OutCasting Teacher Education: Abolishing Caste-Maintaining Practices in Teacher Education Programs

The preparation of urban educators continues to gain widespread attention and a sense of urgency (Acosta, 2018). As urban communities become increasingly diverse, the demographic composition of students and teachers continues to be culturally incongruent (Easton-Brooks, 2019;Rogers-Ard, 2012). Green (2015) projected that 55% of students would be students of color by 2020;however, close to 82% of teachers are White females, while only 12% are Black (Osei-Twumasi and Pinetta, 2019). With a student demographic landscape that is outpacing the diversity of teachers, it is imperative that urban pre-service teachers are trained to develop equity and critical pedagogies (Esposito et al., 2012;Ladson-Billings, 1994). Moreover, teacher education programs often lack diversity and similar critical dispositions, neglecting to critically interrogate race, power, and privilege in their policies, programs, curriculum, and teacher educators (Allen et al., Teachers College Record, 119(1), 1-26, 2017). These challenges have been exacerbated in the context of the two pandemics: COVID-19 and the clarion call for racial justice. Drawing inspiration from Isabel Wilkerson's award-winning book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, this chapter interrogates the implications of caste for education and teacher education more specifically. Wilkerson (Caste: The origins of our discontents. Random House, 2020) contends: "A world without caste would set everyone free” (p. 388). What would teacher education without caste "out-caste” do or be for everyone, for the collective? The chapter implements a critical race theory analysis of current teacher education models, examines how they may promote and solidify caste in urban teacher education, and contours an anti-racist framework with implications for teacher education programs. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

University-assisted community schools as partners in neighborhood revitalization efforts

Urban policymakers, city officials, and community residents utilize neighborhood revitalization initiatives to establish safe and empowered neighborhoods. In 2016, leaders in Columbus, Ohio, launched a neighborhood revitalization effort designed to improve safety, access to opportunities, and economic development in the historically underserved Linden neighborhood. A priority focus involved strengthening Linden schools through the development of two university-assisted community schools (UACS). Using the community collaboration model as a guide, leaders from the schools, university, nonprofit, and local government sectors partnered to support school improvement processes in two Linden K-6 elementary schools. Annual stakeholder surveys have demonstrated marked improvements in perceptions of neighborhood safety, school climate, and the overall learning support system. The prevalence of behavioral incidences among students has decreased. Further, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the UACS model helped sustain student engagement and virtual learning and keep families connected to the schools. This article describes implementation outputs and evaluation outcomes associated with adopting the UACS model in these two Linden elementary schools. Findings contribute to a greater understanding of how UACS can serve as partners in neighborhood revitalization efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Helping Older African Americans Thrive in Urban Communities: Empowering Lessons From Detroit

Urban-dwelling African American older adults are disproportionately victimized by systems, which relegate them to disparities in health, education, and economic security as well as inequitable access to resources that support overall wellness (Brown, 2010;Jackson et al., 2004;Kahn & Pearlin, 2006;Zhang et al., 2016). The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2021 revealed poorer outcomes and a “double jeopardy” for African American older adults who suffered poor health outcomes (Chatters et al., 2020). As a result, avenues to promote healthy aging through health and wellness literacy, self-empowerment, and social-community connections are critical (Chatters et al., 2020;Pourrazavi et al., 2020;Waites, 2013). A qualitative study was conducted with African American older adults in Detroit to understand how to promote health literacy and overall wellness for those who are aging in place. An empowerment-oriented wellness framework (Dunn, 1961;Dunn, 1977;Hettler, 1976) was employed. Findings indicated that these African American older adults aging in the urban communities strived to maintain their independence while recognizing that they may need some assistance as they age in place. While some elders defined themselves by their disability and expressed feelings of being pushed aside by family and society, many rejected stereotypes associated with aging and reinforced a sense of pride and empowerment. They called for programs to: 1) assist older adults with health literacy and a comprehensive understanding of overall well-ness;and, 2) provide activities and tools to support proactive overall wellness;and 3) employ strategies that actively encourage social engagement as well as outreach to their less engaged peers. Participants also suggested that a strategy to enlighten younger generations about the “senior world,” and aging is also crucial. © 2022 Springer Publishing Company.

Research Progress and Improvement Ideas of Anti-Epidemic Resilience in China's Urban Communities.

In the post-epidemic era, China's urban communities are at the forefront of implementing the whole chain of accurate epidemic prevention and control. However, the uncertainty of COVID-19, the loopholes in community management and people's overly optimistic judgment of the epidemic have led to the frequent rebound of the epidemic and serious consequences. Existing studies have not yet formed a panoramic framework of community anti-epidemic work under the concept of resilience. Therefore, this article first summarizes the current research progress of resilient communities from three perspectives, including ideas and perspectives, theories and frameworks and methods and means, and summarizes the gap of the current research. Then, an innovative idea on the epidemic resilience of urban communities in China is put forward: (1) the evolution mechanism of community anti-epidemic resilience is described through the change law of dynamic networks; (2) the anti-epidemic resilience of urban communities is evaluated or predicted through the measurement criteria; (3) a simulation platform based on Multi-Agent and dynamic Bayesian networks simulates the interactive relationship between "epidemic disturbance-cost constraint--epidemic resilience"; (4) the anti-epidemic strategies are output intelligently to provide community managers with decision-making opinions on community epidemic prevention and control.

What Makes Urban Communities More Resilient to COVID-19? A Systematic Review of Current Evidence.

It has been more than two years since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic at the end of 2019. Many scholars have introduced the "resilience" concept into COVID-19 prevention and control to make up for the deficiencies in traditional community governance. This study analyzed the progress in research on social resilience, which is an important component of community resilience, focusing on the current literature on the impact of social resilience on COVID-19, and proposed a generalized dimension to integrated previous relevant literature. Then, VOSviewer was used to visualize and analyze the current progress of research on social resilience. The PRISMA method was used to collate studies on social resilience to the pandemic. The result showed that many current policies are effective in controlling COVID-19, but some key factors, such as vulnerable groups, social assistance, and socioeconomics, affect proper social functioning. Some scholars have proposed effective solutions to improve social resilience, such as establishing an assessment framework, identifying priority inoculation groups, and improving access to technology and cultural communication. Social resilience to COVID-19 can be enhanced by both external interventions and internal regulation. Social resilience requires these two aspects to be coordinated to strengthen community and urban pandemic resilience.

COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and its determinants: a cross-sectional study among the socioeconomically disadvantaged communities living in Delhi, India.

Background: Vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the most desired solution to combat COVID-19. We examined the willingness to accept the vaccine and reasons for vaccine hesitancy, and identified some factors associated with the vaccine hesitancy among the socio-economically disadvantaged urban population from Delhi, India. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of a randomly selected sample of 1539 households from 31 urban clusters. Data on socio-demographics, health beliefs, and willingness to accept the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine were collected through a face-to-face interviewer-administered, pre-tested questionnaire from an adult member. Vaccine acceptance/hesitancy was analysed by various socio-demographic and health belief variables. Multinomial regressions were carried out to identify the factors associated with the vaccine hesitancy. Results: Overall, 64.9% (95% CI: 62.5 to 67.3) of the respondents would accept the vaccine, 17.4% (95% CI: 15.6 to 19.4) were undecided, and 17.7% (95% CI: 15.8 to 19.7) would not accept the vaccine. The reasons for not accepting the vaccine were: belief that they had immunity (12.9%), the corona was a hoax (11.8%), the vaccine was not necessary (7.4%), and did not want to disturb the natural bodily systems by the vaccine (5.6%). The undecided group mainly would like to wait and see (37.7%), decide when the vaccine become available (11.6%), will take if everyone in their community takes (10.4%). Multinomial logistic regression identified older age, low perceived susceptibility of contracting COVID-19, low perceived severity of COVID-19, low self-efficacy to protect against COVID-19, and unawareness and non-use of Arogyasetu App as significant predictors of vaccine hesitancy. Conclusions: Two-thirds of Delhi's low-income groups would accept the vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. Vaccine hesitancy was associated with older age, low perceived susceptibility, low perceived severity, and low self-efficacy to protect themselves from COVID-19. Hence, efforts are needed to address these issues and vaccine concerns to increase the vaccine uptake.

Collaborative governance in emergencies: community food supply in COVID-19 in Wuhan, China

Country governments and the WHO advocated that the "whole-of-government" and the "whole-of-society" approaches are necessary to fight against the pandemic. However, it is unclear what it means in practice and its implication in the of context of food security and in emergencies. This article examines in the “whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach” (WOG-WOS), how the government and non-government stakeholders’ has quickly engaged in collaborative governance to address the community food supply challenges. This research analysed government policies and reports, scanned grey literature and conduced in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in Wuhan working on the frontline of food supply during the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns. The findings contribute to the literature on collaborative governance in emergency management. The case of Wuhan tells the point that the government and society are interdependent in emergencies. For the whole society to achieve its full potential, the government need to focus on the goals, function as an open-minded coordinator and adopt a flexible governing structure.

EFFECTS OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE LOW-INCOME URBAN COMMUNITIES’ (B40) WELL-BEING: A CASE STUDY OF PPR HILIRAN AMPANG, MALAYSIA

Coronavirus outbreak 2019 (COVID-19) and Movement Control Order (MCO) announced by the Government of Malaysia since mid-March 2020 have had significant implications for the movement of the population to carry out economic activities and activities to meet other daily needs. The low-income group especially in urban areas is a very vulnerable community that is experiencing some sudden lifestyle changes due to these MCOs and pandemics. The aim of this study is to compare the level of well-being of the low-income urban community (bottom 40 percent of income earners-B40) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being of the B40 urban community throughout the pandemic. This case study is a quantitative study that focuses on the B40 urban community living in the housing area of the Hiliran Ampang People's Housing Program (PPR Hiliran Ampang). Two hundred seventy-four (274) heads of households were involved as a sample to fill in the questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using the descriptive statistics (frequency, mean and percentage) and inference (t-test, Pearson Correlation and multiple regression analysis). The findings show that the level of well-being of the PPR Hiliran Ampang community is at a moderate level with a mean score of 3.93 before the pandemic. This level of well-being decreased with a mean value of 0.02, making the mean score throughout the pandemic 3.92. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a declining monthly income of households and the fact that the number of non-income households increased by 12 percent throughout the pandemic. Based on the multiple regression analysis, it shows that the total monthly household income affects the three domains of B40 urban community’s well-being, namely the well-being in family and community relationships, economic as well as family and community health. © 2021, CA and C Press AB. All rights reserved.

Isolation in COVID, and COVID in Isolation-Exacerbated Shortfalls in Provision for Women's Health and Well-Being Among Marginalized Urban Communities in India.

This paper describes the lived experiences of health seeking, health care recourse, and well-being of women waste pickers, a highly marginalized sub-population in urban areas in India, highlighting the intersectionality of gender, socioeconomic and cultural contexts, and occupational hazards that they face, as studied by a research team engaged in participatory action research with waste workers in urban India. We note the impact of the superimposition of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the restrictions on movement and access to livelihoods, social support, and health care, and policies made and enforced in a fragmented manner, on the already deprived conditions of the waste pickers. We reflect on the women waste pickers' practices of health seeking, their access to health care, the provisions made for them and made use of by them, and the support they could tap in protecting and restoring their health. A range of these experiences is illustrated through three case studies. Finally, recommendations are made for better provision for women's health and well-being, and improved preparedness for emergency situations.

Factors Associated with Good COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors Among Older Adults in Urban Communities in Thailand.

INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVES: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected mobility and mortality entire age, especially older adults. The COVID-19 preventive behaviors among older adults during the pandemic should be determined. To our knowledge, little is known about the preventive behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic among older adults living in urban areas in Thailand and the factors predicted to their behavior. Hence, the present study aimed to assess COVID-19 preventive behaviors among older adults and to identify the associated factors. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 421 participants aged ≥60 years. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, binary and multiple logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: We found that 321 (72.6%) of the participants had good COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Moreover, 83.4% of the participants had good family support and 58.2% had easy access to health information. Only sufficient income (odds ratio [OR]: 1.76, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04-2.97), easy access to health services (OR: 3.66, 95% CI: 1.42-9.45) and protective material (OR: 1.98, 95% CI: 1.14-3.45), and good family support (OR: 2.05, 95% CI: 1.10-3.82) were associated with good COVID-19 preventive behaviors. In contrast, health literacy, access to health information, and neighbor and health personnel support were not associated with COVID-19 preventive behaviors. CONCLUSION: Based on the present results, interdisciplinary healthcare teams should consider social support, and access to healthcare when developing interventions for encouraging and promoting health outcomes in order to improve physical and psychological COVID-19 preventive behaviors, particularly among elderly people living in urban communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.