Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Empowering'

This thesis is based on material gathered during a field study in rural Sri Lanka, a Minor Field Study, (MFS) during April-May 2007. The core of the thesis deals with conceptualisations of empowerment and how they can be interpreted contextually from the perspectives of motherhood. The interplay of gender discourses with structural dimensions are analysed to see how these work to uphold ideals whilst posing contrary demands on mothers. Part of the focus has thus been to look at how discourses are adhered, aligned and adjusted to in various ways as strategies for survival in the context of poverty and marginalisation. The way social constructions perpetuate asymmetrical power relations as natural and normative is also discussed since this is central to how gender discourses are produced, upheld and reproduced. This study initiates in the every day experiences of mothers living in absolute poverty. Through narratives and participatory observations of their daily experiences contextual discourses, structural dimensions and agency are analysed. Their experiences are viewed as interconnected with the wider perspectives of political, economic and social conditions locally and globally. Analysis of these experiences against contextual discourses and structural implications attempts to identify possibilities and potential for empowerment. By raising central issues to the mothers regarding segregation, marginalisation and vulnerability, a more contextual understanding of how empowerment is constrained and facilitated is hopefully achieved. Furthermore, how women in this study respond and relate to these issues and whether empowering experiences can be traced even where overt challenges are absent. Finally, the thesis addresses the complexity of carrying out a study of this kind, where the prerogative to define and conceptualise lies with the researcher, the beholder, representing through this very role inequity in the division of power and privilege.

Racial and ethnic health disparities are highest in communities of color; providing culturally competent care could address these disparities. Culturally competent communication between the healthcare provider and the patient is an essential behavior that may improve health in racially and ethnically diverse women. A quality improvement project was completed with guidance from the 5 constructs of the Campinha-Bacote model as the conceptual framework, and the method used was the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey. The perspective of 20 Mexican American and 20 African American women in El Paso, Texas between ages 45 and 72 with menopausal symptoms was surveyed to determine if culture had an impact on the presence or absence of communication with their healthcare providers. Results showed women’s perceptions of positive and negative communication behaviors with their healthcare providers was inconclusive; however, results showed that provider communication about health promotions, use of alternative medicine, and shared-decision making regarding health management needs improvement to promote adherence to medical regimen and feelings of mutual respect. Integrating cultural competence into existing evidence-based care can positively impact the delivery of services and help improve the quality of care. Healthcare providers can impact positive social change through the lessening of burdens associated with the lack of diversity in the workforce by including cultural competence training into the curriculum of nursing and medical schools.

One in every four students in the United States is Latin@, yet approximately half of Latin@ students fail to complete a high school diploma within four years. By 2020, Latin@s will comprise approximately 50% of the population of the United States, which will lead to the “Latinization” of K-12 schools. Despite being such a large part of the U.S. population, only 13% of Latin@s graduate college (Irizarry & Donaldson, 2012).

In Oregon, the graduation rate for the 2015-2016 four-year cohort was 73.8%; for Latin@s, the graduation rate was 67.4% (Oregon Department of Education, 2017). In 2015-2016, the River County School District had a graduation rate of 70.8% for the overall four-year cohort, but only 59.4% of the Latin@ students within that four-year cohort. Oregon mirrors the United States in that Latin@s continue to make up a growing percentage of the overall population in Oregon. Every day that Oregon public schools struggle to provide a high school education with high expectations for Latin@ students is another day of jeopardizing the future of Oregon.

This qualitative action research aimed to explore the development of critical consciousness in Latin@ ninth grade students at a comprehensive high school through a CRT and LatCrit lens. This study intended to change ninth grade, first-generation, U.S. born high school students’ position in their own education process, to empower students to consider their own educational point of view, to analyze their own and their peers’ points of view, and to organize opportunities to share their point of view with teachers and school district leaders in order to advocate for their educational needs and rights and to liberate themselves from marginalizing experiences in high school. The intention of this critical action research is to empower students to identify and advocate for their own academic success.

The purpose of this project was to develop and fund a combination of support groups and respite component for parents and caregivers who have children with Autism. The Host Agency that was able to best fit the criteria of this project was Piecing Together, a division of Autism Treatment Services in Tracy, California.

After an in-depth review of the literature on Autism, it was determined by the grant writer that there was a great need to provide more family support to supplement Applied Behavioral Analysis services. A thorough search for potential funding sources led to the California Wellness Foundation as the funding source for this project. A grant application was composed to support this project.

Actual submission and/or funding of the grant were not required for the successful completion of this project.

Collaborative forest restoration can reduce conflicts over natural resource management and improve ecosystem function after decades of degradation. Scientific evidence helps collaborative groups avoid undesirable outcomes as they define goals, assess current conditions, design restoration treatments, and monitor change over time. Ecological research cannot settle value disputes inherent to collaborative dialogue, but discussions are enriched by locally relevant information on pressing natural resource issues. I worked closely with the Uncompahgre Partnership, a collaborative group of managers, stakeholders, and researchers in southwestern Colorado, to develop research questions, gather data, and interpret findings in the context of forest restoration. Specifically, my dissertation (1) explored ways to better align collaborative goals with ecological realities of dynamic and unpredictable ecosystems; (2) defined undesirable conditions for fire behavior based on modeling output, published literature, and collaborative discussions about values at risk; (3) assessed the degree to which restoration treatments are moving forests away from undesirable conditions (e.g., homogenous and dense forests with scarce open habitat for grasses, forbs, and shrubs); and (4) looked at the validity of rapid assessment approaches for estimating natural range of variability in frequent-fire forests.

The current practice of defining desired future conditions pulls managers and stakeholders into command-and-control thinking and causes them to dream away resource tradeoffs and the unpredictability of forest change. Instead, moving ecosystems away from undesirable states and reducing unacceptable risk might allow for diverse and socially acceptable conditions across forested landscapes. The concept of undesirable conditions helped the Uncompahgre Partnership come to agreement over types of fire behavior and stand conditions they wanted to avoid through management. I determined that restoration treatments on the Uncompahgre Plateau are generally moving forests away from undesirably dense conditions that were uncommon prior to Euro-American settlement. My assessment was largely based on data collected during collaborative workdays with the Uncompahgre Partnership. Our rapid assessment approach for estimating historical forest structure took a quarter of the time required for scientifically rigorous stand reconstructions, and it provided reasonably accurate estimates of tree density and spatial patterns.

Our data on historical stand structure revealed that fragmentation and loss of open grass-forb-shrub habitat between tree groups were the most dramatic and undesirable changes occurring in frequent-fire forests over the past century. Many restoration treatments are focused on restoring spatial patterns in tree groups, with little attention to spatial patterns in open grass-forb-shrub habitat. I determined that the juxtaposition of tree groups with grass-forb-shrub habitat >6 m from overstory trees is important for restoring understory cover, diversity, and composition. Focusing on undesirable conditions in stands, such as high tree density and scarcity of grass-forb-shrub habitat, can help collaborative groups find common ground and design treatments that restore structure, composition, and processes in forest ecosystems.