Mia Ocean
Biographic Data
| ID | 4175875 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mia Ocean |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mia |
| FAMILY NAME | Ocean |
| SIGNATURE | OCEAN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | West Chester University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9911-9586 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 24 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Black MSW students’ experiences at a historically and predominantly white university
Despite decades of espoused commitment to diversity, there remains an educational and opportunity gap between Black and White students in U.S. higher education and social work. Some universities create satellite locations to recruit Black and post-traditional students, but multi-site universities face additional complexities that require thoughtful planning. As a team of graduate social work students, alumni, and faculty, we conducted a participa…
The benefit, harm, and complication of humor in social work
The use of humor in social work is an underrecognized and underexplored area of practice despite its potential to heal, harm, and complicate communication. To date, very minimal scholarship has been published on humor in social work. Therefore, this qualitative study sought to examine how social workers use, perceive, and experience humor. Data were gathered from 22 participants who identified as social workers via an online survey. Data also inc…
The Potential of Humor to Joyously Dismantle Ableism
Social workers are often well-positioned but not adequately equipped to disrupt, unsettle, or counteract ableism. Humor is one approach to disability justice work that can move the social work profession forward in a novel way. Within this practice brief, I use first-person narrative to illustrate the potential and limitations of humor to dismantle ableism+ in everyday interactions between social workers, clinical social work practice, and policy…
Criminal Records as Predictors of Harm
The National Association of Social Work Code of Ethics requires advocacy on behalf of groups experiencing oppression, and yet it can be difficult to recognize when the oppression is emanating from the profession itself. Social work has enacted numerous barriers to entry for people with criminal records, a group that disproportionately includes people who are poor, Black, disabled, and or LGBTQ+. While previous articles have examined the role of c…
Exploring the Expansive Properties of Interpretive Description
There is an ever-present need to challenge, create, and expand upon qualitative research approaches in the applied and practice disciplines to avoid repeating mistakes of the past and to realize a research agenda for socially just practice. Toward these goals, anti-oppressive researchers engage with a variety of methodologies to co-produce accounts that reflect a comprehensive understanding of social problems with the people who experience them a…
A Qualitative Description Investigation of U.S. Higher Education Quantitative Datasets
Currently, the U.S. system of higher education is almost exclusively evaluated by quantitative data based on traditional student trajectories and university structured programs. This could be problematic for community colleges and post-traditional students, who are a growing population at all institutions. Therefore, we conducted a pilot, qualitative description analysis of three U.S. quantitative national datasets to assess their accuracy and id…
Telework during Covid-19
Abelism, like the many other 'isms,' pervades the rules and norms within the U.S. higher education system. Through a first person narrative, this article explores one person's perspective and experience with the accommodation process - first, as a person without a dis/ability serving as an Americans with Dis/abilities coordinator and then as a faculty member with a dis/ability. It also documents the miraculous ability to institute telework accomm…
Anti-Racism Working Group
Institutions of higher education fail to address ongoing systemic racism within their classrooms, boardrooms, and commons when university personnel and students are not prepared to discuss racism and structural inequalities that exist within the campus community. To address this at a public, Predominantly White Institution (PWI), a group of students, staff, and faculty developed an action-oriented community to increase awareness and advocacy effo…
Developing and Implementing a Participatory Action Research Assistantship Program at the Community College
Despite serving almost half of the U.S. undergraduate students, community colleges and their constituents are consistently marginalized in the research favoring external university experts to conduct research about them and on them. To counteract these top down, disempowering research practices, we piloted a Participatory Action Research Assistantship Program (PARAP). A PARAP is a modified version of a research assistantship program that is groun…
Somebody Who Was on My Side
Youth initiated mentoring (YIM) is an innovative approach to mentoring being implemented by the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program in which youth identify and select their mentors. There is great interest in this approach; however, there has been little study of YIM or its implementation in ChalleNGe. Retrospective in-depth qualitative interviews with former ChalleNGe participants ( n = 30) were conducted to gain a descriptive understanding o…
Bisexuals are Bad for the Same Sex Marriage Business
This paper provides the perspective of a bisexual woman discussing her personal experiences and views of how bisexuality does and does not fit in with the fight for equal marriage rights. The discussion includes how oppressed groups often attempt to assimilate with the group in power and how this can both help and hurt. The views of many who oppose equality in marriage rights are explored and the possibility that the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans…
Somebody Who Was on My Side
Youth initiated mentoring (YIM) is an innovative approach to mentoring being implemented by the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program in which youth identify and select their mentors. There is great interest in this approach; however, there has been little study of YIM or its implementation in ChalleNGe. Retrospective in-depth qualitative interviews with former ChalleNGe participants ( n = 30) were conducted to gain a descriptive understanding o…
Telework during Covid-19
Abelism, like the many other 'isms,' pervades the rules and norms within the U.S. higher education system. Through a first person narrative, this article explores one person's perspective and experience with the accommodation process - first, as a person without a dis/ability serving as an Americans with Dis/abilities coordinator and then as a faculty member with a dis/ability. It also documents the miraculous ability to institute telework accomm…
Exploring the Expansive Properties of Interpretive Description
There is an ever-present need to challenge, create, and expand upon qualitative research approaches in the applied and practice disciplines to avoid repeating mistakes of the past and to realize a research agenda for socially just practice. Toward these goals, anti-oppressive researchers engage with a variety of methodologies to co-produce accounts that reflect a comprehensive understanding of social problems with the people who experience them a…
Bisexuals are Bad for the Same Sex Marriage Business
This paper provides the perspective of a bisexual woman discussing her personal experiences and views of how bisexuality does and does not fit in with the fight for equal marriage rights. The discussion includes how oppressed groups often attempt to assimilate with the group in power and how this can both help and hurt. The views of many who oppose equality in marriage rights are explored and the possibility that the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans…
Somebody Who Was on My Side
Youth initiated mentoring (YIM) is an innovative approach to mentoring being implemented by the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program in which youth identify and select their mentors. There is great interest in this approach; however, there has been little study of YIM or its implementation in ChalleNGe. Retrospective in-depth qualitative interviews with former ChalleNGe participants ( n = 30) were conducted to gain a descriptive understanding o…
Developing and Implementing a Participatory Action Research Assistantship Program at the Community College
Despite serving almost half of the U.S. undergraduate students, community colleges and their constituents are consistently marginalized in the research favoring external university experts to conduct research about them and on them. To counteract these top down, disempowering research practices, we piloted a Participatory Action Research Assistantship Program (PARAP). A PARAP is a modified version of a research assistantship program that is groun…
A Qualitative Description Investigation of U.S. Higher Education Quantitative Datasets
Currently, the U.S. system of higher education is almost exclusively evaluated by quantitative data based on traditional student trajectories and university structured programs. This could be problematic for community colleges and post-traditional students, who are a growing population at all institutions. Therefore, we conducted a pilot, qualitative description analysis of three U.S. quantitative national datasets to assess their accuracy and id…
Telework during Covid-19
Abelism, like the many other 'isms,' pervades the rules and norms within the U.S. higher education system. Through a first person narrative, this article explores one person's perspective and experience with the accommodation process - first, as a person without a dis/ability serving as an Americans with Dis/abilities coordinator and then as a faculty member with a dis/ability. It also documents the miraculous ability to institute telework accomm…
Anti-Racism Working Group
Institutions of higher education fail to address ongoing systemic racism within their classrooms, boardrooms, and commons when university personnel and students are not prepared to discuss racism and structural inequalities that exist within the campus community. To address this at a public, Predominantly White Institution (PWI), a group of students, staff, and faculty developed an action-oriented community to increase awareness and advocacy effo…
Criminal Records as Predictors of Harm
The National Association of Social Work Code of Ethics requires advocacy on behalf of groups experiencing oppression, and yet it can be difficult to recognize when the oppression is emanating from the profession itself. Social work has enacted numerous barriers to entry for people with criminal records, a group that disproportionately includes people who are poor, Black, disabled, and or LGBTQ+. While previous articles have examined the role of c…
Exploring the Expansive Properties of Interpretive Description
There is an ever-present need to challenge, create, and expand upon qualitative research approaches in the applied and practice disciplines to avoid repeating mistakes of the past and to realize a research agenda for socially just practice. Toward these goals, anti-oppressive researchers engage with a variety of methodologies to co-produce accounts that reflect a comprehensive understanding of social problems with the people who experience them a…
The benefit, harm, and complication of humor in social work
The use of humor in social work is an underrecognized and underexplored area of practice despite its potential to heal, harm, and complicate communication. To date, very minimal scholarship has been published on humor in social work. Therefore, this qualitative study sought to examine how social workers use, perceive, and experience humor. Data were gathered from 22 participants who identified as social workers via an online survey. Data also inc…
The Potential of Humor to Joyously Dismantle Ableism
Social workers are often well-positioned but not adequately equipped to disrupt, unsettle, or counteract ableism. Humor is one approach to disability justice work that can move the social work profession forward in a novel way. Within this practice brief, I use first-person narrative to illustrate the potential and limitations of humor to dismantle ableism+ in everyday interactions between social workers, clinical social work practice, and policy…
Black MSW students’ experiences at a historically and predominantly white university
Despite decades of espoused commitment to diversity, there remains an educational and opportunity gap between Black and White students in U.S. higher education and social work. Some universities create satellite locations to recruit Black and post-traditional students, but multi-site universities face additional complexities that require thoughtful planning. As a team of graduate social work students, alumni, and faculty, we conducted a participa…
Sociology (11 works) · Political science (9 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Qualitative research (5 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Higher Education Research Studies (4 works) · Medicine (4 works) · Public relations (4 works)