White School Research Articles

A divided schooling system: the spatial nature of secondary education in Ladybrand, Free State, South Africa

ABSTRACT School choice and commuting in Ladybrand’s three high schools was explored. While all were numerically dominated by Black African children, only the fee-charging former whites-only public school, in the heart of Ladybrand, had a multiracial learner profile. Black African learners enrolled in this school hailed from mostly middle-class homes in the neighbouring Black African township of Lesotho. The homes are financially resourced. Parents are educated, married and employed in skilled or professional jobs. These learners passively commuted to school. The profile of the two no-fee schools, located in the former ‘black only’ designated peripheral townships, was different. Here learners are almost exclusively Black South Africans, living in poorly educated, single-parent homes. Household finances were weak with parents either unemployed or working in semi-skilled or unskilled jobs. These learners either used a subsidized government bus, mini-bus taxis or walked (in some cases long distances from neighbouring farms) to school. Parents said they selected no-fee schools on geographical proximity and low cost; whereas education quality drove choice for the former white school. The socio-economic and demographic profile of learners in no-fee versus fee-paying schools was statistically significant. Ladybrand’s high schools are segregated by class, a situation reflecting much of urban South Africa.

Body Mass Index and Memory Across 18 Years in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study.

Body weight is a modifiable risk factor for dementia, but results have been mixed as to the ages at which normal body weight is markedly preferable to overweight or obesity. This study assessed the association between change in body mass index (BMI) over 2 periods of the life course with change in memory between the ages of 65 and 72 for males and females. Participants were 3 637 White high school graduates, born in 1939, from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. The statistical analyses were fixed-effects regression models, with moderation terms to test for sex differences. One set of models examined change in BMI between ages 54 and 65, and the other set examined change in BMI between ages 65 and 72. In both cases, cognitive change occurred between ages 65 and 72. Greater increases in BMI were associated with a greater decline in immediate recall for females only, both contemporaneously and following a lag. Increases in BMI were associated with greater contemporaneous-but not lagged-declines in both delayed recall and digit ordering for both males and females. The present study adds to the evidence that for White, high school educated Americans, weight gain in midlife and young-old age is a risk factor for memory decline. Results vary according to the timing of the weight gain, the aspect of memory measured, and participant sex.

Increasing Underrepresented Minority Students in Medical School: a Single-Institution Experience.

Underrepresented minority student recruitment initiatives from medical school admissions and diversity offices can bring equity for those learners underrepresented in medicine. Measuring growth of the applicant pool helps determine the impact of such initiatives in helping diversify the healthcare workforce. The authors evaluated underrepresented minority applicant pool growth at the Brody School of Medicine to determine whether predominantly White institutions or historically Black colleges and universities have accounted for the most growth in minority applicants in recent years. Outreach outcomes across the state were obtained by comparing applicant and matriculant demographics. Data on all applicants and matriculants were retrieved from the school's institutional records and classified according to student self-identification as underrepresented minority. Using Chi-square tests, authors aimed to determine whether the proportion of minority students increased among applicants and matriculants since 2016, the year of restructuring outreach. In further analysis, the number of graduates from historically Black colleges and universities as compared to minority graduates from predominantly White schools was evaluated. The authors identified 7,848 applicants and 654 matriculants over the evaluation period. The proportion of learners identifying as underrepresented minority increased from 17% before 2016 (622/3,672) to 20% after 2016 (835/4,176; p = 0.001). The proportion of applicants who did not graduate from a historically Black college or university increased slightly after 2016 (89% of underrepresented minority applicants before 2016 vs. 92% of underrepresented minority applicants after 2016), but this increase was not statistically significant (p = 0.097). Applicant growth has been more significant for underrepresented minority applicants from predominantly White institutions. Graduates of targeted historically Black colleges and universities who applied to Brody School of Medicine were better prepared, resulting in increased chances of admission.

Whiteness at work when students call their white and black teachers racist

The author analyzes two episodic moments when a white teacher, Mr. Drake, teaching in a racially diverse school and a Black teacher, Dr. Selise, teaching in a mostly white school context are called racist by their students. This research demonstrated that the contexts of these teachers’ work was grounded in and shaped by whiteness. What happens when two teachers from different racial backgrounds are called racist in different sociopolitical contexts? What precipitates students’ accusation and the teachers responses to the accusation? What roles do contexts play in reifying whiteness and racism in, during, and after these discursive moments? A whiteness frame can shed light on the ways in which two different teachers experience and rationalize an accusation of being racist. Implications for theory, research and practice are considered.

A Theory of Racialized Cultural Capital

Bourdieu developed cultural capital theory to explain the upper class’ exclusive cultivation of skills, knowledge, and dispositions (i.e., cultural capital) that yield institutional advantages. Fundamental to this conceptualization is the idea that cultural capital itself is classed—not racialized—and that what constitutes cultural capital is broadly the same for every individual irrespective of one’s racial position. I draw from the sociology of race to develop a reconceptualization of cultural capital as fundamentally racialized. Using the illustrative case of “Pursuit”—a white‐led organization created in the 1960s to select nonwhite children for integrating white schools—I then theorize about the racial dimensions of cultural capital. I find evidence that Pursuit selected for nonwhite students deemed nonthreatening to the dominant racial group. Thus, I maintain that qualities associated with appearing nonthreatening function as cultural capital for nonwhite students in this field. Accordingly, I theorize that (1) what constitutes cultural capital may vary by the racial position of the holder of cultural capital and (2) those who are dominant in the racial hierarchy contribute to determining what constitutes cultural capital for those they dominate according to their own interests. As it is taken for granted that cultural capital is fundamentally classed, it should be equally understood and applied that cultural capital is fundamentally racialized.

Teacher and School Characteristics Associated with the Identification and Referral of Adolescent Depression and Oppositional Defiant Disorders by U.S. Teachers.

Teachers contribute to the process of identifying and referring students for mental health services, however, relatively little is known about how they make those decisions and how decision-making differs across school contexts. This study used a vignette-based method to investigate individual and school contextual factors associated with the likelihood that teachers identify and refer students for mental health services. Teachers were recruited from public middle and high schools across the U.S. using a stratified random sampling strategy. Teachers (N = 462) responded to vignettes by indicating their concern for students, as well as their likelihood of providing mental health referrals. Vignettes varied by problem type (depression, oppositional defiant disorder), problem severity (moderate, severe), and student gender (male, female). Data on school characteristics were extracted from the U.S. Department of Education database. Regression models indicated several significant associations of teacher demographic characteristics and school characteristics with vignette ratings. For example, female teachers were more likely than males to rate vignettes as concerning, and middle school teachers were more likely than high school teachers to indicate they would refer students for mental health services. Teachers in schools with a higher proportion of Black students rated depression vignettes as less serious and indicated they were less likely to refer students for mental health services than teachers in majority white schools. Results suggest school characteristics may contribute to established disparities in mental health service access. Findings have implications for targeting mental health supports in schools.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12310-021-09491-1.

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF RACIAL SEGREGATION IN ERNEST JAMES GAINES’S A LESSON BEFORE DYING

In Ernest James Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying, racial segregation between Blacks and Whites in the United States is more evident in the field of education and in prisons where schools, libraries, and jail cells are segregated because of white Americans’ opposition to their black peers’ conception of racial mixing extolled by Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, to quote only two. This racial segregation shows not only the inferior position occupied by Blacks before their white fellows, but also the kind of lifestyle they have to live daily on the American soil. For, the novel reads that while white schools are well built and crammed with good pedagogical materials and teachers who teach all along the school period, black ones are, however, unfashionable with teachers deprived of good teaching materials and whose teaching period is very often shortened for the simple reason that their learners have to go and work for Whites’ interests on plantations. In prisons, for example, while white prisoners are fed daily and put into jail cells with seats and toilet papers, black prisoners find theirs deprived of these important artifacts.

La Gente: Struggles for Empowerment and Community Self-Determination in Sacramento

In this valuable study, Lorena V. Márquez tells the story of the Chicana/o movement in the Sacramento Valley from the perspective of the “foot soldiers” who participated. Using oral histories of everyday people, La Gente examines their uneven political activism during the late 1960s and 1970s in Sacramento. Márquez focuses on a series of events in the region but begins with a historical overview exploring the experiences of Sacramento's Mexican community before the 1960s. Subsequent chapters explore the desegregation of a local elementary school, the organizing of cannery works, and the creation of Deganawidah Quetzalcoatl University, known as D-QU, a Sacramento community college. Márquez defines la gente, everyday common people, as “working-class folks, males and females, U.S. born and foreign born, documented and undocumented—whose lives were governed and anchored in work and the protection of their families” (p. 4). Márquez highlights everyday people's uneven activism in the Sacramento Valley. She argues everyday people engaged with the Chicana/o movement at critical junctures in their lives and through constant negotiated acts of defiance when they, their families, and their homes were at risk and became principal advocates for their rights (p. 4). Each chapter highlights everyday common people's political activism and the particular issues and needs that drove them into political action.La Gente argues that working-class people sought self-determination on their own terms, in often contradictory ways. Chapter 2 focuses on a battle over a local elementary school that highlighted a larger issue of self-determination for ethnic Mexican residents of Sacramento. Parents wanted to decide their children's educational future and went against civil rights leaders and school board officials who wanted to integrate the schools. Parents rejected desegregation plans because they believed members of the Sacramento school board based their plans on a false premise that the “white schools” were better than their local neighborhood school, Washington Elementary. Instead, parents wondered if their school did not better serve their children and their communities. Washington Elementary doubled as a community agency that provided medical care to students, adult education courses in the evening, and a park. Parents attacked the desegregation plans as unfair to their children. White students were not being bussed and removed from their environments. Second, parents did not want to further reinscribe their children's inferiority complex. Instead, parents demanded the school board either rebuild or rehabilitate Washington Elementary, and they wanted improvements across the system-wide curriculum. The Washington Elementary incident adds a nuanced layer to the historical understanding of civil rights, school segregation, and who supported integration and why. Márquez rightly points out the topic awaits further exploration.The parents of Washington Elementary were unsuccessful in stopping desegregation. But working-class, first-generation college students achieved a more lasting, but ultimately doomed, victory. In 1970, Native American and Chicana/o college students and community members worked together to create an institution of higher learning, D-QU, that let them have self-determination over their futures. Through D-QU, Márquez explores Chicana/os claims to an Indigenous identity and cross-ethnic alliances based on a shared history of conquest and oppression. Through its discussion of D-QU, La Gente challenges the view of the Civil Rights Movement as organized around a single race or ethnic group and instead highlights how Chicana/os built solidarity with Indigenous people. La Gente weaves the narrative of D-QU with a discussion about the meaning of mestizaje, la raza cosmica, and Chicanismo to explain the roots of D-QU's eventual closing in the 2000s.One small criticism of La Gente lies in its organization. At times, La Gente is disjointed and not a cohesive narrative of the Chicana/o movement in the Sacramento region. Was there no crossover between Chicana/os in the desegregation of Washington Elementary school and the cannery workers, or the larger issues of the community? The events all happened within a relatively brief window of time, but there was little interaction between the various actors in La Gente. Perhaps that is intentional, as so much of everyday people's experiences with activism are not always cohesive and easily followed. This is a minor issue that does not detract from a marvelous study of the Chicana/o movement in Sacramento that poses questions about self-determination, activism, and everyday people's political participation. La Gente is a significant contribution to the historiography of the Chicana/o movement.

Japan's Living Politics: Grassroots Action and the Crises of Democracy by Tessa Morris-Suzuki

Reviewed by: Japan's Living Politics: Grassroots Action and the Crises of Democracy by Tessa Morris-Suzuki Mary Alice Haddad Japan's Living Politics: Grassroots Action and the Crises of Democracy. By Tessa Morris-Suzuki. Cambridge University Press, 2020. 246 pages. ISBN: 9781108490078 (hardcover; also available as softcover and e-book). Japan's Living Politics: Grassroots Action and the Crises of Democracy is a lovely book that takes a deep and long look at the evolution of Japanese democracy through the lens of local, grassroots, everyday political activity. Tessa Morris-Suzuki's historical and anthropological investigation of a wide range of local prodemocratic community engagement turns the usual narrative of top-down, state-centered Japanese politics on its head. Through the intimate stories of Japanese who struggle to imagine [End Page 374] and create an inclusive and progressive society, Morris-Suzuki offers us new perspectives on the development of our own democracies. The book's first chapter elaborates the concept of informal life politics. This notion understands the process of living everyday life as both a key political concern and a mode through which politics is expressed: "Central to the practice of informal life politics is the idea that many of the key problems humans face (not simply as individuals but also as communities) cannot be solved at the level of formal state politics" (p. 13). In this way of thinking, state power has only a limited capacity to solve human problems, so the most productive location for political action is at the grassroots level, in one's own community. In contrast to much of the literature on social movements and political activism, the grassroots action in Japan's Living Politics is not focused on lobbying politicians or seeking to establish new laws. Instead, these activists are making change directly by living a different way themselves and, perhaps, eventually, creating broader changes as their ideas and practices spread to other communities across Japan and throughout the world. Although the stories highlighted in Japan's Living Politics are often hyperlocal—relating to just one school, one small town, one art exhibit—the activists in them are not operating in isolation from broader national and international conversations and political movements. Morris-Suzuki takes great pains to draw these national and transnational connections to the reader's attention, showing how local movements in Japan are inspired and informed by activities abroad. She furthermore shows how these local movements, in turn, feed back into the activities of grassroots actors in communities located very far—geographically, socially, and politically—from their Japanese examples. These transnational connections are theorized more fully in the second chapter, in which Morris-Suzuki argues that Japan's living politics typically represents a "resonance" with rather than a "borrowing" or "adapting" of political ideals that cross time and space (p. 24). The bulk of Japan's Living Politics is concerned with specific examples of a wide geographic and temporal diversity. The oldest group discussed is the White Birch Society, profiled in chapter 3. The organization began in the late 1800s, soon after trade links with the rest of the world opened during the Meiji Restoration. The movement began in a handful of schools and universities that experimented with liberal education models promoting humanist and idealistic visions of society. Teachers and leaders sought to create communities that would nurture the "creative potential of each human being" (p. 44). Viewed as subversive, White Birch schools and thinkers were repressed during the fascist Shōwa period and were revived during the Allied Occupation. In many ways, White Birch thinkers, ideas, and modes of political engagement formed the foundation for the everyday life politics discussed in the rest of the book. The New Village Movement, discussed in chapter 4, explores the formation of intentional (and sometimes utopian) communities in Japan beginning in the early twentieth century and continuing through the movement's heyday in the late 1960s and early 1970s until today. Although each was necessarily unique, the communities [End Page 375] generally emphasized communal ownership and collective living. In these villages, "inhabitants would live as brothers and sisters, combining farm labour with spiritual and artistic creativity, sharing wealth in common and determining their future...

Racial Preferences for Schools: Evidence from an Experiment with White, Black, Latinx, and Asian Parents and Students.

Most U.S. students attend racially segregated schools. To understand this pattern, I employ a survey experiment with New York City families actively choosing schools and investigate whether they express racialized school preferences. I find school racial composition heterogeneously affects white, black, Latinx, and Asian parents' and students' willingness to attend schools. Independent of characteristics potentially correlated with race, white and Asian families preferred white schools over black and Latinx schools, Latinx families preferred Latinx schools over black schools, and black families preferred black schools over white schools. Results, importantly, demonstrate that racial composition has larger effects on white and Latinx parents' preferences compared with white and Latinx students and smaller effects on black parents compared with black students. To ensure results were not an artifact of experimental conditions, I validate findings using administrative data on New York City families' actual school choices in 2013. Both analyses establish that families express heterogenous racialized school preferences.

A Framework for Developing Antiracist Medical Educators and Practitioner-Scholars.

With an increasing awareness of the disparate impact of COVID-19 on historically marginalized populations and acts of violence on Black communities in 2020, academic health centers across the United States have been prioritizing antiracism strategies. Often, medical students and residents have been educated in the concepts of equity and antiracism and are ready to tackle these issues in practice. However, faculty are not prepared to respond to or integrate antiracism topics into the curriculum. Leaders in faculty affairs, education, diversity, and other departments are seeking tools, frameworks, expertise, and programs that are best suited to meet this imminent faculty development need. In response to these demands for guidance, the authors came together to explore best practices, common competencies, and frameworks related to antiracism education. The focus of their work was preparing faculty to foster antiracist learning environments at traditionally predominantly White medical schools. In this Scholarly Perspective, the authors describe their collaborative work to define racism and antiracism education; propose a framework for antiracism education for faculty development; and outline key elements to successfully build faculty capacity in providing antiracism education. The proposed framework highlights the interplay between individual learning and growth and the systemic and institutional changes needed to advance antiracist policies and practices. The key elements of the framework include building foundational awareness, expanding foundational knowledge on antiracism, embedding antiracism education into practice, and dismantling oppressive structures and measuring progress. The authors list considerations for program planning and provide examples of current work from their institutions. The proposed strategies aim to support all faculty and enable them to learn, work, and educate others in an antiracist learning environment.

A longitudinal investigation of changing conceptions about teaching science and pedagogical implications of student diversity

AbstractThis longitudinal case study investigates how one science teachers' conceptions change in one domain (assessment of science learning) but not in another (understanding the pedagogical implications of student diversity) over a period of 10 years that includes a university teacher education program and nine subsequent years of experience of classroom teaching. This article describes the case of Victor, a White and male high school physics teacher, and documents changes in his conceptions of teaching science over 10 years. This study suggests that teachers who undertake the effort to change an aspect of their practice, knowing that they will need to rethink some of their existing ideas, can be successful. Conversely, if an area of teacher knowledge is underdeveloped at the conclusion of a teacher preparation program, there is no guarantee that the situation will be ameliorated simply through years of classroom experience, even if teachers grow to feel a level of increased confidence and comfort in that domain. It also demonstrates that the opportunity to undergo conceptual change with regard to issues of student diversity is highly dependent on a science teacher's identity, personal history, and teaching contexts and experiences.

Trajectories of K-12 Schools and Demographic Differences: Evidence From 2017 Life History Mail Survey

Besides information about the highest degree, little information about early-life education is available in most population surveys. This study identified the trajectories of K-12 education history among older adults in the Health and Retirement Study born between 1930 and 1960, and examined the associations with demographic variables. Drawing on 2017 Spring and Fall Life History Mail Survey (LHMS; n = 3,206), we used sequence analysis to determine and classify trajectories of school types across the education history. We identified five trajectories: 1) always private school with White students, 2) always public school with White students, 3) always public school with Non-White students, 4) mostly private school with Non-White students, and 5) no report of school types. The trajectories showed that changes in school type (i.e. private to public) often happened in grade 9. Changes rarely happened across race/ethnicity groups (i.e. mostly White to mostly non-White). We used multinomial logistic regression to examine the relationship between demographic variables and education trajectories. We found that compared to Black participants, White participants were significantly less likely to be in mostly Non-White schools (public and private schools, p<0.001). The 1940s and 1950s cohort were more likely to join mostly White private schools than the 1930s cohort (odds ratio: 1.70 for 1940s and 1.62 for 1950s separately, p<0.005). Our findings illustrate a novel application of sequence analysis with life history data, as well as new evidence on recial segregation in early-life education within the last century.

Do Family Caregivers of Dementia Patients Feel Competent in Pain Management?

Older adults with dementia rely on others to recognize and treat their pain and will ultimately become dependent. Family caregivers (FCGs) play a crucial role in pain management, yet limited data is available regarding the factors that impact their abilities. This qualitative descriptive study sought a deep understanding of FCGs perception of their abilities to manage pain for a loved-one with dementia. A sample of 25 adult family caregivers of community-based older adults with dementia was recruited in central Virginia. Participants were 29 to 95 years old, predominantly white, married, female, and high school graduates. We conducted semi-structured interviews that were audio recorded and analyzed using constant comparative analysis. Participants’ who perceived greater competence with pain management reported less pain for their loved-one, and their level of confidence was influenced by 3 factors: progress and stage of dementia: this increases the complexity of care, affecting FCGs ability to manage pain and engendering a self-perception of incompetence; developing adaptive mechanisms: built self-efficacy and improved FCGs perceived competence;, and support from professionals: a greater degree of support alleviated FCGs concerns and instill new skills, Effective pain management depended on family caregivers’ belief in their own abilities, and perceived competence could be improved by learning new skills or making adaptations. Professional care givers need to routinely assess FCGs abilities and provide adequate interventions.

How Do Family Caregivers’ Values Influence Pain Management for Older Adults with Dementia?

Professional caregivers rely on formal training when managing pain among patients with dementia, but family caregivers (FCGs) lack this foundation. Instead, FCGs use informal sources that may reflect a values-driven decision-making process. Few studies have examined how FGCs’ personal values impact pain management for dementia patients. We sought to examine the influence of personal values on pain management among FCGs for community-dwelling older adults with dementia using qualitative descriptive methods. Twenty-five adult FCGs, aged from 29 to 95, were recruited in central Virginia. Participants were predominantly white, married, female, and high school graduates. We conducted semi-structured interviews that were audio recorded and analyzed using constant comparative analysis. Four themes emerged: 1) Priority for pain management: when quality of life is valued over other factors (i.e., length of life), priorities focused on no pain, leading to better pain management; 2) Moral perspectives: negative views toward drugs, especially opioids, led to less use and greater report of pain; 3) Beliefs about alternative therapy: negative views led to less likely use of non-traditional approaches and reports of more pain, and 4) Personal experience of pain: past personal experiences of pain (negative or positive) influenced the priority placed on pain management and the FCG’s ability to provide effective pain management. The diverse views held by FCGs demonstrate a value-based process and suggest a modifiable factor in pain management. Helping FCGs reflect biases while reinforcing values that improve pain management would lead to improve pain and quality of life for older adults with dementia.

Obese Body Mass Index in late-life as a protective factor for Mild Cognitive Impairment, Dementia and Death

Ambient air pollution (AAP) exposure is associated with white matter injury and cognitive decline in older adults(Chen et al. 2020,Erickson et al. 2020). Neuroinflammation and oxidative stress may contribute to this white matter injury. Diesel exhaust particulate matter (DEP) is a neurotoxic component of AAP.This study characterizes the time course by which neuroinflammation/oxidative stress occurs and results in white matter injury following DE exposure in a murine model. DEP (Sigma) was re-aerosolized for exposure. Mice were exposed to 100 µg/m3 DEP or filtered air (FA) for 5 hours (n=8/group), 100 hours (n=6/group), or 200 hours (n=6/group). Immunohistochemical analysis of degraded myelin basic protein (dMBP), a marker of myelin damage, was performed. Neuroinflammation and oxidative stress were assessed by histological analysis of complement C5a, an anaphylatoxin, and 4-Hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), a marker of lipid peroxidation.dMBP integrated density was increased in the corpus callosum of DEP mice at 5 (p<0.01), 100 (p<0.01), and 200 hours (p<0.001) compared to FA mice.C5a integrated density was increased in the corpus callosum of DEP mice at 5 (p<0.01), 100 (p<0.01), and 200 hours (p<0.01) compared to FA mice. 4-HNE integrated density was increased in the corpus callosum of DEP mice at 5 (p<0.001), 100 (p=0.001), and 200 hours (p<0.001) compared to FA mice. Neuroinflammation and oxidative stress are upregulated with associated white matter injury in the corpus callosum after 5 hours of DEP exposure.Short-term DEP exposure activates inflammatory/oxidative stress pathways, which may contribute to the pathogenesis of white matter injury.Erickson et al. 2020,PMID:32182984; Chen et al. 2020,PMID:32669395.

Race-Discordant School Attendance and Cognitive Function in Later Life

Early schooling plays an important role in shaping cognitive development, both due to the level of academic rigor and the social environment of primary and secondary schools. This is reflected in current racial disparities in cognitive function in later life. Older minorities who attended predominantly White schools with more resources experienced significant cognitive benefits. This study explores whether there are benefits to cognitive functioning in later life from having attended socially diverse schools in early life. We examine the effects of having attended schools composed primarily of different race peers—race discordant schools (RDS)—among Black, Hispanic, and White older adults. Using retrospective and prospective data from the Health and Retirement Study, we examine the association between RDS exposure and four measures of cognitive function (working memory, episodic memory, mental status, overall cognitive function). We assess function at age 55 and 70, and examine change in functioning between age 55 and 70. We find that RDS exposed Blacks and Hispanics experience significant benefits in cognitive function at age 55, but only Blacks experience benefits at age 70. RDS exposed Whites reported higher overall working memory at age 70 relative to Whites in non-RDS schools, suggesting a cognitive benefit from diversity. Results suggest that exposure to more racially diverse school environments have potentially beneficial effects on cognitive function over the life course. Our findings suggest that the cultivation of diversity in schools could be an important long-term public health investment.

Cross-Talk Between Large Artery Stiffness and Retinal Microvasculature in Children: The ExAMIN Youth SA Study.

Background: Cross-talk between the macro-and microvasculature is considered an important contributor to target organ damage. Previous findings were predominantly in adult populations and investigation into this mechanism in children may provide insight into the development of early adverse vascular changes. Whether any ethnic differences in cross-talk is evident, also remains to be determined.Objective: To determine whether retinal microvascular diameters are associated with large artery stiffness in young children and whether ethnic differences are evident.Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 730 black (n = 437) and white (n = 293) school children aged 5-9 years were included. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) was measured and the central retinal arteriolar equivalent (CRAE) and central retinal venular equivalent (CRVE) diameters were calculated from fundus images. The arterio-venous ratio (AVR) was subsequently calculated.Results: Pulse wave velocity was lower (p ≤ 0.001) in the black group when compared to the white group. The black group had a narrower CRAE, wider CRVE and lower AVR (all p < 0.001). Pulse wave velocity associated negatively with CRAE (r = –0.141, p = 0.003) and AVR (r = –0.185, p ≤ 0.001) in the black group only. A positive association between PWV and CRVE was seen in the black (r = 0.174, p ≤ 0.001) and white (r = 0.119, p = 0.043) group.Conclusion: Large artery stiffness is associated with retinal arterial narrowing and venular widening in children, suggesting cross-talk between the macro-and microvasculature. Ethnic differences in these associations are also evident. Our findings warrant further investigation into environmental and sociocultural risk factors contributing to premature cardiovascular disease development.

Disciplinary Literacy in Action: High School Students Doing Research for Change

AbstractThis article describes how disciplinary literacy practices were enacted among youth within the context of Youth Built Change, a science based program incorporating principles of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR). Highlighting two YPAR projects, one conducted in a predominantly Black and Latino/a suburban school and one conducted in a predominantly White rural school, specific examples of the disciplinary literacy practices of Believing, Knowing, Doing, and Communicating are illustrated.

“Being colorblind is one of the worst things”: White teachers’ attitudes and ethnic‐racial socialization in a rural elementary school

AbstractA phenomenological approach was used to explore White elementary school teachers’ attitudes about and strategies for addressing ethnicity and race in their classrooms. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with teachers (N = 12) in first, third, and fifth grade, art, and English language learning classrooms at a racially diverse, rural elementary school in the Midwest United States. Results highlighted a paradox in teachers’ attitudes and socialization. Teachers reported an appreciation for the school‐level ethnic‐racial diversity, while simultaneously endorsing a colorblind ideology. They incorporated conversations about ethnicity and race, but more frequently in reaction to holidays and student‐initiated questions and not as part of a more integrative curriculum. Additionally, teachers’ attitudes and discussions about ethnicity and race intersected with religion. Findings highlight the need for professional development to support White teachers in examining their attitudes about ethnicity, race, and religion to move away from colorblindness and engage in anti‐bias and anti‐racist education.