Linking Academic Excellence and Social Justice through Community-Based Participatory Research

Naomi Yavneh Klos poses two questions for the NCHC community in her essay, “Thinking Critically, Acting Justly,” which appears in this issue of JNCHC: (1) how honors pedagogy/curriculum can engage the highestability and most motivated students in questions of social justice; and (2) how the honors curriculum can serve as a place of access, equity, and excellence in higher education. The University Honors Program (UHP) at Loyola University New Orleans has recently implemented several honors social justice seminars that have been experimenting with various approaches to these pedagogical, curricular, and programmatic questions. Violence and Democracy, an honors sociology/criminology seminar, not only focuses on social justice thematically but adopts social justice pedagogy (Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Pedagogy of Hope; Adams, “Social” and “Pedagogical”; Bell). Accordingly, social justice is both a goal and a process, representing the integration of disciplinary theoretical knowledge and analytical tools with experiential learning and applications that involve students, faculty, and community partners doing justice work together. The premise for this holistic approach is that students, particularly high-ability and highly motivated students, personally engage in questions of social justice when they are challenged by real-life social injustices and that they realize the relevance of their knowledge and skills in a learning environment that models social justice values and principles

Roles and Ethics of the Practicing Criminologist

Academic criminologists, most trained as social and behavioral scientists, have not, for the most part, considered themselves as viable experts with skills and expertise which can be sold in the market place. Concomitantly, those professions and organizations which rely on professional experts and consultants have generally not considered academic criminologists as suited for their purpose. Part of this problem is derived from the very nature or orientation of graduate education. Doctorate programs concentrate on those skills that criminologists will need for university positions. We argue that the roles of criminologists in applied settings are essentially the same as for criminologists in academic settings. What differentiates applied criminologists from academic criminologists are not roles but the settings or contexts where they work. In this paper, we explore the application of criminological theories, methodologies, data analytic techniques and literature reviews in the applied setting. We outline so me of the typical activities and roles of criminologists in legal settings and show the applications of criminology in the practice of law and in court. We use examples from our consulting practice to show how these roles and accompanying skills are applied in the legal setting. We also consider some of the ethical questions associated with various roles and situation

Cultivating and Keeping Committed Special Educators: What Principals and District Leaders Can Do

For decades, school districts all over the country have struggled with a shortage of special education teachers. Many reasons have been suggested for the problem, but few solutions have been offered. The unique challenges special education teachers confront are frequently minimized by administrators and those in general education. It is thought that because special education teachers have smaller caseloads their work is easier. Contrary to this belief, special education teachers face intense pressure from a variety of sources; which if not adequately addressed leads to burnout. Ultimately, burnout results in special education teacher attrition which is not good for schools or students. As a response to the special education teacher shortage, Cultivating and Keeping Committed Special Educators: What Principals and District Leaders Can Do (Billingsley, 2005) provides sensible information on what can be done by school leaders to fight the hemorrhaging of special education teachers leaving the field

Cultivating and Keeping Committed Special Educators: What Principals and District Leaders Can Do

For decades, school districts all over the country have struggled with a shortage of special education teachers. Many reasons have been suggested for the problem, but few solutions have been offered. The unique challenges special education teachers confront are frequently minimized by administrators and those in general education. It is thought that because special education teachers have smaller caseloads their work is easier. Contrary to this belief, special education teachers face intense pressure from a variety of sources; which if not adequately addressed leads to burnout. Ultimately, burnout results in special education teacher attrition which is not good for schools or students. As a response to the special education teacher shortage, Cultivating and Keeping Committed Special Educators: What Principals and District Leaders Can Do (Billingsley, 2005) provides sensible information on what can be done by school leaders to fight the hemorrhaging of special education teachers leaving the field

THE CHANGING BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES OF TUNDRA

Tundra is experiencing more intense warming than any other ecosystem on earth. While warming is the most direct effect of climate change on tundra, warming leads to a cascade of environmental changes such as permafrost thaw, altered precipitation regimes, and increased wildfires. This chapter will first focus on how climate change is changing the environment of Arctic and subarctic tundra and then focus on how climate change is altering tundra's carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles with a focus on soils. Overall, tundra soils are shifting from being a carbon sink into a carbon source as rising temperatures increase microbial activity—a positive feedback to climate change. However, those rising temperatures are also increasing nutrient mineralization rates, which could increase ecosystem carbon storage via enhanced plant productivity as well as increase emissions of nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas. There is currently a disconnect between the large soil carbon losses measured in many in situ experiments and the strong plant carbon gains predicted by models. Ultimately, more research is needed on the interplay between tundra soils, nutrients, and plants to determine the magnitude of tundra's feedback to climate change