Multiethnic Setting Research Articles

Explanations, explanations, explanations: how do patients with limited English construct narrative accounts in multi-lingual, multi-ethnic settings, and how can GPs interpret them?

The gap is widening between understanding the subtle ways patients and GPs manage their talk, and superficial discussion of the 'language barrier' among linguistic minority patients. All patients have to explain themselves, not just those for whom English is their first or main language. Patients' explanations reflect how they want the doctor to perceive them as a patient and as a person: they reveal patients' identities. Yet interpretations are not easy when patients' style of talking English is influenced by their first language and cultural background. To explore in detail how patients with limited English and GPs jointly overcome misunderstandings in explanations. Using discourse analysis and conversation analysis, we examine how GPs and their patients with limited English negotiate explanations and collaborate to manage, repair or prevent understanding problems. 31% of patients said English was not their first language. Misunderstandings arise owing to a range of linguistic and cultural factors, including stress and intonation patterns, vocabulary, the way a patient sequences their narrative, and patient and GP pursuing different agendas. When talk itself is the problem, patients' explanations can lead to misunderstandings, which GPs have to repair if they cannot prevent. Careful interpretation by skillful GPs can reveal patients' knowledge, experience and perspective.

Choosing to Matter More

The other day, a friend of mine asked a rather provocative question. Why, he asked, teaching the only profession whose members--indeed, whose leaders--seem so dedicated to proving that they don't make a difference? Certainly, like many policy people, my friend painted with too broad a brush. Many teachers, teacher educators, even whole teacher education programs ascribe to quite different views about the efficacy of our profession. But I want to argue in this invited article about the politics of teacher education, that our failure to fully turn that corner--the corner, if you will, from a can't to a profession--is at the core of our inability to be seriously heard in the policy arena and even more important, of our inability to get sufficient traction in school reform more generally. Although many readers undoubtedly join me in wishing it were otherwise, many among us still cling to the belief that socioeconomic status--rather than what we do as educators--is the most important determinant of student achievement. And the impact of this view on future teachers is profound. Far too many regard the demands of accountability as capricious and unfair because their students are too damaged by poverty or family problems to learn. Our colleagues' voices ricochet in the policy world as well. By suggesting, over and over again, that teachers and schools simply cannot significantly improve the achievement of minority and poor children--by branding as ridiculous and unworkable the gap-closing agenda that is so strongly embraced by both policy makers and the American people more generally--they unintentionally give fodder to the very forces they most worry about. It is not, in other words, the rabid Right alone that is marginalizing teacher educators in the policy arena; they are getting a lot of help from teacher educators themselves. THEN OR NOW? During the past two decades, many teacher educators have worked very hard--often without much support--to get better at preparing future teachers to teach effectively the astounding variety of children who fill today's classrooms. Certainly, too, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, and other professional organizations have made this a high priority. As a result, most future teachers undoubtedly encounter at least some courses designed to acquaint them with the range of cultures they may encounter, with techniques for aiding students with limited proficiency in English, and with strategies for dealing with students at many levels of achievement. Many, too, do at least some of their student teaching in multiethnic settings. These changes are important. For if my own 4-year stint in an education school 16 years ago was at all typical, we had a lot of work to do. The messages to us were devastating. We spent a lot of time on the Coleman Report and the many reanalyses of the Coleman data. In case that was not enough, we were assigned some of John Ogbu's early work. Even research purportedly about other things seemed always to include a wholly gratuitous reference to the overwhelming impact of race and economic status on student achievement. The message was clear: What we were going to go out and do did not matter much. Socioeconomic status was the primary determinant of what our students would learn--not us. Although the changes in educator preparation since that time have been well and sincerely meant, I worry that we have not fully turned the corner--that the same old message is still powerfully, if more subtly, present: * Even in the courses designed to help teachers succeed with their ever-more-diverse students, we sometimes unintentionally reinforce stereotypes about who can learn and who cannot. Indeed, Education Trust staff members have watched in horror on many occasions while university professors lead teachers through an exercise of making a particular assignment more culturally relevant--and then fail to notice, much less act, when the products of those teachers' efforts took all the rigor out of the assignment. …

Alcohol Use and Violence Among Adolescents in a Multiethnic Setting

This study compares the prevalence of drinking behaviors and violence (fighting, weapon carrying, being threatened and feeling unsafe) among Hawaiian, other Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), and Caucasian students, using data collected from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey in Hawaii in 1997 and 1999 (N = 2,146). Native Hawaiians and Caucasians were more likely than other AAPIs to have had a drink and to binge drink. Drinking behavior was a predictor for all violence behaviors, increasing its likelihood as much as ten-fold. Violent behaviors differed by ethnicity. The findings highlight the need to develop culturally sensitive strategies for violence prevention and to explore risk factors among AAPI subgroups.

Gendered Discourses and Mediated Modernities: Urban and Rural Performances of Tuareg Smith Women

The verbal art performances of Tuareg smith women--in praise songs, dance, joking, and, more recently, in media such as radio--are becoming more complex, as their messages and styles articulate with wider audiences and changing social relationships, in particular those involving gender and relations between the sexes. This essay analyzes gendered discourses in female smiths' performances, with particular emphasis on a radio narrative in Agadez, Niger, and a rural wedding praise performance in the Aïr Mountains region. As female smiths perform alongside male smiths at rural rites of passage, they mediate important concerns of not solely their noble patrons but also Tuareg women. In urban, multiethnic settings, smith women's messages and roles are changing, particularly in new technologies, such as radio, deployed by elite feminist organizations to advance their own agendas for gender and socioeconomic change. More broadly, continuities and transformations in smith women's verbal art performances provide new perspectives on cultural mediators and gendered discourses in multiple modernities.

Throwing Like a Girl?

This study explores interaction in same-sex and cross-sex foursquare games, and, in particular, how throwing (and talk) are adjusted along with diverse configurations of players. The game was played among girls and boys with immigrant backgrounds (Syrian, Kurdish, Chilean) from low-income families in a multiethnic school setting in Sweden. The study investigates girls’ physicality across various game contexts, finding that as the configuration of players shifts, the forms of bodily actions the girls invoke to construct social identities shift as well. The girls used slams - ways of throwing that require force and muscular strength, physical behaviour that is not conventionally seen as part of femininity. The same girls altered throwing (and language) style, ‘throwing like a girl’, to downplay physical skills with less skilled girls. In cross-sex games, the girls (and the boys) playfully mock challenged gender meanings such as boys’ domination and girls’ subordination. The fact that the girls studied here were not restricted in physicality (or spatiality) indicates that there is considerable variation in female physicality. Overall, the findings underscore that studies of girls’ (and boys’) physicality should be grounded in detailed analyses of interaction in specific game contexts, with attention to cultural and institutional frameworks embedded in the games.

Bioethics and end-of-life care in multi-ethnic settings: Cultural diversity in Canada and the USA

This paper addresses cultural dimensions of end-of-life care in Canada and the USA. In both countries contemporary health care providers commonly encounter patients with quite variable understandings of what constitutes compassionate end-of-life care. Participation in particular ethnic and religious groups can have a significant effect upon how patients and their families communicate with health care providers, make decisions about treatment alternatives, engage in advance care planning, and frame moral deliberations. Much of the contemporary literature in the field of bioethics emphasizes the importance of truth telling, the principle of autonomy and the significance of patient choice, the value of advance care planning, and the right to have treatment withdrawn or withheld. However, a growing body of scholarship on the cultural dimensions of end-of-life care reveals a plurality of attitudes towards what constitutes appropriate forms of communication and decision making. While there are limits to the kind of social practices and moral claims that should be accommodated in liberal democracies, health care providers should take steps to ensure that they are providing culturally sensitive end-of-life care.

Cross-Cultural Cognitive Categorization of Students by Guatemalan Teachers

Since the 1996 Peace Accords, bilingual education in Guatemala has become a major concern among educators, but little is known about how teachers of different ethnicity view and interact with Mayan and ladino children. Using terminology employed by teachers as a basis for cognitive categorization of ethnicity, cultural domain analysis examined teachers' perceptions of student characteristics. The categorizations were then related to observed teacher-student interaction in rural primary school classrooms. The results suggest ethnic and cultural differences in teacher cognition, as ladino teachers categorized Mayans more positively and were highly homogeneous in their classification of indigenous students and Mayan teachers viewed ladino students more positively and were more homogeneous in their classification of students like themselves. Both teachers and students initiated more interactions with those of their own ethnicity. The findings support the greater use of Mayan teachers, but in multiethnic settings there may not be equal learning opportunities for students who do not share their teachers' ethnicity.

Ethnic Preferences and Ethnic Perceptions in Multi-Ethnic Settings

Racism is a still a central topic in current debates about multiculturalism, but there is increasing evidence that appeals to racism—as the explanation for urban behaviors and the current patterns of residential separation—are overly simplistic. In a multi-ethnic/racial context in which groups have different agendas, it is no longer useful to cast societal divisions as issues of Black versus White. This is especially true for the residential mosaic. Survey responses from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality about racial attitudes reveal strongly held own-race preferences across quite different mixes of ethnic and racial groups. The evidence from the analysis reported in this paper suggests that these strongly held ethnocentric positions will continue to have important influences on the patterns of residential separation in urban areas. To argue that White preferences and White discrimination alone are the major forces in creating behaviors and patterns of separation in the urban fabric ignores the forces for separation, which are embedded in these ethnic differences and ethnocentrism more generally. The evidence from this study reaffirms the complex ethnocentric responses not only of Whites but also of other ethnic groups.

An English-language clinic-based literacy program is effective for a multilingual population.

To assess the effectiveness of a clinic-based pediatric literacy intervention on a multilingual population. Clinic-based literacy interventions are effective among English- and Spanish-speaking children. No data exist for multilingual populations. Pediatric clinic in an urban county hospital. Design/Methods. Reading practices of 2 cross-sectional groups were assessed by standardized interview before and after the intervention. The intervention consisted of waiting-room volunteers reading to children, literacy counseling, and gift of a children's book at each well-child visit from 6 months to 5 years. Outcomes were assessed separately for primary English-speaking and primary non-English-speaking families. The baseline (N=85) and postintervention (N=95) groups were similar with respect to child age and sex, parental education, and length of time in the United States. Fourteen languages were represented in total, the most common being English (41%), Somali (28%), Spanish (9%), Vietnamese (7%), Oromo (3%), and Tigrinyan (3%). Compared with baseline, postintervention respondents were more likely to report reading as a favorite activity for the child (10% vs 25%) and parent (18% vs 40%), to read to their child before bed at least weekly (45% vs 71%), and to possess over 10 children's books at home (49% vs 63%). Among English-speaking families (N=30 baseline, N=40 postintervention), weekly bedtime reading increased (63% to 93%), reading as child's favorite activity increased (7% vs 30%), and reading as the parent's favorite activity to do with child increased (33% vs 58%). The proportion of English-speaking families possessing over 10 books at home and those reading with their children at least weekly showed no difference between the baseline and postintervention groups. Among non-English-speaking families (N=55 baseline, N=55 postintervention), weekly bedtime reading increased (36% vs 56%), reading as the parent's favorite activity increased (11% vs 27%), and the number of families to possess >10 children's books in the home increased (31% vs 49%). Reading as child's favorite activity (13% vs 24%) and weekly book sharing (60% vs 76%) showed nonsignificant trends between the non-English-speaking baseline and postintervention groups. This clinic-based literacy intervention influences home literacy behavior in this multiethnic setting, in both English-speaking and non-English-speaking families. Although efforts should be made to make such programs more appropriate for linguistic minorities, non-English-speaking families do stand to benefit from English-language-oriented programs. literacy, Reach Out and Read, pediatrics, reading, child development.

Influences on Student Cognitions About Evaluation

Interviews on two occasions with 71 Grade 2, 4 and 6 students in a multi-ethnic setting in Toronto, Canada, found that student cognitions about evaluation mediated the relationship between evaluation and achievement. Parents, peers and student characteristics influenced student cognitions about evaluation. Parents identified the evaluation dimensions their children should attend to, raised student aspirations, stated how well student work attained standards and recommended actions children should take in response to the evaluation. Peer interpretations influenced whether a given performance was viewed as superior or inferior. Older student peers focused attention, to a greater extent than parents, on specific aspects of student performance that could be ameliorated through self-remediation. Children became more sophisticated evaluation consumers as they grew older. Females processed evaluation data more productively than males. There were few cultural differences in response to evaluation. Students responded to traditional and alternate evaluation in very similar ways.

Violence as Institution in African Religious Experience: A Case Study of Rwanda

VIOLENCE AS INSTITUTION IN AFRICAN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE: A CASE STUDY OF RWANDA Malachie Munyaneza UnitedReform Church, London I. Introduction Violence is a phenomenon. It is multidimensional and multifarious. It is physical, geographical, spiritual, psychological, sudden or latent. It is metaphysical, because for some religious beliefs, it involves the deed-consequences scheme in terms of rewards and punishments, even beyond this world into the otherworldly life. It is an instrument used in one's own life (suicide), in the simple family, in the small-scale societies, as well as in the multi-ethnic social settings. It can be a national, multinational and universal phenomenon. It presents some contradictions, because, though it is abhorred in general, some individuals or states use it as a means to achieve ultimate good or misuse it for their own selfish interests. It becomes more of a repulsive mystery when it is seen as institutional and integral partofreligionwhich fundamentallyshould avoid it. Between April and July 1994, the media ofthe world brought images ofthe mostviolent episode ofRwandan history into the living rooms ofthis planet's population. The magnitude ofthe genocide of 1994 was unprecedented in this century. Up to one million of people are estimated to have been killed within only one hundred days. It is difficult to understand the magnitude ofthis violence. Tribal conflicts in Rwanda, colonial powers, political manipulations and economic problems alone are not enough to explain whathas happened. Political analysts, sociologists, anthropologists have tried to understand whetherthe political instability ofthe late 80s, the malfunction of political institutions, the October War (1990-94) and the 40Malachie Munyaneza consequent war atrocities could have necessarily culminated in the genocide the world witnessed. Fundamental questions about the whole philosophy oflife and religion in the history ofRwandaand its relationship to violence are to be addressed too, because they touch the inner being of the outward physical person. People have the right to know what has gone wrong all along in all areas of their life. This paper will try to look at religious beliefs and violence as institution in ancient and modern Rwanda in its magico-religious context and its implications in the social structure. As I am only a debutante Girardian, I will discuss only the key terms ofhis theory—mimesis, desire and scapegoating—as they guide my reflections. ?. Religious beliefs and violence Generally, Rwanda is viewed as a monotheistic country. All Rwandan ethnic groups believed in the only one heavenly Superior Being called Imana. Though Rwandansrecognized Imanaasthe SupremeBeing, Creator and Sustainer ofall life, they did not have a special service ofworship to him at a central place. They thought it was temerity to try and please or influence God because ifyou try you would not find enough to match his greatness and his merits. A Rwandan saying tells that you cannot handle God because ifyoutryyou would paydearly.1 Imana is the Ancientofdays as it is expressed in the name "Habiyakare"(He is before the first dawn). He is all-knowing as in the name "Bizimana" (they [all things] are known by God). He rules over everything as King, Judge and Master as expressed in the name "Hategekimana" (everywhere it is God who rules). Unfortunately Rwandans believedthatwhatever befell them was pre-ordained by God and most ofthe time fatalism dominated their lives. They confronted violence or fate with resignation thinking that the origin is in God's will or from angry spirits they did not control. Rwandans also believe in the existence ofa spiritual realm. The spirits of the dead lived further and roamed about. They would come back to trouble their relatives, especially when they felt some duties due to them were neglected. They could even kill through sickness, insanity or provoke infertility. They hold people under the siege ofconstant mental terror. The spirits most feared were the ones from those who had died in unfortunate 1St Paul expressed the same idea in his discourse at Athens and said: "The god who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by the human hands, as ifhe need anything..." (Acts 1 7, 24-25). Violence as Institution in...

Using Scenarios to Construct Models of Identity in Multiethnic Settings

The task of inferring cultural models from lengthy texts or transcripts of intensive interviews is highly dependent on the representativeness of the sample of consultants, the researcher's command of the language, and his or her ability to detect themes through iterative analysis. We recommend using scenarios and systematic interviewing to verify and refine those inferred themes, schema, or cultural models. Scenarios are brief narratives derived from observed or reported events. A set of scenarios can be used to elicit judgments concerning key themes of inferred cultural models. This technique is illustrated with a battery of twenty-one scenarios used, along with consensus analysis, to describe identity profiles for samples from Wales, Scotland, and Northeast England. Scenarios can be used to document claimed identity (what we are like) and attributed identity (what group X is like) and to discover similarities and differences across ethnic or national group boundaries.

Organochlorine Exposures and Breast Cancer Risk in New York City Women

Organochlorine Exposures and Breast Cancer Risk in New York City Women

Multicultural Perceptions of 1st-Year Elementary Teachers’ Urban, Suburban, and Rural Student Teaching Placements

This study was designed to determine the effects student teaching in four settings (urban Comer, urban non-Comer, suburban, and rural) had on 1st-year teachers’ (a) perceptions of success in general, (b) success as it relates to their perceptions of the multicultural needs of students, and (c) perceptions of success in their interactions with parents from a variety of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. The findings indicate that 1st-year teachers who had student teaching experiences in urban settings perceived themselves as better prepared to deal with multicultural needs of children and better prepared to work with parents in multiracial and multiethnic settings. The implications include the conclusion that student teaching placements in cross-cultural settings contribute to the preparation of 1st-year teachers for work in urban schools.

Last Card: Can Nigeria Survive Another Transition?

This essay addresses an important variable in Nigerian politics, namely, ethnicity and the ways in which it affects the conduct of national affairs. It represents an effort at theorizing the role and place of ethnicity in the transition from authoritarianism in a multi-ethnic setting such as that represented by Nigeria. Drawing on historical evidence on the ways in which ethnicity was constructed in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria as well as the wide literature on the subject, an attempt is made to demonstrate the centrality of the variable to Nigerian politics but without suggestion that it is the sole or most important determinant of political outcomes. Indeed, it is argued that there are other important variables, such as class, which not only affect the political process but also impinge on ethnicity. The ways in which ethnicity in?uences the different phases of the transition from authoritarianism are discussed drawing on the Nigerian experience. (A. J. of Political Science: 2001 5(2): 67-86) Introduction

Ethnicity and Transition to Democracy in Nigeria: Explaining the Passing of Authoritarian Rule in a Multi-ethnic Society

This essay addresses an important variable in Nigerian politics, namely, ethnicity and the ways in which it affects the conduct of national affairs. It represents an effort at theorizing the role and place of ethnicity in the transition from authoritarianism in a multi-ethnic setting such as that represented by Nigeria. Drawing on historical evidence on the ways in which ethnicity was constructed in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria as well as the wide literature on the subject, an attempt is made to demonstrate the centrality of the variable to Nigerian politics but without suggestion that it is the sole or most important determinant of political outcomes. Indeed, it is argued that there are other important variables, such as class, which not only affect the political process but also impinge on ethnicity. The ways in which ethnicity in?uences the different phases of the transition from authoritarianism are discussed drawing on the Nigerian experience. (A. J. of Political Science: 2001 5(2): 45-65)

Ceramic Tradition in the African Forest: Characterisation Analysis of Ancient and Modern Pottery from Ituri, D.R. Congo

Ceramic Tradition in the African Forest: Characterisation Analysis of Ancient and Modern Pottery from Ituri, D.R. Congo

Patriotism, politics, and popular liberalism in nineteenth-century Mexico: Juan Francisco Lucas and the Puebla Sierra

This detailed local study of state formation in nineteenth-century Mexico focuses on the life of Juan Francisco Lucas, the principal Indian leader of the Puebla Sierra between 1854 and 1917. The book illustrates how, over seventy years, the Indian communities of the Puebla Sierra, through the leadership of Lucas, compelled their political leaders to execute the mandates of the liberal state on terms that were locally acceptable. The text also provides a detailed look at the patriotism, politics, and popular liberalism which flourished during this period in Mexican history. This is the first in-depth study to examine the great nineteenth-century divisions between liberals and conservatives and radical and moderate liberals over an extended time period and in a rural, multi-ethnic setting. The text also explores how these divisions reemerged during the Mexican Revolution. The volume shows the rise of Mexican nationalism and what rights and responsibilities it extended to individual Mexicans and independent communities. Through close attention to the political and human geography of the Puebla Sierra, Professor Thomson observes the continuities between the Sierra's colonial past and the present, and the interactions between key political individuals and a complex physical environment.

Seeking meaning and hope: self-reported spiritual and existential needs among an ethnically-diverse cancer patient population.

Spiritual beliefs and practices are believed to promote adjustment to cancer through their effect on existential concerns, including one's personal search for the meaning of life and death, and hope. This study sought to identify the nature, prevalence, and correlates of spiritual/existential needs among an ethnically-diverse, urban sample of cancer patients (n=248). Patients indicated wanting help with: overcoming my fears (51%), finding hope (42%), finding meaning in life (40%), finding spiritual resources (39%); or someone to talk to about: finding peace of mind (43%), the meaning of life (28%), and dying and death (25%). Patients (n=71) reporting five or more spiritual/existential needs were more likely to be of Hispanic (61%) or African-American (41%) ethnicity (vs. 25% White; p<0.001), more recently diagnosed (mean=25.6 vs. 43.7 months; p<0.02), and unmarried (49% vs. 34%; p<0.05), compared with those (n=123) reporting two or fewer needs. Treatment status, cancer site, education, gender, age, and religion were not associated with level of needs endorsement. Discriminant analysis found minority status to be the best predictor of high needs endorsement, providing 65% correct classification, p<0.001. Implications for the development and delivery of spiritual/existential interventions in a multi-ethnic oncology setting are discussed.

Social Identity in the Complex Urban Setting of Quetta, Balochistan

Drawing upon data from semi-structured interviews of 31 young adults, this paper examines social identity in the multilingual, multiethnic setting of Quetta, Balochistan. Urbanisation, modernisation and increased intergroup contact have intensified the cultural, socioeconomic and political polarities within which the ethnolinguistic groups generate and maintain their distinctive boundaries. The informants' self-reported social perceptions and behaviours are discussed with reference to four interrelated components of identity: customs, language, politics, religion. Analysis reveals that informants view themselves as group members and attribute their own and others' behaviours and qualities on a group basis, despite considerable variation in individual behaviour. The paper argues that well-defined stereotypical perceptions function to preserve group boundaries by reinforcing group-characteristic behaviour and by allowing individual divergence and changing norms to be tolerated. In sharp contrast the paper then explores the complex experience of four individuals forced to re-examine and/or reconstruct their social identity when their group membership is significantly challenged through circumstances of incongruity or dislocation.