scholarly journals Pygmalion in the ’hood

Author(s):  
John Socas

Self-presenting effectively at job interviews presents significant challenges for students at urban community colleges, especially those identified as low-income Black and Latinx. Current practices provide minimal support, if any, for enhancing the self-presentation of these students at job interviews. Too often, instead, students simply do not perform well, fail to achieve their job objectives, and remain marginalized by society. This article describes the experiences of urban community college students involved in an innovative effort to enhance their performance in job interviews. This innovative approach features identity work and highlights the value of role play and improvisation in a range of dramatic activities. It utilizes insights gained from research into Freirian conscientization, critical pedagogy, and critical race theories as well as participatory action research (PAR) methodology. This study highlights the eloquent voices and dramatic concerns of the students involved in two vignettes, “Acting White” and “Acting Phony,” expressing the plight of these students. Providing insights for teachers, the article reviews identity work to facilitate successful self-presentation conducted by a wide range of educators dealing with similar challenges involving racial and ethnic minorities. Concluding observations are presented and future debate and research is encouraged.  

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Billies

The work of the Welfare Warriors Research Collaborative (WWRC), a participatory action research (PAR) project that looks at how low income lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming (LG-BTGNC) people survive and resist violence and discrimination in New York City, raises the question of what it means to make conscientization, or critical consciousness, a core feature of PAR. Guishard's (2009) reconceptualization of conscientization as “moments of consciousness” provides a new way of looking at what seemed to be missing from WWRC's process and analysis. According to Guishard, rather than a singular awakening, critical consciousness emerges continually through interactions with others and the social context. Analysis of the WWRC's process demonstrates that PAR researchers doing “PAR deep” (Fine, 2008)—research in which community members share in all aspects of design, method, analysis and product development—should have an agenda for developing critical consciousness, just as they would have agendas for participation, for action, and for research.


Author(s):  
Anthony F. Heath ◽  
Elisabeth Garratt ◽  
Ridhi Kashyap ◽  
Yaojun Li ◽  
Lindsay Richards

Unemployment has a wide range of adverse consequences over and above the effects of the low income which people out of work receive. In the first decades after the war Britain tended to have a lower unemployment rate than most peer countries but this changed in the 1980s and 1990s, when Britain’s unemployment rate surged during the two recessions—possibly as a result of policies designed to tackle inflation. The young, those with less education, and ethnic minorities have higher risks of unemployment and these risks are cumulative. The evidence suggests that the problems facing young men with only low qualifications became relatively worse in the 1990s and 2000s. This perhaps reflects the dark side of educational expansion, young people with low qualifications being left behind and exposed in the labour market.


Author(s):  
Maria F. Hoen ◽  
Simen Markussen ◽  
Knut Røed

AbstractWe examine how immigration affects natives’ relative prime-age labor market outcomes by economic class background, with class background established on the basis of parents’ earnings rank. Exploiting alternative sources of variation in immigration patterns across time and space, we find that immigration from low-income countries reduces intergenerational mobility and thus steepens the social gradient in natives’ labor market outcomes, whereas immigration from high-income countries levels it. These findings are robust with respect to a wide range of identifying assumptions. The analysis is based on high-quality population-wide administrative data from Norway, which is one of the rich-world countries with the most rapid rise in the immigrant population share over the past two decades. Our findings suggest that immigration can explain a considerable part of the observed relative decline in economic performance among natives with a lower-class background.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. e049564
Author(s):  
Mary Abboah-Offei ◽  
Akosua Gyasi Darkwa ◽  
Andrews Ayim ◽  
Adelaide Maria Ansah-Ofei ◽  
Delanyo Dovlo ◽  
...  

IntroductionWith rapid urbanisation in low-income and middle-income countries, health systems are struggling to meet the needs of their growing populations. Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) in Ghana have been effective in improving maternal and child health in rural areas; however, implementation in urban areas has proven challenging. This study aims to engage key stakeholders in urban communities to understand how the CHPS model can be adapted to reach poor urban communities.Methods and analysisA Participatory Action Research (PAR) will be used to develop an urban CHPS model with stakeholders in three selected CHPS zones: (a) Old Fadama (Yam and Onion Market community), (b) Adedenkpo and (c) Adotrom 2, representing three categories of poor urban neighbourhoods in Accra, Ghana. Two phases will be implemented: phase 1 (‘reconnaissance phase) will engage and establish PAR research groups in the selected zones, conduct focus groups and individual interviews with urban residents, households vulnerable to ill-health and CHPS staff and key stakeholders. A desk review of preceding efforts to implement CHPS will be conducted to understand what worked (or not), how and why. Findings from phase 1 will be used to inform and co-create an urban CHPS model in phase 2, where PAR groups will be involved in multiple recurrent stages (cycles) of community-based planning, observation, action and reflection to develop and refine the urban CHPS model. Data will be managed using NVivo software and coded using the domains of community engagement as a framework to understand community assets and potential for engagement.Ethics and disseminationThis study has been approved by the University of York’s Health Sciences Research Governance Committee and the Ghana Health Service Ethics Review Committee. The results of this study will guide the scale-up of CHPS across urban areas in Ghana, which will be disseminated through journal publications, community and government stakeholder workshops, policy briefs and social media content. This study is also funded by the Medical Research Council, UK.


2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
VIRGINIE DIAZ PEDREGAL ◽  
BLANDINE DESTREMAU ◽  
BART CRIEL

AbstractThis article analyses the design and implementation process of arrangements for health care provision and access to health care in Cambodia. It points to the complexity of shaping a coherent social policy in a low-income country heavily dependent on international aid.At a theoretical level, we confirm that ideas, interests and institutions are all important factors in the construction of Cambodian health care schemes. However, we demonstrate that trying to hierarchically organise these three elements to explain policy making is not fruitful.Regarding the methodology, interviews with forty-eight selected participants produced the qualitative material for this study. A documentary review was also an important source of data and information.The study produces two sets of results. First, Cambodian policy aimed at the development of health care arrangements results from a series of negotiations between a wide range of stakeholders with different objectives and interests. International stakeholders, such as donors and technical organisations, are major players in the policy arena where health policy is constructed. Cambodian civil society, however, is rarely involved in the negotiations.Second, the Cambodian government makes political decisions incrementally. The long-term vision of the Cambodian authorities for improving health care provision and access is quite clear, but, nevertheless, day-to-day decisions and actions are constantly negotiated between stakeholders. As a result, donors and non-government organisations (NGOs) working in the field find it difficult to anticipate policies.To conclude, despite real autonomy in the decision-making process, the Cambodian government still has to prove its capacity to master a number of risks, such as the (so far under-regulated) development of the private health care sector.


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