abstract: This case study explores American Indian student activist efforts to protect and promote American Indian education rights that took place during 2007-2008 at a predominantly white institution (PWI) which utilizes an American Indian tribal name as its institutional athletic nickname. Focusing on the experiences of five American Indian student activists, with supplementary testimony from three former university administrators, I explore the contextual factors that led to activism and what they wanted from the institution, how their activism influenced their academic achievement and long-term goals, how the institution and surrounding media (re)framed and (re)interpreted their resistance efforts, and, ultimately, what the university's response to student protest conveys about its commitment to American Indian students and their communities. Data was gathered over a seven-year period (2007-2014) and includes in-depth interviews, participant observation, and archival research. Using Tribal Critical Race Theory and Agenda Setting Theory, this study offers a theoretically informed empirical analysis of educational persistence for American Indian students in an under-analyzed geographic region of the U.S. and extends discussions of race, racism, and the mis/representation and mis/treatment of American Indians in contemporary society. Findings suggest the university's response significantly impacted the retention and enrollment of its American Indian students. Although a majority of the student activists reported feeling isolated or pushed out by the institution, they did not let this deter them from engaging in other social justice oriented efforts and remained dedicated to the pursuit of social justice and/or the protection of American Indian education rights long after they left the in institution. Students exercised agency and demonstrated personal resilience when, upon realizing the university environment was not malleable, responsive, or conducive to their concerns, they left to advocate for justice struggles elsewhere. Unfortunately for some, the university's strong resistance to their efforts caused some to exit the institution before they had completed their degree. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Justice Studies 2014

Grande parte da população de crianças e adolescentes brasileiros vive em condições de miséria e, associados aos conflitos familiares, procuram a rua como fonte geradora de renda, expondo-se à delinqüência, consumo de drogas, entre outros. No sentido de aprofundar o conhecimento acerca da questão, buscamos na literatura elementos necessários para traçar um panorama geral sobre a temática das crianças e dos adolescentes em situação de rua, no âmbito das relações na família e das políticas sociais voltadas à assistência deste grupo, porém sem reduzir a estes aspectos como os únicos responsáveis pela gênese dos meninos e meninas em situação de rua. Este estudo tem como objetivo conhecer e analisar as representações sociais da rua e as relações que se estabelecem entre meninos em situação de rua e entre estes e a instituição pública que os abriga bem como suas famílias, sob a ótica de um grupo de adolescentes que tiveram experiência de vida nas ruas da cidade de Goiânia (GO). O referencial metodológico é de natureza qualitativa sendo utilizada as representações sociais enquanto procedimento metodológico. Para a coleta de dados foram utilizadas a entrevista semi estruturada, fotografias produzidas pelos sujeitos e observações anotadas em um diário de campo. O tratamento dos dados baseia-se na hermenêutica – dialética. Através das categorias empíricas "curtição", "humilhação", "a gente não tem" e "lei do cano" apreendemos, de um modo geral, que as representações sociais sobre a rua se constróem a partir de elementos da contradição entre a liberdade e a violência que a rua oferece, isto é, violência a que se sujeitam é o preço exigido pela liberdade e diversão que procuram naquele espaço. Concluindo, destacamos que esta pesquisa oferece à Enfermagem aspectos importantes sobre o "fenômeno dos meninos e meninas de rua" que contribuirão para uma assistência mais efetiva na promoção da saúde integral da criança e do adolescente. / Great part of Brazilian children and adolescents' population live in poverty conditions and, associated to the family conflicts, they seek the street as generating source of income, being exposed to the delinquency, consumption of drugs among others. At the literature we looked for necessary elements to know about general aspects of children and adolescents' in street situation in the ambit of the relationships in their families and of social politics to attendance this group, but not reducing to these aspects as the only responsible to boys and girls' in street situation genesis. As an aim this study sought to know and to analyse, from adolescents that had life experience in the streets in Goiânia city (GO), their social representation about street, and the relationships among boys in street situation and also among these and their families and the public institution that shelters them. The qualitative research is the methodological referential and the social representations were the methodological procedure. To collect data, semi structured interview, pictures produced from the boys and noted observations was used and its treatment bases on the hermeneutic - dialectics. It was possible to apprehend that the social representations about street is built from contradiction elements of freedom and violence offered by street lifestyle. This meaning we got from empirical categories identified as funny, humiliation, we don't have and gun’s law. We understood that to all of this they attribute violence as the price demanded by freedom and amusement they seek in that place. The results of this research offers important aspects to be considered on nursing health care assistance for children and adolescents’ in street situation.

This study discusses the lack of technical professions at the labour market which is experienced by employers in industry areas. It describes the economic situation in the Czech Republic and characterises the labour market, its structure and labour force requirements. It mainly focuses on the analysis of tertiary education. The study also points out possible future development in these industries, for comparison is the analyse in other EU countries enclosed. The research, which is one of the main parts of this work is focused on the university students and graduates with technical specialization. The aim of this study is to suggest possible measures and recommendations in the area of personal strategy and scarce workers approach in the market.

BACKGROUND: Arizona has enacted some of the harshest state-level immigration policies restricting public benefits and services to immigrant families. The passage and enactment in 2010 of Arizona Senate Bill 1070 (SB1070), "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act", criminalized the act of hiring or harboring undocumented immigrants (Magaña 2013a). Particularly affected are children of mixed-status families where one or more children are U.S. citizens and entitled to public services. There is limited knowledge on the effects of immigration enforcement policies on immigrant access to health services in Tucson, Arizona (Hardy et al. 2012, Toomey et al. 2014). Of particular interest to scholars and policymakers is how the family unit navigates accessibility to care when one or several members have varied immigration statuses. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this dissertation is to explore healthcare accessibility and the healthcare experiences of Latino mixed-status families in Arizona's political context. The overall goal of this research is to identify promoters and barriers to healthcare accessibility in Arizona's immigrant communities particularly mixed-status households. METHODS: To conduct this formative research a mixed methods approach was utilized consisting of three study aims: 1) semi-structured interviews (quantitative and qualitative) with members of immigrant families (n = 43) 2) the use of photovoice, a qualitative participatory research method, to understand healthcare experiences of immigrant youth under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (referred to as DACAmented youth) (n = 7) and 3) dissemination of photovoice results through an exhibition and dialogue with the community and policymakers. RESULTS: The results by specific study aims demonstrate: 1) factors limiting access to healthcare relate to complexity of application requirements (57%); discrimination and fear (26%), and long wait times for application approvals and appointments (13%). Other reasons reported (26%) relate to cost of care, confusion over eligibility of care and misunderstanding regarding coverage. Promoters to care relate to affordability of care (43%); positive customer service (37%); colocation of services (20%) and assistance with applications (17%). Other findings relate to proximity of location, language availability, ease of appointments and employer based assistance with insurance, 2) DACAmented youth shared concerns related to the high costs of medical care, the complicated requirements to access care, limited healthcare options, discrimination and fear while also emphasizing their community's strength and resilience. Most importantly, DACAmented youth sought to be understood, asking that their humanity be acknowledged, and 3) public exhibits, presentations and meetings with policymakers provided additional lessons for both participants and researchers by illuminating the challenges that health practitioners face in delivery of care to mixed-status families (and particularly to undocumented individuals) in a politically restrictive environment and how this impacts perceptions of "deservingness" of care. CONCLUSIONS: The study results indicate that local response particularly safety net programs are vital and offer a platform to respond to the unique challenges that mixed-status families' face especially when family members are deported and/or detained. This study offers lessons and insights on how anti-immigrant and restrictive political environments impact health and how to engage immigrant populations in achieving health equity. Results not only have important implications and relevancy in Arizona but also over growing national fears of family separation and deportations under the Trump administration. Healthcare providers can benefit from the proposed recommendations in building bridges to care to address health equity in immigrant communities. RECOMMENDATIONS: In efforts to continue to address and expand access to care to mixed-status families recommendations include the expansion of safety net programs and training of healthcare professionals and frontline staff to address the unique needs of mixed-status families in the provision of care. Additionally there is a need for increased outreach to immigrant families to provide health literacy programming and know your health rights workshops to facilitate usage and assist in the navigation of healthcare programs to gain a better understanding of health systems. The inclusion of youth voices in participatory health research and health policy development is also at the core of this research. This recommendation would require health policymakers to work differently and to seek ways to engage and collaborate with youth on health matters. Ultimately continued advocacy for immigration reform and inclusivity in healthcare is at the heart of achieving health equity.

The focus of my research has been the reverberations of the 2001 Argentine economic crisis, as they affected and were responded to by women in social movements. This dissertation contributes to studies of globalization by highlighting the unintended consequences of neoliberalism in Argentina in the form of the collective empowerment of women in egalitarian social movements. The negative consequences of neoliberalism are well known, but I found that these policies produced more than misery. They also helped to stimulate a new kind of politics—a set of autonomous movements aimed at democratizing society as well as the state. In response to rapidly deteriorating living conditions, contemporary Argentine social movements organized their constituencies in what I have defined as the field of politics by other means. In the context of failed governmental programs and discourse designed to create docile, mobile subjects (governmentality), egalitarian social movements engaged in the creation of movements whose democratic structures contrasted with the dispossessing nature of the neoliberal global power they confronted. In Argentina, this new political culture and methodology fostered, through street theater and pageants, ‘other means’ of making politics, including a concern for internal gender democracy in what has been called the “solidarity economy.” My research suggests that struggles against gender inequities have a synergistic relationship to democratic political structures. I found that receptivity to feminist discourses and opportunities for women's participation were greater in anti-hierarchical opposition movements than in those with a more traditional leftist orientation. In these autonomous movements, women were able to challenge gender inequities, democratizing both the movements and their family relationships. Their struggle for democracy and freedom contrasts with the role of neoliberal policies and practices responsible for the weakening of democratic institutions in Argentina. In this way, my research not only broadens understanding of Argentina's crisis and recovery, but it raises questions about the implications of the present worldwide economic and social crisis on struggles to transform gender relations.

To counter threats to national security within an increasingly complex and unstable global arena, the Intelligence Community (IC) requires a highly skilled workforce with diversity at all organizational levels. African American women, a historically marginalized group within the IC, are underrepresented in the senior grades (senior executive, GS-15 and GS-14), which suggests inadequacies in creating and sustaining inclusive environments that provide opportunities for advancement to historically underrepresented populations. Given that the experience of inclusion of African American women civilian employees within the IC is unexplored in the literature, this basic qualitative study, informed by the theory of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991), a conceptual framework of inclusion (Jansen et al., 2014), and a model of inclusive organizations (Shore et al., 2018), explored how African American women civilian employees at a national intelligence agency describe the phenomenon and the experience of inclusion, and the meaning the participants assigned to inclusion in connection to their perception of opportunities for professional development. The nine African American women who participated in this study described inclusion as a multi-dimensional construct including a sense of belonging, the opportunity to participate, and being valued as a contributor. The participants explained that having opportunities for development was integral to the experience of inclusion, and that they experienced inclusion when supervisors supported their participation in opportunities for development. However, experiences of “not inclusion,” as opposed to inclusion, were predominant in the participants’ narratives. Stereotype threat emerged as playing a negative role in the experience of inclusion, suggesting an area for further research and indicating the need for organizational interventions to disrupt organizational cues of stereotypes. The participants’ perceptions of organizational change and their observations of senior leaders informed their views of the organization’s commitment to inclusion. The findings point to organizational initiatives to improve inclusion, such as enabling employees to inform themselves about and self-select for development opportunities and establishing and holding supervisors accountable for adhering to standards of inclusive leader behaviors.

abstract: The United States accounts for only 4% of the world’s female population, but it is home to more than 30% of the world’s incarcerated women, the majority of whom will eventually attempt a successful reentry into society. Almost half of the incarcerated women in the United States have not obtained a high school diploma or equivalency, and only 31% have attempted some college, compared to 58% among the general public (Ewert & Wildhagen, 2011). There is ample evidence of the impact of a post-secondary degree on reducing recidivism and increasing reentry success. However, the Arizona Department of Corrections reports that of the more than 40,000 people incarcerated in November of 2019, only 5,333, or 12.5%, were involved in any type of educational programming while incarcerated (2019). Few studies have looked closely at the barriers to higher education for formerly incarcerated individuals, and even fewer have focused on women. The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to examine the educational experiences of formerly incarcerated women through the lenses of critical social theory (Freeman & Vasconcelos, 2010; Freire, 1970) and possible selves theory (Markus & Nurius, 1986) in an effort to more fully understand low educational attainment in this population and use this knowledge to develop an effective, participant-informed intervention and provide recommendations for university outreach programs. Study participants were formerly incarcerated women and individuals who work with this population. Data were collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews and materials created during the College After Prison Workshop which was developed for this project. Interviews revealed that the women in this study crave a sense of belonging, feel regret over their lost possible selves, experience a fear of standing still or going backward, and have a strong desire to help others. Findings suggest that colleges and universities can support formerly incarcerated women in the post-secondary system by curating a community of scholars and demonstrating a clear path forward for formerly incarcerated women by reducing systemic barriers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2020

abstract: Social animals benefit from the aggregation of knowledge and cognitive processing power. Part of this benefit comes from individual heterogeneity, which provides the basis to group-level strategies, such as division of labor and collective intelligence. In turn, the outcomes of collective choices, as well as the needs of the society at large, influence the behavior of individuals within it. My dissertation research addresses how the feedback between individual and group-level behavior affects individuals and promotes collective change. I study this question in the context of seed selection in the seed harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex californicus. I use both field and laboratory studies to explore questions relating to individual behavior: how forager decision-making is affected through information available in the nest and at the seed pile; how workers interact with seeds in the nest; and how forager preferences diverge from each other’s and the colony’s preference. I also explore the integration between individual and colony behavior, specifically: how interactions between the foraging and processing tasks affect colony collection behavior; how individual behavior changes affect colony preference changes and whether colony preference changes can be considered learning behavior. To answer these questions, I provided colonies with binary choices between seeds of unequal or similar quality, and measured individual, task group, and colony-level behavior. I found that colonies are capable of learning to discriminate between seeds, and learned information lasts at least one month without seed interaction outside of the nest. I also found that colony learning was coordinated by foragers receiving updated information from seeds in the nest to better discriminate and make choices between seed quality during searches for seeds outside of the nest. My results show that seed processing is essential for stimulating collection of novel seeds, and that foraging and processing are conducted by behaviorally and spatially overlapping but distinct groups of workers. Finally, I found that foragers’ preferences are diverse yet flexible, even when colonies are consistent in their preference at the population level. These combined experiments generate a more detailed and complete understanding of the mechanisms behind the flexibility of collective colony choices, how colonies incorporate new information, and how workers individually and collectively make foraging decisions for the colony in a decentralized manner. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Biology 2020

There has been a great amount of debate between the medical community and the Deaf community regarding cochlear implants. Indeed, some factions of the Deaf community have reacted with hostility to the development of the technology and have protested its implementation. Existing literature examines Deaf individuals' perceptions of cochlear implants, however there has been a significant lack of academic attention paid to the hearing children of deaf adults (codas). As children of deaf parents, codas grow up simultaneously inhabiting two worlds: the Deaf world of their parents and the hearing world of their peers. It is codas' unique position and loyalties between the Deaf world and the hearing world that make them important to the cochlear implant debate. This study investigates codas' perceptions of cochlear implantation using standard ethnographic methods, including in-depth, open-ended interviewing with codas, and immersion in the research population through ongoing participant-observation at a deaf school. The findings suggest that (1) codas' interstitial identity impacts their perceptions of and attitudes towards cochlear implantation and (2) cochlear implants have contributed to a refinement of Coda identity in relation to the Deaf community.

This study examines current understanding of the experience of Puerto Rican migrant women as they cope with a new environment. Acculturation theory is analyzed and found limited in its conceptualization of migration as confined largely to the individual. An interdisciplinary review of the literature is used to explain the process of adaptation as an interplay of personal and social factors. The personal and social functions of ethnicity and gender are found critical in migrant women's search for economic advancement. A demographic account of the experience of Puerto Ricans in the United States is provided. A review of empirical studies suggests that being head of household is a significant factor keeping Island born Puerto Rican women out of the labor force. This economic disadvantage is seen to affect the process of acculturation, and reciprocally, acculturation is seen as a requirement for labor force participation. A multidimensional framework is developed which explains that the exclusion of these women from the labor force is rooted in this country's issues of gender and ethnicity. Educational implications are discussed and suggestions for public policy are included. Future research must investigate the effect of prevailing social influences on migrants which place assimilation as their most desirable status. Acculturation studies must focus on the interrelated nature of ethnicity and gender and incorporate into their analyses the effect of socioeconomic resources on adjustment. The experience of migrant Puerto Rican women heads of household must be further examined and new methods derived to quantify their status by means of the available census procedures. A longitudinal national study of the experience of Puerto Ricans in the United States would provide significant interdisciplinary impact.