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What internal and external factors do previously low-income individuals describe as key to emerging from poverty?
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is to identify the primary internal and external factors that facilitate individuals' emergence from poverty. The principal investigator (PI) conducted interviews with a diverse sample of 21 participants who were born into poverty and successfully transitioned into the middle class. A phenomenological approach was employed, focusing on the lived experiences of these adults. The primary actions participants reported taking to overcome poverty included securing employment, pursuing formal education beyond high school, and relocating. Key internal factors identified were hope, faith, and a desire to escape hunger, abuse, or trauma. Participants predominantly cited their children as significant motivators when asked about family-related factors. Additionally, having parents with shared goals and living in a supportive home environment that provided emotional, verbal, and economic support, along with clear rules and discipline, were crucial. External factors facilitating their emergence from poverty included employment opportunities, access to medical services, welfare support, relocation for work opportunities, support from a church, formal education beyond high school, and specific assistance from a friend in the middle class. At the conclusion of the interview, participants were asked to identify the most critical factors among all the internal and external elements previously discussed. Seventy-six percent of participants indicated that all factors were important as they supported them in an interconnected manner, while sixty-two percent identified their children as the most significant motivating factor in their emergence from poverty.
Keywords: poverty emergence, economic mobility, hope, motivating factors
The Moral Foundations of Group Perceptions
Get PDFWe investigate the role of moral foundations in shaping attitudes towards various social and political groups in the United States. Using data from the 2023 SPEER survey (N=2,188), we examine how the five moral foundations—Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, and Purity—relate to feelings towards left-sympathetic and right-sympathetic groups, while controlling for demographic factors. Our findings reveal that individualizing foundations (Care and Fairness) consistently predict warmer attitudes towards left-sympathetic groups and cooler attitudes towards right-sympathetic groups. Conversely, binding foundations (Loyalty and Authority) show strong associations with warmer attitudes towards right-sympathetic groups and cooler attitudes towards left-sympathetic groups. The Purity foundation demonstrates more complex relationships, defying simple left-right categorization. These results underscore the importance of considering psychological factors alongside demographics when studying group perceptions and affective polarization.N
Views From the Saddle: Empathy and Romanticization in Oral Narrative and Multispecies Communication
Get PDFIn the summer of 2023, I traveled to Wyoming to conduct fieldwork while working on a dude ranch as a wrangler. The research I conducted had two particular focuses: the learned narratives that wranglers shared with guests while on the trail, and multispecies communication between humans and horses. These two aspects rest on a common thread of empathy and romanticization, while separately being framed by theoretical concepts such as ideology, anthropocentrism, sanitization, performance, and register. The overall experience given to the guests presented a sanitized idea of the American West and its history, and human-horse communication. This sanitization leads to a romanticized view of these experiences, glossing over the true complexities that surround the area and multispecies communication.
The concept of empathy comes up when examining language used by the wranglers and multispecies communication. Language can be used to promote social bonds, which in turn can generate feelings of empathy amongst users. Further, the basis of human-horse communication rests on trust, and with that comes the ability to empathize across species. Various examples demonstrate the true complexities involved with multispecies communication and illustrate the depth of the relationship between a horse and its rider. This point, used in conjunction with other examples and frameworks, is used to combat anthropocentric ideas, and expand ideologies regarding language
THE IMPACT OF THE PLAY TO LEARN ACT IN 1st, 2nd, AND 3rd GRADE CLASSROOMS: A MIXED-METHODS STUDY
Get PDFIn the field of early childhood education, child-centered pedagogies have significantly decreased in favor of greater use of adult-directed learning as the high-stakes testing era has proliferated (Miller & Almon, 2009). The National Association for the Education of Young Children posits the need for children in early childhood, defined as birth to age eight (or roughly third grade), to learn and develop through play (NAEYC, 2020). Children naturally engage in play and playful behaviors without direction to explore the world around them (Brown, 2009), yet many of the learning activities offered in schools enforce rote memorization and repetition as a means of learning (Miller & Almon, 2009). While many educators espouse deeply held beliefs about play as a means for children to learn, there is a disconnect between their beliefs and current classroom practices. There is an abundance of research centering around the beliefs of preschool and kindergarten teachers, but very little explores the beliefs of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-grade teachers. Legislation titled the Oklahoma Play to Learn Act (PTLA) was passed into law in 2021 to empower educators to utilize play-based learning in the state. It is unclear what effect the law has had thus far. To understand the current impact of the PTLA and the possibilities for future effects it may have, this research study will explore the beliefs about play held by primary grade educators and identify the types of support that might increase educators’ use of play in classrooms using a mixed-methods research design
Impacts of Extractive Activities on Drinking Water and Population Health
Get PDFExtractive activities such as coal mining and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) are common throughout the United States. Much research has found that extractive activities have negative impacts on both ecosystem health and population health. To understand the impacts that coal mining and fracking pose, two studies were conducted. Both studies used a spatial econometric model, spatial lag of X (SLX), to control for spatial spillover effects in the regression analyses. The first study analyzed the relationship between coal mining and fracking and drinking water quality in the United States from 2010-2019. It was found that year-on-year within county changes in coal mining and fracking are not associated with drinking water quality violations. The second study analyzed the impacts of abandoned coal mines on mortality in West Virginia from 1990-2020. Within county models were not found to be statistically significant, but between county models were in the cases of age-adjusted circulatory and respiratory disease mortality. Overall, there appears to be possible factors or specific characteristics, such as the presence of active mining or housing prices, of a place that may be influencing the results. Future research in coal mining and fracking must look to determine these factors or characteristics
Partnering, Parenting, and Policies: A closer look at laws regarding ethical nonmonogamy
No full textN
Everyperson's Cookbook : Salads, Etc.
No full textCookbook produced by the Wichita Chapter of the National Organization for Women
How to begin whaling
Get PDFWhaling is a long form work of fiction. It is a shorter novel length piece, but over 65,000 words. A brief synopsis of the work would identify it as a "rites of passage" story with hints of "superhero" and a little "buddy love" archetypes. This work is akin to elements of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, and Girl, Interrupted; however, it departs from these works in an aim to move the tension from the goings on of the text to the feelings the reader has. This is more a work of healing, thus stands in contrasts to the typical dependence on tension between the characters. This work is the result of overcome the understanding and patience needed to write long form, which was a new process. The goal of removing or reducing expected tension isn’t easy, but the work stays true to the aim with a protagonist that finds herself in a setting that is supportive, leaving the only place for tension to be in her. This is also, where the work might provide implications to the field by being a readable and enjoyable work that avoids the typical or easy tension. Perhaps, building that tension in the reader so that they question why they are looking so hard for tension, question what that reveals about them
Ecosystem multifunctionality: benefits of forb plant communities to local pollinators and soil properties
No full textTurfgrass landscapes have expanded rapidly in the United States and are a dominant land cover in urban ecosystems, predicted to expand as urban areas increase. If turfgrass is a dominating land cover, then this homogenization in plant species diversity (quality) and biomass (quantity) could result in negative impacts on multiple ecosystem functions (ecosystem multifunctionality [EMF]), both above- and belowground. Our study compares multiple ecosystem response variables across three habitat types, 1) bermudagrass turfs (BG), 2) pollinator gardens (PG), and 3) remnant prairies (RP) (N=18, n=6). We measured above- and belowground variables for relative EMF between habitats. We assess whether there is a distinguishable difference between functions of these urban (BG, PG) and native (RP) grassland habitats and if aboveground variables can be used as predictors for belowground biotic and abiotic properties. Our results indicate that PG function similarly to RP in promoting pollinators, pest regulation, and plant production. In addition, PG differ in function compared to RP in nutrient cycling, biodiversity, and all habitats are similar in water cycling. Our analysis indicates that BG significantly differ, and are lower in function, compared to PG and RP
Compliance vs. Restoration: Educators’ attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of restorative practices as a response to student behavior
No full textThe challenge for schools and districts across the country has been tackling issues of equity and inclusion that lead to closing opportunity gaps for students. With this in mind, districts have employed schools to find alternative approaches to discipline. One option districts and school sites have is the use of restorative practices as both proactive and reactive responses to student behaviors. In this study, I use both sensemaking and trust theory to examine educators’ attitudes and beliefs of discipline and their perceptions of restorative practices and its implementation in their particular context. This study shows that while there is still work to be done in confronting educator beliefs about punitive discipline, educators do not lack the will to try a different approach to student behavior. As schools and districts move in their work toward restorative environments, they must continue to confront adult mindsets by challenging beliefs and confronting biases through a combination of ongoing professional learning and removing barriers to implementation