Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The authors will present a literature review examining the importance of including social class within our theories and practice of vocational counselling. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding the definition of social class, developing theories that are inclusive of economically disadvantaged women, and incorporating principals of social justice that vocational practitioners could implement.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The public Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program is facing the challenge of having to increase service capacity with constant or even decreasing resources. Information and Communication Technology, particularly the Internet, offers a wide range of opportunities to improve service delivery and customer engagement. However, little is known about how technology is currently being used and how ICT can effectively be integrated into the whole spectrum of public VR service delivery options. The conceptual model employed in this research involved four components: perceived attributes of using ICT, communication channels, counselor characteristics, and perceived attributes of state VR agencies that were hypothesized to impact technology acceptance by rehabilitation counselors. The research conducted a case study of counselors within four state VR agencies in the Northeast Region of the United States. Case study data was obtained through a document review, a survey of state VR counselors, in-depth qualitative interviews with and participant observation of counselors in their practice. The findings of this research contribute to e-government policy in public VR service delivery but also to scholarship on technology adoption and diffusion.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The journalistic scene in the late Qing (1890s-1900s) was heterogeneous and sometimes strife-ridden, divided by competing ideological traditions and polarized by political powers. This study focuses on analyzing Liang Qichao’s views on journalism. Departs from previous scholarship that either focuses on exploring the links between Liang’s journalistic notion and that of Habermas’s of a century later or attempts to determine the roots of Liang’s journalistic ideal in Mencius and other Confucian traditions that were nurtured centuries before, this study seeks to shift scholarly attention to the immediate context in which Liang’s idea of journalism was proposed and contested. Seeing Liang’s journalistic ideal as a historically specific formulation—product of and response to the complex dynamics among competing discourses of his own time — this study is an attempt to provide a more complete picture of the discursive construction of Chinese journalism in the end of the nineteenth century. It also asks the important question of why Liang’s notion of journalism became the dominant discourse in the late nineteenth century and has remained influential in China throughout the twentieth century.

Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: Founded in 1908, the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority continues to serve African-American women, men and children through national and local service programs. AKA’s national headquarters are in Chicago, and the city’s Beta chapter has a long history of reaching out to Black girls and women through health initiatives, educational outreach and social support. The sorority’s open motto, “By Merit, By Culture” has shaped how its national leadership promotes and conducts service, nationally and internationally. In 1927, AKA established a national program devoted to providing vocational guidance to young women in Chicago’s schools, particularly in high schools. The central goal of the program was to provide advice and ideas to “hundreds of young girls facing the necessity of making decisions regarding their life’s work.” In this paper, I will provide the history of the vocational guidance movement in the U.S. and its significance to African-American people, with an emphasis on women’s participation in these programs. I will also contextualize the Vocational Guidance projects in relationship to pre- and post-Depression era Chicago, as well as discuss the successes and limits of these programs.

(1)Pauline Sims-Puryear. “Address Delivered in University Hall, Ohio State University,” Ivy Leaf, December 28, 1926, 6.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of vocational and educational programs on recidivism. A meta-analysis was performed that examined quantitative evaluations of the effects of vocational and educational programs on recidivism. The evaluations were limited to studies published in English and that were performed in the United States. Recidivism measures included re-arrests, technical violations, reconvictions and re-incarcerations. In general, vocational and educational program participants were found to recidivate at a lower rate than non-participants.