Parent involvement is one of the factors to which student achievement is consistently and strongly linked in educational research, and is perceived by teachers as a core factor affecting student achievement. Therefore more and higher-quality engagement with students' families has the potential to make a positive difference in urban schools. However, a tendency among educators to focus on perceived family deficits, without a clear understanding of students' families' strengths, may limit urban schools' ability to develop effective family engagement programming. This study involved faculty and staff members at an urban K-8 school in systematically identifying strengths of the low-income Puerto Rican families whose children made up the vast majority of the student body, as a critical point of reference for working with families toward stronger student outcomes. The study was grounded in the principles of Action Research and utilized methods associated with Appreciative Inquiry to involve school faculty and staff members in carrying out, then collectively analyzing the results from, structured interviews with parents of low-income Puerto Rican students at the school. Along with establishing a family strengths inventory for use in ongoing planning for enhancement of family engagement programming at the school, the study included an assessment of the impact of the research process on the perceptions and intended actions of both participating faculty and staff members and those who elected not to participate. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of implications and recommendations related to theory, practice, policy, and research associated with the efforts of schools serving low-income Puerto Rican (and other) communities to strengthen their engagement with students' families.

The intent of this thesis is to analyze the racial attitudes of residents in the Orlando MSA towards Puerto Rican migrants that have moved as a result of Hurricane Maria and analyze the effects these attitudes may have on racial residential segregation in Central Florida. As the state with the third largest population of Latinos, Florida's residential landscape continues to be uniquely formed by a diverse, and markedly Latino, population. Florida's location in relation to South American and Caribbean countries has made it an opportune destination for immigrants and refugees. Therefore, it came as no surprise that when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in late 2017, thousands of Puerto Ricans sought refuge in Florida. This thesis examines racial attitudes towards this group of Puerto Rican migrants and the ways in which they could potentially affect neighborhood demographics. The study proceeds by collecting survey responses from participants living in the Orlando areas being analyzed. The survey asks participants about their general views of Puerto Rican migrants, it tests their knowledge of racial residential patterns in Orlando, and it analyzes their neighborhood preferences using a show card method.

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This dissertation focuses on the human experience during enslavement in nineteenth-century Puerto Rico, one of the last three localities to outlaw the institution of slavery in the Americas. It reviews the history of slavery and the plantation economy in the Caribbean and how the different European regimes regulated slavery in the region. It also provides a literature review on archaeological research carried out in plantation contexts throughout the Caribbean and their findings. The case study for this investigation was Hacienda La Esperanza, a nineteenth-century sugar plantation in the municipality of Manatí, on the north coast of the island. The history of the Manatí Region is also presented. La Esperanza housed one of the largest enslaved populations in Puerto Rico as documented by the slave census of 1870 which registered 152 slaves. The examination of the plantation was accomplished through the implementation of an interdisciplinary approach that combined archival research, field archaeology, anthropological interpretations of ‘material culture’, and geochemical analyses (phosphates, magnetic susceptibility, and organic matter content as determined by loss on ignition). Historical documents were referenced to obtain information on the inhabitants of the site as well as to learn how they handled the path to abolition. Archaeological fieldwork focused on controlled excavations on four different loci on the site. The assemblages recovered during three field seasons of archaeological excavations served to examine the material culture of the enslaved and to document some of their unwritten experiences. The study of the material culture of Hacienda La Esperanza was conducted through the application of John C. Barrett’s understanding of Anthony Giddens’ theory of structuration, Douglas Armstrong’s cultural transformation model, and Paul R. Mullins’ notions of consumerism and identity. Research results showed that the enslaved individuals of Hacienda La Esperanza were active yet highly restricted participants and consumers of the local market economy. Their limited market participation is evidence of their successful efforts to exert their agency and bypass the administration’s control. As such, this dissertation demonstrates that material life, even under enslavement, provides a record of agency and resistance. The discussion also addressed the topics of social stratification and identity. / Anthropology

The following study is part of a larger study examining techniques that might be of use in the release program of the Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata), including marking, capturing, and radio-tracking. The portion of the study reported here documents the vocal behavior of A. vittata during the reproductive season and examines the possibility of using vocalizations to identify individuals, determine the sex of individuals and determine the location of an individual's breeding territory. Objectives of this study included: 1) cataloguing and categorizing the vocal repertoire of A. vittata, 2) determining whether the vocal repertoire was sex-specific and region-specific and 3) determining if an individual's vocal repertoire could be used to identify it. The vocal repertoire was characterized using a hierarchical method and 147 calls were described. The repertoire was found contain a high percentage (76 %) of graded calls. Evolutionary strategies that may explain the complexity of such a repertoire are discussed. The vocal repertoire was found to be both sex- and region-specific. Characteristics analyzed included time and frequency parameters of sonagrams. Three methods were used to determine the feasibility of vocal recognition of individuals. These methods included: bird-call pairing, sonagraphic analysis, and linear predictive coding. Sonagraphic analyses in combination with linear predictive coding techniques show the most promise as tools in voice recognition of the parrot, however, further research will be necessary to determine how reliable voice recognition may be as a method for identifying individuals in the field. / Master of Science

Children of Hispanic origin have the highest prevalence of asthma of all ethnic groups in the United States, especially Puerto Rican children, who have a prevalence of 12.9%. Treatment nonadherence has been identified as one contributing factor. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the reasons for nonadherence to the asthma treatment regimen among Puerto Rican children. Parents and health care providers of asthmatic children were interviewed regarding their beliefs about asthma as a disease, its effect on the child's life, and their experience with asthma treatment. Two models served as the theoretical framework: the health belief model and the Institute of Medicine model framework for asthma disparities. Interview data were collected from 8 parents using a questionnaire, and a focus group was conducted with 3 health care professionals. Data were manually coded to identify emerging themes. Even though parents reported fear of asthma medications and medication side effects, none of the parents stopped the asthma treatment. Results also indicated that lack of education about asthma, asthma treatment, and asthma action plan was evident in 75% of the parents. None of the parents who migrated to the United States from Puerto Rico received education about asthma while living in Puerto Rico. Health care professionals reported that although parents are familiar with asthma, they do not understand that it is a chronic disease that requires daily treatment. Findings may be used to create an asthma education plan tailored to the needs of the Hispanic population.

My purpose in writing this dissertation is to re-evaluate the works of three influential Spanish-Caribbean authors who seem to be remembered more as exceptional historical characters rather than for their literature itself. Although often considered to be important contributors to the Spanish-Caribbean literary canon, these writers have also suffered a measure of marginalization as scholars have relegated them to the status of discursive subjects rather than evaluate them as authorial agents. As a consequence, the majority of their works have not been fully recognized as important factors in nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty first century literary production. I show how in their writings – many of which have been misunderstood, under-evaluated, and/or forgotten altogether – these writers narrated their own precarious situations and lifted their voice in protest against slavery, racism and economic oppression at a time when the dominant discourses and heavy-handed controls of the Spanish colonial government strictly forbid them to do so. These authors are Juan Francisco Manzano, Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés (Plácido) and Eleuterio Derkes. Because these authors lived in Cuba (Manzano and Plácido) and Puerto Rico (Derkes) as colonial subjects underneath the oppressive structures of their respective plantation and hacienda economies based on sugar production and slave labor, they experienced difficult colonial conditions and as such are able to narrate this life through a unique perspective that other writers associated with the dominant discourses of the time could not. While these brands of hegemony were indeed forced upon them as writers and artists, it did not stop them from narrating and communicating their unique Spanish Caribbean perspective. I show how these authors, as marginalized figures of nineteenth century plantation society, engineered their own discourses around these hegemonic institutions – writing between the lines of hegemony and concurrent with it at the same time – in order to create an alternative image of nineteenth century Spanish Caribbean society that requires further critical consideration and perspective. / text

Dissertation (Ph.D.) -- The Institute for Clinical Social Work, 1999. / A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Institute of Clinical Social Work in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: José Gomariz, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Modern Languages and Linguistics. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 8, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 75 pages. Includes bibliographical references.