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Abigail S. Borron Doctoral Defense June 25, 2012

A Culture-Centered Approach to Health and Nutrition Among Low-Income Groups: Recommendations for Land-Grant University Engagement. Abigail S. Borron Doctoral Defense June 25, 2012. Defining Poverty. Four Definitional Approaches to Poverty 1 Monetary Capability Social Exclusion

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Abigail S. Borron Doctoral Defense June 25, 2012

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  1. A Culture-Centered Approach to Health and Nutrition Among Low-Income Groups: Recommendations for Land-Grant University Engagement Abigail S. Borron Doctoral Defense June 25, 2012

  2. Defining Poverty Four Definitional Approaches to Poverty1 • Monetary • Capability • Social Exclusion • Participatory 1Laderchi, Saith, & Steward (2003)

  3. Study Context State of Poverty in 2010 Census, • 9.2 million (11.7%) of U.S. families and • 22% total population of children1 1DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Smith (2011)

  4. Study Context Indiana and U.S. Small Area Poverty Estimates, 1989 – 20101 1U.S. Census Bureau (2012)

  5. Study Context Top Five Indiana Counties below Poverty Threshold and Overall Population, 20101 1U.S. Census Bureau (2012)

  6. Theoretical Perspective • A Culture-Centered Approach • Dutta, 2008 & 2010 • Grounded Theory • Charmaz, 2006 • Solidarity, Social Justice and Reflexivity • Benson & O’Neill, 2007 • Culture in Anthropology • Das, 1998

  7. A Culture-Centered Approach Social organization aspects that constrain and enable the capacity of cultural participants to seek out choices and engage in activities. Culture Structure Constituted day-to-day practices of members through their interpretations of given issues and to engage in these day-to-day practices. Agency Ability of individuals/communities to be active participants in determining agendas and solutions to a variety of problems, as these are perceived by the community.

  8. A Culture-Centered Approach

  9. Purpose of Study “A Culture-Centered Approach to Health and Nutrition Among Low-Income Groups: Recommendations for Land-Grant University Engagement” • To critically examine the contested nature and ongoing intersections of culture, structure and agency as they relate to Purdue University’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP)

  10. Purpose of Study Three sets of Actors • EFNEP Participants • EFNEP Paraprofessionals • EFNEP Administrators

  11. Purpose of Study RO1: To gain a deeper understanding of the culture of EFNEP participants, as it relates to their held meanings and practices of nutrition and food insecurity, and their negotiation of the structure in which they are situated. RO2:  To gain a deeper understanding of the culture of EFNEP paraprofessionals and administrators, as well as their perceptions of the EFNEP audience, the program, and the overall university structure.

  12. Purpose of Study RO3: To gain a deeper self-awareness as it relates to the role of the researcher and how personal epistemology regarding the EFNEP audience and university engagement may affect the researcher’s ability to move in and out of the discursive spaces of different worldviews. RO4: To demonstrate the ongoing and dynamic nature of structure, culture and agency as it relates to the EFNEP participants and university engagement efforts.

  13. Purpose of Study RO5: To explore the use of the culture-centered approach and its guiding principles as a methodology to guide the Land-Grant system engagement efforts.

  14. Culture-Centered Approach to Engagement A. Borron (2011)

  15. Methodology • In-Depth Interviews • EFNEP participants • EFNEP paraprofessionals • EFNEP administrators • Participant Observation • Workgroup Series + Photovoice • Reflexive Journaling

  16. Methodology Subjects’ Involvement in Research Process and Timetable of Methods

  17. Methodology • What makes this CCA is: • The constant comparative analysis • The objective of disrupting the common discursive spaces • The way all methodologies come together, including the reflexivity of the researcher, to develop a holistic understanding

  18. Results • 28 in-depth interviews • Participants: n=15, 29 minutes • Paraprofessionals: n=8, 57 minutes • Administrators; n=5, 70 minutes • 534 single-spaced transcribed pages • 31 single-spaced reflexive journaling pages

  19. Results Data analysis based on five sets of data: • Participants • Paraprofessionals • Administrators • Workgroups and Community Forum • Participant Observation Coding: Open Focused Selective Axial

  20. Results: Participants Who are they? • 6 African American, 9 Caucasian • Early 20’s to mid-50’s • 1 to 6 children, 3 mos. to 18 years old. • 10 had been homeless at one point • 10 lived in a transitional housing apartment complex • 14 receive food stamps • All unemployed

  21. Results: Participants Themes: • The realities of eating and nutrition • Personal testimony: Past and present obstacles • Interpreting EFNEP’s teaching • A hopeful outlook on the future

  22. Participants Personal Testimony: Past and Present Obstacles “I just feel it in my heart that it’s time for him to start suffering consequences because he hasn’t suffered none. You know, he can’t carry that on to his adulthood and not knowing what suffering the consequences is because, if he do, he is just gonna keep running around, doing what he’s doing…

  23. it’s hard because, today, I’m trying to be a parent and it’s just hard and it makes you cry, it makes you scream, it makes you holler, it makes you cuss, and it makes you do a lot of things being a parent. You know, you love your child so much it hurts down within because you only want what’s best for them.” ~Penny

  24. Results: Paraprofessionals Who are they? • 6

  25. Results: Paraprofessionals Themes: • Negotiating participant conditions • Self-imposed responsibilities • Negotiating two worlds

  26. ParaprofessionalsSelf-Imposed Responsibilities “I was trying to leave because we’re only supposed to be there like 45 minutes to an hour, so I’m in it and she’s talking and I was looking in my bag and I said, ‘It’s time to go.’ And she keeps telling me how depressed she is and how sad she is and I’m like, ‘I enjoy talking to you but I have somewhere else to be.’ But then she finally expressed to me like her struggle and how she found out that she has HIV and so I stayed…

  27. I pushed back everything else that I had to do just to like be there for them to talk to and sometimes that’s a good thing for them… I’m just there and that is my eye opener, that you just never take life for granted. You never know what could be thrown at you and she’s been thrown into a situation. All she needed that day was somebody to talk to and I just happened to be there.” ~Lorraine

  28. Results: Administrators Themes: • Traveling a two-way path in one direction • Recognizing they are a world apart • Struggling between a rock and a hard place

  29. AdministratorsRecognizing They Are a World Apart “They see moms fighting for their kids and boyfriends doing…. I mean, I walked into a home in Clark County last summer, the guy was shooting up when I walked in. I was like, ‘Uh… what is going on? What do I do? Rhonda, who is my staff person down there was just like, ‘Whatever, it’s just the way it is.’ He took off and she went in and did her thing… They had been in that house for three months without any utilities. They just got the utilities turned on the day before I came because I was coming…

  30. So, you can imagine what that place looked like and smelled like. But Rhonda walked in there and, ‘Oh, the kids look good! Oh, you got some pictures on the wall!’ I mean, like it was just like she didn’t see any of that. She just saw somebody that needed her help. She does that every day. I don’t know if I could do it. I don’t know if I could walk into places like that day after day after day and smell like that and wonder what’s crawling on me for $10 an hour.” ~A4

  31. Results: Workgroups and Community Forum Themes: • Frustrations in a downtown food desert • Skewed meanings and ownership of issues • Privacy and protective instincts • Group dynamics and one-way communication

  32. Workgroups and Community ForumGroup Dynamics and One-way Communication “… but moments throughout the forum made me really stop and consider the deeply grounded layers that were attached to the somewhat nonchalant comments being made. Each time one of my participants shared what I felt sounded like a rather superficial story with everyone, I found myself reflecting on the deeper layers I knew about him or her…

  33. They were sharing the tip of the iceberg, and I desperately wished that everyone could see more what existed below the surface. There was a deep and rich meaning behind the statements that were being made, which truly offered so much more to these participants as people.” ~Reflexive Journal Entry

  34. Results: Participant Observation Themes: • Working through judgment of the dominant epistemology • Creating inadvertent dissention • Breaking the barrier

  35. Participant ObservationBreaking the Barrier Because Amelia doesn’t like to cook. “As I drove the hour and a half back home that day, I asked myself if Amelia is really getting anything out of this program. In my CCA-educated opinion, I say she has the opportunity to get a lot…

  36. But, it needs to be through her viewpoint and not the formality and structure of each lesson. What would make cooking fun and interesting? I can’t answer that for Amelia, nor can the paraprofessional or the university curriculum developers. Only Amelia knows that answer.” ~Reflexive Journal Entry

  37. Discussion “The scholarship of engagement means creating a special climate in which the academic and civic cultures communicate more continuously and more creatively with each other where the universe of human discourse is enriching the quality of life for us all” – (Boyer, 1996, p. 33).

  38. Discussion • Food Education: A traditional and longstanding component of Extension programs. • Culture is dynamic; audiences change • CCA critically deconstructs the contested nature of culture, structure and agency within (even relevance of) the program

  39. Discussion • This methodology – perhaps never really used in Extension. • Has the potential to transform how Extension is practiced, how engagement is enacted.

  40. Discussion • Professional development – listening • Credentialing/certificate of acquired skills • Recognizing opportunities for knowledge production at the community level. • Program evaluation – measuring impact

  41. Discussion • Why I am excited about CCA: • A unique approach that captivated my imagination • Produces more than the sum of its parts • Applicable in non-research-based activities within the system

  42. Culture-Centered Approach to Engagement A. Borron (2011)

  43. Thank You Questions?

  44. Foreword of Researcher • How do I know my audience? • How do I understand my audience? • What makes outreach efforts successful?

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