Fostering Democratic Patriotism through Critical Pedagogy

When I was a high school US history teacher in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, I sometimes wondered about the relationship between patriotism and critique of one’s nation. Specifically, I questioned just how critical students could be without becoming disaffected toward the United States. I tried to be honest with my students about the nation’s mixed record of democracy—how the country was founded on ideals of equality and yet stole land from Native Americans, kidnapped millions of Africans as part of a massive system of chattel slavery, and denied the vote to women until 1920. But I wondered if these realities, paired with enduring inequalities, would make students want to dissociate themselves from this country and participation in political life. I had one student who made me think that perhaps the inverse was true: that the more students understood American failures to promote equality, the more motivated they would be to engage in fighting for it. He was the son of Nigerian immigrants. In ninth grade, he threw ketchup packets at his global history teacher, skipped class, and was regularly suspended. But in 11th grade English class, he read The Autobiography of Malcolm X and became a different student, seemingly overnight. He adopted a serious demeanor, wore a tie to school each day, and became a leader in class discussions. In reading about the injustices that drove Malcolm X to lead a movement for Black civil rights, this student saw a reason not for despair but for pursuing education so that he too could contribute to that movement. From that moment on, I wondered whether it was in fact impossible for schools to develop the type of citizens needed to protect and improve our democracy unless students were taught to be critical of the nation’s flaws

Nobody Wants To Feel Different...But It\u27s Just The Way It Is : Experiences Of Stigma And Other Stressors Among People Living With Psoriasis

It is understood that stigmatizing processes can, and do, affect multiple domains of life among people who bear a stigma label. It is also understood that sources of stress (stressors) can spill over into a variety of areas of life, impacting the health and well-being of stigmatized people. However, although both stigma research and stress research advance, little has been done to connect these two important lines of sociological inquiry. To address this gap, 23 semi-structured qualitative in-person and telephone interviews were conducted to examine the daily, lived experiences of stigma and other stressors among people living with psoriasis (PLWP), a group of people with one of the most common chronic skin conditions (CSC). A grounded theory approach to emergent narrative themes was utilized to uncover the variety of ways that stigma operates in the stress process framework, including how stigma-related stress proliferates into many domains of life, and how PLWP attempt to manage and cope with stigma and other psoriasis-related stressors. Findings revealed that the multidimensional nature of psoriasis shapes the meaning(s) PLWP attach to their CSC; psoriasis-related stigma operates as a stressor that is often chronic, permeating the daily life of PLWP and contributing to the development of an “psoriasis identity”; and PLWP utilize, to varying degrees of success, personal and social resources such as coping and social support in efforts to reduce stressful circumstances and their distressing outcomes. Data presented in this dissertation contribute to our understanding of stigma, social stress, and health processes among PLWP as well as other stigmatized groups of people suffering from chronic illness

Lessons on Citizenship and Democratic Power Literacy from Undocumented Youth

To create a society in which power is more equally accessible, we must teach our youth not only about civics and government, but also how to use political tools in order to effect social change. In this essay, I argue for teaching power literacy in place of traditional citizenship education on the grounds that the former has greater potential for increasing students’ political efficacy and their abilities to apply knowledge of civics to the real-world issues that affect them. To illustrate the concept of power literacy, I draw on a case study of a grassroots, undocumented youth activist organization fighting for in-state tuition legislation in North Carolina. Members of this group, which was entirely youth-founded and youth-led, taught themselves lobbying, civil disobedience, and other political strategies that far surpass the knowledge and skills typically presented in school-based citizenship education. Their work exemplifies the type of power literacy that we should teach all youth if we wish them to have the skills necessary to address the social inequalities that currently undercut American democracy

Presenting Precious Knowledge: Using Film to Model Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and Youth Civic Activism for Social Studies Teachers

In this paper, I examine the potential for developing preservice social studies teachers’ understanding of transformational resistance, Latin@ civil rights movements, and culturally sustaining pedagogy through a project using the film Precious Knowledge. This documentary depicts high school students in a Mexican American Studies (MAS) program using civil disobedience to protest Arizona’s ban of the program. The teachers prepared for the screening by reading and responding to scholarly articles on Latin@ school engagement and Chican@ student activism. After viewing the film and engaging in small group and whole class discussions, participants reported that they learned about current and past Chican@ student movements and gained an appreciation for the transformational potential of civic activism. The project serves as an example of how methods instructors could use school documentaries or other films as pedagogical tools, and more specifically it suggests readings and instructional activities to pair with such films

Exploring investigative question generation

A failure to conduct effective investigative interviews can have drastic consequences such as wrongful convictions or the inability to prevent terrorist attacks. One method of judging the efficacy of an interview is the ability to distinguish between honest and deceptive interviewees. Many techniques claim to improve the ability to detect deception, such as the CCE technique. However, little research has focused on the conditions that might enhance the ability to generate investigatively useful questions. In series of experiments we sought to identify the underlying dimensions of question quality. Initially, we investigated unexpectedness, finding that it was a useful dimension but dependent on the content of the questions (Chapters 2 and 3). In Chapter 5 we used a bottom-up approach to develop a 3-dimensional model of question quality. These dimensions were investigative relevance, unpredictability and type of knowledge probed. The model proved to be effective in predicting the outcome of real-world investigate interviews (Chapter 6). We also aimed to investigate the factors which might affect question generation ability. The scope of episodic information inherently available to the interviewer was shown to be a context-dependent factor affecting the ability to generate useful questions (Chapters 4 and 5). Training, via a short instructional video, was also shown to improve question generating ability (Chapter 4). Additionally, the veracity of the interviewee and the expertise of the question generator affected ability, though this was only detected by novice judges (Chapter 5). The findings presented in this thesis have implications for the investigative community, suggesting that deliberate attention should be paid to the phrasing of key interview questions in order to ensure that they are relevant, unpredictable and probing episodic knowledge. Additionally, the findings may inform current research that is focused on developing technology designed to assist investigative interviewers

Fostering Democratic Patriotism through Critical Pedagogy

When I was a high school US history teacher in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, I sometimes wondered about the relationship between patriotism and critique of one’s nation. Specifically, I questioned just how critical students could be without becoming disaffected toward the United States. I tried to be honest with my students about the nation’s mixed record of democracy—how the country was founded on ideals of equality and yet stole land from Native Americans, kidnapped millions of Africans as part of a massive system of chattel slavery, and denied the vote to women until 1920. But I wondered if these realities, paired with enduring inequalities, would make students want to dissociate themselves from this country and participation in political life. I had one student who made me think that perhaps the inverse was true: that the more students understood American failures to promote equality, the more motivated they would be to engage in fighting for it. He was the son of Nigerian immigrants. In ninth grade, he threw ketchup packets at his global history teacher, skipped class, and was regularly suspended. But in 11th grade English class, he read The Autobiography of Malcolm X and became a different student, seemingly overnight. He adopted a serious demeanor, wore a tie to school each day, and became a leader in class discussions. In reading about the injustices that drove Malcolm X to lead a movement for Black civil rights, this student saw a reason not for despair but for pursuing education so that he too could contribute to that movement. From that moment on, I wondered whether it was in fact impossible for schools to develop the type of citizens needed to protect and improve our democracy unless students were taught to be critical of the nation’s flaws

Patriotism as critique: Youth responses to teaching about injustice

The view that patriotism is characterized by unquestioning loyalty to one’s country remains common in the United States despite its anti-democratic implications. From this standpoint, classroom discussions of past and present injustices are a threat to patriotism because they raise doubts about national superiority and exceptionality. Through an ethnographic study in two critical, culturally diverse US history classrooms, I investigated students’ attitudes towards their country and the notion of patriotism. As opposed to fomenting disaffection among students, candid discussions of injustices led students to view their teachers and curriculum as more trustworthy than what they had encountered in prior classrooms. Moreover, they believed that this approach to curriculum was necessary for fostering the type of critical democratic patriotism that they advocated

Eschatology and the Risen Lord: Mary and the Dialogue Gospel Genre

The dialogue gospel was a popular literary genre in early Christianity. Texts include the Apocryphon of John, the Pistis Sophia and the Epistula Apostolurum, all which depict the risen Christ appearing to select disciples and answering a series of questions on life, death and the cosmos. The revelation in dialogue gospels can vary greatly (from affirming the resurrection of the flesh to denying it completely), yet each text is based on the premise that their gospel contains new or clarified teaching from the risen or glorified Lord, often seen as a final revelation concerned with the disciples’ eschatological salvation. In Part One, I argue for an open view of genre in which disparate texts can be brought together for comparative analysis. A genre of 13 dialogue gospels is constructed as a base for examination of the genre itself, its individual texts and their literary neighbours. In chapter two, dialogue gospels are read alongside selected themes and traditions from the canonical gospels and Pauline epistles, demonstrating that they are all part of the same conceptual world. The breadth of the work in Part One sets the foundation for Part Two in which a single text is focused on: The Gospel of Mary. Chapter three analyzes the narrative frame of GMary, arguing that it does not just frame the dialogue but informs and shapes it. Chapters four and five focus on the gospel’s cosmic and individual eschatology, reading it christologically. Christ has come to dissolve the material cosmos; Christ has ascended so Christian souls can follow him into Rest. At points, GMary’s eschatology converges with Luke, John, GThom and 1ApocJas. The work ends with appendices with notes on how to read the MSS, texts and translations and a synopses of the Greek and Coptic recensions of GMary

Effects of Multimodal Fever Education on Parents of Febrile Children

Insufficient knowledge regarding the physiology and appropriate management of fever in children often contributes to an increased parental anxiety, inappropriate antipyretic use, and overutilization of medical resources (Chang, Liu, & Huang, 2013; Crocetti, Moghbeli, & Serwint, 2001; Schmitt, 1980). Parental concerns regarding childhood fever can lead to an overuse of health care resources as febrile illness in children accounts for approximately 20% of emergency department visits, 30% of office visits, and over 50% of after-hour phone calls to private physicians (Zomorrodi & Attia, 2008). Research shows that multidimensional educational interventions are most effective in improving parental management of fever (Young et al, 2010). The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to provide multimodal fever education to parents of febrile children and examine the effects on parental knowledge, self-efficacy, anxiety, satisfaction, and health service utilization. The best practice recommendation includes a combination of written, verbal, and multimedia educational methods in close proximity to the time of the fever. The proposed intervention consisted of a three-minute educational video and a pamphlet on childhood fever including appropriate management developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (2007). The intervention group participated in the parent fever education program and the control group received standard care consisting of brief verbal discussion of fever and appropriate caregiver management. Data were collected and analyzed comparing outcome measurements of knowledge, self-efficacy, anxiety, and satisfaction from both groups using the Pearson Chi square test measurement. A statistically significant difference was found in comparing participants’ knowledge regarding harmful effects of fever (p = 0.020) and satisfaction of the education provided (p = 0.023). Additional studies evaluating effectiveness of multimodal fever education are necessary for further identification of the best methods to impact outcomes such as knowledge, self-efficacy, anxiety, and satisfaction