263 research outputs found

    This is About Us: Drama Workshop as Patriotic Education

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    For 15 years, I was a drama teacher in two large urban high schools in Minnesota. My classes were designed with the belief that theatre requires the downplaying or even sacrifice of the individual for the success of the collective. Yes, these classes involved practices that helped students rehearse basic tools of performance but, more importantly, they required participants to work together as a group. Each semester-long class ended with a theatrical production written, produced, and performed by the students for audiences of their peers. Careful not to impose my vision on the content of their productions, I worked to facilitate open-ended playbuilding, which is a complex process by which people collaborate to consider a concept through the creation of a dramatic production (Norris, 2009). In this piece, I invite readers to consider that preparing students to embrace the potentials of democratic patriotism goes beyond the purview of social studies education and should be part of how students and teachers interact with one another across disciplines. Westheimer (2006) argues that “caring about the substantive values that underlie American democracy is the hallmark of democratic patriotism” (p. 612). Among these values are freedom of speech, protection of civil liberties, high participation in governance, and working for social and economic equality

    Sam and Cristina: A Critical Dialogue Between a Teacher and Student About the Commoditization of People of Color by Schools

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    This article was written by a white high school teacher (Sam) and a high school student of color (Cristina) in order to consider the harmful potential for schools in the United States to commoditize students of color at the expense of critical, antiracist work. It was written out of a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) study and uses a critical whiteness framework in order to examine how Cristina, in dialogue with Sam, came to theorize that her racial identity was commoditized as a cultural asset of their high school in exploitative ways. Her thinking, juxtaposed with Sam’s consideration of his own whiteness, illustrates the complex ways that students of color can be exploited in ways that do not disrupt hegemonic white supremacy in educational contexts. It is our hope that sharing this dialogical interaction will contribute to the consideration of a more nuanced understanding of how whiteness can obstruct democratic practices, especially racial justice, in U.S. schools

    Doesn\u27t Your Work Just Re-Center Whiteness? The Fallen Impossibilities of White Allyship

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    Our purpose is to engage performative dialogue incorporative of currere on a central question in critical White studies (CWS). After precautionary notes and positionalities, we frame our dialogue within second-wave CWS. As its main section, six CWS scholars respond to the central question: Doesn’t research on White identities re-center whiteness? Analyzing the scholars’ responses, the performative dialogue is followed by an analytical discussion of CWS’ epistemological, ontological, and axiological convolutions. Via these convolutions, we recognize the impossibilities of facile “White allyship” within antiracist scholarship, curriculum and pedagogy, and related social movements. Instead of White allyship, we propose situated, relational, and process-oriented notions of alliance-oriented antiracist work

    Cervical dystonia incidence and diagnostic delay in a multiethnic population.

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    BackgroundCurrent cervical dystonia (CD) incidence estimates are based on small numbers in relatively ethnically homogenous populations. The frequency and consequences of delayed CD diagnosis is poorly characterized.ObjectivesTo determine CD incidence and characterize CD diagnostic delay within a large, multiethnic integrated health maintenance organization.MethodsWe identified incident CD cases using electronic medical records and multistage screening of more than 3 million Kaiser Permanente Northern California members from January 1, 2003, to December 31, 2007. A final diagnosis was made by movement disorders specialist consensus. Diagnostic delay was measured by questionnaire and health utilization data. Incidence rates were estimated assuming a Poisson distribution of cases and directly standardized to the 2000 U.S. census. Multivariate logistic regression models were employed to assess diagnoses and behaviors preceding CD compared with matched controls, adjusting for age, sex, and membership duration.ResultsCD incidence was 1.18/100,000 person-years (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.35-2.0; women, 1.81; men, 0.52) based on 200 cases over 15.4 million person-years. Incidence increased with age. Half of the CD patients interviewed reported diagnostic delay. Diagnoses more common in CD patients before the index date included essential tremor (odds ratio [OR] 68.1; 95% CI, 28.2-164.5), cervical disc disease (OR 3.83; 95% CI, 2.8-5.2), neck sprain/strain (OR 2.77; 95% CI, 1.99-3.62), anxiety (OR 2.24; 95% CI, 1.63-3.11) and depression (OR 1.94; 95% CI, 1.4-2.68).ConclusionsCD incidence is greater in women and increases with age. Diagnostic delay is common and associated with adverse effects. © 2019 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society

    Web-Based Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies Two Novel Loci and a Substantial Genetic Component for Parkinson's Disease

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    Although the causes of Parkinson's disease (PD) are thought to be primarily environmental, recent studies suggest that a number of genes influence susceptibility. Using targeted case recruitment and online survey instruments, we conducted the largest case-control genome-wide association study (GWAS) of PD based on a single collection of individuals to date (3,426 cases and 29,624 controls). We discovered two novel, genome-wide significant associations with PD–rs6812193 near SCARB2 (, ) and rs11868035 near SREBF1/RAI1 (, )—both replicated in an independent cohort. We also replicated 20 previously discovered genetic associations (including LRRK2, GBA, SNCA, MAPT, GAK, and the HLA region), providing support for our novel study design. Relying on a recently proposed method based on genome-wide sharing estimates between distantly related individuals, we estimated the heritability of PD to be at least 0.27. Finally, using sparse regression techniques, we constructed predictive models that account for 6%–7% of the total variance in liability and that suggest the presence of true associations just beyond genome-wide significance, as confirmed through both internal and external cross-validation. These results indicate a substantial, but by no means total, contribution of genetics underlying susceptibility to both early-onset and late-onset PD, suggesting that, despite the novel associations discovered here and elsewhere, the majority of the genetic component for Parkinson's disease remains to be discovered

    Evaluating behavioral responses of nesting lesser snow geese to unmanned aircraft surveys

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    Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are relatively new technologies gaining popularity among wildlife biologists. As with any new tool in wildlife science, operating protocols must be developed through rigorous protocol testing. Few studies have been conducted that quantify the impacts UAS may have on unhabituated individuals in the wild using standard aerial survey protocols. We evaluated impacts of unmanned surveys by measuring UAS-induced behavioral responses during the nesting phase of lesser snow geese (Anser caerulescens caerulescens) in Wapusk National Park, Manitoba, Canada. We conducted surveys with a fixed-wing Trimble UX5 and monitored behavioral changes via discreet surveillance cameras at 25 nests. Days with UAS surveys resulted in decreased resting and increased nest maintenance, low scanning, high scanning, head-cocking and off-nest behaviors when compared to days without UAS surveys. In the group of birds flown over, head-cocking for overhead vigilance was rarely seen prior to launch or after landing (mean estimates 0.03% and 0.02%, respectively) but increased to 0.56% of the time when the aircraft was flying overhead suggesting that birds were able to detect the aircraft during flight. Neither UAS survey altitude nor launch distance alone in this study was strong predictors of nesting behaviors, although our flight altitudes (≥75 m above ground level) were much higher than previously published behavioral studies. Synthesis and applications: The diversity of UAS models makes generalizations on behavioral impacts difficult, and we caution that researchers should design UAS studies with knowledge that some minimal disturbance is likely to occur. We recommend flight designs take potential behavioral impacts into account by increasing survey altitude where data quality requirements permit. Such flight designs should consider a priori knowledge of focal species’ behavioral characteristics. Research is needed to determine whether any such disturbance is a result of visual or auditory stimuli
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