<p> Currently, a mismatch exists between the race and ethnicity of the U.S. physician workforce and the patients it serves. The federal government, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), individual medical schools and other organizations are addressing this mismatch in part by focusing on increasing the numbers of racial/ethnic minorities who matriculate into medical schools. However, it is unclear how minority students navigate the medical school admissions process. This study used a grounded theory approach to explore the medical school admissions experiences of a sample of Black/African-American and Hispanic/Latino students. The study developed and proposed elements of an emerging conceptual model for understanding the reasons why participants applied to medical school, as well as the facilitators and barriers they encountered in the admissions process. Participants were purposively selected Black/African-American and Hispanic/Latino medical students who attended 25 U.S. allopathic medical schools nationwide. Phase 1 included 29 telephone interviews with individual participants and four in-person interviews in groups of two students each. Phase 2 consisted of feedback sessions with five of the original participants to verify four emergent themes: 1) reasons for applying, 2) participants' perceptions of navigating the admissions process, 3) the role and sources of information, guidance, and support, and 4) other forces affecting how participants navigated the admissions process. Reasons for applying to medical school included: perceived fit; prior experience or knowledge; encouragement and role models; desire to help others; perceived benefits; and interest in science. In addition to information, guidance, and support, other forces influenced how participants navigated the admissions process. These forces included: information, guidance and support; finances; preparation; extra programs; extracurricular activities; and attitude. Study findings connect to theories of student college choice and academic capital formation. Findings have implications for research and practice related to advising; reviewing admissions practices; outreach and recruitment; extra programs; mentoring; improved provision of information; and data collection.</p>

<p> This dissertation presents a collection of personal stories collected by the author from the lobster fishermen of Meteghan, Nova Scotia. This corpus is not a complete inventory, but it helps us to begin to understand the evolution of this Acadian village. The author wondered: Since fairy tales no longer exist in their current repertoire, why not give value to the life histories that exist? This research required an observational transformation in order to notice, preserve and present the treasure that is the oral tradition in this region.</p><p> The author presents the fishermen's stories based on the concept of the <i> ethnotexte,</i> generating the sense of a written discussion between all the participants. The author uses a minimal level of interpretation of her own, allowing the voices of the informants to shine. This allows the text to be more faithful to the experience, since without sound, there is already a deviation of a natural phenomenon, the performance. The protocol used for the transcripts balances between the fidelity of the recordings and the text's accessibility, while preserving the maritime vocabulary and archaic words. </p><p> The author presents eleven themes, ranging from old fishing techniques, to tricks and superstitions. Since fishing is the main industry in this francophone minority community, the author reveals the cultural importance found within the stories, like the testimonies of the old ways of living and fears for the future, which represent a poetic mix between tradition and modernity. </p><p> Having conducted extensive field work, the author concludes that Acadian folklore in the area is not threatened, but has instead evolved. The author has succeeded in letting these fishermen speak, which helps to illuminate the enigma of the modern Acadian identity. Although subject to the imposed imperatives of modernity, Acadians are pragmatic, and at the end of the day, they honor family and the stability of the village first.</p><p> This is a region rich in heritage. The importance of ethnology seeks not to find solutions but to preserve this information. With a sense of urgency to capture the oral histories, this kind of research enriches this community's culture.</p>

<p> In this dissertation, I analyze the historic and present social conditions of The United Methodist Church within the context of American culture. I also present strategies for reconciliation among estranged Black and White race groups, socioeconomic class groups, gender erotic predisposition groups, and ethnic groups other than Black and White. I use the theoretical lens of Black church interpretive traditions intersecting with Wesleyan theology. J. Deotis Roberts (1971/2005) proclaims, <i>"The black church, in setting black people free, may make freedom possible for white people as well. Whites are victimized as the sponsors of hate and prejudice which keeps racism alive" </i> (p. 33). The Black church is distinct from mainstream American church in that the Black church offers more upbeat and up-tempo worship, rhythmic preaching, gospel songs and spirituals through choirs with improvisational lead singers, call and response interaction between the preacher and the congregation, sermons that held justice and mercy in tension through hope, and worship experiences that are not constrained by time limits. From the Black experience in America, the Black church offers a profound response for existential predicaments related to "life and death, suffering and sorrow, love and judgment, grace and hope, [and] justice and mercy" (McClain, 1990, p. 46). I draw from the statements of priorities of United Methodist theorists (seminaries and theological schools) and practitioners (annual conferences) to critique collective expressed values and behaviors of United Methodists. Also, from congregations in the Western North Carolina (Annual) Conference of The United Methodist Church, I analyze narratives from personal interviews of pastors of congregations that have a different majority race composition than their own, of pastors of multi-ethnic congregations, and of congregants from multi-ethnic congregations. I suggest that the social history and present social conditions of The United Methodist Church are perplexing, particularly concerning Black and White relations. However, The United Methodist Church has the mandate, heritage, responsibility, organizational structure and spiritual capacity to contribute to substantive and sustainable reconciliation in the Church and in American society.</p>

<p> With the &ldquo;controlling images&rdquo; of the Jezebel, the Mammy, and the Sapphire constantly reiterated in movies, television shows, and popular culture, serving the interests of what bell hooks has identified as white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy, a consumer has to wonder if there is any way for Black women performers to thrive and empower other Black women while working within these constricting institutions. Although pop culture is the predominant cultural space where these controlling images and stereotypes have been reproduced there are many Black female entertainers who attempt to challenge and undermine such representations.</p><p> Scholars such as hooks and Patricia Hill Collins introduce us to the diverse forms of black feminists and black feminism by showing how black women from all walks of life produce and engage black feminist practice. In common cultural discourse, however artists such as Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Janelle Monae, Meshell Ndeogeocello are upheld as leading black feminist entertainers of our contemporary period while artists Nicki Minaj and Beyonc&eacute; are denounced as disempowering to black women and merely reproducing dominant racist, sexist, and hetero-normative stereotypes of black women.</p><p> Much Black Feminist scholarship has focused on Black women&rsquo;s resistance to the patriarchal, racist structures that continue to police and attempt to restrain Black women&rsquo;s bodies and freedom within material social and political realms, but less scholarship focuses on the ways in which Black female entertainers produce Black feminist knowledge and empowerment within the realms of pop culture.</p><p> The purpose of this study is not to show how Badu and Monae are the best examples of &ldquo;true&rdquo; Black feminism in the entertainment industry and how artists like Minaj and Knowles are tools of white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchy. The purpose is to take the expansions of Black feminism that Collins, Davis, hooks, and several other Black feminist intellectuals, have articulated in order to reflect the broad ways in which Black feminism plays out in the popular music industry and to argue against the grain of critiques of popular culture to demonstrate how, despite its limitations, this realm of cultural representation and performance can be emancipatory for black women.</p>

<p> This qualitative interview study examines the challenges and successes early childhood teachers in Oakland Unified School District face when addressing issues of race and racism in their classrooms. Teachers' and District Administrator's stories of barriers and strategies were analyzed to inform my professional practice. Data were collected through qualitative interviews and a focus group. The main theoretical framework that supported analysis came from Critical Race Theory. The data were analyzed through descriptive coding and analytic memoing. Key findings include the impact of personal beliefs and experiences on teachers' barriers and strategies. Teachers' barriers include the age or English proficiency of their students, lack of discussion at their school site, and a lack of training and tools. They used a wide range of strategies, including literature, general conversations, specific questions, creating a strong link between home and school as well as relying on experiences regarding race and racism they had in their personal lives. Teachers and district administrators were both working on addressing racism, however, their strategies were very distinct; administrators were working on large-scale projects while teachers were very focused on their individual classrooms and students. This study makes an important contribution to the literature because the role and impact of race and racism in Early Childhood classrooms is often overlooked. There is a lack of professional literature addressing the obstacles that teachers committed to engaging in this work face and also an absence of reflection from early childhood teachers about what strategies they use to support them in their anti-racist work. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> anti-racist teaching, early childhood education, critical race theory, obstacles to anti-racist teaching, teacher strategies </p>

<p> <i>La mestiza</i> embodies a multiplicity of ancestral locations, ethnicities, and cultures. On the borders and in diaspora, she is often internally divided within a socially constructed white masculinist framework that would have her locate herself from one homeland and identify as either &ldquo;woman of color&rdquo; or &ldquo;white&rdquo; Interconnected with colonial and patriarchal epistemologies, this study explores how the dominant framework, more often invisibly, encourages racism within the mestiza&#129;fs psyche and women&#129;es spirituality communities.</p><p> This study seeks to heal traumas of racism by employing a transdisciplinary mestiza approach &mdash; bearing feminist and indigenous decolonial lenses &mdash; to engage with the nuances &mdash; in between binary racialized identities where the mestiza is situated. In mestiza situated space are stories of recovering indigeneity by recognizing, grieving, and deconstructing the dominant framework. This study focuses on, in particular, stories of mestizas nutured in colonial mentality as well as contextually read as white.</p>

<p> The current study sought to examine the role of traditional values in China and the United States as one of the important social psychological mechanisms through which romantic relationships affect mental health. The work is guided by the Social Structure and Personality framework, focusing on the meaning construction dictated by traditional values in the stress process, while also addressing the structural and cultural origins of meanings. Specifically, I used path models to examine how those internalized values moderate the impacts of romantic relationships on the mental health of Chinese and American college students and also compared the effects across gender and nations with Multi-group SEM method. The results show that traditional values work as a major social-psychological mechanism influencing Chinese students only by exacerbating the impacts of breakups on their depression. In terms of gender and national patterns, the most important finding is that the unconditional main effect of traditional values differs across gender and nations and Chinese women are mostly harmed by those values. The results partially support the theoretical construction and also add to both the meaning studies in the stress process and the substantive research of romantic relationships and mental health.</p>

<p> Within the field of school psychology there exists literature for school psychologists working with specific ethnic and linguistic groups (Frisby &amp; Reynolds, 2005; Tomes, 2011). The Arab American population is estimated to be 3.6 million (Arab American Institute, 2012). However, there is a paucity of school psychology research on Arab American students and families (Goforth, 2011; Haboush, 2007). As active members of the special education process, school psychologists will benefit from information regarding Arab American cultural and religious beliefs about special education and disabilities. Such information will assist them in providing culturally sensitive and appropriate services to students and families. </p><p> This study utilized a phenomenological qualitative approach to illuminate Arab Americans parents' experiences with their children's encounters with the special education process and perceptions of their children's disabilities. Phenomenological data analysis revealed four core themes. First, parents attached significance to specific steps within the special education process and to cultural stigmas around special education and disabilities. Next, parents reflected on special education services and key relationships. Additionally, parents discussed their children's abilities, their understandings of special education, and their advocacy work. Finally, parents reported that their goals for their children had not changed as a result of the special education process, although the goals were tailored to their children's identified disabilities. These findings have significant implications for professionals working with Arab American students and their parents. Recommendations are made for culturally sensitive school psychology practice with Arab Americans. Suggestions are provided for further research on this important yet under-researched topic. </p>

<p> This qualitative case study is an investigation of the role of race, school context, and personal and professional experiences in the formation of an early childhood teacher's professional identity. Data sources included interviews, observations, conversations, field notes, and school artifacts. Member checking, triangulation, and extended observation supported the trustworthiness of the results. The findings of the research indicate that major themes related to identity formation included family influence, teaching values and beliefs, and identity shift. Main themes related to the minority status of the participant were emotions and feeling of alienation. Finally, major themes related to school context and personal and professional experiences included relationships with children and parents, relationships with teachers and staff members at the school, early learning experiences, and images of a good teacher. The study concludes with suggestions for early childhood education programs and future researchers.</p>

<p>Colorblind racial attitudes are described as the denial or minimization of race and racism (Neville et al., 2000), which may silence accounts of racial discrimination and lead White Americans to ignore their racial privileges, ultimately supporting and reproducing racial inequality in the US (Bonilla-Silva, 2001). Alarmingly, colorblind attitudes are the dominant racial ideology among White Americans (Lewis, 2004), and inform the way White adults talk to their children about race (Schofeild, 2007). The current study explored the development and maintenance of Whites&rsquo; colorblind attitudes, using ideas from Stephan and Stephan&rsquo;s (1985) theory of intergroup anxiety, Helm&rsquo;s (1995) theory of White racial identity, and concepts underlying Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes et al., 2006). Informed by these theories, the study examined the roles of interracial anxiety and psychological flexibility in Whites&rsquo; colorblind racial attitudes. </p><p> Participants were 323 White American adults, consisting mostly of females from the Midwest. The study hypothesized that Whites&rsquo; level of interracial anxiety with Blacks would predict their level of colorblind racial attitudes. The study also hypothesized that Whites&rsquo; level of psychological flexibility, or their ability to remain present with unpleasant experiences without defense, would moderate the relationship between interracial anxiety and colorblind racial attitudes. </p><p> Results indicated that Whites&rsquo; interracial anxiety with Blacks did not significantly predict their colorblind racial attitudes, and that psychological flexibility did not moderate the relationship between interracial anxiety and colorblind attitudes. Results did reveal that psychological flexibility was related to colorblind attitudes, indicating that Whites who reported lower levels of flexibility also reported higher levels of colorblind racial attitudes. </p><p> Results support the notion that psychological flexibility may play an important role in Whites&rsquo; racial attitudes. Specifically, White Americans with high levels of psychological flexibility may be less likely to engage in avoidance or denial when they experience unpleasant thoughts and feelings related to race, allowing them to actively process and integrate racial information, ultimately leading to increased racial awareness. Findings suggest that research and theory on racial attitudes should consider incorporating psychological flexibility in the future, and that diversity interventions focused on increasing psychological flexibility may be beneficial for promoting attitude change. </p>