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Understanding and Engaging in Equity Work: A Phenomenological Action Research Study of Community College ESOL Instructors
Full text linkCommunity colleges (CCs) are regarded as accessible and affordable pathways to higher education and financial mobility, offering significant potential to promote educational equity (Fink et al., 2023). These institutions enroll the largest number of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students in adult education; however, CC ESOL students face lower rates of degree completion and transfer compared to their non-ESOL peers (David & Kanno, 2021; Fink et al., 2023; Raufman et al., 2019). While research has examined factors contributing to low CC ESOL student persistence and interventions to improve overall CC student outcomes, research on specific efforts to support ESOL student persistence and success is limited (Kanno, 2021; Lewis & Brown, 2021; Park, 2019; Sacklin & Daniels, 2022). This study addresses this gap by exploring how ESOL instructors conceptualize and engage in equity work — the active promotion of fairness to address the needs of historically and systemically marginalized groups (Equity Literacy Institute, 2023). It also investigates how participation in an equity-minded community of practice (CoP)—a collaborative group of CC ESOL instructors focused on addressing inequities within their field—shapes their perspectives on equity and enhances their capacity to affect change. Using a qualitative interpretive phenomenological action research approach, I collected data through interviews, CoP observations, and artifact elicitation. Findings reveal that participants conceptualize equity as providing access and individualized support that acknowledges students\u27 diverse backgrounds and identities. In practice, equity work involves challenging deficit perspectives, addressing intersectionality, promoting student empowerment, advocating for reform, engaging in continuous reflection, overcoming systemic barriers, and experiencing personal fulfillment. This study highlights the potential of CoPs to deepen instructors’ understanding of equity and enhance their ability to engage in meaningful change while also noting the challenges posed by virtual and geographically dispersed CoPs. This research contributes valuable insights into the role of CC ESOL instructors in fostering educational equity and the transformative potential of collaborative, reflective practices in addressing systemic inequities.
Keywords: equity literacy, postcolonial theory, community college, esol instruction, linguistic diversity, educational equity, community of practice (cop), interpretive phenomenological analysis, action research, teacher advocacy, systemic inequit
Ethnic Studies for Secondary Schooling: Collaborative Curricular Insights from a Working Collective
Full text linkThe rapid expansion of policy-mandated ethnic studies (ES) in U.S. schools suggests the need to reconceptualize the field of ES for the school curriculum. This exploratory case study sought to contribute to a better understanding of the ways in which secondary ES curricula can be negotiated and made by teachers and their collaborators, illuminating its future possibilities in public schools. The research explored how teachers, academics, and ES graduate students collaborated in a Collective to use and relate various knowledge resources, including local oral histories, to develop community-focused ES curricular guidance. Little is known about the type of knowledge work and curriculum thinking required of educators who are capable of putting the conceptual aims of K–12 ES into practice. This study furthered the understanding of the capacity and preparedness of teachers to develop ES curricula that is reflective of both the academic field and educational ambitions. To this end, the research used Future 3 as a main conceptual frame, a heuristic devised to compare the approach to knowledge resources in contrasting curriculum scenarios. Data were generated from interviews, meeting recordings, and documentary analysis of created materials. Findings showcased how the Collective (a) used knowledge resources from in and beyond ES and (b) engaged in knowledge work and curriculum thinking. Also derived from the study was a set of guiding principles for Future 3 ES curriculum thinking. The research has implications for agentive, teacher-led curriculum making and for the preparation and development of ES teachers and teachers in general
Unlocking Stroke Susceptibility: A Pilot Retrospective Analysis of In-Hospital Factors and Length of Stay in Adult Patients
No full textAbstract
Background: In-hospital strokes (IHSs) represent 2% to 17% of strokes in non-stroke admissions. Hospital length of stay (LOS) for patients with an IHS adds another layer of concern. Research has yet to fully address the variations in hospital LOS associated with these occurrences and how certain factors place patients at greater risk. The average LOS after having a stroke is five to seven days. Patients who suffer a stroke after admission for another diagnosis tend to endure an extended hospital stay. Prolonged LOS in the hospital increases the risk of hospitalized acquired conditions, the degree of clinical attention needed, and associated costs.
Study Population: The study population consisted of adult patients already hospitalized for another medical condition who experience a stroke at an acute care community hospital in southern California.
Purpose/Aims: This pilot study examined the relationships between predisposing sociodemographic characteristics, predisposing clinical characteristics, enabling resources, use of health services, need, and hospital LOS among hospitalized adult patients who experienced an IHS.
Methods: A retrospective cohort descriptive correlational designed study was conducted. Descriptive statistics characterized the sample and chi-square analyses were conducted to describe the relationship variables. A multiple linear regression identified the amount of variance in hospital LOS accounted by select variables.
Results: This pilot study provided valuable insights into patients who experience an IHS and hospital LOS. A statistically significant relationship was found between hospital LOS and the timing of an IHS after admission. The findings suggest that the timing of the IHS significantly influences the overall hospital LOS. Notably, this study also indicated that for each additional day between admission and the occurrence of an IHS, the total hospital LOS increased by 0.31days. Furthermore, hospital LOS was significantly different for patients in terms of the department where the stroke occurred.
Implications: These findings highlight the importance of early IHS risk assessment and intervention strategies to minimize complications and reduce hospital LOS
Ammonia Regulation in Aedes taeniorhynchus, a Salt-Water Mosquito
Full text linkThe salt tolerant mosquito species Aedes taeniorhynchus has been observed in high salinity and ammonia conditions. Previous studies indicate Na+/K+ ATPase (NKA), the proton pump vacuolar-type H+ ATPase (VHA) and sodium-dependent cation-chloride cotransporters (NKCC’s) in sodium secretion in larval Aedes taeniorhynchus. However ammonia transporter such as Rh-protein, Amt1, and Amt2 have only been characterized in Aedes taeniorhynchus’s fresh water relative Aedes aegypti. Our research exhibits the expression of these transporters in A.taeniorhynchus using immunohistochemistry techniques. Evidence of VHA and NKA function in ammonia transport was characterized in vivo using drug antagonists in varying saline and ammonia concentrations. Ammonia flux rates and hemolymph concentrations showed lower concentrations of salinity corresponding to higher ammonia flux rates. Drug antagonist experiments revealed ammonia flux was more dependent on the inhibition of NKA rather than VHA. Immunohistochemistry and in vivo results exhibit possible novel mechanisms of ammonia secretion needed to be explored further
A Crisis of Craft: Creative Writing in the American University
Full text linkIn this essay, I aim to analyze the changing nature of the Creative Writing MFA through the lens of the American culture that shaped it. In the 1930s, creative writing in American universities began to take shape, citing itself as a way to reform the philological study of literature into a more active field, a way for the common person to learn through creativity and self-expression. However, as the number of MFA programs in the nation continued to rise, admittance became increasingly selective, with many universities accepting only between 5 and 10% of their applicants. This increase in exclusivity, coupled with the shifting values of the program, have caused many to question whether the MFA remains valuable to writers or stifles creative freedom. This essay will analyze the validity of such arguments through common features of MFA culture including admissions, genre tracks, workshop culture, and the individual writer’s psyche. Ultimately, it is insufficient to simply categorize MFA programs as “useful” or “useless”. Instead, these programs must be critically analyzed in order to drive systemic changes that better support the academic and emotional needs of their students
2024-2025 School of Law Academic Honors & Awards
Full text linkhttps://digital.sandiego.edu/law_awards/1010/thumbnail.jp
Demographic Profiles of San Diego and Imperial Counties
Full text linkThe Demographic Profiles of San Diego and Imperial Counties provides a snapshot of the two counties\u27 vulnerable populations, including low-income communities, youth, immigrants, refugees, individuals experiencing homelessness, and retirement-age adults. While these counties differ in population size by more than an order of magnitude, the backdrop of California\u27s rising cost of living, shifting immigration policies, income and health disparities, and the projections for an increasing aging population present compounding barriers to financial stability and access to services for all ages. Comprehensive data to understand these community needs was more readily available for San Diego County than Imperial County. This report was prepared for Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego by The Nonprofit Institute.https://digital.sandiego.edu/npi-npissues/1007/thumbnail.jp
Exploring Dynamics of Power, Inequality and Violence
Full text linkThe research included in this compendium centers Indigenous, diaspora, migrant, disenfranchised and disaffected groups in the discussions about violence and power. Through these perspectives the reader experiences the unflinching interrogations of the forces that seek to control, enforce, regulate and profit from the oppression, subjugation and criminalization of others highlight the harm of unchecked power. The research undertaken by the VIP Lab Fellows highlights how the experiences of those in the sightline of unmitigated power may otherwise be trivialized and obscured if attention and analysis is not devoted to understanding them. Their research also suggests contextually appropriate responses to remedy the historical and ongoing power imbalances contributing to violence.
The Violence, Inequality and Power Lab (VIP Lab) at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice was created to explore the ways in which power inequalities shape both cycles of violence and the narratives that are told about violence. The Lab works to expose how discrepancies in the balance of power contribute to ongoing harms, undermine the rights and freedoms of certain individuals, and activate justifications for violence.https://digital.sandiego.edu/ipj-research/1110/thumbnail.jp