Our society faces an uncertain future and the field of public health will have an important role to play in shaping this future. This article introduces the special issue The Future of Health ...Education & Behavior which is focused on perspectives and research led by student authors. Our call for papers encouraged student perspectives that envisioned, challenged, and critiqued the future for health education and behavior. We summarize the articles included in this issue which cover topics such as gaps or future directions for public health training programs, perspectives on pressing issues facing our society, and empirical articles on critical public health topics. Many of the articles in the special issue point boldly to a future that more directly and critically confronts systems of oppression and moves away from a traditional emphasis on individual-level behaviors. These articles can help our field evolve and adapt to fully address the most pressing issues of our time.
Social justice and health equity have become the banner of the contemporary health. Although public health has its origins in American colonialism and patriarchy, many members of the public health ...community embrace and lead efforts toward health equity here and abroad. Yet, within academic public health, schools and programs continue to systematically exclude Latina/o/x from faculty and leadership roles.
Objective
This study describes the perceived work demands and family caregiving obligations associated with work–family life among URM faculty and the coping strategies used to negotiate the ...integration of roles.
Background
Past research on families focuses primarily on professional majority‐culture families and often fails to include traditionally and historically underrepresented minority (URM) families. The study of how URM professionals negotiate work and family obligations and economic and institutional constraints remains relatively absent in the family science discourse.
Method
In‐depth individual and group interviews (N = 58) were conducted with US‐born African American, Mexican American, and Puerto Rican faculty at research universities.
Results
The overarching theorizing anchor that grounded the themes was sacrifice. Three themes emerged: excessive work demands/role strain; commitments and caregiving obligations to family of origin and nuclear family; and few coping strategies and resources to maintain a balanced life.
Conclusion
This analysis offers insight into the multiple factors that affect the experiences of URM academics in their workplaces that deeply influence work roles and self‐care and its impact on family roles. These data fill a gap by applying alternative frameworks to explore the work–family nexus among racialized groups.
Implications
New research frontiers are offered to study the work–family nexus for URM faculty and how higher education can respond to alleviate excessive work demands and work–family life conflicts.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) realities have demanded that educators move swiftly to adopt new ways of teaching, advising, and mentoring. We suggest the centering of a trauma-informed approach ...to education and academic administration during the COVID-19 pandemic using the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) guidance on trauma-informed approaches to care. In our model for trauma-informed education and administration (M-TIEA), SAMHSA’s four key organizational assumptions are foundational, including a realization about trauma and its wide-ranging effects; a recognition of the basic signs and symptoms of trauma; a response that involves fully integrating knowledge into programs, policies, and practices; and an active process for resisting retraumatization. Since educators during the pandemic must follow new restrictions regarding how they teach, we have expanded the practice of teaching in M-TIEA to include both academic administrators’ decision making about teaching, and educators’ planning and implementation of teaching. In M-TIEA, SAMHSA’s six guiding principles for a trauma-informed approach are infused into these two interrelated teaching processes, and include the following: safety; trustworthiness and transparency; peer support; collaboration and mutuality; empowerment, voice, and choice; and cultural, historical, and gender issues. M-TIEA’s organizational assumptions, processes, and principles are situated within an outer context that acknowledges the potential influences of four types of intersectional traumas and stressors that may occur at multiple socioecological levels: pandemic-related trauma and stressors; other forms of individual, group, community, or mass trauma and stressors; historical trauma; and current general life stressors. This acknowledges that all trauma-informed work is dynamic and may be influenced by contextual factors.
This article describes the co‐creation of the American Evaluation Association's Latinx Responsive Evaluation Discourse (La RED) Topical Interest Group by using a collective critical reflection ...approach to analyze the evolution of La RED as a platform for theory building and a community of practice during its foundational years (2014–2017). Ten years post instituting the TIG, the authors illustrate how the positionality of inaugural La RED Latine evaluators, their lived experiences, and their engagement in discourse on Critical Race Theory, Latine Critical Race Theory (LatCrit), culturally responsive evaluation, and community participatory approaches informed the conceptualization of Latine culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (LatCREE). LatCREE is introduced as an effective and appropriate framework for the study and practice of evaluation with Latine communities. We emphasize the value of discourse in comunidad as an essential actionable process for practicing LatCREE and offer epistemological, ontological, and axiological considerations for co‐constructing and sustaining comunidad as La RED Latine evaluators.
Menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) inequities disproportionately impact communities who are marginalized. In 2018, Illinois passed the Learn with Dignity Act (LWDA) requiring schools to provide ...menstrual products in bathrooms, yet little is known about its impacts. This evaluation examined LWDA implementation across Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and identified barriers, facilitators, and lessons to inform future MHH policy implementations. A qualitative study was conducted by thematically analyzing interviews with CPS staff (n = 36) from October 2020 - September 2021 in partnership with CPS Office of Student Health and Wellness (OSHW). Staff reported inadequate LWDA and MHH education and inconsistent menstrual product availability. Structural, systemic, and cultural implementation barriers hindered student access to products and created inequities based on age, gender, and income. Staff investment and student education were implementation facilitators. Staff awareness of policy implementation protocol, student MHH education, and addressing access inequities are key factors for consideration in future policy implementations. Through the WSCC model, these findings demonstrated the importance of strengthening MHH policies and policy implementation to promote student health, well-being, and educational opportunities.Menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) inequities disproportionately impact communities who are marginalized. In 2018, Illinois passed the Learn with Dignity Act (LWDA) requiring schools to provide menstrual products in bathrooms, yet little is known about its impacts. This evaluation examined LWDA implementation across Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and identified barriers, facilitators, and lessons to inform future MHH policy implementations. A qualitative study was conducted by thematically analyzing interviews with CPS staff (n = 36) from October 2020 - September 2021 in partnership with CPS Office of Student Health and Wellness (OSHW). Staff reported inadequate LWDA and MHH education and inconsistent menstrual product availability. Structural, systemic, and cultural implementation barriers hindered student access to products and created inequities based on age, gender, and income. Staff investment and student education were implementation facilitators. Staff awareness of policy implementation protocol, student MHH education, and addressing access inequities are key factors for consideration in future policy implementations. Through the WSCC model, these findings demonstrated the importance of strengthening MHH policies and policy implementation to promote student health, well-being, and educational opportunities.
In this chapter, we reflect on the aims and gaps of this volume and the positionality of the co‐editors and contributors. We invite readers to consider how education and training for evaluators are ...or should be conceptualized and actualized, and detail future areas for consideration and attention.
This article considers the volume's intentions, process, and gaps while inviting attention to the impact and influence of CREA and Dr. Hood on evaluators and evaluation. Three of the co‐editors ...author this conclusion by revisiting the key questions and drawing connections between the positions and statements advocated by the contributing authors. The final editor offers final thoughts in the epilogue. CRE is a community, grassroots, and international movement; readers are invited to consider how integrity, courage, and action exist in their everyday evaluation practice.
This article details how connection to the late Dr. Stafford Hood, Culturally Responsive Evaluation (CRE) and Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment (CREA) provided conceptual, ...methodological, and affirming foundations of our collective work as Latina evaluators, knowledge co‐creators, and mobilizers. The introduction of CRE & CREA with strategic sponsorship provided by Dr. Hood are key historic moments in the legitimization and advancement of Latine evaluators within and across the American Evaluation Association (AEA) and CREA. The co‐authors, who are multiethnic and multicultural Latinas, consider LatCrit theory, collective agency, and legitimacy in relation to key moments in the evolution of Latine evaluation discourse over the last decade.