School Social Workers’ Perceptions of School Safety and Security in Today’s Schools: A Survey of Practitioners Across the United States

To understand the effects of school safety practices and strategies on the school environment, researchers have consistently investigated the perceptions of students and various school personnel concerning school safety. Yet school social workers, professionals commonly employed in today’s schools to address the mental health needs of students, are often left out of the school safety discussion. Data were collected from 229 school social workers across the United States to examine: (a) school social workers’ perceptions regarding the effectiveness of various school safety strategies; (b) differences in these perceptions based on student- and school-level variables; and (c) comments from participants regarding school safety in U.S. schools. The purpose of this article is to provide timely implications concerning school safety from a unique and unstudied perspective.     

Teachers’ Perceived Likelihood of Intervening in Bullying Situations: Individual Characteristics and Institutional Environments

Complex issues such as bullying have brought to light the importance of expanding school prevention efforts to include interventions focused on multiple levels of practice. Utilizing data gathered from middle-school teachers across the state of Michigan, this study examines how both individual and organizational characteristics influence teacher interventions in bullying situations. The study found that teachers’ beliefs about the perceived seriousness of the bullying situation, teachers’ level of sympathy/empathy toward the students being bullied, and teachers’ ages consistently contributed to their reported likelihood of interventions in bullying situations. Surprisingly, the majority of organizational-level characteristics were not significant predictors of teachers’ reported likelihood of intervention. The findings align with many of the seminal theories of bystander intervention and suggest that school professionals should focus on programs and policies that educate teachers on both the serious consequences of bullying and on factors that promote empathy toward bullied students.     

The benefits of being defended: Perceived bystander participant roles and victims’ emotional and psychosocial adjustment

Despite a wealth of knowledge for factors predicting adolescent defending behaviors, it remains unknown about victims’ adjustment resulting from experiencing the presence of different bystander roles in a victimization episode. This study analyzed 209 Taiwanese adolescents’ reports of school-based peer victimization, perceived bystander actions in the event, and the victims’ emotional responses (e.g., happy, sad), emotional status following the episode (e.g., feeling better, worse), and psychosocial maladjustment (i.e., depression, loneliness, anxiety). Our results showed that bystander participant roles varied by victimization types and that defended victims adjusted better than nondefended victims both emotionally and psychologically. Moreover, adolescent victims who reported the presence of an outsider during the victimization experienced more complex and negative emotional responses than victims who reported the presence reinforcer or assistant of the bully. Implications for interventions and prevention are discussed.     

From the Language of Class to the Rhetoric of Development: discourses of ‘nationality’ and ‘ethnicity’ in China

In the People's Republic of China's (PRC) continuous state-building project since its establishment in 1949, the notion of nation and nationality (minzu) has been uninterruptedly utilised by the leading elite in its political programmes. The notion of the ‘nationality question’ (minzu wenti) was employed especially for addressing the issues of the officially identified minority nationalities at the time when the multinational nature of the state was made fundamental. However, how a multinational character of the Chinese state is interpreted by the state elite and how this interpretation is shaped by their policies have arguably changed along with the political and economic preferences of the regime. This paper aims to explore the meaning of ‘nationality question’ during the period of socialist construction, and traces the shift in its notion during the reform period which started in the 1970s. The essay pays attention to the change in the preferred corresponding English term of minzu wenti. I argue that the substitution of the ‘nationality question’ term, which was dominant during the socialist period, with the concept of the ‘ethnic question’ during the reform period points not only to the changing character of the government policies towards minorities, but also legitimises them as the only suitable and rightful in the context of economic reforms.     

Bullying and fear of victimization: Do supportive adults in school make a difference in adolescents’ perceptions of safety?

This study examines the role played by a limited number of fear-of-crime correlates in structuring variations in fear of violent victimization expressed by a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents who participated in the 2013 National Crime Victimization Survey School Crime Supplement. Results show that both male and female adolescents who experienced bullying victimization also felt a higher level of fear of victimization at school and elsewhere. Conversely, adolescents who received emotional support at school from teachers and other adults were significantly less likely to be fearful. When controlling for the selected predictors, female adolescents were not more fearful than their male counterparts. Additionally, findings indicate that, especially for male adolescents, a positive school climate has the capacity to moderate the effect of bullying victimization on one’s fear of crime.     

Villains,Victims and Aspiring Proprietors: framing ‘land-losing villagers’ in China's strategies of accumulation

This paper examines how debates in the media are providing the discursive conditions for, and thereby giving impetus to, diverse strategies of ‘so-called primitive accumulation’ in China. Taking as its empirical referent Chinese news and journal articles on land enclosure, the paper analyzes three frames in which policy entrepreneurs craft varying class positions for land-losing villagers. Grounded in different ontological premises, problem diagnoses and recommendations centering on the adoption of either a statist, neo-collective or liberal rural land regime, and backed up by evaluations of local policy experiments, the frames illustrate the diversity of ideational, political and institutional configurations that could facilitate the separation of peasant producers from the land, place land-losing villagers in different relationships with the state and capital, and sustain accumulation. In foregrounding these debates over land-losing villagers' future class positioning, the paper aims to offer a corrective to the historical determinism implicit in contemporary analyses that characterize enclosure in China as simply one national manifestation of homogenous, global neo-liberal projects of ‘accumulation by dispossession’ or ‘gangster capitalism’.     

The “Fragility of Goodness”: Black Parents’ Perspective about Raising Children in Toronto,Winnipeg, and St. John’s of Canada

How does one measure ‘goodness’ when all ethical choices lead to evil outcomes? To answer this question, this essay uses Martha Nussbaum’s fragility of goodness, critical race theory, and data from a SSHRC-funded study, in which we critically examine the parenting experiences of Black families in Canada. Findings suggest how racist ideas in Canada function as “color-blind” laws and policies that affect the everyday lives of Black people including their parenting practices. Our study calls on child welfare services in Canada to develop a comprehensive understanding of Black parenting practices, perhaps enabling more Black children to remain home safely.     

The “Transcendental” Interpretation of the Concept of a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind: The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Its Implementation in China

The concept of a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind provides new theoretical support for the special protection of the rights of persons with disabilities. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is innovative in terms of its purposes and principles, logic and technology, and the actual implementation of the contracting parties, which is unique in the field of international human rights law. It is a "transcendental" interpretation of the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind and enhances the ethical values of international human rights law. The development of the cause of persons with disabilities in China is positively influenced by the values reflected in the concept of a community of shared Future for mankind and meanwhile highlights them, which provides "Chinese experiences" for the international cause of persons with disabilities.     

(Re)Embracing Islam in Neidi: the ‘Xinjiang Class’ and the dynamics of Uyghur ethno-national identity

This Xinjiang Class is a four-year, national-level boarding school program established by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the year 2000. The overarching aim of the program is clear: the CCP intends to train a core group of young Uyghurs who have internalized the ideals of the Party. This article, which is based on interviews and regular interaction with over 60 graduates of the Xinjiang Class, casts doubt on whether the boarding schools have been effective in ‘interpellating’ young Uyghurs as compliant members of the Chinese Nation (Zhonghua minzu). This article contends that Uyghur graduates of the Xinjiang Class have instead embraced a non-Chinese ethno-national identity—an identity bound by Central Asian and Islamic cultural norms—and have largely rejected the Zhonghua minzu identity.     

China talks back: Anti‐Americanism or nationalism? A review of recent ‘anti‐American’ books in China

Song Qiang et al., Zhong Guo Ke Yi Shuo Bu (China Can Say No), Beijing: Zhonghua Gongshang Lianhe Chubanshe, 1996, 435 pages.

Hong Yonghong et al., Zhong Mei Jun Shi Chong Tu Qian Qian Hou Hou (US‐China Military Confrontations: Before and After), Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Chubanshe, 1996, 467 pages.

Chen Feng et al., Zhong Mei Jiao Liang Da Xie Zhen (The Grand Portrait of US‐China Confrontations), Beijing: Zhongguo Renshi Chubanshe, 1996, 668 pages.

Xi Laiwang et al., Da Yang Ji Feng: Liang Ge Shi Jie Da Guo De Bo Yi Gui Ze (The Oceanic Wing: The Games of Two World Class Nations), Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Chubanshe, 1996, 2 volumes, 1268 pages.

Zhang Shan and Xiao Weizhong, E Zhi Tai Du: Bu Cheng Nuo Fang Qi Wu Li (Stop Taiwan from Independence: No Promise on Not Using Force), Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Chubanshe, 1996, 391 pages.     

A Balance Between Court Security and Fair Trials:Court Cages in Criminal Cases——Using European Court of Human Rights Cases for Reference

In response to the "cages in courts" issue in criminal trials,after reviewing a series of cases such as "Svinarenko and Slyadnev v.Russia",the European Court of Human Rights has gradually clarified that the "human dignity of the accused and his right to a fair trial are higher than the value of court security",thus found that putting the accused in a cage dock or improper use of a glass cabin dock are in breach of Article 3 and Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights,constitutes degrading treatment and violates the right to a fair trial.This position is in line with the international overall trend,which is of significance as a reference for China's courts.Domestic courts should take the initiative to change the current use of the "low fence dock" to further enhance China's judicial civilization.