Cross-Cultural Parenting: Experiences of Intercultural Parents and Constructions of Culturally Diverse Families

According to U.S. Census Bureau data (2003), intercultural relationships are on the rise, and much has been written on cultural differences in marriage. A significant amount of literature has discussed challenges confronted by couples in these partnerships; however, much less has been written on how couples navigate their cultural diversity which is often amplified after they become parents. The goal of this study is to reveal the personal stories and narratives of intercultural parents who have not been the focus of previous research. To examine their experiences, the following research questions guided the structure of this thesis: "What are the experiences of intercultural couples raising children together? How do they construct family systems within culturally diverse households?" Consistent with humanistic and existential approaches in professional counseling which focus on the relativity of the human experience, this study employed a qualitative research design. A social constructionist theoretical framework and a grounded theory methodology were used to examine the experiences of intercultural parents and how they construct family systems within culturally diverse households. This study incorporated in-depth interviews as a primary technique in data collection to elicit perceptions of intercultural couples, using parenting and childrearing as a lens to explore their lived experiences. Twenty-one participants from fifteen intercultural couples were interviewed in an individual, conjoint, and/or sequential format; ten participated in individual or conjoint follow-up interviews. Using a grounded theory approach for data analysis, four themes emerged that relate to both intercultural parenting and culturally diverse families: (1) the cultural context and constructions of identity for parents and families; (2) cross-cultural challenges and cleavages; (3) negotiating intercultural parenthood and culturally diverse families; and (4) opportunities for parents and children in culturally diverse households. A model of cultural adaptation among intercultural parents is presented as an analytical tool to better understand how parents co-construct culturally diverse family systems based on their conceptualization of their cultural differences and their degree of mutual acculturation. This multi-dimensional model of cultural adaptation illustrates that cultural adaptation among intercultural parents is neither a static nor a symmetrical process. Parents adopt different strategies to reconcile their cultural differences, including assimilation, cultural tourism, cultural transition, cultural amalgamation, and biculturation, at various stages of their relationship and for different purposes. Counselors will gain from understanding these divergent strategies and family systems to better equip couples to benefit from their diversity and differences within their families

Australian Aboriginal Marginalisation in Policy Making and Education: a function of colonialism and its aftermath

This project is an exploration of factors which have historically contributed to Aboriginal marginalisation in Australian society. These factors perpetuate the contemporary position of an underclass occupied today by Aboriginal people. During my years of teaching I observed at first hand the disproportionate lack of engagement with the education system by Aboriginal students. As a result, I started exploring both the theoretical frameworks which attempted to explain the situation and the various policies related to methods of education delivery. This led to looking at the underlying social structures which contribute to the situation. Colonialism and associated dispossession are identified as the main contributors to historical and contemporary marginalisation of Aboriginal people in Australia. Inherent in colonialism were scientific racism, institutional racism, structural violence and cultural violence. These remain embedded in the fabric of Australian society and continue to influence not only the daily lives, but also the long term life chances of Aboriginal people. The impact of these factors on Aboriginal participation in policy formulation and education is examined within a critical theory framework. Discussion of education includes both policy related to Aboriginal education in general and issues related to higher education participation by Aboriginal people. Literature and information from interviews and ongoing email correspondence with participants informs the discussion. Methodology suited to critical theory proposed by Smith (1999: 149-150) involves reading, writing and representing from an Aboriginal perspective, and was used in this research. Cultural Safety, a concept developed in New Zealand in relation to health service delivery, offers a different approach to improving service delivery to Aboriginal Australians. The practice of Cultural Safety can reduce the power imbalances created by colonialism and its application to Aboriginal education is a major focus of this portfolio

The dilemma and assimilation: a case study of the Temple Society Australia

This thesis examines the dilemma of adaptation and assimilation and language maintenance or shift in the faith-based, immigrant community, the Temple Society Australia (TSA). The case study is of German-speaking Templer 'accidental immigrants', many displaced and unrepatriable, who arrived in Australia from the 1940s to 1960s, and includes their locally-born partners and children. The study challenges the assumption that the Templers assimilated successfully. Assimilationist thinking has been revisited recently through the government's push for a national identity based on national values. Australia is a country with a wide diversity of languages, still characterised by a monolingual mindset (Clyne 2005). Explored are the rich community languages resources and multiple identities of an immigrant community that has shaped and been shaped by Australian institutions for 65 years. Ordinary Templers tell the extraordinary stories of how they adjusted, the cultural and linguistic choices that impacted on their community building and how their transnational identities were formed. This ethnographic case study, conducted from an insider participant-researcher perspective, was located around Melbourne. The data were collected from personal profile and language use surveys, internal TSA archives, interviews of 69 Templers in Swabian, German and English, as well as researcher-participant observations at religious and community events. The analysis used Ethnograph computer software. The findings illustrate that the Templer immigrants went through nine ways of thinking about adaptation rather than assimilating. Three distinct profiles of Templers and their offspring are evidenced: the first generation of inward-lookers, the one-and-a-half generation of assimilation experts and the second generation of adapters. A positive expression of multiple collective identities of the Templer community emerges that consists of religious, diaspora, bilingual and transnational identities. The results reinforce the need for inclusion of immigrant stories and complementary multiple identities as community builders that shape Australia's nation-building and national identity

Aboriginal students can succeed: Factors influencing the retention, attainment and identity of ten successful Aboriginal students at senior secondary school

Although the retention rate of Aboriginal students has improved over the past fifteen years, it is still significantly less than that for all other students, and very few Aboriginal students are completing twelve full years of schooling. The situation is worse in country schools than in large metropolitan areas. Despite the fact that some Aboriginal students do stay at school and succeed little work has been done to identify what factors have helped those Aboriginal students who have done so. In addition, there is relatively little knowledge about how the various school, home, ability and personal factors are interrelated. Therefore, this thesis sets out to explore what has helped ten students in various regional and rural centres in South Australia to stay at school and to succeed when so many of their peers have dropped out of school. The significance of the study lies in its methodology and its positive focus. The literature indicates that a vast range of variables are associated with the retention, attainment and identity of Aboriginal students and that these are interrelated in complex ways. This study uses an assets analysis orientation and case study methodology within the constructivist paradigm to examine these factors and their interrelationships and puts them in perspective for ten Aboriginal students. A causal network matrix model is developed to conceptualise the complex interrelationships. Subsequently, each of the ten richly descriptive case studies are complemented with two causal network matrices. As a consequence this study explores theoretical, methodological and practical issues

Learning to be literate

It is well-known that Aboriginal levels of literacy are below Australian norms. The reasons for this situation are complex and involve such factors as historico-political issues, social disadvantage, cultural difference and racism. Attempts at all levels to improve literacy competencies have met with indifferent success in terms of the Aboriginal population as a whole. Literacy experience in early childhood is judged by the research to be crucial for later literacy competence. Little is known, however, about the nature of Aboriginal reading and writing skills in general let alone the emergent knowledge of young Aboriginal children and their experience of literacy events. This study examined the literacy development of a cohort of Aboriginal pre-school children over a period of more than five years. In an eighteen month period beginning in the middle of their pre-school year the children's emergent literacy knowledge was determined. Story knowledge, print knowledge, book handling knowledge, reading and writing knowledge were examined in the light of current research. Four years later, when the children were in middle primary school, their literacy development was assessed again using both standardised and non-standardised measures. Using a multi-method approach, the group data were analysed statistically via Rasch Analysis and other methods. The performances of five children were also written up individually as case studies. Thus both qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis were used

The Development of an Internet Course as an Integral Component of Face-to-Face Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)

The study tested the feasibility of a self-learning interactive online course on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) as a component in an intervention for the treatment of participants with mild or moderate levels of major depressive disorder (MOD). The course provided a means for participants to learn cognitive behavioural skills through an interactive website with email and if necessary telephone support by the writer. The intervention included individual face-to-face sessions, which participants arranged as they felt the need during or after completion of the course. The sessions concentrated on the application of skills learnt in the course and overcoming difficulties encountered in learning aspects of the course. Nine participants scoring in the mild and moderate levels on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were selected for the study. The existence of MOD was verified by a clinical interview based on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). Participants were retested with the BDR on completion of the intervention, the face-to-face phase and three months following the end of treatment. The BDI scores were compared with those of individuals in studies of face-to-face treatment and online treatment only, to identify significant differences in effect sizes or improvement rates. At the same time as the BOI testing participants completed interview questionnaires on the extent to which they were using skills learnt in the intervention and also provided feedback on the treatment process. Case study methodology was used to provide information on changes in functioning as participants advanced through the treatment process. The results are tentative because the study has several limitations including the smallness of the sample, the lack of control groups and the nature of the relationship between the researcher and the participants. Much more research is required before the effectiveness of the intervention can be accepted

Fasudil attenuates aggregation of α-synuclein in models of Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder, yet disease-modifying treatments do not currently exist. Rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK) was recently described as a novel neuroprotective target in PD. Since alpha-synuclein (alpha-Syn) aggregation is a major hallmark in the pathogenesis of PD, we aimed to evaluate the anti-aggregative potential of pharmacological ROCK inhibition using the isoquinoline derivative Fasudil, a small molecule inhibitor already approved for clinical use in humans. Fasudil treatment significantly reduced alpha-Syn aggregation in vitro in a H4 cell culture model as well as in a cell-free assay. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy analysis revealed a direct binding of Fasudil to tyrosine residues Y133 and Y136 in the C-terminal region of alpha-Syn. Importantly, this binding was shown to be biologically relevant using site-directed mutagenesis of these residues in the cell culture model. Furthermore, we evaluated the impact of long-term Fasudil treatment on alpha-Syn pathology in vivo in a transgenic mouse model overexpressing human alpha-Syn bearing the A53T mutation (alpha-Syn(A53T) mice). Fasudil treatment improved motor and cognitive functions in alpha-Syn(A53T) mice as determined by Catwalk (TM) gait analysis and novel object recognition (NOR), without apparent side effects. Finally, immunohistochemical analysis revealed a significant reduction of alpha-Syn pathology in the midbrain of alpha-Syn(A53T) mice after Fasudil treatment. Our results demonstrate that Fasudil, next to its effects mediated by ROCK-inhibition, directly interacts with alpha-Syn and attenuates alpha-Syn pathology. This underscores the translational potential of Fasudil as a disease-modifying drug for the treatment of PD and other synucleinopathies

Extracellular vesicle sorting of α-Synuclein is regulated by sumoylation

Extracellular α-Synuclein has been implicated in interneuronal propagation of disease pathology in Parkinson’s Disease. How α-Synuclein is released into the extracellular space is still unclear. Here, we show that α-Synuclein is present in extracellular vesicles in the central nervous system. We find that sorting of α-Synuclein in extracellular vesicles is regulated by sumoylation and that sumoylation acts as a sorting factor for targeting of both, cytosolic and transmembrane proteins, to extracellular vesicles. We provide evidence that the SUMO-dependent sorting utilizes the endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) by interaction with phosphoinositols. Ubiquitination of cargo proteins is so far the only known determinant for ESCRT-dependent sorting into the extracellular vesicle pathway. Our study reveals a function of SUMO protein modification as a Ubiquitin-independent ESCRT sorting signal, regulating the extracellular vesicle release of α-Synuclein. We deciphered in detail the molecular mechanism which directs α-Synuclein into extracellular vesicles which is of highest relevance for the understanding of Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis and progression at the molecular level. We furthermore propose that sumo-dependent sorting constitutes a mechanism with more general implications for cell biology.Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plat