For young people of African descent in Argentina, their belonging and claim to the nation are largely negated by public denial of their existence. While the concept of mestizaje, or cultural and ethnic mixing, was prominent in the nation-building projects of many other Latin American countries (Sutton 2008), Argentina remains profoundly shaped, both demographically and ideologically, by nineteenth-century “blanqueamiento” policies aimed at “whitening” the nation by encouraging European immigration and obscuring its Afrodescendant and indigenous populations (Gordillo and Hirsch 2003). In the last decade, however, transnational Afrodescendant social movements and Argentina’s adoption of multicultural policies and rhetoric (Rahier 2012; Geler 2016) have fueled local activism and led to hard-earned achievements for Argentina’s Afrodescendant communities, such as the addition of an “afrodescendiente” category in the census of 2010. Within this context of shifting national policies and racial ideologies in contemporary Argentina my dissertation examines Afrodescendant young people’s civic-identity formation across institutional and community-based educational environments, where youth are emerging as key interlocutors in the relationship between the state and their diasporic communities. As students, Afrodescendant youth spend much of their time within Argentine educational institutions—institutions founded with the explicit mission of cultivating a “civilized” citizenry within a culturally and ethnically homogeneous nation (Ocoró Loango 2016). In 2005, the Argentine state promulgated a “Plan nacional contra la discriminación” (National Plan against Discrimination) that denounced the predominance of ethnic nationalism in education, but this has led to few institutional changes. Classrooms remain principal sites where Afrodescendant youth encounter various forms of racialization and exclusion, from peer bullying to Eurocentric history textbooks (INADI 2015). Meanwhile, outside the classroom, growing Afrodescendant social movements have opened up new spaces for youth to develop critical consciousness and advocate for their cultural belonging and political rights. I draw on a year of observations, interviews, and youth participatory action research (YPAR) with an Afrodescendant youth organization in Buenos Aires to illustrate how diasporic community-based activism provides Afrodescendant youth with a type of counter-classroom—a space for an alternative civic education that enables them to “imagine their social belonging and exercise their participation as democratic citizens” (Levinson 2005). While formal educational environments are imbued with racializing practices and national narratives that circumscribe citizenship in ways that place Afrodescendants outside the nation, young Afrodescendants are learning to craft broader definitions of Argentine citizenship through counter-storytelling (Solórzano and Yosso 2002) and praxis-based learning (Freire 1970; Ginwright and Cammarota 2007) in their diasporic community. Ultimately, this dissertation traces, contrasts, and connects the diverse educational experiences of Afrodescendant youth, both within their schools and in their diasporic communities, in order to provide a nuanced examination of how these young people are engaged in what Ong (1996) has called the “dual process of self-making and being made” as citizens. / Anthropology

In an effort to begin filling a gap in the scientific literature about community-based food systems and promote food environment changes to increase dietary quality, this dissertation focuses on community-based food systems research with two different populations: Head Start families in southwest Virginia and Heifer International Alternative Spring Break (ASB) college student participants at Virginia Tech. Fresh Produce, Fresh Start (FPFS) tested the effectiveness of a local, fresh fruit and vegetable delivery program on dietary intake and purchasing patterns of Head Start families. FPFS utilized a one-group double pre-test post-test was conduced on two occasions at each of the two sites. Measures collected included: food-use questionnaire, height and weight, food security questionnaire, 24-hour recall, program process evaluation, and food receipts. Fifty-one of 67 (76%) of eligible participants were recruited. For dietary recalls completed (n = 29, 57%), significant increases were found in intake of vitamin A, vitamin C, fiber, vegetable, and fruit and vegetable (FV) servings combined, based upon paired t-tests (p <.05). Based on receipt data (n = 22, 43%), the proportion of fresh produce purchases significantly increased for both number of items and monetary costs, based upon a Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks Test (p < .05). A second study was conducted to examine the impacts of the Heifer Alternative Spring Break (ASB) programs on Virginia Tech student's attitudes, motivations, diet, and behaviors regarding community-based food systems before and after a one-week intensive program. The design was quasi-experimental, using a one-group pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. Participants completed questionnaires, dietary recalls, and journals. Forty-three of 43 (100%) of eligible participants enrolled in the study. Although increases in local and organic foods were observed, there were no significant changes in dietary quality. The intervention showed significant increases in local and organic food consumption for individuals that consumed less than 50% of their calories from local and organic foods at baseline based upon a paired t-test (p < .05). The findings from these studies offer evidence of the capacity for community-based food systems to change dietary patterns, across different populations. / Ph. D.

Community-based organizations increasingly face the need to systematically gather and provide data, information, and insights on the quality of their services and performances to governments, donors, and funding agencies. To meet these demands, community-based organizations have identified the need to build their own evaluation capacity. Increasing the evaluation capacity of an organization requires evaluation capacity building at an individual level, which might be affected by other factors like employee work motivation. This quantitative study uncovers the relationship between employee work motivation and individual evaluation capacity using the Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale and the Evaluation Capacity Assessment Instrument. I found that employees with higher intrinsic motivation have higher evaluation capacity, whereas, those with higher amotivation have lower evaluation capacity. Apart from that, this study also investigates the relationships motivation - evaluative thinking, and evaluation capacity - evaluative thinking, finding that individual evaluation capacity and evaluative thinking are closely related. This study elucidates the link between employee motivation, evaluation capacity, and evaluative thinking, which will not only benefit the organizations to better their practice of evaluation, but also help the employees to make progress in their career paths. / Master of Science in Life Sciences

Background: Community gardens have existed in America since the late 1800s and have served multiple purposes from food subsidies to neighborhood beautification. The use of community gardens has grown in popularity and has been recommended as a way to encourage healthy eating habits in youth. Though the health benefits of having a diet high in fruits and vegetables is well known, youth in the United States do not meet recommendations for fruit and vegetable intake. Under-consumption of fruits and vegetables is problematic in youth, as eating habits are established in childhood. Community gardens have been successfully used to improve access, self-efficacy, preference, and consumption of fruits and vegetables. However, few published community garden studies have focused on low socioeconomic youth. The Dan River Partnership for a Healthy Community (DRPHC) was developed according to community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles. With a mission to reduce obesity using healthy lifestyle initiatives, community gardens are an evolving DRPHC initiative. Objective: To evaluate the feasibility (i.e., demand, acceptability, implementation, and limited-effectiveness testing) of a 10-week experiential theory-based gardening and nutrition education program targeting youth living in two public housing sites in the Dan River Region. Methods: Using pre- and post-program questionnaires/interviews, demand and acceptability were measured among youth, parents and site leaders. Implementation was measures via field notes and attendance. Limited-effectiveness was measured among youth using a pre-post design. Three researchers independently coded the qualitative transcripts, met to resolve disagreements, and built consensus through discussion of the codes. Similarly, field notes were reviewed and evaluated for reoccurring themes regarding barriers, facilitators, and other observations. For the quantitative measures, descriptive statistics were used to summarize the variables and Cronbach's alphas used to assess the reliability of each scale at baseline. Overall effects were tested with repeated measures ANOVA. An intent-to-treat analysis using the last observation carried forward method was used. A critical value of .05 was used for significance testing. A standard equation for reporting effect sizes on a single-group, pre-post study design is also reported. Results: Program enrollment included 43 youth, primarily African American. The positive demand and acceptability findings indicate the potential of the program to be used and suitable for the youth, parents, and site leaders. Field notes revealed numerous implementation facilitators and barriers. Youth weekly attendance averaged 4.6 of 10 sessions. Significant improvements (p<0.05) were found for some (e.g., FV asking self-efficacy, overall gardening knowledge, knowledge of MyPlate recommendations), but not all limited-effectiveness measures (e.g., willingness to try FV, FV eating self-efficacy). Study Implications: This study addresses recommendations for utilizing CBPR in community garden efforts and builds on community identified research priorities of the DRPHC. Results demonstrate the feasibility of a gardening and nutrition program targeting youth in public housing. Lessons learned are being used to adapt and strengthen the program for future efforts targeting FV behaviors. Findings will be shared with local community stakeholders and used to adapt and strengthen the program for future efforts in the Dan River Region targeting of fruit and vegetable behaviors. / Master of Science

As defined by the US Department of Health and Human Services, health disparities are "a particular type of health differences that are closely linked with social or economic disadvantages." These disadvantages include, but are not limited to, unequal access to quality health care and health information. Health disparities adversely affect groups of people based on racial or ethnic group, religion, socioeconomic status, gender, age, mental health, cognitive, sensory, or physical disability, sexual orientation, geographic location, or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion. To address the root cause of health disparities there has been a call for more comprehensive frameworks for detecting, understanding, and designing interventions that will reduce or eliminate health disparities. One such framework is a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach. CBPR is an orientation to research that focuses on relationships between academic and community partners, with principles of co-learning, mutual benefits, and long term commitment. CBPR also focuses on aspects of importance to the community with the aim of combining knowledge and action for social change to improve community health and eliminate health disparities. The overall goal of this dissertation is to build capacity and address health disparities among youth and adults in the Dan River Region. This region is federally designated as a medically under-served area/population and is located in the health disparate region of south central Virginia and north central North Carolina. This research draws on two CBPR projects, including an 8-week community garden program lead by the Dan River Partnership for a Healthy Community (DRPHC) and a 3-month childhood obesity treatment program, iChoose, led by the Partnering for Obesity Planning and Sustainability (POPS) Community Advisory Board (CAB). Since one of the primary aims for CBPR is to increase community capacity, this approach is the ideal process for engaging communities that suffer from health disparities. Thus, engaging community members as collaborators, our studies reported on the relevance and application of CBPR while simultaneously addressing health and capacity outcomes in the health disparate Dan River Region. / Ph. D.

Private community-based mental health agencies fill a vital role in Virginia's health system in that they increase access to care and provide a wide range of services. In order to operate and receive state funding, these private agencies are responsible for abiding by regulations set forth by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) and the Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS). Supervision, as defined by DBHDS and DMAS, features a more administrative approach, requiring supervisors to review policies and ensure procedural compliance. In contrast, supervision as defined by counselor educators leans more towards a clinical approach whereby a more experienced member of the profession will guide the supervisee in professional development through the enhancement of skills and techniques. The issue of interest herein is that little is known about how supervisors in private community-based mental health agencies are navigating these multiple areas of supervisory emphasis. This quantitative inquiry focused on understanding clinicians' perceptions of supervision emphasis and its influence on the supervisory relationship in private mental health agencies in Virginia. Three research questions were developed to determine (a) the influence of clinicians' perceptions of supervision emphasis on the supervision working alliance, (b) the relationship between a supervisor's licensure status (Licensed Professional Counselor versus other designations) and the influence on the supervisory working alliance, and (c) the influence of supervisor responsibilities of hiring/terminating staff and/or conducting performance evaluations on the working alliance. Instruments used in this study included a demographic questionnaire, the Supervisor Emphasis Rating Form-Revised (SERF-R), and the Working Alliance Inventory-Revised (WAI-R). Analysis methods utilized in this study included multiple regression, T-tests, and analysis of variance. Three key findings emerged from this investigation. The first finding is that multiple regression results showed that the professional behaviors mean score in the SERF-R could explain 13% of variance in the WAI-R. The second key finding is that supervisors with the credential of Licensed Professional Counselor had a higher mean working alliance score than those with other professional licensures. The final key finding is that there was no significant difference in the working alliance between clinicians whose supervisors were responsible for certain administrative tasks and those clinicians whose supervisors had no such responsibilities. The implications of this study, its limitations, and suggestions for future research are detailed herein. / Ph. D.

Tangible and intangible heritage values of cultural landscapes are becoming lost or transforming under the threat of rapidly changing landscapes. Researcher-oriented documenting methods are missing significant meanings of landscapes for local communities. Community-based methods can reveal both tangible and intangible heritage of landscapes without missing important values for local communities. This dissertation study proposed a community-based mixed method research to reveal and document cultural heritage or other values from the perspective of local community members in the case study area of Findikli in Rize/Turkey. Findikli's cultural landscape is under the threat of rapidly changing landscape due to newly introduced agriculture practice - tea production. To reveal lost or transformed tangible and intangible heritage meanings of the Findikli's cultural landscape, multiple community-based research methods were used for collecting data from local residents as well as those with family or community connections to the area. Community workshops, individual and group interviews, and surveys gathered information on the social and cultural relationships, as well as locations of past and present agricultural activities, land uses and built structures. Analysis of family and community photographs and aerial imagery, as well as community produced land use and cognitive maps helped place these in spatial relationship to the landscape. Results of this dissertation study made contributions to case study area with a rich archive of Findikli's traditional tangible and intangible landscape elements, and to cultural landscape studies with a method of discovering traditional cultural heritage and landscape values under the threat of change and a guidance to document them with the community-based methods to increase quality and quantity of information. / Ph. D. / Physical and social values of cultural landscapes are becoming lost or transforming under the threat of rapidly changing landscapes. Documenting physical and social values of landscapes via researchers’ point of view is missing some significant meanings of landscapes for local communities. Engaging community in the revealing landscape meanings process provides more information compared to researchers’ perspective studies. This dissertation study proposed a community-based mixed method research to reveal and document cultural heritage or other values from the perspective of local community members in the case study area of Findikli in Rize/Turkey. Findikli’s cultural landscape is under the threat of rapidly changing landscape due to newly introduced agriculture practice –tea production. To reveal lost or transformed socially and culturally important meanings of the Findikli’s cultural landscape, multiple community-based research methods were used for collecting data from local residents as well as those with family or community connections to the area. Community workshops, individual and group interviews, and surveys gathered information on the social and cultural relationships, as well as locations of past and present agricultural activities, land uses and built structures. Analysis of family and community photographs and aerial imagery, as well as community produced land use helped place these in spatial relationship to the landscape. Results of this dissertation study made contributions to case study area with a rich archive of Findikli’s traditional physical and social landscape elements, and to cultural landscape studies with a method of discovering traditional cultural heritage and landscape values under the threat of change and a guidance to document them with the community-based methods to increase quality and quantity of information.

Yes / Community-Based Learning (CBL) has been more recently introduced into some psychology programmes in the UK than in the USA, where it has existed for a number of decades in the form of ‘service learning’. CBL holds promise as a means of promoting and developing critical community psychology practice, but there are risks involved in its acritical adoption in the psychology curriculum. If associated power dynamics are not considered, CBL has the capacity to serve neoliberal interests and perpetuate, rather than challenge, oppressive social relations. This article examines ways in which CBL can be both conducive and corrosive to critical community psychology practice. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature, it explores ways in which students participating in CBL can be vulnerable to exploitation – both as victims and perpetrators – through collusion and cultural voyeurism. Consideration is given to ways of resisting institutional and other pressures to comply uncritically with the demands of the ‘employability agenda’. These include the importance of facilitated reflective processes in associated modules, to consider aspects of the interactions of people and systems. The article concludes that whilst CBL is inherently risky and involves discomfort for students, this enables development of a more informed consciousness where truly participatory work evolves towards greater social justice.

This is a qualitative study examining conservation attitudes and resource use of 63 individuals in Kasigau, Kenya. Community members described their perceptions of conservation, the resources that they use, the location and availability of these, their support for the protection of Mt. Kasigau, their likes and dislikes of plant and animal species, and their support of ecotourism in Kasigau. All individuals listed conservation behaviors and agreed that protecting Mt. Kasigau is important. Many recognized the mountain as the only source of water. Some resources were limited, especially at certain times of the year. All interviewed community members except one would like tourists to visit Kasigau and are interested in cultural exchange. There is an apparent difference between conservation and ecotourism attitudes in Makwasinyi and the other six villages which could be because Makwasinyi has a lower level of education and is isolated on the northeastern side of the mountain. Gender differences between males and females were also present as each gender uses different resources coupled with a division of labor. The main theory that evolved was rational choice theory. People of Kasigau are trying to sustain their livelihoods and will pick conservation activities due to their benefits and chance they will increase income. When developing a community-based conservation model, these attitudes, education level, and gender differences must be considered to make a plan the whole community can agree on and from which it will benefit.

Since at least the 1960s, federal and state policymakers have debated how best to hold public schools accountable for producing graduates who are prepared to fully participate in our democratic society. Since that time, reform efforts have led to Texas' current test-based A-F accountability system. This qualitative case study explored how one Texas school district worked to design and implement an alternative accountability system. A community-based accountability system (CBAS) is created in collaboration with local stakeholders and uses locally developed goals and multiple achievement measures to report student and school performance. A zone of mediation theoretical framework was used to evaluate how the studied district assessed and addressed the community's norms, values, priorities, and goals for public schools. Data were drawn from an analysis of relevant documents, five individual district leader interviews, and a parent and/or community member focus group. These data were analyzed using a combination of a priori and in vivo coding. The six themes that emerged from this analysis were: (a) dissatisfaction with A-F accountability, (b) developing an alternative accountability, (c) collaboration with like-minded districts and leaders, (d) engagement with internal stakeholders; (e) engagement with external stakeholders, and (f) assessing community values and goals for public education. The findings can be viewed as an exemplar for school leaders interested in designing and implementing a CBAS that falls within their community's unique zone of mediation.