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Problematizing The Use Of The Cultural Autobiography In Pre-Service Multicultural Education Courses, Aaron C. Bruewer, Gilbert Park, Jayne Beilke

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

This paper explores the qualitative methodology of narrative life history as an instructional tool for pre-service teachers at a midwestern regional public university. Specifically, the authors problematize the use of the cultural autobiography assignment for undergraduate teacher candidates enrolled in required multicultural education courses in order to evolve its use. While life history has the potential to promote critical reflections on one’s own position in a complex interplay of power relations, it can also reify pre-existing prejudicial attitudes as currently used. The paper includes composite quotes from the papers of 85 undergraduate students to support authors investigation, as they suggest …

Developing Multicultural Self-Awareness Through A Transformative Learning Experience, Cynthia Bezard, Sara A. Shaw

Journal of Research in Technical Careers

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the ways that a change in perspective can create a better understanding of cultural identity. This study addressed: (1) How does a self-awareness transformative learning experience develop critical cultural competence in career and technical education instructors? (2) How does the practice of critical reflection construct career and technical education instructors’ ability to develop self-awareness of critical cultural competence? (3) How does involvement in critical discourse construct career and technical education instructors’ ability to develop self-awareness of critical cultural competence? A three-phase professional development experience rooted in multicultural education provided key …

Race, Resilience, And Resistance: A Culturally Relevant Examination Of How Black Women School Leaders Advance Racial Equity And Social Justice In U.S. Schools, Tonya Evette Walls

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This culturally relevant qualitative examination of the leadership of Black women educational leaders (BWEL) committed to advancing a social justice leadership agenda within the contested spaces (Stovall, 2004) comprising United States (U.S.) P-12 schools, employs an African centered emancipatory methodology (Kershaw, 1990, 1992; Tillman, 2002), situated in a conceptual framework grounded in the research on applied critical leadership (Santamaria, 2013). It examines, highlights, celebrates, and makes transparent, the unique leadership of BWEL. Engaged to rebuke the silencing and marginalization of women educational leaders of color in the educational leadership discourse, this study bridges engages a multiple case study approach, phenomenological …

States And Multicultural Education Policies: An Event History Analysis, Leander D. Kellogg

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Multicultural education policies related to K-12 curriculum have been shown to benefit underperforming students. This research found that 10 states have adopted such policies between 1978 and 1994. A unified model of policy innovation and diffusion with a conceptual framework, which included three factors: motivation to innovate, obstacles to innovation, and resources to overcome such obstacles was used to explore demographic, political, and economic conditions along with neighboring states diffusion. Both internal and external determinants were found to significantly influence the adoption of multicultural education. Specifically, states with slightly less education funding were more likely to adopt a policy. Additionally, …

Productive Confusion: Advancing Intercultural Perspectives Through A Multicultural Professional Development Program For Educational Leaders, Jack Frawley, Kim Anh Dang, Daravone Kittiphanh

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

The bulk of theory and practice around educational leadership is drawn almost exclusively from narrowly conceived Western beliefs, philosophies and understandings. Australian Catholic University’s Centre for Creative & Authentic Leadership has hosted four AusAID funded Australian Awards Fellowships (AAF) programs for educational leaders from nine countries in Asia and the Pacific since 2007. The AAF programs aimed to influence personal and professional development by supporting and enhancing AAF Fellows’ educational leadership skills and knowledge, and leadership values. The AAF programs have been practice-based, informed by leadership principles, values and practices that shape influential and authentic educational leaders. To strengthen the …

Multicultural Curriculum In Rural Early Childhood Programs, Lydiah Nganga Dr.

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

This study investigated the use of multicultural curricula in early childhood programs (licensed and licensed-exempt) in rural communities in Wyoming. In previous studies, little attention has focused on the nature of multicultural education in rural schools. This study specifically explored the ways in which existing instructional strategies and curricula were utilized to address the diverse learning needs of young children, and the ways in which culture and race are embraced and celebrated in early childhood programs in rural communities. Data showed a positive correlation (r= .45 p = < .01) between national accreditation of early childhood programs and the availability and use of multicultural curricula.

Yes, Actually Subjugation Is A Vocabulary Word, Susan E. Dwoskin Ms.

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

Abstract.

Teaching today is driven by calls for accountability in the form of high-stakes testing and relies on a standardized, de-contextualized approach to education. The results are "one size fits all" curriculum that ignore local contexts of students' lived experience, discourage student engagement and ultimately work against deep understanding of the content. In contrast, a praxis of ethical caring and place-based education that includes a radical-democratic approach, recognizes teaching as political and utilizes the students’ stories, local knowledge, culture, language and community as an integrating context for learning.

A Multiple Case Study Of Whiteness And Critical Literacy Practices Among White Elementary Teachers In Urban Public Schools, Amanda Rose Vandehei

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether white elementary teachers' perception of Whiteness influences critical literacy practices in elementary classrooms in an urban school district in the Southwest United States. This study consists of six white elementary school teachers.

Using Hardiman's model of White Identity Development, (WID) this study specifically explores the phenomenon of Whiteness and how teachers view themselves as having white privilege and advantage in American society. Hardiman's WID model includes five stages of white racial identity development in which a white person begins with no awareness of him or herself as a racial being and …

Using Culturally Ambitious Teaching Practices To Support Urban Mathematics Teaching And Learning, Lanette R. Waddell

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

Culturally relevant pedagogy is an ideology upon which strong urban classrooms can be built. However, culturally relevant pedagogy has not been operationalized in a way that allows consistent implementation in classrooms. This work focuses on the conceptualization of culturally ambitious teaching practices (CATP) in mathematics that exemplify the tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy – academic achievement, cultural competence, and critical consciousness – with those of ambitious mathematics teaching practices. This paper will describe the findings of the initial work of developing and operationalizing CATP in mathematics through a quantitative and qualitative analysis.

Exploring Literacy In Our Own Backyard: Increasing Teachers’ Understanding Of Literacy Access Through Community Mapping, Kathy R. Fox

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

Teachers develop a greater understanding of children when they leave their classrooms and become learners in the community. This article describes a project involving both pre-service and in-service teachers as they practice action research at community sites, such as a local homeless center, and then use these authentic experiences to inform their teaching.

States And Multicultural Education Policies: A Multinomial Logit Analysis, Leander D. Kellogg

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

This research evaluates the factors that facilitate or constrain the adoption of multicultural education policies in the fifty US state at the state legislature and state bureaucracy levels. According to the 2010 Census, the majority of children under age two—for the first time in US history—are minorities. Furthermore, 11 states and the District of Columbia already have a “minority-majority” population of children under age five. Seven more states are expected to join them in the next decade. Previous research has found that multicultural education policies have been increasingly adopted but are not yet widespread across the states. This study first …

In Search Of Professional Dispositions That Yield Cultural Relevance In Primary Grade Pedagogy: A Cautionary Tale Of One Kindergarten Teacher, Patricia L. Marshall Ed.D., Jessica T. Decuir-Gunby Ph.D., Allison W. Mcculloch Ph.D.

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

Primary grade teachers are challenged to establish firm learning foundations for all children, yet for many teachers cultural diversity makes this a complex pedagogical challenge. It is widely assumed that the success with which teachers meet this challenge is reflected in their dispositions toward diversity, and ultimately toward culturally relevant pedagogy as a professional orientation. This article describes a multi-year study of cultural relevance in early mathematics teaching. Using the case of one kindergarten teacher who exhibited positive dispositions toward cultural relevance, the authors examine factors that seemed to work against its adoption in her pedagogy.

A Qualitative Study Using Community Cultural Wealth To Understand The Educational Experiences Of Latino College Students, Nora A. Luna, Magdalena Martinez Ph.D

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

The Latino population is the largest minority group in the United States (Quijada & Alvarez, 2006) and has the highest high school dropout rate of any ethnic group (American Council on Education, 2008). If the U.S. is to compete in the global economy, it is important to understand factors that facilitate or hider the academic performance of Latino students. This qualitative study provides rich narratives on how Latino students used community cultural wealth, including knowledge, skills, abilities and networks, to excel in educational settings and overcome obstacles. A total of 15 individuals participated in the study. Findings suggest that Latino …

Critical Conversations: Developing White Teachers For Diverse Classrooms, Omobolade O. Delano-Oriaran Ph.D, Tynisha D. Meidl Ph.D

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

Many White, middle-class educators experience challenges as they attempt to teach in racially diverse classrooms. This article explores and challenges a widely held and often unexamined conception of White in-service teachers as learners about issues of diversity and equity vis-à-vis voluntary professional development. This study sought to examine how White in-service teachers explore their racial identity and how identity awareness influences their ability to successfully meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Participants were part of a voluntary book discussion professional-development program offered by a community multicultural center in collaboration with surrounding school districts. The findings of …

Transformative Multicultural Science Curriculum: A Case Study Of Middle School Robotics, Mary Katheryn Grimes

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Multicultural Science has been a topic of research and discourse over the past several years. However, most of the literature concerning this topic (or paradigm) has centered on programs in tribal or Indigenous schools. Under the framework of instructional congruence, this case study explored how elementary and middle school students in a culturally diverse charter school responded to a Multicultural Science program. Furthermore, this research sought to better understand the dynamics of teaching and learning strategies used within the paradigm of Multicultural Science. The school's Robotics class, a class typically stereotyped as fitting within the misconceptions associated with the Western …

Multicultural Education Policies And State Legislatures: Analyzing The Factors Affecting Policy Adoption, Leander D. Kellogg

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Introduction: This study looks at the factors that contribute to the adoption of multicultural education policies in the fifty US state legislatures plus the District of Columbia. The demographics of the US are changing significantly. According to Frey (2011), “The 2010 census showed that among infants, almost half—49.8 percent—are minorities, and a quarter of these are Latinos.” Furthermore, it is now projected that by 2023 Whites will become a minority in the student populations nationwide and by 2042 Whites will be a minority within the general US population. In fact, according to the 2010 census there are already 11 states …

Female North African-French Students In France: Narratives Of Educational Experiences, Donna L. Murray

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The study focused on the narratives of educational experiences of female students of North African heritage in France, and on their success as they see it in the French school system, which states that it is committed to diversity and promoting equal chances among students for academic success in the universities. The study will help to contribute to the growing research on students of immigrant origins and their successes (or lack thereof) in French school systems, asserting a vow to social diversity. I examined the current social educational issues that affect female ethnic minority students in France, as well as …

Preservice Teachers’ Self-Perceptions And Attitudes Toward Culturally Responsive Teaching, Barbara Frye, Linda Button, Catherine Kelly, Greg Button

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

When infusing Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) concepts in preservice methods classes, teacher candidates (TCs) begin a journey that involves understanding the cultural contributions of the students in the classroom, as well as becoming aware of the possible disconnects between their cultures and the culture of the school. To help preservice teachers learn how to bridge these gaps, teacher education faculty integrated history, literacy, and art into a literacy methods course as a first step in helping teacher candidates develop the necessary competencies to successfully implement culturally responsive teaching in their own classrooms. Four university faculty members administered an adapted version …

Culturally Responsive Classrooms Through Art Integration, Nancy Reif, Leslie Grant

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

Integrating arts into teaching and learning can result in more engaging classrooms for students of all backgrounds. Addressing content through drawing, painting, music, drama, sculpture, and manipulatives results in motivating lessons that reach diverse learners by means of multiple pathways. Benefits of incorporating the arts include not only academic achievement (Ruppert, 2006; Rabkin & Redmond, 2006), but also increased cultural understandings, better self-esteem, and a healthier cultural identity (Purnell, et al., 2007; Graham, 2009). Sample lessons with detailed explanations from an elementary classroom are highlighted to demonstrate how forms of linguistic and nonlinguistic artistic expression benefit all children in their …

Pedagogies That Foster Transformative Learning In A Multicultural Education Course: A Reflection, Omiunota Nelly Ukpokodu

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

This paper reports on a qualitative study that investigated pedagogies that foster transformative learning in a multicultural education course. In this study, teachers identified the following as pedagogies that fostered their learning transformation and moved them from color-blindness to color-vision: (1) dialogic relationships in a learning community, (2) writing pre-post narrative inquiries, (3) engagement in structured and threaded online discussions, (4) critical textual discourse, (5) experiential activities, and (6) experiencing a humanizing pedagogy.

Realizing Students’ Every Day Realities: Community Analysis As A Model For Social Justice, Jeanette Haynes Writer, H. Prentice Baptiste

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

This article examines the implications and effect of the Community Analysis (CA) Project assignment that we utilize in the Multicultural Education (MCE) course1 at New Mexico State University, located in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The CA enables pre-service teachers to critically examine, through a social justice lens, the manifestations and intersectionalities of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, language, ability, and religion in PreK-12 students’ communities, which may be rejected and ignored, or embraced, serving to connect students’ lives to learning contexts and opportunities in their schools. The CA compels pre-service teachers to analyze systemic inequities and inequalities in communities which …

Reconfiguring The Borderlands Of Identity: Preparing Social Justice Educators, Anita E. Fernandez

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

This article offers multiple pedagogical approaches for mobilizing Gloria Anzaldúa's metaphor of borderlands to prepare social justice educators to address issues of justice and equity in increasingly diverse classroom settings. It describes an experiential course in multicultural education, including innovative processes through which Education students analyze the borderlands of identity, society, and geography through critical self-analysis, fieldwork, and social action. By investigating the intersectionality of social justice issues and the social construction of identity, students attempt to transform the borders of their own identities and engage in action projects to begin a process of bridging the edges of cultural inequity.

Advancing Cultural Competence And Intercultural Consciousness Through A Cross-Cultural Simulation With Teacher Candidates, Nancy P. Gallavan, Angela Webster-Smith

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

Teacher education curricula typically introduce multicultural concepts, principles, and practices. However, candidates benefit greatly from experiences that pursue multi-faceted contexts. In this study the simulation, Barnga, enhances candidates’ cultural competence and intercultural consciousness by exploring perceived realities in classrooms and communities. Through Barnga, candidates are afforded a rich investigation into self knowledge, acceptance of group conventions, exposure to multiple perspectives, and self-assessment of their stance toward equity and change. Expressing their reactions, responses, and reflections, candidates experience multi-layered transformation, intercultural consciousness, and cultural competence for themselves. By participating in cross-cultural simulations and interacting with people like and unlike themselves, candidates …

Sport Stereotypes In The 21st Century “Brought To You By” Media Corporations, Jeffrey M. Hawkins

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

Since its formative years sport has had a commercial component to its operation, however, in no previous time period have we seen the type of growth in the current commercialization of sport that we have seen in the last two decades. Today, sport is big business and as argued in this paper, big businesses heavily involved in sport are mostly concerned with the preservation of established privileges (gender) and priorities (promotion) such as maintaining hierarchical control and generating profit uncritically and unwillingly inclined to take action upon the world in order to transform.

Dangerous Discourses And Uncomfortable Silences, Jorge P. Osterling, Shelley D. Wong

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

In this paper, two teacher educators, a Latino man and an Asian American woman, reflect on their experiences in their graduate teacher-education classes after a controversial book talk and lecture about racism in higher education took place at one of the most diverse institutions of higher learning in the United States. Using critical race and dialogic frameworks, they analyze issues of race, power, and White privilege in academia and probe the reasons why, despite efforts to incorporate multicultural training in teacher education programs, discussing race can be an uncomfortable, threatening, and even cathartic experience to participants.

Community-Based Multicultural Counselor Preparation As A Site Of Praxis And Social Justice, Nola Butler-Byrd, Jesús Nieto, Maria Nieto Senour

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

Recent calls in counseling psychology to embrace social justice work and mandates in the field to operationalize multicultural competencies have offered few mature examples of how this work actually looks. This article describes a 35-year-old program in a community-based urban setting which has successfully prepared over 800 counselors while integrating social justice and multicultural competencies into its core curriculum. The authors discuss the impact of the program in terms of multicultural competence, praxis, and social justice agency. The article includes recommendations about challenges that professionals and programs of this nature must negotiate in order to implement a program of this …

A Multicultural Learning Community Seminar As A Site Of Praxis, Carl A. Grant, Vonzell Agosto

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

The Multicultural Learning Community (MLC) Seminar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison operates under the direction of the authors as faculty director and teaching assistant. The seminar offers the students and faculty the opportunity to act on Freire’s and Leistyna’s conceptions of praxis. A culturally relevant approach to assessment is employed to discuss the progress of the students and the seminar as a site of praxis. Praxis is the relationship between theoretical understanding and critique of society (that is, its historical, ideological, sociopolitical, and economic influences and structures) and action that seeks to transform individuals and their environment (Leistyna, 1999, p. …

Science Education On The U.S./Mexico Border: Field-Based Studies For Future Teachers In Bilingual/Binational Schools, William H. Robertson, Judith H. Munter, Claudia Garcia

Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education

The University of Texas at El Paso’s field-based program of studies for future teachers provides opportunities for powerful learning through a dialectical union of reflection and action. Methods courses in academic disciplines are linked with seminars and coursework on community partnerships, dual language education and culturally responsive education. This article illustrates the processes of planning, implementation and evaluation of this approach, highlighting the impacts of forging connections among schools, communities and university personnel to improve education on the U.S./Mexico border and in communities with culturally/linguistically diverse student populations. Parents, students and future teachers interact in bilingual workshops that center on …

Unlv College Of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter, Porter Troutman, Jian Wang, Steven Grubaugh, Randall L. Astramovich, Jennifer L. Fabbi, Kyle Higgins, Lori Navarrete, Jean Henry, Carli Kyles, R. R. Apache, Cecilia Maldonado-Daniels, Chizu Jaret, Karla V. Kingsley, Nancy Sileo

College of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter

A newsletter discussing a variety of topics dealing with multicultural topics and diversity in education.

Unlv College Of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter, Porter Troutman, Steven Grubaugh, Jian Wang, Randall L. Astramovich, Jennifer L. Fabbi, Kyle Higgins, Lori Navarrete, Jean Henry, Lisa Bendixen, Carli Kyles, Cecilia Maldonado-Daniels, R. R. Apache, Chizu Jaret, Karla V. Kingsley, Nancy Sileo

College of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter

A newsletter discussing a variety of topics dealing with multicultural topics and diversity in education.