Using African American Narratives to Analyze Social Policy

Abstract

This paper explores how African American literature can enrich the analysis of social policy in social work graduate courses. The historic debate between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois about black progress, and its reflection in subsequent works by Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Shelby Steele, and Cornel West, illustrate that the debate remains present in contemporary affirmative action and welfare reform policies. Using ethnic narratives can expand adult students' ability to analyze the purposes, consequences, and values underlying social policies and help social workers formulate, document and buttress new policy positions. Such abilities are especially critical for social policies in which race remains a critical influence.     

High school students’ implicit theories of what facilitates science learning

Background: Research has primarily concentrated on adults’ implicit theories about high quality science education for all students. Little work has considered the students’ perspective. This study investigated high school students’ implicit theories about what helped them learn science.

Purpose: This study addressed (1) What characterizes high school students’ implicit theories of what facilitates their learning of science?; (2) With respect to students’ self-classifications as African American or European American and female or male, do differences exist in the students’ implicit theories?

Sample, design and methods: Students in an urban high school located in south-eastern United States were surveyed in 2006 about their thoughts on what helps them learn science. To confirm or disconfirm any differences, data from two different samples were analyzed. Responses of 112 African American and 118 European American students and responses from 297 European American students comprised the data for sample one and two, respectively.

Results: Seven categories emerged from the deductive and inductive analyses of data: personal responsibility, learning arrangements, interest and knowledge, communication, student mastery, environmental responsiveness, and instructional strategies. Instructional strategies captured 82% and 80% of the data from sample one and two, respectively; consequently, this category was further subjected to Mann-Whitney statistical analysis at p < .05 to ascertain ethnic differences. Significant differences did not exist for ethnicity but differences between females and males in sample one and sample two emerged.

Conclusions: African American and European American students’ implicit theories about instructional strategies that facilitated their science learning did not significantly differ but female and male students’ implicit theories about instructional strategies that helped them learn science significantly differed. Because students attend and respond to what they think and perceive to be important, addressing students’ implicit theories may be one way to enhance science education reform.     

Barriers and assets to external funding for African American faculty

Abstract

External funding is required for promotion and tenure in many disciplines, especially at research intensive universities. The purpose of this study was to identify barriers and assets to external funding for African American faculty at a research intensive university. A phenomenological approach was used to capture the voice of 16 African American faculty through focus groups and interviews. Data were interpreted through the lens of Critical Race Theory. The three primary themes were: (1) barriers, (2) influence of race, and (3) assets. Barriers included lack of mentors and collaborators; teaching load and lack of protective time; scarcity of funding; and lack of administrative support and infrastructure for getting grants out. Faculty reported several assets for securing funding. These included both personal (e.g. good training, innovation) and external (e.g. collaborations with community members) assets. Recommendations for addressing barriers are provided.     

士族身份与柳宗元的无嗣之忧

中唐时期,士族家庭在婚姻上依然保持着门第观念,而在仕途上,则已经风光不再了。士族出身对士子的仕宦生涯所发生的影响渐小,他们能够守住的是“婚”的底线和优美的家学家风。无嗣之忧与柳宗元的士族出身有直接的关系,这关涉如何传宗接代以继承家学门风。对于柳宗元本人来说,建功立业已经遥不可及,而以著述传世尚可。这就需要有传人,所以他在与年轻人的交流中传播自己的文学观念。家族教育的兴盛、文学教育的看重本就是河东柳氏的传统。没有子嗣意味着家学难以为继的局面。对柳宗元的文学活动做一番考察,就会发现,这是他文学创作最为活跃的一个时期。柳宗元对自己身后事的处理中同样存在无嗣之忧的影响。     

The Racial Politics of Imitation in the Nineteenth Century

This essay examines the ways in which imitation, as a concept and as a practice, was caught up in the nineteenth century's racial politics. Theoretically, it argues that the interpretation of mimêsis labels the imitator and either sustains or reconstitutes power relations within the context of mimetic performance. Historically, the essay contends that during the nineteenth century, and especially after the Civil War, black imitation threatened the dominant systems of white power. European Americans interpreted black mimêsis as a primitive instinct, the sign of an inferior "other." Conversely, African Americans used imitation to exercise their liberty and pursue civil rights. Frederick Douglass viewed imitation as a progressive force in public life, and his conceptualization represents an alternative to the reductive construct that existed at the beginning of the twentieth century and continues today.     

Diversifying Kinesiology: Untapped Potential of Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Increasing the involvement of African Americans in the field of kinesiology has been an ever present issue. While many colleges and universities are making attempts to diversify their undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty, many are finding this a difficult task due to the lack of minority undergraduate kinesiology majors pursuing advanced degrees. There is a body of evidence that suggests that kinesiology programs should find ways to recruit African American students to undergraduate and graduate programs as a basis for diversifying the field. The three related problems discussed in this article are: (a) how to attract quality African American physical education teacher education students to the field of kinesiology; (b) how to identify African American students with the potential to thrive in graduate level coursework; and (c) how to recruit exceptional African American students to participate in professional organizations, such as the National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education (NAKHE). Ultimately, I provide suggestions for recruiting African Americans to the field of kinesiology and ideas for involving them professionally in NAKHE.     

Stepping out of the norm: an examination of praxis for a culturally‐relevant pedagogy for African‐American children

This paper examines two Anglo teachers' understanding of their praxis as they attempted to present a culturally‐relevant physical education programme to a class of African‐American 6^th‐grade students. In this case, the content was ‘stepping’, a branch of the African‐American vernacular dance tree. Five specific themes emerged: teacher apprehension; concerns about teacher legitimacy; resolution of apprehension and concerns; the unique nature of the content; and continual ethical uneasiness. The teachers expanded their understanding of praxis beyond thinking, acting, and reflecting to consider the political and social aspects that impact curriculum, pedagogy, and students.     

The Homeschooling of Scout Finch

Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most widely taught texts in language arts classrooms through the English-speaking world and is greatly valued by many readers today for its depiction of youth grappling with racism in the American South of the Depression Era. However, the novel’s subtle and sustained critique of public education has remained largely unrecognised. This essay identifies in the novel an underlying nostalgia for the past homeschooling of Southern white aristocracy as well as disdain for modern public institutions and for the democratic values that those institutions seek to instil in youth.     

美国黑人参政的历史演变——从《汤姆叔叔的小屋》到奥巴马胜选

黑人为什么能够赢得美国2008年总统大选？对此众说纷纭、莫哀一是。实际上,奥巴马的胜选建立于美国黑人200余年争取民权不懈斗争的历史基础之上,再加之奥巴马团队针对美国国内现时政治、经济实际采取了恰当的竞选策略,终于实现了一个伟大的“梦想”。     

My ill literacy narrative: growing up Black,po and a girl,in the hood

Hegemonic discourses authorise certain ways of being, knowing, and doing. We internalise or appropriate images, patterns, and words from the social activities in which we have participated. Race, gender, sexuality, age, education, class are among aspects of identity (social constructions) that affect our language and literacy acquisition, the way we make sense. Grounded in the field of New Literacy Studies and drawing on the tools of critical discourse studies, I analyse verbal and non‐verbal excerpts from a street literature memoir, tentatively titled ‘PHD 2 Ph.D.: Po Ho on Dope 2 Ph.D, The Ill Narrative of Dr. E’, to examine young Black women’s negotiation of raced, classed, gendered and sexual ideologies. My aim is to show that these ideologies work to constrain the possibilities for Black womanhood by ascribing negative meanings and identities to Black women, which render them ‘at‐risk’ for various sorts of disadvantage, that ‘at‐risk’ youth are not inherently so, and that educators and other youth workers should be aware of the ways that social literacies frame youth identity and sense making.