North Georgia College & State University: Digital Commons
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McNair Journal Spring 2021 Volume 1
Get PDFUniversity of North Georgia McNair Scholars Researchhttps://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/mcnair/1000/thumbnail.jp
John Speaks with Morgan
No full textInteractions and interviews between older adult mentor and University of North Georgia student. Mentor shares lived experiences, talks about living through difficult times, and provides lessons for future generations.https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/gen2gen/1043/thumbnail.jp
Ruth Speaks with Mariela
No full textInteractions and interviews between older adult mentor and University of North Georgia student. Mentor shares lived experiences, talks about living through difficult times, and provides lessons for future generations.https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/gen2gen/1046/thumbnail.jp
“If You Don’t Name the Dragon, You Can’t Begin to Slay It:” Participatory Action Research to Increase Awareness Around Military-Related Traumatic Brain Injury
Get PDFHundreds of thousands of U.S. veterans and their families are significantly affected by traumatic brain injury (TBI), yet policy-makers and the general public often lack knowledge about TBI and other “invisible injuries” related to military service. Veterans may face delayed TBI diagnoses and trouble accessing needed health care, and they and their families may face stigma and misperceptions about TBI that impede successful community reintegration. Researchers in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) partnered with 45 veterans with TBI and 26 of their family caregivers on a participatory action research (PAR) study that used photovoice methods to explore and convey experiences of community reintegration after TBI. Interview data and images taken by participants were used to communicate stories, reflections, and insights. This paper reports participants’ reflections about (a) how they became aware of TBI-related symptoms and the impact of TBI on their lives and relationships, (b) challenges they have encountered—including misconceptions and stigma—when disclosing TBI and other “invisible injuries” to others, and (c) strategies and resources they draw upon to counter these challenges. The authors conclude by sharing participant-identified recommendations for supporting community reintegration after military service–related TBI. This work demonstrates the power of PAR to engage veterans and family caregivers in generating knowledge to inform the programs, policies, and public discourse that affect their lives. A priority for the dissemination of the study’s findings has been to raise awareness about TBI among veterans and military caregivers
An On-Campus ESL Program Reflects on the Ripple Effects for Students, the Institution, the Local Community, and Beyond
Get PDFThis article details the unanticipated ripple effects of a college service-learning project. In 2008, Berry College began hosting an on-campus English as a second language (ESL) program in order to provide high-impact practices for students entering the Spanish major and minor and to better serve the growing Latinx community in the area. While the program has met its intended goals of serving our community and providing students with opportunities to achieve cultural competency and grow into civically minded individuals, it has also produced unintended benefits, including student research, leadership development, student career definition, student-sponsored sister organizations, and mentorship of faculty at other colleges who have created their own ESL programs. As we explain, a number of these unintended consequences either stem from or have been enhanced by our decision to host an on-campus service-learning program rather than partner with existing community organizations. Our aim in writing this article is to encourage faculty to weigh the benefits and costs of hosting an on-campus service-learning program by highlighting the full impact of our program, including those impacts we did not originally anticipate
Interdisciplinary Health Care Professionals’ Perceptions of the Causes and Consequences of the Opioid Crisis: Developing Rural Community Partnerships to Increase Access to Naloxone
Get PDFOpioid overdoses kill thousands of people each year, and overdose rates continue to increase. Community-university partnerships are desperately needed to provide the multipronged and multiagency responses demanded by the opioid crisis. In this study, community and university partners used a consensual qualitative research approach to analyze survey results from continuing medical education sessions in rural communities. The health care providers surveyed had variable attitudes toward the opioid crisis, ranging from empathy for patients’ situations to denial that an opioid crisis exists. The voices of these professionals are critical to community partners’ ongoing work to address the opioid crisis. Data from this study supported the formulation of subsequent programming for health care professionals and community members as well as the launch of fruitful opioid-focused partnerships. Understanding health care professionals’ perceptions of the opioid crisis will allow public health and university teams to provide effective interventions in opioid prescription, naloxone distribution, and stigma reduction to ultimately lessen opioid dependency and overdose
“How Can I Uproot the System?”: Justice-Oriented Outcomes From Community-Based Research in Schools
Get PDFThis paper is based on a qualitative case study designed to answer the following research question: “What learning about justice resulted from this collaboratively created service-learning class driven by a community-based research pedagogy?” It demonstrates how researching alongside primary stakeholders in Title I schools produced justice-oriented learning outcomes for students. Specifically, the course helped students better understand the value of diversity, their own deficit perspectives, systemic inequality, and the university’s responsibility to the surrounding community. The course also fostered in students the ability to distinguish paternalistic models of service from empowering models of service, the ability to identify unjust policies, a desire for advocacy, and an openness to working in Title I schools. One author of this paper is a service-learning professional, and the other is a faculty member who instructed this course
Virtual Hymn Singing and the Imagination of Community
Get PDFMany individuals derive great personal benefit from participation in singing communities. In the spring of 2020, however, the activities of these communities were rudely curtailed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This ethnographic study considers a virtual choir organized by the music director at a church in Massachusetts. For eleven weeks, participants were invited to submit recordings of themselves singing hymns and other selections. These were then mixed into a podcast-style ‘service’ that was published on the church website each Sunday morning. Unlike most virtual choirs, the object in this case was not to create a pristine replica of a choral performance but rather to capture the untrained and unrehearsed sounds of a singing congregation. As a participant, I carefully documented my experiences throughout the ‘Hymn Singing in Isolation’ project, and upon the project’s conclusion I interviewed ten other participants concerning their own experiences. My purpose was to discover whether participation in this project served to sustain and/or create community, and to understand what role singing played in that process. Participants’ experiences were influenced by a variety of factors, including whether or not they were members of the church. However, all participants reported a bifurcated experience: While recording their contributions was often lonely and even isolating, consuming the completed podcast was meaningful and provided participants with a sense of community belonging. I propose bifurcated musicking as a frame for understanding how participants in this and other virtual choirs are able to access a communal experience. Grounding my discussion in research on congregational singing and virtual choirs, I conclude that any analysis of a virtual choir must consider the points of production and consumption as distinct experiences, and that communal sentiment arising from participation varies widely according to the way in which each individual conceptualizes their relationship to the imagined singing community