Social change

About: Social change is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 61197 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1797013 citations.

Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World

Abstract: Educational environments that exist in pluralistic societies today prove to offer students little purpose to attend school and limited support in becoming successful. The lack of understanding the needs of students, along with preconceived notions of cultures and identities of communities of colour have resulted in a partial eradication of student cultures, and the creation of vulnerable, stigmatized, and marginalized student populations. The “divide that exists between many educational institutions and the students they are supposed to serve” (Paris & Alim, 2017, p. 95) only continues to grow because students do not feel that their identities are affirmed through the curriculum taught; it is irrelevant, impractical and exclusionary to their backgrounds, experiences, and lives. Identifying the various challenges that students of colour are faced with in schools is the first step towards finding a possible solution to address those issues and concerns. Several educators and researchers, under the editorial guide of Paris and Alim (2017), tackle the history of pathologizing students — the silencing and ignoring their voices, the overrepresentation of white teachers in the classroom, and the numerous discourses related to teaching and diversity — to offer a possible solution through the implementation of culturally sustaining pedagogies (CSP). Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World begins with the editors explaining the way in which the book came together and identifying the contributors to the volume. Following this, the introductory chapter provides a definition of CSP, explains its meaning and importance, and identifies the goal of the book, which according to the editors involves

New Terrain in Youth Development: The Promise of a Social Justice Approach

Abstract: Toward a Social Justice Model of Youth Development POPULAR NOTIONS OF URBAN YOUTH HAVE LED THE PUBLIC TO BELIEVE THAT YOUNG people create more problems than possibilities. This idea is most evident in public policy that tends to view them as delinquents, criminals, and the cause of general civic problems. For example, in California, the passage of the Juvenile Justice Crime Bill (Proposition 21), which allows courts to try juveniles as adults, and other similar measures across the nation demonstrate how public policy reflects a fear of urban youth. Central to these initiatives is the notion that young people, particularly urban youth of color, are a menace to society and therefore need to be controlled and contained. The "get tough on youth" crime discourse has turned our attention from the powerful social forces and structural barriers that create and maintain problems to explanations of group behavior. As a result, researchers and practitioners have not paid serious attention to the impact of racism, the influence of poverty, and the effect of unemployment and instead have favored explanations of urban youth problems that focus on individual and! or group pathologies. The limits of current youth development models are bound by an inability to examine the complex social, economic, and political forces that bear on the lives of urban youth. A discussion of these forces is particularly important for youth who struggle with issues of identity, racism, sexism, police brutality, and poverty that are supported by unjust economic policies. For example, in 1997, although minority youth represent only 34% of the U.S. population, they comprised 62% of incarcerated youth. Additionally, African American youth are six times more likely to be incarcerated and receive longer sentences than do their white counterparts. Youth of color bear the brunt of discriminatory sentencing practices, and they have few educational and economic opportunities. In California, for example, Proposition 187 attempts to deny undocumented immigrants public benefits; Proposition 209 bans affirmative action policies; Proposition 227 bans bilingual education; and Proposition 21 gives courts greater authority to se ntence youth, as young as 14, as adults. These state actions seriously impede the life chances that once were available to urban youth of color. (1) This assault on youth of color treats individuals, families, and communities as the causes of their own problems and does not adequately address the most significant problems facing urban youth. Policymakers, educators, and youth workers must pay greater attention to how young people navigate racism, poverty, and unemployment in their communities. To understand these challenges, we must look beyond the narrow parameters of individual, family, or community behavior. Developing effective policy requires a thorough examination of the larger economic, social, and cultural forces that bear upon the actions, behaviors, experiences, and choices for urban youth. This article presents a youth development model that demonstrates how these extrinsic societal forces significantly influence the day-to-day lives of urban youth and argues that our knowledge of their experience must be developed in three ways. First, the lives of urban youth are conceptualized within the terrain of the changing political, economic, and social landscape where they and their families struggle for economic survival, sustainability, and mobility. Second, we recognize how urban youth define, negotiate, and struggle for their identities in oppressive environments. Third, we explore how they, with an awareness of social justice, respond to forces that deem them powerless, develop a sophisticated knowledge of the root causes of social problems, and generate unique ways to contend with the larger political forces. We argue that an effective approach for working with urban youth is through a social justice framework, which accounts for the multiple forms of oppression youth encounter and highlights th e strategies they use to address inequities plaguing their communities. …

Changing class : education and social change in post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract: * Section 1 Changing Contours * 1. The development challenge in post-apartheid South African education - Haroon Bhorat * 2. Balancing public and private resources for basic education: school fees in post-apartheid South Africa - Ted Fiske and Helen Ladd * 3. 'Constituting the class': an analysis of the process of 'integration' in South African schools - Crain Soudien * 4. Educational de/centralisation and the quest for equity, democracy and quality - Sue Grant Lewis and Shireen Motala * 5. The new face of private schooling - Jane Hofmeyr and Simon Lee * Section 2 Changing Landscapes * 6. Multilingualism and education - Thobeka Mda * 7. Political change, curriculum change, and social formation, 1990 - 2002 - Ken Harley and Volker Wedekind * 8. Assessment, qualifications and the NQF in South African schooling - Johan Muller * 9. The case of teacher education in post-apartheid South Africa: politics and priorities - Yusuf Sayed * 10. Teacher unions, policy struggles and educational change, 1994-2004 - Logan Govender * 11. Changes and continuities in South Africa's higher education system, 1994-2004 - Jonathan Jansen * Section 3 Changing Margins * 12. Don't bite the hand that feeds you': South African educational NGOs in a period of change - Sean Morrow * 13. The state of play in early childhood education - Kim Porteus * 14. Youth development in transition, 1990-2003 - Margaret Perrow * 15. Adult basic education and social change in South Africa: 1994 - 2003 - Ivor Baatjes and Khulelani Mathe * 16. The education business: private contractors in public education - John Pampallis

How Do Fields Change? The Interrelations of Institutions, Networks, and Cognition in the Dynamics of Markets

Abstract: Sociological approaches to the economy identify three types of social structures relevant for the explanation of economic outcomes: social networks, institutions, and cognitive frames. This article contributes to the development of a framework which aims at an integrated perspective on the social structuring of markets and their dynamics. Based on the field concept, the article discusses the interrelations between the three types of structures as a source of the dynamics of markets. Bringing the complex and possibly contradictory character of the different social structures to the center of attention highlights spaces for innovation which are anchored in the social organization of markets but remain obscure in approaches that focus on only one of the structures. The simultaneous inclusion of social networks, institutions, and cognitive frames makes it possible to address how actors employ resources gained from one of these structures in the field to reconfigure other parts of the social structure in a way...

Social being and time

Abstract: 1. About Time. 2. Understanding Long-Term Social Change. 3. Meaning, Mind and Matter. 4. Towards a Social Ontology. 5. Concepts of Being. 6. Problems of History and Meaning. 7. Species Being: The Very Long Term. 8. Final Thoughts. Further Reading. Bibliography. Index.