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Midwestern City (midwestern + city)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences60%

Selected Abstracts

Being a Good Teacher of Black Students?

CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 4 2005
Unintentional Racism, White Teachers
ABSTRACT This ethnographic study describes the roles adopted by four White teachers in the United States during and after they participated in a seminar on teaching antiracism with colleagues at the Woodson Elementary School, the only African American neighborhood school in a small Midwestern city. Each of these teachers self-identified as a good teacher and identified a central metaphor by which she understood her role as a teacher of Black students. By examining the roles and related practices of these teachers, I highlight the disconnect between what researchers have identified as good practices for teaching students of color and how these teachers understand themselves as good teachers. I describe how the roles that each of these four teachers adopted relate to the perpetuation of Whiteness and how such a relation is embedded in their everyday teaching practices and might function to sustain racist practice and ideology in the schooling of students of color. Findings suggest that the ways that these teachers understood their roles as teachers of Black students are intimately linked to how closely their practice represented what is known as culturally relevant pedagogy. [source]

Critical Therapeutics: Cultural Politics and Clinical Reality in Two Eating Disorder Treatment Centers

MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2007
Rebecca J. Lester
Recent studies suggest that eating disorders are increasing in Mexico and that this seems to correspond with Mexico's push to modernization. In this respect, Mexico exemplifies the acculturation hypothesis of eating disorders, namely, that anorexia and bulimia are culture-bound syndromes tied to postindustrial capitalist development and neoliberalist values, and that their appearance elsewhere is indicative of acculturation to those values. Available evidence for this claim, however, is often problematic. On the basis of five years of comparative fieldwork in eating disorder clinics in Mexico City and a small Midwestern city in the United States, I reframe this as an ethnographic question by examining how specific clinical practices at each site entangle global diagnostic categories with local social realities in ways that problematize existing epistemologies about culture and illness. In this regard, debates about acculturation and the global rise of eating disorders foreground issues of central epistemological and practical importance to contemporary medical anthropology more generally. [source]

That Which Does Not Kill You Makes You Stronger: Runaway Youth's Resilience to Depression in the Family Context

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 2 2010
Gizem Erdem
The present study sought to uncover the relationship between risk and protective factors for depressive symptomatology among runaway youth. To that aim, 3 models of resiliency,the compensatory, risk-protective, and challenge models,were tested separately on girls and boys. The data came from a cross-sectional survey on a sample of 140 runaway adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 years who were recruited from the only runaway crisis shelter in a large Midwestern city. Risk factors in the proposed model included primary caretaker's depressive symptoms, family conflict, and adolescent's and primary caretaker's verbal aggression; protective factors included adolescent's report of task-oriented coping and family cohesion. Findings supported the challenge model for predicting adolescent depressive symptoms, suggesting that moderate levels of risk can be beneficial for these runaway adolescents. In addition, risk and protective factors differed by adolescent gender. Implications for preventive interventions and future research are discussed. [source]

A social support and social strain measure for minority adolescent mothers: a confirmatory factor analytic study

CHILD: CARE, HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2008
C. B. Gee
Abstract Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the validity and structure of the Social Support Network Questionnaire (SSNQ), an interview for identifying the positive and negative aspects of individuals' social networks. Methods The sample consisted of 536 pregnant and parenting, African-American and Latina adolescents. Participants were recruited from an alternative school for pregnant and parenting adolescents in a large Midwestern city. Results Confirmatory Factor Analyses revealed the presence of three factors: perceived availability, satisfaction and social strain. All three factors demonstrated adequate internal consistency. Perceived availability and social strain were uncorrelated, implying that they are distinct dimensions. Social strain was the most consistent predictor of psychological well-being. Further, strain in relationships with the young women's male partners added unique variance to the prediction of both anxiety and depression. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that the SSNQ may be a useful tool in assessing both positive and negative aspects of pregnant and parenting adolescent mothers' social support networks. [source]

Dimensions of Family Functioning: Perspectives of Low-Income African American Single-Parent Families

JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 3 2004
Linda L. McCreary
Family functioning is influenced by socioeconomic status, culture, family structure, and developmental stage, and is assessed primarily using instruments developed for middle-income European American two-parent families. These instruments may not validly assess low-income African American single-parent families. This qualitative study was conducted to provide rich descriptions of families and family functioning in order to inform research on this underrepresented group. Interviews were conducted with 20 low-income African American single mothers and 20 adult family members recruited from a large midwestern city. Content analysis revealed the essential dimensions of family functioning: Effective families provide emotional nurturing, communicate, do things together, help each other, and parent children appropriately. [source]