Practicing the Common Good: The Pedagogical Implications of Catholic Social Teaching

A persistent question for pedagogy is that of whether and how the content of a course ought to shape the teaching method. Both the understanding of practical reason and the substantive concepts of modern Catholic social teaching support a classroom dynamic of a relatively egalitarian dialectic. The author grounds the case for this pedagogy in the understanding of practical reason as found in Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, and shows that such an understanding is continued in modern Catholic social teaching. He then shows how the social teaching's substantive move to a more egalitarian social theory reinforces the egalitarian mode of reasoning. The author and others are attempting to practice this pedagogy in the context of the University of Notre Dame's new Program in Catholic Social Tradition. The investigation as a whole raises the question of whether colleges and universities that have actively maintained religious affiliations have a decided advantage in sustaining an academic culture where faculty and students can practice practical reason.     

Will a Category Cue Affect You? Category Cues,Positive Stereotypes and Reviewer Recall for Applicants

Social Psychology of Education - Most empirical research on stereotypes and recall has examined how a single social category of a target can influence a perceiver's recall. Will subtle cues of...     

Social Justice: Outcome and Procedure

A review of recent research demonstrates that people are more willing to accept decisions when they feel that those decisions are made through decision‐making procedures they view as fair. Studies of procedural justice judgements further suggest that people evaluate fairness primarily through criteria that can be provided to all the parties to a conflict: whether there are opportunities to participate; whether the authorities are neutral; the degree to which people trust the motives of the authorities; and whether people are treated with dignity and respect during the process. These findings are optimistic and suggest that authorities have considerable ability to bridge differences and interests and values through the use of fair decision‐making procedures. The limits to the effectiveness of such procedural approaches are also outlined.     

Healthcare provider cultural competency: development and initial validation of a patient report measure.

OBJECTIVE: Health researchers have proposed that provider cultural competency may contribute to health disparities. Yet, this belief continues to lack empirical support, and this is due in part to measurement issues that have plagued the cultural competency construct. In the present research, we report on the development of a theoretically grounded, generally applicable, and patient report measure of provider cultural competency. DESIGN: Samples of predominantly African American patients (N=310) were recruited from three urban medical clinics to complete a survey about their relationship with their physician. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We examined the factor structure, validity and other psychometric characteristics of a newly proposed patient report measure of provider cultural competency. RESULTS: Psychometric analyses supported a tripartite model of cultural competency that was comprised of patient judgments of their physician's cultural knowledge, awareness, and skill. In addition, this result was replicated across multiple clinical contexts, while also demonstrating convergent and incremental validity when correlated with measures of trust, satisfaction and discrimination. CONCLUSION: This newly proposed measure addresses prior limitations in cultural competency measurement and may enhance future research by providing a standardized tool for use in multiple clinical and cultural contexts.