Boston College William F. Connell School of Nursing, Chestnut Hill, MA, United States of America.
Boston College Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Chestnut Hill, MA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Dec 9;15(12):e0243560. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243560. eCollection 2020.
The discussion of racism within undergraduate public health classrooms can be highly influenced by local and national conversations about race. We explored the impact of local and national events on students' ability to name racism on a public health exam highlighting the impact of racism on maternal and infant health disparities for Black mothers.
We undertook this research within the context of an undergraduate introductory public health course at a primarily white institution in the Northeastern part of the United States. A qualitative content analysis of undergraduate student responses to a final exam question soliciting the importance of racism to health outcomes among Black mothers in the United States was undertaken. ANOVA tests were run to assess differences on naming racism, using semantic alternatives, and providing alternative explanations during three main time periods: prior to the election of the 45th president of the United States (pre-Trump), after the election (post-Trump), and after a nationally recognized racist campus incident.
Between the pre- and post-Trump periods we see no differences in naming racism or providing alternative explanations. We do see a reduction in the proportion of students providing semantic alternatives for racism in the post-Trump period (32.2 vs. 25.2%, p = 0.034). After the racist campus incident, we see increases in the proportion of students naming race (53.6 vs. 73.8%, p = 0.021) and decreases in the proportion providing an alternative explanation (43.1 vs. 12.9%, p = 0.004), but no differences in the proportion of students who used semantic alternatives.
This work lends itself to our understanding of how local climate affects public health teaching and may also influence students' learning about important social and structural determinants of health. National and local climate should frame and guide public health teaching.
本科公共卫生课堂上关于种族主义的讨论可能会受到当地和全国有关种族问题的对话的极大影响。我们探讨了当地和全国性事件对学生在公共卫生考试中识别种族主义的能力的影响，该考试强调了种族主义对黑人生育健康差异的影响。
我们在美国东北部的一所白人为主的大学的本科公共卫生入门课程的背景下进行了这项研究。对本科学生对期末考试问题的回答进行了定性内容分析，该问题要求学生说明种族主义对美国黑人母亲健康结果的重要性。我们使用语义替代和提供替代解释，在三个主要时期进行了方差分析测试，以评估识别种族主义、使用语义替代和提供替代解释的差异：在第 45 任美国总统选举之前（特朗普当选之前）、选举之后（特朗普当选之后）和全国公认的种族主义校园事件之后。
在特朗普当选前后，我们没有发现识别种族主义或提供替代解释方面的差异。我们确实发现，在特朗普当选后，提供种族主义语义替代的学生比例有所下降（32.2%比 25.2%，p=0.034）。在发生种族主义校园事件后，我们发现识别种族的学生比例增加（53.6%比 73.8%，p=0.021），提供替代解释的学生比例下降（43.1%比 12.9%，p=0.004），但使用语义替代的学生比例没有差异。
这项工作使我们能够了解当地气候如何影响公共卫生教学，也可能影响学生对健康的重要社会和结构性决定因素的学习。国家和地方气候应成为公共卫生教学的框架和指导。
