Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Classroom Ecology And Academic Performance: An Exploration Of The Merits Of The Single-Row Horseshoe Classroom Design, A. Olu Oyinlade, Silvana Maria Russo Watson

Great Plains Sociologist

Many studies on the effects of the traditional row-column classroom arrangement on academic performance have concluded that an action zone-whereby students who sit in the front and middle rows perform better than those seated at the sides and the back-exists. Therefore the traditional classroom arrangement does not provide learning parity for all students based on their seating positions, suggesting therefore, that some students are at a learning disadvantage due to seating position.

The present study investigated the single-row horseshoe design for its learning merits, with an attempt to discover if it offers a learning parity for all students or if …

Exurbanization And Rural Churches In Wright County, Minnesota, Gary A. Goreham

Great Plains Sociologist

The population of many rural communities in counties adjacent to metropolitan areas is increasing through the process of exurbanization. This study used structured interviews, documentary and secondary data, and direct observation to examine the impact of exurbanization in one nonmetropolitan county —Wright County, Minnesota —on the county's churches. The characteristics of natives and exurbanites were compared, their relationships examined, the impact of exurbanites on the county's congregations explored, and implications for church, denominational, and community leaders offered.

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Great Plains Sociologist

Front Matter
Editorial Policy Statement
Contents

Briefly Noted

Great Plains Sociologist

The Globalization of Crime: Understanding Transitional Relationships in Context

Interrogating Social Justice: Politics, Culture and Identity

Criminal Injustice: Racism in the Criminal Justice System

Test of Faith: Hope, Courage and the Prison Experience

The Case for Penal Abolition

Diversity and Justice in Canada

Bad Kids: Race and the Transformation of the Juvenile Court

Gods of the City: Religion and the American Urban Landscape

Conversion, Identity, and Power: The Impact of Christianity on Power Relationships and Social Exchanges

Religion and American Politics: The 2000 Election in Context

Filled With Spirit and Power: Protestant Clergy in Politics

Paranormal Beliefs: A Sociological Introduction …

Book Reviews

Great Plains Sociologist

Reviewer: Cynthia L. Phillips
Gender Justice in the American West: Women Prisoners in Men's Penitentiaries
Ann M. Butler

Reviewer: Mary Warner
New Pioneers in the Heartland: Hmong Life in Wisconsin
JoAnn Koltyk

Reviewer: Elizabeth A. Gill
Transgressing Borders: Critical Perspectives on Gender
Suzan Ilcan and Lynne Phillips, eds.

Reviewer: Melissa A. Jones
The Secret Life of Families: Truth-Telling, Privacy and Reconciliation in a Tell-All Society
Evan Imber-Black

Reviewer: Keith Crew
Murder Most Rare: The Female Serial Killer
Michael D. Kelleher and C.L. Kelleher

Reviewer: Jack Niemonen
New Tribalism: The Resurgence of Race and Ethnicity
Michael W. Hughey, ed.

Reviewer: Evandro …

A Vision For The Northern Great Plains, Dr. Cornelia Butler Flora

Great Plains Sociologist

This essay presents a number of positive alternatives for the future of the rural Northern Great Plains. A number of trends occurring in the 1990s are used to assemble this vision, such as sustainable agriculture, information technology, wireless communication, and small communities working together in mutual interest. This vision identifies the important role of social capital and social relationships as rising in value over a consumer oriented society. The strength of a positive vision exists in its ability to fire people to actively seek these ends, [ed.]

Stepmother Self-Role Incongruency In The Newly Formed Family: An Analysis Of Stepmothers In The Great Plains, Jason L. Karsky, Donald E. Arwood, Cindi Penor Ceglian

Great Plains Sociologist

This study is a cross-sectional analysis of stepmothers from a Midwestern community in South Dakota. In this study, the relationships among six sets of variables are analyzed. The dependent variable is stepmother self-role incongruence index. The independent variables along with the strength of relationship in regards to stepmother self-role incongruence, are as follows; role ambiguity index (.393), anticipatory socialization index (-.203), wicked stepmother index (494), stepfamily/stepparent unfavorability index (.288), and a spousal disagreement index (.241). Hypothesis testing supported the hypotheses introduced in this study. Multiple regression analysis identified wicked stepmother beliefs as the best predictor of stepmother self-role incongruence (Beta …

Three Theories Of The Future Of The Great Plains, Scot A. Stradley

Great Plains Sociologist

The purpose of this paper is to present three theories of the future of the Great Plains. The theories consist of two extremes, based on the differences between supply and demand. Two of the three theories of the future of the Great Plains are supply side. One is a demand side theory. One or more of these theories can be found in public policy debates affecting the Plains.

A Critical Consideration Of The Introduction Of Community-Service Learning Projects To Courses In The Sociology Of Social Problems, Karl T. Pfeiffer

Great Plains Sociologist

This paper examines the introduction of community service learning activities in lower division (200 level) undergraduate Sociology of Social Problems courses. Data from student evaluations and grades are presented for five semesters of this class between 1994-1996 (n=98), prior to the introduction of a community service learning option. This data is contrasted with five semesters of the class between 1996-1998 (n=141), following the introduction of service learning activities. Despite generally positive feedback from students and increased enrollments, results suggest that student performance as measured by grades has not significantly changed with the introduction of community service activities. Also student evaluations …

From The Educator's Eye: Images Of Homeless In Rural And Urban Middle-America, Susan E. Wright, R. Dean Wright

Great Plains Sociologist

Poverty and homelessness are popularly conceptualized as urban phenomena. This tendency is reinforced by media and lack of academic research and persists despite increasing evidence that poverty and homelessness areas prevalent in rural as in urban areas. This paper compares data collected from educators in several rural and urban counties in Iowa It looks at actual levels of poverty and reported homelessness, and compares the perceptions of the severity and causes of homelessness as reported by rural and urban educators. It concludes that the difficulties faced by poor people in rural areas are compounded by the tendency of small town …

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Great Plains Sociologist

Front Matter
Editorial Policy Statement
Contents

Book Reviews

Great Plains Sociologist

Karen Heil Borchert, reviewer
Rural Woman Battering and the Justice System: An Ethnography
Neil Websdale

Jerome R. Rosonke, reviewer
The Hutterites: Lives and Images of a Communal People
Paul Cloke and Jo Little, editors

Elizabeth Evenson Williams, reviewer
The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado
Elliott West

Carol Cumber, reviewer
Capital Culture: Gender at Work in the City
Linda McDowell

Don Robertson, reviewer
Who Rules America? Power and Politics in the Year 2000
William Domhoff

Glenda Sehested, reviewer
Formations of Class and Gender: Becoming Respectable
Beverley Skeggs

Annette Prosterman, reviewer
White Men Falling: Race, Gender, and White …

The Not So Wonderful World Of Disney: An Exploratory Content Analysis Of Gender Themes In Disney Full Length Animated Feature Films, Beth Wiersma

Great Plains Sociologist

Research has focused on the gender messages portrayed in television programs, cartoons, advertisements, literature, picture books, and fairy tales. One venue not included in the research is the Disney full-length animated feature films. The initial research on which this article is based was an exploration of the themes of gender, violence and anthropomorphism in Disney films. Emergent themes include heterosexual couplings, family constellations, good versus evil, and villains. This article will cover only the gender themes. Five areas were used to code gender content which include: physical appearance, personality traits, in-home labor, out of home employment, and societal and familial …

The Potential For Participatory Development Around The Takini School Howes, South Dakota, Amanda Gilvin

Great Plains Sociologist

This article examines community development issues faced in the vicinity of the Takini School, a small grant school on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. By exploring various suggestions regarding participatory development, I consider possibilities for Takini's future, as well as how a development agent might function in the emerging community.

A Social Disorganization Theory Of County Crime Rates In Minnesota, J. Mark Norman, Donald E. Arwood

Great Plains Sociologist

This analysis is an application of social disorganization theory for understanding variations in county crime rates in the state of Minnesota. Social disorganization is seen as the breakdown of community institutions of social control, where indicators of breakdown included such things as family disruption and over-crowding. With few exceptions, measures of social disorganization were found to he correlated with county crime rates, with three variables as showing up as especially important; these are percent of children not living with both parents, per capita alcohol tax collected in the county, and net-migration. Three variables—percent of persons with incomes less than $5000, …

Front Matter

Great Plains Sociologist

Front Matter
Editorial Policy Statement
Contents

Book Reviews

Great Plains Sociologist

Diane Kayongo-Male, reviewer
Rural Health and Aging Research: Theory, Methods, and Practical Applications
Wilbert M. Gesler, Donna J. Rabiner, and Gordon H. DeFriese, editors

Geoffrey Grant, reviewer
Cutting Into the Meatpacking Line: Workers and Change in the Rural Midwest
Deborah Fink

Jerome R. Rosonke, reviewer
Born Hutterite (video tape)
Black Hat Production

Laura Colmenero, reviewer
Capturing Women: The Manipulation of Cultural Imagery in Canada's Prairie West
Sarah Carter

Ellen Baird, reviewer
American Indian Ethnic Renewal: Red Power and the Resurgence of Identity and Culture
Joane Nagel

Mary Warner, reviewer
Durable Inequality
Charles Tilly

Jack Niemonen, reviewer
Culture of Intolerance: Chauvinism, …

Citizens Academy: Police Culture, Community Policing, Or Public Relations?, Scott Magnisson-Martinson

Great Plains Sociologist

This article focuses on a comparison of police citizen academy stated goals and actual experience. The methods used are observational. Personal experience and communication are used to understand the socialization processes into police culture in the academy on classism, sexism, and racism.

The Importance Of College Student Academic Goals: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach, Donald E. Arwood, Donna J. Hess

Great Plains Sociologist

A cross-sectional study of a sample of first and second year students attending a moderately-sized, Great Plains university is used to demonstrate the correlation between academic self-conceptions and academic goals. Multiple regression analysis shows that academic self-conceptions, academic role-taking, job goals, being a parent, and having a Job are excellent predictors of academic goals. The authors recommend that the symbolic interactionist perspective used in the study should be used to study how academic goals link academic self-conceptions with academic behaviors and outcomes.

Criminal Justice: In Search Of A Human Face, Madhava Bodapati, Harry Hoffman

Great Plains Sociologist

In this paper, we view the unfolding discourse of what is referred to as the Peacemaking and Peacekeeping approach. It is a discourse purporting to examine the fundamental assumptions, practices, and truth claims of both criminology and the criminal justice system. The paper begins by providing an overview of what we take to be a central concern currently confronting the CJS and the remedies proposed by peacemaking. We conclude by posing a series of questions which this approach must confront if it is to retain its integrity as a viable alternative to the contemporary approaches it seeks to critique.

The Impact Of Water Scarcity On The World's Future: An Analysis, Laura Colmenero

Great Plains Sociologist

The issue of water, or a lack of it, is predicted to have profound transformational effects on the world in the coming century. Robert Kaplan, Ann Baer, and Thomas Franklin Homer-Dixon provide us with common scenarios of this near future focusing on issues of conflict, control, manipulation, violence, and power. This article will review the scenarios presented by them and then present their findings within a sociological framework.

Front Matter

Great Plains Sociologist

Front Matter
Editorial Policy Statement
Contents

Book Reviews

Great Plains Sociologist

Diane Kayongo-Male, reviewer
People, Land, and Community
Hildegarde Hannum

Elizabeth Evenson Williams, reviewer
Contested Countryside Cultures: Otherness, Marginalisation, and Rurality
Paul Cloke and Jo Little, editors

Janet Kelly Moen, reviewer
Changing Rural Social Systems: Adaptation and Survival
Nan E. Johnson and Ching-li Wang, editors

Carol J. Cumber, reviewer
Rural Employment: An International Perspective
Ray D. Bollman and John M. Bryden, editors

Laura Colmenero, reviewer
Writing the Range: Race, Class, and Culture in the Women's West
Elizabeth Jameson and Susan Armitage, editors

William J. Swart, reviewer
Harvest of Rage: Why Oklahoma City is Only the Beginning
Joel Dyer

Ellen Baird, reviewer …

Book Reviews In The Great Plains Sociologist: The Continuation Of A Regional Tradition, Kathleen A. Tiemann, Morten G. Ender

Great Plains Sociologist

On the tenth anniversary of publication of The Great Plains Sociologist, we examine the book section for content and for participation by residents of the Great Plains. Since the inception of this journal feature in 1991, women have published 57 percent (N=57) of all book reviews. Moreover, women at masters and doctoral degree granting institutions have published a greater number of book reviews (52%. N=52) than their male counterparts (41%, N=41) and than women or men at 2-year,four-year, and tribal colleges (5%, N=5 and 2%, N=2 respectively). While there are differences in the topical areas evaluated by women and men, …

The Role Of Economics And Culture In Determining Fertility Rates In Kenya, Randall Rogers

Great Plains Sociologist

The role of both economic and cultural factors are investigated for their impact on fertility rates in Kenya. Economic factors tend to favor rational control of fertility while cultural factors favor uncontrolled fertility. Both demand and supply side reasons are presented to show that fertility decision making is becoming based more on economics and rationality than on tradition. Policy implications are investigated.

A Radical Critique Of Juvenile Boot Camps: A Critical Analysis Of The Juvenile Boot Camp And The Rationale Behind This Form Of Corrections From A Socialist Humanist Perspective, Matt Vidal

Great Plains Sociologist

This paper is a critique of boot camps as a method of juvenile delinquency treatment Humanist theory is applied to suggest that boot camps fail to meet basic treatment philosophy of adaptation to normal communities and reintegration of youth into society as specified by the primary goal of juvenile courts, rehabilitation.

Data Analysis Made Easy: An Undergraduate Student's Guide To Choosing Appropriate Statistical Tests For Social Research, A. Olu Oyinlade

Great Plains Sociologist

This article is written as a guide for undergraduate students in using statistics in the social sciences. Some general guidelines are provided for deciding which statistic to use with different types of data (nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio). Four sections are presented: identifying variables, choosing appropriate statistics, computation, and understanding results. This article is not written as a "nuts and bolts" guide to teaching all of statistics but instead is a guide to help students. Instructors of this material may also benefit from these discussions.

Front Matter

Great Plains Sociologist

Front Matter
Editorial Policy Statement
Table of Contents

Book Reviews

Great Plains Sociologist

Diane Kayongo-Male, reviewer
Gendered Fields: Rural Women, Agriculture, and Environment
Carolyn Sachs

Henry B. Sirgo, reviewer
Green Culture: Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America
Carl G. Herndl and Stuart C. Brown

Janet Kelly Moen, reviewer
New Government for Rural America: Creating Intergovernmental Partnerships
Beryl A. Radin, Robert Aganoff, Ann O'M Bowman, C. Gregory Buntz, Steven Ott, Barbara S. Romzek, and Robert H. Wilson

Jon Flanagin, reviewer
Wanted Dead or Alive: The American Westin Popular Culture
Richard Aquila, editor

Laura Colmenero, reviewer
Contented Among Strangers: Rural German-Speaking Women and Their Families in the Nineteenth-Century Midwest
Linda Schelbitzki Pickle

Elizabeth Evenson Williams, reviewer …

Ethnic Minorities In The People's Republic Of China, Mary Jo Benton Lee

Great Plains Sociologist

In the People's Republic of China, the term "minority nationality" denotes a member of one of China's 55 officially recognized ethnic minority groups. Minority nationalities have traditionally been regarded as those who have cultures (particularly languages and religions) that atv distinct from the Han Chine.ie majority. This article focuses on ethnic minorities in China-their significance to the PRC as a whole, the official classification system by which the government identifies them and the history of their interaction with the majority Han population. Higher education in the PRC is discussed with an emphasis on national minority institutes. Two macro issues relating …