*SOCIALISSUES*

Many relevant social issues are still not properly addressed as some of the most crucial are the most misunderstood, rife with misguided notions of what is needed to achieve real change.  With more people talking about news of relevance it will raise the popularity of the issues at hand, which ls required to cause any sort of change. The more often you talk about these issues, the more you make yourself and your peers think about them, which leads to greater clarity on what the bigger picture is, which leads to clearer demands you can place on your political representatives.

But yes, talking alone isn't enough. Petition your local elected representatives, write to newspapers or write blogs, do stuff to spread awareness. It is all necessary if you want a real change to happen. The study of social issues is therefore essential particularly in education and therefore we invite teachers, researchers and other academics to join us in defining todays critical social issues and finding ways of addressing them.

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Below are seventeen Objective Learning Outcomes (OLOs) for publishing Social Issues.  While they are all important, the first five objectives are designated as critical learning objectives across the entire site.

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The plan is to engage readers in publishing Social Issues as a monthly with contributors so by next year we ought to ...

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1.  Be able to identify and employ various research designs and their appropriate application to the study of social life and societal interpretation of adaptation and fitting in as a public citizen.

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2.  Be able to demonstrate an understanding of any major theoretical perspectives employed in writing.

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3.  Be able to demonstrate an understanding of how social class affects individual life chances.

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4.  Be able to demonstrate an understanding of social structure and how it shapes and influences social interactions.

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5.  Be able to demonstrate an understanding of cross-cultural differences and an understanding of the importance of cultural context.

 

6.  Be familiar with the concepts of culture and its components (e.g., norms, values) and to identify and understand differences and commonalties within diverse cultures.

 

7.  Be familiar with various approaches to understanding social problems (e.g., problems as norm violations vs. problems as social conditions).

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8.  Be familiar with the power structure in America.

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9.  Be familiar with issues pertaining to race and ethnicity.

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10.  Be aware of gender stratification in the united States including issues such as wage discrimination, blocked opportunities, and "old-Boy" networks.

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11.  Be familiar with various issues regarding drug and alcohol abuse including whether the behavior should be criminalized., medicalized, or legalized.

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12.  Be familiar with various issues confronting the family and children in U.S. society.

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13.  Be familiar with issues regarding the educational system including the trend toward school vouchers and the decline of public education.

 

14.  Be aware of what the political economy is and how it impacts various social groups in the U.S. There is a special focus on women in industrial production.

 

15.  Be familiar with how industrialization impacts the ecosystem and how changes in the ecology, in turn, influence human cultures.

 

16.  Be familiar with issues confronting the cities. Be able to explain why people are homeless

 

17.  Be aware of various global social problems including exploitative relationships between rich and poor countries. 

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