My Mother\u27s Hands

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. \u27When will you be home?\u27 my mother asked worriedly. \u27We miss not having you around.\u2

The Swingset War

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. It is no surprise that Michelle punched out my first tooth that the fairy collected. I saw in horror her fist speeding towards my face. It was quick, and yet slow enough for me to flinch in anticipation of the pain. Blue sky flashed in my eyes as I fell backwards off the swing. This was a classic interruption of our constant bickering: bloody and tear-filled. That was my relationship with my sister Michelle

The Fatal Ingredient

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. Slowly, I push around the thick bowl of stew. Its delicious smell is wafting toward my nose, but my anticipation is dampened by the cruel fact that, hidden underneath the scrumptious brown liquid, lurks about fifteen green olives. Worse, they have pits and these remnants of consumption are to be placed ceremoniously on a small dish for this purpose. I can\u27t even pretend to eat them, unless I say I swallow olive pits. It\u27s a sticky situation

Asset-Based Community Development: A Case Study

This case describes an effort toward asset-based community development with an ‘underprivileged’ neighbourhood, including the responsive steps taken to deal with the realities and challenges of community change efforts. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, including residents and external supports, this paper examines changes in community activity in association with their newly formed community centre. Through analysis of the community’s challenges four ‘enabling conditions’ necessary for community development are identified including: balancing relationships with issues; effective ‘citizen space’; maintenance of relationships and communication; and community readiness. These key lessons include ongoing considerations of patience, flexibility, and responsiveness that are necessary throughout the development of change efforts. Implications for informing community development work in similar communities are discussed

The Politics and Economics of Health: A Cross-National Comparison of Civic Engagement and Health Status

Over the past two decades, various structural modifications associated with the provision of national health and its systems have been undertaken. The preponderance of liberalization experiences have occurred in the absence of epidemiological, political, or social considerations associated with adoption and implementation. Often, financial and political manipulation by international organizations and powerful foreign governments has served as the impetus for fundamental shifts leading to an asymmetrical distribution of resources by population density, geography, and along various socio-cultural boundaries. Consequently, structural adjustments have resulted in unpredictable and divergent outcomes with regard to health status. The question of whether or not health policies and programs served to fulfill public health objectives appeared to be one of the most critical. Using national-level data for the 192 member nations of the World Health Organization, this exploratory dissertation employs phased statistical methods to determine the individual and collective associations of economics and socio-political conditions with the dependent variable, health status. Results of the stepwise regression suggest that the individual variable most responsible for achieving favorable health status is median age (R2=.586, pR 2=.629, pR 2=.643, p This exploratory study provides some new evidence concerning the individual and combined roles of economic conditions and the socio-political environment in determining health status, thus providing a foundation for thoughtful consideration of the milieu under which health policy is developed and implemented. The result is a solution capable of accounting for the impact of social, political, and economic leveraging on health status and provides a theoretical framework suitable for cross-national comparative research

Environmental Literacy of Sixth Grade Students in Arkansas: Implications for Environmental Education Reform

Environmental education must be better integrated into K-12 curriculum to advance environmental literacy. Producing a citizenry that can understand and address the complex environmental issues facing the world today and in the future is essential to sustainable life on this planet. Using the Middle School Environmental Literacy Survey, 6th grade students across Arkansas were surveyed to obtain a baseline measure of environmental literacy based on the four domains of environmental literacy included in the survey; ecological knowledge, environmental affect, cognitive skills, and behavior. Individual domain scores were combined into a composite environmental literacy score. Results were then compared to the national baseline established by the National Environmental Literacy Assessment Project. The research population consisted of a stratified random sample of 6th grade students across Arkansas. An ex post facto research design was used to analyze the sample. The results of the research indicated that the Arkansas 6th grade students scored in the moderate range for the domains of ecological knowledge, environmental affect, and behavior. However, scores for cognitive skills were in the low range. The mean composite environmental literacy score indicated the 6th grade students had a moderate level of environmental literacy overall. Students in Arkansas scored significantly lower (t (4110) = 15.41, p