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The Unchanging Reality of Male Dancers in Pakistan
No full textThe social status of male dancers in South Asia has been well-furrowed as a field of scholarly investigation. Since time immemorial, Shiva has been described as Nataraj and Bharata’s Natya Shastra refers to both male and female dancers. Wajid Ali Shah, the ill-fated Nawab of Avadh, was not just a patron of dance, but also a dancer and choreographer who wrote several books on dance like Najo, Bani, and Saut-al Mubarak. A more recent history of male dancing began with the many books on Rabindranath Tagore and Uday Shankar. But the way male dancing found social acceptance in the different countries of South Asia is quite uneven. Post-colonial India and Sri Lanka celebrated dancers such as Uday Shankar; Kathak doyens such as Shambhu Maharaj, Lachhu Maharaj, and Birju Maharaj; the Manipuri Gurus such as Amubi Singh; Kathakali Asan’s such as P.K. Kunju Kurup, T.K. Chandu Pannikar; and many more in the many dance styles of India. Patronage included the national Padma Awards, the National Performing Arts Awards (Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards), and performances and valences of many kinds. Sri Lankan dance flourished under the legendary Chitrasena; things in Pakistan were very different then
Teacher-Level Traits as Moderating Factors of Professional Development
No full textThis professional development (PD) study investigated the role of teachers’ initial receptive language skills on the implementation of language enhancement strategies. Head Start lead (n=12) and assistant (n=9) teachers received PD designed to increase their use of language enhancement strategies. Results indicated that teachers’ receptive vocabulary scores did predict their pretest language strategy usage; F(1, 19) = 6.40, p < .05, accounting for 25.2% of the variation in the frequency of language enhancing strategy. Additionally, there was a significant difference detected by role at pre-intervention indicating that assistants delivered fewer language enhancement strategies compared to lead teachers M = 41.25 (SD = 16.16) vs. M = 25.67 (SD = 11.98). However, post-intervention means demonstrated a closing of the gap between lead and assistant teachers’ implementation of language enhancement strategies. Results interpreted by discussing the importance of examining the moderating impact of teacher-level traits in evaluating the effectiveness of PD
Adult Learners\u27 Community Cultural Wealth: Seeing ABE Learners through a CRT Lens
No full textAs a field, adult basic education (ABE) has been slow to address racial injustice or to consider how racism informs commonly-held, deficit-based beliefs about adult literacy students. This ethnographically-grounded research article utilizes Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Yosso\u27s (2005) framework of community cultural wealth to highlight the culturally-grounded assets two ABE learners brought to their reading class. I argue that increased acknowledgement of community cultural wealth could improve services to the many racially marginalized adults who participate in publicly-funded ABE programs
Counternarratives of Resistance in Preservice Teacher Education
No full textNow more than ever, injustice against African Americans is being publicized at an alarming rate. The accessibility of mobile phones has made it possible for prejudice against blacks to be brought to global attention. This has propelled the Black Lives Matter movement and protesters around the world to take to the streets in demand for change within the governing systems. Their shouts of police brutality toward African Americans are being heard. However, there is another injustice being done against blacks that remains unseen in the background. This quiet discriminatory system has been in operation for generations. The purpose of this article is to expose the disconnection between the African American student and the education system; a detachment that has been intentional and systematic. This article discusses how the education system has become a quiet oppressor of African Americans. An oppressor who has robbed African Americans of their vast history. An oppressor who has branded African Americans as ignorant and delinquent. An oppressor who has refused to acknowledge and include the academic works produced by scholars of color within its curriculum. The racist practices of the educational system have been hidden in plain sight for decades. This article is not being written in order to vent out frustrations. This article is a call for action. A call for change in a system that impacts all African American students from kindergarten through college. As current events have revealed, racism is alive and well in America and is being cultivated inside our schools.
The Evidence Base for How and Why Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultations Works
No full textInfant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) is an evidence-based service in which consultants build capacity for early childhood professionals and programs to promote the social-emotional development of infants and young children. This paper describes the current state of the evidence for IECMHC, mapping the evidence to a new theory of change from the Center of Excellence (CoE) for IECMHC. There is a substantial literature base regarding the effects of consultation on outcomes for infants and young children; yet the evidence for consultation’s specific mechanisms of change, moderators of impact, and reductions in disparities have been understudied. The authors identify gaps in the scholarly literature, articulate next steps for research, and conclude with a call to action for IECMHC researchers to expand rigorous studies to the range of settings in which IECMHC is implemented and to center social justice in the research questions, methods, and dissemination
Meditation, Personality, and Workplace Stress
No full textThe prevalence of stress occurs across various levels of the workplace can affect employees at any level of an organization. This study explored the role of meditation frequency on stress reduction in the workplace. Previous research emphasizes the role of personality traits in perceiving stressful situations (Childs et al., 2014), and this study investigated if conscientiousness and neuroticism personality traits helped to limit or enhance stress reduction. A sample of 40 participants was given the choice of both how frequently they choose to meditate and what style of meditation they chose to practice over two weeks. Results showed that meditation frequency had a significant impact on stress reduction. Additionally, the role of personality traits did not provide a significant impact on the participant\u27s perceptual change in stress. The findings suggest that the frequency of meditation practice matters, and, in practical terms, future organizational policies may promote employee choice on meditation frequency and style.
 
HSI Students’ Experiences of “Servingness” during COVID-19
No full textIn this paper, we identify the contexts in which students at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) continued (or failed to continue) their academic pursuits during the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected and analyzed open-ended survey data from 518 students from 14 computing departments at HSIs. Our analysis highlights how students experienced the multidimensional framework of “servingness,” the critical organizational, interactional, and ideological approach that many HSIs use to support their students (Garcia et al., 2019). We describe six distinct ways students experienced servingness in their postsecondary education during the first months of the pandemic, specifically through ) maintaining accessibility of physical infrastructures; 2) creating flexible policies that center relationality and responsibility; 3) holistic approaches to student wellness; 4) development of online culturally responsive pedagogy; 5) departmental and institutional provision of technical resources; and 6) student development of peer support networks
Falling Through the Cracks of Early Intervention and Prevention: Missed Smoking Cessation Referrals for Mothers in Early Head Start
No full textIntroduction. Smoking rates have decreased overall but smoking during pregnancy remains a challenge with impacts to mother, child, and family. Referrals are a critical component in accessing cessation, yet research identifies several barriers to access. Early Head Start (EHS) is one avenue for referrals, and we wanted to understand which characteristics describe those who have received prenatal smoking cessation referrals from EHS. Methods. This project utilized secondary data from the EHS Family and Child Experiences Study (N = 144). We conducted three hierarchical logistic regressions based on the following characteristics pulled from the literature—demographics (e.g., race, ethnicity, age, education, marital status, and partner at home), smoking behavior, and accessibility (e.g., language, location, siblings in EHS, length of time (LOT) in EHS, and program type)— removing non-significant variables at each stage of the hierarchy. Results. Results indicated no significant differences in referral rates across demographics (ps > .32). Results also showed smoking during pregnancy predictive of referral receipt (OR = 10.35, p < .05). Lastly, results showed longer LOTs with EHS (OR = 4.41, p < .01) and siblings in EHS (OR = 10.98, p < .05) significantly associated with referral receipt. Discussion. We found equity among referrals, consistent with EHS’s anti-racist foundation. We found mothers only reporting smoking history were missed. Finally, we found when EHS knows about a pregnancy, either from early referral to EHS or from other children receiving services, the referral mechanism is most successful. Future work should include an emphasis on recruiting earlier in gestation
