Hazing in Fraternities and Sororities
Hazing in U.S. university fraternal groups is a pernicious and sometimes even deadly practice that dates back to the founding of the first collegiate fraternities in the nineteenth century. In spite of growing antihazing sentiment, laws against hazing in 44 states and campus crackdowns, hazing persists as a rite of passage and tradition in colleges and universities across the United States and around the world. This article examines the roots and manifestations of hazing in university-based fraternities and sororities in the United States. It includes a discussion of university policies and practices to curtail it by national fraternal organizations and antihazing activists. Best practices include the encouragement of bystander intervention to halt hazing as it happens, along with the mandating of alcohol-free (dry) fraternity houses and an end to the pledge period.
Predictors of hazing motivation in a representative sample of the United States
Abstract Hazing – the abuse of new or prospective group members – remains a puzzling and persistent cross-cultural phenomenon. Aspects of hazing behavior may reflect the operation of psychological adaptations designed to lessen certain forms of ancestral coalitional exploitation. Using a representative sample of the United States, this paper replicates and extends prior findings on predictors of hazing motivation in a university population. Results suggest that probable vectors of ancestral exploitation by newcomers (e.g., freely available group benefits) predict desired hazing severity, and that these effects generalize to a larger and more diverse sample. Findings are discussed in light of hazing's evident complexity and cultural patterning.
Initial Teacher Training: the French view
ABSTRACT This paper, against the background of trends in the development of initial teacher training in Europe as a whole, identifies and explains some of the recent, radical reforms which were introduced in France by a socialist government. These include the need to raise the status and the competence of the teaching profession; the creation of new teacher‐training institutions of university status (Instituts universitaires de formation des maitres); the introduction of common entry qualifications at degree level for both primary and secondary levels; the harmonisation and the extension to 2 years of the post‐degree teacher‐training course and the increase in emphasis placed on professional training, both theoretical and practical. These reforms provoked a storm of protest and an examination of the reasons for this reveals a multiplicity of crucial questions which have far‐reaching implications.