Creating a Community of Learners: Affinity Groups and Informal Graduate Writing Support

Graduate school, especially for students like us who are pursuing Ph.D.s, can be a tough and lonely place made more difficult by criticism and self-doubt. Without an adequate community or supportive network, graduate students attempting to access the realms of academia, especially those who constitute the first generation and are pursuing advanced degrees, may be at greater risk of failure and attrition. Failure to complete the dissertation, and the program itself, can be damaging for both the individual and the institution, particularly for those students who are capable of completing extended and involved research projects but need guidance through the terrain of higher education. Graduate students may lack understanding of institutional expectations, which can compound inequities in terms of access to resources, mentoring, or support. According to David Litalien and Frédéric Guay’s study of dropout intentions among doctoral students, those who don’t finish their degree risk a lack of employment opportunities and decreased selfesteem, largely because their efforts could have been redirected in other ways. Additionally, “doctoral attrition reduces resources and at the same time incurs costs for faculty members who have invested considerable time in research projects that will never be completed” (Litalien and Guay 218). Affinity groups and writing support networks like the one we formed (and which we discuss in this essay) may help to not only decrease attrition rates, but foster collaboration and professionalism well beyond the dissertation.University Writing Cente

TEACHER, TUTOR, SCHOLAR, ADMINISTRATOR: PREPARATION FOR AND PERCEPTIONS OF GRADUATE WRITING CENTER WORK

This research uses a mixed methods approach to explore the both the preparation for and perceptions of graduate consultant writing center work. A review of literature shows a gap in both the knowledge surrounding graduate writing consultant education and the long-term outcomes or transfer of writing center training and work to post-graduate careers. The survey instruments in this study draw from two established studies, the Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project and the National Census of Writing, while a request for curricular artifacts draws on case study research conducted by Jackson et al. Findings indicate that graduate consultants are being prepared for their work in writing centers, but that directors are not intentionally including discussions of how that work may transfer into academic careers, particularly those in writing center leadership. Despite this, current and alumni graduate consults report both immediate and long-term transfer of writing center experiences, skills, and knowledge into their occupations. The transfer of learning is perceived as being most profound for those who have remained in the academy as either professors or administrators. This research has implications for graduate students, directors, and institutions, and I conclude with an analysis of how directors can be more intentional in their work with graduate consultants in order to better prepare a new generation of writing center administrators who are aware of the academic, political, and scholarly opportunities that are possible through writing center careers

Review of \u3cem\u3eThe Hero\u27s Fight\u3c/em\u3e. Patricia Fernandez-Kelly. Reviewed by Katrina Bell McDonald

Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, The Hero’s Fight. Princeton University Press (2015), 422 pages, $21.00 (hardcover)

De-Romanticizing Black Intergenerational Support: The Questionable Expectations of Welfare Reform

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73197/1/j.1741-3737.2001.00213.x.pd

Pre-service teachers’ knowledge and attitudes regarding school-based bullying

Pre-service teachers responded to two questionnaires regarding school violence, the Teachers' Attitudes about Bullying, and Trainee Teachers' Bullying Attitudes. Results suggest that teachers across all academic divisions view bullying as a serious concern important to their role within the profession. There were considerable differences regarding what was defined as bullying, with a consequent variability related to the potential of intervening to end the violence. Covert forms of bullying including relational, cyber and homophobic were viewed as less serious compared to overt violence and less worthy of attention. The necessity of training regarding anti-violence strategies for preservice teachers is presented. &nbsp

Downward Residential Mobility in Structural-Cultural Context: The Case of Disadvantaged Black Mothers

Sorting out the various macro and micro causes of Black mothers’ downward residential mobility is extremely difficult, though past research has been fairly successful in identifying and explaining the mechanisms by which structural factors constrain Black residential change. The socio-historical context in which Black mothers operate, however, is largely ignored in these studies. We argue that past scholarship on Black women’s social history offers some helpful insights into the “residential desires and decision making” related to Black women’s social location. This paper pinpoints instances of downward residential mobility among a sample of disadvantaged Black mothers and works to elucidate both structurally- and culturally-related circumstances that help to explain them. In particular, it seeks to connect “residential desires and decision making” to sentiments Black women have had historically toward their family and community obligations. This study interweaves quantitative and qualitative data from the Baltimore Study, which traces the movement of disadvantaged Black mothers in and out of socioeconomic categories, including in and out of distressed neighborhoods over a 30-year period of their life course (approximately 1968-1996)

The intersection of school racial composition and student race/ethnicity on adolescent depressive and somatic symptoms

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.03.03

Black Activist Mothering: A Historical Intersection of Race, Gender, and Class

The prevalence of poor health among young disadvantaged Black mothers and their children has prompted a revival of maternal activism among Black middle-class urban women. A study of the California-based "Birthing Project," founded in 1988, reveals that such activism is best understood as a modern-day version of Black activist mothering practiced by African-American clubwomen from the time of slavery to the early 1940s. This article demonstrates the legacy of "normative empathy" as a significant motivator for middle-class maternal activism and as a basis for a middle-class critique of Black mothering among the disadvantaged

Effect of School Racial Composition on Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms from Adolescence Through Early Adulthood

We investigate the effect of high school racial composition, measured as percent of non-Hispanic white students, on trajectories of depressive symptoms from adolescence to early adulthood. We also explore whether the effect of school racial composition varies by respondent race/ethnicity and whether adult socioeconomic status mediates this relationship. We analyzed four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health using 3-level linear growth models. We restricted our sample to respondents enrolled in grades 9-12 in 1994/5 who were interviewed at a minimum in Waves I and IV. This resulted in 10,350 respondents enrolled in 80 high schools in 1994/5 (5,561 whites, 2,030 blacks, 1,834 Hispanics, 738 Asians, and 187 of other race). As the percentage of white students increased at the high school respondents attended in 1994/5, blacks reported more depressive symptoms. This effect did not vary by age. In comparison, Asian and Hispanic respondents who attended predominantly white high schools had lower levels of depressive symptoms than their counterparts who attended predominantly minority schools, but they also experienced a slower decline in depressive symptoms through early adulthood. Adult SES mediated the relationship between high school racial composition and depressive symptoms for black, but not for Asian or Hispanic respondents. Our results suggest that high school racial composition is associated with trajectories of depressive symptoms through early adulthood, but the effect differs by respondents’ race/ethnicity. Racial/ethnic disparities in depressive symptoms during early adulthood may have their origins in adolescence