Introduction to the Third Edition of Family Policy Matters for Adopters of the Second Edition
By Karen Bogenschneider
For instructors who adopted the second edition, I summarize here what is new about the third edition in content, format, and organization. I constructed a chart that provides a quick reference regarding how the chapters in the third edition map onto the chapters in the second edition.
What Is New in Content
In response to the new world of family policy, this third edition is updated with almost 500 new references, several examples of international family policies from developed and developing countries, over 60 new tables and figures, 45 new federal family policies, and 14 new reports calling for a family focus in policymaking. This edition will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students given its new theoretical frameworks, the latest definitions, up-to-date research reviews, and pragmatic processes and procedures for turning good ideas into good policy. For example, this edition includes a new family impact toolkit that will be useful to those who work directly with families or administer family programs (e.g., clinical psychologists, Cooperative Extension Service county educators and state specialists, family life educators, marriage and family therapists, nonprofit or for-profit program administrators, service providers, social workers).
This book draws upon hundreds of classic and cutting-edge articles and books that are organized into five brand-new chapters, briefly described here. Chapter 5 lays out an updated rationale, basically the case for why we need family policy at all, illustrated with examples of the stature of families around the globe and what policies nations have put in place to strengthen and support families. Chapter 8 views several hot-button policy issues through the family impact lens and, in so doing, demonstrates how family considerations can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of policy decisions. Chapter 11 is another new chapter requested by instructors—how the policy process works and what policymakers are really like. Much of this chapter comes straight from the horse’s mouth, drawing upon policymakers’ own words about their experiences enacting laws in a democratic political system. The new co-authored Chapter 12 includes a theoretical and empirical rationale for viewing issues through the lens of family impacts, including a new family impact tool kit complete with the two key definitions, three key procedures, six key tools, all illustrated with examples from the real world. Chapter 16 summarizes what we have learned and how we can move from analysis to action using two approaches that parallel the definitions of family policy and the family impact lens—building “policy development” and “policy watchdog” capacities.
What Is New in Format
For the first time, each chapter includes discussion questions, a glossary, and a summary. What’s more, the updated instructor’s materials are written with an eye to engaging today’s digital generation. The instructor’s manual begins with an indepth discussion for family policy instructors on philosophy, strategies, course content, and teaching techniques.
The online manual includes a lesson plan for each chapter accompanied by an editable PowerPoint of key concepts. The lesson plans also include discussion questions, instructor insights, activities, key concepts, video links, and web resources. All this is available online at no charge to instructors who adopt the text.
What Is New in Organization
In the chart below, I have used the table of contents from the second edition of Family Policy Matters and indicated where the content is found in the third edition. As background, family policy instructors asked me to specifically address the reluctant students of family policy, which was found in one of the prefaces to the second edition. In the third edition, I expanded this preface into a full chapter that addresses more comprehensively how youth have changed the world, with advice from policy luminaries about why political activism is important, whether youth should get involved, when, and what it will take. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 in the second edition have been incorporated in a new Chapter 8 in the third edition, which gives a more broad-ranging view of how several hot-button policy issues would benefit from the family impact lens. Chapter 12 in the second edition (now Chapter 14) has undergone a substantial facelift into an updated, crisper review of family policy careers. Chapter 14 in the second edition on the Family Impact Seminars has been rewritten in a new Chapter 13, which discusses the seminars from a national perspective with the latest theories, core components, and impacts on the policy and academic communities. Chapter 15 was dropped from the new edition and Chapter 16 has been updated with the latest thinking of political pundits on what it will take to move family policy from analysis to action.
SECOND EDITION |
THIRD EDITION |
Foreword |
Foreword |
Foreword |
|
Preface: The Floating Opera of Family Policy |
Preface |
Preface to Reluctant Students of Family Policy |
Chapter 1: From Reluctant Student to Passionate Proponent: How Youth have Used Family Policy to Change the World |
Chapter 1: Do We Need a Family Perspective in Policymaking? |
Chapter 2: Why We Should Focus on Families in Policymaking, and Why We Don’t |
Chapter 2: Is Policymaking Focused More on Families or Individuals? Are Professionals Adequately Trained in Family Science, Theory, and Methodology? |
Chapter 4: Policies and Practices Biased Toward Individual Rights over Family Responsibilities |
Chapter 3: What Is Family Policy? What Is a Family Perspective in Policymaking? |
Chapter 3: Defining Family Policy: An Identity of Its Own |
Chapter 4: Do Families Matter and What Is Their Value in Policymaking? |
Chapter 5: How Families Support Society and How Societies Support Families: A Global View |
Chapter 5: Are Family Issues a Legitimate Focus of Policymaking? |
Chapter 7: Families as a Legitimate Focus of Public Policy: Yesterday and Today |
Chapter 6: Do We Know What Good Parenting Is? Can Public Policy Promote It? |
Chapter 8: How Current Policy Issues Can Benefit from the Family Impact Lens |
Chapter 7: Can a Family-Focused Approach Benefit Health Care? |
Chapter 8: How Current Policy Issues Can Benefit from the Family Impact Lens |
Chapter 8: What Current Policies and Proposals Are Changing the Political Landscape for Families? |
Chapter 8: How Current Policy Issues Can Benefit from the Family Impact Lens |
Chapter 9: How Can We Bridge the Controversy and Move Family Policies Forward? The Theory of Paradox |
Chapter 9: Bridging Controversy and Building Consensus: The Theory of Paradox |
Chapter 10: What Can We Learn from the Roots of American Social Policy About Building Enduring Family Policies in the 21st Century? |
Chapter 10: Looking Back to Move Forward: Lessons from the History of Family Policy |
Chapter 11: What Can We Learn from the Past About Methods for Moving Family Policy Forward in the Future? |
Chapter 10: Looking Back to Move Forward: Lessons from the History of Family Policy |
Chapter 12: What Roles Can Family Professionals Play to Build Family Policy? |
Chapter 14: Deciding What You Can Do: Careers in Family Policy |
Chapter 13: Which Approach Is Best for Getting Involved in Family Policy: Advocacy or Education? |
Chapter 15: Approaches for Getting Involved in Family Policy: Advocacy or Education |
Chapter 14: How Can We Connect Research With State Policymaking? Lessons from the Wisconsin Family Impact Seminars |
Chapter 13: Building Evidence-Based Family Policy: Insights from the Family Impact Seminars |
Chapter 15: How Can Professionals Team up with Communities to Influence Local Policymaking? Guidelines from Wisconsin Youth Futures |
Dropped from this edition |
Chapter 16: Is It Time to Take Family Policy Seriously? |
Chapter 16: Making Family Policy Matter: Moving from Analysis to Action |
My goal in the third edition is to provide the latest research and practice on family policy in an attempt to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of teaching family policy on college campuses. If you have feedback on how I could do this better, please do not hesitate to contact me at kpbogens@wisc.edu.