Teasing apart the child care conundrum: A factorial survey analysis of perceptions of child care quality, fair market price and willingness to pay by low-income, African American parents

Child care quality plays a crucial role in children's social and cognitive development. While child care quality is a critical issue for all children, it matters more for low-income children. Policy makers have increased the emphasis on allowing parents, not government, to make decisions about the type of care they want for their children. Yet most research on child care quality has focused on how child care professionals, not parents define high quality care. This study investigates how low-income families evaluate child care quality by examining the child care preferences of a sample of low-income African American parents. We employ the factorial survey method, a method used in sociological research to assess people's perceptions and rankings of individual attributes associated with complex multidimensional phenomena. The factorial survey method permits a simultaneous assessment of how respondents evaluate and make tradeoffs among multiple child care characteristics. We assess the impact of child care characteristics on respondents’ perceptions of child care desirability, fair market value, and willingness to pay. Findings indicate that parents’ definition of quality focused squarely on the care giving environment, specifically the qualifications, experience, training and behavior associated with the child care provider. The type of care facility—family, center, relative or neighbor care was largely irrelevant to this sample of parents. Parents believed that the characteristics they defined as desirable child care situations were worth more, and parents were willing to pay more for these characteristics. These parents also defined quality in terms of race and class, and they wanted racial and economic diversity. This research suggests parents may choose lower quality care, not because they do not know what quality is or because they define quality care differently, but because such care may be neither available nor affordable in their communities.     

DAP in the ’hood: Perceptions of child care practices by African American child care directors caring for children of color

This paper presents a qualitative analysis concerning child care practices by six African American directors of subsidized child care centers located in a low-income, racial ethnic minority area of Los Angeles, California. These programs are traditionally African American programs that experienced an influx of Latino immigrant enrollment. Using the integrative framework for children of color proposed by Garcia Coll et al. [Garcia Coll, C., Crinic, K., Lamberty, G., Wasik, B., Jenkins, R., Garcia Vazquez, H., et al. (1996). An integrative model for the study of developmental competencies in minority children. Child Development, 67, 1891–1914], which places racial ethnicity in the center, we examined how these directors integrated professional standards of practice (developmentally appropriate practice) with community understandings of the role of preschool/child care in this community; the function of social stratification on their articulated practices; and their understanding as to how they include the Latino immigrant families. We discovered patterns that reflect a community-interpreted understanding of developmentally appropriate practice.     

“Accidental Racist”: Stumbling Through the Motions of Racial Reconciliation

This article examines country star Brad Paisley’s controversial musical dialogue with rapper LL Cool J about race. First, I compare “Accidental Racist” with “Ebony and Ivory” in light of McPhail’s notions of rhetorical coherence and complicity. Second, I interrogate Paisley’s problematic construction of racial division in light of Gresson’s work. Next, I consider how the inclusion of Cool J’s voice at least partly challenges Paisley’s southern White perspective. In light of Hatch’s theory of reconciliation, however, Paisley’s pseudo-apology proves self-serving and Cool J’s forgiveness is cheap. In the end, their contrived country/hip-hop dialogue dances to the tune of neoliberalism and fails to resonate with either of their core audiences, despite their well-meaning intentions.     

The influence of race/ethnicity on disadvantaged mothers’ child care arrangements

This study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study [Reichman, N., Teitler, J., Garfinkel, I., & McLanahan, S. (2001). The fragile families and child wellbeing study: Sample and design. Children and Youth Services Review, 23, 303–326] to describe primary child care arrangements of employed, predominantly low-income mothers of 1-year olds, and to quantify their child care calculus in the post-welfare reform era. The sorting of children across arrangement types differs by mother's race/ethnicity: Hispanic children are most likely to be cared for maternal kin, Black children in organized centers, and White children by their fathers. Multinomial regression reveals that the association between race/ethnicity and arrangement type is largely – but not entirely – accounted for by mothers’ socioeconomic, household, job, and cultural characteristics; interaction tests show that the associations between arrangement type and both poverty status and marital status are contingent on race/ethnicity. These findings indicate that disadvantage does not translate into child care arrangements similarly across racial/ethnic groups and child care policy must take into account structural and cultural differences associated with parents’ race/ethnicity.     

Narrative and the exploration of culture in teachers’ discussions of literacy, identity, self, and other

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of teacher narratives in relation to culture, literacy, self, and other within a masters literacy course in a US context. Within the course, teachers read and responded to autobiographical fiction and nonfiction in book club discussions and by sharing spoken and written personal narratives. Whereas many previous studies of teacher narrative have focused primarily on the content of teacher narrative, this study sought to consider the forms, functions, content, and contexts surrounding the sharing of personal narratives. Two cases, explored through sociolinguistic analysis, are presented to demonstrate how course participants constructed narratives and how these narratives functioned within the course and in relation to participant learning.     

Reading the Reparations Debate

This essay examines the ways in which the rhetoric of the reparations debate elucidates the varying accounts of history favored by Americans of different backgrounds, the political and ideological foundations underlying different perspectives on the nature and uses of history, and the norms guiding public deliberation in the contemporary U.S. about how to remember the past. Because the controversy explicitly connects questions about race and cultural memory, it has generated positions that seem irresolvable; yet, ironically, the debate suggests ways in which rhetoric about race in the U.S. might begin to move beyond current impasses.     

论“竞次”现象在中国的表现及其形成原因

本文从探讨“竞次“概念的形成入手,在总结国内外最新研究成果的基础上,探讨“竞次“在中国的几种主要表现形式,并分析了“竞次“现象在中国产生的主要原因,以期社会各界普遍关注“竞次“行为,实现公平竞争,保护工人利益。     

African-American children's representation of personal and social responsibility

This study examines 12 grade five elementary school students' attitudes and beliefs concerning personal and social responsibility in physical education. Factors used to identify students' attitudes and beliefs were initially divided into the six levels of Hellison's Taking Personal and Social Responsibility Model (TPSR), namely: irresponsibility, respect for the rights and feelings of others, participation and effort, self-direction, helping and caring for others and transfer into real-life situations. Through a variety of data collection techniques such as drawings, narrations, interviews and observations, a representation of the students' attitudes and beliefs regarding personal and social responsibility was identified. Results from the study showed the emergence of the following themes: (1) an emphasis on one on one interactions; (2) a focus on negative actions; (3) responsibility is complying with teachers to avoid punishment; (4) responsibility is determined by the family and not the school; and (5) responsibility and race differences. Further research needs to be conducted to determine how children's entry characteristics can be used to strengthen behavioural change in models such as TPSR.