BUILDING CARING COMMUNITIES IN MATH METHODS: COVID and Classrooms in Teacher Education

This chapter grounds the need for care against systemic issues of inequity made hyper-visible during the COVID-19 pandemic. The author considers how mathematics teacher education can shift towards enacting caring practices that will foster the development of positive mathematics identities before addressing how mathematics educators can cultivate collaborative learning environments that center on building authentic, caring relationships. The chapter shares the author’s identities in relation to building caring communities before next considering what guides the author’s understanding of care and how her enacted care shifted during and after the first year of COVID-19. The chapter concludes with examples of classroom practices for creating and sustaining caring learning environments in mathematics teacher education. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Melanie Shoffner and Angela W. Webb;individual chapters, the contributors.

THEME-CODED QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS TO UNDERSTAND PARENTAL PERCEIVED STRESS AND DEPRESSION IN THE NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT

Purpose of Study Parents of infants admitted to NICUs often experience significant psychosocial stress and have higher risks for depression, anxiety, and disturbed parent-child bonding. Analyses of parental stress often use either a predominantly biomedical or qualitative approach. The current study integrates these domains, using parental demographic and psychosocial assessments, stress-related salivary biomarkers, measures of illness severity, and open-ended question interviews for a more complete assessment of parental NICU experience and stressors. We detail a novel use of theme-coded qualitative analysis of open-ended interviews to explore parents' perceptions of the NICU experience, sources of stress and well-being, and associations with stress/depression measurements. Methods Used Inclusion criteria: parents of infants admitted to a Level IV NICU born £34 weeks gestation or having a predicted length of stay >2 weeks. At weeks 1 and 6 and before discharge, we collected parental salivary cortisol and α-amylase (AM, PM) and the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, and Social Provisions Scale. Infant data and the Neonatal Acute Physiology Perinatal Extension-II and Neonatal therapeutic Intervention Scoring System were recorded. Parents individually participated in recorded openended question interviews. Interviews were transcribed and annotated using qualitative content analysis based on a grounded theory approach. Investigators affixed codes (with inter-rater checks) to transcripts using an iterative approach, highlighting common phrasing and themes. Transcripts were entered into NVivo qualitative data analysis software to sort and label categories and themes. Summary of Results Results are available for 15 interviews. We identified patterns, themes, subgroup differences, and common phrasing to develop an interactive model of the complex interplay among social supports, NICU environment, COVID- 19-related stressors, and parental experience [figure]. The model facilitates evaluating multiple components which influence parental experience and clarifies parental-perceived barriers and facilitators. Voiced resiliency was compared to subjects' stress and depression salivary biomarkers and the validated scales. Conclusions Parent interviews revealed feelings of isolation, fear, and resilience among NICU parents. Textual analysis of open-ended interviews informed construction of a conceptual model describing the NICU experience. Integration of biomedical and qualitative methods more comprehensively reveals experiences of parents and points to strategies for fostering support and resilience.