User talk:Colsen09

Hello! I am looking forward to this semester with you all! :) Happy weekend!

Carly
Yes. I am excited for this semester as well. I am trying out a post on your talk page to see how everything works. I hope you have a lovely weekend!

Lcollins09 (talk) 17:06, 18 January 2013 (UTC)Loco07Lcollins09 (talk) 17:06, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Topic Ideas
I am interested in interracial adoption.

I highly suggest you work on Culture shock as your topic. I hope you are working on sources as well. Please list them on your talk page. Ajungle (talk) 07:40, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

Also, please add your topic to the course page, next to your name. Ajungle (talk) 07:40, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

Using Sources
I would like to add to the statistics section of interracial adoption with updated information from adoption.state.gov

In 2011, 9,319 interracial adoptions were conducted bringing children ranging from ages 0-18 into American homes. 56% of those adoptions involved female children while 44& were male. (adoption.state.gov)

Interracial Adoption
Resources for Interracial Adoption:

Suter, E. A., Reyes, K. L., & Ballard, R. L. (2011). Adoptive Parents' Framing of Laypersons' Conceptions of Family. Qualitative Research Reports In Communication, 12(1), 43-50.

Intercountry adoption. (2012, February 14). Retrieved from http://adoption.state.gov/

Manning, L. D. (2006). Presenting Opportunities: Communicatively Constructing a Shared Family Identity. International & Intercultural Communication Annual, Vol. 29, p43-67.

Drafting Starter Articles
I am planning on adding to the statistics section of the article interracial adoption. I have found more updated statistics that would add significantly to this topic. Also, I found two articles about how the adopting family adjusts to interracial adoption and the unity that is desired. I will add another section to the article about this topic. Overall, I would say that the current article has a slightly negative perspective on interracial adoption and I would like to incorporate a positive outlook to eliminate bias.

Help us improve the Wikipedia Education Program
Hi Colsen09! As a student editor on Wikipedia, you have a lot of valuable experience about what it's like to edit as a part of a classroom assignment. In order to help other students like you enjoy editing while contributing positively to Wikipedia, it's extremely helpful to hear from real student editors about their challenges, successes, and support needs. Please take a few minutes to answer these questions by clicking below. (Note that the responses are posted to a public wiki page.) Thanks!

Delivered on behalf of User:Sage Ross (WMF), 17:17, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

Peer Review Edit
Hey Carly! I have signed up to be a peer reviewer for your article. It appears that you have chosen a great topic (interracial adoption). You have done a great job with finding sources and doing a general scanning of information that you wish to add to the article. However, I do not see a further development of your topic on your talk page or on the interracial adoption talk page. That being said, I advise you to move forward with developing your article! I wish you the best with this project! Akupratis (talk) 23:14, 23 April 2013 (UTC)

Peer Review Edit 2
Hi Colsen09, great job on organizing your page. I noticed that you are going to be adding to the interracial adoption page, however I don't see where your actual addition to the article is on statistics. Therefore, I would encourage you to keep editing and adding. Great job though! Brittctodd (talk) 19:26, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

Building Articles
Statistics of Interracial Adoption

Interracial adoption grew significantly from 1999 to 2005 where it reached its peak year at 585 adoptions to the United States. Following 2005, interracial adoption into the US declined with 288 adoptions in the year 2011. From 1999 to 2011, there has been 233,934 adoptions into the United States from other countries across the globe. Of the total adoptions, 39.4% (92,202 children) were under the age of 12 months (http://adoption.state.gov/about_us/statistics.php). Also, 63% (146,516 children) were female. Overall, children from China were the most common to be adopted. 66,630 were from China and Russia was the second largest country with 45,112 children. In the United States, California had the highest number of homes that were opened to international children. California had 16,792 children and New York had 16,191. All of the states had participated from 1999 to 2011 in interracial adoption.

Assimilation into the Family

Multicultural families have both similarities and differences from the biological family. A family that has participated with interracial adoption shares similar roles, life stages, and transition points as other families. The challenge comes, however, with the pursuit of a shared family identity through communication. Linda D. Manning conducted a research study on this topic titled "Presenting Opportunities: Communicatively Constructing a Shared Family Identity". The research question she posed initially was, How do members of a multiracial adoptive family communicatively co-construct a shared family identity that emphasizes similarities and allows for difference? The results of the study found that having "cultural artifacts" in the home allow for the embrace of the differing cultures represented in the family. It "creates a worldview that embraces diversity -- not just races and ethnicities directly related to those embodied by family members. The choice to embrace multiple races and ethnicities... affirms the multiethnic experience" (Manning, 2006). The study also showed that parents, in any family, present the family identity and the child responds. This is where an interracial family would share the similar roles as in a biological family. The parents act as educators and spokesperson. The children act as compliant participant, challenger, and expert. The research also showed that in an interracial family, there is tension between uniqueness and conformity. It is difficult but essential to balance these two qualities within the family identity. Manning concludes the research study by describing how "the constructs of a shared family identity is both a process and a product". The process includes roles and themes within the family while the product is developed through communication. "A shared family identity is a group identity that encompasses individual identity characteristics shared by each family member, allows for salient differences between and among family members, and accounts for dialectic tensions that exist within family interactions, as well as between the family and the community".

Education prior to Interracial Adoption

The United States Department of State offers multiple resources for parents wanting to adopt such as the "Intercountry Adoption from A-Z" publication, Adoption guides, Adoptive families committees, FAQs, and Visa information. All of these and more are available on their website http://adoption.state.gov/adoption_community/parents.php. The article, "Adoptive Parent's Framing of Laypersons' Conceptions of Family" by Elizabeth A. Suter, Kristine L. Reyes, & Robert L. Ballard, addresses the importance of parents preparing for outside comments from others. This study showed that families that had participated in interracial adoption had experienced comments such as "their families violated the canonical view of family in terms of racial dissimilarity between members, construction of family via adoption, and adoption of a child born out of the United States". The article uses a battleground as a metaphor for an adoptive family. The external view of the family does pose as a challenge for interracial families. The results suggest that prior to interracial adoption, parents "should be made aware of social stigmas... and be provided with opportunities to to develop a critical consciousness about such stigmas". The research also suggests and encourages required state-wide courses for perspective parents.

Resources for Interracial Adoption:

Suter, E. A., Reyes, K. L., & Ballard, R. L. (2011). Adoptive Parents' Framing of Laypersons' Conceptions of Family. Qualitative Research Reports In Communication, 12(1), 43-50.

Intercountry adoption. (2012, February 14). Retrieved from http://adoption.state.gov/

Manning, L. D. (2006). Presenting Opportunities: Communicatively Constructing a Shared Family Identity. International & Intercultural Communication Annual, Vol. 29, p43-67.

Colsen09 (talk) 07:59, 27 April 2013 (UTC)

Contributing to page
I fully submitted my information and the data I collected onto the Interracial Adoption page! Thank you to everyone who edited my work and gave me feedback! I also edited two peer's articles as well.

Colsen09 (talk) 22:46, 27 April 2013 (UTC)