Publications by Colleges and Departments (MSU - Bozeman)
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Item School-Level Bureaucrats: How High School Counselors Inhabit the Conflicting Logics of Their Work(SAGE Publications, 2023-10) Blake, Mary KateThrough three years of training, school counselors build a professional identity based on providing social-emotional, academic, and postsecondary guidance to students. But school counselors face conflict in meeting these expectations in a bureaucratic environment that asks them to prioritize efficiency when meeting with students rather than building one-on-one relationships. I draw from interviews with high school counselors and school personnel and a year of observations to study the institutional logics that govern their work and use inhabited institutional theory to study how time scarcity shaped how counselors interpreted these conflicting macro-level logics in their micro-level interactions. The counselors in this study developed patterns of practice that helped them manage this conflict, negotiating but eventually settling with nonideal strategies in the best way they could with the resources made available to them. Efforts to reject the efficiency model were met with pushback from school leaders and unintended consequences for counselors and students alike. The conflict inherent in their work left little room for the mental health or postsecondary counseling they expect and are trained to provide.Item Friendships forged in fitness: an ethnography of older women’s social experiences at a community fitness center(Alaska Anthropological Association, 2022) Howell, Britteny M.; Hanson, Bridget L.; Wanner, SamanthaGerontological research demonstrates that the social relationships forged by older women at community and fitness centers can be long-lasting and provide a variety of supportive functions. Research shows that participants, especially older women, are more likely to adhere to a fitness program when they have social supports. Older adults enjoy and respond well to pool- or water-based aerobic exercises that are safe on the joints and provide a comfortable environment away from the gym’s intimidating nature. Therefore, water-based classes provided at community fitness centers are well positioned to provide ample social opportunities to further reinforce continued physical activity for older women, resulting in health and quality-of-life improvements. However, anthropological and ethnographic research into friendship formation and maintenance among older American women is lacking in the literature. This project was a three-month ethnographic exploration of the social relationships created and maintained in the context of water-based fitness classes (water aerobics) at a local community center attended primarily by white older adults (aged 50+). The friendships forged by women in the pool provide a variety of social supports that help to maintain healthy-aging outcomes among participants. Using a Grounded Theory approach, this study utilized participant observation, semistructured key informant interviews, and survey questionnaires to provide a holistic anthropological investigation of the important physical, social, and mental health benefits that fitness center friendships can have on the daily lives of older women in urban Alaska.