Browsing by Subject "Education"

The present research tested whether the lower educational achievement and greater incidence of parenthood among Latino relative to Anglo high school students arise from differences across ethnic groups in the standards held for these behaviors and whether these different standards and differential success across groups at meeting them contribute to ethnic group differences in self-esteem. I tested this regulatory model in two different research designs. In the first study, I used longitudinal data on race/ethnicity and attitudes, expectations, and behavioral outcomes for education and parenthood from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health, Udry, 2003). In the second study, I used an experimental design to test the causal mechanisms involved in this regulatory process. I assessed Anglo and Latina adolescent girls' standards in terms of explicit self-report ratings and then prompted them to imagine themselves in scenarios related to education or parenthood. After participants viewed the scenarios, I assessed their self-esteem and affect. In both studies, I anticipated that ethnic group differences in standards for education and parenting would help explain differences in behavioral outcomes for the groups, along with differences in ethnic group affect and self-esteem. These studies provided some evidence that Anglos espouse more favorable attitudes toward education and less favorable attitudes toward adolescent pregnancy than Latinos. As anticipated, adolescents experienced increases in self-esteem and positive affect when they acted in ways that confirmed valued standards.

This thesis investigates the work and life experiences of an under-discussed and female-dominant Chinese diasporic community, Chinese immigrant teachers in American K12 education. I argue that, firstly, while being privileged as high-skilled professionals and enjoying more mobility compared to their domestic sisters, Chinese female immigrant teachers are also subject to the precarity and intersectionality deriving from the underfunded American education and their triple marginality of being women, Asian and first-generation immigrants. Secondly, the structural inequality of gendered labor performed in both the professional and domestic roles of female teachers tends to be reinforced in the diaspora. By adopting mixed approaches of interview-based ethnography and digital ethnography, this thesis offers a critical alternative to the masculine and material version of Chinese immigration and contributes to a more extensive intellectual effort to understand the systematic racial and gender inequality associated with globalization.

Objectification theory, as delineated by Barbara L. Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts, posits that women are trained to view themselves as visual objects for consumption. The related term, self-objectification, describes the altered psychological state where an individual begins to view themselves as a body or sum of body parts. Ballet dancers exhibit higher levels of self-objectification and eating disorders than the general public and high levels of self-objectification are correlated to eating and body image disturbances. This thesis gathers, applies, and expands pedagogical tools for discouraging self-objectification in the ballet classroom in university, private studio, and open online settings. It also proposes the facilitation of flow states as the “next frontier” of addressing one of ballet’s infamous problems and details a choreographic process dedicated to understanding and cultivating amenable conditions for flow and yu. Flow is an embodied experience where an individual is performing at optimum level while fully engaged in an activity. The related concept, yu, is associated with the spiritual release and ease that comes after an individual has disciplined their habits toward living an ethical life. The final choreographic work investigates various aspects of flow and yu including intention, curiosity, bliss, distraction, collective engagement, joy, space, and suspension of time. The resulting performance reflects the individual and collective experience of flow and yu of the dancers who performed the piece. The thesis concludes with a reflection on insights that can be gleaned from intersecting paths of pedagogical research and choreographic inquiry.

Background: Despite increasing availability of preventative HPV vaccines and screening strategies, uptake of these effective measures in Kisumu, Kenya is limited by cultural and logistical barriers. Limited understanding and societal perceptions of HPV and cervical cancer are potential sources of stigma that could negatively impact screening behavior. By designing and implementing a stigma-responsive educational intervention, we sought to improve understanding and risk perception and increase the likelihood cervical cancer screening.

Methods: We carried out a study of a stigma responsive strategy to deliver HPV-based cervical cancer prevention services in Kisumu, Kenya. Focus group discussions (FGDs) explored experiences of HPV and cervical cancer screening, health messaging and potential stigma sources. Qualitative analysis of the FGDs informed the development of a stigma-responsive educational video. Four Kisumu County healthcare facilities were randomized to either watch the video or receive standard HPV and cervical cancer education, after which participants at both sites completed a survey to measure HPV- and cervical cancer stigma. Stigma scores were compared between control and intervention groups using linear regression.

Results: Thirty women participated in the focus group discussions. Drivers of stigma included concerns about confidentiality and disclosure of HPV results, fears of cancer or implications of a sexually transmitted infection diagnosis. Anticipated outcomes included illness or death, financial hardship or family abandonment. The FGDs findings informed development of the educational video. A total of 288 women, 109 in the intervention group, completed the stigma survey. Mean HPV and cervical cancer scores were found to be statistically lower in the intervention arm, with Dholuo language associated with higher stigma levels in both arms.

Conclusions: This multi-step study explored knowledge, attitudes and beliefs specific to HPV and cervical cancer health messaging in western Kenya in order to develop and test a stigma-responsive education strategy. The stigma-responsive video demonstrated a quantitative decrease in stigma survey response means for those who watched the video. The pre-pilot design will drive a larger pilot study to examine the effect of the educational video on HPV self-sampling.