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Although parent socialization practices are critical to children’s cognitive development, educational researchers know too little of how parental practices function to meet the specific challenges of supporting African American boys’ development. This chapter offers critical insights on how 15 parents of African American boys (ages 3–8) conceive and implement strategies for the development of their sons. Using structured interview data, this chapter highlights the ways in which they promoted an emerging academic identity. Findings reveal three forms of support – schools, emotional, and resource – that undergirded the academic socialization of the African American boys. Implications were offered to young African American boys in developing their academic identity.

The article offers a study of the central food marketplace in Santiago, Dominican Republic. The purpose of the study is to explore how changes in the marketplace reflect transformation of urban food systems resulting from neoliberal restructuring during the final decades of the twentieth century.

Drawing on long-term qualitative research conducted during the late 1990s and early 2000s, including ethnographic and survey methods, the article illustrates how central urban marketplaces offer a window into transitions in both international and domestic food economies.

Research findings illustrate that the marketplace in Santiago operated in a state of economic hybridity, intermixing long established regionally produced domestic crops such as yuca, plantains and pigeon peas deeply rooted in Dominican agrarian culture with products dervived from liberalization of the Dominican economy such as imported rice, beans and eventually numerous Dominican food staples.

The study is limited by the scope of analysis which is one urban marketplace. More sites for researching marketplaces could be added for more comparative analysis.

The research findings have implications for how governments define social and economic policy that impacts domestic food producers and intermediary brokers that aggregate and debulk food to feed cities.

The scholarship raises questions about how the social and economic organization of urban marketplaces in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere reflect historical transitions in local, national and global economies.

This chapter draws on developmental intergroup theory, parental ethnic-racial socialization literature, anti-bias curricula, and prejudice intervention studies to address the appropriateness of discussing race and racism in early childhood settings. Existing literature about teacher discussions surrounding race and racism is reviewed, best practices are shared, and the need for more research in this area is highlighted. The construct of parental ethnic-racial socialization is mapped onto early childhood anti-bias classroom practices. The chapter also outlines racial ideologies of teachers, specifically anti-bias and colorblind attitudes, and discusses how these ideologies may manifest in classroom practices surrounding race and racism. Colorblind ideology is problematized and dissected to show that colorblind practices may harm children. Young children’s interpretations of race and racism, in light of children’s cognitive developmental level, are discussed. Additionally, findings from racial prejudice intervention studies are applied to teaching. Early literacy practices surrounding race and racism are outlined with practical suggestions for teachers and teacher educators. Moreover, implications of teacher practices surrounding race and racism for children’s development, professional development, and teacher education are discussed.

The study explores the extent to which business analytics can address business problems using the task-technology fit theory.

The qualitative research approach of pattern matching was adopted for data analysis and 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Four propositions derived from the literature on task-technology fit are compared to emerging core themes from the empirical data.

The study establishes the relationships between various forms of fit, arguing that the iterative application of business analytics improves problem understanding and solutions, and contends that both under-fit and over-fit can be acceptable due to the increasing costs of achieving ideal fit and potential unaffected outcomes, respectively. The study demonstrates that managers should appreciate that there may be a distinction between those who create business analytics solutions and those who apply business analytics solutions to solve problems.

Extant studies on business analytics have not focused on how the match between business analytics and tasks affects the level to which problems can be addressed that determines business value. This study enriches the literature on business analytics by linking business analytics and business value through problem resolution demonstrated by task-technology fit. To the authors’ knowledge, this study might be the first to apply pattern matching to study the fit between technology and tasks.

This paper introduces some of the research that has been conducted into staff stress in learning disability services. It also examines how some individual characteristics of service users, particularly challenging behaviour and mental health problems, may influence the levels of staff stress reported. Service changes as a result of the development of supported living are also considered briefly. Some suggestions are made as to how these changes might influence staff. The importance of new research investigating these developments from a staff perspective is highlighted.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

There is growing evidence for the efficacy of anger treatment programmes, which aim to reduce inappropriate aggression in people with learning disabilities. To date they have been provided in both group and individual formats, but the differential efficacy of these approaches is yet to be assessed. Individuals with a learning disability and inappropriately expressed anger were assigned to either group or individual treatment or a waiting list control, depending on the availability of treatment options. In this way, 23 participants completed group treatment, 18 individual treatment and 21 were included in a waiting list control. Participants were assessed both before and after treatment using an anger provocation inventory. Improvements were found in the scores obtained on the anger inventory for both the group and individual treatments compared to the control using a 2 by 3 split plot ANOVA. There was no difference between group and individual treatments. These results replicate previous findings that suggest that both group and individual cognitive behavioural interventions are effective treatment options for people with learning disabilities, but do not support either method of delivery as the preferred option. Limitations of the data are discussed.

In the shifting landscape of organisational computing, continuing developments in information technology have potentially major implications for managerial and technical roles, including the emergence of new ‘hybrid’ roles. As the emphasis in computer information systems shifts from relatively inflexible transaction processing systems to more flexible decision support systems, so the focus of attention has shifted from the effect of computerisation on workforce roles to the implications for managerial and technical personnel. Concerns with operational control and long‐range planning have given way to concerns with the integration of primary business functions and medium‐range ‘what if’ analysis, particularly in the information‐based sectors such as financial services, travel and tourism, and retailing.

The role of the learning disability (LD) nurse has developed and expanded significantly within recent years, especially their responsibility for delivering a variety of specialist treatment programmes. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the facilitation of Sex Offender Treatment Programmes (SOTP) and the issues this raises in providing support for LD nurses.

This is an opinion paper and the views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organisation or group with which the author is affiliated. The aims of this paper are: first, to explore the support needs of the LD nurse facilitators of SOTPs; second, to consider the practical implications of providing clinical supervision and support for LD nurse facilitators of SOTPs; and third, to highlight the need for further research in this area.

This paper does not contain original research findings but offers a discussion of the support needs of the LD nurse who facilitate SOTP, concentrating on the specific themes of training, clinical supervision and support.

Implications for clinical practice are identified and recommendations for further research are made.

Whilst this is not the first consideration of the support needs of facilitators of SOTPs, it offers a contribution to the discussion of how best to support the LD nurse to continue to deliver the high quality, specialist care for people with learning disabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of a six-and-a-half day, Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) informed training course on staff’s self-efficacy and outcome expectations of managing challenging behaviour (CB). Training programmes for other non-psychology staff were deemed necessary due to the high demand for services and the specialist knowledge held by other professionals or carers.

A repeated measures design was used to capture changes in specific self-efficacy and outcome expectations before and after the training programme. A questionnaire methodology was employed.

Staff self-efficacy and positive outcome expectations increased on all four measured variables following training: understanding of CB, working out the functions of CB, developing and implementing a PBS plan, and managing CB for the benefit of the service user.

These findings are considered in light of previous research suggesting an impact on staff practice and burnout.

The findings suggest that the training model delivers changes in staff cognition and may be useful in other locations where demand for services is likely to increase in the future.

This research considers the impact of a medium length PBS training on staff cognition, evidencing the model’s utility in the current service context.