VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Smith, Barbara Ellen"

Browsing by Author "Smith, Barbara Ellen"

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Bodies in Contempt: A Mixed Methods Study of Federal ADA Employment Cases
Dick-Mosher, Jennifer (Virginia Tech, 2013-12-10)
This paper draws on theories of gendered organizations to examine discrimination against people with disabilities in the workplace. A sample of 200 cases which document disability discrimination lawsuits was drawn from the Westlaw legal database. Each case was coded for gender, job, disability and discrimination type and analyzed using multinomial logistic models. Of those 200 cases, 34 were selected for in depth qualitative analysis. This study finds that disability type and gender do have an influence on the type of discrimination someone is likely to experience. In addition, the qualitative analysis finds that the social processes of discrimination differ based on job type and gender pointing to intersections of disability and class as well as gender and disability.
Borderlands Theory: Producing Border Epistemologies with Gloria Anzaldua
Orozco-Mendoza, Elva Fabiola (Virginia Tech, 2008-04-24)
This study is dedicated to examine the concept of borders, geographical and otherwise, as instruments that are socially produced. It utilizes Gloria Anzaldua's theoretical framework of Borderlands theory as a set of processes that seek to attain the de-colonization of the inner self. The historical and spatial dynamics of the geographical border between Mexico and United States, largely shaped by the U.S. expansionist agenda, resulted in the Mexican lost of more than half of its territory and the subsequent stigmatization of Mexican-Americans/Chicanos as "foreign others," since they did not share with predominant Anglo-Saxons the same values, culture, religion, traditions and skin color. I argue that the later exploitation, exclusion, marginalization, and racism against Mexican-Americans/Chicanos informed Anzaldua's development of her Borderlands theory that seeks to attain liberation for any colonized identity. However, it is also my argument that the borderlands theory fails to account for meaningful political freedom since the processes that compose the theory are principally worked at the inner level, restricting the possibilities for a direct confrontation in the public sphere.
An Exploration of Senior Student Affairs Officers' Career and Life Paths
Stimpson, Racheal Lee (Virginia Tech, 2009-04-02)
The purpose of this study was to explore the career and life paths of male and female Senior Student Affairs Officers (SSAOs). The study used Super’s components of Work Salience and Career maturity to examine gender differences and commonalities of individuals in their climb to a SSAO position. Specifically, the study examined the role of family and personal life and the intersection with career. Employing qualitative methods in the form of semi-structured interviews, this study investigated the following research questions: 1. How do female SSAOs describe their life and career development according to Super’s factors of Work Salience and Career Maturity? 2. How do male SSAOs describe their life and career development according to Super’s factors of Work Salience and Career Maturity? 3. How do male and female SSAOs life and career development experiences compare to one another according to Super’s factors of Work Salience and Career Maturity? The transcripts were analyzed using open and focused coding to find themes present in the data. The coding process was reviewed by a peer as well as a panel of experts to ensure trustworthiness. The findings of the study indicated themes regarding caregiving, work experience, leisure activities, marital status, scheduling, and career planning.
The Man Made World: The Social Production of Health and Disablement in Construction Workers
Sorensen, Amy (Virginia Tech, 2011-08-04)
This study focuses on the mechanisms through which systems of inequality operate in relationship to health and disablement processes. Using quantitative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979 and qualitative data from in-depth interviews with twelve construction workers in the southeastern United States, this study evaluates the relationships among race, class, gender, and occupation in the health of male construction workers. More specifically, this research examines white working-class masculinity in the context of working within the construction industry, and in relationship to health and disability processes. Each chapter in this dissertation focuses on one of three primary research questions. First, how do race, class, gender, and occupation shape the health of construction workers? Second, how does working-class masculinity and occupation affect patterns of disablement among construction workers, and how do they experience these processes? And finally, how do social inequalities shape bodies? This study finds that race, class, gender, and occupation all play multiple roles in the health and disablement processes of workers. These findings also suggest that a re-conceptualization of disability as a process is necessary to best reflect the experiences associated with occupational disability. Finally, these findings point to the body as a social process, with direct ties to the larger social structure and systems of inequality. This study extends our conceptualizations of health, disablement, and the body as processes. In addition, it illuminates the mechanisms through which systems of complex inequalities operate to create health disparities.
A Postcolonial Inquiry of Women's Political Agency in Aceh, Indonesia: Towards a Muslim Feminist Approach?
Taylor, Reed W. (Virginia Tech, 2012-08-13)
In this dissertation, I develop a postcolonial theoretical approach to localized Muslim feminism(s) in Aceh, Indonesia, based on interviews with women in Aceh in 2009 and 2010. One of the central aims of this study is to challenge the dominant exclusivist discourse of "Islamic" feminism by providing a viable alternative for "Muslim" feminism(s), derived from collaborative, indigenous, and post-secular politics. I address the need for a religious feminist model of subjectivity that incorporates both the political and ethical dimensions of agency in potentially non-patriarchal and non-state-centric formations. I suggest a communal understanding of religious law as an alternative to conceptualizing religious law (syariah) in terms of a personal ethical code or a system of laws emanating from a state. I propose an alternative discourse of feminist agency and religious identity, one that reaches beyond a secular-liberal epistemology and challenges the hegemonic discourse of state-centrism within a privatized religious identity.
Powerlessness and Pollution in Alleghany County, Virginia: A Historical Analysis of Paternalism and Economic Coercion in Appalachia and its Relationship with Environmental Degradation
Wrenn, Corey Lee (Virginia Tech, 2008-08-06)
Alleghany County, an extractive community, has depended heavily upon a single paper mill known as MeadWestvaco for over a century. The purpose of this study is to explore the degree to which MeadWestvaco utilizes paternalism and economic coercion as forms of power to control and maintain community quiescence regarding the company's negative environmental impact in Alleghany County. This paper mill has negatively affected Alleghany County relative to other Virginia communities. However, there has been very little local action against the paper mill's environmental impact. To define and recognize paternalism and economic coercion, I undertake a historical analysis of the cotton textile industry of the Southern Piedmont and coal mining industry of Southern Appalachia, where these systems of power have been documented. In applying the indicators of paternalism and economic coercion found in these nearby Southern industries to Alleghany County, Virginia, I find that MeadWestvaco utilizes both strategies to some degree to control and influence community awareness of and response to the company's environmental damage.
Re-Learning the Script of Parental Involvement in the United States; Three Case Studies of Mexican Parents in Southwest Virginia
Uribe Leon, Marcela (Virginia Tech, 2010-10-13)
Parental involvement is highly important for children's success at school. Research has shown that parental involvement leads to higher student achievement, better school attendance, and a reduction in dropout rates. However, what happens with those parents who do not speak English or have limited communication skills in this language? How can they become involved in their children's schooling when the children attend school in a language foreign to the parents? This study examines the experiences of three Mexican immigrant mothers and one father getting involved in their children's education in the United States. Helena was an active participant of a service-learning program hosted by a medium-sized Land Grand University. Sandra also attended the program but only for some time. Finally, the Hernandez parents, Mercedes and Jose Luis, were randomly selected in the community and did not participate in the service-learning program. This qualitative study relied mainly upon semi-structure interviews with the participants along with observations and field notes. The conclusions from this study provide insight as to how Mexican-immigrant parents with low-income develop an understanding of the school system in the United States. Analysis revealed two main strategies that parents use to communicate with the school: 1) using interpreters as affordance networks for communication, and 2) using their own knowledge of English to take actions and comply with school requirements. Data show that, contrary to common assumptions, parents do not prefer children as their first option for interpreting functions. In terms of learning about standard cultural practices of parental involvement parents accommodate to school demands by using various strategies and resources from their funds of knowledge. Parents learn about standard cultural practices of parental involvement and at the same time they support their children's education; in this process parents rely on their own cultural repertoires. Besides, parents seek places where they can develop community ties in order to learn about the how-tos of life in the United States. Finally, findings demonstrate that parents feel frustration and anxiety about their relationship with the schools, since they are facing with great resilience the every life challenges of living in a culture and language different from their own. The main findings of this study and discussing on the implications provided a discussion for policy changes in the context of the NCLB act, and suggestions for teacher preparation programs, and local school or service programs.
Resistance to School Consolidation in a Rural Appalachian Community
Kelly, Amanda (Virginia Tech, 2007-09-14)
School consolidation, which involves closing one or more schools and combining them into a single school, is a common phenomenon in rural Appalachian communities due to out-migration and lack of funding for public schools. When school consolidation occurs, the local school may be closed, or students from other communities may be bused to the school. Community residents, however, do not always agree with the decision to consolidate their local schools. When this disagreement occurs, residents may choose to participate in organized resistance activities to show their opposition, make their voices heard to local politicians and the media, and seek an alternative to the proposed consolidation. This case study of school consolidation in one rural Appalachian county seeks to document and analyze the struggle in which community residents engaged in an effort to prevent local schools from being consolidated. Data was collected in the form of semi-structured interviews conducted with members and sympathizers of a resistance organization called TOPS. TOPS was formed in 2001 to oppose school consolidation, but its members were not successful in keeping their local schools open. Many schools in McDowell County have been consolidated or are scheduled to be consolidated in the near future. For example, Big Creek High School, which was at the center of many consolidation debates, will be closed in 2010. Its students will be bused to a new, consolidated high school. I conducted interviews during fall 2006 and spring 2007 to determine community members' grievances concerning consolidation, to establish a narrative of their struggle against state government officials, and to provide a basis for analyzing the movement's failure to achieve its goals. I used these interviews, along with TOPS' documents, local newspaper articles, and literature from other anti-consolidation efforts, to examine possible reasons why TOPS was not successful. Social movements literature, particularly the concepts of framing and repertoires of contention, formed the theoretical basis of this analysis.
"This, What We Go Through. People Should Know:" Refugee Girls Constructing Identity
Boutwell, Laura R. (Virginia Tech, 2011-03-30)
This study examines ways in which African and Afro-Caribbean refugee girls and young women negotiate and perform identity in varied social contexts. Designed as youth-centered participatory action research, the study draws from three years of engagement with a group of refugee girls, ages 11-23, from Somalia, Liberia, Haiti, Burundi, and Sudan. The research occurred in the broader context of The Imani Nailah Project, a program I initiated for refugee middle and high school girls in May 2008. Through in-depth interviews, youth-led focus groups, and arts-based research, Imani researchers (study participants) and I explored experiences and expressions of gender, race/ethnicity, nationality, age, religion and citizenship status, as well as the intersections among these multiply-located identities. This study spans a wide range of identity negotiations and performances, from micro-level interactions to macro-level impacts of dominant culture. Three interrelated chapters focus on programmatic, methodological, and theoretical components of the dissertation research: (a) how refugee girls and university volunteers pursue mutual learning within a service context; (b) how girl-centered participatory action research can serve as a vehicle towards relational activism, and (c) how broader discourses of othering shape the salience of refugee and citizen identities in the lives of refugee girls. Combined, these articles expand our understanding of how refugee girls narrate self as they participate in and contribute to multiple social worlds.
To Be or Not To Be a Feminist: A Qualitative Study
Trier-Bieniek, Adrienne M. (Virginia Tech, 2007-05-02)
This research examined definitions of feminists and the relationship between self-identification as a feminist and willingness to engage in action to reduce inequality between men and women. Two focus groups were held to discuss these issues with undergraduate women. All but one of the members self-identified as feminists. Group members aligned themselves with one of two definitions of feminist. Some women defined feminists as those who desire equality for women. This group distanced themselves from radical feminists. The other women asserted that feminists were concerned with human rights for both men and women. The women emphasized that men as well as women could be feminists. Consistent with social identity theory that posits that important identities are associated with action, the women participated in two types of activities that were related to reducing gender inequality. One type of action was individualist, such as responding to sexist remarks. The other type was involvement with groups and organizations that collectively worked to reduce inequality. The one group member who rejected the label of feminist held views and engaged in behavior consistent with a cultural definition of feminist.
Trailers and Mental Health: An Exploration of Psychological Distress Amongst Mobile Home Dwellers
Latter, Philip Joseph (Virginia Tech, 2009-02-04)
This thesis examines whether residing in a mobile home predicts higher rates of psychological distress. Using combined data from the General Social Survey (1994-2006), I differentiate housing into four distinct categories: mobile homes, conventional homes, apartments, and townhouses. After looking extensively at the history and experience of residing in a mobile home, particularly when viewed through a social stress theory lens, I hypothesize that mobile home residents should have higher levels of psychological distress after socioeconomic variables are controlled. While mobile home residents have the highest raw scores for psychological distress (a composite of depression and anxiety), these did not hold significance after the inclusion of the socioeconomic and control variables. Conversely, social network ties were stronger in the mobile home community than in other types of housing and this remained so after socioeconomic variables were included. This thesis supports Shelton, et al.'s (1983) findings that mobile home residents are in many ways more similar to their conventional home counterparts than those living in apartments. It also supports social stress theory's assertion that social support is associated with better mental health and that socioeconomic factors are paramount when predicting levels of psychological distress.
Transforming Places
Smith, Barbara Ellen; Fisher, Steve (2014-02-18)

Browsing by Author "Smith, Barbara Ellen"

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