Education Commons^™

We Have Arabic At This School?: The Impact Of Neoliberalism And Orientalism On Arabic Education In The United States, Ella V. Pastore

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research examines Arabic education in the United States at the undergraduate level, highlighting the question: How do forces such as Orientalism, globalization, and neoliberalism affect the way that the Arabic language is taught and recognized in the United States? The Arabic programs of three highly accredited American universities are presented, in relation to their Japanese programs. While Japanese is a language that faces its own Orientalisms and imperial history with the West, Japan is currently not a country that is prioritized through national security interests, with Arabic being designated as a “Critical Language”. Through examination of the advertisement of …

Engaging Older Immigrants To Learn English: Advocating For Late-In-Life Learning For Everyone, Susan Marie Filous

Master's Projects and Capstones

In the United States, late-in-life and aging-in-place immigrants require basic English language skills to support their ability to independently access economic, medical, housing, legal, and social services. Older immigrants typically rely on family members, potentiating the risks of neglect and dependency. There is an opportunity to expand their agency in society by increasing their English proficiency.

Foreign language geragogy supports differentiated educational strategies for older learners. There is no upper age limit on the ability to learn a new language, and there are new methods and practices to teach foreign languages to older students. It is insufficient to mainstream older …

Addressing Linguistic Isolation Through Community Based Esl And Emergency Preparedness, Lisa Guay

Master's Projects and Capstones

Linguistic isolation acts as a barrier to the well-being and social integration of Limited English Proficient (LEP) adults. Community-based English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, designed with learner-centric curricula, may help LEPs gain access to social and navigational capital in the form of English proficiency, confidence and social integration. Community-based ESL programs provide adult English Language Learners (ELLs) with a path to English proficiency and social integration, but curricula should be geared toward ELLs’ needs. There is a need for ESL curricula focused on emergency and disaster preparedness, curricula which may contribute positively to adult ELLs’ speaking skills and …

Preparing To Engage Migrant-Origin Students Through Culturally Responsive Teaching: A Handbook For Teachers, Grayson E. Briggs

Master's Theses

Students of migrant-origin currently represent approximately 25% of the total student population in the United States. As immigration to the U.S. continues, the proportion of migrant-origin students in public schools is only expected to grow. Despite the growing representation of migrant-origin youth amongst the K-12 student population, current schooling approaches have not expanded to address the diversifying needs of the student population. Because public school systems are struggling to adapt to the needs of migrant-origin students, these students’ educational attainment is suffering. The presence of implicit bias, microaggressions, and stereotypes in all aspects of schooling is a significant factor that …

No One To Save, And Everything To Learn: Decolonial Possibilities For Global Ngos Facilitating Education In Emergencies, Megan N. Patterson

Master's Theses

The field of Education in Emergencies is an emerging field which aims to offer solutions for the continuation of learning in humanitarian settings, but also navigates dynamics of global development in the pursuit of delivering quality learning and universal learning access. In this study, qualitative content analysis is used to examine the beliefs, values, and motivations of three Education in Emergencies (EiE) programs implemented by NGOs. These were selected to offer insight into programming designed for global, regional, and local implementation, as well as nuanced dynamics of power, agency, and saviorism through seven criteria: (1) Purpose of learning, (2) Instructional …

Uncorking The Speaking Skill: Wine And Prosody In Conversation, Efren Antonio Serra

Master's Projects and Capstones

Although the skill of speaking is necessary for attaining basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS), most traditional second language acquisition programs base their pedagogy and curriculums on lexis and grammar of the written form and phonology/phonetics. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate how to effectively adapt content-specific material for developing the speaking skill at community colleges with adult students who are interested in pursuing a career in the wine industry as a sommelier. Courses for becoming a sommelier or a server in the wine industry are traditionally offered at community colleges under the culinary arts and hospitality management programs, …

Desde El Suelo: Resources For Anti Colonial And Abolitionist Educators In Puerto Rico, Jazdil Poupart-Feliciano

Master's Projects and Capstones

“Desde el Suelo” is a set of resources, activities and reflections created for educators looking to name, understand and heal from the systemic harms experienced in our schooling in order to interrupt these cycles and better support children, youth and ourselves in our liberation. For Puerto Rican educators, this process begins with the understanding that any system created with the goal of expanding the u.s. empire through racist occupation and epistemicide can never be reformed into promoting freedom or social justice. Pulling from abolitionist teaching and critical pedagogy, inspired by historical struggles for Black liberation across the diaspora and in …

People, Not Headlines: Teaching English To Ukrainian Refugees, Katherine Gardiner

Master's Projects and Capstones

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, thousands of Ukrainians have fled their home country, many resettling in English-speaking countries. Ukrainian refugees bring with them many strengths; however, the challenges of surviving in another country on top of the language barrier and the trauma they may carry must be carefully considered and given special attention by instructors of refugees. The purpose of this project is to address the lack of English teaching material for the increasingly growing population of Ukrainian refugees in North America. The handbook is informed by current pedagogy on community building, promoting self-efficacy and …

Enhancing The Communicative Competence Of Filipino Immigrants In America, Zsanel Aranas

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project focuses on enhancing the communicative competence of Filipino immigrants in America through developing a workshop program. The Filipino immigrant community in America is diverse and they struggle to overcome language barriers and adapt to their new environment. This project aims to solve these struggles by providing valuable skills and resources for successful communication. The workshop program is a four-unit modular material that covers areas relevant to speaking and communication, such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, writing, speaking, and cultural competence. By enhancing their communicative competence, Filipino immigrants can engage in meaningful conversations, develop public speaking skills, and create …

Techniques For Reducing Public Speaking Anxiety In Adult English Learners, Andy Mardesich

Master's Projects and Capstones

Making presentations to a group is a complex skill that takes time to develop, and it can be intimidating and anxiety inducing. Using mindset theory and feedback from interviews with community college teachers, this teacher's guide, Techniques for Reducing Public Speaking Anxiety in Adult English Learners, discusses approaches for reducing anxiety in an adult ESOL/EFL speaking classroom. It discusses the importance of providing a safe and comfortable environment to practice and manage anxiety, building good support structures, providing clear rubrics and student roles, and offering plenty of opportunities for interaction through purposeful communication. This guide holds significance for students, teachers, …

When Culturally Responsive Practices Meet Social-Emotional Learning: A Guide For Educators, Sharon Ju-Ting Cheng

Master's Projects and Capstones

Many educators hope to give their students quality and well-rounded education while balancing all the contents they need to learn. Social-emotional learning (SEL) and culturally responsive teaching, however, are two areas that teachers seem to struggle with (Stark et al., 2021). Teachers have encountered situations where it was difficult for them to support their students due to the cultural differences between the teacher and student (Heineke & Vera, 2021). This lack of professional development in the culturally responsive aspect is concerning.

The shortfall of training leads to failure to apply these practices into schools. For newcomer students, who are usually …

“Our Misak Identity Is The Spinal Cord Of Our Education”: Oral History Of Gerardo Tunubalá Velasco, Patricia Rojas-Zambrano, Susan Roberta Katz

International Journal of Human Rights Education

The Misak people of Colombia are respected worldwide for recovering their ancestral Land, revitalizing their native language and culture, and building an education system from pre-school to university centered in traditional values and worldviews. Through this oral history with Gerardo Tunubalá Velasco, Misak educational leader and co-founder of the Misak University, we learn about his efforts alongside his community to create and sustain an autonomous educational system that guarantees the rights and dignity of Indigenous peoples in Colombia and beyond. His story, grounded in a profound love and communion with Land, speaks of the importance of Land recovery for Indigenous …