The article I found this week was from the journal, “Australian Journal of Social Issues” titled, “Are the Homeless Mentally Ill?” The contributing authors are Guy Johnson and Chris Chamberlain.

Johnson, G., & Chamberlain, C. (2011). Are the homeless mentally ill? Australian Journal of Social Issues, 46(1), 29-48,3-4. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.redlands.edu/docview/874622236?accountid=14729

This article focused on the mentally ill in homeless people in Australia. The research question was asking if people were mentally ill prior to being homeless. The reason for this study is because many people believe that the leading cause to being homeless is due to mental illness. However, no one ever stops to think about that fact that mental illness can be a result of being homeless. Imagine sleeping on the street, not knowing when your next meal will be, and if the police will come stop to talk to you or kick you out of where you are. I think anyone in this situation would develop some sort of anxiety or depression. Add being lonely, and potentially in and out of the legal system because there are citations that have to be dealt with, ultimately leading someone to drink or do drugs to cope with their problems. It is a safe bet that whether or not someone had a mental illness prior to being homeless it can develop or worsen. The type of data needed to answer this question is reports of acts, behaviors, and events to understand the persons past and present situation/state of mind. Deeply held opinions and attitudes can also be used to get to know the person better. The method used to gather this data will be looking at past reports (if there are any) and interviews to better understand the person. The method of data analysis that was used was categorical data to describe if they had mental illness prior to being homeless or not. I believe this study was conducted well, in the manner that they did several studies in various locations and areas, such as not only focusing on people in homeless shelters. Something I found interesting is that they did find a larger number of people who developed a mental illness once they became homeless – mainly facing depression and anxiety.

As I write these journal entries and research examples, my research question is shifting and developing with every article that I read. I have gone from writing about the change in American beef purchase over the last 10 years, to focusing on the environmental factors associated with changes in American ranching. The article that I found using Google Scholar relates to how farmers and ranchers are adapting to various external factors. In their article, “Agritourism: Motivations behind Farm/Ranch Business Diversification,” Norma Polovitz Nickerson, Rita J. Black and Stephen F. McCool pose the question, “…why farmers/ranchers have turned to (or plan to turn to) agritourism as a means of diversification/entrepreneurship” (Nickerson et al. 19).

In order to answer this question, the authors conducted a survey. Taking place in Montana, the study population was comprised of “Participant rosters from farm/ranch recreation business workshops…farmers/ranchers listed in the 1996-1997 edition of the annual Montana Travel Planner…[and] members of the Montana Ranch Vacation Association” (Nickerson et al. 21).  After identifying eleven reasons for diversification, a questionnaire was mailed to 707 participants, asking them to rate the reason for diversification on a scale of one to five, with five being most important. The eleven reasons for diversification included: “fluctuations in ag income, employment for family members, additional income, losing government ag programs, to meet a need in the recreation/vacation market, tax incentives, companionship with guests/users, an interest/hobby, to fully use resources, other farm/ranch recreation business successes, and to education the consumer” (Nickerson et al. 21).

After receiving 292 usable surveys, the data was analyzed by describing the data, testing for differences among the eleven reasons by looking at the mean scores for each reason, and using chi-square tests on groups of respondents while controlling for different variables. The authors concluded that the leading factor in diversifying for agritourism is based on economic reasons. They stated that this was not surprising and matched previous research.

This article has led me to question which government actions have had the most impact on farms and ranchers. These authors concluded that economic factors have led to the diversification of farms and ranches, but I want to know which specific government policies have led to these changes. I am also curious about the other ways in which farms and ranches have had to change apart from agritourism.

Nickerson, Polovitz Norma. Black, J. Rita. McCool, F. Stephen. 2001. “Agritourism: Motivations Behind Farm/Ranch Business Diversification.” Journal of Travel Research40(1): 19-26. Retrieved February 18, 2018. (http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/004728750104000104#articleCitationDownloadContainer)

The research article I selected for research example #2 is an E-Journal Article from the Journal of Environmental Health volume 80, number 6, January/February 2018. The title of the article is “Evaluation and Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in the Groundwater Resources of Saqqez, Iran.” The authors of this study measured nine heavy metals (arsenic, chromium, cobalt, iron, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, and zinc) in rural areas of Saqqez, Iran. Saqqez is one of the main towns in Kurdistan, Iran. Saqqez includes more than 206 villages that is served by various springs and wells. This is important because groundwater is the main source of water in rural areas in Iran. Water samples were collected from 150 sources such as wells, springs, and tanks. These samples were collected in two phases; one in the rainy season and one in the dry season. Each sample was filtered as soon as it arrived at the laboratory. The researchers found that the heavy metal concentration was the highest for iron followed by zinc, chromium, molybdenum, nickel, cobalt, arsenic, mercury, and manganese. Although the mean concentrations of the heavy metals in most samples were within the limits set by the World Health Organization and U.S Environmental Protection Agency, the mean concentrations for iron, arsenic, and molybdenum were higher than the national and international standards. It was determined that the higher concentrations of iron and arsenic might cause potential health risks to the local people. The authors strongly recommended that the water from the contaminated sites should not be used for drinking purposes unless properly treated. The authors also recommended that the Iranian government should provide drinking water alternatives to minimize the potential health risks associated with high concentrations of heavy metals.

Shadi Kohzadi, Behzad Shahmoradi, Daem Raushani, Asad Nouri. 2018 “Evaluation and Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in the Groundwater Resources of Saqqez, Iran.” Journal of Environmental Health. Vol 80(6): 1-8

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.redlands.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=f61d6ae1-04ab-4268-9164-0dcfafdcebed%40sessionmgr4007

In searching for journals related to my topic, I found “Innovations and Impact in Teacher Education” in the peer reviewed journal Teachers College Record. This study recognizes the importance of improving educational opportunities for disadvantaged students, such has students of color, low-income students, and English language learners. The researchers specifically focus on teacher training programs, preparing teachers to work with diverse populations. The research question is: what is the implementation and impact of preservice teachers (a period of guided, supervised teaching) in community-based organizations (CBO) and what are the outcomes of preparing teachers to teach children whose backgrounds differ from that of the children served, specifically children at high-needs schools? The researchers followed two cohorts of preservice teachers, faculty teaching in the teacher education program, and staff who work in the CBO in which the preservice teachers are placed. These participants were  from the University of Washington’s Elementary Education Program. This was a 3-year longitudinal study, following the preservice teachers through their training and first year of teaching. I believe the type of data needed for this study was acts, behaviors, and events, and reports of acts, behaviors, and events. The authors clearly state the data-gathering method: “We employ qualitative methods of interviews, focus groups, observations, document review, and survey methods” (McDonald et al., 2011). The researchers state they used an iterative process as their data analysis method. An iterative process is arriving at a decision by repeating rounds of analysis, the goal is to get closer to discovering the result of the analysis through each repeated cycle. The researchers for this article coded individual and focus group interviews. The researchers looked for specific concepts out of these interviews that reflected the preservice teachers’ participation and outcomes of the program. The researchers found community experiences ended up being a resource for the teachers to pull from and provided the teachers with an understanding of the children served beyond the school setting. The researchers conclude CBO training for preservice teachers is a promising practice to prepare teachers to work with students from diverse backgrounds (McDonald et al., 2011).

McDonald, M.A., Tyson, K., Brayko, K., Bowman, M., Delport, J., & Shimomura, F. (2011). Innovation and impact in teacher education: Community-based organizations as field placements for preservice teachers. Teaching College Record, 113(8), 1668-1700.

Sullivan, A., & Artiles, A. (2011). Theorizing Racial Inequity in Special Education: Applying Structural Inequity Theory to Disproportionality. Urban Education, 46(6).  http://search.proquest.com/docview/897474864/

This article acknowledges the history of researching racial disproportionality in special education.They discuss the gaps in research and understand that the research on this topic is incomplete. Sullivan and Artiles show that disproportionality is usually observed in “high-incidence categories” such as learning disabilities, emotional disabilities and mental retardation (this research spanned since the 1960s, though the term “mental retardation” would not be used today). These high-incidence categories only account for 59% of the students who receive special education resources, and is therefore leaving out almost half of the population. Additionally, many studies focus solely on the disparities among African American populations, though disparities are present in other racial demographics as well. Many studies have also found their samples in the southern region of the United States. A quarter of research has focused on the category of Learning Disabled. So, while there has been much research on the topic of disproportionality in special education, many parts of the population is absent from research and there are significant gaps. The authors also argue that a structural theoretical framework is needed to understand racial inequality across “analytical scales, racial groups, and disability categories”.

The research questions Sullivan and Artiled sought to answer were: “To what extent are racial minority students disproportionately represented in special education across analytical scales and disability categories?” and “To what extent is disproportionality for the different race-disability groupings (e.g., Latino students identified as MR) predicted by the structural factors of LEAs?” Demographic and organizational data were needed for this research. Enrollment data was found for the 2004-2005 academic year from the public annual reports published by the Arizona Department of Education. Arizona had a diverse population which was important to study trends across the state’s fourteen disability categories. I was interested in how the research pointed to the need for further examination of policy negotiation. Policies should reflect the needs of the population and this research outlined some of the ways that state and district educational policies are not supporting the needs of their students and are contributing to the disproportionality seen in special education. The policies currently in place, specifically at the local level according to the authors, perpetuate racism and power discrepancies among races in education.

Lee, Jaehoon. 2011. “The Self, Interpersonal Relationships, and Conspicuous Behaviors:Consumption and Helping.” Order No. 3473370, The University of Texas at San Antonio. http://ezproxy.redlands.edu/docview/896114299?accountid=14729.

For this research exercise I used ProQuest to find my article. This article looks at social class differences within certain patterns of conspicuous consumption, as in selecting a gift. The author of this article, Jaehoon Lee, tests whether or not certain social classes have a larger tendency to purchase conspicuous gifts for other people or for themselves. The author concluded that this only happens when a conspicuous gift is associated with a certain social status. He also concluded that this happens due to a desire to gain a higher status and fit in with other lower class individuals who are trying to also portray a higher status. Lee stated that lower class individuals have stronger desires for status and conformity, as compared to more higher class individuals.

The article’s topic is social class differences and conspicuous consumption purchasing behaviors. The research question is, “What are the conspicuous shopping habits of lower class people when buying gifts for others?” To answer this question, the author needed to collect reports of acts, behavior, and events, as well as use demographic and financial data. The data gathering method that this author used is in-depth interviews as well as economic data, because he compared the amount individuals from different social classes spend on lavish celebrations like weddings. The method of data analysis is both quantitative and qualitative because the author analyzed reports of acts, behavior, and events, as well as analyzed numerical financial data. The financial and demographic data used is interval/ratio data. I think this research is logical and valid. I think the author was able to collect very insightful data and deep answers from people of different social classes, as well as analyze financial data, which resulted in reliable conclusions. Personally, I agree with what the author found about people of lower classes valuing status more than wealthier people. I also agree with the conclusion that conspicuous consumption is more crucial to lower social classes because it conveys a certain status to others. An interesting part of this article that surprised me was that the author found through his research that consumption patterns vary by cultural capital rather than by economic capital. Before reading this article I would have assumed it would be the opposite.

I chose to look at the peer reviewed journal titled ‘Journal of Eating Disorders’ from the Armacost Library. More specifically I looked at the article called ‘’Body dissatisfaction, excessive exercise, and weight change strategies used by first-year undergraduate students: comparing health and physical education and other education students’.

The authors are Tonia Gray, Christina Curry, and Sian A. McLean.
This was received, on October 18th 2016, accepted on December 18th 2016 and published on April 3rd 2017.

In this particular study, these sociologists surveyed university students who were studying to become health and PE teachers as well as other types of teachers and compared these groups in regards to how they feel about their body (if they had a desire to be thinner, more muscular..etc), as well as what types of behaviors they were engaging in . The female health and PE teachers were more likely to be engaging in excessive exercise rather than the just regular female teachers. These sociologists concluded that these findings to them meant that they we should carefully consider the attitudes and behaviors of teachers who are presenting information about food and exercise in schools.

After what we’ve been doing in class the past two weeks, I found it significantly easier to read how their journal was structured. The type of measures that were used were, demographics, body image, excessive exercise and weight change behaviors. The data was collected as a part of a longitudinal study. In order to analyze the data, they compared different factors that could have influence, as well as others that may or may not. This was the perfect use of applying correlation.

A very interesting finding through observing their data tables and analysis was that they found scores to be higher on the
‘Obligatory Exercise Questionnaire’ to be significantly higher for both male and female health and PE teachers than non. I was also incredibly surprised to see was that 57% of undergrad participants reported that they were on a diet that they created themselves, 41% were consuming high protein products, and 67% of men and 81% of women were using exercise to change their weight.

To be completely honest, I thought this research was a little bit scattered. I feel as if they tried to examine too many aspects and made the results a little all over the place and it was a bit overwhelming. I felt as if they focused on just consuming high protein products, drinking water to lose weight, exercising to lose weight OR, being on a diet it would have been less scattered. Maybe this is my lack of education of how to be conducting research accurately, but I would have been satisfied with only one of those examinations.

Specifically, the tables and data charts were a very helpful tool. Table 2 in particular. It answered the most questions raised and stimulated my own personal interest. Seeing the different ways SO people attempt to lose weight and change their bodies was crazy to see all listed out…and I was incredibly surprised by the percentage of men who are unhappy with their weight and have disordered eating and exercise behaviors.

Yager, Z., Gray, T., Curry, C., & Mclean, S. A. (2017). Body dissatisfaction, excessive exercise, and weight change strategies used by first-year undergraduate students: comparing health and physical education and other education students. Journal of Eating Disorders, 5(1). doi:10.1186/s40337-016-0133-z

The journal article “Curating Secrets” contains a case study that evaluates the institutional processes in museums and its power structures when handling cases of repatriation.  The author focuses on cases of sacred objects that are returned to Native Americans tribes.  He argues that repatriation serves to shift power back to Native Americans by the return of their sacred objects, but the actual result is the reinforcement of colonial power through museums.  Chip focuses on a specific repatriation case of Zuni War Gods from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  The War Gods are statues that are transformed into gods through ceremonies and are placed in shrines around the Zuni Reservation to protect the land and help hold the universe in balance.  The DMNS returned the statues to the Zunis promptly after the passing of NAGPRA.  He suggests that the museum was anticipating a claim from the tribe and acted proactively in order to control the returning process.  He also suggests that the museum retuned the statues without a claim to hide information about how they were acquired in the museum’s collection.  Chip applauds the thousands of repatriated objects since the passing of NAGPRA, but suggests that the process is still flawed by the significant amount of control museums have in the process of determining cultural affiliation.  He argues that there is a lack of transparency in the ways in which a museum collects and manages its collection and he urges for a better system of accountability.  The author relied on cultural knowledge, expert knowledge, and reports of acts, behaviors, and events to cultivate this case.  He accessed this information through research of public records about repatriated cultural objects.  He used a descriptive analysis of this data.

Colwell, Chip. “Curating Secrets: Repatriation, Knowledge Flows, and Museum Power      Structures.” Current Anthropology 56, no. S12 (2015).

Steiger, Bill. “Meet Bennet Omalu, MD: The Physician Leader Whose Research Inspired The Movie Concussion.” Physician Leadership Journal 3, no. 2 (March and April 2016): 8-10.

This article explains the story of Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian pathologist who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Mr. Omalu discovered this disease in 2002 when he autopsied Mike Webster; a former NFL center who died shortly after his NFL career. Initially, Mr. Omalu found nothing out of the ordinary when studying Mr. Webster’s brain. However, he tirelessly continued to analyze it and eventually came across unusual proteins. With help from other pathologists, Mr. Omalu named this disease and then published an article titled “Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in a National Football League player.” Originally this article did not get much publicity, but eventually the interest for it grew and it became controversial. Critics of the paper threatened Mr. Omalu and attempted to force him to take it down. The article stayed and the concern for NFL players health increased. Since this incident, Mr. Omalu has found the disease in other NFL players who also passed away shortly after their playing careers. This discovery is threatening to the NFL because it creates controversy over whether the sport is safe to play or not. A research question that rises from this article is: Will the revolutionary discovery of CTE pose a threat to the NFL’s future?

Expert knowledge was a type of data used to report findings in this article. Mr. Omalu is a certified doctor and he used his knowledge to conclude his research. Acts, behavior, or events is another data type because Mr. Omalu physically researched and experimented on his own. Ethnography is a data collection method used. The article describes Mr. Omalu’s findings, which were told to the reporter.

I used the schools library computer system to find an article about the use of technology in an academic setting. In most classrooms there seems to be a greater emphasis on the use of technology against traditional styles of teaching. Technology such as the use of power points can make information easier to display, but can also cause bad learning habits. In the article students were questioned about their ability to absorb information and found that more interactive styles of teaching were the best to gain more knowledge and relate to the subjects which they were studying. Both teachers and students agreed that technology can sometimes be distracting and disrupt important class time. Issues with computers or various slide show presentations can take away from learning and disrupt the flow of class. The availability of notes that could be shared online had mixed reviews and some students said that it made it easier to learn, while others said that they would rather learn the material straight from the source.  Students were more concerned with availability of resources and the integration of good technology into an academic setting. The best classes were the ones in which teachers could effectively use technology to display information without any glitches. The use of technology in classrooms has made teaching easier but has also made generations of new student unable to retain information because everything is digitized. Teachers who are able to fully engage with students while using technology offer the most benefits to the learning capabilities of students.

Young, J. (2004). When Good Technology Means Bad Teaching. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 51(12). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/214681148/