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Culturally Responsive Methodologies At Work In Education Settings, Mere Berryman, Suzanne Soohoo, Ann Nevin, Te Arani Barrett, Therese Ford, Debora Joy Nodelman, Norma Valenzuela, Anna Wilson

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe culturally responsive methodology as a way to develop researchers. The aim is to illuminate the dimensions of culturally responsive methodology such as cultural and epistemological pluralism, deconstruction of Western colonial traditions of research, and primacy of relationships within culturally responsive dialogic encounters. An overarching question is: “How can we maintain the original integrity of both participants and researchers and their respective cultures and co-construct at the same time something new?”

Design/methodology/approach – Five case study narratives are described in order for readers to understand the range and types of studies …

Integrated Or Isolated Experiences? Considering The Role Of Service-Learning In The Spanish Language Curriculum, Gabriel Ignacio Barreneche, Héctor Ramos-Flores

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Interculturality: Where Do We Go From Here?, Jennifer Lucko, Alicia Re Cruz

Education | Faculty Scholarship

This issue provides striking examples of how current educational policies and practices play a fundamental role in processes that constitute immigrant and ethnic minority children as ‘others’. This collective compendium not only interweaves theory and practice but also initiates a trans-Atlantic conversation about intercultural education embracing ethnographic cases from North America (Texas), South America (Bolivia) and Europe (Spain). These conversations lead towards an interesting exercise of similarities and differences in how interculturality is used and understood in the classroom, based on the local fluid composition of ideological, ethnic, political and economic factors. The exercise in comparison of these intercontinental ethnographic …

Defining Global Education, Sarina Chugani Molina, Heather Lattimer

School of Leadership and Education Sciences: Faculty Scholarship

As the world is becoming increasingly flat, it has become important for educators to prepare students to understand global perspectives and engage with people from countries and cultures around the world. Although there is no question as to the importance of global education to meet with the demands of a flat world, what internationalization and globalization mean in the classroom is still an area that is met with some level of uncertainty. However, clarity around language and instructional objectives is essential if educators are to ensure that K-12 students learn what they intend. This study explores some of the ways …

Romanticizing Culture: The Role Of Teachers’ Cultural Intelligence In Working With Diversity, Sarina Chugani Molina

School of Leadership and Education Sciences: Faculty Scholarship

As the world is becoming increasingly flat (Ang, Van Dyne, Koh, Templer, & Chandrasekar, 2007; Darling-Hammond, 2010; Friedman, 2005), the classroom has become a mirror that often reflects this phenomenon at a microcosmic level. As such, teacher preparation programs are continuing to emphasize the importance of understanding and valuing student cultures to inform teaching practice. This study sought to examine how 10 in-service teachers in the San Diego area understand the role of culture in their daily work with their culturally and linguistically diverse students using the cultural intelligence framework (Earley & Ang, 2003). While the cultural intelligence framework provided …

The Value Of Meaning-Making And Cultural Knowledge For Teachers Working In Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Contexts, Sarina Chugani Molina

School of Leadership and Education Sciences: Faculty Scholarship

The tapestry of classrooms today is transforming into a mosaic of colors, languages, and backgrounds. As the population of culturally and linguistically diverse students continues to rise, a deeper understanding of how teachers construct meaning and understand their internal and relational experiences when working with these students has become an important area to examine. This study included in-depth interviews with ten public school teachers in the San Diego area, which assessed the teachers’ meaning-making systems and their cultural competence. The framework of constructive developmental theory (Kegan, 1982, 1994) was drawn upon to assess how teachers’ make sense of their experiences, …

Equitable And Fair Assessments Of English Learners In California’S New Assessment System, Norman C. Gold, Ed.D., Magaly Lavadenz, Ph.D., Martha Hernández, M.Ed., Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, M.Ed.

Practitioner Journal Articles

This article focuses on the assessment needs that are unique to English learners (ELs) and provides a comprehensive set of recommendations regarding their equitable and fair assessment. Specific recommendations are provided for when to assess ELs, accommodations for ELs, and the budget and infrastructure that necessary to support these accommodations. The authors expect that these recommendations resonate with state leaders and policymakers as the state of California transitions to a new state assessment system.

Examining Disequilibrium In An Immersion Experience, Carol J. Brazo, Genevieve Harris, Rebecca A. Addleman

Faculty Publications

This study examines the disequilibrium raised by a cultural immersion experience, using the structure of White racial identity development, in an effort to better scaffold the immersion experience in the future. Thirty-two students participated in an immersion experience in Quito, Ecuador. The study follows their experience as they strive to make sense of their experience and begin to understand and unpack their own sense of privilege. The six stages of racial identity development are used as a grid through which to view and consider the experiences of teacher candidates in a cultural immersion experience. Two predominant themes included schools/classroom management, …

English Proficiency / Fluent English Proficient Students, Susan R. Adams

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

K-12 students whose first language is not English are identified upon enrollment in U.S. schools through a home language survey and are immediately assessed to determine whether English as a second language (ESL) services are required. Students who do not pass this initial screening assessment are classified as English Language Learners (ELLs), or as limited English proficiency (LEP) students, and are identified to receive school-provided English language development (ELD) and accommodations. Students who pass the initial screener or who demonstrate English proficiency two years in a row on state-mandated annual assessments are deemed fluent or fully English proficient (FEP) students …

Transformative Leadership: An Asset-Based Approach To Leadership For Diverse Schools And Learners, Marilyn Sudsberry, Brooke Kandel-Cisco

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Traditionally, school leadership has been viewed as emanating from a sole source, the school administrator. This top-down perspective suggests that school leadership lives and dies by the leader's specific skills, mind-set, and preferred activities. This perspective ultimately oversimplifies the difficult work that school administrators must navigate in order to ensure the success of all learners. While there is no doubt that many individual school administrators are empathetic and compassionate educators, unilateral decision-making means that the cultural, linguistic and social lenses utilized to inform decision-making are limited to the perspective of the administrator.

In this chapter we propose that school leadership …

Audacious Translation: Learning The Double Bind To Translate Spivak, Susan R. Adams

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

In Chapter 12 of An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization (2012), Spivak eludes apprehension, spurns comprehension, and resists neat translation as I, an American educator, feebly reaches and grasps to make sense of what is meant by an aesthetic education as Spivak translates the act of translation. Caught and othered in learning the double bind of translation, I find no answers, only new questions as I grope toward ways to conceptualize and to name this moment for language educators:

• Can and should the convenient genie of English as the language of power and globalization be pushed back into …

English For Science And Technology In The German Technical Industry - A Needs Analysis, Kristin Hueneburg

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In light of the recent financial and Euro crisis, many immigrants have arrived on the German employment market with adequate English, but no German language skills, requiring German natives to use content-specific English in their work environment. This thesis seeks to explore the bases for potential curriculum and course design with a focus on English for Science and Technology (EST) in the German technical industry. This needs analysis in the form of an online survey was administered to a maximum variety sample in the German technical industry, which included different sizes and products/services of companies and position variations of employees …

Organization Of Schooling In Three Countries, Edmund T. Hamann, Saloshna Vandeyar, Juan Sanchez Garcia

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

It has been more than 30 years since Britan and Cohen (1980) assembled a number of leading anthropologists in a joint call for an anthropology of bureaucracies. Their call was a refinement and rearticulation of a more enduring concern in anthropology, illustrated in particular in the work of South Africa-born, British anthropologist Meyer Fortes (1938) who was interested in what McDermott and Raley (2011: 46) have summarized as "the acquisition of kinds of people by social structure."

One starting point for an anthropology of organizations that sees schools as a particular kind of organization meriting direct scrutiny is the anthropology …

Impacts Of Oral Language Proficiency, Television And Internet On Acculturation Of Taiwanese College Students, Huang Yu Lin

Wayne State University Dissertations

The majority of recent cross-cultural research with regard to the media's impact on acculturation has been aimed at Chinese immigrants' acculturation by the media in the United States with relatively little attention to Taiwanese college students' state of change in acculturation by various media sources while acquiring English as a second language. There are significant numbers of studies on assimilation to the host culture by both the ethnic and host media; however, there is a paucity of literature based on the one-dimensional media impact on a particular demographic group which can be easily traced to various types of media affecting …

Adapting School-Based Substance Use Prevention Curriculum Through Cultural Grounding: A Review And Exemplar Of Adaptation Processes For Rural Schools, Margaret Colby, Michael L. Hecht, Michelle Miller-Day, Janice L. Krieger, Amy K. Syvertsen, John W. Graham, Jonathan Pettigrew

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

A central challenge facing twenty-first century community-based researchers and prevention scientists is curriculum adaptation processes. While early prevention efforts sought to develop effective programs, taking programs to scale implies that they will be adapted, especially as programs are implemented with populations other than those with whom they were developed or tested. The principle of cultural grounding, which argues that health message adaptation should be informed by knowledge of the target population and by cultural insiders, provides a theoretical rational for cultural regrounding and presents an illustrative case of methods used to reground the keepin’ it REAL substance use prevention curriculum …

Antonio Gramsci: Life And Impact On Critical Pedagogy, Arturo Rodriguez, Matthew David Smith

Literacy, Language, and Culture Faculty Publications and Presentations

Antonio Gramsci was born in the province of Cagliarli, Sardinia on 22 January 1891. One of seven children, his formative years was spent roaming the hills of Sardinia. Antonio's political understanding was heavily influenced by the Socialism of his brother Gennaro and the imprisonment of his father, Francesco, from 1898-1904. Francesco's imprisonment caused Antonio to curtail his formal education and take up employment. This continued for several years until Francesco was released, allowing young Antonio to return to formal studies.

Multicultural Education For Preservice Teachers: An Exploration Of The Effectiveness Of Multicultural Education In Preparing Preservice Teachers To Teach In Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Classrooms., Janelle Maureen Penney

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

At a time when public school populations are becoming more diverse, teachers are becoming less diverse and often don’t have the multicultural education necessary to teach in diverse schools. This study examined the effectiveness of multicultural education at a university in the Pacific Northwest at preparing teachers to teach in culturally and linguistically diverse schools. The study utilized a two‐phase design to collect data that will assist education programs to develop multicultural education components that better prepare preservice teachers to teach in diverse schools. The first phase of the study explored the effectiveness of the current education program by examining …

Reading The World In The Word: The Possibilities For Literacy Instruction Framed Within Human Rights Education, Judith Dunkerly-Bean

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The purpose of this critical ethnography (Madison, 2005; Noblit, Flores & Murrillo, 2004) was to investigate the experiences of teachers and students when literacy instruction was framed within human rights education. Informed by theories of cosmopolitan education (Beck, 2002; Beck & Szneider, 2010; Goldstein, 2007; Harper & Bean, 2009; Hull, 2010), critical socio-cultural theory (Moje & Lewis, 2007) and incorporating Freirean concepts of critical literacy and praxis, this study details the experiences of two servant leader interns (teachers) and sixteen scholars (students) participating in human rights education within the context of a Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School.

Cross Cultural Pragmatics: A Study Of Apology Speech Acts By Turkish Speakers, American English Speakers And Advance Nonnative Speakers Of English In Turkey, Mehmet Aydin

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The study aims to identify and compare apology strategies used in Turkish, American English, and advanced non-native speakers of English in Turkey. In order to identify and compare the norms of apologizing in Turkish, English, and non-native English speakers in Turkey, apologies given to the same situations from these three different groups of participants were analyzed. The results from the Native Speakers of Turkish (NST) and Native Speakers of English (NSE) groups were used to identify the norms of apologies in these languages. Then, NNSE participants' responses were compared to the norms to be able to identify transfers from L1 …

The Development Of An International Medical Education Program With An Emphasis On English For Specific Purposes, Qian Chen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Medical international programs are becoming a new trend across China. With this trend comes the difficulty of implementing and designing an international medical program to meet the educational, cultural, and social needs of the students and teachers within a given context. The present case study researched the factors that contributed to successful international medical programs and through a survey and interviews, found both strengths and needs of a specific international medical program in the College of Medicine at Shihezi University. Specific recommendations are then given in order to assist the program and school with the design and implementation of their …

Measuring Success For English Language Learners From A Multi-Dimensional Perspective, Randy Haley

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This research study used a sequential mixed methods design to examine the perceptions and assumptions of educators working with ELL students in Southwest Minnesota. The study employed a conceptual lens based in critical education research with the intention that the results can be used to transform ELL education and promote equality for ELL students. The study is grounded in a multi-dimensional perspective for measuring success which incorporates four main constructs: parental involvement, quality instruction, school climate and student's sense of belonging. The participants in the study included building administrators and ELL teachers working in K-12 public schools in Southwest Minnesota. …

The Development Of A Model Of Culturally Responsive Science And Mathematics Teaching, Cecilia M. Hernandez, Amanda Morales, Gail Shroyer

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

This qualitative theoretical study was conducted in response to the current need for an inclusive and comprehensive model to guide the preparation and assessment of teacher candidates for culturally responsive teaching. The process of developing a model of culturally responsive teaching involved three steps: a comprehensive review of the literature; a synthesis of the literature into thematic categories to capture the dispositions and behaviors of culturally responsive teaching; and the piloting of these thematic categories with teacher candidates to validate the usefulness of the categories and to generate specific exemplars of behavior to represent each category. The model of culturally …

The Relationship Between Musical Ability And The Perception And Production Of L2 Prosodic Features, Jun Akiyoshi

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Studies in L2 acquisition have indicated that musically trained individuals are apt to demonstrate better L2 pronunciation skills. As for music, it was recently clarified that some amusiacs demonstrate selective impairment in L1 prosody discrimination. The purpose of this study was to investigate a relationship between amusical L2 learners and their perception and production of L2 prosody. To investigate this, 24 native-Japanese learners of English either in EFL (n=22) or ESL context (n=2) were examined in terms of their musical ability and L2 intonation perception and production. The musical test indicated that there was one amusiac and 10 low-level musical …

Strategy Use Of Russian Pre-Service Tefl University Students: Using A Strategy Inventory For Program Effectiveness Evaluation, Alla Zareva, Anna Fomina

English Faculty Publications

The focus of the present study is on identifying categories of learning strategies that are mostly used by Russian university students in an English Linguistics Program with a TEFL concentration. The more specific goal of the study is to offer a model of evaluation of the effectiveness of TEFL-oriented programs in terms of the language learning strategies their students use and recognize as pedagogically applicable to their EFL environment. To this end, two groups of students were compared on their self-reported frequency of strategy use -- 1st year students (n = 23), who had just entered the program, and 4th …

The Instructional And Emotional Quality Of Parent–Child Book Reading And Early Head Start Children's Learning Outcomes, Keely Cline, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Research Findings: The objective of this study was to understand how instructional book-reading style and emotional quality of reading interact and relate to cognitive skills in a sample of at-risk infants and toddlers. Participants were 81 parents and their children participating in Early Head Start programs in the rural Midwest. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypothesis that parental book-reading instructional style and emotional quality interact and relate to changes in children’s cognitive scores for culturally and linguistically diverse families. Results included that there were variations in how book-reading qualities interacted and related to changes in …

Factors Influencing Social, Cultural, And Academic Transitions Of Chinese International Esl Students In U.S. Higher Education, Akiko Ota

Dissertations and Theses

The U.S. is the leading nation for international students to pursue higher education; the majority of whom are from countries with significant differences in culture and language from American students. As such, many international students start higher education in ESL support programs. While on the surface international students supposedly add cultural and linguistic diversity to American higher education by contributing to the internationalization of campuses, international students' transition into U.S. life and academe is often fraught with challenges including culture shock, adjusting to the new environment and society, adjustment to norms of academic performance, acquisition of academic and language skills, …

Web 2.0 For Language Learning: Benefits And Challenges For Educators, Tian Luo

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This literature review study explores 44 empirical research studies that report on the integration of Web 2.0 tools into language learning and evaluate the actual impact of using those Web 2.0 tools in language learning. In particular, this review aims to identify the specific Web 2.0 tools integrated in the educational settings, theoretical underpinnings that are commonly used to frame the research, methodologies and data analysis techniques that scholars employ to analyze their research data, the benefits and challenges scholars spotted in their research findings, the pedagogical implications in using Web 2.0 for language learning and future research directions that …

Early Literacy Practices And Beliefs About Education Among Hispanic Families In Jacksonville, Florida, Maira Luz Martelo

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hispanic children in the United States are more likely to fall behind in several literacy measures even before they enroll in prekindergarten programs. There are some structural and non-structural factors that have a direct impact on Hispanic children’s early literacy skills. Among the non-structural factors this mixed-method study explored Hispanic caregivers’ beliefs about education as well as their literacy practices at home.

The study compared two groups: diverse Hispanic caregivers with 4-year-old children enrolled in the Voluntary Prekindergarten Program (VPK) and diverse Hispanic caregivers whose 4-year-old children were not enrolled in VPK. A total of 125 diverse Hispanic caregivers responded …

Increasing The Cultural Competence Of Assessment Professionals Via Online Training, Jennifer L. Schroeder, Maximino Plata, Harry Fullwood, Melanie Price, Jennifer Dyer

Faculty Publications

The preponderance of literature suggests that culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners demonstrate unexpected underachievement in academic areas, mainly due to educators’ inability to differentiate between students’ cultural attributes rather than demonstrable cognitive dysfunction. Thirty assessment practitioners participated in a study to investigate the effectiveness of teaching cultural information and culturally-relevant assessment practices via an online teaching platform. The Munroe Multicultural Attitude Scale Questionnaire (MASQUE) and short-answer tests were used to obtain participants’ pre- and post- training attitudes and knowledge regarding cultural diversity. Results indicated that online training improved attitudes toward multicultural issues in education. A number of suggestions for …

Expanding The Pipeline For Latino Bilingual Teachers: A Mixed Methods Study, Amabilia Valverde Valenzuela

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Current education reform in the US requires teacher preparation programs to educate future teachers according to the certification standards set forth by each state. Certification for teaching in Texas requires that preservice teachers successfully complete a series of comprehensive examinations in their teaching fields and in professional knowledge before entering full-time teaching. However, researchers have argued (Gitomer, Brown, & Bonett, 2011) that the use of standardized tests often raises concerns about adverse impacts on members of minority groups, who often have lower test scores. The purpose of this research was twofold: First, to analyze factors that predict Mexican American teacher …