James S. Jackson and the program for research on Black Americans: Contributions to psychology and the social sciences.

James S. Jackson (1944-2020) is remembered as a groundbreaking social psychologist whose career contributions in scholarship, research, and service were fundamental to the field of psychology. This article briefly outlines his career-long work and contributions. A strong believer in interdisciplinary work, his research spanned other related social science disciplines (e.g., sociology, political science), as well as health and social welfare professions (public health, social work, medicine). As the founding director of the Program for Research on Black Americans at the Institute for Social Research, James Jackson initiated and led a long-standing program with a dual focus on research and training and mentoring doctoral students, postdoctoral scholars, and early career scientists. Jackson's efforts in the development of several nationally representative surveys of the Black population in the United States (e.g., National Survey of Black Americans, National Survey of American Life) revolutionized research focusing on the lives of Black Americans. James Jackson's international influence and reputation included numerous prestigious positions within national science organizations and honors and awards for his scientific contributions. Among James S. Jackson's most enduring legacies is the vast network of current scientists, researchers, and academics who were trained under his direction and leadership. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Education for a biobased economy: Integrating life and social sciences in flexible short courses accessible from different backgrounds.

To achieve ambitious 21st-century goals and deal with high-level complexity, a bio-based economy is required to cross the boundaries of a single sector and integrate tools, language and knowledge drawn from different disciplines and sub-disciplines. The present contribution highlights how life scientists, social scientists, policymakers and industrial stakeholders should work together to make this technological reversal real and feasible. Importantly, going beyond theoretical and methodological integration, the paper underlines the necessity of developing a new and more flexible educational framework that might facilitate interdisciplinary combination. Specifically, the experience of the summer school "Towards a bio-based economy: science, innovation, economics, education" organized by the University of Milano Bicocca in collaboration with Chalmers University is described. The results reveal the need for high-level education programs likely to promote and guide society towards bio-based innovation.

Gamification, social problems, and gender in the teaching of social sciences: Representations and discourse of trainee teachers.

This paper analyses the representations and discourse of 41 trainee teachers on the inclusion of gaming elements in education and their potential contribution to covering social problems in the curriculum, and to education on and for gender equality between men and women. The study follows the principles of mixed methods research, based on the transcription, coding, categorisation, and analysis of data obtained from 34 semi-structured interviews and two focus groups, in addition to their descriptive quantitative analysis. The results showed optimum reception of gamification as a useful formative strategy in the various stages of education and that it can be validly used to include gender as a category of analysis in the teaching of social sciences.

The missing link: Finding space for gerontology content into university curricula in South Africa.

The rapid increase in the global elderly population has been widely documented in both demographic and popular literature in recent decades. Population estimates produced by the national statistical service of South Africa in 2017 show that the proportion of elderly (60 years and older) in South Africa is growing fast, reaching 8.1% of the total population in 2017. The country is set to experience a doubling of the population over the age of 65 by the year 2020. Similar to their counterparts in the developed world, tertiary institutions throughout Africa too are faced with the challenge of training professionals capable of understanding and responding to the socioeconomic consequences, social priorities, and complex needs of an increasing aging population. The right set of policies can equip individuals, families, and societies to address the challenges of an aging population. After conducting an extensive literature review, we recommend that policy-makers in South Africa should look into ways that will enable them to meet the many challenges of an aging population in the coming decades. One way to address this issue would be to include gerontology content into the curricula of programs in the humanities and social sciences.

Health Sciences cultural safety education in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States: a literature review.

OBJECTIVES: To review the research literature on cultural safety education within post-secondary health science programs. METHODS: We conducted health and social science database searches from 1996-2016, using combined keywords: cultural competence or safety; teaching or curriculum; universities, polytechnics or professional programs; and Aboriginal or Indigenous. In dyads, authors selected, and reviewed studies independently followed by discussion and consensus to identify thematic linkages of major findings. RESULTS: A total of 1583 abstracts and 122 full-text articles were reviewed with 40 selected for final inclusion. Publications from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States described curriculum development and delivery. A variety of evaluation approaches were used including anecdotal reports, focus groups, interviews, course evaluations, reflective journals, pre-post surveys, critical reflective papers, and exam questions. Duration and depth of curricular exposure ranged from one day to integration across a six-year program.  Changes in student knowledge, attitude, self-confidence, and behaviour when working with Indigenous populations were reported. Cultural safety education and application to practice were shown to be linked to improved relationships, healthier outcomes, and increased number of Indigenous people entering health education programs and graduates interested in working in diverse communities. CONCLUSIONS: This review provides a summary of multidisciplinary didactic and experiential instructional approaches to cultural safety education and the impact on students, educators and Indigenous people.  Institutional support, strategic planning and cultural safety curriculum policy within post-secondary settings and community engagement are imperative for positive student experiences, advocacy, and actions toward health equity and improved health for Indigenous people and communities.

Recent trends in the U.S. Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (BSSR) workforce.

While behavioral and social sciences occupations comprise one of the largest portions of the "STEM" workforce, most studies of diversity in STEM overlook this population, focusing instead on fields such as biomedical or physical sciences. This study evaluates major demographic trends and productivity in the behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) workforce in the United States during the past decade. Our analysis shows that the demographic trends for different BSSR fields vary. In terms of gender balance, there is no single trend across all BSSR fields; rather, the problems are field-specific, and disciplines such as economics and political science continue to have more men than women. We also show that all BSSR fields suffer from a lack of racial and ethnic diversity. The BSSR workforce is, in fact, less representative of racial and ethnic minorities than are biomedical sciences or engineering. Moreover, in many BSSR subfields, minorities are less likely to receive funding. We point to various funding distribution patterns across different demographic groups of BSSR scientists, and discuss several policy implications.

[The social sciences at the Faculty of Pharmacy: and innovative course of community health at the University of Montreal]. / Les sciences sociales à la faculté de pharmacie In cours innovant de santé communautaire à l'Université de Monteréal.

Social sciences are important for training in pharmacy faculties. The course set up at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Montreal in 2011 is a very innovative way to meet this challenge. The purpose of this report is to share this experience by providing a synthetic description. Many students were able to develop new skills and strengthen their skills, including leadership and critical thinking. The Faculty of Pharmacy was also able to achieve greater visibility in the Montreal community, that is to say from the associations, but also with what is out there called the "local health network" linking various health care professionals and institutions. Beyond the quantifiable results, this course is an evolving learning process in which the group interactions, individual and collective values and the task sharing allow students to build a working knowledge of social factors, which d.etermine health problems.

Epistemology, culture, justice and power: non-bioscientific knowledge for medical training.

CONTEXT: While medical curricula were traditionally almost entirely comprised of bioscientific knowledge, widely accepted competency frameworks now make clear that physicians must be competent in far more than biomedical knowledge and technical skills. For example, of the influential CanMEDS roles, six are conceptually based in the social sciences and humanities (SSH). Educators frequently express uncertainty about what to teach in this area. This study concretely identifies the knowledge beyond bioscience needed to support the training of physicians competent in the six non-Medical Expert CanMEDS roles. METHODS: We interviewed 58 non-clinician university faculty members with doctorates in over 20 SSH disciplines. We abstracted our transcripts (meaning condensation, direct quotations) resulting in approximately 300 pages of data which we coded using top-down (by CanMEDS role) and bottom-up (thematically) approaches and analysed within a critical constructivist framework. Participants and clinicians with SSH PhDs member-checked and refined our results. RESULTS: Twelve interrelated themes were evident in the data. An understanding of epistemology, including the constructed nature of social knowledge, was seen as the foundational theme without which the others could not be taught or understood. Our findings highlighted three anchoring themes (Justice, Power, Culture), all of which link to eight more specific themes concerning future physicians' relationships to the world and the self. All 12 themes were cross-cutting, in that each related to all six non-Medical Expert CanMEDS roles. The data also provided many concrete examples of potential curricular content. CONCLUSIONS: There is a definable body of SSH knowledge that forms the academic underpinning for important physician competencies and is outside the experience of most medical educators. Curricular change incorporating such content is necessary if we are to strengthen the non-Medical Expert physician competencies. Our findings, particularly our cross-cutting themes, also provide a pedagogically useful mechanism for holistically teaching the underpinnings of physician competence. We are now implementing our findings into medical curricula.

From the USDA: Educating the Next Generation: Funding Opportunities in Food, Agricultural, Natural Resources, and Social Sciences Education.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture within the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides leadership, capacity, and funds to support the continuing development of a safe and competitive agricultural system. Many of the agency's educational programs are led by the Division of Community and Education (DOCE). These programs span agricultural education, enhancing agricultural literacy through both formal and nonformal education. Here, we have highlighted funding opportunities within DOCE that enhance agricultural education and literacy by supporting the improvement of students' critical communication, leadership skills, and experiential learning opportunities. Some of these programs include opportunities for which students can apply, while others focus on faculty applications. Opportunities faculty can apply for may support student-recruitment and student-retention techniques, curriculum development, innovative teaching methods, and institutional capacity-building programs. Overall, these programs foster a diverse workforce in agricultural science that matches the increasing diversity of the country.

All Health Is Global Health, All Medicine Is Social Medicine: Integrating the Social Sciences Into the Preclinical Curriculum.

As physicians work to achieve optimal health outcomes for their patients, they often struggle to address the issues that arise outside the clinic. Social, economic, and political factors influence patients' burden of disease, access to treatment, and health outcomes. This challenge has motivated recent calls for increased attention to the social determinants of health. At the same time, advocates have called for increased attention to global health. Each year, more U.S. medical students participate in global health experiences. Yet, the global health training that is available varies widely. The discipline of social medicine, which attends to the social determinants of disease, social meanings of disease, and social responses to disease, offers a solution to both challenges. The analyses and techniques of social medicine provide an invaluable toolkit for providing health care in the United States and abroad.In 2007, Harvard Medical School implemented a new course, required for all first-year students, that teaches social medicine in a way that integrates global health. In this article, the authors argue for the importance of including social medicine and global health in the preclinical curriculum; describe Harvard Medical School's innovative, integrated approach to teaching these disciplines, which can be used at other medical schools; and explore the barriers that educators may face in implementing such a curriculum, including resistance from students. Such a course can equip medical students with the knowledge and tools that they will need to address complex health problems in the United States and abroad.

Ciencias sociales, movimientos sociales y políticas públicas / Social sciences, social movements and public policies

Las ciencias sociales contextualizan el estudio de los movimientos sociales, considerando que aportan y fundamentan teorías y métodos sociales que permiten observar los procesosde configuración política, histórica y territorial de estos movimientos. En este contexto es apropiado recorrer el ámbito de las disciplinas, de la teoría social y del método para explicarlos elementos de contacto teórico y disciplinar de las ciencias sociales con los movimientos sociales, entendidos como objetos de estudio.

The social sciences contextualize the study of the social movements, considering that they provide and underlie theories and social methods that allow to observe the political,historical, and territorial configuration processes of such movements. In this context, it is appropriate to explore the scope of disciplines, the social theory, and the method in order to explain the theoretical contact elements and discipline of the social sciences along with the social movements, which are understood as objects of study.

Increasing the complexity of young adolescents' beliefs about poverty and inequality: results of an 8th grade social studies curriculum intervention.

Poverty and economic hardship remain a reality for many of America's children. Although the causes of poverty are varied, Americans strongly endorse individual responsibility as a primary cause. Because beliefs about poverty originate in childhood and adolescence, intervention efforts targeting young people may be particularly effective in shifting attitudes about the poor and policies designed to help the disadvantaged. To test this proposition, the current study evaluated the efficacy of a 1-week 8th grade social studies curriculum focusing on poverty and inequality. Study participants were upper middle-class youth enrolled in multiple sections of a Social Studies course taught by a single teacher. Participants had little direct contact with marginalized groups such as poor and homeless individuals in their communities. Students (N=66) completed a survey assessing their attitudes and beliefs about poverty and poor people prior to, and 1 week and 6 months post-instruction. Results indicated that the curriculum was partially effective in increasing the complexity of students' beliefs about poverty. Students were more likely to emphasize fatalistic causes and less likely to list individualistic causes for poverty following instruction than before, but rarely emphasized structural causes for poverty and rated individual effort as the most influential factor in determining one's success. Implications of the study findings for curriculum efforts targeting young adolescents' reasoning about economic inequality and inequity and directions for future studies are discussed.

Eager 'weavers': designing assessment for an online environment.

As more and more Australian universities move their courses into blended learning environments (BLEs), it is important that strategies be devised to monitor teaching practices and student learning. In 2008, five large Australian universities were given an ALTC (Australian Learning and Teaching Council) grant to address the area of teacher peer review (PR). This paper shows evidence from one of the universities (The University of Technology, Sydney) where a case study was undertaken to optimise teacher peer review in a BLE. The project involved an innovative approach of interdisciplinary PR between an academic from the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health and an academic from the Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FASS). As a result of this collaboration, the online assessment in the nursing subject was radically changed with a greater percentage of the marks awarded to online activities. The design took more 'up front' effort by the coordinator, as is usually the case in online preparation, but results have shown that students who had previously relied heavily on directions from their tutors throughout the semester, were now taking on more responsibility for their own learning and for the learning of fellow students.

The status of PhD education in economic, social, and administrative sciences between 2005 and 2008.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the funding, education, enrollment, and graduation patterns from economic, social, and administrative sciences PhD programs in colleges and schools of pharmacy in the United States. METHODS: Economic, social, and administrative sciences PhD programs were identified from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Web site. A 41-item online survey instrument was sent to the director of graduate studies of each identified program. Only programs offering a PhD degree were included in the study. RESULTS: Of the 26 programs surveyed, 20 (77%) provided useable responses to the survey instrument. Approximately 91% of PhD programs guarantee funding to incoming students with an average commitment of 2.9 years. On average, students were paid a stipend of $18,000 per year for commitments to research and teaching assistantships, each averaging approximately 2 years in length. Programs admitted an average of 3.5 students per year and graduated approximately 85% of entering students. The majority of students are non-US citizens and accept positions in either academic or industrial positions after graduation. CONCLUSIONS: Most economic, social, and administrative sciences PhD programs guarantee funding to incoming PhD candidates. Programs offering funding packages significantly below the average may be at a competitive disadvantage. It is unclear whether the number of students graduating from PhD programs is adequate to fulfill academic and industrial needs.

Gender and the transmission of civic engagement: assessing the influences on youth civic activity.

The study of civic activity has become a central focus for many social scientists over the past decade, generating considerable research and debate. Previous studies have largely overlooked the role of youth socialization into civic life, most notably in the settings of home and school. Further, differences along gender lines in civic capacity have not been given sufficient attention in past studies. This study adds to the literature by examining the potential pathways in the development of youth civic activity and potential, utilizing both gender-neutral and gender-specific structural equation modeling of data from the 1996 National Household Education Survey. Results indicate that involvement by parents in their child's schooling plays a crucial, mediating role in the relationship between adult and youth civic activity. Gender differences are minimal; thus adult school involvement is crucial for transmitting civic culture from parents to both female and male youth.

Environmental risks and environmental justice, or how titanic risks are not so titanic after all.

Some of the best-known social scientific theories of risks are those that have been elaborated by Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck. Although their arguments differ greatly, they agree in seeing the technologically induced risks of today's "Risk Society" as global - so pervasive that they transcend all socioeconomic as well as geopolitical and national boundaries. Most empirical work, however, provides greater support for a theoretical tradition exemplified by Short and Erikson. In this paper, we argue that many of the technological mega-risks described by Giddens and Beck as "transcending" social boundaries are better described as "Titanic risks," referring not so much to their colossal impact as to the fact that - as was the case for the majority of the victims on the Titanic - actual risks are related to victims' socioeconomic as well as sociogeographic locations. Previous research has shown this to be the case with high-risk technologies, such as nuclear energy and weaponry, and also with localized ones, such as toxic waste disposal. This article illustrates that the same is true even for the most genuinely "global" risks of all, namely those associated with global climate disruption.

[Naturalism, novel and society in 19th-20th century transition in Spain.]. / Naturalismo, novela y sociedad en Expaña entre los siglos XIX y XX.

The second half of the nineteenth century in Spain was a period characterized by a strong presence of social science, which even came to permeate the masses. Evolutionary theories and some figures such as Charles Darwin himself were present in areas far from the scientific activity proper. The use of concepts and laws of biological origin for the diagnosis and political practice against certain problematic social realities, such as crime or poverty, gave rise to theories and intellectual schools that asserted the value of evolutionary principles for the analysis of complex realities of socio-cultural inequality. The attraction for difference and the scientific method, with the possibility of observation of poverty and social inequality that industrial development and modernity put forward to the writers, added to the naturalist and biological interest a literary curiosity for the degeneration, both physical and cultural, of that unfortunate part of humanity.