scholarly journals Fostering Spaces for Black Joy in STEM-Rich Making and Beyond

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-134
Author(s):  
Ti'Era D Worsley ◽  
ReAnna S Roby

What does it mean to express Black joy and loving blackness through STEM-rich making? What does it mean for Black youth in community-based, youth-focused makerspaces to express Black joy and loving blackness? We look at how Black youth alongside their facilitators co-create spaces of Black joy through making. These makerspaces are located at two local Boys and Girls Clubs in the US Midwest and the Southeast. Makerspaces are informal sites where youth are encouraged to work collaboratively while building digital and physical artifacts. As two Black female STEM educators working with Black youth we frame our work in critical race theory. Specifically we draw on the tenets of whiteness as property and counter-narratives. Using critical ethnographic methods, we explore the ways in which Black youth produce counter-narratives that disrupt whiteness as property through STEM-rich making. Data sources include fieldnotes; artifacts, such as youth work; interviews; and video recordings. The first vignette highlights how two Black girls navigate choosing and creating characters using Scratch. The second vignette focuses on a brother and sister duo who center their making on family and their shared maker identity. We then discuss the freedoms afforded to youth with flexible co-designed curriculum with facilitators and how we foster open spaces. We address this special issue’s driving question by asking, How do we, as STEM facilitators, counter anti-blackness in/through STEM by fostering space for Black joy with youth in making?

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
V. Thandi Sulé ◽  
Michelle Nelson ◽  
Tiffany Williams

Background/Context Though Black Americans have long suffered under racial tyranny, they have made valiant efforts to subvert policies and practices that encroach on their humanity. Nevertheless, systemic racism has been virtually unyielding—creating both racial hierarchies and disparities in access to resources and wellness. Programs designed to address the condition of Black people, particularly Black youth, often employ deficit or dysfunctional logic, thereby ignoring the sociohistorical context in which Black youth navigate. Furthermore, not enough attention is given to the ways that culturally centered approaches ignite critical consciousness among Black youth in ways that are aligned with the tradition of the Black American abolitionist mindset. Purpose We build on the discourse on community-based youth programs and critical consciousness development by using frameworks that elevate race and culture in analyzing how Black youth make sense of their racialized experiences. Additionally, our explication challenges the overriding deficit focus of Black youth experiences within and outside school contexts by providing a nuanced view of Black youth agency. Research Design With critical race theory as the epistemic foundation, this study sought to foreground counternarratives among youth participants of a culturally centered, community-based program. Thus, we used semistructured interviews as our primary data source. Using a three-stage analytical process, we sought to understand if and how critical consciousness manifests within this youth community. Conclusions/Recommendations The study demonstrates the value of foregrounding African American culture and history to fortify the values of collectivism, self-determination, purpose, responsibility, empowerment, creativity, and faith among Black youth. The authors propose that educators collaborate with community-based Black culture and youth development experts to support dialogical, student-centered spaces that impart culturally centered knowledge about Black Americans. Furthermore, the authors advocate for professional development in asset-based pedagogies as a means to enhance belongingness among Black students.


Author(s):  
Gabriel Daniel Solis

This essay explores symbolic annihilation in the context of state violence, including policing, incarceration, and the death penalty in the US. Using auto-ethnography to reflect on the work of the Texas After Violence Project (TAVP) and other community-based documentation and archival projects, I argue that the personal stories and experiences of victims and survivors of state violence are critical counter-narratives to dominant discourses on violence, criminality, and the purported efficacy of retributive law enforcement and criminal justice policies and practices. They also compel us to engage with complex questions about victimhood, disposability, and accountability. Building on the work of activists and archivists engaged in liberatory memory work, I also argue that counter-narratives of state violence confront and challenge the social, cultural, and ideological power of symbolic annihilation. Because these counter-narratives are under constant threat of being suppressed, co-opted, or silenced, they are forms of endangered knowledge that must be protected and preserved. Finally, I reflect on ‘archives of survival,’ repositories of stories and other ephemera of tragedy that contribute to envisioning and achieving transformative justice.


Author(s):  
Kellie Rhodes ◽  
Aisland Rhodes ◽  
Wayne Bear ◽  
Larry Brendtro

Approximately 1.7 million delinquency cases are disposed in juvenile courts annually (Puzzanchera, Adams, & Sickmund, 2011). Of these youth, tens of thousands experience confinement in the US (Sawyer, 2019), while hundreds of thousands experience probation or are sentenced to community based programs (Harp, Muhlhausen, & Hockenberry, 2019). These youth are placed in the care of programs overseen by directors and clinicians. A survey of facility directors and clinicians from member agencies of the National Partnership for Juvenile Services (NPJS) Behavioral Health Clinical Services (BHCS) committee identified three primary concerns practitioners face in caring for these youth; 1) low resources to recruit and retain quality staff, 2) training that is often not a match for, and does not equip staff to effectively manage the complex needs of acute youth, and 3) the perspective of direct care as an unskilled entry-level position with limited impact on youth’s rehabilitation. This article seeks to address these issues and seeks to highlight potential best practices to re-solve for those obstacles within juvenile services.


Author(s):  
Heba Salem

This chapter describes the my experience as the instructor for a course rooted in community based learning theory that was forced to move online in spring, 2020, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The course, titled ‘CASA Without Borders’, allows Arabic language students in the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) program at The American University in Cairo (AUC) to leave the university environment and serve the community, while also benefiting from the experience both linguistically and culturally. This course was disrupted by the students’ mandatory return to the US from Cairo as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, and continued remotely in an online format. This chapter describes the CASA program and explains both the purpose of the CASA Without Borders course and its significance to CASA students and to the program. It also describes and reflects upon my experience of continuing the course remotely during the ongoing pandemic.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 242
Author(s):  
Debra Mayes Pane

<p>This study explored a contemporary counternarrative of Drama Club, a transformative culture of teaching and learning for disenfranchised Black youth who had been systematically funneled out of classrooms and into the school-to-prison pipeline.  Auto/biographical and auto/ethnographical data were collected and assembled as a metaphor of the teachers’ and students’ experiences in Drama Club and their understanding of the teaching and learning process and of themselves within it.  The collective story of Drama Club was analyzed through the lens of culturally responsive pedagogy theory and critical race theory in education.  Implications for future research and teacher education that set out to impact disenfranchised students are included.</p>


Blood ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 3168-3168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J Noga ◽  
Robert M. Rifkin ◽  
Sudhir Manda ◽  
Ruemu Ejedafeta Birhiray ◽  
Roger M. Lyons ◽  
...  

Background US MM-6 is a US community-based study that investigates the transition from a parenteral (btz) to an oral (ixazomib) proteasome inhibitor (PI) in NDMM to increase PI-based treatment duration and adherence, maintain QoL, and improve outcomes. Here, we report on the novel, RW aspects of the study including the use of digital devices/wearables to evaluate QoL, medication adherence, and actigraphy (average steps and sleep time/ day) in a community oncology setting, for the first 55 enrolled pts. Methods NDMM pts who are transplant-ineligible or transplant-delayed >24 mos and have ≥stable disease after 3 cycles of btz-based induction are being enrolled at 23 community sites. Pts receive IRd (ixazomib 4 mg, d 1, 8, 15; lenalidomide 25 mg, d 1-21; dexamethasone 40 mg [20 mg for pts aged >75 yrs], d 1, 8, 15, 22; each 28-d cycle) for up to 26 x 28-d cycles or until progression/toxicity. The primary endpoint is progression-free survival. Novel secondary and exploratory endpoints are included to capture pts' experience in the RW community setting. Electronic pt-reported outcomes (ePROs) are used to assess medication adherence and QoL, as measured by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Core QoL Questionnaire (QLQ-C30), EORTC QoL Questionnaire-Multiple Myeloma Module (QLQ-MY20) for peripheral neuropathy (PN), and the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM-9). Pts use wearable digital devices/smartphones to complete a monthly medication adherence survey and record actigraphy. Results At the data cutoff of April 1 2019, 55 pts had been enrolled at 16 sites in the US; 40 were still undergoing treatment. Females comprised 53% of pts, 13% were of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, and 13% were black/African American. Pt/disease characteristics revealed a comorbid, difficult-to-treat RW population: median age was 72 yrs (35% 65-75 yrs; 42% ≥75 yrs); 40% had International Staging System stage III disease, and 42% had lytic bone disease. Most common comorbidities at study start were hypertension (51%), anemia (44%), fatigue (42%), renal and urinary disorders (36%), gastroesophageal reflux disease (31%), and cardiac disorders (27%). Prior to IRd treatment, the 3-cycle btz-based induction required adjusting in 11 (20%) pts: 38 (69%) pts started induction with btz-lenalidomide-dexamethasone (VRd) (1 had only 1 cycle documented, 1 de-escalated to Vd), 7 (13%) started on btz-cyclophosphomide-dexamethasone (VCd) (2 had only 1 cycle documented), 4 (7%) started on Vd (3 escalated to VRd), and 2 (4%) started on VCRd but de-escalated to VCd/VRd after 1 cycle; 3 (5%) pts received VR only (Figure). Average compliance with completing issued ePRO questionnaires during IRd treatment was 96%, and ≥87% in all cycles (61 pts; data cutoff July 8, 2019), revealing the feasibility of ePRO collection in community pts, most of whom were elderly. During IRd treatment, there was a trend toward improved treatment satisfaction and QoL, with no increase in PN symptoms (Figure). Mean change (95% CI) from baseline on EORTC QLQ-C30 score was 5.12 (-13.79-24.02) by cycle 5 (n=13), 15.47 (-16.45-47.39) by cycle 8 (n=7), and -4.18 (-21.29-12.94) by cycle 12 (n=5). Mean change (95% CI) from baseline on TSQM-9, subscale 'effectiveness', was 7.54 (-1.84-16.91) by cycle 5 (n=14), and 11.13 (-12.82-35.08) by cycle 12 (n=3), with similar patterns for subscales 'convenience' and 'global satisfaction' (Figure). Mean change from baseline on EORTC QLQ-MY20, PN component, was between 0.0-2.0 throughout all cycles. Patients recorded their monthly medication adherence for the previous 4 weeks; 81% of evaluable pts (n=32) in cycle 1, 81% in cycle 2 (n=27), 77% in cycle 3 (n=22), 96% in cycle 4 (n=24), and 94% in cycle 5 (n=18) (n<11 [20% of pts] beyond cycle 5) reported 'excellent'/'very good' adherence. Analysis of actigraphy data for 24 pts (2086 compliant days [≥12h of data]) (Figure) revealed normal levels of activity (Tudor-Locke 2011) and sleep durations (Coleman 2011). Updated actigraphy data will be presented. Conclusions Preliminary ePRO and actigraphy data from this RW community study suggest that long-term treatment with all-oral IRd has no impact on health-related QoL or on pts' lifestyle. High ePRO compliance indicates that RW studies using wearable electronic data collection devices are feasible in this mostly elderly, comorbid population, and may have a positive impact on medication adherence. Disclosures Noga: Takeda: Employment. Rifkin:Amgen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Birhiray:Alexion: Consultancy; Bayer: Honoraria; Helsin: Honoraria; Sanofi Oncology: Speakers Bureau; Puma: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Incyte: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Pfizer: Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; BMS: Speakers Bureau; Tessaro: Speakers Bureau; Exelexis: Speakers Bureau; Kite Pharma: Honoraria; Clovis Oncology: Speakers Bureau; Lilly: Speakers Bureau; AstraZeneca: Speakers Bureau; Celgene: Honoraria; Takeda: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Genomic Health: Speakers Bureau; Jansen Bioncology: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Seattle Genetics: Honoraria; Abbvie: Consultancy, Honoraria; Coheris: Honoraria. Lyons:Texas Oncology: Equity Ownership; Amgen: Consultancy; McKesson: Other: Leadership. Whidden:Takeda: Employment. Schlossman:Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited: Employment. Wang:Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, MA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited: Employment. Boccia:Celgene: Speakers Bureau; Genentech: Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Speakers Bureau; AstraZeneca: Speakers Bureau; AMAG: Consultancy; DSI: Speakers Bureau.


Author(s):  
H. Miao ◽  
K. Chen ◽  
X. Yan ◽  
F. Chen

Background: This study aimed to investigate the association between sugar in beverage and dementia, Alzheimer Disease (AD) dementia and stroke. Methods: This prospective cohort study were based on the US community-based Framingham Heart Study (FHS). Sugar in beverage was assessed between 1991 and 1995 (5th exam). Surveillance for incident events including dementia and stroke commenced at examination 9 through 2014 and continued for 15-20 years. Results: At baseline, a total of 1865 (63%) subjects consumed no sugar in beverage, whereas 525 (18%) subjects consumed it in 1-7 servings/week and 593 (29%) in over 7 servings/week. Over an average follow-up of 19 years in 1384 participants, there were 275 dementia events of which 73 were AD dementia. And 103 of 1831 participants occurred stroke during the follow-up nearly 16 years. After multivariate adjustments, individuals with the highest intakes of sugar in beverage had a higher risk of all dementia, AD dementia and stroke relative to individuals with no intakes, with HRs of 2.80(95%CI 2.24-3.50) for all dementia, 2.55(95%CI 1.55-4.18) for AD dementia, and 2.11(95%CI 1.48-3.00) for stroke. And the same results were shown in the subgroup for individuals with median intakes of sugar in beverage. Conclusion: Higher consumption of sugar in beverage was associated with an increased risk of all dementia, AD dementia and stroke.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-169
Author(s):  
Jessica L. King ◽  
Julie W. Merten ◽  
Nicole E. Nicksic

Objectives: We examined the prevalence of and factors associated with usually purchasing tobacco online. Methods: We analyzed Waves 1 (2013-14) and 4 (2016-17) of the US Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health adult (18+) and youth (12-17) studies: 15,450 adults and 495 youth in 2013-14 and 15,037 adults and 465 youth in 2016-17. Z-tests compared the prevalence of usually purchasing tobacco online between waves and weighted multivariable regressions identified associations between purchasing online and sociodemographics. Results: The prevalence of usually purchasing tobacco online increased from 2.5% to 3.3% among adults (p < .05) and from 2.5% to 4.4% among youth (p < .05), generalizing to a US population of 2,000,000 adults and 35,000 youth. E-cigarettes and cigars and e-cigarettes and waterpipe tobacco were the most common products among adults and youth, respectively. Men, adults with greater education, adults with higher income, and non-Hispanic black youth had greater odds of purchasing tobacco online (p < .05). Conclusions: Usually purchasing tobacco online remains low, although ever purchasing was not assessed. Efforts should be made to expand Internet tobacco purchasing surveillance and extend and enforce restrictions broadly across tobacco products to reduce youth access.


Author(s):  
Shizhan Yuan

This chapter compares and contrasts the curriculum, pedagogy, instructional materials, and extracurricular activities in a community-based CHL school and a Chinese-English DLI program in a southeast state of the US to discern how each is promoting Chinese immigrant children's heritage language and cultural learning. The author also explored how each school was supported by the local community. The result of this study indicates that the curriculum of the community-based CHL school was more focusing on teaching heritage culture as well as the reading and writing of Chinese words. In the Chinese-English DLI program, its cultural study curriculum in the social studies classes was more focused on the US citizenship education. However, in the social studies classes, teachers in the DLI program were able to integrate more Chinese literacy learning activities into the subject content instruction.


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