Drawing on annual, nationally representative survey data from 2007-2022, I demonstrate that partisan gaps - the average differences in public opinion between Democrats and Republicans - have widened on many education issues. This pattern consistently exceeds what would be expected due to the changing demographic compositions of the parties alone.…

Long-running surveys need a systematic way to reflect social change and to keep items relevant to respondents, especially when they ask about controversial subjects, or they threaten the items' validity. We propose a protocol for updating measures that preserves content and construct validity. First, substantive experts articulate the current and…

Drawing on 16 years of nationally representative survey data from 2007-2022, I demonstrate that partisan gaps--the average differences in public opinion between Democrats and Republicans--have widened on many education issues. The growth of the partisan gaps consistently exceeds what would be expected due to the changing demographic compositions…

This paper identifies some of the methodological considerations involved in narrative research with conservative faith groups, while addressing the things left unsaid through an exploration of silence in the author's own life narrative of faith and sexuality. The challenges posed by silence -- temporal silence and concealment -- require greater…

Factors that predict political party affiliation are of particular importance in research due to the wider implications in politics and policy making. Extending this line of work, the idea that creativity predicts party affiliation was tested using 2 conceptualizations of creativity: creative personality and creative ideation. Participants (N…

In this time, when social climate is particularly divisive with decreasing support for trans people in the U.S., we explore the general population's attitudes regarding protections for trans children. A survey of a nationally-representative sample of 765 U.S. adults yielded perspectives regarding policies and practices impacting trans children in…

Social work education stresses training students to understand oppressive structural barriers and promote social and economic justice. Social empathy, which is rooted in a deep understanding of those who are different from us through contextual understanding and macro perspective-taking, offers a framework for teaching social justice that…

The lively experiment that "is" the college and university in America is characterized by sustained struggles and tempered triumphs that have both undergirded and challenged the fundamental foundation of the academy. Large questions shape the framework of the academy in America. These include: ideological and political correctness, the…

This article critically analyzes the narratives of 62 White male undergraduates at a single institution about their views on race and experiences with racism. It is framed by Mills' (1997) conception of Whiteness that is founded upon an inverted epistemology or an "epistemology of ignorance." Therefore, this analysis centers the ways in…

This article examined how the group membership of the person being judged influenced the level of moral reasoning. Nearly 200 ordinary Italians were given two measures of moral ingroup inclusiveness (the Bogardus social distance scale and a self-categorization measure) and the short form of Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT). The protagonists in…

Using data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, this study examines the relationship between engagement in diversity experiences during college and student attitudes about the importance of being socially and politically involved at the end of their fourth year of college. Findings suggest a positive link between…

This paper explores the public political media spectacle of Bristol Palin's teenage pregnancy and her status as a single mother through the lens of a critical feminist discourse analysis. The author explores how cultural anxieties over teenage sexuality and unintended pregnancy in America are constructed when the pregnant teen is the daughter…

Impressions of admission officers toward homeschooled applicants were examined. Specifically, this study sought to ascertain whether the perceptions of admission officers adhered to the common stereotype that homeschoolers are brighter and yet socially less well-adjusted than average. The responses of 121 admission officers were analyzed across…

Attention to virtual space is growing in Russia. Russian politicians have an interest in the Internet: the president has his own blog and reads Twitter, and the United Russia Party is starting to work with the iPad on a mass scale. Opposition leaders and movements are not lagging behind either. Online surveys of various Internet resources are…

Four studies investigated whether political allegiance and salience of outgroup membership contribute to the phenomenon of acceptance of false, stigmatizing information (smears) about political candidates. Studies 1-3 were conducted in the month prior to the 2008 U.S. Presidential election and together demonstrated that pre-standing opposition to…