Digital Commons Network^™

Examining Revolution Through Breakfast Politics, Zachary Axel Clausen

Master's Theses

Analyzing the Black Panther Party and its activities, this study develops a framework for evaluating revolution through a process-oriented examination of discourse and practices surrounding the Free Breakfast Program’s emergence and operation from around 1968 to 1975. The program began in Oakland and quickly spread to over 36 cities in less than two years. Using a swath of interviews, radio shows, movies, newspapers, magazines, documents, pictures and other forms of media from the time period, I analyze the Breakfast Program to explicate the political terrain of food provision, the unique community-based approach to non-hierarchical resource distribution, and the production of …

Replanting Our Roots: A Best Practices Analysis On How To Empower Arab Migrant Women And Develop Leadership Through Service Work, Linda Ereikat

Master's Theses

This research is focused on identifying the best practices and methods used by community service providers who serve Arab immigrant women, a heavily marginalized and isolated demographic. Specifically, this research seeks to answer, what are the best practices for community engagement, leadership, and empowerment in the lives of Arab migrant women in San Francisco? I examine the elements of community empowerment, engagement, leadership, and methods of providing services from the Asian Women’s Shelter, the Chinatown Community Development Center, and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center. The methods used were personal interviews with key leaders of these organizations. The Arab Resource …

Revision Of Student Learning Expectations In The Context Of Relationships, Mary Mckeever

Master's Theses

Abstract

Saint Philip’s Catholic School is situated in the Noe Valley in San Francisco, an expensive residential area of the city. It is currently in the process of preparing for a midcycle visit from WASC/WCEA, the accreditation body for Catholic schools. During its most recent accreditation process, revision of the Schoolwide Learning Expectations (SLEs) was identified as a goal. The Report of Findings noted this as “Annual review and revision of the SLEs by all community shareholders.” (ISL 2012, p. 16). Feedback from faculty also indicated that there was a need for the SLEs to be revised, so that they …

Planning Cities, Economically Or Communally: A Comparative Study Of Amsterdam And San Francisco, Raina Dawn Whittekiend

Master's Theses

Globalization has spun “community” off its axis. What once defined community is no longer the current state of the community. Increased economic transactions have led to the instability of communities that once depended on one another at the local level. These communities are now dependent on systems that do not know nor understand their actors. This lack of relationship between development and subject is witnessed and highly scrutinized in developing countries all over the world and has been intensely researched in academic literature. This thesis intends to better understand why in modernized global cities these same processes of development and …

Gendered Impacts Of Community-Based Conservation Initiatives In Kimana/Tikondo Group Ranch Outside Of Amboseli National Park, Megan Clemens

Master's Theses

Community-based conservation has become a common solution to addressing local communities needs and concerns when it comes to conservation initiatives associated with, or outside the boundaries of national parks. Community-based initiatives associated with Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya mark one of the first attempts to include local communities in conservation initiatives and management as well as establish systems of benefit sharing between conservation and local communities. However, a critique of community-based conservation initiatives points out they often assume community homogeneity. Assumption of community homogeneity leads to inequities in benefits sharing, exclusion of subgroups (women, ethnic minorities) or even exacerbate …

Better Alternatives For Youth: Peace, Education And Human Rights, Abraham Jones

Master's Theses

Many urban youth in the United States live in what are identified as high stress neighborhoods, where trauma is a normative reality within which common life themes permeate. Colloquially, the communities in these high stress areas reclaim space by naming them as hoods, barrios and ghettos. However, depending on one’s perception, these words can have a negative connotation. Even when these communities hold various forms of community cultural wealth and capital, urban narratives are often dominated by false common perceptions that associate these spaces with the violence that occurs within them. There is a need for spaces that produce counter …

Learning Together: A Case Study Of A Cooperative School’S Approach To Education, Ariana M. Ali

Master's Theses

This thesis is based on an in-depth case study of one cooperative pre-preschool and preschool in San Francisco. Qualitative research methods, such as observation and one-on-one interviews, were used to study the structure, culture, and community at the school. Cooperative schools have not been well researched or documented in academic literature and this study hoped to shed some light on this model of school organization. The parent-initiated and community-oriented nature of cooperative schools make them stand out as unique among the large, bureaucratically-run schools and daycares typically found in the United States. The results of this study highlighted four themes …