Carol Ward
Biographic Data
| ID | 3617263 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Carol Ward |
| GIVEN NAMES | Carol |
| FAMILY NAME | Ward |
| SIGNATURE | WARD C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Brigham Young University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0830-8483 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 42 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 69 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
‘Chilled classrooms’: Teacher responses to ‘divisive concepts’ legislation-related challenges to professionalism
‘Divisive concept’ legislation and related social media rhetoric seek to limit conversations about race, gender, and other ‘divisive’ issues in K–12 schools. Emerging research suggests that these politicised curriculum disputes may be harmful to teachers. Although recent studies have explored teachers’ initial reactions to divisive concept legislation, limited research exists on how teachers see this legislation affecting their behaviour. This re…
A Culturally Responsive Math Program: A Case Study in a Rural Tribal College in the United States
For many Native American students, the thirty-seven existing tribal colleges improve their access to post-secondary education, especially for those living in reservation communities and surrounding rural areas. They also support tribal nations’ goals of offering accredited degree programs, as well honoring Indigenous knowledge. This is important for students enrolled in STEM courses since Native Americans are under-represented in these fields. In…
Can Community Resilience Be Achieved? An Investigation of Subjective Household Resilience, Place Meanings, and Individual Perceived Preparedness to Respond to Environmental Threats
School and beyond: The relationship between local schools and community experience
The Biracial Asian-American Advantage at School Entry
Asian-American students have some of the highest scores for standardized tests in American schools—a pattern that is commonly attributed to immigrant selectivity. We extend this line of inquiry by examining mixed-race couples and their children. Using both the ECLS-K cohorts of 1998 and 2010, we document the persistence of the Asian-American educational advantage over time by comparing the math and reading scores of white students (1998 n = 6700;…
The Lies of the Land: Seeing Rural America for What It Is-And Isn't
Understanding Environmentalism: The Interplay between Politics and Religion on Environmental Attitudes from Rural Utah
Previous research found that socio-demographic characteristics are significant predictors of environmental behaviors and attitudes, including political affiliation and religious identity. However, the consistency of religious identity and political affiliation as predictors of environmental attitudes and behaviors is still contested. This study investigates whether religious affiliation is a significant determinant of environmental attitudes (EA)…
It Is Home: Perceptions, Community, and Narratives about Change
Utah's Heber Valley has experienced rapid and (relatively) sustained growth since the 1990s, in part due to being chosen as a host venue for the 2002 Winter Olympics. As conditions in the Valley changed by virtue of this growth, individuals had to redefine their relationship with their community at large, as well as what community means to them individually. As individuals integrate new conditions into their imagined communities, they are also re…
Culturally inclusive STEM learning: Mentored internships for Native American undergraduates at a tribal college and a university
Sense of community on collegiate campus and graduation expectations: An exploratory study
We Got an Invite into the Fortress”: VA-Community Partnerships for Meeting Veterans’ Healthcare Needs
Responding to identified needs for increased veterans' access to healthcare, in 2010 the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) launched the Veteran Community Partnership (VCP) initiative to "foster seamless access to, and transitions among, the full continuum of non-institutional extended care and support services in VA and the community". This initiative represents an important effort by VA to promote collaboration with a broad range…
In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Socio-Historical Case Study on Rapid Population Growth in Two Neighboring Population Centers in the Western United States
US Census population estimates show that every state in the Western US reported significant population growth increases over the past two decades. Furthermore, Western population growth represents one of the largest and most significant US demographic trends in recent decades. For many Western US communities, this increase in population growth has resulted in significant changes to its residents’ day-to-day lived experience. Dramatic population g…
Experiences With General Education: How Sense of Community Shapes Students' Perceptions
General education (GE) classes are designed to reflect the mission and goals of the university and to help students become more well-rounded, career-ready, and civically-minded post-graduation. Students' perceptions of these courses have a significant influence on their capacity to succeed, and ultimately to get the most out of their college experience. Using results from an email questionnaire sent to students at a private university in the west…
Hopelessness and Youth Violent Behavior: A Longitudinal Study
Researchers have often neglected the role of hopelessness in violent behavior during adolescence. Moreover, little research has examined this relationship over time. Using data from Waves I and II of The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we explore the relationship between hopelessness and youth violent behavior over time. Poisson regression was used to analyze contributors to violence in just Wave I, and again across time in Wave…
An ethnographic exploration of adolescent homophobic language in a rural religiously-conservative high school
Multiple qualitative and quantitative studies have investigated homophobic language and its associated correlates. However, very few studies have approached this phenomenon from an ethnographic methodology. Furthermore, no studies to date have used an ethnography to study this language in a conservative religious community. In this study, the primary researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 randomly selected males, all 12th-grade s…
Taking another look at the sense of community index: Six confirmatory factor analyses
Previous studies focusing on the effects of the social aspects of community have often used the Sense of Community Index (SCI), despite other research showing that it is not a good‐fit measure for its expected dimensions. Using a sample of students from Brigham Young University, we performed confirmatory factor analysis of the SCI to assess 1‐factor, 4‐factor, 1‐factor revised, 3‐factor revised, 1‐factor revised, 4‐factor revised, and 1‐factor re…
Healthcare Access among Older Rural Women Veterans in Utah
Using gender and life course frameworks attuned to overlapping roles and statuses, this exploratory case study highlights the experiences of older, rural female veterans in Utah with accessing Veterans Administration and other healthcare. Based on three focus groups with 22 women, findings show that these veterans experienced similar healthcare access obstacles to female veterans in other contexts. Most also experienced invisibility and discrimin…
Community as Story and the Dynamic Nature of Community: Perceptions, Place, and Narratives about Change
We present a theoretical discussion conceptualizing "community as story"-narratives that create and recreate one's definition of and relationship to their community. We use a variety of disciplinary sources and representative quotes to help develop the theory. In so doing, we discuss the importance of subjective perception, narrative and place to the creation of a community story. Community stories take place in time and place, and as changes to …
Intersecting Contexts: Understanding Rural Utah Veterans' Experiences with Accessing VA Health Care
Since the passage of the Rural Veterans Care Act of 2006 research has focused on health care provider issues with less attention given to individual and contextual factors that contribute to the remaining service gap. Adopting the health care user's viewpoint, we focus on two questions: How do health care users perceive access to health care, and which contextual factors are relevant to explaining the failure of recent efforts to increase access …
Gathering the Potawatomi Nation: Revitalization and Identity
Honoring Ralph B. Brown
At many points in his life journey, Ralph B. Brown made lasting contributions to students, colleagues, and friends as well as to rural sociology. In this essay, I would like to remember and honor some of these contributions. To begin with a few memories, in his last lecture (December 13, 2013), Ralph discussed a number of principles that guided his life. Fundamental among these were his love of learning, critical thinking, and a search for truth …
Making Math Count: Tribal College Leadership in Education Reform on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation
Recently, Chief Dull Knife College, the tribal college of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, took new actions to assert sovereignty in relation to reservation schooling. This case study presents an account of these actions, which illustrates the kind of resistance that Hall and Fenelon suggest is possible in tribal college settings. Specifically, as a result of math curriculum reform at the Chief Dull Knife College, student success in math increased. …
The process of offender reintegration: Perceptions of what helps prisoners reenter society
Qualitative data from16 offenders were analyzed to understand the process of reintegration from their perspective. The offenders identified six factors that they felt influenced their ability to reintegrate and desist from crime: (1) substance abuse; (2) employment; (3) family support; (4) types of friends; (5) personal motivation to change; and (6) age. A large majority indicated that drug abuse was a major contributor to their criminal activiti…
Food provisioning strategies, food insecurity, and stress in an economically vulnerable community: The Northern Cheyenne case
Adapting Focus Groups to a Rural Context: Challenges and Strategies
Focus group research needs to be modified when the focus groups are to be conducted in a rural area or with a rural population. The authors argue for “seeing the rural”: for recognizing rurality as a social context that affects research. Based on experience with North American rural focus groups, the authors propose six aspects of the design of rural focus groups in which rurality should be taken into account: conceptualizing the rural place, ide…
The process of offender reintegration: Perceptions of what helps prisoners reenter society
Qualitative data from16 offenders were analyzed to understand the process of reintegration from their perspective. The offenders identified six factors that they felt influenced their ability to reintegrate and desist from crime: (1) substance abuse; (2) employment; (3) family support; (4) types of friends; (5) personal motivation to change; and (6) age. A large majority indicated that drug abuse was a major contributor to their criminal activiti…
Food provisioning strategies, food insecurity, and stress in an economically vulnerable community: The Northern Cheyenne case
One Should Not Forget One's Mother Tongue”: Russian-Speaking Parents' Choice of Language of Instruction in Estonia
This exploratory study identifies factors affecting parental choice of language of instruction, based on semistructured interviews with 16 Russian-speaking parents in three urban areas of Estonia. We investigated three different types of language programs: Russian schools, which provided education in the children's first language; Estonian schools, which provided education in the children's second language; and Russian–Estonian bilingual programs…
Community as Story and the Dynamic Nature of Community: Perceptions, Place, and Narratives about Change
We present a theoretical discussion conceptualizing "community as story"-narratives that create and recreate one's definition of and relationship to their community. We use a variety of disciplinary sources and representative quotes to help develop the theory. In so doing, we discuss the importance of subjective perception, narrative and place to the creation of a community story. Community stories take place in time and place, and as changes to …
The Evolution of Human Origins
Because humans are the product of our evolutionary past, learning how we evolved is fundamental to all anthropological investigations. We now realize that reconstructing why unique human attributes evolved requires an understanding of our starting point, but this is a relatively recent perspective. One hundred years ago, the question of human origins was identical to that of hominin origins. Accepting Australopithecus into human ancestry, coupled…
The Importance of Context in Explaining Human Capital Formation and Labor Force Participation of American Indians in Rosebud County, Montana
In response to recent recommendations to incorporate social, political, and cultural contexts into employment and poverty analyses for minority populations, this paper draws on several sources and types of data to examine the human capital and labor force participation patterns of Northern Cheyenne Indians and non-Indians in Rosebud County, Montana. Discussions utilizing human capital and economic organization data contribute to clarifying differ…
American Indian High School Completion in Rural Southeastern Montana1
Factors related to dropping out of school are examined among a rural population of American Indians in southeastern Montana. Analyses assess the relative effects of community location, type of school, and student, family, and school variables on dropout behavior. Findings reveal the importance of students' community residence, parental education, and school experiences. The effects of these factors vary by school, however, suggesting that schools…
Recovery and Resistance: The Renewal of Traditional Spirituality among American Indian Women
This article tells the story of healing from personal trauma and a tale of resistance to the cultural denigration experienced by women from the Northern Cheyenne and Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux reservations.' The women's stories, obtained through in-depth and focus-group interviews, and participant observation, reveal how spirituality expressed in a variety of forms has been an important part of the resistance process. Through their spiritual…
Intersecting Contexts: Understanding Rural Utah Veterans' Experiences with Accessing VA Health Care
Since the passage of the Rural Veterans Care Act of 2006 research has focused on health care provider issues with less attention given to individual and contextual factors that contribute to the remaining service gap. Adopting the health care user's viewpoint, we focus on two questions: How do health care users perceive access to health care, and which contextual factors are relevant to explaining the failure of recent efforts to increase access …
Culturally inclusive STEM learning: Mentored internships for Native American undergraduates at a tribal college and a university
In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Socio-Historical Case Study on Rapid Population Growth in Two Neighboring Population Centers in the Western United States
US Census population estimates show that every state in the Western US reported significant population growth increases over the past two decades. Furthermore, Western population growth represents one of the largest and most significant US demographic trends in recent decades. For many Western US communities, this increase in population growth has resulted in significant changes to its residents’ day-to-day lived experience. Dramatic population g…
Hopelessness and Youth Violent Behavior: A Longitudinal Study
Researchers have often neglected the role of hopelessness in violent behavior during adolescence. Moreover, little research has examined this relationship over time. Using data from Waves I and II of The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we explore the relationship between hopelessness and youth violent behavior over time. Poisson regression was used to analyze contributors to violence in just Wave I, and again across time in Wave…
An ethnographic exploration of adolescent homophobic language in a rural religiously-conservative high school
Multiple qualitative and quantitative studies have investigated homophobic language and its associated correlates. However, very few studies have approached this phenomenon from an ethnographic methodology. Furthermore, no studies to date have used an ethnography to study this language in a conservative religious community. In this study, the primary researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 randomly selected males, all 12th-grade s…
Adapting Focus Groups to a Rural Context: Challenges and Strategies
Focus group research needs to be modified when the focus groups are to be conducted in a rural area or with a rural population. The authors argue for “seeing the rural”: for recognizing rurality as a social context that affects research. Based on experience with North American rural focus groups, the authors propose six aspects of the design of rural focus groups in which rurality should be taken into account: conceptualizing the rural place, ide…
It Is Home: Perceptions, Community, and Narratives about Change
Utah's Heber Valley has experienced rapid and (relatively) sustained growth since the 1990s, in part due to being chosen as a host venue for the 2002 Winter Olympics. As conditions in the Valley changed by virtue of this growth, individuals had to redefine their relationship with their community at large, as well as what community means to them individually. As individuals integrate new conditions into their imagined communities, they are also re…
Taking another look at the sense of community index: Six confirmatory factor analyses
Previous studies focusing on the effects of the social aspects of community have often used the Sense of Community Index (SCI), despite other research showing that it is not a good‐fit measure for its expected dimensions. Using a sample of students from Brigham Young University, we performed confirmatory factor analysis of the SCI to assess 1‐factor, 4‐factor, 1‐factor revised, 3‐factor revised, 1‐factor revised, 4‐factor revised, and 1‐factor re…
Healthcare Access among Older Rural Women Veterans in Utah
Using gender and life course frameworks attuned to overlapping roles and statuses, this exploratory case study highlights the experiences of older, rural female veterans in Utah with accessing Veterans Administration and other healthcare. Based on three focus groups with 22 women, findings show that these veterans experienced similar healthcare access obstacles to female veterans in other contexts. Most also experienced invisibility and discrimin…
Gathering the Potawatomi Nation: Revitalization and Identity
Meaningful learning? Gendered experiences with an NGO-sponsored literacy program in rural Mali
This paper examines the effectiveness of an NGO-sponsored literacy program in rural Mali. The study employs ethnographic techniques to examine the type of literacy instruction provided, the level of participation, the meanings of literacy to participants, and the contextual factors that influence the social and personal effects of literacy. The analyses reveal that the program has been more advantageous for men, particularly in terms of opportuni…
Modern Language Association Convention Los Angeles, California December, 1982
Social Change in the Southwest, 1350-1880. Thomas D. Hall
Death and Violence on the Reservation: Homicide, Family Violence, and Suicide in American Indian Populations
What Can Tribes Do? Strategies and Institutions in American Indian Economic Development
In the preface to What Can Tribes Do? Strategies and Institutions in American Indian Economic Development, Stephen Cornell and Joseph Kalt identify the purpose of this collection as addressing the scarcity of information needed for tribes to design solutions to recent threats to their sovereignty and obstacles to economic development. As the first major publication of research sponsored by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Developme…
In the Eye of the Hurricane: Women's Stories of Reconstruction, 1991
American Indian High School Completion in Rural Southeastern Montana1
Factors related to dropping out of school are examined among a rural population of American Indians in southeastern Montana. Analyses assess the relative effects of community location, type of school, and student, family, and school variables on dropout behavior. Findings reveal the importance of students' community residence, parental education, and school experiences. The effects of these factors vary by school, however, suggesting that schools…
New specimens and confirmation of an early age for Australopithecus anamensis
The Importance of Context in Explaining Human Capital Formation and Labor Force Participation of American Indians in Rosebud County, Montana
In response to recent recommendations to incorporate social, political, and cultural contexts into employment and poverty analyses for minority populations, this paper draws on several sources and types of data to examine the human capital and labor force participation patterns of Northern Cheyenne Indians and non-Indians in Rosebud County, Montana. Discussions utilizing human capital and economic organization data contribute to clarifying differ…
Community Resources and School Performance: The Northern Cheyenne Case
This research investigates the school performance of Indian students on the Northern Cheyenne reservation using both quantitative and qualitative data. Understanding influences on school performance is important since previous research established its impact on dropout behavior. Statistical analyses assess the relative effects of students' residence in reservation communities, the type of schools students attend (public. Catholic, or tribal), gen…
The new hominid speciesAustralopithecus anamensis
Australopithecus anamensis1 is the earliest species of this genus to have been found. Fossils attributed to A. anamensis have been recovered from sediments dating to between 3.8 and 4.2 mya at the sites of Kanapoi and Allia Bay in northern Kenya. A. anamensis is still poorly known in comparison with other early hominid species, but the material discovered so far displays primitive features along with more derived characteristics typical of later …
Recovery and Resistance: The Renewal of Traditional Spirituality among American Indian Women
This article tells the story of healing from personal trauma and a tale of resistance to the cultural denigration experienced by women from the Northern Cheyenne and Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux reservations.' The women's stories, obtained through in-depth and focus-group interviews, and participant observation, reveal how spirituality expressed in a variety of forms has been an important part of the resistance process. Through their spiritual…
Outreach, Impact, and Sustainability of Informal Banking: A Case Study of the Ouelessebougou-Utah Alliance Microenterprise Program in Mali
This paper presents a case study of a rural credit program sponsored by the Ouelessebougou-Utah Alliance (OUA) in Mali, West Africa. Ethnographic methods are employed to determine the outreach, impact, and sustainability of the program. Findings indicate that program specifications increasingly limit participation to an established and primarily male clientele. Both male and female borrowers reported higher earnings and greater contribution to ho…
The Evolution of Human Origins
Because humans are the product of our evolutionary past, learning how we evolved is fundamental to all anthropological investigations. We now realize that reconstructing why unique human attributes evolved requires an understanding of our starting point, but this is a relatively recent perspective. One hundred years ago, the question of human origins was identical to that of hominin origins. Accepting Australopithecus into human ancestry, coupled…
One Should Not Forget One's Mother Tongue”: Russian-Speaking Parents' Choice of Language of Instruction in Estonia
This exploratory study identifies factors affecting parental choice of language of instruction, based on semistructured interviews with 16 Russian-speaking parents in three urban areas of Estonia. We investigated three different types of language programs: Russian schools, which provided education in the children's first language; Estonian schools, which provided education in the children's second language; and Russian–Estonian bilingual programs…
Brief Communication: Weeding Out Failed Practices: A Case Study of Community Gardens in Rural Mali
How Does the New Tanf Work Requirement "Work" in Rural Minority Communities? A Case Study of the Northern Cheyenne Nation
Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which President Bill Clinton then signed into law, "ending welfare as we know it." For the past thirty years emphasis on work and self-sufficiency has slowly replaced income supports in welfare policy. Others, however, are concerned by the social and economic implications of these new policies. Given the period of time that these policies have been in effect, we have the opportunity to review the assumptio…
Meaningful learning? Gendered experiences with an NGO-sponsored literacy program in rural Mali
This paper examines the effectiveness of an NGO-sponsored literacy program in rural Mali. The study employs ethnographic techniques to examine the type of literacy instruction provided, the level of participation, the meanings of literacy to participants, and the contextual factors that influence the social and personal effects of literacy. The analyses reveal that the program has been more advantageous for men, particularly in terms of opportuni…
Food provisioning strategies, food insecurity, and stress in an economically vulnerable community: The Northern Cheyenne case
Adapting Focus Groups to a Rural Context: Challenges and Strategies
Focus group research needs to be modified when the focus groups are to be conducted in a rural area or with a rural population. The authors argue for “seeing the rural”: for recognizing rurality as a social context that affects research. Based on experience with North American rural focus groups, the authors propose six aspects of the design of rural focus groups in which rurality should be taken into account: conceptualizing the rural place, ide…
The process of offender reintegration: Perceptions of what helps prisoners reenter society
Qualitative data from16 offenders were analyzed to understand the process of reintegration from their perspective. The offenders identified six factors that they felt influenced their ability to reintegrate and desist from crime: (1) substance abuse; (2) employment; (3) family support; (4) types of friends; (5) personal motivation to change; and (6) age. A large majority indicated that drug abuse was a major contributor to their criminal activiti…
Making Math Count: Tribal College Leadership in Education Reform on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation
Recently, Chief Dull Knife College, the tribal college of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, took new actions to assert sovereignty in relation to reservation schooling. This case study presents an account of these actions, which illustrates the kind of resistance that Hall and Fenelon suggest is possible in tribal college settings. Specifically, as a result of math curriculum reform at the Chief Dull Knife College, student success in math increased. …
Honoring Ralph B. Brown
At many points in his life journey, Ralph B. Brown made lasting contributions to students, colleagues, and friends as well as to rural sociology. In this essay, I would like to remember and honor some of these contributions. To begin with a few memories, in his last lecture (December 13, 2013), Ralph discussed a number of principles that guided his life. Fundamental among these were his love of learning, critical thinking, and a search for truth …
Gathering the Potawatomi Nation: Revitalization and Identity
Intersecting Contexts: Understanding Rural Utah Veterans' Experiences with Accessing VA Health Care
Since the passage of the Rural Veterans Care Act of 2006 research has focused on health care provider issues with less attention given to individual and contextual factors that contribute to the remaining service gap. Adopting the health care user's viewpoint, we focus on two questions: How do health care users perceive access to health care, and which contextual factors are relevant to explaining the failure of recent efforts to increase access …
Community as Story and the Dynamic Nature of Community: Perceptions, Place, and Narratives about Change
We present a theoretical discussion conceptualizing "community as story"-narratives that create and recreate one's definition of and relationship to their community. We use a variety of disciplinary sources and representative quotes to help develop the theory. In so doing, we discuss the importance of subjective perception, narrative and place to the creation of a community story. Community stories take place in time and place, and as changes to …
Sociology (26 works) · Political science (21 works) · Psychology (20 works) · Geography (16 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Medicine (9 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Pedagogy (7 works) · Business (6 works) · Community Health and Development (6 works)