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This study explores habitus (re)formation and elite cultural capital acquisition among 37 lower to middle-income women of color who accessed a high-income, predominantly white suburban public high school through one of three ways: as residents, as commuters, or as boarders, with the latter groups gaining access through two voluntary racial desegregation programs. The in-depth interviews reveal that women in all three groups discuss exposure to and comfort in diverse settings, but commuters and boarders are more likely to discuss habitus (re)formation than are residents. Women in all three groups discuss gaining dominant cultural capital in the form of speech and self-presentation skills, at times explicitly discussing the racialized nature of such forms of cultural capital. Commuters and boarders also discuss acquiring academic knowledge and travel opportunities, while residents and commuters discuss institutionalized cultural capital in the form of a diploma or a driver's license with an elite town name. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within public schools, nearly ¼ of all students come from immigrant households, raising important questions about how these individuals fare in the classroom and beyond. This case study explores how a sample of 15 1.5- and 2nd-generation women who graduated from an elite, predominantly white public high school in the Northeastern USA explain their school experiences through the lens of immigration, supplementing our knowledge of large-scale statistical trends to interrogate the roots of 1.5- and 2nd-generation advantage and disadvantage and how they influence paths of incorporation. Women explicitly and implicitly discuss the factors of co-ethnic resources, racial reception, and the implementation of local policies, discussing ways in which these factors both encourage and discourage incorporation. The findings thus provide qualified support from lived experiences for the segmented assimilation model (Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 530:74–96, 1993). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study explores the ways in which black and Latino women who graduated from a predominantly white, elite public high school in the Northeastern United States engaged in varied acts of resistance while students there, both within the classroom and within the larger community. The women accessed the high school through one of the three ways: as town residents, as commuters, or as boarders through two distinct voluntary racial desegregation programs. Through in-depth interviews with 37 women, two overriding trends appear in the data - a form of "resistance for liberation" or "political resistance" in which women push against stereotypes, introduce new programming, and work to reform policies and curriculum, and a smaller strain of "resistance for survival" in which women actively utilize stereotypes. Women with greater amounts of both dominant and nondominant forms of cultural capital are more likely to engage in "political resistance," while women with lesser amounts of dominant cultural capital show more evidence of "resistance for survival." Variation exists by point of entry into the system, with town residents showing the lowest levels of either form of resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research has been conducted to understand how state-level political and social conditions influence electoral participation among naturalized Latinos. This study begins to fill that gap by examining how both Latino-specific factors (the rate of hate crimes targeting Latinos, the rate of Latino unemployment and the amount of Spanish-language advertising) and more general state-level factors (the level of political competitiveness) impact Latino voter turnout in the 2004 election. I find that the single largest predictor of voter turnout among naturalized Latinos is the rate of Latino-specific hate crimes in a state, suggesting strong support for theories of group conflict and group consciousness as means of political mobilization. Latino unemployment has a large negative effect on voter turnout, even while holding constant individual household income, suggesting support for theories of social connectedness and the argument that collective identity can potentially demobilize individuals and groups. The overall findings provide further evidence of the need to develop models and theories of political engagement specific to minority groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study which looks into political activity that ensued after the passage of leash laws for dogs at Boston's Woodland Park. In 2008, the Natural Resources Commission banned dogs from running off leash at the park, citing their increasing number. The ban, however, was met by protests within days of its issuance through letters to the editor and guest columns. The methods used in the study such as in-depth interviews as well as the study's findings are also presented.

In this study I explored the reported effects of Literacy Collaborative, a whole-school literacy reform model, on teacher turnover through in-depth telephone interviews with 16 randomly sampled teachers. Although 8 of the teachers said Literacy Collaborative would have no effect on whether they stayed at or left their respective schools, the interviews suggested that Literacy Collaborative, had professional implications. Eight teachers attributed a stronger and more supportive professional community to Literacy Collaborative, and 12 teachers said their teaching skills and their students' academic outcomes had improved because of the model. The strongest negative themes that were reported by 5 teachers were feelings of disempowerment and increased workload attributed to the model. These negative feelings did not independently drive teachers out but instead interacted with already extant feelings of dissatisfaction and disempowerment. Finally, 5 teachers reported that the school and District administration's understanding of Literacy Collaborative and the level support teachers felt they received in implementing the model mattered in how teachers perceived their work environment and considered their career decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]