Education Commons^™

The Puzzle Of Debutant Ingo Participation In Guatemala’S National Reading Program Leamos Juntos: A Comparative And Multi-Sited Case Study, Jacob A. Carter

Doctoral Dissertations

The dynamics of nongovernmental organizations (NGO) working in Guatemala can be understood as processual, evolving with and being shaped by social and cultural events in Guatemala and around the world. Central to understanding these dynamics is NGOs’ historical relationship to the State, which has ranged from collaborative to homicidal. However, as the number and activity of NGOs increase globally and in Guatemala, specifically within the education sector, some scholars characterize them less by their opposition to the State and more by their provision of education and myriad affiliations with the State. The purpose of this dissertation is to situate …

Scaffolding Narrative Writing In A Fourth-Grade Classroom Through Accela’S Expanded Teaching And Learning Cycle: A Case Study, Juan P. Jimenez

Doctoral Dissertations

The socio-political context of education reform of the last two decades in the United States (e.g., No Child Left Behind Act, Race to the Top, anti-bilingual education laws in several states, The Common Core State Standards, and the Every Student Succeeds Act) has limited the capacity of urban public schools to address the academic literacy needs of the increasingly growing population of emerging bilinguals in this country; which as of fall of 2019 represented 10.4 % (5.1 million students) (NCES, 2022). This problem has been exacerbated when large numbers of emerging bilinguals have been placed in mainstream classrooms with inadequately …

How Well Does The New York State Higher Education Opportunity Program Work For Black Men? A Mixed Methods Study, Michael A. Dejesus Iii

Doctoral Dissertations

Previous research trended towards a deficit-oriented approach to understanding and explaining Black male underachievement. The past education research has focused on discussing the underachievement of Black males in Higher education. Finding solutions often were prescriptive in “fixing” behaviors in Black males to improve academic achievement. Additionally, there has been a trend towards race-neutrality in education policies, programs, and admissions criteria. And there is a lack of research on whether race-neutrality further exacerbates Black male underachievement by ignoring key race and gender targeted supports services that could improve Black male academic outcomes in higher education. While Black men have historically struggled …

Examining Parents Who Are English Language Learners With Reading Difficulties: Their Experiences Of Their Diverse Children's Literacy Learning, Ellen Ho

Doctoral Dissertations

Insufficient parental support can cause English language learners (ELLs) with reading difficulties (RD) to drop out from school. Students with RD might result from genetic influences. Their parents who also have RD may be less involved in children's education. Understanding diverse parents' experiences can help promote their motivation of parent involvement. According to the previous studies, parent involvement is a major indicator of their children's academic achievements. Therefore, knowing the needs of ELL parents with RD can lead to identifying ways to support such parents, and eventually alleviate the national crisis of dropout rates for ELLs with/ without RD. However, …

“In The Skin I’M In…I Represent A Different Version Of What Help Looks Like:” Black Women Sport Psychology Professional’S Experiences In Applied Sport Psychology, Sharon R. Couch

Doctoral Dissertations

Black Feminist Applied Sport Psychology (BFASP) is a culturally inclusive theoretical framework for centering Black women’s experiences in applied sport psychology (Carter et al., 2020; Couch et al., 2022). For the past two decades, (White) Feminist applied sport psychology professionals (FASPPs) described the experiences of Black women as unique but were overlooked in research and participant pools due to the prioritization of White women's and Black male sport experiences. (Carter & Davila, 2017; Carter & Prewitt-White, 2014; Gill, 2020; Hyman et al., 2021). The purpose of this study was to explore the life and work experiences of BASPPs (i.e., faculty, …

Using Peer Review To Improve English As A Second Language College Students' Writing Scores, Mengjie Wei

Doctoral Dissertations

This study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of peer-review in college English as Second Language writing classes to improve ESL students’ writing scores. It also investigated a statistically significant difference in college ESL students’ writing scores between those who use the self-check list and peer review worksheet and those who only use the self-check list in writing paragraphs and essays. More specifically, this study was conducted to determine the influence of different areas on students’ English writing scores, i.e., format/content/structure, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling. In addition, this study explored students’ attitudes and opinions on peer-review in writing class.

This …

Understanding The Perspectives, Practices, And Expectations Of Korean American Parents Toward The Heritage Language Education Of Their Children, Yunhee Choi

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study, conducted with parents of a Bay Area Korean school, was to explore how Korean American parents perceive, practice, and expect from the heritage language education of their children. The parents shared their experiences as Korean immigrants in raising their children in two languages. First, a survey was distributed and collected to apprehend the demographics of 24 Korean American parents in a West Coast metropolitan area who sent their children to a Korean heritage language school on weekends. Then one-on-one in-depth interviews were conducted with seven of these parents. Seven themes emerged from the data: …

The Collegiate Black Space: Black College Students’ Use Of New Counter-Spaces For Support, Knowledge Production, And Organizing For Activism, Heather Streets

Doctoral Dissertations

Black collegians who attend historically white institutions continue to struggle with racism, microaggressions, feelings of alienation, minimal or improper advising, and an undue pressure to prove themselves (Bonner, 2010; Feagin & Sikes, 1995; Strayhorn, 2010). These barriers to success result in part due to a lack of support from the colleges and universities that they attend (Allen, 1992; Parker, Puig, Johnson & Anthony, Jr., 2016). With institutional benefits designed to benefit white students over students of color, Black students must find their own alternatives for collaboration and to provide support for their peers.

Many Black spaces can be defined as …

Voces Of Little Michoacan: A Collective Narrative Of Resistance And Preservation Of Home, Ana Angel Avendaño

Doctoral Dissertations

This empirical study captured the ongoing community organizing, led primarily by Chicanas and young people in a Latinx community in the San Francisco Bay Area. This community has experienced historic neglect, inequities, gentrification, and economic displacement. Through muxersita portraiture, a critical qualitative methodology, with young people as co-researchers, this study captures the collective narrative of the community of North Fair Oaks through platicas, encuentros y acción. In the process, this collective narrative disrupts the negative impact of gentrification by providing a historical context of the contributions of Latinx in North Fair Oaks. This study uses a critical coraje framework; a …

The Policy Feedback Loop: Exploring English Learner (El) Policy, Policy Implementation, And The Relationship Between Policy, Research, And Practice, Nathan D. Koerber

Doctoral Dissertations

This study will explore the EL policy implementation process and offer evaluative feedback by systematically reviewing the history of US federal educational language policy and its impact on schools and classrooms, as well as the role research, has played in the development of EL policy. Additionally, this study will explore how current language policy implementation impacts programming and practices in both the UK and the US through two separate case studies, as a means of providing evaluative feedback on the policies.

The purpose of this study is to elucidate the complicated history of EL policy and its impact, as well …

A Study Of Students’ And Teachers’ Beliefs About Learning English As A Second Language In Hindi Medium Schools In India, Samir Toppo

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study is an exploration of beliefs about learning English held by English as a second Language (ESL) students and teachers from Jharkhand, India. The basic premise of the study is that the learners’ and the instructors’ beliefs about learning a language affect the learning approach, learning strategy use, personal motivation, the choice of instructional material and the instructional method. Thus, beliefs indirectly affect language learning. The assumption of this study is also that the participants in this study hold debilitative beliefs about English language learning. A mixed method research approach was used in this study. The quantitative data …

Language Ideologies And Bilingual Education Policies In A Dual Language Classroom, Eirini Pitidou

Doctoral Dissertations

Dual language programs have been considered by many scholars as the epitome of bilingual education models as they promise bilingual competence, academic success and cultural awareness for both majority and minority language students attending the program. Research has shown that they also tend to promote equity and establish social justice among all students, and students have reported improved self-esteem and bilingual pride among other benefits. The three guiding principles or pillars of dual language education are bilingualism, biliteracy and biculturalism. Recently, critical consciousness has been proposed as the 4^th pillar as an establishment of the promotion of social justice …

The Voices And Lived Academic Experiences Of International Doctoral Student Mothers, Mishka Murad

Doctoral Dissertations

Given that there is no research that focuses exclusively on the experiences of international doctoral student mothers, this study chose to explore the challenges and supports that ten of these women experienced at one U.S. university. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with open ended questions, it explored the triumphs and trials of these students in their academic journeys in regard to their performances in the classroom, and their relationships with faculty and peers. It also brainstormed the ways in which faculty, advisors and peers, might consider changing their practices and behaviors in classrooms and on campus, to allow these participants to …

Critical Language Awareness In The Multilingual Writing Classroom: A Self-Study Of Teacher Feedback Practices, Emma R. Britton

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite the increasing amount of ethnolinguistic diversity in US schools and universities, traditional approaches to university writing instruction continue to advance the teaching of standard written American English (SWAE) from uncritical ideological standpoints (Bommarito & Cooney, 2016). To disrupt the naturalization of monolingual and standard language ideologies, existing scholarship shows the potential of critical language awareness (CLA), as a pedagogical approach which aims to develop students’ awareness of the relationships between languages, language varieties, language ideologies, power, and social inequities, alongside the teaching of SWAE (Fairclough, 1992). Because the production of student texts is central to a CLA pedagogy (Gilyard, …

Cover, Copy, And Compare: An Effective Strategy For Asl Acquisition For Students With Dyslexia?, Sara Evans

Doctoral Dissertations

A single subject, multiple baseline study was designed to determine the benefits of Skinner’s Cover, Copy, Compare (CCC) intervention for students with dyslexia who are learning American Sign Language. (ASL). The number of educational institutions offering ASL as a foreign language is on the rise; ASL has become the third most taught language in the U.S. (Mitchell, 2006). However, there is a misconception that it is an easier language to learn than orthographic languages. In fact, ASL is a complex language with its own grammatical rules including complex syntax and semantics. Learning a visual language may present a unique challenge …

Critical Multicultural Engagement With Children's Texts: Perspectives, Power, And Positioning, Jasmine A. Robinson

Doctoral Dissertations

While critical approaches are an accepted teaching philosophy (Aukerman, 2012; Behrman, 2006; Luke et al., 2010), there requires further inquiry of theoretical and pedagogical practices for critical multicultural teaching of culturally diverse literature in the elementary context. The problem is not just about what we read with students, but how we critically and multiculturally read and use children's literature for promoting an understanding of social constructs. The essential question that guides this dissertation is: What does critical multicultural engagement with children's texts offer students as they read and respond to texts? This critical ethnography argues that pedagogy centered on critical …

Defining Inclusion: Surveying Educator Perceptions And Practices In Chile, Christina A. Bosch

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite earlier attempts to arrive at unified theories or conceptualizations, the international literature on inclusive education has increasingly documented the proliferation of operationalizations of inclusion in and even within single instances of policy, research, and practice, and called for further scholarly attention to such subjectivity. Specifically, there is a dearth of international research linking definitions to perceptions to practices within special and/or inclusive education, and findings on the efficacy of interventions to promote inclusive education practices in Spanish-speaking contexts or literature are similarly sparse. This study investigates how Latinx educators in K-12 schools conceptualize and practice inclusion with respect to …

Perceived Obstacles By Esl Instructors And Required Support For The Integration Of Educational Technology, Xiaotian Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

Nowadays, the use of technology has become a significant part of the language learning process inside and outside of the classroom. Many previous studies and surveys, most language educators hold a relatively positive attitude to the usage of technology in language teaching and learning. But many other studies also found that language teachers were not really using technology in their classrooms, or only for very low-level learning and teaching. The integration of technology in second language learning and teaching is still a problem that has not been fully researched.This descriptive study was designed to explore the obstacles that prevent ESL …

Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Middle-Eastern And North African (Mena) Jews Through Narrative Inquiry Using A Digital Storytelling Approach, Brandy B. Shufutinsky

Doctoral Dissertations

Cultural erasure has led to the virtual erasure of many communities from learning spaces. Discrimination, ignorance, and the politicization of knowledge production are all factors that lead to marginalization that sees certain communities being excluded from academia. One such community are the Jewish communities from Middle-Eastern and North African (MENA) lands. This dissertation directly confronts the erasure of MENA Jewish communities and the knowledge they hold by providing a platform for members of these communities to share their experiences. Storytelling is one way to combat cultural and historical erasure (Iseke, 2013). Not only does storytelling provide a way to resist …

Pilipinx Radical Imagination: Healing And Visioning In Our Process Of Becoming, Anthony Abulencia Santa Ana

Doctoral Dissertations

There are estimated 10.4 million Filipinos living or working abroad primarily in the Middle East, Europe, Canada, and the United States searching for a better life for themselves and their families (Commission on Filipino Overseas, 2013). Due to economic motivation, assimilating to the host country's culture, values, and traditions is an act of survival. While the majority of the research has focused on the domestic workers’ experience, rarely has there been a study focusing on Filipinos in the diaspora positive contributions to the host country and their Pilipinx Radical Imagination. As a result, the purpose of this qualitative study is …

The Role Of Community Building In Second Language Acquisition In The Mainstream Classroom, Alejandro Clemente Fernandez

Doctoral Dissertations

The world is currently suffering from population displacement due to climate change, war, and economic instability which force many people to migrate in search of a better life, and many of these immigrants include school-age children. This mixed-methods research study sought to establish the association between community building, emotion, and second language acquisition by administering a survey to second language learners in the Napa Valley north of San Francisco in the spring of 2020. The participants were fourteen sixth grade students who had been enrolled in the same English and Spanish dual language immersion program since kindergarten.

The theoretical framework …

Narratives Of Disability And Displacement: Oral Histories Of The Lived Experiences Of Disabled Refugees, Jennifer Lynn Ward

Doctoral Dissertations

Disabled refugees are considered as the most marginalized group of all displaced populations. Disabled displaced people are at particular risk of violence, exploitation, and abuse. Additional barriers to accessing humanitarian assistance, education, health care, and other services exist for disabled displaced people. The purpose of this study was to collaborate with disabled refugees who have resettled in the United States and to create a space for their stories to be told. This research project explores the narratives of the lived experiences of disabled displaced people through the lenses of three theoretical frameworks: human rights, disability justice, and Critical Refugee Studies. …

The Effect Of Teaching And Learning Vocabulary In Lexical Chunks On The Listening Comprehension Of Adult Learners Of Arabic, Bassam Al-Maqtari

Doctoral Dissertations

This study aimed to investigate how teaching and learning Arabic vocabulary items in multiword form (i.e., chunks and phrases), rather than in single form (i.e., one word at a time), affects learners’ ability to comprehend Arabic listening passages and to examine the relationship between students’ auditory knowledge of words, and that of phrases and listening comprehension. Data sources included three types of tests: the Arabic listening comprehension test, the single-word auditory knowledge test, and the multiword auditory knowledge test. The sample consists of 39 students (experimental group=20, control group=19). The study was separated into a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest portion (Phase 1) …

Equity In Language Programs: Revitalizing Indigenous Languages In Secondary School In Anchorage, Alaska, Betsy Watson (Paskvan)

Doctoral Dissertations

"Wherever there is a situation of domination and subordination between any two groups, whatever their color or religion, this will be reflected in the language relationship: one language dominating the other." —wa Thiong’o (2011, p. 244) Indigenous language and culture education efforts in Anchorage, Alaska are limited by omissions in the public school curriculum. One of the many reasons for this is that policy makers believe there is not sufficient demand for Alaska Native languages in public schools. Further there is a perceived lack of language teacher-leaders and experts to build programs for Alaska Native language instruction. This study used …

The Significance Of Jesuit Educational Institution In The Reconstruction Of Postcolonial And Post-Conflict East Timor, Plinio Do Rosario Gusmao Dosreis Martins

Doctoral Dissertations

East Timor, as a postcolonial and post-conflict country, has striven to develop its educational system for almost two decades after its independence in 2002. The current educational system with the Portuguese language as the medium of instruction has been a challenge for teachers and students in the teaching and learning process. The fact that teachers and students are still using Tétum as a supplementary language to explain and express ideas shows that the educators and learners are still struggling with Portuguese despite the efforts of East Timor government to bridge the language gap.

Teachers and students, conversely, acknowledge that the …

Teaching Critical Thinking Skills In A Chinese Immersion School, Pui Hung Helen Wong

Doctoral Dissertations

As a frontline teacher and administrator, I received feedback consistently from parents and students asking for a fun and effective method of instruction for Chinese language development in the US. This study explored the micro-level of how teachers in Chinese immersion schools create an environment to support development of students’ critical thinking skills while learning Chinese. I applied a qualitative approach to the research and designed a case study focused on answering the following research questions: How do teachers help their students to develop critical thinking skills when teaching in a Chinese immersion program? What are the challenges teachers have …

Critical Cultural Perspectives On Teaching Arabic As A Foreign Language (Tafl): A Critical Ethnographic Investigation Of A Us College-Level Course, Shaimaa Moustafa

Doctoral Dissertations

A gap in the critical cultural research paradigm in foreign language teaching (FLT) and teaching Arabic as a foreign language (TAFL) at the college level in the U.S. context subsists. FLT and TAFL have been characterized by the prevalence of the communicative and proficiency-based pedagogies and their concomitant research frameworks. This prevalence is tied to the growing neoliberal and terror rhetoric in recent years (Kramsch, 2005; Bernstein et al., 2015). In the face of the latter, a need for critical cultural frameworks of teaching and research became plausible to deconstruct the different clichés and biases in the context of Arabic …

Experiences Of Uzbek Immigrant Parents With Public Schools In New York City: Parental Engagement, Mekhribon Abdullaeva

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined a Brooklyn, New York Community of Uzbek parents’ engagement with their children’s education, focusing in particular on parental involvement with the school system. It addressed the important, yet difficult-to-measure factors that influence why and how parents engage. It determined that parents are agents who attempt to advance their child’s progress through strategies shaped by a perspective consisting of their goals, resources, parenting style, and expectations. A Q-sort methodology generated parents’ perspectives through their rankings of certain value judgement. Due to variations in parental education, income levels, and other elements, the study generated three parent perspectives that were …

Decolonizing Education: Using Mother Tongue And English Side By Side In Nigeria, Omobola Wusu

Doctoral Dissertations

Nigerians lack access to effective mother tongue education (MTE) at all levels of their schooling. It is well established that cognitive and educational benefits are achieved if one’s mother tongue (MT) is used as the medium of education. This study aimed to determine how adult Nigerians around the world who had been deprived of using their mother tongues (MTs) in their education reflect on their past experiences with negative messages or colonial language ideologies received in school. Also, it explored how these past experiences have shaped their positive MT identities, their MT experiences, and their perspectives on MTE. In this …

Community Leader-Scholars With Refugee Experiences: Collective Hope, Healing, And Multi-Generational Resistance, Jane Pak

Doctoral Dissertations

Through a Critical Refugee Studies (CRS) lens that inherently challenges power, encourages multi-disciplinary approaches, and centers refugee epistemologies, this study centers ways of knowing and being among a group of ten Community Leader-Scholars (CoLS) with refugee experiences. This dissertation posits that CoLS offer critical perspectives that introduce new logics that disrupt traditional spaces and power dynamics. I frame CoLS as undergraduate or graduate students (or recent alumni) with refugee experiences who have self-identified and illustrated a commitment to community well-being in one or more of their transnational communities. This study employed qualitative research methods that included 10 interviews and four …