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This note outlines the type of papers which the U.S. periodical "The Sociological Quarterly" wishes to publish. The periodical is a general sociological journal, and as such does not place any quotas on the number of papers it shall publish in any specific area. It nearly always considers scholarly sociological research and writing done by sociologists as being within the journal's acceptable limits. The note airs a special call for articles on the teaching of sociology as well.

Over the last five decades, immigration has profoundly transformed the population of metropolitan New York, long divided by race and class. The almost-forgotten 'underclass' debate established that New York was the nation's capital of concentrated poverty, which grew significantly worse during the 1970s and 1980s. Though more recent data show that New York has achieved a remarkable turnaround since 1990, most probably associated with immigration, it remains a city of economic extremes and stubbornly high poverty. Concern about where new immigrants—and their children—might fit into this matrix of urban inequality led several leading social scientists to hypothesise that some members of the second generation would be downwardly mobile. To investigate this possibility, in 1999 and 2000, the Immigrant Second Generation in Metropolitan New York (ISGMNY) surveyed 3,415 young people aged 18 to 32 years, from five immigrant and three native-born racial and ethnic backgrounds, about their life trajectories. This paper conducts an analysis of the contextual effects of the neighbourhoods in which respondents grew up on their later experiences in terms of educational attainment and labour market success. Using OLS and HLM modelling, we find small but consistent and theoretically interesting effects. In particular, growing up in a poor neighbourhood has a negative effect on later outcomes, while growing up in a black neighbourhood does not, once poverty is taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars agree that students should be regularly engaged in dialogues that require them to question texts, values, or issues. We observed social studies classrooms in secondary schools serving urban, rural, and suburban students of different socioeconomic backgrounds in New York to learn what kinds of questioning strategies teachers were using and whether their questioning supported dialogue. In this paper we identify and give examples of three patterns of questioning we observed. Then, we explain how frequently these forms of questioning were used in high track and heterogeneous classes and in schools serving different socioeconomic communities. While we found that dialogic questioning can and does occur in classrooms, students in heterogeneous tracks and lower-income schools appear to have few experiences with dialogic questioning that would help them make connections and think critically about course content and texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the use of deliberative discussion in social studies classes. Concern about a lack of discussion in many social studies classes; Use of the Mississippi Freedom schools as an example of deliberative discussion to promote a participatory perspective of democratic practice within the classroom; Use of progressive educational methods at the schools to promote student participation in learning, a sense of the worth and equality among students, and the need to connect lessons to life; Impact of the freedom schools on students.

The article presents various papers about service learning projects, social studies projects, research and collaborative efforts of teachers and universities to enrich the education of adolescents, and other ideas that can be adapted to the middle school environment in the U.S. One of the papers reports that the Division of Continuing Education of Bank Street College of Education, New York City, is working to change the lives of inner city children, their families, and communities by emphasizing collaboration.

The paper presents the address given by the author during the general session of the Midwest Sociological Society's 25th anniversary meeting on April 13, 1962, in Des Moines, Iowa. It discusses the author's experience with the society and his participation in its previous annual conferences. During his term as secretary of the society he has observed the changes in the structure and the functions of the society since its reorganization in 1937. The most important phenomenon having implications for a regional society is the decline in regionalism of American sociology. Regionalism, in the sense that it existed in 1937 has disappeared. The birth of the society have a significant impact on the origins of modern American sociology. The educational institutions established by notable members of the society have contributed to the production of doctor of philosophy degree in sociology.

The Information Literacy Unit at Michigan State University Libraries is tasked with providing teaching and learning support to 70+ librarian colleagues at MSU. The unit was asked to conduct a needs assessment to determine supportive needs, attitudes toward teaching and learning, and to lay groundwork for expanding the ability of the unit to provide support through building trust and strengthening relationships with librarian colleagues. An interview-based method grounded in social sciences rather than an assessment with a management focus was employed to accomplish these diverse tasks, which yielded actionable insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is an announcement about several meetings to be held concurrently in the year 1979 in various cities of the U.S. The Economic and Business Historical Society issued a call for papers for the April 1979 meeting at Lake Tahoe-Reno. A dissertation session is also planned. The Society meets concurrently with the Western Social Science Association. The Fourth Midwest Marxist Scholars Conference will be held on March 9-11, 1979 at the University of Cincinnati on the theme "The U.S. Educational System: Marxist Approaches;' The focus will be on education as an institution and on Marxist approaches to research and teaching in various academic disciplines. The Department of History and the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University announce a national labor history conference that will be held in October 1979. The American Council of Learned Societies had published a brochure on "Aids to Individual Scholars," which deals with competitions to be held in 1978-79. The ninth annual Institute for Historical Editing will take place in July 15-27, 1979, in Madison, Wisconsin.

Early linkages between physical education, sociology, and sport sociology are set in the American 1960s context of increased focus on the discipline of physical education, expansion of higher education, and fragmentation of knowledge. In the last 20 years sport sociology has become a subfield of both physical education and sociology. Positivist and descriptive/sensitizing perspectives of the nature of knowledge—two paradigms used by sport sociologists—are compared and contrasted. In sociology there continues to be considerable debate between proponents of these two orientations, while in physical education the positivist tradition has been espoused almost exclusively. Much American social research is positivist in nature, and this, coupled with the strong physical education positivist tradition, has tended to guide sport sociologists in this direction. But interdisciplinary sport studies perspectives that have evolved out of the descriptive/sensitizing paradigm and draw on a wide range of the social sciences and humanities are currently becoming more popular in sociology and sport sociology. Sport sociology can make important broadening and humanizing contributions to physical education curricula, most of which are very technically and/or professionally oriented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the Black male crisis thesis promulgated by the social science literature, public policy, and mainstream discourse, respectively. The authors contend that the stock-story that the majority of African American males are 'at-risk' for engaging in self-destructive behavior or on the verge of extinction perpetuates a discourse of Black male pathology, which leads to over-emphasis of behavior modification as a strategy for their collective improvement. Subsequently, de-emphasis on the historical and structural role of race as a life opportunity-shaping variable occurs, which renders an incomplete understanding of the social and educational status of Black males in the United States. As a result, public policies and social programs guided by this deficit discourse are unlikely to create meaningful change for this population, because society's existing political economic structures are left unchallenged. The article concludes with the assertion that a 'new narrative' is needed in order to rethink the complex and systematic ways the social and educational status of Black males in the United States are constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the relationship between social position and social change, this essay examines the multipositionality of the black schoolteacher, and through it the relationship between race and power. The autobiographical writings of black teachers who worked in the American South between 1890 and 1950 uniquely reveal the complex relationship between power and culture in this phase of American history, and illustrate the ways in which subordinated people used varied tools in order to shift the vectors of power, and thus the limits of their social status as subaltern citizens. The result is a more textured view of black teachers, which rejects simple constructions of teachers as uni-dimensional individuals capable of a 'single' consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors interviewed more than one hundred high school students in three regions of China about their knowledge and perceptions of the United States and China. The authors' findings suggest the following: (1) students possess extensive knowledge about the United States in terms of its history, geography, socioeconomic system, and education, and they obtain the knowledge from multiple media sources besides social studies curriculum; (2) students obtain knowledge about China mainly from news media, social studies class, and their personal experience; (3) students admire American socioeconomic and educational systems but resent America's interference with China's domestic issues and its hegemony in world affairs; (4) students take pride in China's economic development but resent the education system and are concerned about economic inequity existing in China today; and (5) students believe that mutual understanding and learning from each other will benefit the United States, China, and the whole world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

and pain is all all right, like a bridge over troubled water —Simon and Garfunkel umdiddleliddleliddleImgonnadie, umdiddleliddleliddleImgonnadie —Bob Flanagan The normative force of performativity—its power to establish what qualifies as ‘being’—works not only through reiteration, but through exclusion as well. And in the case of bodies, those exclusions haunt signification as its abject borders or as that which is strictly foreclosed: the unlivable, the nonnarrativizable, the traumatic. —Judith Butler, 1993, p. 188 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the significance of using baseball in social studies instruction. When developing teaching tools that engage learners in activities that can retain their interest, teachers may find baseball a useful springboard for teaching social studies skills. Teachers can capitalize on an area of interest that already exists for many youth. As a popular spectator sport in the U.S., baseball had more than seventy-four million paid attendees at major league games and another thirty-eight million at minor league baseball games. Moreover, the interest goes beyond simply spectating as participatory numbers for youth in organized baseball continue to grow. Little League Baseball, Inc., is the world's largest organized youth sports program. Lessons in which a study of baseball could be woven include the history, geography, culture, and economics of cities and regions where teams exist, map skills, charting and graphing skills, the study of time lines and development of time skills, and even the study of geographic regions and the historical significance of classic ballparks. By exploring Major League Baseball through the five themes of geography and research activities, children make real and practical applications that relate to their lives.

This article examines the viability of integrating social studies and elementary core subjects such as reading and math. Elementary teachers in the U.S. report being overwhelmed by pressures to have their students achieve on standardized assessments and complain that there is not enough time in the day to teach reading and math, the areas for which they are held most accountable, and also teach social studies. Moreover, there is another issue constraining the teaching of social studies at the elementary level: Many teachers do not feel comfortable teaching the subject. They lack confidence in their knowledge of social studies content and feel unprepared to teach it. When that lack is added to the pressures being applied by state and federal mandates, it is no wonder that teachers teach social studies only when they have adequately addressed reading and math standards. Therein lie the problems with elementary social studies: There is no time to teach it and it is not seen as a priority. The problem of how to reconcile elementary teachers' discomfort with social studies and the pressure they feel to teach only those areas that are tested with the practical application of social studies education remains, however. The answer may lie with the effective integration of social studies into content areas like reading and math and meeting the state-mandated standards in each area.

The continuum between generalist and specialist is not as useful an organizing concept for social work education as its supporters believe. Instead, less ambiguous central organizing constructs are needed for baccalaureate and master's education. Instead of a continuum, the authors suggest that the two programs be conceived as independent entities. The baccalaureate degree should focus on the training of case managers in public service agencies. The master's degree should prepare graduates with specific skills and knowledge that represent genuinely advanced practice. This formulation calls into question the notion of a common professional foundation and eliminates the practice of granting advanced standing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, the author, a social studies teacher educator, reflects on what she learned during a six-month Fulbright experience in Ghana. An an oburoni, or a white person, outside the whale, or the United States, she read and listened to specifically Ghanaian perspectives of history, economics, women's issues, and culture and was reminded both of the power of the dominating, western cultural and economic imperialism and the value of contropuntal thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charles Beard was arguably the most influential historian in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. He was also a key figure in the theoretical conceptualization of social studies education. The vision of social studies he recommended for schools, which he articulated most thoroughly during the 1930s while serving on the American Historical Association's Commission of the Social Studies, was influenced greatly by his notion of the nature of historical inquiry and understanding, but, more fundamentally still, by his long-standing, deep-seated disposition as a progressive reformer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective American (U.S.) citizenship in the Twenty-first century may require a shift in the value orientation which currently characterizes American life. Two components of the American value system are becoming increasingly dysfunctional. American social science, and accordingly the social studies curriculum, has become narrowly focused on an economic model of human decision-making. Such a one-dimensional model of man, because it invalidates by omission justice-based models of decision-making, leaves American society with a reduced capacity for addressing social dilemmas, particularly commons-type problems. Secondly, American cultural life has been dominated by a heavy and one-sided commitment to primary control. Such an imbalance, which invalidates secondary control as a means of meeting basic control needs, leaves American citizens with no normatively sanctioned motivational dynamic for addressing social dilemmas. Social studies, as the discipline most explicitly charged with promoting citizenship, may become increasingly ineffective in meeting this challenge unless teachers at all levels and in all curriculum domains can correct the values imbalance in American culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]