OSU Journals (Oklahoma State University)

Bales, Kevin B.

FREE INQUIRY in Creative Sociology Volume 8 No 2 November 1980 178
WHAT INTRODUCTORY SOCIOLOGY STUDENTS LEARN
Kevin B. Bales, University of Mississippi
There were 6 items on stratifica-
tion, 6 on culture, 9 on research
methods, 6 on sociological orienta-
tion for research, 4 on social
change, 3 on socialization, 3 on
economics, and one each, on wo-
men, organizations, and small
groups.
RESULTS A total of 141 question-
naires were completed, and these
were divided in 3 groups, of
those who had 1) no sociology; 2)
introduction only; or 3) more than
the introduction course. The ques-
tionnaires were administered dur-
i ng the fi rst meeti ng of the soci-
ology class in which the students
were enrolled, and again at the
end of the semes ter. T he sma II
sample size makes generalization
risky, but the mean pre- and
post-test percenti Ie scores are
shown in Table 1.
The students were restricted to
those who had been enrolled previ-
pusly or currently in the classes
of the 3 teachers from whom the
instrument was synthesized. While
the question of retention is longi-
tudinal, this research takes a
cross sectional approach. First,
longitudi nal research was blocked
by the confidential ity of student
records which made tracing of all
past introductory student grade re-
cords impossible. Second, since
students di d not necessari I y en-
roll in a second sociology course
immediately after the introductory
course, this cross-section repre-
sents students at all of the poten-
tial levels of preparation for
TABLE 1: KNOWLEDGE GAIN FROM
INTRODUCTORY SOCIOLOGY
(Percenti Ie scores)
59%
68
(36)
63%
62
(44)
56%
66
(61)
Prior sociology courses
Intro- 2 or
None duction more
N
Test
Pretest
Post-test
THE PROBLEM Many articles have
been wri tten on new methods to
improve introductory courses in
sociology, but these accounts have
not focused on the cen tra I ques-
tion of learning outcomes. What
do we know about the essenti al
learnings of sociology at the end
of the semester? Perhaps more im-
portant, how much of wha t the
student has learned is retained
after a year has passed? Amazing-
ly, for a discipline renowned for
navel-gazing, the answer to both
questions is: "We do not know."
We do know that students are pas-
sing or not passing tests, but not
whether the concepts learned are
retained or used further. Some de-
partments have adopted some form
of minimum essential learnings,
and pass-or fai I on these. Two
questions arise: 1) How many of
these minimum essenti als are car-
ried beyond the fi nal exam? 2)
How many of these learnings were
known to the studen t before the
course began?
To answer these questions, two
instruments were applied over two
semesters. The first was a 40-item
questionnaire closely resembl ing
an introductory sociology final ex-
ami nation. I t was constructed by
compiling all the tests used by
three socio logy teachers in i ntro-
ductory courses over a 3-year per-
iod. These tests were comb i ned
with the teacher's guides and test
books for the three introductory
texts by Popenoe, Lenski & Len-
ski, and Light & Keller. From
th is pool of potenti al learn i ngs
the articles of information and
concepts that were common to a II
were extracted. These common ele-
ments were then broken into sec-
tions by subject, and all items
concerning a unique detail or
datum were discarded. The remain-
ing items, representing key con-
cepts, were then reworked into
standard language to make them
palatable to both those students
who had never taken a sociology
course, and those who had taken
one or more sociology courses.
FREE INQUIRY in Creative Sociology
undergradua tes. As the instrument
was constructed from the materials
of the precedi ng 3 years, we
could assume that the students
other than those with no sociology
had been exposed to the core
ideas common to the 3 introduc-
tory texts which were represented
on the questionnaire.
For the student with no soci-
ology and the student with two or
more semesters of sociology, these
measures show a small and rough-
ly equal increase in comprehen-
sion of sociological concepts over
the semester interval. Students
just comp leti ng thei r fi rst semes-
ter of introductory sociology show-
ed no change in their test scores.
Anal ysis of thei r sub-section
scores showed that intra-test
changes were occuri ng. Scores on
stratification and social change
improved, and scores on culture
and methodology fell. A possible
exp Ia nat ion i s the ten den cyin se-
cond semester courses to concen-
trate on social problems areas,
and to om it top i cs usua II y found
in the introduction to sociology,
such as culture. But this would
be only a partial explanation,
and the finding that a second
semester of sociology may decrease
one's understandi ng of sociologi-
cal concepts seems disconcerti ng
and inexplicable. Otherwise, the
strong areas of student response
were culture and stratification.
The weakest area was methodology
perhaps because tha tis one of
the more d iffi cu I t areas to bri ng
to I ife in the classroom, and per-
haps because introductory
teachers are least prepared to
teach it.
In the following semester, a
different instrument was used,
wh ich focused on the i nterna Ii za-
tion by the student of a sociologi-
cal orientation to solve problems.
This instrument was developed by
William Hering and F Lincoln
Grahlfs while they were attemp-
ting to assess the impact of the
Sociological Resources of the Soc-
ial Studies curriculum on second-
ary school students.
• The student is presented 4 scen-
arios each of which is followed
Volume 8 No 2 November 1980 179
by, 4 suggested responses. I n each
case, 2 of the responses are im-
medi ate action oriented, and 2
suggest some kind of research as
the first step in solving the prob-
lem. A typical scenario explained
that attendance at sporting events
at the student's school was on
the dec line, and t hat t his was a
serious problem. How should the
student deal with the problem?
The 4 choices were 1) to award
prizes for attendance; 2) to lower
ticket prices; 3) to interview per-
sons who did attend to determine
the i r mo t i vat i on, or 4) to in ter-
view a random sample of the
school's population to determine
why attendance was on the de-
cl i nee We hypothesized that per-
sons with significant exposure to
sociology should have a greater
tendency to choose one of the re-
search alternatives.
Of these questionnaires, 92 were
comp Ieted. The resu I ts showed
that the greater the exposure to
sociology, the more likely one was
to apply a sociological orientation
to problem solving for problems
in the scenarios. The majority
(77%) of those selecting the re-
search a I terna t i ve ina II 4 scenar-
ios had previously taken one or
more sociology courses. Of stud-
ents choosing the research alterna-
tive in 2 or less than 2 scenarios
48 percent had a prev·ious soci-
ology course.
CONCLUSION The instruments used
in th i s research are crude and
parti a I measures, but the resu I ts
throw light on severa I questions
of the past, and raise a few more
questions for the future. First,
what does an introductory soci-
ology student carry away after a
semester of sociology? I t appears
that he possesses a few more soci-
ological concepts than he had
when he entered the course, par-
ti cu larl yin the areas of cu I ture
and stratification. The scores of
those students ina second and
third sociology course suggest
that student retention of these con-
cepts tends to decay over ti me,
since pretest and post-test scores
for tha t group were about the
FREE INQUIRY in Creative Sociology
same as for the control group
with no previous sociology courses
whatever. This decay, coupled
with the second semester social
problems course may parti ally ex-
plain the apparent finding that a
second semester of sociology has
no effect on student understandi ng
of basic sociological concepts.
The choices of students on the
problematic scenarios indicates
that an exposure to sociology is
positively related to research ori-
ented problem solving for the sce-
narios. The overall results point
to the learning and operationaliz-
ing of sociological concepts by
our introductory students. This is
more heartening that the statement
of one student who said: "The
most important thing learned in
sociology was that in German, a
Wis pronounced as a V."
REFERENCES
.Lenski Gerhard, Richard Lenski
1970 Introduction to Sociology.
New York McGraw Hi II
.Light Donal d, Suzanne Keller
1979 Sociology. 2nd ed. New York
Knopf
.Popenoe David 1980 Sociology. 4th
ed. Englewood Cliffs NJ Prentice
Hall
Vol ume 8 No 2 November 1980 180
(BARDO, BARDO & STEIBER
Continued from page 177)
indicator approach to attitude
measurement. Psychological Bltn
62, American Psychological Assn
.Festinger L, D Katz 1953 Re-
search Methods & the Behavioral
Sciences. New York Dryden
.Flynn C, L Carter 1972 Retest of
a measurement model. Sociological
Methodology 1972, H Costner ed.
San Francisco Jossey Bass
• Goode W, P Ha tt 1952 Methods in
Social Research. NY McGraw Hill
.Guttman Louis 1950 Basis for scal-
ogram analysis. Studies in Social
Psychology of World War II, S
Stouffer et ai, Vol 4 60-90 Prince-
ton U Press
.Kaplan Abraham 1964 Conduct of
Inquiry: Methodology for Behavior-
al Science. Scranton Penn Chandler
.Katz Daniel 1960 Functional ap-
proach to study of attitudes. Pub-
lic Opinion Qtrly 24 163-204
.Katz D, E Stotland 1959 Prelimin-
ary statement to theory of atti-
tude, structure, and change. Psy-
chology: A Study of a Science. S
Koch ed. NY McGra w Hill 423-475
.Kidder L, D Campbell 1970 Indi-
rec t t es tin g of soc i a I at tit u des.
Attitude Measurement. G Summers
ed. Chicago Rand McNaLly
.Kinder D, L Reeder 1975 Ethnic
differences in bel iefs about con-
trol. Sociometry 38 216-272
.Likert Rensis 1932 Technique for
measurement of attitudes. Archives
of Psychology #140 New York Col-
umbia University
.Lundburg G A 1942 Social Re-
search: A Study in Methods of
Gathering Data. New York Long-
mans GReen
.Summers G 1970 Attitude Measure-
ment. Chicago Rand McNally 1-17
•Thurstone L 1928 Atti tudes can
be measured. American J of Soci-
ology 33 529-554
• Thurstone L, E Chave 1929 Mea-
surement of Attitude. U of Chicago
Press
.Willer David, Judith Willer 1973
Systematic Empiricism: Critique of
a Pseudoscience. Englewood Cliffs
NJ Prentice Hall


English

What introductory sociology students learn

Almquist, Elizabeth M.

Darville, Ray L.

The arithmetic of affirmative action: Procedures for analyzing sex differences in faculty salaries

Dabrowski, Irene

Phenomenological analysis of community paradigms

Hawley, F. Frederick

FREEINQUIRY in CREATIVESOCIOLOGY Volume 10No2November1982 223
GUN CONTROL AND SOUTHERN CULTURE CONFLICT
F. Frederick Hawley, Louisiana State University, Shreveport
INTRODUCTION
The continuing debate on gun control has
been characterized by rhetorical hyperbole
and promiscuous self-serving "data slingling."
The arguments presented by both advocates
of gun control and their opponents have even
descended to the level of stigmatizing sexual
innuendo, such as "Shooters are insecure
about their masculinity" or "People who are af-
raid of guns have serious sexual problems."
Data from studies focusing on various aspects
of crime, gun accidents, and victimization have
been used by both sides. Data and statistics
relating to the issue of gun control are irrelev-
ant to both factions.
Behind myriad generalizations and pious
justifications advanced by both sides, exist two
distinctly different ways of looking at reality.
The gulf that separates them is largely deter-
mined by cultural factors. Gun control advo-
cates are largely of the national elite, or have
accepted the elite myth of American society.
Many opponents of guncontrol,live, work, and
interact in a completely different cultural
milieu. White Southern culture rejects many
fondly held elite notions, in particular, elite con-
ceptions about crime, firearms, and individual
responsibility.
THE "SOUTHERN VIOLENCE" PATTERN
Early settlement in the South was disor-
ganized, and effective law enforcement was
Virtually non-existent. Bandits, escaped
slaves, Indians, cantankerous neighbors, ven-
omous reptiles, and predatory animals were all
at various times very real threats to the set-
tler's well-being. In order to deal with what was
perceived as a generally hostile environment,
a rural code of chivalry evolved among the
Southern elite. This code valued skill in handl-
ing firearms, skill in horsemanship, respect for
and protection of white women, the use of
flamboyant oratory, and lavish hospitality
(Franklin 195634). The underlying themes on
which this code was based were the twin con-
cepts of honor and individual responsibility.
These concepts caused the Southernor "to de-
fend with his life the slightest suggestion of ir-
regularity in his honesty or integrity. (Franklin
1956 35). Since the individual was viewed as
responsible for the defense of his family's
honor as well as his own, the growth of police
agencies and courts was retarded. The com-
munity at large left law enforcement to the ag-
grieved individual.
The Southern concept of honorcoupled with
the lack of effective law enforcement led to the
development of a highly stylized mode of settl-
ing conflicts--the duel. The code duello had
many august Southern· practicioners Henry
Clay, John Randolph, William Yancey, Sam
Houston, Andrew Jackson, and governors of
several Southern states fought opponents on
''the field of honor." Dueling grounds such as
the "the Oaks" in New Orleans, and
Bladensburg near Washington, D.C., served
as "courts of last resort, in which weighty
points of etiquette, social and political prob-
lems and questions of veracity, propriety and
right were expounded by the convincing power
of gunpowder". (Kennett & Anderson 1975
14).
While the code duello was primarily a char-
acteristic of the ante bellum planter elite, toler-
ance of interpersonal violence and ideas of
personal sovereignity filtered down to the
lower classes. These bloody brawls often
ended in dismemberment or death. In many
cases, after shots were discharged to no ef-
fect, daggers were employed. In such lower-
class affrays, scratching and eye gouging
were de rigeur. The legendary Jim Bowie was
said to have speciali:zed in shotgun dueling
and, of course, on occasion, he employed the
knife made famous by his brother's craftman-
ship.
Dueling was gradually made illegal by vari-
ous states and otherwise fell from favor before
the Civil War. By the beginning of the Twen-
tieth Century dueling was decidedlypasse-- a
relic of the Old South shoved aside by the par-
venu Boubon class. "Southern violence" had
taken on less stylized forms in the interim.
Following the Civil War extreme interpreta-
tions of personal sovereignty and the predis-
position of personal problems spread west
with dispossessed Southerners. Many ex-
Confederates such as Jesse James
exemplified this state of mind and aided in the
diffusion of such ideals. Southern attitudes on
FREEINQUIRYinCREATWE SOCIOLOGY
violence had found fertile soil in the west. In
such a setting, the gunfighter/lawman, in many
cases a dispossessed Southerner, "was given
the omnipotent role of judge, jury and execu-
tioner--a novel constitutional concept." (Ken-
nett & Anderson 1975 123). Such a concept
may be novel to the constitutional purist, but
not to Southerners imbued from birth With the
notion of personal sovereignty.
Although the doctrine of personal
sovereignty and other domain assumptions
had been repudiated, the Southernpattetn of
violence stubbornly persisted. In spite ofpost-
Reconstruction "New South" boostedsrn and
late nineteenth contury Babbitry, material
progress accommodated "continuity in the
basic traits of the Southern mind." (Hackney
1969493). This situation, or more properly, dy-
namic process, is a case of controlled accultu-
ration, which is the "process by which one cul-
ture accepts a practice from another, butinte-
grates the new practice into its ownv8lue sys-
tem. Itdoes not surrender its autonomyorsep-
arate identity, although the change may in-
volve a modification of the degree of auto-
nomy. (Eaton 1952).
The South accepted an imposed regimeand
improvements in its standard of liVing, itdidnot
accept alien norms. According to Berskovils,
(1938 13), "total assimilation is notachleVed
until a people have attained a unity ofthought
that underlies the "veneer" of acceptance of
traits of a material nature.· The culture olpost-
Reconstruction South and that of the indus-
trializing North by no means attained "unity of
thought·" Assimilationism and the "mYth of the
melting pot" simply did not obtain desired re-
sults when applied to the ethnically
homogeneous White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
(WASP) populace.
POLICY CONSIDERATIONS
The contemporary South, especially in rural
areas, is not far removed from itscultural roots.
"Violence in the South is a style of life that is
handed down from father to son along with the
old hunting rifle and the family Bible.·
(Hackney 1969). Organized hunting and the
gun culture have "deep cultural roots" in the
South. "A boy's introduction to guns andhunt-
ing is an important rite of passage. The first
gun at puberty is the bar mitzvah of the rural
WASP." (Bruce-Briggs 1976). Many white
VolumelONo2November1982 224
Southerl(lers enjoy hunting and shooting and
believe strongly in a constitutionally mandated
"right to bear arms" to protect their families and
their honor. Although the constitutional issue
regarding "the right to bear arms· has been in-
terpreted by contemporary jurists as favoring
the gun control advocate, many Southerners
prefer to interpret the Constitution according to
their own social experience and cultural
norms. Therefore, Southerners regard the
constitution as many Baptists regard the Bible-
~Holy Writ, but subject to individual interpreta-
tion. This of course, is consistent with the
SOuthern cultural ideal of personal responsibil~
ity and sovereignty.
Kahn, social critic and futurist, has em-
phasized the cultural dilemma that gun control
suggests. In essence, "the crusade against the
gun is the work ofan uppermiddle class minor-
ity, whose views are at variance with the restof
the nation." (1972). The Wall Street Journal
has suggested that the gun control debate rep-
resents a "battle over the nation's cultural val-
ues, a battle in which "cosmopolitan America"
is pitted against "bedrock America." According
to Kennett and Anderson, "cosmopolitan
America foresees a new age when guns and
the need for them will disappear: bedrock
America conceives of it as 1984." Cosmopoli-
tan America is liberal, educated, prosperous,
and internationlistic while bedrock America is
nativist and conservative.
According to one conservative commen-
tator "where modern Uberals seem to have
lost their way is in becoming so convinced of
the rightness of their concepts of liberty and
democracy, that they have gone all out in im~
posing them on eveyone else. They fail to un~
derstand that by such an imposition they ne-
gate the very concepts they profess to up-
hold.... The nation through its American
Dream propaganda attempts to impose or-
thodoxy on all non-conformist elements. Even
though the State's objectives may be worthy,
some of the methods used are nonetheless to-
talitarlan." (Lawton 1963143). "Twentieth cen-
tury liberals believe they can change men's
lives through the exercise of governmental
power--end discrimination, abolish poverty,
eliminate slums, insure employment, eliminate
sickness and disease and improve standards
of living." (Dye & Zeigler 1970 120). Gun con-
trol is but one manifestation of the idealistic lib-
FREE INQUIRY in CREATIVESOCIOLOGY
eral/elite desire to impose "the peaceable
kingdom." Thus the problem of regulating
Southern violence is accentuated by unrealis-
tic idealism of people who believe that "all
America should by now have adopted the
standards of New York and New England."
(Lawton 1963146).
THE ARGUMENTS: FALSE ISSUES
Few people in the gun control debate are
concerned with objective facts or data. The lit-
erature on the subject, unpleasant, shrill and
emotional, reflects deep ethnocentric bias in
the guise of socio-political sophistry.
Proponents of gun control include Bakal
(1966) and Sherrill (1973). Bakal plays on the
reader's emotions while regaling him with
every conceivable accident and outrage that
could be committed with a firearm. He con-
cludes, "would controls of any kind be worth-
while to save 100 lives? Or just one life, that of
another President? Or perhaps even your
own?" (1966 340). Sherrill states that since
"America is built on an awesome amount of
wretched human refuse," violence is to be ex-
pected. Advancing views that have absolutely
no basis in history, genetics, anthropology or
reason, he implies that gun owners and South-
erners are descended from the convicts of
Ogelthorpe's penal colony. In effect, this is an
emotional acceptance ofdiscredited biological
reductionism at the expense of the liberal ideal
of cultural relativism.
Organized gun control opponents are
equally prone to the use of emotionalism and
constitutional obfuscation. Defensor (1934
102) (surely a pseudonym!) takes a decidely
pugnacious tone: "Do you want to compromise
with evil and have a gunless and gutless soci-
ety or fight for your unalienable rights to keep
and bear arms?"Kukla's (1977) more re-
strained text, backed by NRA, is also marked
by the use of simplistic hyperbole and ends on
a similar rhetorical note.
Both sides evoke emotional responses and
invoke the constitution in order to advance
their point of view. In this process, of course,
the cultural dimension on the problem of fire-
arms abuse is generally overlooked.
CONCLUSION
Southern violence is not merely a sociologi-
cal problem that can be reduced to an exercise
Volume 10No2November1982 225
in statistics or sophistry, but rather is a cultur-
ally determined type of behavior. The gun is an
important part of the Southern white culture
and world view. For white Southern males the
firearm is symbol of manhood and accession
to adult responsibilities that the notion of per-
sonal sovereignity carries with it. To many
Southern adults, the gun serves an additional
function as a shared symbol representing the
threatening nature of the social and physical
environment. In this manner, the gun links the
present with the myth of the "golden age" that
Southerners so revere. In short, gun owner-
ship and use in the South is part of a behavioral
complex which values direct solutions to prob-
lems, and a strong emphasis on individual in-
itiative and responsiblity.
To those ignorant of the cultural significance
of the firearm in Southern society, the problem
regulating Southern violence invites simplistic
solutions. Licensing, registration, control of
ammunition sales, interdiction, and other
suggested modes of federal firearms control
have met with disfavor in the South and else-
where. This is due to the fact that liberal/elites,
being stUbbornly enamoured of sociological
solutions and definitions of crime, have ig-
nored basic cultural differences that are cen-
tral to the issue of gun control. This inability to
perceive the reality of the situation is a conse-
quence of "educated incapacity." This cultur-
ally specific social-learning dysfunction is
marked by idealogical bias (sectional bias),
simplistic and/or wishful "Utopian" thinking,
and being immersed in a political and cultural
milieu in which one communicates only with
similar individuals (Kahn 1975). The educated
incapacity of the liberal/elite class has led this
cultural group into a situation of profound con-
flict with the normative system of bedrock
America.
At the core of the gun control issue is an ethi-
cal dilemma. Is it ethically defensible for the
dominant elite to force their cultural norms on
an unwilling cultural group? To do so would
seem to invite manifold abuses of human
rights and open the Pandora's box of to-
talitarianism. "Cultural relativism" is used as a
rationale for black and minority groups which
are politically aligned with the liberal/elite. By
virtue of his common language and material
CUlture, the Southern white is expected to
forego cultural relativism and to partake of the
Stromberg, Ann H. and Shirley Harkness,
1978. Working Women. Palo Alto, California:
Mayfield.
U.S. Department of Health, Education and
Welfare, Office of Education, Bureau of Occu-
pational and Adult Education. 1976. Women in
Non-Traditional Occupations: A Bibliography
Washington, D.C.
Willett, Roslyn S., 1971. "Working in aMan's
World: The Woman Executive". In ViVian Gor-
nick and Barbara K. Moran, Women in SeXist
Society. New York: New American Library.
Wood, Marion M., 1978. "Women in Man-
agement: How is it Working Out?" Women in
Management EnglewoodCliffs, N.J.: Prentice-
Hall, pp. 149-156.
Volume 10No2 November1982 226
Bruce-Briggs, B., 1976. The Great Ameri-
can Gun War, Public Interest 44, Fall.
Defensor H.C., 1970. Gun Registration Now
Confisr;ation Later? New York, Vantage.
Dye, Thomas R., L.H. Ziegler 1970. The
Irony of Democracy, Belmont, California
Wadsworth.
Eaton, Joseph 1952. Controlled Accultura-
tion: A Survival Technique of the Hutterites,
Amer. ·Sociological Rev., 17 331340.
Fanon, Franz 1963. The Wretched of the
Earth New York Grove.
. Franklin, John H., 1956. The Militant South,
New York, Harvard U Press.
Hackney, Shelton 1969. Southern Violence.
H. Graham & T. Gurr, Violence in America
New York, Bantam.
HerskoVitz, Melville J., 1938. Acculturation,
Gloljster, J.J. Augustin.
Kahn, Herman, 1973. Washington Post,
July 1.
Kahn, Herman 1975. On StUdying the Fu-
ture., F. Greenstein &W. Polsby, Strategies of
Inquiry: Political Science Research Reading
Mass, Addison Wesley.
Kennett, Lee, J. Anderson 1975. The Gunin
America, Westport, GreenWOOd.
KUkla, Robert J., 1977. Gun Control, Harris-
burg, Stackpole.
Lawton, Edward P., 1963. The South and
the Nation, Ft. Meyers Beach Island Press,
Wall Street Journal, 1972, June 7.
FREE INQUIRYin CREATIVESOCIOWGY
American Dream and accept the normative
values of the liberal/elites.
White Southernism having had social
change forced upon them by the federal gov-
ernment since 1863, will simply not comply
with radical gun control laws. The role of the
firearm is so secure in the South that attempts
to regulate guns would invite either totalitarian
moans of enforcement, or non-enforcement.
In both cases, the social and finanicalcostS of
such an action would be prohibitive.
Southern violence is a cultural expreSSion
whose regulation might be best leftto'il'ldi-
vidual states. State and municipalities,' being
smaller governmental entitites, have~ater
responsive capabilities than doesthe.ive
federal machine. States and commurli~;·gov­
ernment more accurately reflect the cUltural
ideologies of ethnic constituencies th~ntto$s
the federal government. Therefore, thernost
logical way in which to regulate the misuse 'of
cultural relativism, may be to deleg~tegun
control responsibilities to the individuali~es~
In this manner an individual state WQt.IlEtbe
able to focus its efforts on legislatioh:f.t'ti is
germane to its socio-cultural milieu and·~tis
viewed' as appropriate by its citizenry. "thus,
gun control laws which are constructive and
culturally consistent within one region of the
country, would not be applied to radicaOy dif-
ferent culture areas. The appropriate role for
federal legislation and enrorct'ment efforts, in
such an instance, would be to criminalizeinter-
state violations, such as taking firearms iOto a
state which has astrict gun control regulations.
Policy makers in the field of criminal justice
have traditionally employed socia-economic
information, crime and victimization statistics,
and other so-called hard data in theirpolicyde-
liberations. In so doing, they have neglected
c;ultural inputs in favour of sociological data or
legal procedents. Policy makers need to at-
tempt assessment of their own ethnocentri-
cili!!11 in order to realize the idealof "cultural rei-
ativism." Evidence suggests that members of
the liberal/elite policymaking class have their
own distinct cultural biases. Those biases and
domian assumptions are in conflict with those
of mass society, and Southern culture.
REFERENCES
Bakel, Carl 1966. The Right to Bear Arms,
New York, McGraw Hill.
Rl~MER From p 158


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Olshan, Marc A.

Development as the restoration of meaning

Becnel, Harry

Levy, Louis

Marriage encounter program effect on marital relations

Veevers, Jean E.

On being uppity: Gender differences in knowing oneâ€™s place

Combs, Willa Ryan

Allen, Donald E

FREE INQUIRY in CREATIVE SOCIOLOGY Volume 11 No 2, November 1983 163
TEACHING SELF HELP IN LIMITED RESOURCE NEIGHBORHOODS
Willa Ryan Combs, Langston University, Oklahoma
Donald E Allen, Oklahoma State University
INTRODUCTION
A field study was designed to test the pro-
position that low income neighborhoods can
provide resident homemakers who are
trainable as teachers, to improve home
management skills of other homemakers. The
testing and development of such local
resources was necessary to extend the in-
fluence of and effect of the limited resources
of the home economics extension specialist.
The teacher multiplier concept requires that
the extension specialist train ten or more
homemakers in a low income neighborhood,
and that each trainee then teach ten or more
other homemakers in the same neighborhood.
To provide a reasonable prospect of success,
it was assumed that the method of teaching
should consist of face-to-face explanation and
direct demonstration of helpful homemaker
techniques which could be supported on a
very limited budget.
LIMITED RESOURCE FAMILIES
Families with very limited resources face
many of the same problems that· face other
families. In addition, they frequently live in
neighborhoods where safety, sanitation, and
housing are below standard. Both the com-
munity services and educational and recrea-
tional facilities are inadequate. Many families
live in dilapidated houses, lack decent
clothing, depend on folk health remedies, and
have limited transportation to jobs and com-
munity services. However, many of the people
with limited resources do have positive values,
ideals, and goals. They really want improve-
ment, and their behavior is not so much due
to their culture as to the grinding elements of
deprivation and stress placed on them by their
environment.
Extension home economists particularly face
the very challenging problems of reducing the
gap that exists between the haves and the
have-nots in the delivery of social goods and
services. To do this, it is important to provide
educational programs for the disadvantaged
which will raise their standard of living. Thus
the kinds of educational programs which will
be most effective in this respect concern both
the home economists and those who will
benefit from the program. It is also necessary
to find sufficient leadership personnel among
the disadvantaged families who can under-
stand their language and their problems.
SELF-HELP DEMONSTRATION PROJECT
A demonstration project was developed to
determine the extent to which homemakers
with limited resources, who were taught skills
in home management, could teach the same
skills to others among their peer group. Two
neighborhoods were located where there was
a high incidence of families with very limited
resources. One urban area included 25 city
blocks, and the second was an urban fringe
area which included about 35 square miles.
The neighborhoods were racially mixed, with
some unpaved streets. Criteria for choosing
communities for the study were: 1) approval
could be obtained from cOmmunity leaders;
2) facilities could be provided; 3) meeting
rooms were convenient for the interested
homemakers; 4) people were receptive to the
idea of a leadership development program;
5) communities were typical of disadvantag-
ed neighborhoods in Oklahoma City.
GUIDELINES FOR TEACHING SELF-HELP
Program Planning:
1 Inform other agencies which have interest
in working with the same or similar audience.
2 Find those to whom people go for specific
kinds of help.
3 Avoid criticiZing other organizations and
agencies which are also trying to help families.
4 Enlist the help of public information
personnel.
5 Define the target area.
6 Learn the competencies of people for
whom leadership will be provided in the target
area.
7 Involve homemakers in the early stages of
planning.
8 Start where the people are. Build on in-
terests which the people themselves express.
9 Let them decide what they want to learn.
10 Use knOWledge and skills which home-
makers already have.
FREE INQUIRY in CREATIVE SOCIOLOGY
11 Time and place are important. Whole
families can usually attend if meetings are
held in the evening.
12 Arrange fot care of children during
meetings.
13 Begin with small groups, not to exceed 15
to 20 persons. Divide larger groups.
14 Develop one idea at a time.
15 Teach on the homemaker's knowledge and
skill level.
Teaching Materials:
16 Help supply resources, or whatever is
needed.
17 Use tangible teaching materials when
possible.
18 Plan for short-term projects which can be
completed in a few lessons.
19 Plan for a practice time for the homemaker.
20 Be alert for readiness to learn - the
teachable moment
21 The language must be mutually intelligible
to teacher and learner.
22 Be sincere and show that you are con-
cerned.
23 Be generous with praise. Give credit were
it belongs; provide rewards.
Evolving Leadership
24 Let homemakers share sorrie personal
experiences.
25 New leaders who teach groups in their own
neighborhoods feel more secure if they work
as a team.
26 Recruit those with potential that can be
recognized.
27 Homemakers with similar problems may
communicate better.
Evaluating Results
28 A change in one homemaker may influence
change in another individual or group.
29 Evaluation must be continuous and related
to the objectives.
THE DEMONSTRATION PROJECT
Ten persons, representing agencies con-
cerned with assisting low-income families
were interviewed to gain their approval and
assistance to work in the two communities.
These agencies included: 1) county extension
personnel; 2)Director of the Community Ac-
tion Program; 3) Project Director, Urban
League Housing Counseling & Information
Center; 4) Director, Community Counsel;
5) Coordinator for senior Workers Action
Volume 11 No 2, November 1983 164
Program.
The initial plan was to involve at least ten
leaders in a selected community. The group
was not to be limited as to who could attend
the lessons. The group was taught a series
of six lessons over a period of eight weeks.
Further reinforcement and training was to be
provided beyond the first few group sessions
for homemakers who showed potential for
leadership. The major objective was to teach
homemakers how to use their personal
resources to stretch their income. The
homemakers who were taught, and who
emerged as leaders were asked to teach
others in their neighborhood. The idea
seemed to give the leader group prestige.
Those taught by the homemakers included
family members, relatives and neighbors.
LEADER TRAINING SESSIONS
Although 20 were expected, more than 40
persons appeared for the first session, and 24
remained in the project to become neighbor.
hood leaders. Ten leaders completed all
phases of the program as originally designed.
A professional home economist trained the
homemaker leaders. Following the first two
lessons, the homemakers were enthusiastic,
and encouraged others to attend. They train-
ed others to do the skills which they had been
taught. During the early sessions there were
6 white leaders and 18 black leaders. After the
first leaders were trained, the number had in-
creased and the group was about half white
and half black, since a group of white home-
makers who had been traveling to another
town for training decided to join this group.
A series of six lessons were developed on
the basis of needs identified by agency direc-
tors, and the needs expressed by home-
makers who attended the first session:
1) Stretching your dollars;
2) Comparative shopping for food;
3) Cutting cost of home decorations;
4) Creative home accessories;
5) Making low cost table & bed covers;
6) Making yeast rolls.
Viewing class projects and touring homes
was part of the last lesson. Leaders were
identified by criteria established prior to the
class meetings. Three leader homemakers
were in the urban community and seven were
in the urban fringe community.
FREE INQUIRY in CREATIVE SOCIOLOGY
TABLE 1: HOMEMAKER CONFIDENCE IN
TEACHING SKILLS BEFORE. AFTER
TRAINING SESSIONS
Confidence Level Before After
Can do well and can teach
someone else 10 97
Can do it, but dont feel
I could teach another 50 192
Can't do it; would like to learn 195 60
Can't do it; don't care to learn 60 36
TABLE 2: SCOPE OF TRAINING PROJECT
Projects People
Leader Type Project Done Taught
1 Learn to sew; make
table • bed covers 3 12
2 Wall hangings, place
mats, rolls 4 12
3 Place mats, leather
work, serve snacks 4 15
4 Table cover, cardboard
table, leather work 3 10
5 Ceramics, place mats
centerpiece 11 325
6 Place mats, pillows,
key case, leather work 7 30
7 Table cover, cerdboard
table, place mat, pillow
house plans 8 20
8 Bed cover, lap robe
place mat, cardboard
table, table cover 8 325
9 Bulletin board, card-
board table, wall hanging
pillows, ceramics leather
work, curtains 13 325
10 Curtains, pillows, place
mats, bed cover, lap
robe 10 300
In Phase 1, the new homemaker leaders
were encouraged to teach their newly ac-
quired skills to their peers. They spread the
word about the home management class
meetings, and encouraged others to come to
the centers for instruction in new ways of
doing things. A total of eight homemakers in
the urban community and sixteen home-
makers in the urban fringe community took
part in some of the six lessons.
The new leaders were encouraged by receiv-
ing help in preparation of teaching materials,
and with compliments when a job was well
done, and when they succeeded in teaching
a new skill to a class member or to someone
outside the class.
Volume 11 No 2, November 1983 165
Homemaker leaders dl8play completed pro)ecta
to D11'8Ctor John HoppIa(~, SpecIal Unit
on Aging, Oklahoma Departament of InstItutIona,
Social and Rehabilitative Services.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Some results following the sessions taught
by the Home Economist include the following:
1. Homemakers in the neighborhoods made
14 requests to the county director and the ex-
tension home economist, and 9 calls for
assistance to the human resource develop-
ment specialist.
2. A bus tour and a walking tour were con-
ducted for 81 participants to see im-
provements made in the homes of the families
who completed the program. Homemake~
were gratified and happy to share the prob-
lems and pleasures encountered while mak-
ing the improvements. These were discuss-
ed during the tours. The homemakers par-
ticipated in a Community Action bazaar where
they demonstrated home management skills
and explained the homemaker leader program
to others.
3. Requests have been received from other
agencies for assistance in teacing home-.
makers in other areas of the city and county.
Requests from the office of the Governor were
also received to help in working in other areas
of the City, County, and State.
Lazerwitz B 1981 JeWish-Christian marriages &
conversions. Jewish Social Studies 43 150-161
FREE INQUIRY in CREATIVE SOCIOLOGY
TABLE 3: PARTICIPATION TOTALS
(Total N # 574)
category N
Leade~ 10
Persons at' bazaar* 200
Persons in study groups 388
Family members 41
Neighbo~ 141
*A bazaar where some skills were taught by
homemaker leaders.
EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION
We have affirmed the proposition that
homemaker leaders can be trained to teach
home management skills to other home-
makers in their own neighborhoods. There
were few dropouts during the program. The
time used with direct contact was about six
months. The cost for demonstration materials
was about $250. Cost for time, travel and pro-
fessional services are not included.
The homemaker leaders accomplished the
following:
• They became more successful homemakers
• They improved self confidence
• They became aware that they could teach
• They gained personal satisfaction in
associating with others and by their
accomplishments
• They enhanced neighborhood cooperation.
A similar program using the methods
described here could be tested in other sub-
ject matter areas. The techniques and
materials used during the study need further
testing in other communities. We have also
demonstrated that the Influence of the
home economics specialist can be Increas-
ed by a factor exceeding one hundred In
the teacher-multiplier project.
ENDO Continued from Page 162
Volume 11 No 2, November 1983 166
Mayer Egon 1980 1980 Processes &outcomes in
marriages between Jews & non-Jews. Behavioral
SCientist 23487-518
Merton R K 1941 Intermarriage & social structure:
fact & theory. Psychiatry 4 361-374
Monahan J P 1971 Interractial marriage &divorce
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Murgia Edward 1982 Chicano Intermarriage:
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lVIurgia E, W P Frisbie 19n Trends in Mexican
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tive. Social SCi Qtrly 58 374-389
National Center for Health Statistics 1979 First
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DC HEW
Omatsu G 1972 Nihonmachi beat. Hokubei
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Parkman Margaret A, Jack Sawyer 1967 Dimen-
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SChmitt R C 1965 Demographic correlates of in-
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US census Bureau: Census of Population USGPO
1910 Census Vol II Rpts by States; Alabama
Montana
1920 Census Vol III
1930 Census Vol III Rpts by States Pt 1, Alabama
Missouri
1940 Census Vol II Pt 1 US Summary &Alabama,
District of Columbia
1950 Census Vol II Pt 6 Colorado
1960 Census Vol II Pt 7 Colorado
1970 census General Population Character: Kan-
sas, Virginia, Maryland, District of Columbia, Detail-
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Colorado.
1978 Perspectives on Husbands & Wives.
1980 census Race of Population by States; Char
of Population Pt 7 Colorado
Wilkinson Doris Y 1978 Black MalelWhite Female.
Cambridge SChenkman


Teaching self help in limited resource neighborhoods

Jendrek, Margaret Platt

Judge and jury options: Factors involved in counsel decisions

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