The single black mother as an asset : a qualitative study based on black motherwork narratives

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Tae'Lor Renee' Jones Glasgow
Keyword(s):  
Single Mothers ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Academic Culture ◽  
Census Bureau ◽  
Black Mothers ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
African America ◽  
Black Single Mothers ◽  
Single Black Mothers

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] African American families comprise an estimated 9,808,000 households across the nation, 37% of which are led by single mothers raising their own children (U.S. Census Bureau, 2016). This means that almost 4 million single African America mothers are the heads of families. The purpose of this study is to showcase strength-based narratives of single Black mothers and their views on interactions with the school system and how they help their children through schooling. The overarching research question this study explores is: How do single Black mothers work to support their children's educational journeys through PK-5 school? It is an important question to study for answers because those answers can affect how these mothers and children can thrive in our 21st century academic culture. Data collection included interviews with 10 single Black mothers. The findings of this study described the barriers, resources, and the motherwork of single Black mothers educating their children. Through these narratives, participant Black single mothers revealed what they considered most important in their motherwork: 1) to have high expectations for their children 2) to communicate effectively with their children, and 3) to communicate effectively with their children's schools. Thus, one main purpose of this study was to share how Black mothers support their children's education. Fulfilling that purpose will go far in informing educators and school leaders what is necessary to fully include this segment of our population when deciding educational matters.

scholarly journals Long-Run Earnings Mobility among Low-Income Individuals

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Mullins ◽  
Mark Rider ◽  
David L. Sjoquist ◽  
Sally Wallace
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
Single Mothers ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Black Mothers ◽  
Earnings Mobility ◽  
Administrative Records ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Employment Security ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Single Black Mothers

<p><em>We construct earnings mobility matrices for low-income individuals over 6-year and 13-year periods. Our sample of low-income individuals is drawn from the population of SNAP recipients in Georgia. Using Georgia administrative records, we identify SNAP participants in 2000 and their earnings for each year through 2013 using matched employment security records. We find that a substantial percentage of these individuals have zero earnings in both the initial and ending years. We find that there is a heavier concentration of males, whites, and disabled individuals with zero earnings in the initial and ending years than in the overall SNAP sample. This contradicts some of the characterizations of SNAP recipients in the popular press which often characterizes those stuck in poverty as single black mothers. In fact, the disabled represent the vast majority of those stuck in the no earnings category. Another interesting finding is that single mothers with zero earnings in 2000 have a greater probability, in some cases a much greater probability, of escaping the zero earnings category than the general population of SNAP recipients. We also find that individuals with positive earnings in the initial year experience substantial earnings mobility. </em></p>

Black Mothering in Action: The Racial-Class Socialization Practices of Low-Income Black Single Mothers

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Turner
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Single Mothers ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Racial Socialization ◽  
Parenting Practices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Middle Class ◽  
Black Mothers ◽  
Black Single Mothers

African Americans have long dealt with racism, discrimination, and racialized state and vigilante violence. As such, African American parents must educate their children about the realities of racism in the United States and how to cope with racism and discrimination. This practice, known as racial socialization, is a key aspect of Black parents’ parenting practices. Much of this labor tends to fall on the shoulders of Black mothers. To date, most of the scholarship on Black mothers’ racial socialization practices focuses on Black middle-class mothers. In this study, the author uses in-depth interviews with low-income African American single mothers in Virginia to examine how low-income Black single mothers racially socialize their children, what major concerns they express regarding raising Black children, and how their racial socialization practices and the concerns they express compare with those of Black middle-class mothers. Paralleling previous studies, the findings show that low-income Black single mothers generally fear for their children’s, especially their sons’, safety. They also invoke respectability politics when racially socializing their children, encouraging them not to dress or behave in ways that will reinforce stereotypes of Black boys as thugs or criminals. Diverging from previous research, however, the author argues that low-income Black single mothers’ employment of respectability politics is largely aspirational, as, unlike middle-class mothers, they are not able to assert their class status in an effort to prevent their children from experiencing discrimination.

scholarly journals Outcomes of Depression in Black Single Mothers

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 464-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahshida L. Atkins
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Single Mothers ◽  
Perceived Social Support ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Health Practices ◽  
Positive Health ◽  
Black Single Mothers ◽  
Positive Health Practices ◽  
Depressive Cognitions

Despite suggestions in the literature that depression has serious consequences, few studies have examined specific health and psychosocial outcomes of depression in Black single mothers. The purpose of this study was to estimate paths in a just-identified theoretical model of outcomes of depression for Black single mothers based on theoretical propositions and empirical findings. The model included the variables, depressive cognitions, depressive symptomatology, perceived social support, and positive health practices. Five direct and two indirect hypothesized relationships were estimated using structural equation modeling. A nonprobability sample of convenience of 159 Black single mothers aged 18 to 45 years was recruited for the study. This study used a cross-sectional correlational design. The participants responded in person or via the U.S. mail to the Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression scale, the Depressive Cognition Scale, the Personal Resource Questionnaire 85–Part 2, and the Personal Lifestyle Questionnaire. Beta and Gamma path coefficients were statistically significant for four out of five hypothesized direct relationships within the model ( p < .01). The direct path between depressive cognitions and positive health practices was not supported (Gamma = −.11, p > .05). The two indirect paths were weak but statistically significant ( p < .01). Depressive symptoms and perceived social support were outcomes of depressive cognitions. Positive health practices was not a direct outcome of depressive cognitions. Perceived social support and positive health practices were outcomes of depressive symptoms.

Baby Mama

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terrion L. Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Black Mothers ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Unwed Pregnancy ◽  
Single Black Mothers ◽  
Alternative Discourses

This chapter uses the ubiquitous “baby mama” to discuss what Lindon Barrett calls “bla(n)ckness”—a concept that radically calls into question traditional discourses by exposing the violence that often sets those discourses into motion and by revealing alternative discourses that resist the dichotomization upon which dominance, and dominate discourses, often rely. It argues that not only have social scientists found the link between poverty and unwed pregnancy that has long structured national debates about single black mothers to have been fatefully misinterpreted, but that young black mothers themselves evince the faulty logic upon which these debates so heavily rely.

scholarly journals Leader and innovator in the context of educational reforms

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-79
Author(s):  
Eva Urbanová
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Research Question ◽  
School Principal ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Work Activities ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Public Administration Reform ◽  
The Right

Changes in society are also changing approaches to education. Over the past two decades, governments in many countries have addressed the need for effective education reform to improve student achievement. School leaders have a crucial role to play as they face high expectations for educational outcomes, particularly in the context of technological progress, innovation, migration and globalisation. Leadership in education is becoming increasingly necessary at the beginning of the 21st century. There is a need to rethink school management and leadership models and to introduce innovative ideas. The core work activities and competencies of a leader in education consist of their experience, knowledge, character traits, attitudes and skills. An example of this is the situation in the Czech Republic, where the public administration reform in 2000 led to the decentralisation of education, which gave schools the right to decide on matters in all areas. This paper summarises an example of leadership in secondary schools in the Czech Republic in the context of reforms that are taking place not only in education. The results show that the role of a leader and innovator in a school is mostly performed by the school principal himself and most often as needed, which is related to his responsibility for the school's operation and especially its direction, i.e. the implementation of the school's development concept. The research question is: Which of the work activities related to the secondary school principal as a leader and innovator are done by him/herself or delegated to other staff members and how often are they performed?

scholarly journals Big Data Applications in Social Media Research: The Experience of Unsuccessful Data Analysis of Ukrainian Facebook

2018 ◽  
pp. 94-105
Author(s):  
A. Tokarev
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Data Base ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Functional Limitations ◽  
State University ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Big Data Applications ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

This article showcases a detailed description of the first stage of research on the discourse of Ukrainian opinion leaders on Facebook conducted by a team of researchers representing MGIMO University, Lomonosov Moscow State University, and Institute of Economy at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Convinced that it is Facebook that serves as the primary means of communication of politicians with the population in Ukraine, the team built a data base consisting of posts written over a 10-month period by 176 profiles belonging to the representatives of Ukrainian elites, and applied machine data analysis. The research question was the following: What strategies on the conflict in Donbas are verbalized by the Ukrainian elites? The author faced three challenges and limitations of machine data processing and analysis:unsuccessful operationalization of terms; functional limitations of the Semantic Archive Platform, of which the author turned out to have unreasonably high expectations; lack of understanding of peculiarities of Big Data analysis. Nevertheless, it was the failure of this pilot research that helped raise crucial questions for further research, primarily on the criteria for shaping a data base and on formulating of the research questions for software. This experience turned to be essential for second and third stages of the research project that were completed a year and half after the project was launched. Hence the necessity to make public all the considerations on this research.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document