This dissertation analyzes the effects of Latino immigration on the representation of Latinos and African-Americans on school boards and attempts to explain under what conditions Latino immigrants provoke opposition among whites. I consider two measures of representation based on representative bureaucracy—the membership of Latinos and African-Americans on school boards and bias in the responsiveness of white school board members toward these two groups. Whites as the major racial group in the U.S. have been the subject of much intergroup relations research focusing on competition for scarce resources, perceived threat and group biases (e.g., Evans and Giles, 1986; Giles and Evans, 1985, 1986; Esses, Jackson and Armstrong, 1998), and I also focus on their racial behaviors as voters in school board elections and as school board members. I consider Latino immigration in this research because emerging evidence suggests that Latino immigration poses a growing threat to whites, leading them to shift their support from Latinos to a countervailing group, such as African-Americans (e.g., Meier and Stewart, 1991; Rocha, 2007). It is likely that the reactions of whites to Latino immigration are conditioned by their preexisting racial attitudes, so this dissertation also tests competing theories of community racial climate—group threat and group contact. I expect that racial tensions within a community should moderate the influence of Latino immigration on these two forms of Latino and African-American representation. Overall, this dissertation expands the study of representative bureaucracy by combining past research on community racial climates with conditions influencing minority representation.

Thesis advisor: Janet E. Helms / Supervision may be an ideal format for training psychologists to be racially and culturally responsive because supervisors can tailor interventions to fit supervisees’ individual developmental needs. Nevertheless, over 30 years ago, counseling psychology researchers began identifying harmful effects of racially and culturally unresponsive supervision from the perspectives of supervisees. Missing from the literature has been empirical evidence from the perspectives of supervisors themselves. Moreover, research has failed to explore the influence of context (i.e., mental health sites) on supervision that addresses race and culture. The present study explored supervisors’ perspectives and experiences as they pertained to (a) providing racially and culturally responsive supervision, (b) the racial climate of their mental health work environments, and (c) influences of their institutional racial climates on their supervision practices as they pertained to race and culture. Interviews with psychologists, who identified as Black (n = 4) and White (n = 4), were analyzed using directed content analysis guided by the Racial Identity Social Interaction Model. Core domains and themes from the analysis drew connections between the supervisors’ perceptions of the racial climate of their institution and the challenges of supervising on race and culture. Findings from the study highlight the ways in which supervisors in mental health settings attempt to protect their supervisees in environments in which they often feel unprotected. Limitations and implications of the study for supervision theory, research, and practice are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

This dissertation analyzes the effects of Latino immigration on the representation of Latinos and African-Americans on local school boards and attempts to explain under what conditions Latino immigrants provoke opposition among whites. I consider two measures of representation based on representative bureaucracy—the membership of Latinos and African-Americans on school boards and bias in the responsiveness of white school board members toward these two groups. Whites as the major racial group in the U.S. have been the subject of much intergroup relations research focusing on competition for scarce resources, perceived threat and group biases (e.g., Evans and Giles, 1986; Giles and Evans, 1985, 1986; Esses, Jackson and Armstrong, 1998), and I also focus on their racial behaviors as voters in school board elections and as school board members. I consider Latino immigration in this research because emerging evidence suggests that Latino immigration poses a growing threat to whites, leading them to shift their support from Latinos to a countervailing group, such as African-Americans (e.g., Meier and Stewart, 1991; Rocha, 2007). First, I examine whether Latino immigration into a community affects the support of white citizens for Latino or African-American membership on school boards. Second, I examine whether white school board members also are influenced by Latino immigration in their responsiveness to Latino and African-American parents. It is likely that the reactions of whites to Latino immigration are conditioned by their preexisting racial attitudes, so this dissertation also tests competing theories of community racial climate—group threat and group contact. I expect that racial tensions within a community should moderate the influence of Latino immigration on these two forms of Latino and African-American representation. Overall, this dissertation expands the study of representative bureaucracy by combining past research on community racial climates with conditions influencing minority representation. In addition to examining the determinants of passive representation, this dissertation links expectations of the racial behavior of white citizens with the behavior of white school board members by considering the possibility that school board members express “discriminatory intent” (Mendez and Grose, 2014) on non-policy related matters. A better understanding of the determinants of public officials’ personal biases should help to explain the targeting of substantive policy benefits to minorities, which is the focus of much other representative bureaucracy research. While I base my analysis of school board membership on inferences of white voter behavior from aggregate election results, I directly measure white school board member responsiveness using data gathered from a novel randomized field experiment and e-mail audit design. Representative bureaucracy researchers have called for more of this type of individual-level data to help explain minority advocacy (Bradbury and Kellough, 2011).

Thesis advisor: Larry H. Ludlow / In 2019, as in previous years, White students outperformed African American, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Natives in a variety of K-12 outcomes (Darling-Hammond, 2007; de Brey et al., 2019; Jacob & Ludwig, 2008; National Education Association, 2015). The urgency of the opportunity/achievement gap is clear, as the current cohort of students under 5 years of age marks a turning point in student population demographics as the first in which 50 percent are part of a minority race or ethnic group (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). Sociocultural integration (SCI) is included in the frameworks of successful bilingual programs (Howard et al., 2007; Scanlan & López, 2014). SCI considers the dynamics of relationships with oneself and others as being built in the context of one’s racial/ethnic, cultural, and linguistic background (Brisk, 2006; Feinauer & Howard, 2014). Acceptance and appreciation of cultural difference is critical for teachers (Bennett, 2003) and a number of pedagogical frameworks center teachers’ role of cultural brokerage as a pathway to fostering positive student outcomes (Grant & Sleeter, 2006; Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001; Villegas & Lucas, 2002). In this dissertation, I defined sociocultural integration in a teacher-centered way, and explicitly incorporate teachers’ racial/ethnic identity development in the evolution of their actions to support SCI. Second, I operationalized this definition and built a scale for measuring SCI using innovative “lived experiences” scenario items according to the Rasch/Guttman Scenario scale development methodology (Ludlow et al., 2020). The SCI Scale for Teachers showed desirable psychometric properties and is well suited to increase use due to ease of interpretability. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

African American college students may face many challenges at predominantly White institutions (PWIs), including hostile campus climates, experiences of racism and discrimination, peer conflict, and academic challenges. Similar negative experiences/perceptions have been reported by LGBTQ+ identified college students, yet few students of color have been included in this area of research. Much of what is known about LGBTQ+ African American college students has been developed from the experiences of bisexual and gay, cisgender African American men. The purpose of this study was to increase knowledge about the experiences and challenges faced by non-heterosexual and non-cisgender African American students attending a PWI. Ten LGBTQ+ identified African American college students were interviewed about perceptions of their campus climate, social lives, and academic progress. Through a grounded theory analysis, agency was identified as the core theme underlying students' sense of thriving in their academic progress, peer relationships, and perceptions of campus climate. These findings may be useful in improving the on-campus experiences for LGBTQ+ identified African American college students, and all students, attending PWIs.

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This qualitative case study explores student, parent, and teacher perceptions of school racial climate and its impact on students’ academic and personal lives at a charter middle school in South Los Angeles. The study also explores teacher handling of the impact of racial tensions at this school with a majority Latin@ student enrollment and a predominantly Black teaching staff. School climate refers to the perceived quality of interpersonal interactions among teachers, students, staff, and parents. A positive school climate is associated with increased academic achievement and decreased disciplinary problems. Conversely, schools wrought with interethnic conflict or a poor racial climate divert focus and resources away from student learning and toward chronic disciplinary problems and teacher attrition. This case study demonstrates how Black administrators handled displacement by a large immigrant Latin@ population by instituting a system of Black privilege to protect political and economic space. The massive immigration of Latin@s offered a critical opportunity for coalition building with Blacks. However, a competition-based framework emerged, rendering this case study a microcosm of missed opportunity in South Los Angeles and beyond.

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