Digital Commons Network^™

Informing A Transformative Multicultural Approach: Seeking A Content Form And A Medium For Illinois Indian Resources For Preservice Social Studies Teachers, Dan W. Hechenberger

Dissertations

The demographic imperative drives a fundamental tenet of multicultural education: We must more thoroughly acknowledge US diversity by incorporating authentic ethnic heritage in social studies. The purpose of this study was to investigate recommendations, from three levels of educators, on content form and medium for preservice social studies teachers in using resources for an ethnic minority relevant to the state of Illinois and US history, the Illinois Indians. I also explored how varied participant perspectives informed those recommendations and gave meaning to multicultural education via such content.

Research questions involved perceptions, attributes, and needs of preservice social studies teachers. Data …

Understanding The Role Of Faith In Decisions To Persist In College For First-Generation Black Male Students, Larry K. Asplund

Christian Perspectives in Education

While the admissions rate for Black students is now equivalent to that of White students, there is still a large gap in persistence and graduation rates. Among Black students there is a significant graduation rate gap between Black male and female students. The writer used a qualitative research design to make preliminary observations of the decisions to persist in college of a small sample of first-generation African American male students. As students in a Christian university, the dominant role of faith in decisions to persist emerged as an important theme.

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 …

On The Border Of A New Culture: Spanish-Speaking Middle School Newcomers' Perceptions, Expectations And Attitudes, Margo H. Williams

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the Spanish-speaking newcomer middle school students’ perceptions of school, expectations from school, and attitudes toward school. Of particular concern was how these students’ perceptions, expectations, and attitudes developed over a 5-month period. The theoretical framework for the study was derived from Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory; second language acquisition (SLA) theories (Dulay & Burt, 1973; Krashen, 1982; Johnson, 1996; Long, 1985; Schumann, 1978); and Norton’s (1997) theory of identity, investment, and imagined communities. The participants in this study were 4 Spanish-speaking middle school students enrolled in an Intensive English to Speakers of Other …

Being An "Other": The Significance Of Teachers' Lived Experiences In Working With Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students, Yumiko Otsuki

Dissertations and Theses

The study's goal was to understand what contributes to the formation of teachers' perspectives regarding the education of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Its focus was to portray through teachers' stories the experiences in their lives that may have contributed to constructing who they are as people and as educators.

Four teachers from one rural district participated. Using qualitative methods, the study explores and describes incidents in teachers' lives, looking at the way their life experiences are reflected in their relationships with students. In considering ways in which those experiences may have helped shape teaching philosophies and practices, the study …

Exploring Bilingual Arab-American Students' Performance In Solving Mathematics Word Problems In Arabic And English, Samar El-Rifai Sarmini

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study aims at answering questions pertaining to the performance of bilingual Arab-American students on solving word problems written in their home and school languages: (1) Does the language in which a word problem is stated have an effect on the performance of the bilingual Arab-American students?; (2) Do Arab-American students with higher levels of Arabic proficiency perform better in either or both versions of the word problems?; and (3) What are some common differences and similarities in the problem solving processes of Arab-American students as they solve problems in English or Arabic? The study used both quantitative and qualitative …

What’S Your Perspective A Secondary Staff Cultural Proficiency Training, Jeanne A. Cunningham

All Graduate Projects

A two-hour and forty-five minute staff cultural proficiency training was compiled for an urban high school. Nearly thirty percent of the school's population is make up of non-majority cultural groups yet approximately ninety-nine percent of the staff is white. A review of literature indicates that culture matters when educating students and schools cognizant of this information realize higher student performance. Using current data, the project demonstrates the need for cultural proficiency training and provides staff information and resources to increase awareness of the role of culture in teaching and learning.

A Resource Guide For Embedding Multicultural Capital Into The Secondary Science Classrooms Of Central Washington, Theresa Susan Bell

All Graduate Projects

The multiple aspects of multicultural education were researched and are here-in compared and discussed. Through research it was found that although much research exists on multicultural education, little or no multicultural resources are available for secondary science specific to Central Washington. Implications for multicultural education, science education and the integration of the two are discussed. A collection of lessons, websites and teacher tools were merged into a resource guide that can be used for local lesson planning. Practical ideas are offered to the inexperienced multicultural science educator.

Cultural Diversity Awareness Of Elementary School Teachers In Georgia Classrooms, Sohmer Evans Collins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study determined the extent of cultural diversity awareness of in-service, elementary teachers in Georgia classrooms. The study also determined if different levels of cultural awareness existed between teacher groups in relation to their race/ethnicity, gender, level of education, number of years teaching experience, level of education, and exposure to or experience with multicultural education training. A group of 305 certified, in-service elementary school teachers completed the Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory, which assessed their beliefs about cultural diversity in five domains: general cultural awareness, culturally diverse families, cross-cultural communication, assessment, and creating a multicultural environment. Results indicated that elementary, in-service …

Living In The Space Between Participant And Researcher As A Narrative Inquirer: Examining Ethnic Identity Of Chinese Canadian Students As Conflicting Stories To Live By, Elaine Chan

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Schooling experiences of 1st-generation Canadians interact with cultural experiences in their immigrant households to shape a sense of ethnic identity both as Canadians and as members of an ethnic community. This long-term, school-based narrative inquiry is an examination of ways in which expectations for academic performance and behavior by teachers and peers at school and immigrant parents at home contributed to shaping the ethnic identity of an immigrant Chinese student as conflicting stories to live by. A narrative approach revealed challenges of supporting immigrant students in North American schools and contributed to understanding of the nuances of multicultural education.

An Exploration Of The Impact Of An Online Mba Course On Intercultural Sensitivity Development, Suzanne Scaffidi Warell

Dissertations (1934 -)

While research on online MBA courses is growing rapidly, teaching specific skills using online delivery formats is a relatively new stream of research in graduate business education. In this study, adult learning methods such as experiential activities, discussion, teamwork, and action learning were used in a seven-week online MBA course to explore in what ways intercultural sensitivity could be developed. A two-trial, pretest-posttest research mixed methods design was implemented in the summers of 2004 and 2005 at a Midwestern Jesuit university.

Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered and analyzed from thirty-eight participants (N=38). First, quantitative analysis of pretest-posttest scores from …

Circle : A Relationship-Based Dialogic Approach To Growing Out Of Racism : A Project Based Upon An Investigtion With The Partnership For Latino Success, Leominister, Massachusetts, Kristin Elaine Pinto-Wilson

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This study was undertaken to discover whether Circle could be used to foster individual and collective transformation regarding issues of racism. The director for the Partnership for Latino Success designed and implemented a dialogue series called "Changing the World by Changing Ourselves" for individuals to engage in a Circle journey about racism in daily life, relationships, and the community. The dialogues focused on microaggressions, relearning relationships and engaging in meaningful collaborations, and removing shame and blame from social change efforts. This researcher engaged in the dialogue series as a participant/observer and interviewed eight individuals who participated in at least two …

Reading In-Between The Lines: Exploring The Experience Of Cultivating Cultural Awareness With White Teacher Candidates In A Liberal Arts University In Georgia, Holley Morris Roberts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was to explore the use of critical literacy (Freire, 1998) to assist predominately White teacher candidates in their preparation to teach diverse groups of students. Seven White females, who were born and reared in Georgia, participated in the study. These participants were encouraged to critically examine their personal, racial, and cultural roots through autobiographical papers, literature circles using African American children's books, critical reflective papers responding to the literature circles, conversations, and interviews. Three bodies of research provided the theoretical framework for the study: White identity theory (Kunjufu, 2002, McIntyre, 1997, Wise, 2008), critical literacy theory (Freire, 1974, …