Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The investigation of prospective teachers’(PST) knowledge of similarity was part of a larger study that investigated PST knowledge of what and how to teach concepts dealing with proportional reasoning, while engaged in Lesson Plan Study (LPS). The LPS research method was based on the idea of Japanese lesson study and looked at ways PST developed an introductory lesson on proportional reasoning topics. The LPS contained four distinct stages. The first stage was an individual interview in which a researcher tried to get an understanding of what the research subject knew about similarity and how she might teach similarity. The protocol for the individual interview consisted three major components: pre-interview, lesson planning, and post-interview. During the second stage was a group interview, the research subject was grouped with four other subjects and asked to construct a group presentation on similarity and discuss their ideas. The third stage was the presentation of the group lesson to the methods class that the research subject was enrolled. In the last stage of the LPS, the research subject produced a reconstructed view of her individual lesson plan. The growth of the PST knowledge of similarity was assessed within the Pirie-Kieren(1994) model of growth in understanding as adapted by Berenson, Cavey, Clark and Staley (2001) to teacher preparation, while noting instances of folding back, and collecting (Pirie & Martin, 2000). Within each level of the teacher preparation model, aspects of the PST knowledge of similarity were looked at for potential growth in the context of what and how to teach.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: As public relations, marketing, and branding became increasingly important to organizations in the twentieth century, there evolved a more strategic and intentional approach to the design and use of corporate symbols such as trademarks and logos. Professionals took over logo design, developing a set of conceptions about how the process should be carried out. Primary among the rules of design that emerged was that logos should be distinctive. Yet a casual examination of logos in today’s “brandscape” reveals many logos that are similar to one another, a trend that is particularly pronounced among logos within industries. I argue that in addition to providing distinctiveness to an organization or product, logos serve to signal legitimacy within an organizational field by conforming to expectations about what a symbol in that field should look like. I believe that it is this function, rather than that of producing distinctiveness, that is predominant in driving the process of logo design. I outline several hypotheses related to this argument and describe a quantitative approach to testing them. This approach takes advantage of a United States Patent and Trademark Office dataset in which logos are assigned codes based on their visual content.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Despite the extensive research efforts devoted to understanding the factors that facilitate or impede intermarriages, no comprehensive yet focused sketch of the socioeconomic characteristics of interracial couples has been completed. In this study, we fill this gap in the literature by analyzing the 2000 U.S. Census Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) along three key dimensions–interracial combinations, age groups, and geographical variations. Compared to their monoracial counterparts, interracial couples tend to have higher educational attainments and employment rates, although comparable family income, and similar occupational prestige. While these patterns are consistent across age groups and geographical regions, our analyses suggest that considerable variations exist within the pan-category of interracial couples. Asian-man/white-woman interracial couples display the highest socioeconomic status among all interracial combinations, followed by white-man/Asian-woman, white-man/Hispanic-woman, and white-man/ black-woman couples. These interracial advantages can be partially explained by the high educational achievements of interracial couples. Finally, previous studies suggested that individuals of higher racial statuses (e.g., whites) are more likely to marry partners of lower racial status (e.g., blacks) but higher educational attainments. Our analyses show that, on the descriptive level, the educational gap between interracial spouses may reflect more of the norms of specific sex/race groups.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper compares immigration research agendas of two major immigrant receiving countries, the US and Canada, both of them located in North America. Drawing from the characteristics of immigration populations, the government policies, and research traditional focus, we explore how and why their agendas of immigration research are different and similar in the US and Canada.

The paper reviews the similarities and differences of immigration research in these two countries. It is divided into three sections. The first section discusses immigrant populations in these two countries. The discussion helps us understand different focuses of immigration research
agendas in these countries. The second section discusses the theoretical emphases in immigration research over recent decades. Through the discussion, we hope to highlight theoretical developments of immigration studies in these countries. Finally, we compare the similarities and differences in research agendas between these countries.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper seeks to understand why the prevalence rates of homelessness in Germany are similar to those in the U.S. and why durations are even longer in Germany despite fundamentally different welfare regimes in both countries. By comparing the results of original ethnographic research in Berlin to existing quantitative research from Los Angeles, I demonstrate that the fundamental differences between both places are primarily a function of more pronounced market barriers in Berlin in conjunction with welfare state deficiencies that are surprisingly similar to those found in Los Angeles. While quantitative research is particularly useful in identifying the relative significance of specific facilitators of or barriers to exit form homelessness, such research fails to reveal how specific factors intersect to determine outcomes and durations. Alternatively, the ethnographic research approach in Berlin allowed for a more nuanced understanding of such interactions showing that exit chances and outcomes are ultimately dependent on homeless people’s life course trajectories and distinct characteristics they entail and how they interact differently with the institutional and structural context of local homelessness. Therefore, to be more effective, social policy must take homeless people’s life course-specific problems, needs, and expectations into account irrespective of the underlying welfare regime.