Mixed Feelings: Identity Development of Biracial People

Multiracial people traditionally have been categorized as monoracial, thus creating limitations to their identity development (Gibbs 1987; Davis 1991). However, recent societal shifts concerning race have left mixed race individuals with an array of racial identity choices (Huffman 1994; Townsend et al. 2012). To explore such a phenomenon, this study consisted of in-depth interviews with 15 adult Biracial respondents on questions surrounding their experiences as a mixed-race person. The results indicate that Biracial persons come to develop a variety of distinctive racial identities ranging from monoracial to Multiracial. Additionally, the respondents identified three distinct stages in their development of a racial identity including: racial ignorance, racial ambivalence, and racial transcendence. The results of this inquiry affirm perspectives in the literature that Multiracial people continually engage in an iterative process of defining themselves in racial terms via the negotiation of social interaction

Aiming Higher Together: Strategizing Better Educational Outcomes for Boys and Young Men of Color

This paper is focused on racial, ethnic, and gender patterns in children's lived experiences that, based on research, seem to contribute to developmental disparities. Studies cited in the paper indicate promising ways to help address race and gender differences in home-based learning activities beginning from birth. To reveal school-related patterns and to measure students perceptions of the quality of teaching they experience, the paper uses student survey results from thousands of classrooms. The author briefly describes some school-improvement approaches that can improve educational outcomes for students of color, with examples of alternatives to out-of-schools suspensions

How Mom and Dad Use Crayons: A Study of How Parents Perceive and Negotiate Racial Identity with Their Black and White Biracial Children

The exponential increase in interracial marriage has brought with it a group of biracial children who do not fit neatly into the current racial classification system. The purpose of this study was to understand the perception and the strategies parents take to negotiate identity with their children. Moreover, the desire is to also understand how they came to such perceptions, what those perceptions are, and how they may or may not affect what they do with their children. This study involved 10 interracial couples that are parents of biracial children who are half African American and half European American. All children were over the age of nine years old. Subsequently, the parents were subjected to semi-structured, taped interviews. There were three major findings in this study. First, parents were found to have traits that predisposed them to happy marriages and healthy relationships with their biracial children. Parents of biracial children were found to be open minded to race and culture. Further, the respondents reported having parents who were very supportive in both the interracial marriage and childrearing process. Second, parents of biracial children do not perceive their children in a mono-racial marine Instead most parents see their children in a non/biracial point of view. Finally, the parents studied were engaged in purposeful and deliberate actions in an attempt to negotiate a healthy identity with their children. Strategies parents used included open dialogue, introduction of racial/cultural artifacts (i.e. books, dolls, movies, music) and event and experiences

Exploring qualitative analytics for e-mentoring relationships building in an online social learning environment

The language of mentoring has become established within the workplace and has gained ground within education. As work based education moves online so we see an increased use of what is termed e-mentoring. In this paper we explore some of the challenges of forming and supporting mentoring relationships virtually, and we explore the solutions afforded by online social learning and Web 2.0. Based on a conceptualization of learning network theory derived from the literature and the qualitative learning analytics, we propose that an e-mentoring relationships is mediated by a connection with or through a person or learning objects. We provide an example to illustrate how this might work

A Genesis for Compact Convex Sets

This paper was written in response to the following question: what conditions are sufficient to guarantee that if a compact subset A of a topological linear space L^3 is not convex, then for every point x belonging to the complement of A relative to the convex hull of A there exists a line segment yz such that x belongs to yz and y belongs to A and z belongs to A? Restated in the terminology of this paper the question bay be given as follow: what conditions may be imposed upon a compact subset A of L^3 to insure that A is braced