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Mothers Overcoming Barriers of Poverty: The Significance of a Relationship With A Credentialed Coach

FDC Research: The perceived impact of strengths-based family worker training: Workers' learning that helped empower families

Changes in Frontline Family Workers: Results from the Missouri Family Development Credential Program Evaluation April 2007

Mothers Overcoming Barriers of Poverty: The Significance of a Relationship With A Credentialed Coach
Claire Forest, Ph.D., Cornell University (2009)

This narrative study of 25 randomly selected urban and rural mothers living in poverty and their 10 Cornell-credentialed family workers (“coaches”) explored

1. barriers mothers encountered and methods coaches used to help mothers overcome them
2. how mothers and workers perceived the meaning of their relationship
3. aspects of this relationship that empowered mothers to set and pursue transformative goals for a better life.

Thirty years ago, Columbia University Professor Jack Mezirow (1978a) introduced the theory of transformative learning, based on his research with middle-class women returning to college. His seminal article retold the ancient myth of Sisyphus, forever doomed to repeat the ineffective cycle of pushing a boulder up a mountain and then, with the end of his heavy labor in sight, watching it tumble back down (Camus, 1955). Mezirow used the myth to illustrate the need for “perspective transformation” and the importance of critically examining “the cultural and psychological assumptions that have influenced the way we see ourselves and our relationships and the way we pattern our lives” (Mezirow, 1978b, p. 101).

Forest (2009) was struck by the similarities between the dilemma of Sisyphus, and that of mothers living in poverty. Relentless labor with little hope of a better life is all-too-familiar for millions of U.S. women constrained to low wages or welfare and the resulting limited life choices available to themselves and their children. Yet the voluminous literature of transformative learning that has emerged over the past three decades, has paid scant attention to the plight of this population. That paucity inspired the current study.

Methods used in the study included narrative interviews. Interviewees selected their own culturally appropriate pseudonyms. The author developed data from separate mother and family worker interviews into “practitioner profiles” (Forester, Peters, & Hittleman, 2005; Peters, 2007; Peters, Gregoire, & Hittleman, 2004; Peters, Jordan, Adamek, & Alter, 2005; Peters, O’Connell, Alter, & Jack, 2006), and then combined them into “profile pairs,” using a new methodological approach that emerged from this study. Cultural issues colored each mother’s life and informed the data analysis. Eight profile pairs were nonrandomly selected by the researcher as illustrative of the study’s participants.

Rural Profile Pairs

• Jessica Cooper (mother) and Sue Trank (coach)
• Brenda Jones (great-grandmother) and Julia Roberts (coach)
• Dorothy Smith (mother) and Jill Wood (coach)
• Lynn Kennedy (mother) and Mercedes Benz (coach)

Urban Profile Pairs

• Godfrey King (uncle) and Ekemini Eno (coach)
• Mary Seacole (grandmother) and Tracey Thomas (coach)
• Haja Kamara (mother) and Ms. Doumbia (coach)
• Christina (mother) and Rudolfo (father) and Sympa Crima (coach)

Most mothers in this study experienced the disorienting dilemma described by Mezirow (1991), but some experienced a more lengthy integrating circumstance (Clark, 1993). Either way, through the supportive critical discourse with their credentialed coach, these women learned to better understand their own psychologically or culturally limiting patterns, so that instead of repeating such patterns, they could consciously move toward their goals. Critically reflective dialogue with a credentialed coach appears to have been an important step in the mothers’ transformative learning. This study demonstrated that a relationship with a credentialed coach provided the opportunity and support needed for these mothers to participate effectively in the type of discourse Belenky and Stanton (2000) claimed is unlikely in “hungry, homeless, desperate, threatened, sick, frightened adults” who are “less likely to be able to participate effectively in discourse to help us [sic] better understand the meaning of our own experiences” (p. 73).

This study offers several examples showing that relationships between credentialed family workers and mothers living in poverty offered an opportunity for the mothers to learn these preliminary steps: “developing their capacities for articulating and critiquing the underlying assumptions of their own thinking … [and] the thinking of others, … [as well as] the kind of reflexive discourse that Mezirow prescribes.” (Belenky & Stanton, 2000, p. 74.) In short, the mother-coach relationship appears to have helped these women find their voice in the discourse necessary for perspective transformation to occur.

In addition, the resultant transformative learning was not limited to the individual sphere. This study offers numerous examples of women participating effectively in a discourse designed to help themselves “understand the meaning of [their] own experiences” (Belenky & Stanton, 2000, p.74), and then go on to take both personal and societal action. This study suggests that credentialed coaches’ ability to engage mothers in critical reflection on their own heretofore unexamined assumptions—a step Belenky and Stanton considered a missing aspect of transformative learning in many women—may be an important reason why the relationship between low-income mothers and their credentialed coaches has helped mothers living in poverty to overcome their personal and societal barriers.

Cranton (2008) suggested that “Through questioning habits of mind that lead to oppression, poverty, and abuse, we can work toward sustainability” (p. 220–245). This study shows that for women living in (and attempting to rise out of) poverty, a relationship with a credentialed coach has the power to promote the kind of critical reflection needed to better understand their psychologically or culturally limiting patterns so that instead of repeating such patterns, they could consciously move toward their goals. In the context of this study, such critically reflective dialogue with a credentialed coach appears to have been an important step in these mothers’ transformative learning.

As America’s formal government-run “safety net” (Danziger & Danziger, 2005, p. 1) unravels in these tough economic times, this study provides insights into the role of such dialogues in helping these mothers become aware of and critically reflect on their current and past experiences, and then move toward a better life through personal and social action.

Summary

This study demonstrated that:

• transformative learning occurred for all mothers in this study of rural and urban mothers living in poverty;
• in each case, a relationship with a credentialed coach fostered this transformative learning.
• All mothers in the study experienced either a disorienting dilemma (Mezirow, 1991), or a more lengthy integrating circumstance Clark (1993);
• supportive critical discourse with a credentialed coach helped mothers learn to critically reflect on psychologically or culturally limiting patterns, then move consciously move toward their goals instead of repeating such patterns;
• a relationship with a credentialed coach helped these women find their voice in the discourse necessary to help themselves “understand the meaning of [their] own experiences” (Belenky & Stanton, 2000, p.74), and then take personal and societal action; and
• credentialed coaches’ ability to engage mothers in critical reflection on their own previously unexamined assumptions may be an important reason why the relationship between low-income mothers and their coaches led to the mothers’ transformative learning.

Full article available upon request from:  cnd3@cornell.edu

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FDC Research: The perceived impact of strengths-based family worker training: Workers' learning that helped empower families
Kathryn Palmer-House, Ed.D. Dissertation Research: Teachers College, Columbia University, 2006.

This qualitative case study explored perceptions of family workers trained in strengths-based family support to better understand what and how they learned that helped empower families. Fifteen workers participated from agencies with Head Start and Family Development Credential Programs. Agency supervisors referred workers who were considered effective at helping families reach goals of self-reliance. Workers completed a Definitions of Empowerment survey and participated in semi-structured interviews. Twenty-five family members who worked with workers also participated in brief interviews. The central research question of this study was, “What and how do family workers learn that helps empower families?”

Data analysis uncovered workers’ perceptions of knowledge, skills, learning strategies, and factors that affected their abilities to help empower families. Workers reported they learned knowledge and skills in three areas: attending (listening, empathy and mutually respectful relationships), processing (goal-setting, advocating, and recognizing strengths), and meaning-making (understanding diversity and the roles of the family and worker in family support). Differences in workers’ processing and meaning-making skills appeared to be associated with their length of experience. Workers perceived they learned through life experiences, professional practice, strengths-based training, and workplace support networks. Differences in their perceptions suggested increased abilities developed through experience.

Workers perceived legislative reforms, outcomes measures, and performance-based funding hindered their abilities in three ways:

1. created a “disconnect between approach and practice;
2. increased demand for workers’ services with fewer resources, and
3. undermined the effectiveness of family support work.

Findings suggested workers perceived paradigm shifts in learning over the duration of employment that were associated with three stages of learning:

1. Socialization (learning to implement strengths-based practice
2. Internalization (resolving dissonance about limitations in their abilities to mediate barriers to family empowerment) and 3) Identification (recognizing tacit assumptions and viewing empowerment as a contextual experience shaped by culture, experience, and outside influences). Recommendations were developed for family workers, agency leaders, educators of family workers, and curriculum developers to enhance workers’ learning opportunities.

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The Impact of a Training Intervention among Social Service Workers in Selected Head Start Programs in New York City: Implications for Staff Development and Program Practice
Thomasine Watson Smith, Ed.D., Head Start Director, Builder for Families and Youth, Diocese of Brooklyn, Inc., Brooklyn, NY
Dissertation Research: Teachers College, Columbia University, 2003

Research has neglected to document the link between training of social services workers who are Head Start’s primary front-line staff and quality outcomes for themselves and the families who utilized this federally-funded program that was established to provide comprehensive services for society’s most impoverished.

The purpose of this study is to show that the social services staff, with appropriate training, can demonstrate the types of skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to support families in their efforts to become less dependent on society or dependency-inducing programs. This means that social services staff, after undergoing training, will treat the families as partners, encouraging them to accept themselves and make their own decisions based on their strengths instead of what workers want for them.

A quasi-experimental design was utilized in this study. Two groups, an experimental and control group participated in the study. Each group consisted of seven social services workers who were more alike than dissimilar representing seven Head Start centers in impoverished communities located in New York City. Data were collected from a variety of sources that included pre and post-questionnaires, surveys, observations and program documents. Analysis focused on comparing the two groups on specific dimensions by using a model of program evaluation that measured communication skills, job-related knowledge, and attitudes toward the families that utilized Head Start services.

Findings revealed that the workers who participated in the training intervention had benefited. Their communication skills, attitudes toward families, and knowledge of resources in the respective communities were enhanced. However, the success of the training could be attributed to a number of variables that included organizational support, the trainees, trainers, training program selected and the training methodology that incorporated adult learning theories. Hence, the study is significant to the field of adult learning and human development because of its emphasis on staff development and potential outcomes for staff, families and possibly communities.

A copy of this dissertation is available through UMI Proquest/Digital Dissertations at wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations (Publication No. AAT 30911305). For more information, please contact Dr. WatsonSmith at TWSMITH@ccbq.org.

Elucidation of a program's theory of change is an important first step in theory-based evaluation of multi-level effects in comprehensive, interagency programs. An interpretivist, participatory research design was used to illuminate the program theory of the New York State Family Development Training and Credentialing (FDC) Program, a community-based, family support training and credentialing program for frontline workers. The FDC program, which teaches a strengths-based, empowerment model of practice, has the capacity to produce effects at many levels¾ for workers/trainees themselves, the people they work with, their agencies, and their communities.

Qualitative data gathered from a purposive sample of program participants and other stakeholders were used to construct a logic model to present and discuss key components of the FDC with an emphasis on outcomes, including examples of how they were experienced by program stakeholders. Also presented are key elements of the change process, the connections between program activities and outcomes. Factors such as mutual respect, critical reflection, caring, and group participation stand out as important mediators of change.

This study is an example of how practitioner research can play an important role in theory-based evaluation as a method for construct development. The constructs identified as steps in the change process can be used to develop measurable indicators to assess the degree to which these changes are occurring in a more representative sample. The findings may also contribute to improved implementation of the program at the local and statewide level, as well as in other states where the program is being replicated. For more information, please contact Dr. Crane at bcrane@widener.edu.

Mosley and Smith (2003) held two focus groups with workers (N = 13) trained and credentialed in the Missouri FDC program, which is modeled on and affiliated with the Cornell FDC, to understand how this training influenced workers. Echoing some of Crane’s findings but not addressing others, these workers reported that after FDC training they (a) were better able to set boundaries with client families and thus avoid burn-out; (b) experienced increased job confidence; and (c) experienced increased ability to communicate with clients, colleagues, supervisors, and their own families. Mosley and Smith (2003) then collected pre- and posttest data from 48 workers who completed FDC training, to examine the impact of the course on global self-esteem, self-mastery, and job self-esteem. They compared these results with those of 53 family workers who did not undertake FDC training. They found that those who took the FDC training (a) showed significantly greater gains in all three measures and in job satisfaction and professional self-esteem, and (b) experienced significantly less job turnover.

Smith et al. (2007) later built on their focus-group data to design and conduct a larger comparative study, again comparing credentialed workers with other social service workers (N = 227). Like Mosley and Smith (2003) found significant differences between credentialed workers and the control group in the following measures: (a) overall self-esteem, (b) job self-esteem, (c) job mastery, and (d) reduced burn-out. However, they did not find significant results in communication skills or job satisfaction. This study, which took place seven years after that of Crane (2000), confirmed via its focus group some of the earlier study’s findings. The Smith et al. (2007) and Mosley and Smith (2003) studies both added a comparative dimension.

Changes in Frontline Family Workers: Results from the Missouri Family Development Credential Program Evaluation April 2007
by Deborah Smith, Ph.D., Megan McCarthy, MSW, Jennifer N. Hill, BA and Jane Mosley, Ph.D. University of Missouri-Kansas City Family Studies Research Report 2007-01.
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