Minding the Gap: Bias, Soft Structures, and the Double Life of Social Norms

We argue that work on norms provides a way to move beyond debates between proponents of individualist and structuralist approaches to bias, oppression, and injustice. We briefly map out the geography of that debate before presenting Charlotte Witt’s view, showing how her position, and the normative ascriptivism at its heart, seamlessly connects individuals to the social reality they inhabit. We then describe recent empirical work on the psychology of norms and locate the notions of informal institutions and soft structures with respect to it. Finally, we argue that the empirical resources enrich Witt’s ascriptivism, and that the resulting picture shows theorists need not, indeed should not, choose between either the individualist or structuralist camp

High School–University Collaborations for Latinx Student Success: Navigating the Political Reality

Latinx students are a growing population in postsecondary education but attain degrees at a pace behind their non-Latinx peers. This research examines a partnership between a research university (RU) and career and technical education (CTE) high school, Hillside Technical High School (HTHS). Through a 2-year ethnographic case study, we found that different logistics and cultural values were primary contributors to the bifurcated pathway between high school and college. These pathways were most successfully connected through strategies such as flexibility, personal relationships, and incorporation of community resources as well as viewing the students as resources. Our study suggests a need to reframe partnerships in recognition of the assets that students bring to these e orts, while also creating opportunities for additional faculty support and community involvement

Minding the aesthetic: The place of the literary in education and research.

The article discusses the significance of aesthetic as a mode of cognition and means of social cohesion. It notes the relation of aesthetic knowledge with the perception or intuition, the emergence of such awareness into something durable and the response to the embodiment. It describes the evolution of aesthetic delight in the human species, the sense of sense of beauty arising on one's realization of the formal qualities of something, through the poem presented by the author on achievement

Changing Perceptions of the Value of Daughters and Girls’ Education among the Isoko of Nigeria

This paper examines the changes in parents’ perception on the value of daughters and their education. It utilizes information generated from Focus Group Discussions in two urban and four rural Isoko communities in DeltaState, southern Nigeria. Eight Focus Groups were constituted in each of the towns and villages (four for men and four for women). The groups were homogeneous in terms of sex, age and educational level. It is observed that parents’ perception on the value of daughters is changing because adult daughters have been found to be more caring and more supportive of aged parents than adult sons. Consequently, parents now consider the education of daughters as very rewarding since educated daughters become better equipped to provide support to their parents. The changing attitudinal disposition towards girls’ education has implication for the enhancement of women’s status and fertility declin

Durkheim's imperative: The role of Humanities faculty in the information technologies revolution

The arrival of powerful information technologies in the traditional humanistic disciplines has done far more than simply add to the tools available for research and instruction. Those who have embraced these technologies have also experienced a significant disruption of their traditional roles within the academy, producing confusion and disorientation as well as excitement and innovation. Some of the reasons for this confusion are discussed, and one example of two "restabilized" roles for humanities faculty the work of the Advanced Information Technologies Group at the University of Illinois is described. The conclusion explores some of the advantages of this new kind of division of intellectual labor.published or submitted for publicatio

The role of implicit theories in the non-expert translation process

Research into the role of implicit theories in decision-making covers a broad area ranging from personal to political relationships, and from private to professional life. To date, translation studies have paid little attention to the influence of translators’ knowledge and beliefs in the translation process, and even less to the role of implicit theories. In a pilot study with translation trainees, we attempted to reconstruct their theories about translation and discern to what extent these theories influence both the translation process and the translated text. Our results so far show that trainees do entertain initial implicit theories, which can be modified through experience and formal instruction. These initial implicit theories mainly focus on the notions of transfer and change, and do not reflect the complexity of translation phenomena. With regard to the translation process, our analysis of corrections as well as the length and structure of text-production segments suggests that the informants approach translation at a micro level, which may be partly due to the influence of their concept of translation as transfer. This pilot study is part of a broader research project that analyzes the evolution of initial implicit theories about translation as a result of experience and formal training, and to what extent changes in the theoretical framework of translation trainees can bring about changes in the way they translate.La investigación del papel de las teorías implícitas en la toma de decisiones cubre áreas tan dispares como las relaciones personales y la política, la vida profesional y la privada. Hasta el momento, la traductología apenas ha prestado atención a la influencia de los conocimientos y las creencias del traductor en el proceso de traducción y mucho menos al papel de las teorías implícitas. En un estudio piloto con estudiantes de traducción, hemos tratado de reconstruir sus teorías sobre la traducción y de averiguar hasta qué punto influyen en el proceso y en el texto final. Los resultados, hasta el momento, muestran que, en efecto, los estudiantes poseen teorías implícitas iniciales y que estas teorías pueden cambiar por efecto de la instrucción formal y de la experiencia. El mayor número de estas teorías iniciales se centra en los conceptos de traslado y cambio, y no reflejan la complejidad del fenómeno de traducir. En lo que concierne al proceso de traducción, el análisis de las correcciones, y también de la longitud y la estructura de los segmentos de producción textual, sugiere que los informantes lo abordan en el nivel micro, lo que en parte se puede atribuir a su concepto de la traducción como traslado. Este estudio piloto forma parte de un proyecto más amplio que investiga la evolución de las teorías implícitas iniciales como resultado de la experiencia y de la instrucción, y en qué medida los cambios en el marco teórico inicial de los estudiantes producen a su vez cambios en sus procesos de traducción.Our research on implicit theories is part of PETRA’s on-going project Caracterización objetiva de la dificultad general de los originales (Proyecto CODIGO, FFI2010-15724), funded by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation