<p> This qualitative narrative inquiry study involved exploring the perceptions of African American women about career advancement in public school administration. The research questions guided the exploration of perceptions and experiences about seeking positions of authority in public school systems administration in the state of California: What are the identifiable factors slowing career advancement for African American women seeking positions of authority in public education? How can other African American women avoid identifiable factors that slow career advancement? What supports should be in place to aid African American women on their quest to attain positions of authority in public education? Purposeful sampling was used to select five African American women administrators seeking career advancement in public schools. Transcriptions of audio-recorded interviews yielded data for analysis with the NVivo 9 computer analysis program. The perceptions and lived experiences of the participants were compiled and themes identified to determine the factors influencing career advancement of African American women to upper administration in public education. Five core themes embodied the main findings of the study: Personal Traits and Priorities, Exclusion Experiences, Extrinsic Motivation, Understandings, and Supports. Recommendations in the study include African American women increasing self-awareness and situational awareness within the organizational context and leaders gaining understanding about the unique characteristics, traits, qualities, and contributions of the African American women within their organization. Other recommendations include creating and evaluating a succession plan or policy for all individuals desiring career advancement, developing a leadership academy with an emphasis on diversity programs and multiculturalism supporting the succession plan and policies, and developing a pool of qualified candidates. Implementation of these recommendations may change policies and practices in public school systems to ensure fairness and equity for all members desiring career advancement. </p>

<p> Stratford Hall Plantation&rsquo;s Oval Site was once a dynamic 18th-century farm quarter that was home to an enslaved community and overseer charged with growing Virginia&rsquo;s cash crop: tobacco. No documentary evidence references the site, leaving archaeology as the only means to reconstruct the lives of the site&rsquo;s inhabitants. This research uses the results of a macrobotanical analysis conducted on soil samples taken from an overseer&rsquo;s basement and a dual purpose slave quarter/kitchen cellar at the Oval Site to understand what the site&rsquo;s residents were eating and how the acquisition, production, processing, provisioning, and consumption of food impacted their daily lives. The interactive nature of the overseer, enslaved community, and their respective botanical assemblages suggests that food was not only used as sustenance, it was also a medium for social interaction and mutual dependence between the two groups. </p><p> The botanical assemblage is also utilized to discuss how the consumption of provisioned, gathered, and produced foods illustrate the ways that Stratford&rsquo;s enslaved inhabitants formed communities and exerted agency through food choice. A mixture of traditional African, European, and native/wild taxa were recovered from the site, revealing the varied cultural influences that affected the resident&rsquo;s cuisine. The assemblage provides evidence for ways that the site&rsquo;s enslaved Africans and African Americans adapted to the local environment, asserted individual and group food preferences, and created creolized African American identities as they sought to survive and persist in the oppressive plantation landscape. </p><p> The results from the Oval Site are compared to nine other 18th- and 19th-century plantation sites in Virginia to demonstrate how food was part of the cultural creolization process undergone by enslaved Africans and African Americans across the region. The comparison further shows that diverse, creolized food preferences developed by enslaved communities can be placed into a regional framework of foodways patterns. Analyzing the results on a regional scale acknowledges the influence of individual preferences and identities of different communities on their food choices, while still demonstrating how food was consistently both a mechanism and a product of African American community formation.</p><p>

<p> This project explores the constructions of gender, intimacy, and race and the ways these issues are informed by history and the law. The idea of consent, while originally described in texts as a legal concept between citizens, transformed into a way to navigate intimate relationships in the private sphere. This muddied the ways women and men were understood to form relationships and the limits of those relationships. In the same ways that gender was arbitrated through legal language, race is often ensnared in the same processes and institutions. Tolerance has been offered as one approach, but instead of mitigating this violence, it has more firmly entrenched it into the democratic process. Hannah Arendt&rsquo;s description of the social frames an understanding of intimacy and narratives. Arendt&rsquo;s work critically creates a space for the category of the social, something found around but outside of the public and private. Instead of working to make the private seen as a sphere for political action, I will focus on the potential of the social as a method of political action. While Arendt has obvious racial bias, I will use her own response to anti-semitism to develop a different approach to Black politics that allow for identity-based responses. Lauren Berlant&rsquo;s <i>Intimate Publics</i> addresses the potential for coalition building in the social. Using the sorority system as a way of teasing out notions of femininity, discipline, sexual violence, and intimacy, I will describe the ways that a woman subject is produced and how this then works to shape our notions of race. Women&rsquo;s identities, particularly white women, are constructed through an association with race and sexuality, by unpacking this development, its possible to see how this is socially and institutionally enforced. Part of this enforcement will focus on the narratives of sexual violence. Rape is an issue that not only confronts legal questions, but also the nature of a woman&rsquo;s ability to participate in democracy. Tying this together will be the importance of political theory. This serves to define the contemporary issues, solutions that have been offered and new potential approaches to intimate violence.</p><p>

abstract: Media is a powerful tool used to reflect and affect change in society. Within this study, a brief historical context is provided of roles African Americans in film were traditionally cast in. By employing Critical Race Theory (CRT), cultural capital, and NewBlackMan frameworks, I analyzed how Black male film directors and producers depicted race, class, gender within the Black film boom of the early 2000s. I examined the depictions of educational outcomes of the characters within films utilized in this study. My results display progress that still needs to be made in breaking down traditional gender roles, how race needed to be more critically examined, and how educational outcomes of the characters were not realistic. I also provide suggestions for conducting media studies through the discipline of education in the future. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education 2010

<p> This research study examined the organizational identification process of lay church leaders. The organizational identification process is important to all organizations, as it increases an individual&rsquo;s connection to the organization and thus has the potential to increase attendance, commitment, group behaviors, and the enactment of organizational policies. Lay leaders are key to the success of churches, as the weight of leadership lies within these structured leadership positions of small, established ministries. </p><p> One research question guided this study: <i>What is the role of leadership development of lay leaders in enhancing their organizational identification? </i> The research site for this single descriptive case study was First Baptist Church of Highland Park, a large, African American Protestant church located near Washington, DC. Data were collected through interviews with lay leaders of three ministries of this church&mdash;deacons, ministers, and trustees&mdash;as well as observation and document analysis. Lay leaders were selected as the participants for this study since most roles and positions of leadership within the church involve this volunteer, lay leader base, and these individuals are trained for the ministry through an extensive leadership development process developed and provided by the church. </p><p> This study found that (1) the early life of lay leaders made a difference in how the leadership development program affected their organizational identification; (2) the associated ministry roles and responsibilities, as refined in the leadership development process, enhanced their process of organizational identification; (3) the self-esteem of the lay leaders developed through their leader training process and was an important factor in further enhancing their process of organizational identification; and (4) the church&rsquo;s identity and specific aspects of its mission and values were central in the organizational identification process.</p><p>

abstract: Illuminating Silent Voices: An African-American Contribution to the Percussion Literature in the Western Art Music Tradition will discuss how Raymond Ridley's original composition, FyrStar (2009), is comparable to other pre-existing percussion works in the literature. Selected compositions for comparison included Darius Milhaud's Concerto for Marimba, Vibraphone and Orchestra, Op. 278 (1949); David Friedman's and Dave Samuels's Carousel (1985); Raymond Helble's Duo Concertante for Vibraphone and Marimba, Op. 54 (2009); Tera de Marez Oyens's Octopus: for Bass Clarinet and one Percussionist (marimba/vibraphone) (1982). In the course of this document, the author will discuss the uniqueness of FyrStar's instrumentation of nine single reed instruments--E-flat clarinet, B-flat clarinet, alto clarinet, bass clarinet, B-flat contrabass clarinet, B-flat soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, and B-flat baritone saxophone, juxtaposing this unique instrumentation to the symbolic relationship between the ensemble, marimba, and vibraphone. / Dissertation/Thesis / FyrStar (2009) Live Recording (DMA Recital) / FyrStar (2009) Full Score / D.M.A. Music 2012

<p> The increased diversity of students at community colleges makes support and retention of Black women instructional faculty critical. Black women instructional faculty&nbsp;may&nbsp;feel like imposters, receiving messages of inadequacy, despite their achievements.&nbsp;If so, such feelings may impede their ability to serve students and to thrive more generally in their roles.&nbsp;Until now, the question of whether or how Black women faculty working in community colleges experience the imposter phenomenon had not been asked. </p><p> Through 23 in-depth, one-on-one interviews, this qualitative study explored and assessed the presence of and success strategies utilized to counter the imposter phenomenon or other challenges experienced by tenured and tenure-track Black women instructional faculty members employed at California community colleges. Findings revealed contentment and job satisfaction. While participants were familiar with and had experienced the imposter phenomenon, there was a general absence of the phenomenon in their current roles due to positive on-campus relationships with colleagues and students. Microaggressions from colleagues and students related to appearance were reported, but these challenges were mitigated through established mentors and allies and a strong sense of cultural and personal identity. Established expertise and participation in professional development were also strategies that helped participants to navigate, persist, and thrive in their work environments. </p><p> Recommendations for policy include increased state funding for community college faculty members to participate in off-campus professional development training. Practice recommendations include interpersonal skills training for new department chairs and best-practice discussions among continuing department chairs throughout the year. Recommendations for future research include replicating the study in other states and among adjunct faculty in California.</p><p>

<p>Poor academic performance and low academic aspirations can lead to involvement with the criminal justice system. Therefore, schools play an important role in mitigating risk factors as they create a supportive, accessible opportunity for intervention delivery. The population impacted most by academic zero-tolerance punishments are African-American students, whose current suspension rate is two to five times that of their White counterparts. This disproportionate representation also exists within the juvenile justice system, with African-American youths almost five times more likely to be detained than White youths. Therefore, finding effective school-based treatment interventions is essential to reducing disproportionate minority punishment and confinement. In order to address this need, a randomized controlled trial was conducted to examine the effectiveness of Rational Emotive Education (REE), a REBT school-based intervention, on the reduction of disruptive behavior amongst at-risk, male, African-American adolescents. Nineteen participants were assigned to either the treatment or the control condition. Data measuring disruptive behavior, anxiety, depression, anger, self-concept, and school engagement was collected for both groups pre-and post-intervention. Overall the results of the study revealed contradictory findings. Although participants assigned to the REE intervention saw a larger reduction in disruptive behavior over the course of treatment than the control group, on self-report measures they reported an increase in symptoms related to depression, anxiety, anger and a decrease in self-concept and school engagement. Treatment implications are discussed.

<p> Research has indicated that African American undergraduate students experience racial microaggressions within their university contexts, and these experiences are associated with negative outcomes such as symptoms of depression and anxiety (Cokely, Hall-Clark, &amp; Hicks, 2011; Nadal, 2011; Nadal, et al., 2014). Little is known about the experience of microaggressions and their effects on African American doctoral students, particularly those within the field of psychology. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between racial microaggressions, sense of belonging, coping strategies (problem solving, social support and avoidance), and psychological well-being among African American doctoral students in psychology. Results revealed that every participant had experienced at least one racial microaggression in their doctoral program within the last six months, with the most common types being related to environment and assumptions of inferiority. Contrary to hypotheses, results from a hierarchical multiple regression analyses suggested that racial microaggressions did not significantly predict psychological well-being in this sample. Findings also did not provide evidence for social support, problem solving, avoidance, or sense of belonging as moderators for the negative impact of microaggressions. Overall, the results of this study suggest that African American doctoral students in psychology experience racial microaggressions, but questions remain about the effects of these experiences on psychological well-being. Implications and future research directions are discussed.</p><p>

<p> Gun homicides are highly concentrated in African American communities and are widespread in urban neighborhoods. African American males are disproportionately victims and perpetrators of gun violence, have a higher propensity to use and carry weapons, and are more likely to die due to gun violence. Few studies, however, provide a detailed account of the history of gun carrying, the value of gun carrying, and the individual and situational factors that lead to or inhibit the use of guns among young African American males. </p><p> Based on semi-structured interviews of 11 African American males obtained via snowball sampling, this thesis explains the causes of African American male gun violence, and describes the patterns and decision-making processes around gun carrying and the use of guns (i.e. how gun were introduced, obtained, used or not used, loved, and despised) among African American males in Oakland, California. Based on the sample&rsquo;s insight, this thesis concludes that strengthening collective efficacy and community-police relationships, providing employment and educational opportunities and resources, implementing mentorship and restorative justice programs, and Crime Prevention Through Experimental Design (CPTED) strategies can reduce gun violence.</p><p>