Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: This poster session summarizes the genesis, development, and validation of a measure of attitudes towards diversity, including students with learning problems and those acquiring English as an additional language, among teacher education candidates. The poster displays results of a pilot study that establishes the psychometric properties of the instrument, emphasizing a link between candidate dispositions and professional behavior in the classroom.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: ON DECONSTRUCTING AND RECONSTRUCTING THE CONCEPT OF
IMMIGRANT GENERATIONS

Susan Eckstein
Boston University and Radcliffe Institute


The main paradigms for analyzing immigrant experiences, the assimilationist and more recently the transnationalist, presume critical differences between first and second generation immigrants. The conceptualization is ahistorical, and accordingly leaves important difference sin immigrant experiences undocumented, misunderstood, and unaccounted for. The conventional approach to analyzing generations is biological reductionist, premised on the assumption that the key divide is intra-family, between parents and children, etc. My paper argues why and explains how immigrant generations need to be historically understood. There is reason to expect émigrés with different pre-migration experiences and who arrive at different historical junctures to vary in their views and involvements, including across borders, in historically explicable ways. For historically rooted reasons, different cohorts of first generation immigrants may accordingly differ more than first and second generation immigrants. After elaborating theoretically on who and why we need to deconstruct the concept of immigrant generations and construct it anew, I illustrate the utility of the revisionist conceptualization with data on immigrant cohorts from Cuba, with comparative data on other Caribbean and Central American countries.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Over the last 25 years, Black feminist-influenced theorists and researchers have been questioning the meaning of strength relative to lay and social science discussions of Black womanhood. In this paper, I argue that ‘strong Black womanhood’ is the dominant gender role among African American women, and seek to flesh out the contours of this role in terms of its lived experience for Black women and its relationship to their subordinated social status. Drawing on an exploratory interview study with 25 Black women, I maintain that two forms of strength exist in Black women’s lives. The first, prescriptive strength, essentially recognizes Black women for a selflessness that reinforces their social status as subordinates. In contrast, descriptive strength views Black women as human, with complimentary (rather than mutually exclusive) emotional states and needs. With its focus on empowering Black women rather than promoting their continued marginalization, descriptive strength contains the seeds of social critique and change. In line with the conference’s theme on “comparative perspectives, competing explanations,” this paper demonstrates how Black feminist thought can productively bring the sociological imagination to an area that is in the blindspot of mainstream sociology.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This qualitative analysis explores the dot.com phenomenon – the rapid rise and fall of dot.com companies, and the players, events, and mindsets that accompanied the boom and bust. The term “dot.com” refers to companies that use the Internet as their primary or only marketplace to sell goods and services. What was it about this new way of doing business that led to unprecedented behavior in the business community? Why were decades of experience and knowledge of successful business strategies so quickly tossed aside by people driven to become part of the dot.com action? Data analyzed were all articles in the Wall Street Journal from October 1, 1998 through September 30, 2001 that referenced dot.coms in the headline or lead. Ninety-two concepts emerged in open coding of 520 articles; ten thematic categories were identified in axial coding. Selective coding revealed three themes: Conflicted, Angst, and Making Sense of It.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to revise and analyze the profile prevalent in the academia that explains the cultural values and behaviors of Mexicans. The main assumption of this paper is that the complexities of the changing world and power differences have not been incorporated sufficiently into the study of cultural interactions. Most studies on Mexican culture tend to be based on fixed profiles of national cultures.
In this paper I propose a simple idea about a very complex topic: the nature of the Mexican culture related to work and the transformations that have been occurring during the last twenty years. The first part provides the theoretical framework on which this study is based. The second part provides a brief introduction to the predominant narratives in the academic discourse regarding the values and behaviors of Mexicans. Thereafter, there is an analysis of some changes that have taken place in Mexican society. The last part provides some elements that can be incorporated to understand better the complexities of Mexican cultural identity and everyday practices.