This essay is designed to engage academic discipline in a conversation about the utility and practices associated with providing communication coursework online, particularly general education, communication skills courses. The author has framed the conversation in terms of student success, retention, and degree completion. He outlines three…

E. Durkheim (1897) suggested that the societal rate of suicide might be explained by societal factors, such as marriage, divorce, and birth rates. The current study examined male prison suicide rates and suicide rates for men in the total population in the United States and found that variables based on Durkheim's theory of suicide explained…

The Institutional Integration Scale is claimed to measure five facets of college student academic and social integration. The scale was based on Tintos model of college student withdrawal. Psychometric properties of the scale were examined based on a sample of 1st-year college students. These results led to item revisions and additions. The scale…

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), recent global immigration to the U.S. interior compels local education systems that are relatively inexperienced with immigration to address new integrating and segmenting tendencies expressed by the growing and diversifying number of immigrants from Africa, Asia, and…

The study examined perceptions of issues associated with inclusive education of 437 parents from a midwestern state in the United States who have a child with a mild, moderate, or severe disability. Parents responded to a modified form of the Opinions Related to Mainstreaming (ORM) Scale (Antonak & Larrivee, 1995) and provided additional…

In the 1990s, temporary youth projects became a common approach to handling youth unemployment and the social integration of young people in Sweden. In a longitudinal, qualitative study, 35 unemployed men and women, attending local youth projects in three Swedish municipalities, were followed over a two-year period. The selected contexts…

Although provision of holidays for families in need has been mainstreamed within the social care policies of many countries in the rest of Europe, "social tourism" has yet to be adopted in the United Kingdom. This article reports on a scoping study of research and policy in this area. While there is limited robust research on the impact…

Despite its best intentions, social exclusion has grown rather than diminished under New Labour's education policies. In order to understand this, Ivor Goodson argues that we need to engage with the history of the formal curriculum and the long and continuing fight over what counts as proper knowledge. Taking science and environmental science as…

Integrated Community Schools (ICS) in Scotland provide a focus for studying the role of inter-agency partnerships in supporting more inclusive schools and their communities. In this article, Lyn Tett examines two types of intervention, those designed to coordinate supportive programmes within and outside schools, and those that have acted as a…

This paper is developed from a recently HEA-funded study that seeks to identify key aspects of learning partnerships (LPs) and produce guidelines on best practice for educational providers working with under-represented adult learning groups. The theory and practice of social capital is highlighted as central to this task. In particular, the work…

Elderly Americans commit suicide at higher rates than other age groups. We contend that macro- and micro-social variables contribute distinct aspects to explanations of this tragic loss: the former focus on circumstances that affect overall rates, the latter reveal why certain individuals succumb to suicide. Our analysis focuses on the…

The paper aims to investigate the role assigned to state schools in France and Italy in constructing social cohesion and a common citizenship. The theme will be treated by individuating three different stages of a process of progressive mutual rapprochement between state and civil society. From the separatist phase, passing through an intermediate…

This article provides a critical evaluation of recent developments in government policy for disabled people in Britain. A brief outline of the re-definition of disability as social oppression by disabled activists and their organizations is provided. This is followed by a brief outline of its impact on recent government policy which aims to…

Sociological analyses of suicide have often neglected female suicide rates. Three competing explanations are tested to determine why the suicide rates of married women are, typically, lower than the suicide rates of women who are not married: (1) marital status integration, (2) societal integration, and (3) a nation's normative order about…

College and university presidents are viewed by their various constituencies as responsible for everything, good and ill. Upon assuming the role of president, one takes on a double existence--the symbol of the presidency overlays one's identity as a private individual. And the line between the two can at times become dangerously blurred. In this…