Ethnicity and Gender in Late Childhood and Adolescense Essay Example for Free

Ethnicity and Gender in Late Childhood and Adolescense Essay Abstract This paper focuses on an study that was conducted to examine the awareness of gender and ethinic bias along with gender and ethnic identity in late childhood and early adolescence. Data was collected on children in 4th, 6th, and 8th grades from various elementary and middle schools. The ethnic groups that were represented were White/European American, African American, an Latino. Daily diaries and individual interviews displayed that ethnic, gender, and grade level differences affected the awareness of bias ( Developmental Psychology, 2011). It was further proven that children in this age range were more aware of gender bias than ethinic bias. Keywords: gender identity, ethnic identity, bias During adolescent development a child’s need to be identified based ethnicity and/or gender becomes more prevalent and is further influenced by their peers. In addition, during this stage of development, social identity can have a deeper impact on intergroup attitudes. In the text, chapter 3 discusses gender schemas and how they evolve from being inflexible to flexible though the development of a human being (Wade Tavris, 2011). In the Development Psychology article, â€Å"Ethnicity and Gender in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence: Group Identity and Awareness of Bias†, 2011, psychologists, Alabi, Brown, Huynh, and Masten examined the awareness of gender an identity bias and its impact on the individuals/groups. The hypothesis is the possibility that children can be aware of one type of bias and oblivious to the another based on their group identity. The study was conducted with 350 students from three participating elementary schools and three middle schools in Southern California. The schools represented various ethnic/racial make-ups and socioeconomic statuses that included 67 African American, 120 White, and 167 Latino students. Two methodologies were used during this study, case study and naturalistic observation. The case study methodology as described by the text is the description of an individual based on their observation of behavior during a specified period (Wade Tavris, 2011, p. 18). During the first week the case study was conducted by each participant receiving a diary to document their assessment of what identity was most important to them. The approach was referred to as identity centrality and the children received an ethnicity and gender score based on the results. The second portion of this test, identified as the identity salience approach involved students documenting whether or not they thought about gender, ethnic, or no identity at all during each period of the school day. The results of this test revealed that 51% of the children mentioned ethnicity and 63% mentioned gender. Following this portion of the study, the students were assessed through individual interviews with the same ethnicity, same gender experimenter. To assess ethnic identity, the students were presented five items with opposing questions, in which they had to choose the statement that they most identified with. A similar assessment was conducted to determine the degree of their gender identity. The final results of these assessments revealed that 51% of the students were aware of ethnic bias associated with ethnic identity while 49% were unaware. The relationship between bias and group identity was determined by eight ethnic and gender identity measures to include: gender and ethinic identity, salience, centrality, positivity/importance of ethnicity, contentedness with gender, felt gender typicality, and felt pressure to conform to gender norms. Over 38% of the students felt positive about their ethnicity and felt content/typical with their gender. 26% percent felt that their ethnicity was not important and felt no pressure to conform to gender norms. 20% of the students felt that their ethnicity was not important but was discontent with the gender norms. Finally, 9% felt that their ethnicity was positive and important and were content with gender norms. In this study the awareness of gender and ethnic bias varied by age group. It comes as no surprise that children become more aware of gender bias than ethnic bias at a young age. As the text mentions, gender identity is discovered at preschool age in which the process of gender typing begins. This is where boys and girls begin to get in touch with their masculine and feminine characteristics (Wade Tavris, 2011, pg. 107). Ethinic identity creates a sense of emotional attachment to the group and the individual feels the need to conform to the values set forth (Wade Tavris, 2011, pg. 350). This study further showed that European American students were more aware of gender bias than ethnic bias. In middle school all students were equally aware of both biases but African american and Latinos were likely to be aware of ethnic bias in elementary school. The potential cause of this stemmed from belonging to a negatively stereotyped group which raised the earlier awareness. This showed that European American students were less likely to be targeted for ethnic bias ( Developmental Psychology, 2011). In early adolescence girls were more aware of gender bias than boys and could attest to being targets of discrimation. Conclusion The conduction of this study proved that children in late childhood and adolescence were more aware of gender bias than ethnic bias. In addition the results showed that children who were non European-American experienced and identified with ethnic bias at an earlier age. The limitations to this study was the demographics. This study was conducted in Los Angeles which has a very unique demographic because it is essentially a melting pot of ethnicities. The different socioeconomical factors and educational inequalities impacted the outcome of the results. Children in the poorest schools had more challenges to encounter in school than their peers in this study. These experiences molded their ethnic identities and the biases associated with it. During late childhood an adolescence development, group identity and intergroup relations became important factors. It is expected that this age group no matter the gender/ethnicity will witness or be a target of discrimination. Although legal segregation is a thing of the past, gender and ethnic bias can greatly impact society but the attitudes and beliefs of individuals can be contained through intervention. With intervention at the earlier stages of development, children can fully witness equality. Future research methods inspired by this article should focus on the data collected from various locations throughout the country. Keeping this research generalized to one location compromises the true validity of the study. New research methods will determine how different ethnicities identify with gender and ethnic bias. Other areas of concentration that should be included in this study are the workforce, judicial system and media/television. Successful results of these research methods can pave the way for some individuals to change their ideologies. These studies can impact the lives of everyday people and potentially unveil solutions to discrimination. As we become a more multicultural country, we must realize the importance of cultural awareness so that we can better interact with different ethnicities/genders. Parents should encourage their to children to foster positive relationships with their peers despite cultural difference. These solutions will alleviate the stereotypes associated with gender and ethnic identity. References Brown, C. , Alabi, B. , Huynh, V. , Masten, C.. (2011). Ethnicity and Gender in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence: Group Identity and Awareness of Bias. Developmental Psychology, 47(2), 463. Retrieved May 21, 2011, from Research Library. (Document ID: 2321539051) Wade, C. , Tavris, C. (2011). Invitation to Psychology, fifth Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

George Brenard Shaw :: essays research papers

On the night of July 26th, 1856 one of the greatest playwrights in history, George Bernard Shaw, was born. George’s mother, Lucinda Elizabeth Gurly, was an aristocrat, while his father, George Gurly, was a poor alcoholic. Shaw had two sisters, Elinour Agness, who died of tuberculosis at age 20, and Lucinda Frances who died of starvation at age 40. Both were spinsters and had no children. In Dublin the theatre was the only thing that actually interested, and had something to offer to Shaw. George also went to many schools while living in Dublin, including the Wesleyan Connexional School, but said he learned little from schools and was self-educated. In 1876, mother, daughters, & son left their father behind and moved to London to seek a more cultured way of life. They lived at 13 Victoria Grove, a middle class area in London. Shaw found work at Edison’s Telephone Company at a wage of two shillings and a sixpence, and in his spare time taught himself to write. After a while he was promoted to head of his department with a wage of 80 pounds. Soon enough Shaw admitted that he was not a working man, and he wanted to be a writer. December 23rd 1880, the family moved to Fitzroy Street. This enabled Shaw to visit the museum library, where he learned the most for his education. Unemployed, he could not afford to eat at the local restaurants and ate instead at the vegetarian eatery where he could buy a good and nourishing meal. He became a vegetarian in 1881 and kept his vow never to eat flesh again. He believed that all living things were equal and deserved to be treated with the same respect. Shaw's visits to museum library brought him into contact with the great people alive during that time such as, William Morris, Ruskin, and the Bloomsburry gang. These people were just as smart as he was, thus allowing Shaw to associate with them and become socially active. A keen on boxer; in 1883 Shaw joined the Queensburry Amateur Boxing Championships, and took part in the Middle & Heavyweight matches. This was a great way of keeping healthy, while he exercised his brain at the library. With his good looks and refined personality, women fell at his feet. Jenny Patterson, Alice Locket, May Morris, Edith Bland, Eleanor Marx and Annie Besant, each fell in love with him. George Brenard Shaw :: essays research papers On the night of July 26th, 1856 one of the greatest playwrights in history, George Bernard Shaw, was born. George’s mother, Lucinda Elizabeth Gurly, was an aristocrat, while his father, George Gurly, was a poor alcoholic. Shaw had two sisters, Elinour Agness, who died of tuberculosis at age 20, and Lucinda Frances who died of starvation at age 40. Both were spinsters and had no children. In Dublin the theatre was the only thing that actually interested, and had something to offer to Shaw. George also went to many schools while living in Dublin, including the Wesleyan Connexional School, but said he learned little from schools and was self-educated. In 1876, mother, daughters, & son left their father behind and moved to London to seek a more cultured way of life. They lived at 13 Victoria Grove, a middle class area in London. Shaw found work at Edison’s Telephone Company at a wage of two shillings and a sixpence, and in his spare time taught himself to write. After a while he was promoted to head of his department with a wage of 80 pounds. Soon enough Shaw admitted that he was not a working man, and he wanted to be a writer. December 23rd 1880, the family moved to Fitzroy Street. This enabled Shaw to visit the museum library, where he learned the most for his education. Unemployed, he could not afford to eat at the local restaurants and ate instead at the vegetarian eatery where he could buy a good and nourishing meal. He became a vegetarian in 1881 and kept his vow never to eat flesh again. He believed that all living things were equal and deserved to be treated with the same respect. Shaw's visits to museum library brought him into contact with the great people alive during that time such as, William Morris, Ruskin, and the Bloomsburry gang. These people were just as smart as he was, thus allowing Shaw to associate with them and become socially active. A keen on boxer; in 1883 Shaw joined the Queensburry Amateur Boxing Championships, and took part in the Middle & Heavyweight matches. This was a great way of keeping healthy, while he exercised his brain at the library. With his good looks and refined personality, women fell at his feet. Jenny Patterson, Alice Locket, May Morris, Edith Bland, Eleanor Marx and Annie Besant, each fell in love with him.

School District

The Roosevelt School District in Maricopa County has at least 21 public schools under its direct administration and around fifty private and public middle and high schools all located around the district. Private and Catholic schools however, are not administered by the district in the sense that they are autonomous in terms of management, implementing policy guidelines, instructional materials, and salary compensation for teachers. The Roosevelt Elementary School District in Maricopa County is considered large in size with its total number of students attending with 11, 902 and six hundred ninety-one certified teachers (Classroom Dollars and proposition 301 results). The district’s student ratio per teacher since 2004 up to 2006 was at seventeen students per teachers. How is a teacher’s pay determined? Salaries of teachers in Arizona are based on the â€Å"per-pupil† amount of funds allocated to the district. Based on the comparative information, the average teacher-student ratio that receives a standardized salary of 42,500 is 17 students per one teacher (Classroom Dollars Proposition p. 61). That is, a teacher handling seventeen students on a regular basis is qualified to receive standardized salary. The salary of a teacher is determined by the funding formulas of the state and the municipalities where the school is located (College of Education Paper). The general implication of this system is that the bigger the number of the students the bigger budget allocation for the district, and the better income for the teacher, because according to the paper, the teachers salaries comes from the operations and maintenance budget (College Education paper p. 91). This budget comes from local taxes and from the state. The fund is transferred to the district which turn is responsible for local budgeting. How is salary structured? The district employed a standardized salary compensation for certified teachers based on their qualification and competency. It means that teachers had to be certified that their course are aligned to the teaching profession. Further more, the district implements performance based scheme for teachers wherein teachers are expected to yield positive results towards the district goal based on individual and school performance (Class room dollar and proposition). Since 2004, the Roosevelt Elementary School district offered an annual average salary of $42, 500. These compensation schemes are standardized based on performance, competency, and educational qualification as indicated by the five point’s performance evaluation standard employed by the district (Class room dollar proposition). These performance indicators according to the paper published by the College of Education of the University of Arizona entitled Who will Teach our Young Children includes the degrees of certifications, scores on professional knowledge test, and the years of experience in teaching. All these form the structure of the standardized salary of the teachers at Roosevelt Elementary districts schools (Who will Teach our Young Children, p. 61). Are there incentives for teachers to earn more money and is this an effective pay system? The district offers an up to more than five thousand dollars incentives to all it employees including teachers, librarians and other staffs. The incentives were given in form additional salary benefits of the eligible employees (Class room dollar proposition). The paper published by the College of Education of the University of Arizona points out that the current incentives and benefits systems implemented by the district are given only to the most productive teachers and those teaching positions that requires â€Å"special skills† or expertise (College of Education Paper, p. 95). Although this performance-based incentives is defined by the state law or other policy and funded by the state, and can be earned yearly by anybody who had done exemplary performance (p. 1), it is quite apparent that these incentives and benefit system is an ineffective system for teachers. The College paper published by the University of Arizona expressed pessimism that it this incentive system will soon prevent districts from fiving special incentives (p. 95) to deserving teachers. Thus, according to paper, researchers are â€Å"looking at ways† (p. 95) to lure more teachers. Why the incentive system is not effective? The benefit system is ineffec tive because there are no clear guidelines about the funding for teacher compensation. These affect the district budgeting because budget defends on â€Å"per-pupil† allocation. However, continues efforts to increase compensation, and benefits and incentives for teachers are a welcome agenda for teachers at Roosevelt Elementary School District. Does the teacher union have to say about the subject? Unfortunately, there is no teacher union at Roosevelt Elementary School District or in any other district in Maricopa, Arizona. This is one factor one why researchers are looking for more effective ways of providing teacher’s salaries, incentives and benefit system. The salaries of teachers are decided only by the school board (College of Education Paper, p. 92). While the teachers union can provide bargaining for justifiable salaries, incentives and other fringe benefits, this does not happen at Roosevelt Elementary School District or to any other school district in Maricopa, Arizona, due to lack of teacher’s union. Reference Class Dollars and Proposition 301 Roosevelt Elementary School Districthttp://www.auditorgen.state.az.us/Reports/School_Districts/Districts/Roosevelt_ESD/2008/Roosevelt_ESD.pdf College of Education, The University of Arizona Who will teach our Children? http://www.aztownhall.org/pdf/92nd_Workbook_complete.pdf   Oct.27-30, 2008.

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program Essay - 958 Words

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program known as D.A.R.E has become a very widespread and popular program throughout the United States. The program appeals to all ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic lines, which is a large part of the reason why the DARE program has grown exponentially. The program’s basic premise was meant to introduce kids to the danger of drugs, before the drugs got to them. The implementation of the DARE program appeared to be what America needed to begin to put a dent in the war on drugs. Trained uniformed officers who introduce the program to 5th and 6th graders teach the program. The officers inform them about the dangers of all drugs from Tylenol to heroine. The program develops rapport between officers†¦show more content†¦So the program was a failure when it came to drug prevention. This in turn brought about a new DARE program with a slightly altered curriculum, which claimed to be new and improved. However, this new program received about the same evaluation of the old program. Researchers said that the new DARE program was just a ploy to distract the public away from their previously received criticism. A second study was prompted after the alterations to the program but was never published due to the near identical results of the first study. Politics coupled with no alternative prevention programs appears to be allowing for the faulty DARE program to continue. The positive aspects of DARE such as the improved attitude with police, and stronger social skills are great. However, this is not why the DARE program was created. It was created to educate 5th and 6th graders about the dangers of taking drugs, which was believed to stay with them their entire life. This is not the case though. The program isn’t ever going to have the success it believes it has or should have until they take into account we are all individuals. Each child needs to be looked at individually to assess his/her risk and do its best to reduce it. The DARE officers do not investigate the majority of factors that put adolescents at risk for alcohol and drug abuse today. For example, loss of loved one(s), high levels of stress, problems in relationships with parents, comingShow MoreRelatedDrug Abuse Resistance Education Program1671 Words   |  7 Pageson drugs was declared in 1971 by President Richard Nixon and since that day over a trillion dollars have been s pent on the prohibition of drugs in the United States (Branson, 2012). Yet, despite this excessive spending, the U.S. has the highest rates of illicit drug use in the world (Branson, 2012). Although much of this money has been spent on law enforcement agents and prison systems, some funds have been used to develop drug prevention programs. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (D.ARead MoreThe Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program1097 Words   |  5 PagesThe Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program also known, as the D.A.R.E program is a worldwide school-based program that helps reach out to children (elementary, middle, and high school) to prevent drug and violence abuse. This program does not discriminate in any case, therefore it consists of children all different colors, shapes, and sizes. Since drug and violence abuse was rising at incredible increments in the 1970’s and early 80’s, a Los Angeles Police Chief and the Los Angeles School DistrictRead MoreDr ug Abuse Resistance Education Program981 Words   |  4 Pagesand listened to with such interest. He made us sign a pledge not to use drugs and he would talk to us about how to resist peer pressure and live a drug-free life. This education program is called Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (D.A.R.E.) 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D.A.R.E., the acronym for Drug Abuse Resistance Education is a program that educates young children in elementary schools, middle schools and high schools intended for students in Kindergarten through to the 12th grade to prevent and decline drug and alcohol abuse, peer pressure, violence and many other potential future dangers for children. The program consists of lessons and activities that involve more participation, active learning, supplementalRead MoreDrug Prevention And Education : America s Largest And Longest Running Programs Essay985 Words   |  4 PagesWhen it comes to drug prevention and education, it must differ and be carefully designed depending on the age group and other contributing factors to drug use/abuse. One of the world’s largest and longest running programs has had a great impact on society, both nationally and globally. Even if someone has never attended a seminar or been taught a class in their school, a majority of people know or at least have hear d of the D.A.R.E. program. This program has a humble beginning and a positive missionRead MoreWhat Is Reducing Crime Through A Targeted Literacy Program830 Words   |  4 Pagesthrough a Targeted Literacy Program† as the sole recipient of our funds to combat youth drug crime in our community. While all three proposals gave strong arguments as to why their organization should receive our funds, programs similar to that stated in proposal two by Marcia Brady, John Walton, and Samantha Stephens have shown more success in the reduction of drug related crimes when compared to the ‘law and order’ techniques used by the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) which is described inRead MoreEssay about drugs1091 Words   |  5 Pages Throughout history, America has been fighting against drug and alcohol abuse in teens and adults. Many ways companies and anti drug groups try to prevent drug and alcohol abuse is through education in school systems and out of school systems. They teach young students about drugs and alcohol before they risk being around them, and they teach older students about drugs while they are around in their daily lives. Are these education programs really necessary? That’s the question many people ask, andRead MoreSchool Based Drug Use Prevention Programs1333 Words   |  6 PagesSchool-based drug use prevention programs have been an important part of the United State’s anti drug campaign since the late 70’s. Although there have been many different programs of all shapes and sizes, none have been bigger or more iconic than the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program. D.A.R.E. was created in 1983 by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District. D.A.R.E. uses specially trained law enforcement officers to teach drug use preventionRead MorePersuasive Speech : Public Speaking944 Words   |  4 PagesHekanne Simbolon Final Speech Persuasive Speech Public Speaking Is the D.A.R.E. Program effective? I. Introduction Class Poll: How many of you have been in or heard of the D.A.R.E. Program? Now, keep your hands raised if you think the D.A.R.E. Program has prevented either yourself or other people you know from violence, drinking, or drugs? Tell the story about when the D.A.R.E. Program visited my elementary school. While this week long event was fun as a kid, its information doesn’t affect most