School violence, school differences and school discourses

This article highlights one strand of a study which investigated the concept of the violenceresilient school. In six inner-city secondary schools, data on violent incidents in school and violent crime in the neighbourhood were gathered, and compared with school practices to minimise violence, accessed through interviews. Some degree of association between the patterns of behaviour and school practices was found: schools with a wider range of wellconnected practices seemed to have less difficult behaviour. Interviews also showed that the different schools had different organisational discourses for construing school violence, its possible causes and the possible solutions. Differences in practices are best understood in connection with differences in these discourses. Some of the features of school discourses are outlined, including their range, their core metaphor and their silences. We suggest that organisational discourse is an important concept in explaining school effects and school differences, and that improvement attempts could have clearer regard to this concept

Impact of Scottish vocational qualifications on residential child care : have they fulfilled the promise?

This article will present findings from a doctoral study exploring the impact of 'SVQ Care: Promoting Independence (level III)' within children's homes. The study focuses on the extent to which SVQs enhance practice and their function within a 'learning society'. A total of 30 staff were selected from seven children's homes in two different local authority social work departments in Scotland. Each member of staff was interviewed on four separate occasions over a period of 9 months. Interviews were structured using a combination of repertory grids and questions. Particular focus was given to the assessment process, the extent to which SVQs enhance practice and the learning experiences of staff. The findings suggest that there are considerable deficiencies both in terms of the SVQ format and the way in which children's homes are structured for the assessment of competence. Rather than address the history of failure within residential care, it appears that SVQs have enabled the status quo to be maintained whilst creating an 'illusion' of change within a learning society

Crashing the Party: How Textualism and Legislative History Can Work Together

Textualists must moderate their distaste for legislative history and acknowledge the role of congressional sources in statutory interpretation—even those they themselves approve of. Doing so would enhance their statutory analyses. Decisions arising from 2016 litigation by hospitals against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, culminating in Azar v. Allina Health Servs., 139 S. Ct. 1804, 204 L. Ed. 2d 139 (2019), demonstrate how textualist inflexibility can undermine their own principles. For example, notable advocates of that interpretive school—then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch—overlooked statutory text, which they so highly prize, in reaching their determinations. Textualists often describe the use of legislative history as akin to picking out friends at a party. But Kavanaugh and Gorsuch showed that textualism is like picking which party to go to! And it didn’t have to be that way. This paper’s review of the well-documented legislative history of the statutory provision scrutinized in Allina shows how it could have been employed for textualist purposes to reach a better result. Since legislative history and textualism can meaningfully work together in statutory interpretation, the time has come to move beyond the debate between both camps and engage in a more pragmatic—and productive—discussion of when and how to use such sources and others like them

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The Struggle Against Social Exclusion:

Summaries This article looks at the extensive French policies concerned with preventing social exclusion, and it considers what this means on the ground using the example of a particular region in north western France. It looks at the background to the programmes generally known as urban or local social development, their goals and evaluations of their impact. It argues that the strength of the programmes lies in their attempt to reconstruc the welfare state in the context of changes in labour markets, by promoting local associative ties and a strong third sector, in getting progessionals working more strategically, and in insisting on principles of inclusion ( insertion ) rather than exclusion. Things are more problematic in the realisation of community participation, and there are confusions in the conceptualisation of exclusion which mean that goals are not always clear

Mechanisms and Dynamics of Oxidative DNA Damage Repair in Nucleosomes

DNA provides the blueprint for cell function and growth, as well as ensuring continuity from one cell generation to the next. In order to compact, protect, and regulate this vital information, DNA is packaged by histone proteins into nucleosomes, which are the fundamental subunits of chromatin. Reactive oxygen species, generated by both endogenous and exogenous agents, can react with DNA, altering base chemistry and generating DNA strand breaks. Left unrepaired, these oxidation products can result in mutations and/or cell death. The Base Excision Repair (BER) pathway exists to deal with damaged bases and single-stranded DNA breaks. However, the packaging of DNA into chromatin provides roadblocks to repair. Damaged DNA bases may be buried within nucleosomes, where they are inaccessible to repair enzymes and other DNA binding proteins. Previous in vitro studies by our lab have demonstrated that BER enzymes can function within this challenging environment, albeit in a reduced capacity. Exposure to ionizing radiation often results in multiple, clustered oxidative lesions. Near-simultaneous BER of two lesions located on opposing strands within a single helical turn of DNA of one another creates multiple DNA single-strand break intermediates. This, in turn, may create a potentially lethal double-strand break (DSB) that can no longer be repaired by BER. To determine if chromatin offers protection from this phenomenon, we incubated DNA glycosylases with nucleosomes containing clustered damages in an attempt to generate DSBs. We discovered that nucleosomes offer substantial protection from inadvertent DSB formation. Steric hindrance by the histone core in the nucleosome was a major factor in restricting DSB formation. As well, lesions positioned very close to one another were refractory to processing, with one lesion blocking or disrupting access to the second site. The nucleosome itself appears to remain intact during DSB formation, and in some cases, no DNA is released from the histones. Taken together, these results suggest that in vivo, DSBs generated by BER occur primarily in regions of the genome associated with elevated rates of nucleosome turnover or remodeling, and in the short linker DNA segments that lie between adjacent nucleosomes. DNA ligase IIIα (LigIIIα) catalyzes the final step in BER. In order to facilitate repair, DNA ligase must completely encircle the DNA helix. Thus, DNA ligase must at least transiently disrupt histone-DNA contacts. To determine how LigIIIα functions in nucleosomes, given this restraint, we incubated the enzyme with nick-containing nucleosomes. We found that a nick located further within the nucleosome was ligated at a lower rate than one located closer to the edge. This indicated that LigIIIα must wait for DNA to spontaneously, transiently unwrap from the histone octamer to expose the nick for recognition. Remarkably, the disruption that must occur for ligation is both limited and transient: the nucleosome remains resistant to enzymatic digest before and during ligation, and reforms completely once LigIIIα dissociates

Career Education and Comprehensive School Counseling: The Needs of High School Seniors

Current research and trends have emphasized the importance of career education and comprehensive school counseling programs in schools. To date, few researchers have asked students directly what they know and need to know for post-high school planning. The purpose of this study was to indentify the specific needs of students in order to create a comprehensive career and college counseling program for grades nine through twelve in the high school setting. A survey was given to high school seniors regarding their educational and career plans, as well as the resources they have used to make these post-secondary decisions. Results indicated that 1) there is a difference in the needs of students depending on their post high school choices; and 2) there is a need for a comprehensive school counseling program. Implications for school counselors and future research were discussed.SUNY BrockportCounselor EducationMaster of Science in Education (MSEd)Counselor Education Master's These