First Contact
Help finding literature for sociology thesis on education. looking specifically at how resources differences between schools, barriers to integration, and how schools handle diversity and its value.
Also included attachment that included following info:
Statement of your research question I am studying disparities in K-12 education because I want to know how resource allocation between racially/SES disparate schools stands a barrier to integration so that I can explain how segregation continues to be a sticky issue among MNPS schools. How do resources differences and expectations around diversity collide to perpetuate segregation between proximal schools?
Bibliographical Sources
Berrey, Ellen. 2015. The Enigma of Diversity. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Bischoff, Kendra. 2008. “School District Fragmentation and Racial Residential Segregation.”
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. 2003. Racism Without Racists. London: Rowan and Littlefield.
Fong, Kelley. 2019. “Subject to Evaluation: How Parents Assess and Mobilize Information from Social Networks in School Choice.”
Hailey, Chantal. 2022. “Racial Preferences for Schools: Evidence from an Experiment with White, Black, Latinx, and Asian Parents and Students.” Murray, Brittany et al. 2020. “ ‘We’re in This Together’: Bridging and Bonding Social Capital in Elementary School PTOs.”
Roda, Allison and Amy S. Wells. 2013. “School Choice Policies and Racial Segregation: Where White Parents’ Good Intentions, Anxiety, and Privilege Collide.”
Turner, Erica. 2020. Suddenly Diverse. Chicago: The Universtiy of Chicago Press.
Days Between
Knowing what your topic is before we meet allows me to send you some suggestions right away
Having a list of sources to give me helps me find patterns. Most of the databases have some sort of structure.
Even something from a quick Google Scholar search helps
e.g.
I’ll have more information on Wed, but resources I’m going to be taking a look at are
Sociological Abstracts http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/eres?id=1117
Education Full Text http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/eres?id=568
ERIC http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/eres?id=631
Web of Science (does a lot of Social Science stuff) http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/eres?id=1240
You attached your work and bibliography, very helpful, thank you. Wondering if the following article I found (attached) is in the right vein
FINGER, LESLIE K., and DAVID M. HOUSTON. 2023. “Public Goods, Private Goods, and School Preferences.” Harvard Educational Review 93(1):53–82. doi: 10.17763/1943-5045-93.1.53.
Where we ended after the appointment/conversation
Specific articles we thought were good
Search strings (permalinks so they last a while and don't break)
First Contact
I am researching the development of post-WWII American suburbs like Levittown (NY & PA) and how these communities served as visual representations of the American Dream. Professor Isaac recommended that I reach out to you as I am looking for help finding primary sources for my research. I am interested in looking into advertisements, interviews with developers, and visual media.
few sources off the bat to note
Levittown’s Schools and the Future of the Community; a Survey. New York: Published by New York University Press for the School of Education, 1954.
This book has actually been digitized by HathiTrust; I recommend using that rather than requesting the print book from the Annex, but you are certainly free to look at the print.
https://catalog.library.vanderbilt.edu/permalink/01VAN_INST/6ll2l/alma991029901779703276
Van Voorhis, Westbrook. A City Is Born -- Levittown, PA / [Time, Inc.]. New York, NY: Home Box Office, 1953. This is an Online film: https://catalog.library.vanderbilt.edu/permalink/01VAN_INST/6ll2l/alma991043679217303276
Historical Newspaper articles and ads
Searching these papers
New York Times (1923-)
New York Herald Tribune (1926-1962)
Philadelphia Tribune (1912-)
Pittsburgh Courier (1955-1966)
Limiting to dates 1948-1959
Limiting to Display Ad, Classified Ad, Photo.
Sometimes my ideas don't quite work
I didn’t see ads, which might make sense sense these are national magazines. But there are articles, including William Levitt on the cover of Time Magazine.
It didn't end here-two months later...
I wanted to reach back out for some more help with my thesis.
I am interested in exploring Thomas Jefferson's ideas on land ownership, individual property rights, and the Yeoman farmer ideal. Would you have any advice as to where I might be able to find either writings or letters of Jefferson discussing these topics? Thank you so much!
I would recommend the Library Search, which searches books and articles at once. Link to Library Search tool: https://catalog.library.vanderbilt.edu/discovery/search?vid=01VAN_INST:vanui&lang=en
We do have many electronic copies of the writings of Thomas Jefferson, link to search
A similar search on property rights
One method you may want to consider is looking at secondary sources (books, articles written by scholars) and see if they cite a particular writing of Jefferson’s.
Other things: Jefferson’s papers https://catalog.library.vanderbilt.edu/discovery/search?query=sub,exact,Jefferson,%20Thomas,%201743-1826%20--%20Archives,AND&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01VAN_INST:vanui&mode=advanced&offset=0
I am looking for a question that would measure how likely someone is to have a negative view of authority. Specifically, I am looking at medical authority, but I am also interested in measuring general anti-authoritarian attitudes. I could design/adapt my question, but I know using those already shown to have validity/reliability is generally better.
Strategy
I took a look at Medical authority, how might you ask question, how have others asked, or what did they use to measur
I found this article
Hawbaker, Amelia, Jacqueline Y. Paiz, Brandon L. Crawford, Ronna C. Turner, and Kristen N. Jozkowski. 2023. “Medicine and Abortion: Public Trust in Medical Authority and Americans’ Acceptance of Legal Abortion.” SSM. Qualitative Research in Health 4:100361-. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmqr.2023.100361.
I then went to see how they might have measured public trust in medical authority. I didn't get a good sense from the article the question(s) they asked. Link to article here: https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxy.library.vanderbilt.edu/science/article/pii/S2667321523001452#mmc1
But the article's references did point me to this:
Pescosolido, Bernice A., Steven A. Tuch, and Jack K. Martin. 2001. “The Profession of Medicine and the Public: Examining Americans’ Changing Confidence in Physician Authority from the Beginning of the ‘Health Care Crisis’ to the Era of Health Care Reform.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 42(1):1–16. doi: 10.2307/3090224.
Link to article for more information: https://catalog.library.vanderbilt.edu/permalink/01VAN_INST/11nigse/cdi_proquest_miscellaneous_70849257
Among other data sets, they use GSS to measure confidence in physicians and medicine
"s. First, while public confidence in physicians remains relatively high, we document a crystallization of attitudes reflecting greater negative and fewer positive sentiments. Second,while neither the structure of attitudes nor the role of sociodemographic characteristics in explaining attitude has significantly shifted over time, in 1998 health status and insurance status are correlated with negative attitudes. Third, using General Social Survey time trend data on the confidence in medicine compared to other professions (science and education), we find support for a general public response to social institutions, with confidence in medicine tracking closely with confidence in science in level, and education in pattern. We end with four possible explanations of ourfindings, including and a general discussion of the role of the public in the professional status of physicians and its implications for social change in the institution of medicine"
A more recent article
Zheng, Hui. 2015. “Losing Confidence in Medicine in an Era of Medical Expansion?” Social Science Research 52:701–15. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2014.10.009.
Abstract: Has the expansion of the medical field inspired more or less confidence in medicine among the American public? This study investigates how confidence in medicine has changed over the past three decades, whether this trend is uniform across social groups and which aspects of medicine are most affected. Data are from repeated cross-sectional U.S. General Social Surveys spanning the years 1973–2008, including the 2002 Doctors and Patients Module and the 1998 Pressing Issues in Health and Medical Care Module. Americans’ confidence in medicine has declined continuously over the past three decades, and the extent of this decline did not vary by gender, age group, cohort, or income level. Analysis of differences across socio-demographic groups suggests that confidence in medicine is related to trust in doctors’ ethics but different from obedience to doctors’ authority. Therefore, the downward trend in confidence in medicine may suggest a decline in public trust in doctors’ethics, but not necessarily a decline in obedience to doctors’ authority.
3.2. Measures
3.2.1. Confidence in medicine
Since 1973, the GSS has collected data about public confidence in medicine. Respondents were asked, ‘‘As far as the people
running [the institution of medicine] are concerned, would you say you have a great deal of confidence, only some confidence, or hardly any confidence at all in them?’’ In the pooled sample including all 25 waves, about 48% of respondents
reported having ‘‘a great deal of confidence;’’ 44% reported having ‘‘only some confidence;’’ and 8% reported having ‘‘hardly
any confidence’’ in medicine. The proportion of the population who reported ‘‘a great deal of confidence’’ in medicine has
decreased from 54% in 1973 and 62% in 1974 to 39% in 2008.
This link is a link to variables in ICPSR paired with the question asked (e.g. I trust my doctor's judgments about my medical care. I prefer to rely on my doctor's knowledge and not try to find out about my condition on my own.)
https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/studies/35536/variables?q=doctor
Others:
M7.CONFIDENCE IN MEDICINE
(Would you say you have a great deal of confidence, only some confidence, or hardly any confidence at all in the people running) medicine?
Taken from: Survey of Consumer Attitudes and Behavior, June 2004.
CONFIDENCE IN MEDICINE
As far as the people running these institutions are concerned, would you say you have a great deal of confidence, only some confidence, or hardly any confidence at all in them? Medicine
Taken from: General Social Survey, 2012 Merged Data, Including a Cultural Module [United States].
I found these by using the variable search in ICPSR. https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/pages/ICPSR/ssvd/
Things like doctor, confidence, trust, medicine
I would then limit to surveys/series for the United States, like GSS.
I also did a big control F (find) in the GSS Code book to see what was there. I'm attaching it. It's huge, so you definitely want to use your computers find feature
All this to say, when I look at articles that talk about people's attitudes toward medical authority, they seem to mention GSS and the questions about confidence.
These are fantastic! I am meeting with my advisor this afternoon, but I think these will measure what I am looking to measure. Thank you!
