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In this theoretical article, the authors elaborate a revisited theory of Third Space from a BlackCrit/Afropessimist stance, exploring Black youth ethnic and racial identity formation searching for place and belonging in the context of a raced world. To illustrate their theoretical contributions, the authors draw on empirical research conducted with Haiti-born and U.S.-born Haitian immigrant high school students and their teachers. They argue that, as Third Space, Haitian ethnic clubs were sites of sanctuary where students felt free to challenge, play with, and question complex ideas about racial identity, sites of resistance to test and exercise resistance against demoralizing forces, sites of fluidity for Black adolescent development, and sites for regulating and protecting Blackness. Thus, Third Space Theory from a BlackCrit perspective can offer an anti-racist approach to capturing how Black youth become aware of contradictions and ambivalence in the worlds they inhabit and their acceptance of situations where ambivalence helps in their learning and also their survivance.

Critical race courses challenge today's college students to cognitively grapple with issues of justice and the good society. In some instances, these challenges lead to positive, relational growth-fostering attitudes and behaviors. Transformative learning educator Jack Mezirow's approach to facilitating cognitive shifts appears especially promising in its ability to promote such outcomes. In our own work, we apply this frame to guide our teaching, with an aim toward fostering and studying racially privileged (i.e., White) students' cognitive shifts around the meaning of whiteness. The present case study is an in-depth description of one student's whiteness frame of reference elaboration. Several tentative contributions to Mezirow's theory emerge as a result. Namely, whiteness frame of reference elaboration may include (1) periods of cognitive homeostasis in addition to disruption, (2) positive affective experiencing in addition to negative affect, and (3) shifts in cognition that are subjectively encoded within the context of affective experiencing.

This article uses figured worlds to explore the limit-situations imposed by dominant narratives of home-school relationships. Through a semiotic analysis of a wall hanging in a preschool classroom, we explore what figured worlds are imagined as possible for home-school relationships. The dominant narratives implicit in these figured worlds ossify configurations of home and school that privilege ways of being and knowing that exclude, reject, or demonize the experiences of culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most recent iteration of NAEYC's key Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) texts (the 2020 Position Statement and the fourth edition of the DAP book) reflect a more robust stance on family educator-relationships and attention to issues of equity as reflected in linguistic shifts. This article analyses NAEYC's rhetorical moves between the 2009 texts and the present versions, presenting a mixed-methods critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the changes in the texts drawing on critical theory, Doucet's framework for anti-racist practice, discourse theory and critical linguistics. The findings reveal meaningful changes in the language and framing of family-educator relationships, highlighting a move towards more inclusive, reciprocal partnerships. And while the current editions of NAEYC's key DAP texts show greater attention to cultural inclusivity and anti-bias approaches, we make a case to push for explicitly anti-racist reciprocal partnerships with families and communities within the DAP texts. We discuss the implications of these changes for policy and practice in early childhood education, as well as suggestions for future research in diverse cultural contexts, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This analysis contributes to the ongoing conversation about equity and social justice in educational partnerships and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study of 26 African American parents and caregivers of preschool children sought to address gaps in the current literature by exploring how the intersection of parents' racism experiences and social class may play a role in race-related socialization during the early years. Analysis of narrative interviews revealed that egalitarianism surfaced as the most common content of racial socialization (ethnic-racial socialization) messages. We also found that preparation for bias emerged as qualitatively different for the working- and middle-class African Americans, however, and thus, we argue that the ways in which working- and middle-class African American parents of preschoolers made sense of their experiences with racism and discrimination were different and that this shaped their preparation for bias messages differently. To provide a contrast for illustrating this argument, we detail working- and middle-class participants' use of egalitarianism messages in relationship to their stories about racism, proposing here that parents may have been attuning to their young children's developmental stage when deciding which messages to promote.

This article documents the transformation of cognitive and relational dispositions within a group of 14 White female undergraduate students ranging in age from 18 to 21 years and enrolled in a semester-long diversity course. Using Mezirow's transformative learning theory as an interpretive frame to guide our phenomenological analysis of written assignments, data revealed that students experienced multiple cognitive and relational transformative processes. Findings suggest that transformative learning theory's (Kitchenham, 2008; Mezirow & Associates, 2000) framework around processes of transformation is a useful analytical framework for capturing students' unique transformative learning processes or journeys. Findings further suggest that, students' relationships with members of cultural communities previously unfamiliar to them were an important part of students' transformative journeys. These relationships provided students with tangible experiences that assisted them in shifting their worldviews and arriving at greater understanding of how inequality, oppression, and prejudice impact the daily lives of others. Finally, the findings indicate that instructors' perspectives on what accounts for a transformative process is often not aligned with students' opinions of their own growth and development. The study concludes that transformation is a process, and that all steps are a necessary part of a transformative experience.

This article examines parent involvement (PI) as a ritual system using Turner's concept of root paradigms. Through a twofold analysis, I argue that the highly ritualized nature of PI practices creates a group identity among mainstream parents and schools that marginalizes diverse families. First, I point out three root paradigms in the ritual system of PI. Second, I provide an empirical example using the experiences of Haitian immigrant parents in greater Boston.

Background/Context: This study examines the tactics that Haitian immigrant parents used to negotiate the boundaries around home and school, presenting the possibility that families play an active and deliberate role in creating distance between the worlds of home and school. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The following research questions were explored: (1) Why do Haitian immigrant parents resist bridges between the worlds of home and school? (2) How might this resistance be seen as a show of agency? (3) How do the resistance and agency of Haitian immigrants complicate the in-school/out-of-school dichotomy and push theories that too easily bring in-school and out-of-school worlds together? Setting: Greater Boston, Massachusetts. Population/Participants/Subjects: Participants were 54 parents of Haiti-born (1.5 generation) and U.S.-born (second generation) Haitian American adolescents. Research Design: The study draws from a subset of data collected with Haitian families in a large longitudinal study of newly arrived immigrants from five different countries and from data collected in a supplemental study of second-generation Haitian families. Data sources include structured interviews and field notes. Data Collection and Analysis: Data were collected by bilingual, bicultural research assistants. Interviews were recorded whenever possible, transcribed, and, if necessary, translated to English. Data were analyzed for this article using classic qualitative thematic analysis techniques. Findings/Results: The findings suggest that parents actively constructed and reconstructed distinct boundaries for home and school rather than being passive victims of these boundaries. Three metathemes and seven related themes emerged related to the research questions: protecting the home terrain (displayed as a concern with family privacy; parental strictness; and discouraging friendships); equating schools with Americanization (shown through criticisms of U.S. schools/schooling, and parents' limited contact with school), and negotiating a seat at the table (through parental advocacy; and reciprocal partnership-seeking) Conclusions/Recommendations: These findings question the pervasive notion in educational literature and practice that close links between home and school should be the goal of both teachers and families.

In this interview conducted by "Harvard Educational Review" editor Raygine DiAquoi, Fabienne Doucet of New York University and Louis Herns Marcelin of the University of Miami discuss their roles as Haitian American scholars who are participating in Haiti's reconstruction process after the earthquake of January 2010. Each professor focuses on different sectors of the educational system: Doucet on the importance of investing in early childhood education and Marcelin on the significance of higher education in rebuilding Haitian society. From these scholars we learn about the importance of including local actors in the efforts to rebuild in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Through the Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED), they work with scholars around the world to facilitate participatory research that seeks to democratize the production of knowledge while simultaneously building the capacity of Haitian students and educators to use research to effect change in their own communities. (Contains 2 notes.)

Preservice teachers are socialized by their own raced, classed, and gendered experiences to expect "caring parents" to behave and contribute in certain ways to their children's schooling. Preservice teachers who come from widely divergent backgrounds from the communities in which they serve can sometimes be skeptical of parents who are not involved in children's schooling in ways that are familiar from their own upbringing. Moreover, much of the existing scholarship on parent involvement and the transition to school takes a top-down approach that discounts the important knowledge parents bring to the table. This is a study of African American parents of young children who were preparing to transition to kindergarten or first grade that proposes an alternate conversation about what we can learn from parents when we examine their ways of framing and enacting "involvement" in their children's school lives. African American parents and caregivers (N = 25) participated in qualitative interviews. Thematic analyses of the interviews revealed that participants constructed preparation for the transition to school broadly, as preparation for the "real world." I will discuss the implications of the study for teaching, teacher education, and future research, so that preservice teachers and teacher educators can begin to build a greater imagination for parent involvement. (Contains 3 tables 8 footnotes.)

A powerful means to understand young children's normative development in context is to examine their everyday activities. The daily activities of 79 children (3 years old) were observed, for 20 hr each, in their usual settings. Children were selected from 4 cultural groups: European American and African American (Greensboro, United States), Luo (Kisumu, Kenya), and European descent (Porto Alegre, Brazil), evenly divided by social class. Examining children's naturally occurring engagement in school-relevant activities, both in and out of child care, revealed the importance of ecological context. The variation in activities was not explainable simply by cultural group (including race within the United States) or social class, but by the intersection of culture and class. The developmental implications of these findings are discussed.

Children's early mathematical experiences play an enormous role in the development of their understanding of mathematics, and serve as a foundation for their cognitive development. In this descriptive study, we observed the naturally occurring mathematical activities engaged in by thirty-nine 3-year-olds, equally divided by race/ethnicity and social class. We observed each child for 18 hours over the course of a single week, in such a way as to cover the equivalent of a complete day in its life. The children varied a good deal in the extent to which they were observed engaging in mathematical activities, but the variation was not explicable by race/ethnicity or class. For comparative purposes, we also report on the literacy-related activities in which the children were engaged.

(1) Background: Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) can be managed using a vaginal pessary. However, the decision-making process whereby health professionals choose the right pessary is unclear. The objective of this study was to focus on the experience of experts in pessary use and to propose an algorithm. (2) Methods: A prospective study, based on face-to-face semi-directive interviews and group discussions, was conducted on a multidisciplinary panel of professional experts specialized in pessary prescriptions. A consensual algorithm was established, and its accuracy was assessed by expert and non-expert panels. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Studies (COREQ) were used. (3) Results: 17 semi-directive interviews were conducted. The parameters involved in the decision-making process regarding the choice of vaginal pessaries were: desire for self-management (65%), associated urinary stress incontinence (47%), POP type (41%), and POP stage (29%). The algorithm was developed step by step (4 iterations) using the Delphi technique. Most of the expert panel (76%) rated the relevance of the algorithm as 7 or more out of 10 on a visual analog scale according to their own experience (reference activity). Finally, most (81%) of the non-expert panel (n = 230) rated the usefulness of this algorithm as 7 or more out of 10 on a visual analog scale. (4) Conclusions: This study provides an expert panel-based algorithm that may help in the prescription of pessaries for POP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we discuss cross-cultural similarities and variations in parents' engagement in the everyday activities in which their preschool-age children engage, focusing on mothers' and fathers' presence in the same setting as their children, the impact of their presence on the types of activities in which the children engaged, and the extent of mothers' and fathers' involvement with their children in those activities. The data were gathered from different societies - the United States, Korea, Russia, Estonia, and Kenya. They reveal that the children were involved primarily in play (more than in lessons, work, or conversation), and this was unaffected by the presence of either parent. However, parents were relatively less likely to be involved in their children's play than in the other activities. Mothers, not surprisingly, were more likely to be found in the same setting as their children and, even when taking account of their greater presence, were more likely to be involved with their children than were fathers.

The article discusses the role of teachers in addressing race and inequity during classroom learning. Topics include the views of early childhood professionals on the psychological development of young children, the promotion of anti-racism and social justice in early childhood education, and the differences between color-blind and diversity-based approaches in early childhood education.

Background/Context: This study examines the tactics that Haitian immigrant parents used to negotiate the boundaries around home and school, presenting the possibility that families play an active and deliberate role in creating distance between the worlds of home and school. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The following research questions were explored: (1) Why do Haitian immigrant parents resist bridges between the worlds of home and school? (2) How might this resistance be seen as a show of agency? (3) How do the resistance and agency of Haitian immigrants complicate the in-school/out-of-school dichotomy and push theories that too easily bring in-school and out-of-school worlds together? Setting: Greater Boston, Massachusetts. Population/Participants/Subjects: Participants were 54 parents of Haiti-born (1.5 generation) and U.S.-born (second generation) Haitian American adolescents. Research Design: The study draws from a subset of data collected with Haitian families in a large longitudinal study of newly arrived immigrants from five different countries and from data collected in a supplemental study of second-generation Haitian families. Data sources include structured interviews and field notes. Data Collection and Analysis: Data were collected by bilingual, bicultural research assistants. Interviews were recorded whenever possible, transcribed, and, if necessary, translated to English. Data were analyzed for this article using classic qualitative thematic analysis techniques. Findings/Results: The findings suggest that parents actively constructed and reconstructed distinct boundaries for home and school rather than being passive victims of these boundaries. Three metathemes and seven related themes emerged related to the research questions: protecting the home terrain (displayed as a concern with family privacy parental strictness; and discouraging friendships); equating schools with Americanization (shown through criticisms of U.S. schools/schooling; and parents' limited contact with school), and negotiating a seal at the table (through parental advocacy; and reciprocal partnership-seeking) Conclusions/Recommendations: These findings question the pervasive notion in educational literature and practice that close links between home and school should be the goal of both teachers and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a broad context for understanding some of the developmental issues facing immigrant youth, as well as some of the familial processes that are activated in migration. The phenomenon of large-scale immigration is a global event that blurs and challenges the constructions of a nation. Youth ministers are increasingly faced with populations of immigrants in their churches and communities. To focus the discussion, the author presents an overview of the home and school experiences of Haitian youth.