Asset-based Framework Research Articles

Access to general practice for preventive health care for people who experience severe mental illness in Sydney, Australia: a qualitative study.

People with lived experience of severe mental illness (PWLE) live around 20years less than the general population. Most deaths are due to preventable health conditions. Improved access to high-quality preventive health care could help reduce this health inequity. This study aimed to answer the question: What helps PWLE access preventive care from their GP to prevent long-term physical conditions? Qualitative interviews (n=10) and a focus group (n=10 participants) were conducted with PWLE who accessed a community mental health service and their carers (n=5). An asset-based framework was used to explore what helps participants access and engage with a GP. A conceptual framework of access to care guided data collection and analysis. Member checking was conducted with PWLE, service providers and other stakeholders. A lived experience researcher was involved in all stages of the study. PWLE and their carers identified multiple challenges to accessing high-quality preventive care, including the impacts of their mental illness, cognitive capacity, experiences of discrimination and low income. Some GPs facilitated access and communication. Key facilitators to access were support people and affordable preventive care. GPs can play an important role in facilitating access and communication with PWLE but need support to do so, particularly in the context of current demands in the Australian health system. Support workers, carers and mental health services are key assets in supporting PWLE and facilitating communication between PWLE and GPs. GP capacity building and system changes are needed to strengthen primary care's responsiveness to PWLE and ability to engage in collaborative/shared care.

The essential role of ABCD in developing two community engagement frameworks for supporting Latinx students


 
 
 Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) is an important framework to understand and develop community-engagement experiences for Latinx students, especially at Hispanic Serving Institutions that play an important role in educating Latinx students. This article presents the conceptual findings of a research project that looked at the community-engagement experiences of Latinx students at an HSI. Drawing on in-depth interviews and critical frameworks for engagement, two models were developed: Prism of Liberatory Engagement and Asset Based Critical Engagement. These frameworks are presented as ways to (1) understand and differentiate the service learning experiences of Latinx students and (2) provide a framework for faculty and Community Engagement Professionals (CEPs) to situate their courses and community relationships, and work from an asset-based philosophy of engagement. The Prism of Liberatory Engagement gives explicit attention to the themes (awareness, agency and action; positive interaction with faculty; engaging sameness, and engagement for uplift) and the significant factors (personal/familial trauma, constraints and previous experience with service) that shape the community-engagement experiences of Latinx students. The Asset Based Critical Engagement model presented in this article provides a theoretical asset-based framework for critical pedagogy for service learning and community engagement that can be vital for institutions, in and outside of the United States, which are serving an increasingly diverse student population.
 
 

Examining holistic developmental strengths and needs of multilingual kindergartners using the Early Development Instrument

Using an asset-based framework, this study examines the holistic developmental health outcomes of young English Learners (ELs) in the United States using the Early Development Instrument (EDI), stratified by first language and neighborhood risk measured by the National Neighborhood Equity Index (NNEI). Drawing from data spanning 154 school districts across 11 states and the District of Columbia from 2016 to 2020 (n = 192,892 kindergartners), the analyses encompassed descriptive statistics, Pearson Chi-square tests, and logistic regression models. The results highlight that EL kindergartners were more likely to be On Track in the social competence (OR = 1.17; 95 % CI = 1.13, 1.20), emotional maturity (OR = 1.26; 95 % CI = 1.22, 1.30), and physical health and well-being (OR = 1.47; 95 % CI = 1.43,1.51) domains compared to non-EL kindergartners. Yet, in the communication skills and general knowledge (OR = 0.75; CI = 0.72, 0.77) and language and cognitive development (OR = 0.72; CI = 0.70, 0.74) domains, EL kindergartners were less likely to be On Track compared to non-EL kindergartners. Notably, Korean- and Mandarin-speaking kindergartners showed the highest rates of being On Track across all EDI domains. Additionally, EL kindergartners in less challenged neighborhoods were surprisingly less likely to be On Track compared to those in more adverse neighborhoods across all developmental domains. Implications of these findings, which shed light on distinctive strengths and needs, are discussed.

Roots of Cultural Resilience: A Case Study on the Resilience of Latinx Medical Students

ABSTRACT Contrary to the deficit, leaky pipe perspective, this study applied an asset-based framework that argues resilience is a cultural asset that motivates and contributes to success. The purpose of this study was to examine how Latinx students applied resilience contexts toward navigating the medical school pipeline. A qualitative, case study design was utilized to explore the medical school pipeline experiences of five Latinx medical students, attending one of the most diverse medical schools in the nation. Two data collection techniques were used including document analysis of medical school personal statements and participant interviews. Data were unitized, coded and analyzed using content analysis and constant comparative method. Findings suggest Latinx medical students demonstrate resilience prior to matriculation by being resourceful and not giving up despite citizenship barriers. Additionally, the Home, Community & College contexts of the Latina/o Resilience Model represented the role of resilience in the success of the participant’s journeys into medical school. Recommendations for practice are offered with the intention of providing higher education leaders ideas for increasing racial and ethnic representation within future cohorts of medical school students.

Asset-based Approaches to Multilingual Students’ Computer Science Identity Development

While computer science identity development has been examined in several studies, there is much to learn about the development of multilingual students’ computer science (CS) identities. To develop strong CS identities, multilingual students must engage in culturally and linguistically sustaining curriculum, pedagogy, and interaction that draws from their rich and varied resources. This theoretical paper is grounded in a justice-centered, asset-based framework that views the traditions and practices in students’ cultures and communities as strong contributors to knowledge construction in STEM. We draw on multiple studies exploring multilingual student CS identity development to better understand how their personal, familial, community-based, and intersectional experiences can be leveraged to promote equitable CS participation. Based on a synthesis of these studies, we find that educators should engage in the following practices: 1) leveraging multilingual students’ multiple meaning-making resources, 2) connecting classroom learning to informal learning spaces, 3) providing broader contexts for disciplinary practices, 4) offering multiple opportunities for self-expression, and 5) drawing on multilingual students’ strong intersectional identities. Through these practices, we discuss how researchers, practitioners, and policymakers can strengthen multilingual students’ disciplinary identification and overall persistence in CS.

A systematic review of understanding parental involvement in children’s ESL learning: What the literature says?

A systematic literature review (SLR) regarding parental involvement in children's ESL learning at the primary school level was carried out using electronic data searching. This review considered articles published in the last three years (2020–2022) from an electronic database, specifically SCOPUS. The paper summarizes previous research, examines the current literature, and suggests directions for future research. The results of this evaluation, which include the identification of ten relevant papers, show that the majority of the parental involvement studies were conducted qualitatively and focused more on home-based than school-based involvement. Besides that, reading activities were largely performed by parents to get involved in their children’s ESL learning followed by helping with homework. Several theories have been seen employed by studies shortlisted in this SLR namely Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory, Epstein Framework, Walker‘s Model of Parental Involvement, and Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory. Bourdieu Social Classes Theory and Asset-based Framework. The findings of this review suggest that for children to benefit most from reading, parents should obtain a better understanding of effective reading strategies. Additionally, more studies are needed on school-based parental involvement to get more insights into implementing home-school partnerships for better student educational outcomes.

“Our Branches Are the Vines That Must Bear Fruit”: The Role of Parents in First-Generation Students' Career Development

This interpretive qualitative study of 17 first-generation college students (FGCSs) in the U.S. uses parent-generated familial capital as an asset-based framework to recognize the various ways that parents contribute to their undergraduate students’ career development. Six themes illustrate parental contributions: facilitating students’ access to pre-college educational opportunity, making financial contributions, instilling career-related values, giving career advice, job choice from parent contexts (or the way that knowledge of parent cultures and regions of origin informed career goals, especially for immigrant participants), and giving back to parents as a source of motivation for achievement and financial success. Findings also acknowledge the importance of considering FGCSs’ multiple social identities, namely immigrant status, as the majority of study participants are from immigrant families, in understanding participants’ career development experiences.

Examining community cultural wealth of a transfronteriza multilingual student in mathematics classrooms

We use Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) asset-based framework to make sense of the cultural capital of Leyla, a student who recently arrived in the USA from México. Drawing on counterstory methodologies, we illustrate how Leyla uses multiple forms of capital (aspirational, familial, linguistic, social) to navigate within and resist oppressive schooling structures. Her resistance capital could be seen through the application of her different forms of cultural capital, in which she critiqued the structures of her schooling experiences and engaged in actions that may function as a way to pursue her aspirations. We end with a discussion that elaborates on Leyla’s story in light of our experiential knowledge to suggest implications for teaching and research.

FUNDS OF SCIENCE IDENTITY: TOWARD AN ASSET-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERGRADUATE STEM RESEARCH AND PRAXIS

FUNDS OF SCIENCE IDENTITY: TOWARD AN ASSET-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERGRADUATE STEM RESEARCH AND PRAXIS

Radical re-imagination: centering a BIPOC library workforce in an asset-based autoethnography

PurposeAcademic BIPOC librarians oftentime struggle to envision themselves and navigate in White-dominant spaces due to deficit thinking. To better understand how DEIA efforts can bolster structural change in academic libraries, the two BIPOC authors opted to lean on an asset-based exercise–imagining a positive work environment made possible through a library staffed entirely by BIPOC individuals.Design/methodology/approachThrough collaborative autoethnography, the two authors interviewed one another and centered their unstructured conversations around one question: “What does an academic library composed entirely of a BIPOC workforce look like?” Three emergent themes were agreed upon and finalized by the two authors.FindingsThe authors' imagined library is able to foster a supportive community and also function efficiently thanks to its shared purpose grounded in DEIA. Despite relying on an asset-based framework, the authors found themselves having to reckon with trials and tribulations currently faced by BIPOC librarians. Effectively envisioning the “ideal” library environment is not possible without also engaging with librarianship's legacy of racial injustices.Originality/valueRecognizing that confronting systems of oppression naturally invokes trauma, this paper encourages librarians to challenge deficit thinking and instead rely on asset-based models to candidly imagine an anti-racist academic library. The authors acknowledge that BIPOC voices and experiences add tremendous value to the library workplace. At the heart of this paper is the belief that reparations for past racial injustices should not only fix past wrongdoings, but also contribute to positive workplace cultures.

An Overview of Community Cultural Wealth: Toward a Protective Factor Against Racism

Community cultural wealth (CCW) as an asset-based framework challenges the deficit notion that Communities of Color do not possess “cultural” capital. Here, we adapt CCW as a framework that can help Students of Color navigate PK-20 educational contexts, particularly when experiencing interpersonal and structured racism, such as racial microaggressions. We begin by discussing the conceptual origins and intent of CCW. Next, we provide an overview of research studies that exemplify Students and Faculty of Color accessing CCW. Finally, by framing racism as an everyday risk factor, we consider how CCW can be used as a protective factor when experiencing racism.

A Higher Calling: Toward a More Spacious Role for Academic Advisors

A Higher Calling: Toward a More Spacious Role for Academic Advisors

Towards Student-Ready Mathematics Departments: Creating a Mathematics Placement Experience Within an Asset Framed Approach

As higher education institutions focus on increasing mathematics success, it is important to consider the experiences and needs of structurally disadvantaged identities. In this article, an asset-based framework was used to examine how eight first-generation, low-income, Students of Color perceive their mathematics placement experience. Although mathematics departments intend placement to be a mechanism for promoting success in mathematics, our research showed that the mathematics placement exam caused anxiety among students, was perceived as high stakes, and was viewed with a fixed mindset as opposed to a growth mindset. Implications of these insights encourage mathematics departments to consider alternative placement approaches that enhance the student experience of placement, especially for students with structurally disadvantaged identities. Creating an asset framed mathematics placement process is an initial step to improve success in mathematics.

Digging deeper: qualitative research methods for eliciting narratives and counter-narratives from student veterans

Military student veterans’ distinct life pathways often make it difficult for educational researchers to adequately capture and represent the challenges and opportunities they face in college. Thus, student veteran educational programs and policies are often built on inaccurate notions about their experiences and identities. Using Veteran Critical Theory as an organizing framework, this article describes two qualitative methods used in a study of student veterans: the key event timeline and the identity circle. The resulting data offer rich, thick description beyond what is typically captured through standard in-depth interviews. Student veterans construct their own narratives and offer counter-narratives that challenge prevailing assumptions about what it means to be a veteran in higher education. This qualitative approach could help veteran studies move from a deficit-based focus to an asset-based framework, and may be useful to educational researchers studying other marginalized populations.

Engaging Residents in Planning a Community Garden: A Strategy for Enhancing Participation Through Relevant Messaging

Understanding residents’ perceptions and preferences regarding health promotion and community development strategies is vital. Community gardens, often collaborative community-engaged projects, are designed to be healthy places where neighbors gather; however, they have the potential to be much more. The purpose of the study was to gauge public support for a community garden in South Omaha and prioritize messaging strategies regarding the potential benefits of a garden. To that end, a bilingual online survey that assessed interest in, perceived benefits of, purposes for, and functional attributes to co-locate in a community garden was conducted. Through this process, we learned about the value of developing local data, importance of using an asset-based framework, understanding community perceptions about potential benefits, balancing community research endeavors, and developing partnerships to expand the reach of a project. Developing community research strategies and appropriate messaging in collaboration with community members and partners is critical to the success of community health promotion initiatives.

An Asset-Based Framework of Credit Creation (applied to the Global Financial Crisis)

Abstract We develop a conceptual asset-based framework of credit creation based on three leading variables: (i) the amount of assets acceptable as collateral, (ii) the level of leverage and (iii) the level of trust. As credit expands along these dimensions in a non-linear dynamic, the financial system becomes more liquid. At the same time, it becomes more prone to endogenous feedbacks and vulnerable to internally generated instabilities manifested as booms and busts. Applying this framework to the global financial crisis, we show that the subprime crisis was both a signature and only one possible trigger in an increasingly unstable financial system. Using historical data, we demonstrate a significant shift in the components of US bank balance sheets and a decoupling of bank assets from deposits since the mid-1980s, marking the rise of “securitized-fractional reserve banking”. The subsequent decades were a period of growing leverage, with debt-securities assuming money-like functions and serving as collateral for further credit creation. As trust began to recede, the high levels of leverage were no more viable, precipitating a reduction of the amount of assets acceptable as collateral, and leading to a contraction in credit and to liquidity spirals. We discuss the potential general applicability of this framework of credit creation and define extensions in future research.

Reimagining invasions: The social and cultural impacts of Prosopis on pastoralists in southern Afar, Ethiopia

Whilst the environmental impacts of biological invasions are clearly conceptualised and there is growing evidence on the economic benefits and costs, the social and cultural dimensions remain poorly understood. This paper presents the perceptions of pastoralist communities in southern Afar, Ethiopian lowlands, on one invasive species, Prosopis juliflora. The socio-cultural impacts are assessed, and the manner in which they interact with other drivers of vulnerability, including political marginalisation, sedentarisation and conflict, is explored. The research studied 10 communities and undertook semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with pastoralists and agro-pastoralists. These results were supported by interviews with community leaders and key informants. The benefits and costs were analysed using the asset-based framework of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and the subject-focused approach of Wellbeing in Development. The results demonstrate that the costs of invasive species are felt across all of the livelihood capital bases (financial, natural, physical, human and social) highlighted within the framework and that the impacts cross multiple assets, such as reducing access through blocking roads. The concept of Wellbeing in Development provides a lens to examine neglected impacts, like conflict, community standing, political marginalisation and cultural impoverishment, and a freedom of definition and vocabulary to allow the participants to define their own epistemologies. The research highlights that impacts spread across assets, transcend objective and subjective classification, but also that impacts interact with other drivers of vulnerability. Pastoralists report deepened and broadened conflict, complicated relationships with the state and increased sedentarisation within invaded areas. The paper demonstrates that biological invasions have complex social and cultural implications beyond the environmental and economic costs which are commonly presented. Through synthesising methodologies and tools which capture local knowledge and perceptions, these implications and relationships are conceptualised.

Muslim Minorities and Workplace Diversity: An International Perspective

While organizations are increasingly embracing the rhetoric of human rights, equity and inclusion, many face challenges in fostering management practices that effectively respond to the dynamics of a progressively more diverse workforce. Within this workforce, Muslims have been the target of multiple forms of discrimination by states, organizations and individuals, often at the intersection of xenophobia, racism and Islamophobia. Existing research on Muslim minorities in the workplace has focused on barriers to advancement and how Muslims are constructed as “Others&x201D; in the workplace. Addressing the limitations of such single-level explorations of diversity, more recent work calls for multi-level analyses that take into account the interrelatedness of identity, macro (societal) discourses and meso (organizational) practices. Grounded in this literature, this panel will explore how national contexts and discourses at societal and organizational levels shape and are shaped by Muslim identities and stereotypes; how religion, ethnic identity, gender and other identity markets interplay in the construction, imposition, expression and negotiation of Muslim identities within organization contexts in different countries; and the potential and limitations of an asset-based framework in research on Muslim minorities in organizations. Adopting an international and intersectional framework, the panel discussion will advance understanding of the complexity of Muslim identity, the interplay of gender, race, religion, and workplace experiences, including exclusion and discrimination, but also acts of resistance and pathways to success. This panel have important implications for diversity research and practice.

An Asset-Based Approach to Volunteering

Research demonstrates that volunteering provides many benefits for individuals and communities. However, research has not adequately addressed the potential significance of volunteering as a mechanism for low-income individuals to improve their own lives and support their communities. To account for the benefits volunteering could generate, research must shift from an emphasis on what low-income volunteers lack to an approach that uncovers the strengths and wealth present among low-income volunteers and their communities. The purpose of this article is to present a theoretically informed asset-based framework for analyzing volunteerism research. Through an examination of four nonfinancial assets—social capital, human capital, cultural capital, and political capital—we illustrate how an asset-based approach offers an opportunity to explore the ways low-income individuals could build and leverage assets through volunteering. Implications for future research that frames volunteering as an asset-building strategy are considered.

Rethinking the economic borders of the state—ownership, assets, and competition

The paper sets out a new asset-based framework for the economic borders of the state. It considers how the economic borders have changed in response to major shocks, notably in the 1980s, and the economic concepts which lay behind these shifts—notably, on the microeconomic side, the market and government failure framework and, on the macroeconomic side, the monetarist challenge to the Keynesian paradigm. The missing elements are the balance sheet and the treatment of assets, debt, and the interests of future generations. Particular attention is paid to utility and infrastructure assets as core public goods, and to the neglect of natural capital.