Family Research Initiative Research Networks -- Funded Projects
Families and Work
The Families and Work network received FRI funds to work on two projects. The following are the project descriptions and statuses:
The Role of Unions in Fostering Flexibility: Changing Dialogue and Negotiating Change
Ellen Kossek, Professor, Labor and Industrial Relations
Peter Berg, Associate Professor, Labor and Industrial Relations
Karen Dilley, Project Manager
The grant money was used to hire Karen Dilley as a project manager on our existing research project funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The goal of this research is to understand workers' experiences with and access to flexibility in unionized work groups and supervisors’ and labor union leaders’ roles. The study uses a multi-level research design that includes workplace interviews with managers and union representatives as well as a survey of employees. Negotiating access to unionized companies is a long and arduous process. Ms. Dilly has been instrumental in helping us move forward. She has made over 30 contacts in the short time she has been working with us and has effectively managed the follow up with organizations. Work on this project will be carried out over the next several years. In addition, a small portion of the money may be used to help validate an instrument on individuals' experiences in managing boundaries between work and home.
Ellen Kossek and Peter Berg are co- investigators on the study, which is one of the few in the nation to analyze flexibility practices in unionized settings. Working with the UAW, CWA, and AFSCME, the goal of the study is to document mutual gains from flexibility to support work and life integration -- specifically, how flexibility can be beneficial to both union members and employers -- as well as to identify effective contract language, administration, and practice.
Work-Life Conflict among Teachers
Ann Marie Ryan, Professor, Psychology
Remus Ilies, Associate Professor, Management
Megan Huth, Graduate Student, Psychology
In February 2007, the Family Research Initiative provided funding of $7,500 for a project on work-life conflict among teachers. The objective of the project is to link teacher workload to health and well-being outcomes, particularly spillover to family life. The study uses event sampling methodology to assess variations in workload, mood, well-being, and blood pressure over the course of the workday and their spillover to home.
Since February we have made terrific progress on the project. We worked with four area schools to secure participation from school staff. Participants collected data for 10 full days of work followed by evening activities. Their spouses/partners also completed measures for 10 days. Data were collected using palm pilot surveys, blood pressure cuffs, Web surveys, and paper and pencil mail-in surveys, making the data collection especially intensive. Megan Huth, a graduate student in psychology, played an integral role in all aspects of the project.
We have provided debriefing information to all of the sites on how to better manage work stress spillover to home life. The feedback from the school staff regarding participation has been very positive.
We are currently organizing the data and entering and merging the various data sets, and plan to spend the summer months on analysis and writing. We also will provide a general description of the study in a presentation on our work with schools at the Academy of Management Conference this August in Philadelphia. Of note, the session was chosen to be an "all-academy symposium" and will be showcased as a conference highlight.
Culture and the Arts
The Culture and the Arts network received FRI funds to work on four projects. The following are the project descriptions and statuses:
Common Threads: Weaving as a Metaphor for Creativity, Continuity, and Change in Rural Communities of the Americas
Theresa Meléndez, Chicano/Latino Studies, MSU
Diane Ruonavaara, MSU Extension
Ana Cardona, Artes Unidas de Michigan, Lansing, Michigan
Michael Gielniak, Center for Creative Learning and Teaching, Warren, Michigan
This project studies how Oaxacan families, as the basic unit of production, critically examine the creation and re-creation of culture and community through weaving, how tradition and technology intersect, what sustains and what hampers cooperative family business models, and what can be learned from their examples to provide inspiration and ideas for similar families/communities in Michigan.
The Sharing of Family Folk and Traditional Games across Generations
LuAnne Kozma, 4-H Specialist and Assistant Curator of Folk Arts, Michigan State University Museum
Kathryn Reed, Grandparents University Coordinator, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Betsy Knox, 4-H Youth Development, MSU 4-H State Office
Laurie Sommers, Georgia folklorist
Yvonne Lockwood, Senior Specialist, MSU Museum
Pat Power
Pearl Yee Wong, Folk Arts Collection Coordinator
Family traditions (foodways, celebrations, holidays, narratives,) and the family as a folk group have been studied by folk cultural specialists. Games and leisure activities are some of the most enduring of family traditions. Over the past 20 years, MSU Museum folklorists have researched and presented traditional games from a community and ethnic context at annual folklife festivals, but rarely from the point of reference of the family as the cultural context. The focus of the family as a folk cultural group for research in contemporary traditional games in family contexts merits exploration. In what contexts does cross-generational sharing of family games occur (e.g., picnics, graduation parties, sporting events, vacations)? What range of folk games is being passed on between parents and children, and grandparents and children? What skills and knowledge are passed on to play the game? What role do game traditions play in the context of family and family identity?
Based on folklife methodology, interviewees will be asked to identify and describe folk and traditional games they know; the context, meaning and ways in which the games are passed on and which skills are acquired; and if any handmade game equipment, supplies or artistic works are created. A demonstration of the game being played and described will be documented by video, audio, and still photography. The research will take place during two evenings, June 27 - 28, 2007 at the MSU Museum and will be held in conjunction with Grandparents University, a new on-campus outreach program hosted jointly by College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Alumni Association, College of Natural Science Alumni Association, and eleven other colleges and campus units.
Lifelong Learning in the Arts and Humanities
Lynnette Young Overby, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Letters
The purpose of this program is to promote lifelong learning in the arts and humanities through development of a standards- and research-based community school as an integral part of the College of Arts and Letters. Research questions will drive the development, implementation, and assessment of all MSU arts and culture programs.
Qualities of Quality: Excellence in Arts in Education and How to Achieve It in Native Contexts
Marsha MacDowell, Curator and Professor, Michigan State University Museum
Marit Dewhurst, doctoral candidate, Education, Harvard University
Malia Villegas, doctoral candidate, Education, Harvard University
Kathleen Van De Car, doctoral candidate, Anthropology, Arizona State University, and two individuals to be named
This project investigates the characteristics of effective arts learning and teaching within a Native context and the interrelationship of family to this learning context and the body of knowledge itself.
Acknowledged master Native artists and their students will be interviewed about their own teaching and learning. Questions will incorporate elements of the set of inquiries developed as part of the national “Qualities of Quality: Excellence in Arts in Education and How to Achieve It” project being conducted by Project Zero at Harvard University and will reflect current theories related to notions of excellence of education within Native culture.
Audio- and video-taped interviews will be conducted with a minimum of ten Native artists (masters and their apprentices) who are participating in the special program “Carriers of Culture: Great Lakes Native Basketmaking Traditions” at the Great Lakes Folk Festival in East Lansing, Michigan, August 11 and 12, 2007. Interviews will focus primarily on artists from the same geographic or tribal affiliation within Michigan. Some interviews will also be conducted with artists from other tribes and regions. Taped interviews will be transcribed, then coded, using narrative analysis and other selected coding techniques. A preliminary report should position this research for funding to expand the study.