contribution of semiotic approaches to such research. (82 references) (LAE)

Argues for the incorporation of classical liberal theory into undergraduate sociology theory courses. Urges that liberalism be contextualized in relationship to its intellectual predecessors. Suggests that understanding classical liberalism enhances understanding of Durkheim, Marx, and Weber. Recommends works that can be used as reading assignments. Includes sample questions to accompany the assignments. (DK)

Ten higher education professionals and one college senior comment on the "U.S. News and World Report" rankings of doctoral programs in six liberal arts disciplines. The authors' response to one set of comments and the comments of an executive editor from the magazine are also included. (MSE)

Observes that there has been no accounting of the history of the teaching of sociology. Suggests that the journal, "Teaching Sociology," can help bring attention to teaching. Notes that sociology majors' grades and standardized tests scores have declined. Argues that sociology instruction must become more effective and must implement value added assessment. (SG)

Examines the use of personal computers (PCs) in the introductory sociology course. Discusses the functional strengths and weaknesses of PCs. Describes the use of PCs in preparing and presenting visual material, teaching basic concepts and strategies, illustrating analytical storylines, and engaging students in problem solving. Suggests additional uses for PCs. (SG)

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)

Discusses difficulties of classroom-based research and obstacles to conducting classroom-based ethnographic research. Identifies temporal obstacles, personnel, safety, and traditional classroom orientation. Suggests experiential approaches for fieldwork instructors such as individual projects, a choice of group projects, or a single designated class project. Describes a cooperative project on homelessness. (DK)

Commitment is a major component in career development. This article discusses some influential views and societal conditions reflecting both the need for and phenomenon of commitment and synthesizes these to reveal the comprehensive meaning of commitment. Factors involved in the commitment resolution process are described. (LKS)

Presents an interview with Phil Nyden, a professor at Loyola University (Illinois). Describes his qualitative methods course. Includes his suggestion of a group project rather than individual research projects enabling students to focus on methodology rather than substantive issues. Lists course objectives: learning qualitative methods, applied sociology, and ethics. Argues that students learn sociology by doing something with it. (DK)

Examines issues surrounding socioethical topics. Argues that professional responsibility operates at three distinct but interconnected levels: individual (moral-philosophical), professional (sociological), and societal (multidisciplinary). Argues that the nature of sociology inevitably leads to facing ethical issues as professional rather than personal matters. Urges including ethics in existing courses rather than separate ones. (DK)

Discusses effects on graduate sociology education of trends emphasizing quantitative methods and the positivist tradition at the expense of social theory and interpretive sociology. Argues that failure to develop sociology's interpretive tradition has allowed the style and intellectual creativity of sociological work to suffer. Urges greater balance between the two traditions of sociology. (DK)

Urges the sociology profession to make ethical practices in teaching and research a first priority. Argues that the mentor/apprenticeship model is an inadequate solution for teaching ethical decision making. Suggests that ethical training should be infused in the curriculum and supported by programs at the department, college, and university level. (DK)

Analyzes the structure of academic sociology departments. Stresses the competition for resources and symbolic capital among different groups including faculty, support staff, research staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Focuses on the complex role of graduate students, the constraints, and the opportunities it opens. Urges reform of the nearly feudal structure. (DK)

Describes a citation study that examines the extent to which interdisciplinary research in librarianship is restricted by paradigms. The use of library science and sociology journal articles that address the sociological aspect of libraries is explained, and implications for library science are suggested. (14 references) (LRW)

Ways in which the special theoretical significance of the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) is affected by attempts to apply relativist-constructivism to technology are discussed. The injunction to consider "technology as text" is critically examined. Also discussed are the status, structure, potential, and implications of SSK. (KR)

Considers role of sociological perspective in drug education curriculum. Examines sociological perspective from broad foci of structure and process; with each focus, examples of sociological approach to drug use are offered. Sample course outline for "Drugs and Society" is presented, suggesting ways in which sociological issues discussed could provide orientation to study of drug use in social context. (Author/NB)

Draws insights from social sciences for beginning teacher induction: (1) from sociology, adult selection of socializing agent and phases of newcomer behavior; (2) from anthropology, rites of passage; and (3) from psychology, encouraging formal operational thought and beginning new adult psychosocial stages. (SK)

Presents a historical survey of the dialectic, a heuristic device which enables teachers, researchers, and students to transform hierarchies of relations regarding class, race, and gender. The article discusses Hegel, Marx, and Engels, and presents a critique of misperceptions of the dialectic and an analysis of the laws of dialectics. (SM)

Urges sociologists to direct more attention toward computer usage because of computers' increasing importance in producing sociological knowledge. Criticizes professional ambivalence toward computer technology as inhibiting creative software development and adequate training of sociologists in computer methods. Concludes that sociology's ambivalence toward computers threatens the profession's ability to keep up in research and scholarship. (DK)

Discusses the falling enrollments in sociology departments. Suggests that the decline may be a result of quality of subject matter presentation, an increase in career-oriented students, and the development of social work and criminal justice into departments separate from sociology. Urges sociology departments to strengthen their political positions on campuses by fostering administrative protection of the discipline. (DK)

Describes the problem of absence of evidence in historiography. Discusses the limits this lack of evidence poses for comparative studies by sociologists. Identifies steps in which events or evidence may be missed or passed over. Includes nonoccurrence, no surviving evidence, unlocated evidence, failure to note evidence, inaccurate criticism of evidence, and evidence not included. (DK)

Discusses social studies' evolution as a discipline from its 1890s origins through the twentieth century. Examines the objectives of historians, sociologists, and "super patriots" (proponents of the Americanism movement) in advancing citizenship training. Concludes that the failure to achieve some of the original goals of social studies may be because of those goals' inconsistency with patriotic indoctrination. (SG)

Describes a classroom exercise for increasing gender equality and awareness in class discussions by increasing female students' participation. Explains that only female students may speak during one week of the course. Argues that radical and feminist education must promote the equal empowerment of male and female students to talk and listen. (DK)

Argues that introductory sociology students need to be familiar with the basics of the entire research process and able to spot simple research errors. Urges teachers to devote time to teaching research methods, assign homework, and include research methods instruction throughout the course. Recommends use of extended research examples and well-chosen computer software. (DK)

Argues that sociology's future is bright. Cites the field's younger, more diverse professoriate; the more qualitative, critical research that will result from reduced educational funding; and opportunities provided by global change. Suggests that the post-Cold War era, ecological crises, and economic transformation will present challenges to sociologists in the coming decades. (SG)

Discusses the new sociology of education and suggests applications to current research and practice in the field of librarianship. Connections of librarianship to dominant political, social, and economic trends are stressed, and the need for library research to study those connections is emphasized. (78 references) (LRW)

The intellectual, institutional, and ecological problems confronting the sociological study of technology are discussed. The history of the technology-sociology relationship is included. The world's need of the concepts, theories, and research findings that sociological study of technology can provide is emphasized. (KR)

The link between science and society is examined by studying the application of evolution theories and genetics to human affairs. Described are the ways in which biological theories have been applied to social issues. (KR)

The emergence and impact of the sociology of scientific knowledge and its main research sites, tools, and debates are described. Weak and strong agendas for the sociology of science are identified, based upon how far sociologists wish to treat knowledge itself as a social product. (KR)

Ways of describing the past of science and studying the evolution of scientific ideas are presented. Sociology and scientific ideas, the use of the history of science, historians of science, and why the history of science is needed are discussed. (KR)

Asserts that sociology is losing ground to other disciplines and programs that are engaged more actively in the workplace. Proposes that, because of the vast changes in the workplace, there is a more active and more applied role for sociology that may help to provide greater opportunities for students and faculty. (DB)

Urges standardization of basic concepts in sociology. Refutes claims that standard concepts are not needed and cannot be made because sociological concepts are too context dependent and sociologists too individualistic. Insists that standardization be limited to concepts used by the discipline as a whole. Suggests that a committee be established by the American Sociological Association. (DK)

Critiques action research from a feminist theoretical perspective, identifying a duality between mainstream and antisexist action research. Argues mainstream researchers' rational distancing fosters self-deception among researchers about what action research can achieve and how it operates. Posits emotional engagement characteristic to antisexist action research can help work through these methodological contradictions. (CH)

Traces the history of the sociology department at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, from its position as a top department in the 1950s and 1960s to its decline in the 1970s, and termination in the 1990s. Criticizes the administration for allowing the department's prominence to decline. Maintains that the closure will hurt all social science disciplines at the university. (RW)