The purpose of this exploratory study was to measure the cultural competence of nurse educators in accredited baccalaureate (BSN) nursing programs in Tennessee (TN) and investigate the relationship, if any, between nurse educators' cultural competence and the percentage of minority nursing students recruited into and graduated from these schools in the previous 5 years. With the rapid rise of the minority population in the United States, more minority healthcare providers, including nurses, are needed to provide culturally congruent care in underserved communities. Literature has implied that nurse educators' lack of cultural competence and sensitivity regarding minority nursing students' educational needs could be a contributing factor to minority nurses' underrepresentation. Nurse educators in 9 accredited colleges of nursing in TN completed the "Cultural Diversity Questionnaire for Nurse Educators." Some of the participating schools and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Research Data Center provided the percentage of students recruited and graduated in each school by ethnicity. The findings revealed that the majority of respondents were at least moderately culturally competent. There was no correlation between Tennessee schools' mean cultural competence scores and their percentages of minority students recruited into BSN programs in the past 5 years. But there was a significant statistical correlation between Tennessee schools' mean cultural competence scores and their percentages of minority students graduated from BSN programs in the past 5 years (p = .015). There was a statistically significant difference between the mean cultural competence score of respondents who had lived in a culture different from the United States and those who had not (p = .01). There was also a statistically significant difference between the mean cultural competence score of respondents who had attended multicultural education seminars in the past 5 years and those who had not (p = .0005). The researcher recommended that nursing faculty engage in activities that would increase their cultural competence, enabling them assist students from diverse cultural backgrounds stay in school and graduate.

US sociology has historically denied slavery and colonialism as demanding of sociological study. The roots of this can be examined at the turn of the twentieth century in the early years of the institutionalization of the discipline in American universities. The inattention stems from a white supremacist racial ontology that underpins US sociology in general (embedded in the category of modernity and the category of sociology itself). There are traces or identifiable ‘moments of silencing’ during the first ten years of the American Journal of Sociology (AJS), the discipline’s first professional journal in the US, in which early (white) sociologists hide the colonial and slavery-dependent material roots of modernity behind a “positivistic” philosophy of social science and a mix of the biologically and culturally inflected ideologies of scientific racism. The persistence of the notion of modernity as given and the unconscious positivist epistemology of mainstream US sociology causes it to stall in face of the paralyzing contradiction between a stated interest in addressing inequality and a simultaneous refusal to examine the issues of power and inequality in the conditions of its own founding.

This research examines the political implications of community-police relations in the United States by exploring the link between race, perceptions of police performance, and trust in government. Relying on survey data, I examine these relationships for Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Whites. In addition to examining the broader relationship between community-police relations and institutional trust, this dissertation examines (1) how police perceptions influence individuals' comfort in contacting the police, (2) how police violence and police perceptions influence trust in government, and (3) the effectiveness of community-oriented policing in building community-police relations and increasing trust in government. First, I find that these relationships are conditional on race and ethnicity. Black respondents, who are more likely to experience negative interactions with the police and who are less likely to have positive perceptions of the police, are less comfortable contacting them. Second, while police violence does not have a significant effect on public trust in government, police perceptions and perceptions of discrimination do. Respondents that perceive the police to be performing well and who do not believe their own racial group is being discriminated against, are more likely to express trust in government. Finally, I find that community-oriented policing has the potential to both improve perceptions of the police and increase trust in government. The central goal of this dissertation is to highlight the role that community-police relations have in influencing American politics and to emphasize the importance of exploring potential solutions to declining trust in the police.

This dissertation is a historical-cultural analysis of the popular enthusiasm for an artifact known as the Kensington Rune Stone (KRS). The verifiable history of the KRS begins in 1898, when a Swedish American immigrant unearthed a large stone from a western Minnesota farm field. On the stone was an inscription written in a runic alphabet telling the story of a party of Scandinavian explorers that had traversed the area in the fourteenth century. Most scholars have declared the stone to be a hoax, yet this has not deterred its ardent defenders from using it to generate cultural capital for several social groups in western Minnesota. Over time, the KRS has emerged as a sacred civic totem representing the region and proclaiming it as founded by Christian Norsemen. KRS enthusiasm developed as a sect of American civil religion that both affirms and challenges the central orthodoxies underlying the myths about the origin of the United States. The mythic narrative constructed around the KRS has been embraced by many Minnesotans for its legitimating power to justify the white settlement of the state. The theoretical orientation of this dissertation relies on several scholars of religion, including Emile Durkheim, Danièle Hervieu-Léger, Pierre Bourdieu, and Thomas A. Tweed. / Religion

A drastic shift in the socio-political climate revolving around immigration-related issues had garnered a new set of implications, one of them being mental healthcareaccessibility. When evaluating various aspects of the mental healthcare sector in the United States, it is crucial to examine minority populations, specifically undocumented Latino immigrants who are often overlooked in these matters and receive reduced access to mental healthcare services. Due to their unsteady undocumented status, many unintentional stressors arise from their legal status in the U.S. and thus can make this group more prone to developing mental health problems. A combination of structural determinants entailing social, economic, and political factors undoubtedly have immense impacts on these populations, preventing them from receiving adequate treatment. This thesis aims to examine the existing and distinctive social barriers that impede undocumented Latino immigrants from accessing orutilizing mental healthcare services in the United States. In this particular systematic review, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines (PRISMA) were used to conduct an extensive analysis of previous studies regarding undocumented Latino immigrant adult's underutilization of mental healthcare services. An evaluation of peer-reviewed articles was performed by inputting keywords relevant to the topic into an array of databases, such as ProQuest (Sociology), PubMed, APA PsychInfo, and EBSCOhost. A filter for articles ranging from 2013 to 2023 was enforced to capture the most recent literature available. Overall, the results indicate that the barriers that impede on undocumented Latino immigrants' utilization entail distinctive social determinants includinglegal status, lack of insurance coverage, language proficiency, cultural beliefs, and stigma as the primary reoccurring themes.

The purpose of this study was to determine the predictability of STEM achievement in Algebra for female high school students utilizing mathematics self-efficacy, mathematics interest, mathematics identity, and parental involvement. This study employed data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09/12) which consisted of 3,938 female eleventh-grade participants randomly selected from 944 public and private high schools during the fall 2009 academic year. The results of a hierarchical multiple regression indicated that mathematics identity was the strongest predictor of STEM achievement for female high school students, regardless of race. In spite of this significant relationship, STEM achievement outcomes are impacted by numerous factors. Further explorations of these factors are needed to provide a more accurate model to predict female high school student achievement in STEM.

When incarcerated youth – those with and those without disabilities – face the prospect of reentering the community, they have many obstacles to overcome. Employment requirements are often associated with terms of parole or aftercare. Those who fail to obtain and maintain employment often reenter the juvenile justice system instead of successfully reentering society. Research shows employment is critical for successful transition from incarceration back in to the community. Limited information is available about programs that positively impact post-incarceration employment for juveniles, however. Practitioners face the challenge of selecting effective curriculum, interventions, or supports. Unfortunately, the current knowledge base provides limited guidance about teaching employability and social skills to incarcerated youth. This study evaluated one instructional program, Ready for W.A.G.E.S., that teaches competencies for employability and social skills to incarcerated youth for the purposes of easing reentry. This instructional program was evaluated using a quasi-experimental, wait list control design with a sample of 22 incarcerated youth in one long-term juvenile justice facility. The results are varied, with the standardized instruments showing no statistically significant findings, but the qualitative evidence showing significant impact. Changes were made to the Ready for W.A.G.E.S. instructional program as a result of this study.

A review of the literature shows that there is much evidence to suggest the challenges facing Hispanic students in American public schools. Hispanic enrollment in K-12 public schools has increased from 6 to 19% in the last thirty years, yet schools have not made adequate adjustments to accommodate this changing population. Issues such as remedial tracking and cultural differences have led to low high school graduate rates for Hispanic students and inequities in schooling experiences (Gay, 2000). Particularly in the area of science, Hispanic students struggle with academic success (Cole & Espinoza, 2008). Despite these obstacles, some Hispanic students are academically successful (Rochin & Mello, 2007; Merisotis & Kee, 2006). This dissertation tells the stories of these Hispanic students who have been successful in science in secondary public schools. This study followed a grounded theory methodology and utilized individual interviews to collect data about Hispanics who have demonstrated achievement in the area of science. Through the analysis of these interviews, factors were identified which may have contributed to the success of these Hispanics in the field of science. Implications for future practice in public schools are also discussed.

Study purpose. The study examined race and racial diversity in community gardens located in Southern urban food deserts, as well as the capacity of community gardens to generate social capital and promote social justice. Methods. A mixed-methods approach was used to describe characteristics of gardeners and community gardens located in urban food deserts, and test Social Capital Theory hypotheses. A convenience sample of 60 gardeners from 10 community gardens was obtained. Data was collected using surveys and semi-structured interviews. Analyses. Univariate and bivariate statistics were used to describe gardeners and gardens. Leader rationales for garden characteristics were analyzed using thematic analysis. Cross-level analyses were used to examine individual and organizational characteristics on gardeners’ social capital in multivariate regression models. Results. Gardeners were racially diverse across the sample; however most community gardens were racially segregated. The majority of gardeners also appeared to be middle-class. This study indicated that community gardens could indirectly enhance community food security, largely through the efforts of people of color, and less so directly as few gardeners involved were food insecure. Community gardens also exhibited limited potential to advance social justice, based on the few resources that could potentially be exchanged between gardeners. Implications. This study calls for: greater dialogue around gentrification concerns; the development of culturally appropriate engagement sensitive to historical trauma rooted in slavery; increased focus on entrepreneurial opportunities; and, obtaining the missing voices – those from non-participating low-income residents – to better understand how to create community gardens located in food deserts that benefit multiple communities.

This paper examines the causes for socioeconomic variation between African Americans and West Indians in the United States, focusing primarily on New York City. Nearly 2 million African Americans live in New York, 30 percent of whom are black immigrants, and likely another 15 percent that are the children of these foreign-born individuals. I provide an overview of the socioeconomic positions of both groups, focusing especially on residential patterns, labor market participation, and educational attainment. I then compare leading theories used to explain West Indian success, arguing that selective United States immigration practices account for most variation both between the two groups and also within the West Indian immigrant population itself. The success of many black immigrants, including West Indians, is attributed to their motivation and ability to leave their home country and pursue opportunities abroad, rather than by virtue of being born of their individual culture. Selective immigration practices have privileged many West Indians who’ve settled in the country, especially in regard to educational attainment. Critiquing current affirmative action programs, I offer policy suggestions to ensure restitution for African Americans who remain persistently disadvantaged by the legacies of slavery.