Atlanta School Research Articles

Conversations and confusions: ethnic and racial identity exploration in a high school asian culture club

ABSTRACT This study investigates the identity exploration of Asian American students in an Asian Culture Club (ACC) at a predominantly white high school in Atlanta, Georgia. While past work focuses on similar ethnic student clubs, this study uniquely documents the processes of identity and community construction. Using participant observations and in-depth interviews, I show that student members of ACC explore and co-construct a panethnic Asian identity while downplaying ethnic boundaries. ACC serves as a community and connect student members to the broader Asian American community in the city and beyond. As the club later transitions into Asian Student Union, the students’ shared panethnic attachment and co-constructed community will now serve as the ground for future panethnic solidarity. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

You Don’t Want a Book Challenge, Do You?

This article includes a compilation of three personal stories from the author’s time as an elementary librarian at a K-12 private school in Atlanta, Georgia. While struggling with classroom management during her first year as a school librarian, she was surprised by anatomical language in a read-aloud that she had forgotten about after pre-reading the book. She had a split second to decide whether to read what was actually written. During her second year, she went through my library’s reconsideration process when a parent challenged a book of scary stories. The worst part? She had used that book in a lesson with the entire third grade. And finally, throughout her time with this school, she fought for a book that was not being officially challenged, but voluntarily censored by her colleague. The author shares these stories with honesty about how sh handled each situation, and with a little advice added.

Spitting at Jim Crow

Spitting at Jim Crow

Two Schools, one lesson: Sociology as an instrument of deracialization of the Atlanta School (1897-1910) and the Teatro Experimental do Negro (1948-1955)

Resumo O objetivo deste trabalho consiste em relacionar a concepção de sociologia como arma de libertação, desenvolvida entre acadêmicos(as) norte-americanos(as) da Escola de Atlanta, no início do século XX, e a concepção da sociologia como saber de salvação que emergiu entre os intelectuais do Teatro Experimental do Negro (TEN), especificamente entre 1948 e 1955. A metodologia consiste na reconstrução histórica dos contextos e teorias acima mencionados, cotejando os aspectos semelhantes e as diferenças de apropriação da sociologia pelas comunidades de intelectuais racializados nos Estados Unidos e no Brasil. Indicamos como a Escola de Atlanta (1897-1910) usou a Sociologia para demonstrar que as desigualdades eram resultado de mecanismos sociais e econômicos, e não de uma pretensa inferioridade atávica. Já o TEN recorreu à Sociologia primeiramente como meio de construção de um projeto de integração social da população negra, depois como ferramenta de desmascaramento das ideologias produzidas pelas Ciências Sociais. Assim, por um lado, as duas instituições trabalharam contra a dominação e a exploração feitas a partir da fixação de categorias raciais; e, por outro lado, construíram novas formas de racionalidade orientadas por propósitos emancipadores.

Ascending Critical Consciousness: Designing an Experiential Liberatory Teacher Education Collaborative in Atlanta

The Atlanta Schools Critical Education Network for Distinction (ASCEND) is an ongoing interdisciplinary coalition supporting the critical consciousness of social justice educators. ASCEND partners include: (1) activist faculty from two university departments: Middle and Secondary Education and African American Studies; (2) a justice-oriented community-based organization; and (3) local public middle school faculty. This paper analyzes ASCEND's impact on deepening urban teachers’ awareness of, and attention to, local injustices within their curriculum, and initial application of critical pedagogy. Major findings capture the impact of providing experiential educator learning opportunities outside of schools and the urgency to center community in educator development.

The Atlanta School Tradition: Teaching Black Political Science

This reflection focuses on my experiences teaching political science through a black worldview suggested by Dr. Mack H. Jones. In 1971, Dr. Mack H. Jones challenged black political scientists to subvert the efforts of white political scientists by creating an alternative frame of reference that focused on African American and African communities in the discipline. Moreover, Dr. Jones was the founder and chief visionary for the political science Ph.D. program at Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University-CAU), which created an academic program by which every subfield was taught through the material conditions of black people in the U.S. and around the world. As an alum of CAU, I describe my efforts to answer Dr. Jones' call through my teaching at various Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) by recounting how I integrate the black experience in my political science courses by highlighting race, class, and gender in my teaching.

Here Am I, Send Me: The Life, Career and Legacy of Mary Frances Early

The purpose of this article is to chronicle the life and contributions of Mary Frances Early (b. 1936), the first African American to graduate from the University of Georgia in 1962. After suffering many indignities and being forgotten for more than three decades, Early became one of the University’s most celebrated graduates. Teaching music in segregated schools in Atlanta, Mary Frances Early worked tirelessly to provide her students with a high-quality music education, and she developed excellent music programs wherever she went. Throughout her long and distinguished career in the public schools, in higher education, and in service to the profession, Mary Frances Early dedicated her life to music teaching. She believed that all students deserved to have engaging and meaningful music education experiences, that music is an essential component of a well-rounded education, and that music would play a role throughout life. Primary and secondary sources include interviews, Miss Early’s personal papers, documentary film footage, and newspaper articles and clippings.

Impact of dedicated women’s outreach workers (WOWs) on recruitment of women in ACTG clinical studies

Background: Despite efforts by the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) to enroll representative numbers of diverse women, participation in ACTG studies in the United States remains largely white and male. To address this gap in women’s participation in ACTG research, a one-year pilot study of dedicated women’s outreach workers (WOWs) was proposed. Objectives: included demonstrating that targeted recruitment efforts can expand community awareness of ACTG research and ensuring successful enrollment of women at the respective clinical research sites. Methods: The pilot study was conducted at two U.S. sites (Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and Emory Ponce de Leon Center in Atlanta, Georgia). The WOWs worked with site personnel to identify and reach out to women living with HIV and/or Hepatitis B or C at their respective sites and encourage them to join a clinical trial registry for those interested in participating in future clinical trials. Results: The Rutgers WOW approached 127 potential participants (of whom 100 joined the WOW registry) and screened 35 participants for open ACTG studies. The Emory WOW approached 120 participants, enrolling 86 into the WOW registry, and screened 51 potential participants for open ACTG studies during the WOW’s tenure. The majority of women screened at both sites were women of color. Conclusions: The WOW study team identified several lessons learned that can inform future efforts to engage women living with HIV in clinical research. First, success in engaging women is proportional to level of funding and institutional support. Second, there is a need for a more gender-inclusive scientific agenda as women are more likely to participate if studies address topics of interest to them. Third, meaningful engagement is a two-way street.

The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois as a Weapon of Racial Equality: Pioneering Scientific Social Research at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

W.E.B. Du Bois was a pivotal scholar of the 20th century who had a sustained global impact on sociological, literary, and political knowledge. Although he produced groundbreaking sociological scholarship in a historically black school – Atlanta University, his work was marginalized and erased due to racism and the radicalness of his scholarship. This article demonstrates that Du Bois was a founder of scientific sociology in the United States who developed a pioneering and distinct Atlanta School of sociology. This article advances two theses: Du Bois developed an emancipatory school of sociology that theorized and empirically documented the causes of racial and social inequality and that the Atlanta School gave rise to pioneering scientific social research at historically Black colleges and universities that served as intellectual weapons in the struggle for racial equality.

Health Empowers You: Impact of a School-Based Physical Activity Program in Elementary School Students, Georgia, 2015-2016.

Most youth in the United States do not meet the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity (PA). The school environment offers an opportunity to engage students in PA. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a comprehensive school-based physical activity program on student PA across student-level and school-level characteristics. PA levels from 3294 fourth grade students in 24 intervention schools and 7 control schools in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia were measured during the 2015-2016 academic year. PA measures included daily steps in school, steps taken in physical education class (PE), and percent of PE class time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Intervention effectiveness was assessed using generalized estimating equations adjusting for sex and school-level socioeconomic status (SES). After adjusting for sex and school-level SES, intervention students had significantly higher increases in average daily steps (p < .05), steps taken in PE (p < .01), and percent of PE class spent in MVPA (p < .01) than control students. Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of CSPAPs in increasing PA. Further research using randomized controlled trials of large-scale implementations, longer follow-up periods, and more diverse student sample is warranted.

“I’ll Find a Way or Make One”: Atlanta University and the Emergence of Professional Social Work Education in the Deep South

ABSTRACT Atlanta University, W.E.B. Du Bois, and professional social work education are forever linked in social thought, social reform, and progressive thinking that served African Americans. As a nascent profession in the first half of the 20th century, social work in the South navigated existing racialized customs and laws that required dual systems. The Atlanta School would become the first professional School of Social Work in the deep South and the first to address the needs of a black professional social work workforce in the region. Implication of this School’s emergence and its role in contributing to innovations in strength perspective, critical race theory, spirituality, empowerment, and research in social work education will be discussed.

Color blindness in the medical workplace: Researchers are debating the role of color in disciplines such as pathology and working toward broader solutions to address color vision deficiencies among medical personnel.

Color blindness in the medical workplace: Researchers are debating the role of color in disciplines such as pathology and working toward broader solutions to address color vision deficiencies among medical personnel.

Resisting “Law and Order” in California: Howard Moore Jr., Angela Davis, and the Politics of Prison Radicalism

Resisting “Law and Order” in California: Howard Moore Jr., Angela Davis, and the Politics of Prison Radicalism

Commentary on Operationalizing Partnership Between a Traditional Research Institution and a Massage School

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‘Other spaces’ for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning (LGBTQ) students: positioning LGBTQ-affirming schools as sites of resistance within inclusive education

This article explores the growing interest in schools which are aimed at children and young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning (LGBTQ), schools described as LGBTQ-affirming. Schools which target specific groups of students are sometimes viewed as being anti-inclusive because they assign labels to students and separate them from one another. This is based on a notion of inclusive education as a single ‘school for all’; a comprehensive, common school which is suitable for all children in a particular locality. Using academic literature alongside original data from an in-depth qualitative case study of an LGBTQ-affirming school in Atlanta, this article addresses the question of whether there is a place for LGBTQ-affirming schools within inclusive education systems. It argues that the word ‘segregated’ is not an accurate description of these schools, positing that segregated spaces are not the same as separate spaces. It argues that the separateness of LGBTQ-affirming schools is important to their role in inclusive education, specifically when they are positioned as examples of Foucault’s heterotopias. Viewing them through this theoretical lens enables them to be seen as ‘other spaces’, as a form of ‘resistance’ and ‘protest’ which may ‘unstitch’ the utopian vision of inclusive education.

Model structure for protocol adherence utilizing a manualized therapeutic massage intervention.

Background The Protocol Training and Assessment Model (Model) was developed through collaboration between Emory University School of Medicine and Atlanta School of Massage to minimize intra- and inter-therapist variability for two research massage therapist (rMT) applied intervention arms in the Massage for Cancer-Related Fatigue (MCRF) early-phase study. The Model was followed to maintain and assess protocol integrity for the study's manualized Swedish massage therapy (SMT) and light touch (LT) interventions. Methods The Model includes initial rMT training, quarterly retraining sessions, accessible resources (scripts, treatment guides, weekly research personnel meetings), and ongoing monitoring. Model efficacy was assessed by monitoring data collected at retraining sessions, through audio recording review, and through subject and rMT reporting. Results Model application resulted in a high level of intervention consistency throughout the study. Protocol-related session comment rate by subjects was 2.7%. Few study participants reported intra-rMT or inter-rMT treatment delivery differences. Observation during retraining sessions indicated massage therapists continued to adhere to protocols. Importantly rMTs increased their participation beyond core duties, suggesting additional ways to standardize subject treatment experience. Conclusions Through systematic application of the Protocol Training and Assessment Model, continuous and collaborative quality improvement discussions between scientists and research massage therapists resulted in reliable, standardized SMT and LT interventions for the MCRF early-phase study. Future research can apply the Model to support and assess consistent rMT-delivered intervention applications.

From Skeptic to Vital Partner in Massage Therapy Research: an Interview with Mark Hyman Rapaport, MD

Mark Hyman Rapaport, MD is a highly accomplished researcher, academician, and clinician. Dr. Rapaport has more than 180 publications, and his main research interests include biologic genesis of anxiety disorders, as well as immunity abnormalities and depression in mood disorders. His research investigating massage therapy has included study of inflammatory biomarkers, cancer related fatigue, and generalized anxiety disorder. He has created a successful partnership with the Atlanta School of Massage for the implementation of his research inquiry. Dr. Rapaport discusses with us a wide range of topics on massage therapy, including from where his inspiration for research comes.

Remembering Alton Parker Hornsby, Jr., 1940–2017

Remembering Alton Parker Hornsby, Jr., 1940–2017

The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology. By Aldon D. Morris. Oakland: University of California Press, 2015. Pp. ix+282. $30.00 (paper).

<i>The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology</i>. By Aldon D. Morris. Oakland: University of California Press, 2015. Pp. ix+282. $30.00 (paper).

W. E. B. Du Bois at the center: from science, civil rights movement, to Black Lives Matter.

I am honoured to present the 2016 British Journal of Sociology Annual Lecture at the London School of Economics. My lecture is based on ideas derived from my new book, The Scholar Denied: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology. In this essay I make three arguments. First, W.E.B. Du Bois and his Atlanta School of Sociology pioneered scientific sociology in the United States. Second, Du Bois pioneered a public sociology that creatively combined sociology and activism. Finally, Du Bois pioneered a politically engaged social science relevant for contemporary political struggles including the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement.