Browsing by Subject "African American"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 122

Adrienne Kennedy
(Voices from the Gaps, 1998) Seanoa, Angela; Fashant, Jessica; Brown, Justin
African American and West African males’ perceptions of mentoring: Exploring the role of Cultural Intelligence
(2015-09) Omari, Abdul
The current study used qualitative methods to explore the perceptions of mentoring for West African and African American males in Minnesota. A semi-structured interview protocol was used to conduct 16 in-depth interviews, which led to over 18 hours of interview data. Three research questions were addressed: How do West African and African American males define and describe mentoring? How do West African and African American males perceive their relationship with mentors in the Northern Star Mentoring Program? What do African American and West African males identify as characteristics of effective mentoring relationships? A total of 55 codes and 16 themes emerged. These themes were grouped into four domains. Several findings emerged about the mentoring process, mentoring relationships, mentoring effectiveness, and mentoring practices. Findings show that there are various definitions of mentoring, descriptions and experiences with the mentoring process, and various conceptualizations of effective mentoring. Second, there are large intersections between mentoring components. Third, mentors and mentees perceive a need for more than one mentor and recognize the effectiveness of having more than one mentor. Fourth, all mentoring relationships should be approached from an emic yet fluid perspective and assume that they all have unique dynamics and individual nuances. Finally, while there is an overwhelming need for mentors in multiple areas of a person’s life, participants perceive that mentoring during transitions could be the most impactful.
African American female superintendents: resilient school leaders
(2012-01) Johnson, Bernadeia H.
Six African American female superintendents who had served as superintendents in at least 2 school districts were interviewed to understand ways in which they responded to barriers and adversity in their roles, with a particular emphasis on issues related to sexism and racism. Study participants shared that they work to engage the community and build relationships with stakeholders. They also reported being courageous and clear in defining where they would take a stand. This required knowing who they are and being true to personal values and ethics. These African American female superintendents reported having strong religious faith and benefitting from the love, support, and encouragement of parents, family, and friends. They identified listening as critical to their success. Mentoring new and aspiring African American women superintendents is one way they intentionally give back to the profession. They expressed the need to be continuous learners and to work hard while still striving to achieve life-work balance.
African American Perceptions of and Engagement with Formal and Informal Help-Seeking for their Relationships
(2021-05) Hubbard, Aimee
The literature on couple help-seeking aims to clarify what drives people to seek help for their relationships, and what keeps them from seeking it. While this scholarship is growing, it has yet to fully address couple help-seeking processes in historically marginalized communities. Currently, there is only one article that explores couple help-seeking in African American couples. This is significant, insofar as the article highlights unique barriers that are not present in the broader literature.The research presented here aims to address this gap using a mixed-methods approach. The first study is a quantitative analysis using an existing dataset of newlywed African American couples. Data analyzed were both dyadic and longitudinal, with 350 couples participating in three waves. A mediated logistic Actor Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was run to explore how religiosity, experiences of discrimination, and racial identity relate to couple help-seeking behavior. The mediator of attitudes toward help-seeking from religious officials was used to identify a possible mechanism for understanding the relationship between the predictors (religiosity, experiences of discrimination, and racial identity) and the outcome variable (couple help-seeking). Results showed the importance of religiosity as a driving factor for African American couples’ help-seeking. The analysis also highlighted the interdependent nature of help-seeking with multiple significant partner paths. The second study employed a qualitative approach informed by grounded theory. Its goal was to better understand African American couples’ help-seeking processes. Eleven (N = 11) participants completed interviews regarding what they did when they felt there was a problem in their relationship and what unique barriers they faced in seeking help. They were also asked about attending couple therapy. Couples who had done this were queried about their specific experiences in therapy. Couples who had not attended couple therapy they were asked about their thoughts/views about participating in such therapy. Five themes emerged from the data. Key takeaways from these themes include the significant role of race, alongside the important roles of religious and informal resources. Collectively these studies provide a variety of significant research and clinical implications. Results support the idea that there are unique barriers that African American couples face when seeking help for their relationships. Findings also highlight potential points of intervention for providers related to religiosity. Partnerships with Black Churches and/or religious leaders may be a meaningful way of increasing African Americans’ engagement with couple therapy.
African American seniors’ perspectives on advance care planning: a virtue ethics community-based participatory research approach
(2012-12) Crump, Saundra Kaye
Some findings not previously noted in the literature were found in this research. African-Americans are far less likely to write advance directives than white Americans but little is known about African-Americans’ perceptions of planning for who would speak for them if they were unable to speak in critical health situations. Health professionals’ lack of knowledge about culture, ethnicity and/or religion is an obstacle to effective end-of-life care. This research is aimed at exploring African-American seniors’ perspectives and providing health professionals with information to build skills to support ethnically diverse families of patients who are seriously ill and unable to speak. A community-based participatory research (with focus groups) approach was used to produce knowledge with participants from one Midwestern urban community. A community advisory board was active in all aspects of the research. A virtue ethics framework was used to maintain the integrity of the research. The history and ethics of conducting research is reviewed. Forty-five female and 7 male African-American seniors (aged 59-92) participated in the nine, one time, focus groups. A PowerPoint about advance care planning and a questionnaire (based on the literature) were used to stimulate thought prior to focus group discussions. Data revealed 30 themes which were divided into five primary categories: Trust, fear, relationships, lack of information/knowledge, and procrastination; and six secondary categories: Deracination (cultural uprooting), deterioration of family/community, past discrimination, experience, self-fulfilling prophecy, and religion. Study participants expressed that African-Americans distrust the dominant society and their families; and have a general fear of death and dying. They connected deterioration of the African- American community and family to ongoing discrimination and racism and cited this as contributing to the reluctance to write advance directives. Another major finding is that choosing a proxy decision-maker requires “analyzing personal relationships” and this can be painful and cause avoidance of addressing advance care planning. This had not been previously identified in the literature. Recommendations are that healthcare providers treat African-American seniors with respect, and get to know them socially so they aren’t uncomfortable and afraid around them. Participants suggested patients connect with providers and share their goals for health and personal life; and that providers have more information about advance care planning in their curriculum and training. The researcher recommends providers use clinical opportunities to identify situations where they could empower patients to take charge of their advance care planning; and community members should identify their personal value system, and think about quality of life issues. Community education programs by a trusted professional are recommended to give African-American seniors information needed to understand the importance and urgency of advance care planning. Assistance of a skilled professional to assist with difficult decision-making and planning is also needed. Further research is needed to better understand how the African-American historical experience in the United States contributes to their reluctance to engage in advance care planning. Further research is also needed to find the social and economic value and the political implications of advance directives.
African American student experiences: a networking group in high school
(2013-11) Gbolo, Simone Zazama
The achievement gap between ethnic minorities and majority students is currently a significant problem. This study seeks to explore one school's attempt to improve experiences and academic outcomes for African American students through implementation of the African American (AFAM) networking group facilitated by school administrators. The participants in this study consisted of 30 students from 9th through 12th grade. Fifty percent of the students were male and the other 50% were female. According to the school data, all of the students were African American with the exception of one male participant who was Asian. This study explored students' pre-AFAM and post-AFAM levels of disciplinary referrals, GPA, and school attendance as well as students' qualitative experience in the AFAM support group. Quantitative findings in the school data did not result in significant differences in the pre-AFAM and post-AFAM academic outcomes, but five core ideas emerged from the qualitative data that suggest that AFAM supports students in a way that may affect their ability to cope in their school environment and create a strong sense of belonging for African Americans.
Ai
(Voices from the Gaps, 2005) Smith, Tara L
Alice Childress
(Voices from the Gaps, 2003) Fluke, Jen N.
Alice Dunbar Nelson
(Voices from the Gaps, 2001) Novak, Terry G., Ph.D.
Alice Walker
(Voices from the Gaps, 1996) McNaron, Toni; Zavialova, Maria
Andrea Davis Pinkney
(Voices from the Gaps, 2004)
Angela Davis
(Voices from the Gaps, 1999) Aiello, Janet Marie; Curtright, Lauren
Angelina Weld Grimké
(Voices from the Gaps, 1998)
Anita Richmond Bunkley
(Voices from the Gaps, 2000) Glover, Thomasine; Hearvey, Crystal Monay; McCoy, Shuntay; Curtright, Lauren
Ann Petry 
(Voices from the Gaps, 1996) O'Donnell, Heather
Anna Deavere Smith
(Voices from the Gaps, 2005) Stolpa, Alison
Anna Julia (Haywood) Cooper
(Voices from the Gaps, 2004)
Anne Moody
(Voices from the Gaps, 1998) Opatrny, Katie; Noterman, Jenny; McNally, Amy
Anne Spencer
(Voices from the Gaps, 2005) Murphy, Erin; Lee, Adrienne
April Sinclair
(Voices from the Gaps, 1999) Zavialova, Maria

University Digital Conservancy

Browse by Subject

Browsing by Subject "African American"