Mills College

Educators and policymakers increasingly pursue programs that aim to strengthen democracy through civic education, service learning, and other pedagogies. Their underlying beliefs, however, differ. This article calls attention to the spectrum of ideas about what good citizenship is and what good citizens do that are embodied in democratic education programs. It offers analyses of a 2-year study of educational programs in the United States that aimed to promote democracy. Drawing on democratic theory and on findings from their study, the authors detail three conceptions of the “good” citizen—personally responsible, participatory, and justice oriented —that underscore political implications of education for democracy. The article demonstrates that the narrow and often ideologically conservative conception of citizenship embedded in many current efforts at teaching for democracy reflects not arbitrary choices but, rather, political choices with political consequences.

Lesson study, a Japanese form of professional development that centers on collaborative study of live classroom lessons, has spread rapidly in the United States since 1999. Drawing on examples of Japanese and U.S. lesson study, we propose that three types of research are needed if lesson study is to avoid the fate of so many other once-promising reforms that were discarded before being fully understood or well implemented. The proposed research includes development of a descriptive knowledge base; explication of the innovation’s mechanism; and iterative cycles of improvement research. We identify six changes in the structure and norms of educational research that would enhance the field’s capacity to study emerging innovations such as lesson study. These changes include rethinking the routes from educational research to educational improvement and recognizing a “local proof route”; building research methods and norms that will better enable us to learn from innovation practitioners; and increasing our capacity to learn across cultural boundaries.

Abstract Colorism is a persistent problem for people of color in the USA. Colorism, or skin color stratification, is a process that privileges light‐skinned people of color over dark in areas such as income, education, housing, and the marriage market. This essay describes the experiences of African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans with regard to skin color. Research demonstrates that light‐skinned people have clear advantages in these areas, even when controlling for other background variables. However, dark‐skinned people of color are typically regarded as more ethnically authentic or legitimate than light‐skinned people. Colorism is directly related to the larger system of racism in the USA and around the world. The color complex is also exported around the globe, in part through US media images, and helps to sustain the multibillion‐dollar skin bleaching and cosmetic surgery industries.

This study of 4,057 students from 52 high schools in Chicago finds that a set of specific kinds of civic learning opportunities fosters notable improvements in students’ commitments to civic participation. The study controls for demographic factors, preexisting civic commitments, and academic test scores. Prior large-scale studies that found limited impact from school-based civic education often did not focus on the content and style of the curriculum and instruction. Discussing civic and political issues with one’s parents, extracurricular activities other than sports, and living in a civically responsive neighborhood also appear to meaningfully support this goal. Other school characteristics appear less influential.

Journal Article Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy Get access Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy by Stephen D. Krasner. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1999. 264 pp. Cloth, $49.50; paper, $16.95. Fred H. Lawson Fred H. Lawson Mills College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 114, Issue 4, Winter 1999, Pages 716–717, https://doi.org/10.2307/2657807 Published: 15 February 2013

Olfaction is of considerable importance to many insects in behaviors critical for survival and reproduction, including location of food sources, selection of mates, recognition of colony con-specifics, and determination of oviposition sites. An ubiquitous, but poorly understood, component of the insect's olfactory system is a group of odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) that are present at high concentrations in the aqueous lymph surrounding the dendrites of olfactory receptor neurons. OBPs are believed to shuttle odorants from the environment to the underlying odorant receptors, for which they could potentially serve as odorant presenters. Here we show that the Drosophila genome carries 51 potential OBP genes, a number comparable to that of its odorant-receptor genes. We find that the majority (73%) of these OBP-like genes occur in clusters of as many as nine genes, in contrast to what has been observed for the Drosophila odorant-receptor genes. Two of the presumptive OBP gene clusters each carries an odorant-receptor gene. We also report an intriguing subfamily of 12 putative OBPs that share a unique C-terminal structure with three conserved cysteines and a conserved proline. Members of this subfamily have not previously been described for any insect. We have performed phylogenetic analyses of the OBP-related proteins in Drosophila as well as other insects, and we discuss the duplication and divergence of the genes for this large family. [The sequence data from this study have been submitted to FlyBase. Annotations for these sequences are available as supplementary material at http://www.genome.org.]

Social network analysis provides a broad and complex perspective on animal sociality that is widely applicable to almost any species. Recent applications demonstrate the utility of network analysis for advancing our understanding of the dynamics, selection pressures, development, and evolution of complex social systems. However, most studies of animal social networks rely primarily on a descriptive approach. To propel the field of animal social networks beyond exploratory analyses and to facilitate the integration of quantitative methods that allow for the testing of ecologically and evolutionarily relevant hypotheses, we review methodological and conceptual advances in network science, which are underutilized in studies of animal sociality. First, we highlight how the use of statistical modeling and triadic motifs analysis can advance our understanding of the processes that structure networks. Second, we discuss how the consideration of temporal changes and spatial constraints can shed light on the dynamics of social networks. Third, we consider how the study of variation at multiple scales can potentially transform our understanding of the structure and function of animal networks. We direct readers to analytical tools that facilitate the adoption of these new concepts and methods. Our goal is to provide behavioral ecologists with a toolbox of current methods that can stimulate novel insights into the ecological influences and evolutionary pressures structuring networks and advance our understanding of the proximate and ultimate processes that drive animal sociality.

According to attachment theory, the child's attachment behavioral system is complemented by a reciprocal caregiving system in the parent. Going beyond current descriptions of caregiving as a set of discrete parental behaviors and attitudes that are related to attachment, we have sought to describe caregiving as a behavioral system that is organized in its own right. Examination interviews of 32 mothers of 6-year-old children, we found a significant correspondence between maternal internal working models of caregiving on the dimensions of secure base, rejection, uncertainty, and helplessness and their children's attachment classification. A significant concordance between caregiving classification and adult attachment classification and between adult attachment classification and child attachment classification was also found. The relation between child attachment, adult attachment, and the caregiving system is discussed.

A critical problem facing modern organizations in a variety of settings is the erosion of slack. Given narrowing performance margins allowed many organizations, managers are tempted to "lock in" organizational performance through elaborated rules and procedures, formal authority assignments, and clearly differentiated job responsibilities. A case study of one organization seeking very high reliability in its performance—a nuclear power plant—is offered to demonstrate a contrary point of view. Reliability, it is argued, can best be achieved not through attempts at organizational invariance but through the management of fluctuations in important organizational relationships and practices. This strategy enhances reliability while preserving the protective functions of organizational slack.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine whether children classified as controlling in attachment differ from children classified into the traditional Ainsworth attachment categories in their symbolic representations of attachment and level of behavior problems. Sixty-nine middle-class kindergarten children and their mothers participated in a laboratory separation and reunion. Children enacted doll-play stories about attachment-related themes. A four-group representation classification scheme was developed from the doll-play transcripts of 27 children. Mothers ( n = 44) completed Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist and teachers ( n = 40) completed a 30-item inventory of classroom behavior. Results showed significant agreement between the representational system and Main and Cassidy's classification system (1988) for children's reunion behavior. The doll-play of controlling children was characterized by themes of catastrophe and helplessness or by complete inhibition of play and suggested disorganization of representational processes. Controlling children also were described by mothers and teachers as significantly more aggressive than other children. The results validate the distinction between the controlling and traditional classification groups and suggest that controlling children are at risk for behavioral maladaptation at home and at school.

Medical, neurodevelopmental, and parenting effects of individualized developmental care were investigated in a three-center, randomized, controlled trial. A total of 92 preterm infants, weighing less than 1250 g and aged less than 28 weeks, participated. Outcome measures included medical, neurodevelopmental and family function. Quality of care was also assessed. Multivariate analysis of variance investigated group, site, and interaction effects; correlation analysis identified individual variable contributions to significant effects. The results consistently favored the experimental groups. The following contributed to the group effects: shorter duration of parenteral feeding, transition to full oral feeding, intensive care, and hospitalization; lower incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis; reduced discharge ages and hospital charges; improved weight, length, and head circumferences; enhanced autonomic, motor, state, attention, and self-regulatory functioning; reduced need for facilitation; and lowered family stress and enhanced appreciation of the infant. Quality of care was measurably improved. Very low birth weight infants and their parents, across diverse settings, may benefit from individualized developmental care.

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In this paper, we describe the development of and our preliminary work to empirically validate the Adult Attachment Projective (AAP), a new adult attachment classification system that is based on the analysis of individuals' responses to a set of seven attachment-related drawings. The AAP classification system uses evaluations of three dimensions (Discourse, Content and Defensive Processing) to designate four major adult classification groups: Secure, Dismissing, Preoccupied, and Unresolved. Preliminary validation of the AAP is based on 75 participants drawn from three separate samples. The results indicate strong interjudge reliability and convergent agreement between the AAP and Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) classifications. The AAP, thus, appears to be a promising developmental measure for assessing the representation of attachment in adults. Contributions of the AAP to attachment theory and research are discussed. The similarities and differences between AAP stories and other child and adult representational measures are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary framework for conceptualizing the caregiving behavioral system. Following Bowlby (1982), we propose that caregiving is organized within a goal-corrected behavioral system that is reciprocal to attachment. The set-goal of the system is to keep dependent offspring close or safe; its adaptive function is protection of the young. The caregiving system is designed to provide changing levels and forms of protection depending upon the developmental and individual requirements of the young. However, the evolutionary interests of the parent are not entirely overlapping with that of the child because the parent's evolutionary fitness depends on the fitness of all her offspring. Caregiving is one of several motivational systems in the parent. Depending upon circumstances, parents may select from a range of caregiving strategies, which are believed to correspond to the continuum of child attachment relationships (secure, avoidant, ambivalent). The adult caregiving system is believed to be guided by an internal representation or mental model of caregiving. This system has its roots in early attachment—caregiver experiences, but is distinct from them. We suggest that the caregiving representational system becomes consolidated initially in adolescence and undergoes change during the transition to parenthood and as a function of interaction with the child. Once this development is complete, situations of danger and safety should activate the caregiving behavioral system. Under normal circumstances, if the parent's own attachment system is aroused she would appeal to her own attachment figures rather than to the child. However, situations that engender feelings of helplessness in the mother (i.e., which cause her to perceive herself as unable to protect the child) may disorganize or disable the caregiving system on both the behavioral and representational levels.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the lifetime prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Demographic and disease-related variables were examined for association with lifetime major depressive disorder (MDD) and the presence of any mood or anxiety disorder. METHODS: Three hundred twenty-six white women with SLE completed the Composite International Diagnostic Interview and the Systemic Lupus Activity Questionnaire, a self-report measure of SLE disease activity. The binomial test was used to compare the prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses in patients with SLE with a population sample of white women. RESULTS: Sixty-five percent of the participants received a lifetime mood or anxiety diagnosis. MDD (47%), specific phobia (24%), panic disorder (16%), obsessive-compulsive disorder (9%), and bipolar I disorder (6%) were more common among patients with SLE than among other white women (P = 0.00009 for specific phobia; for all other values P = 0.00001). Although most patients with histories of mood disorders reported their psychiatric symptoms to a medical provider, a substantial number of patients with anxiety disorders did not. Self-reported disease activity was associated with a lifetime history of MDD (P = 0.001) and presence of a mood or anxiety disorder (P = 0.001), after controlling for demographic and clinical characteristics. CONCLUSION: Several mood and anxiety disorders were more common in women with SLE compared with the general population, and disease activity may contribute to this higher risk. Brief self-report questionnaires may help providers identify patients with these conditions, particularly when patients are reluctant to disclose their symptoms.

Online information services have grown too large for users to navigate without the help of automated tools such as collaborative filtering, which makes recommendations to users based on their collective past behavior. While many similarity measures have been proposed and individually evaluated, they have not been evaluated relative to each other in a large real-world environment. We present an extensive empirical comparison of six distinct measures of similarity for recommending online communities to members of the Orkut social network. We determine the usefulness of the different recommendations by actually measuring users' propensity to visit and join recommended communities. We also examine how the ordering of recommendations influenced user selection, as well as interesting social issues that arise in recommending communities within a real social network.

Between 4th and 8th grade, American students fall behind on international norms, whereas Japanese students continue to perform well. This paper brings diverse perspectives to bear on japanese late-elementary science education, in order to elucidate its instructional features and the broader educational system features that enable deep, coherent instruction.

Justin is not alone. In a recent study of high school seniors from California, for example, only 28% agreed that “I think people in government care about what people like me and my family need” (Kahne and Middaugh 2005). Related findings are common. A survey by the National Association of Secretaries of State, for example, revealed that two-thirds of all young people agreed that “our generation has an important voice, but no one seems to hear it.” Moreover, those youth who were least trusting were also the least likely to vote, to believe that government can affect their lives, or to pay attention to politics (National Association of Secretaries of State 1999). These findings, combined with numerous other indicators that show low and in many cases declining civic and political participation, indicate that forms of engagement required for a participatory democracy to thrive are in need of attention (Macedo et al. 2005). The initial research for this essay was generously supported by a grant from the Surdna Foundation. Subsequent research and writing was generously supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We also wish to thank Melinda Fine, Barbara Leckie, Tobi Walker, and James Youniss for helpful feedback on earlier drafts. The authors are solely responsible for any and all conclusions.

The World Bank is an immensely powerful, though little-understood, institution. This study ranges from personal criticism of the central players to a more reflective discussion of the blind faith characteristic of development economics based on the idea of perpetual growth. The authors compare the ideologies of the free market with religious faith, giving the World Bank the role of a secular church setting out to convert the world's underdeveloped economies to the consumer capitalist way, and so to create an enormous secular empire. Susan George is the author of Ill Fares the Land, How the Other Half Dies and A Fate Worse than Debt, winner of the 1988 US World Hunger Media Award and French UNICEF Committee Prize 1989.

The theory and tools of “improvement science” have produced performance improvements in many organizational sectors. This essay describes improvement science and explores its potential and challenges within education. Potential contributions include attention to the knowledge-building and motivational systems within schools, strategies for learning from variations in practice, and focus on improvement (rather than on program adoption). Two examples of improvement science in education are examined: the Community College Pathways Networked Improvement Community and lesson study in Japan. To support improvement science use, we need to recognize the different affordances of experimental and improvement science, the varied types of knowledge that can be generalized, the value of practical measurement, and the feasibility of learning across boundaries.