Digital Commons Network^™

The Words And Worlds Of Disability: Discourses On Disablement Within The Situated Practices Of Service Providers, Enitza C. Carril

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

From a traditional perspective, disability stood outside the normal bounds of development, belonging within the realm of pathology and the disabled person was defined as deficient. Disability may also be characterized as an instance of human diversity and disabled as a designated identity that is socially constructed in an ongoing process—an interaction between individuals and social contexts. The process of disablement is linked to discourses used to define and act upon people ascribed with a disabled identity. This study assumes that disability is an instance of human diversity, a valid developmental trajectory, which is enacted and embedded in sociocultural, political, …

Exploring The Uses Of Cultural Funds Of Knowledge Among Ethnic Minority Immigrant College Students In Their Constructions Of Learning Identities Within A Collaborative Photovoice Project, Stacey Jennell Cooper

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Today’s college classrooms are distinguished by an increase in ethnic minority and immigrant student populations, yet there is little reflection of such diversity in the curriculum and teacher preparation and practice. Ethnic minority immigrant students bring with them into learning spaces much valuable cultural knowledge. If validated, this knowledge can become an essential resource from which these students can draw in creating their learning identities and goals.

This study explored how a group of ethnic minority immigrant community college students created potential identities in relation to learning by drawing on their culturally and historically informed funds of knowledge, including values, …