This article explores the ubiquitous uses of the term "well-being" in social work codes, values, and literature. It reviews international concepts of well-being as well as those within social work to consider a deeper exploration of the meanings of well-being. Dimensions of well-being that resonate with social work values include eliminating…

The provision of second language courses is a means through which campaign organisations promoting a more egalitarian, integrated and inclusive society are trying to achieve their aims. It is expected that, through these classes, migrant students will be enabled to break their isolation and to become more socially involved. This paper explores…

Developing a sense of community among students is one of the three pillars of an overall reform effort to increase participation in physics, and the sciences more broadly, at Florida International University. The emergence of a research and learning community, embedded within a course reform effort, has contributed to increased recruitment and…

Drawing on empirical data from two recent research studies in post-Apartheid South Africa, this paper asks what it means to be poor, young and black, and belong in a society that has suffered debilitating and dehumanising racial subjugation, actively excluding people from citizenship, and how poverty serves to perpetuate this exclusion. It…

The aim of the study was to determine if preschool children perceive overweight children to have more negative characteristics than non-overweight children. Children from 32 to 70 months old (N = 42) listened to four stories about an interaction between two children, in which one child demonstrated socially unacceptable behaviour and one child…

Background/Context: Transfer is a core function of community colleges; this is a critical point given that these institutions serve as the primary pathway into postsecondary education for Black men. However, too few Black men identify transfer as a primary goal and/or eventually transfer to a 4-year college or university.…

The objective of this study was to examine whether continuing education that focuses on service learning could provide older students (over the age of 50) with knowledge and skills that increase their life satisfaction, confidence, and community integration. We also examined whether it could provide them with meaningful and purposeful experiences.…

Over the past decade, cohesion and integration have been a key concern for policymakers in countries across Europe and North America. The rapid increase in immigration, coupled with the perception of rapid social change and instability, is seen to have presented communities and governments with a range of "new" challenges. In the…

Zimbabwean economic migrants and political refugees have been given refuge and provided with shelter at the Central Methodist Church (CMC) Refugee House, in central Johannesburg. The refugees have successfully initiated learning and training programmes which resulted in the establishment of a combined school, namely "St. Albert Street Refugee…

Contemporary Australia is an evolving nation of diverse cultures, but in the past various understandings of national identity were held, first as part of the British empire, then as part of an assimilationist monocultural British society and subsequently as a nation where integration allowed different cultures to be celebrated but within the…

The last speakers of an endangered language often include many individuals who have acquired less than full productive proficiency in the language, language users Nancy Dorian (1977) called semi-speakers. When these individuals enter formal education and seek to learn or relearn their endangered heritage language, they are often frustrated by…

This study examined the relationships between undergraduate students' social class background and variables theorized to affect students' social integration in higher education, including students' perception of campus climate, frequency of faculty interactions, frequency of involvement in campus activities, and sense of belonging.…

Schools are often the first point of contact for young refugees resettling in Australia and play a significant role in establishing meaningful connections to Australian society and a sense of belonging in Australia (Olliff in "Settling in: How do refugee young people fair within Australia's settlement system?" Centre for Multicultural…

Vincent Tinto's theory of academic and social integration provides a framework for investigating perceived problems associated with Chinese international students' engagement at a public research-intensive university in the U.S. Midwest ("Midwest" University). These "problems"--classroom silence, segregation and…

This paper reports on a study aimed at developing an improved understanding of the support needs of international students. Using a case study approach at one Australian university, a three stage data collection process was adopted: interviews with key support service providers in the university, student focus groups, and a large-scale survey.…