Meeting students’ basic needs – including ensuring they have access to nutritious meals and a sense of belonging and connection to school – can positively influence students’ academic performance. ...Recognizing this connection, schools provide resources in the form of school meals programs, school nurses, and school guidance counselors. However, these resources are not always available to students and are not always prioritized in school reform policies, which tend to focus more narrowly on academic learning. This book is about the balancing act that schools and their teachers undertake to respond to the social, emotional, and material needs of their students in the context of standardized testing and accountability policies. Drawing on conversations with teachers and classroom observations in two elementary schools, How Schools Meet Students’ Needs explores the factors that both enable and constrain teachers in their efforts to meet students’ needs and the consequences of how schools organize this work on teachers’ labor and students’ learning.
A key component of recent school reform policies has been the authorization of public charter schools. A subset of public charter schools, often termed “no excuses” schools, have received national ...attention for their students’ academic success; however, scholars have recently begun to question the role of the schools’ authoritarian discipline systems in the process of social reproduction. This study examines the extent to which authoritarian discipline systems are necessary for success at “no excuses” schools, drawing upon qualitative research at a strategic site: a school that adopts many of the practices of “no excuses” schools while also pursuing a relational approach to discipline. Qualitative analysis of classroom observation and interview data finds that a relational approach to discipline cultivates non‐cognitive skills more closely aligned with the evaluative standards of middle‐class institutions, such as skills in self‐expression, self‐regulation, problem‐solving, and conflict resolution. A comparison of academic achievement data also suggests that “no excuses” schools may be able to implement relational discipline approaches without sacrificing academic success on a key predictor of future academic performance.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
How do rural communities promote residents' health and wellbeing in the context of large and seemingly Intractable problems such as persistent poverty, racial inequality, and geographic isolation? ...Through case studies of two development initiatives, this article examines collective actions by non-profit organizations to improve health and wellbeing in the Mississippi Delta region of the United States over the past 5 years. Our study applies the livelihoods framework to assess what these initiatives can teach us about the multi-level processes that contribute to inequalities in health and wellbeing in a rural setting and about the factors that enable and constrain interventions to address these problems. We find that Mississippi Delta residents pursue livelihood strategies in a context of vulnerability, where they face significant limitations to their ability to access and build human, social, and economic capital. Drawing on original analysis of primary and secondary data, we also find that organizations that provide support for individuals' aspirations, while also exposing and addressing the procedural and structural barriers that prevent the realization of these goals, can contribute to individual, household, and community wellbeing.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Cultural narratives about the proper scope and focus of teaching are embedded in contemporary school reform policies. This review examines literature related to two competing cultural narratives ...about US primary and secondary teachers: that “good teachers” are autonomous saviors, defined by their abilities to act independently and against great odds to improve academic outcomes for low‐income and minority students, and that “good teachers” are disempowered technicians who follow the guidance of externally‐recognized experts in their efforts to reduce educational inequalities. A review of literature critiquing these narratives finds that scholars have often analyzed these narratives using theoretical frameworks associated with race, class, and/or neoliberalism. This review examines what historians of education and feminist scholars can contribute to a critical analysis of the representation of US teachers in political speech and popular culture. It demonstrates that gender, as part of an intersectional approach, is important to understanding how White middle‐class women teachers can be positioned simultaneously as “autonomous saviors” and as “disempowered technicians” and how these narratives influence the professional status and autonomy associated with the work of teaching.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
This article identifies mechanisms that constrain and enable farm-to-school programs' success, drawing on evidence from an exploratory case study of a farm-to-school program in the Mid-Atlantic ...region located in a densely populated urban area. Data are based on observation of eleven farm field trips and six mobile market lessons with third and fourth grade students from ten elementary schools. Fieldnotes were coded for emergent themes and attitudinal and behavioral patterns with attention to variations and contradictions. Findings indicate farm-to-school educators engaged students in nutrition education by crafting a student-centered learning environment that combined education and play. Students from resource-rich environments were better able to take advantage of this learning environment than students who had less access to contexts that combine learning and play. The findings suggest that programs that adopt this approach may exacerbate the social inequalities that manifest health disparities rather than mitigate them.
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BFBNIB, GIS, IJS, KISLJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
This study examines the case of community resource mobilization within the context of a farmers market incentive program in Washington D.C., USA to illustrate the ways in which providing ...opportunities for people impacted by food inequities to develop and lead programming can help to promote food access. Through an analysis of interviews with 36 participants in the Produce Plus program, some of whom also served as paid staff and volunteers with the program, this study examines the ways that group-level social interactions among program participants helped to ensure the program was accessible and accountable to the primarily Black communities that it serves. Specifically, we explore a particular set of social interactions, which we collectively term social solidarity, as a community-level form of social infrastructure that program volunteers and participants mobilized to support access to fresh, local food in their communities. We also examine the elements of the Produce Plus program that contributed to the flow of social solidarity within the program, providing insight into the ways in which the structure of food access programs can serve as a social conduit to facilitate or hinder the mobilization of community cultural resources like social solidarity.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
The complex relationship between professional success and civic engagement among educated immigrant professionals is little understood. This qualitative study examines the social processes linking ...professional attainment and civic involvement among immigrant professionals, with the purpose to deepen understanding of the mechanisms through which civic participation is tied to occupational pathways and advancement. We report on findings from interviews with 62 U.S. immigrants, all professionals and employed in various occupations to understand the dynamic processes through which civic involvement and professional achievement are mutually constitutive. Immigrant professionals are engaged civically; community engagement among this population is overwhelmingly tied to professional and vocational interests and skills. They participate in both formal and informal community-based organizations and groups, and many are transnational in scope.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Sociologists and qualitative researchers have engaged in an extensive debate about the merits of researchers being "outsiders" or "insiders" to the communities they study. Recent research has ...attempted to move beyond a strict outsider/insider dichotomy to emphasize the relative nature of researchers' identities, depending on the specific research context. Using the Institute for Community-Based Research in Mississippi as a case study, this article presents findings from qualitative interviews with academic researchers and community partners involved in four different research projects. These findings examine how researchers and community partners characterize researchers' identities and the impact that those identities have on the community-based research outcomes in different research contexts. The article also includes recommendations for researchers who are working in communities where they are likely to be considered outsiders. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
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FSPLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, UL, UM, UPUK
10.
Antipoverty Programs (US) Kerstetter, Katie
Encyclopedia of Family Studies,
2016, 2016-03-21
Reference
This entry comprises a historical review of antipoverty programs in the United States from informal assistance programs during colonial times through the implementation of the American Recovery and ...Reinvestment Act of 2009. This review demonstrates how US conceptions of poverty and antipoverty programs have evolved over time. Throughout US history, those responsible for designing and implementing income assistance programs have grappled with a series of basic questions about who should be considered poor and what types of assistance should be provided to persons living in poverty. As the nation's population grew, these questions moved from the purview of extended families to local governments and private charities and, finally, to the federal government. Answers to these questions have been influenced by macro trends (e.g., economic recessions, immigration, and processes of industrialization) and by the perceptions of those responsible for creating and implementing policy about who is “worthy” or “deserving” of aid.
