Stalking on the College Campus: The Influence of Suitable Target and Guardianship Variables on Victimization Comparing Male and Female Students

Current estimates predict that more than 5% of men and 8% women will be stalked at some point in their lifetime, and up to 6% of both men and women will be stalked during their time at college. While variables related to sexual assault have been extensively examined, factors that contribute to stalking and influences specific to university students remain a point of concern for administration and those attending the institution. Using a proportioned stratified sampling technique, this study obtained cross-sectional survey data collected from 873 students at a university in the upper Midwest. Utilizing a routine activity theory theoretical perspective, hierarchical and binary logistic regression are employed to investigate the prevalence of stalking, as well as the influence of individual and campus guardianship variables on the stalking victimization of college students, and an experiential comparison of female and male students. Findings reveal that among the total female student sample, 43% had been stalked at some point in their lifetime, with 13% stalked during their time at the university. Of the male students, 34% had been stalked, with 18% stalked while at the university. Sexual history, year in school, and perceived vulnerability were positive predictors of stalking.     

Alcohol-related Rape Among University Students

Background: Alcohol-related rape among university students is clearly a major concern. However, there have been no large-scale surveys of the prevalence of this offence among university students in the UK. The aim of the current paper is to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of alcohol-related rape among university students in seven universities in Wales.

Methods: All universities in Wales were approached to take part in the research. Eight of the nine universities agreed to take part and seven universities emailed their students as planned. On the launch date, emails were sent by the universities to all students requesting that they take part in the survey. The email contained a link to a questionnaire covering a range of topics including: demographics, lifestyle factors, and substance misuse.

Results: In total, 7,846 students submitted a questionnaire. Overall, just under six per cent of females reported being the victim of alcohol-related rape while at university compared with one per cent of males. Sexual orientation was significantly correlated with alcohol-related rape, with three per cent of heterosexuals reported being the victim of alcohol-related rape, compared with eight per cent of lesbians or gays. Students who drank alcohol frequently and those involved in binge drinking were also significantly more likely to report the offence.

Conclusions: The government and universities should play a more direct role to ensure that actions are taken to deter, prevent, and treat the consequences of these largely unreported offences.     

Peace education,militarism and neo-liberalism: conceptual reflections with empirical findings from the UK

This article explores ‘peace days’ in English schools as a form of peace education. From a historical overview of academic discussions on peace education in the US and Great Britain since the First World War, we identify three key factors important for peace education: the political context, the place in which peace days occur and pedagogical imperatives of providing a certain narrative of the sources of violence in politics. Although contemporary militarism and neoliberalism reduce the terrains for peace studies in English schools, peace days allow teachers to carve out spaces for peace education. Peace days in Benfield School, Newcastle and Comberton Village College, Cambridgeshire, are considered as case studies. We conclude with reflections on the opportunities and limitations of this approach to peace education, and on how peace educators and activists could enlarge its reach.     

The everyday peace project: an innovative approach to peace pedagogy

A critical task for peace pedagogy is to challenge views of peace as primarily responses to declared war. Crisis-based politics tend to focus on exceptional situations and fail to capture the entire spectrum of violence. Premised on the idea that peace cannot be understood in isolation of larger structural problems, this paper proposes the concept of ‘everyday peace’ as a framework for peace education. Drawing from a pedagogical initiative, we examine how students engage with the concept of everyday peace and present our findings in three related domains: (1) definition of everyday peace, (2) application of everyday peace principles and (3) role of collaboration in everyday peace approaches. Our analysis underscored two important themes in participants’ definitions of everyday peace: (1) peace as a value-based praxis and (2) individual-level and systemic components of everyday peace. Applying these principles to a violent event in the local community, participant responses emphasized compassion, cultures of peace and the need to draw reflexive, meaningful connections between local and global contexts. The participants also outlined the synergistic role of collaboration in everyday peacebuilding. We discuss our findings in relation to extant research and consider implications of an everyday peace framework for holistic peace education.     

Pathways for Preparation: Locating Suicide Education in Preparing Professionals for Encounters with Suicidal Adolescents

Current suicide prevention strategies often include suicide education based on the premise that education can lead to recognition of those at risk of suicide and others who are prepared can respond and potentially save lives. As suicide is a leading cause of death for young people, it is relevant to explore how suicide education is made available to those who serve this population. In a comprehensive review of the existing literature, the presence of suicide content along the path through pre-service programs is examined. While education may be a central part of youth suicide prevention efforts, this review of the literature suggests the following needs: (a) a need for more overt inclusion of suicide content, (b) future examination of suicide content within pre-service programs not yet considered, and (c) appraisal and innovation in suicide pedagogical approaches to determine how preparedness may be enhanced and linked to subsequent practical action.     

Why University Education Matters: Youth Work and the Australian Experience

In many countries youth work education in the university confronts a precarious future. Paradoxically, this takes place as the labor market is unable to meet demands for qualified practitioners. This article makes a case for further investment in university-based youth work education. While presenting labor demand and supply arguments, we also suggest that a good university education is important for producing graduates capable of becoming experts and good practitioners in the Aristotelian sense of the word. This entails the provision of learning opportunities to attain specialist knowledge, technical expertise and ethical capacities of the kind that distinguish youth work practice from other approaches to work with young people. Such an education also promotes the prospect that practitioners are able to develop a professional habitus that advances youth work as a discrete field of professional practice. While the material used in this article is Australian, we suggest there are sufficient commonalities between the Australian experience and many other countries for the arguments, findings and recommendations made here to have more general applicability.     

Sanctions and Education Outcomes for Children in TANF Families

Most research on the impact of Welfare Reform has been upon the employment status of parents and trends in declining caseloads. Recent research has examined how children in Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program families are faring, with growing interest in the effects upon children of the disruptions to cash benefits that result from program sanctions, the policies that are intended to motivate parents to comply with work requirements. Adding to the body of knowledge on children and TANF sanctions, this study used administrative data to examine school attendance rates and disruptions to enrollment, for children from families with at least one sanction. Findings indicate that there are important probable connections between the factors that contribute to challenges to employment that relate to parenting and the school engagement of children in TANF families.     

Exploring a constructivist redesign of youth work training: transformative-oriented learning and trainer development

Abstract

Two small-scale studies were conducted to investigate the viability of a constructivist learning design for a 25-hour child and youth care training program. The first study investigated transformative learning conditions, belief change processes, and practice change. The second study explored a trainer’s development of transformative learning instructional practices. Results of study 1 indicated the training program fostered transformative learning conditions, practitioner reflection on practices, and changes in practice. The process of belief change differed by participants, with evidence of both transformative-oriented and nontransformative learning. Study 2 found the trainer’s change from a transmission to a transformative approach to teaching required shifting beliefs about types of effective teaching, greater attunement to practitioner points of view and the process of learning, and appreciation of practitioner initial resistance to training. The findings provide preliminary evidence for the viability and effectiveness of a constructivist approach to training and the process of trainer development for fostering transformative-oriented learning.     

就业困难大学生群体的特征、成因及对策研究——基于对上海某高校2010-2011届毕业生就业状况的调研

本文以上海某高校2010-2011届毕业生的就业调查数据和历年访谈资料为基础,以就业不困难大学生群体为对照组,以就业困难大学生群体为实验组,从就业目标、就业准备和就业能力等方面分析就业困难大学生群体的特征,从劳动力市场机制、教育体制、家庭教育方式以及学生个体特征等方面分析其成因,进而提出相应的对策建议.