Education Commons^™

Building Engagement Through Developing Students’ Sense Of Self-Control, Natalia Sanchez Gonzalez

Master's Projects and Capstones

Students who enter public schools in the United States in the latter part of their academic career may lack the English language proficiency or capital necessary to successfully participate in mainstream content courses. Students such as these, known as late arrivals, face even greater difficulties when they enter academic institutions that or not equipped to provide language supports that ensure students can access content. Arriving at a later age and grade level, places additional pressure on educators and students to enter mainstream language classrooms. With little control or access to be active participants in the new academic settings, these students …

An Autoethnography Of Culturally Relevant Leadership As Moral Practice: Lived Experiences Through A Scholar-Practitioner Lens, Charles L. Lowery

The Qualitative Report

In this autoethnography, I am concerned with cultural relevance as an experience of a scholar-practitioner educational leader. I question my own cultural competence as a teacher and school principal. Turning a reflective gaze on my lived experiences as an educator creates a space in which I attempt to make meaning of the phenomenon of culturally relevant practices in the field of education. As an act of pedagogical and personal meaning-making, this autoethnographic work centers on the value of cultural relevance as informed by scholarly practice.

Identifying Inclusive Practices On U.S. University Campuses That Create Engagement For Diverse Populations, Brandon Tatum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interactions between diversity and inclusion have been incompletely studied on U.S. college campuses. Previous researchers have also demonstrated an incomplete understanding of these two constructs, resulting in uneven attempts to create inclusion on college campuses. Diversity and inclusion research on college life is needed because inclusion is relatively new and unexplored, student diversity in U.S. higher education is increasing, and practical models and programs for enhancing campus inclusion are lacking. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify best practices and student attitudes regarding inclusion and group memberships with Generation Z and Millennial college students in the United States, …

Culture As A System Of Shared Meaning: Exploring Intercultural Leadership Identity Through Practical Application, Emily Patrick

M.A. in Leadership Studies: Capstone Project Papers

This explorative, inductive, applied research study aims to examine the intersection of intercultural communication of values and leadership identities and capacities. Using existing and guiding cultural value theories, experiential learning techniques, meaning making ideologies, and adult learning principles, a two-and-a-half-hour intensive workshop was designed for a group of twenty-eight leadership and entrepreneurship students, predominantly Mexican nationals at the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, City. Specifically, the study demonstrates how culture affects leadership identities and capacities using the agreed-upon symbols, rituals, heroes and values that make up each culture’s perspectives, practices or applications of culture in everyday life. The expressed values …

To Know A Bāthā: Family Language Socialization Among Buddhist Immigrants From Myanmar In New York City, Chu M. Paing

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

While there is a rising number of research on Heritage Language Maintenance among East Asian immigrants, there have been very few research done on Southeast Asian minority heritage language maintenance. The purpose of this paper is to shed the light on the practices and ideologies towards heritage language maintenance in two Buddhist immigrant families from Myanmar residing in New York City. This paper approaches the topic of heritage language maintenance by employing Elinor Ochs and Bambi Schieffelin’s (1984) theoretical framework on language socialization, i.e., socializing U.S. born Burmese children to become competent members of both their heritage and American societies. …

Examining Pre-Service Teachers' Instructional Strategies For Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Via Video-Conferencing, Hsiu-Jen Cheng, Hong Zhan

Hong Zhan

This action research observes instructional strategies and appropriateness of the strategies that pre-service teachers have applied during their training based on the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) training model. Participants include 14 pre-service teachers who were enrolled in a Distance Education training course in Taiwan. During the course, pre-service teachers were trained to develop teaching skills based on the TPACK training model and applied their skills in video-conferencing teaching which involved 14 American students who were learning Mandarin Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) in an intermediate level course in the United States. Data were collected via screen recordings of …

Performing Wechat Recording Tasks In Mixed-Ability Study Abroad Content Courses, Hong Zhan, Leeann Chen

Hong Zhan

This case study explores the use of WeChat’s recording tool as a solution to the challenges of teaching mixed-ability students in content courses offered in study abroad programs. The tool successfully reduced anxiety and boredom, created opportunities for students to engage in personalized learning tasks in real time, enabled instructors to provide individualized feedback, and helped course curriculums stay on track. Data was collected from an online survey, email interview, and students’ recordings of topics and instructor’s feedback. The study determined that using WeChat’s recording function to complete linguistic tasks is a useful instructional tool for a mixed-ability classes in …

Integrating Second Life Into A Chinese Language Teacher Training Program: A Pilot Study, Hsiu-Jen Cheng, Hong Zhan, Andy Tsai

Hong Zhan

Second Life (SL), a 3-D Multi-User Virtual Environment, has been found beneficial to foreign language education because of its immersive and interactive environments. This cross-continental study explored feasibilities of using Second Life to provide field experiences to pre-service Mandarin teachers in a program of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language in Taiwan. This study also investigated pre-service teachers‘ insights of teaching Chinese in such a virtual environment, as well as the difficulties these teachers encountered when integrating Second Life in teaching Chinese. The study found that the more teaching experience the pre-service teachers gained in teaching Chinese in Second Life, …

The Role Of Technology In Teaching And Learning Chinese Characters, Hong Zhan, Hsiu-Jen Cheng

Hong Zhan

Chinese characters have been an obstacle preventing the development of Chinese proficiency for learners of Chinese whose native language does not have characters. A substantial literature review identified linguistic, pedagogical, and political factors as causes of those difficulties. Tone changes represent different meanings of a word. Compound characters include the phonetic component radicals that do not always sound the same as the phonetic radicals. These unique linguistic features of the Chinese language add even more challenges for learning of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). Technology integration has been found to facilitate the teaching and learning foreign languages in many …

Book Review: Mcgraw-Hill's Chinese Dictionary & Guide To 20,000 Essential Words, Hong Zhan

Hong Zhan

Chinese Dictionary & Guide to 20,000 Essential Words is a concise dictionary specially designed for learners of Chinese as a foreign or a second language. This dictionary distinguishes itself from other Chinese language dictionaries by its unconventional character look-up system, a system that searches for a character by counting the total number of “broken marks” (not linked or unlinked strokes) of each character.

Unspoken Barriers: An Autoethnographic Study Of Frustration, Resistance And Resilience, Rose M. Wake

The Qualitative Report

Immigration, cultural capital, cultural hybridity are the contributing players within my autoethnographic research as a second-generation daughter of southern Italian migrants from the post war era. This autobiography of my lived experience identifies contributing influences of arrested development within my educational and life trajectory and explores theoretical frameworks as key comparative indicators for my thwarted stages of psychosocial development. My identity and role as a female is further explored within the construct of a determined and culturally hybrid adolescence in an effort to answer research questions of identity and role confusion. My narratives situate my life as a daughter, student, …

Amjambo Africa! (December 2018), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Listings ...............................Page 3

Empower the Immigrant Woman..... .........................................Pages 8 & 9

McAuley Residence..............Page 12

Okay So I Lost an Election...Page 12

Treating Mental Health .......Page 13

Public Charge .......................Page 15

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions Of Their International Teaching Assistants (Itas) And Perceptions Of Themselves In A Course(S) Instructed By An Ita, Nadia Hanayeen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The University of Arkansas is a large, diverse public university. International teaching assistants (ITAs) represent 20% of the total graduate teaching assistants at the University of Arkansas. In the Fall semester of 2015, the University of Arkansas ranked 9th among U.S. universities based on the number of ITAs instructing undergraduate classes. Combining quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods, this study investigated domestic undergraduate students’ perceptions of their ITAs and of themselves in courses instructed by ITAs. The descriptive quantitative findings showed that the two most significant challenges facing ITAs are American students’ perceptions of their pedagogical skills and …

The Role Of Writing Center Tutorials Of Esl Students: Exploring Tutors, Tutees, And Instructors’ Perceptions, Ibrahim Mostafa Hassan Mazen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of the writing center tutorials. Based on the assumptions of the constructivist theory, this research tried to present a cognitive framework for better tutoring at the writing center and suggested better accommodations for ESL tutees. this exploratory study investigated the role of the writing center tutorials offered to ESL students through the perceptions of tutors, ESL tutees, and university instructors.

Methods. Eighty nine international /ESL students and 23 tutors were selected. They were given a survey to respond to. Afterwards ten out of the 89 students and ten out of …

“Siento Que Siempre Tengo Que Regresar Al Inglés”: Embracing A Translanguaging Stance In A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Sandra I. Musanti, Alyssa G. Cavazos

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter centers on our reflections and pedagogical moves as two bilingual educators at a Hispanic-Serving Institution on the borderland region of South Texas, a predominantly bilingual and bicultural community. Specifically, the chapter documents how we embrace a translanguaging pedagogical stance. Translanguaging practices are identity markers and represent the complex ways bilinguals use their linguistic repertoire to communicate across contexts and to negotiate social identities (García & Li Wei, 2014; Martinez-Roldán, 2015). Drawing on García, Johnson, and Seltzer’s (2017) conceptualization of a translanguaging “corriente,” we describe our translanguaging stance and moves as we, respectively, design and teach two undergraduate courses: …

Critical Pedagogy And The Ethics Of Care: How Values Affect The Classroom Dynamic, Colby D. Reed

MSU Graduate Theses

This thesis centers on the benefits of Paulo Freire’s critical and liberatory pedagogy for introductory composition classes when used as an ethical and moral template as opposed to a sociological ideology. Using care ethics as a lens, chapter one begins by addressing current difficulties and criticisms present in the discussion of care ethics and the pedagogy as the models for composition classes and then applying the ethics of critical and liberatory pedagogy to these issues. Chapter two builds on that by exploring what ethical and moral elements are present in Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and how they relate to …

The Role Of Dialect Words In Children’S Social Decisions, Madison Rose Myers-Burg

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent research suggests that young children are capable of distinguishing between phonetically dissimilar spoken accents, yet have difficulty distinguishing between phonetically similar accents (Wagner, Clopper, & Pate, 2013). The present study aimed to determine whether the presence of dialect-specific vocabulary enhances young children’s ability to categorize speakers. Participants completed four training trials in which they were familiarized with photos of two children: one of whom used American English labels for test objects and one of whom used British English labels. After training trials, participants completed eight test trials in which they were asked to infer which target child would use …

Supporting English Language Learners Through Collaboration, Compassion, And Engagement, Lora Ann Stead

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio illustrates the student’s academic work completed while in the Master of Second Language Teaching program at Utah State University. The project is centered around the student’s philosophy on teaching English language learners (ELLs) as drawn from personal experience and second language acquisition research. The author seeks to provide awareness into best practices for teaching ELLs.

The portfolio is divided into three sections: 1) teaching perspectives, 2) research perspectives, and 3) annotated bibliographies. Within these sections, the author explores themes related to ELL teaching that highlight the importance of collaboration, compassion, and engagement. These topics include politely closing a …

A Study Of Acculturative And Linguistic Experiences Of Syrian Refugees In The United States From 2011 – 2018, Amany Habib

Dissertations

Research examining the acculturation and linguistic processes of Syrian refugees resettling in the United States from 2011 – 2018 is limited. In order to learn about the acculturative and linguistic experiences of this unique group of refugees, the current study sought to collect data related to these two experiences within the resettled Syrian refugee population living in the U.S.A. since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

Acquiring the language of a host country is necessary but language-learning experiences vary depending on a number of factors. This research attempted to elucidate the challenges of Syrian refugees in their …

Developing Cultural Competency In Anesthesia Through Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Emma To

Doctoral Projects

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) are the main anesthesia providers in over 70% of rural hospitals providing anesthesia. Each year, over 2,000 student registered nurse anesthetists (SRNAs) graduate and continue as licensed CRNAs. This Doctor of Nurse Practice (DNP) project emphasizes the importance of developing culturally competent providers in anesthesia by promoting early outreach in cultural competence education of SRNAs. Cultural competence is described as possessing characteristics of congruent attitudes, awareness, and conduct that provides and enables effective skills in cross-cultural encounters. Encompassing cultural competency education early in the SRNAs profession may provide valuable lifelong cultural skills that will benefit …

The Universal Language Of Music: Why Music Is Important In Education, Carron Prudhon

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project focused on the need for increasing music opportunities in schools and the ways in which it increases literacy, particularly in an English Language Learners (ELL) classroom, where increasing English literacy is so vital. After interviewing a district music director, a high school English language development director, and a high school ELL teacher, three action options emerged as ways to provide more music in high school ELL classrooms. Based on the findings, an action was undertaken to help secondary teachers incorporate more music into their daily curriculum.

Developing Intercultural Competence Through Online English Language Teaching, Didem Ekici

Doctoral Dissertations

With an increasing number of refugees and immigrants in European and American classrooms, teachers need to be prepared to meet their varied and complex needs. In particular, to help these diverse students succeed, teachers need to be interculturally competent, which is a combination of many skills including attitude, linguistic and cultural awareness, empathy, and flexibility. However, developing these skills not only takes theoretical knowledge but also hands-on training and practice. While many programs in school of education provide experiential practicum projects and online collaborations with diverse students, they have not expanded to the population in war zones. Moreover, a review …

The Impact Of Ancestral Language Maintenance On Cultural Identity Among White Immigrant Descendants: A Phenomenological Qualitative Study, Micaella Elizabeth Colla

Doctoral Dissertations

There is insufficient research on the cultural identity formation of White immigrant descendants who have experienced ancestral language loss. This phenomenological qualitative study conducted in San Francisco, California explored the experiences and perceptions of seven White immigrant descendants in response to these questions: (1) What is the role of L1 (mother tongue) maintenance on identity maintenance among White immigrant descendants? (2) How do immigrant descendants view their cultural identities in the absence of their ancestral languages? And (3) How might educators encourage second language and culture acquisition, while protecting students’ first languages and cultures? Research data included narratives from in-depth, …

La Comunicación Lingüística En Español Y Sus Barreras En El Sistema De Salud De Los Estados Unidos, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

La enseñanza del español con fines médicos en los Estados Unidos ha experimentado un crecimiento exponencial en las dos últimas décadas. Sin embargo, los pacientes de origen hispano se encuentran desprotegidos ante las barreras lingüísticas que impone el sistema de salud estadounidense en muchos contextos monolingües y bilingües. Esta investigación descriptiva muestra como, por un lado, los malentendidos producidos por la comunicación ineficiente desarrollada por intérpretes e intermediarios (familiares, enfermeras con conocimientos de español, facultativos con una preparación lingüística deficiente, etc.) tienen serias repercusiones para la salud en el tratamiento de los casos. Por otro lado, el estudio da cuenta …

Student Voices: African American High School Seniors' Perception Of Culturally Responsive Teaching., Whitney M. Stewart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examined African-American high school seniors’ perceptions of culturally responsive teaching in one public high school within a large urban public-school district in the southeastern region of the United States. It begins with a brief historical overview on the plight of African-Americans in the US public education system and how public school educators have failed to leverage Afrocultural learning orientations as an asset to educate and increase the academic achievement of African-American students in classrooms. The Philosophical Aspects of Cultural Difference Framework (Nichols, 1986, 1995) will guide this dissertation study. The latter part of the dissertation reveals that a …

Present But Not Accounted For: A Phenomenological Study Of Gifted African American Males., Ronda Elizabeth George

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to explore the lived experiences of gifted African American males in grades 6-8. Specifically, the study examined how gifted African American males perceived and understood their participation in a gifted program and how their sense of self-efficacy shaped their disposition and approach toward academic persistence. Much of the literature published on the social, emotional, and academic success of gifted African American males has focused on college-aged students, therefore the current study is crucial in contributing to the body of knowledge on African American males, in particular, those identified as gifted during early adolescence …

Foreign Language Education: Methods Of Effective Instruction In The Foreign Language Classroom, Ashley Nicole Jacobs

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis compares the various methods of teaching a foreign language. With the growing diversity of the population of the United States, it is becoming increasingly important for students to expand their knowledge of languages beyond English. Foreign language study has a number of benefits, including the promotion of effective communication and the construction of relationships with those from other countries and cultures. While there are a number of factors that influence effective foreign language acquisition, the factor that will be explored in this thesis is foreign language education methodology. This thesis will present seven methods of teaching foreign language …

Expanding Capacity To Serve Multilingual Learners: A University-School District Partnership, Beth Clark-Gareca, Kim Fontana

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

In a time of new teacher certification requirements in New York, school districts are grappling with how to meet the regulatory expectations imposed by Commissioner’s Regulations Part 154. One way that schools are solving staffing challenges is by forging new collaborations with university partners to expand their collective capacities to serve Multilingual learners (MLLs). In this article, we document a partnership between SUNY New Paltz’s Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program and the Pawling Central School District during the 2017-18 academic year. We describe the partners’ distinct roles in the university-district collaboration, and discuss the logistical considerations …

Building Capacity For Quality Leadership With English Language Learners, John Leonard, Betty Alford, Neill Armstrong

School Leadership Review

Waxman, Téllez, and Walberg (2004) advocated that school leaders must assist staff developers in providing English language learner (ELLs)-related professional development that includes “demonstration of theories of language, sustained coaching, and evaluation programs measuring teacher implementation and impact” (p 2-3). These professional development goals are central to the leader’s purposeful expansion of teachers’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions concerning the unique needs of ELLs and communicating the importance of the effective curricular integration of well-planned and embedded strategies designed to meet the needs of the often marginalized ELL population. School leaders must be willing to provide a systematic program of professional …

Planning For Enrichment And Equity In Dual Language Education: A Study Of Eight Program Master Plans, Charles Merritt

Doctor of Education (EdD)

This qualitative study analyzed eight dual language master plans developed by school districts on the West Coast of the United States. Each of the plans represented one or more dual language programs within each school district. The purpose of the study was to determine how school districts express their priorities for dual language programming. Master plans were analyzed for their structure, rationales, and their intended impact on students and families. Through numerous coding passes, several themes revealed themselves related to proposed benefits to students in language, academics, and social-emotional growth. The findings of this study indicated an informal community of …