Digital Commons Network^™

Taking On The Immigration Paradox : Hispanic Parental Involvement, Ailiceth Espinal

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this study was to assess Hispanic/Latino parental involvement techniques and their predictors. Further, the study examined whether a relationship between the immigration paradox and parental involvement exists. Parental involvement was defined in both traditional forms (home- and school- based) and in additional four culturally specific forms. The survey participants consisted of 114 mothers and 19 fathers with school-aged children (ages 5-18 and grades pre-kindergarten to 12th). Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine which variables affected each of six parental involvement techniques. Results reflected many of the previous findings in Hispanic/Latino education literature. For example, when parents …

On Growing Up Finnish In The Midwest: A Family Oral History Project, Ingrid Ruth Nixon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores what oral history interviews with my mother reveal about the familial and community dynamics that influenced Finnish-American children growing up on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula between 1930 and 1950. Close to four hours of oral history interviews were conducted with Viola Nixon, who is second and third-generation Finnish-American on her father’s and mother’s sides, respectively. After conducting a narrative analysis of the interviews, five themes emerged as significant to community function: family, language, education, work and church. I grouped some of these themes together to create three stories informed by materials drawn from the interviews, a cookbook, and …

Circulating Literacies: When Storytelling Meets Policy, Nedda Sarshar

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

We have recently come to terms with a rush of xenophobia, both on the federal and local level. Racist and discriminatory policies have always been at work, but they have been given a higher platform in recent times. This project attempts to understand how and why racist rhetoric is allowed to exist, and how marginalized voices can be circulated throughout the public sphere to maintain their own agencies.

The term “literacy” is typically limited to the Western definition of “reading and writing English”. This project attempts to disrupt that hegemonic narrative, and instead make way for other types of literacy …

Hans Mol’S Sociology Of Religion: Reflection On The Relationship Between Identity And The Sacred As Applied To Bosnia And Herzegovina, Tomislav Tadić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"The transformed character of religiosity requires a transformation in the scientific methodology where we are trying to capture the complex socio-ontological, epistemological and socio-anthropological granulations which form such a divergent term as religion. The importance of the theoretical interventions of Mol, from the standpoint of the history of sociology, lies in recognizing the reconstructing form within the discipline that needs to synthetically and polythetically understand the phenomenon which it explores."

Chandra’S Story: An Adult Education Student Journeys From Fear To Gratitude, Robin L. Danzak

The Qualitative Report

This article presents the story of Chandra (her real name), a middle-aged, Guyanese-American woman attending an adult education center in the Northeast United States. Chandra grew up in extreme poverty in Guyana, and was taken out of school at age eight to help meet the family’s basic needs. At age 22, she immigrated to the United States in hopes of better opportunities. Through narrative methods, Chandra’s story is constructed from 34, narrative and expository, written texts that she composed for a literacy tutoring program, as well as three, in-depth, oral interviews. The result is a moving account of Chandra’s childhood …

Signs Of Social Class: The Experience Of Economic Inequality In Everyday Life, Michael W. Kraus, Jun Won Park, Jacinth J. X. Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

By some accounts, global economic inequality is at its highest point on record. The pernicious effects of this broad societal trend are striking: Rising inequality is linked to poorer health and well-being across countries, continents, and cultures. The economic and psychological forces that perpetuate inequality continue to be studied, and in this theoretical review, we examine the role of daily experiences of economic inequality—the communication of social class signals between interaction partners—in this process. We theorize that social class signals activate social comparison processes that strengthen group boundaries between the haves and have nots in society. In particular, we argue …

Creating A Multiracial Lesson Plan, Clayton Davis

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The purpose of this project is to teach students about multiracial identity issues. Multiracial populations in the U.S. continue to grow and it’s important for educators to address the needs of these students. A 5-E multiracial literature lesson plan was created for second grade that incorporates KWL and Text-to-World teaching strategies. A second grade class were read two children’s picture books, each featuring a biracial protagonist, and were asked to discuss and evaluate the content and commonalities of these stories. Students recorded what they learned in this lesson in their KWL’s. The results reveal that some students understood the problems …

Launching Conservative Resistance: A Rhetorical Criticism Of The Young Americans For Freedom, Tyler John Snelling

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

At the end of the 1940s, conservatives faced internal divisions, an elitist image, and people supporting government post Great Depression. Liberalism seemed entrenched throughout society. Yet, the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), the first national, conservative movement, formed in 1960. This thesis investigates YAF’s earliest “publicity” in National Review, an influential magazine, to understand part of what preceded conservatism’s evolution. Publishing “The Ivory Tower: Young Americans for Freedom” by William F. Buckley and the “Sharon Statement,” YAF’s manifesto, side-by-side formed a new identity—young conservative—that empowered activists. From Maurice Charland’s “constitutive rhetoric,” chapter two investigates Buckley’s telling of the past as …

Journal's Genesis, María Corral-Ribordy, Carlos Molina

CouRaGeouS Cuentos: A Journal of Counternarratives

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

CouRaGeouS Cuentos: A Journal of Counternarratives

No abstract provided.

Does Social Consumption Mitigate Stigma? Identity Formation In An Urban Farmers’ Market, Claire Looney

Sociology Honors Projects

This study contributes to sociology of consumption by analyzing the experience of shopping at an urban farmers' market using ethnographic observation and observational interviews. Participants included market-goers using Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT), currency received from federal assistance, as well as those using debit or credit cards. This sample allowed for insight into the process of shopping at farmers’ markets while under economic constraint and in turn, the relationship this process has with shoppers’ self-perceptions as consumers. The social consumption process of shopping at the farmers’ market could mitigate negative effects of shopping with food assistance and financial constraint and promote …

Contextualizing Palestinian Hybridity: How Pragmatic Citizenship Influences Diasporic Identities, Nicholas E. Bascuñan-Wiley

Sociology Honors Projects

Palestinians are one of the largest diaspora populations in the world, with members in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. How are the individual diasporic experiences of nationalism similar and different to one another? This research examines the creation and maintenance of Palestinian identity in diasporic contexts through ethnographic analysis and a series of interviews conducted in Chile, Jordan, and The United States. The results show that despite Palestinians maintaining Palestinianness as a dominant characteristic of identity in all three settings, there are contextual influences on how people integrate that identity into their lives. Within Jordan, Palestinians experience …

The European Centre For Higher Education: A Unesco Effort To Reduce Cold War Tensions And To Promote Co-Operation In Higher Education In Europe, Leland Conley Burrows

Comparative Civilizations Review

The article examines the role that the European Centre for Higher Education (CEPES) played in fostering educational cooperation between East and West blocs in education during the Cold War. A unit of UNESCO and located in Romania, it later expanded its mandate to include North America, Turkey, and Israel in addition to its original European base. It existed between 1972 and 2012 and foundered in the latter year due to finances and less than full support.

Meaning Of The Twenty-First Century: From Internationalism To Globalism, Ronald Glossop

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Patrick Manning, Migration In World History. Routledge, 2013 2Nd Ed., Connie Lamb

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Workplace Bullying In The United States And Canada: Organizational Accountability Required In Higher Education, Leah P. Hollis

Comparative Civilizations Review

This article is a comparative study of bullying in the workplace in Canada and the United States. It examines the effect of laws, productivity, and organization culture upon this practice. It uses current and recent data to address the issue.

Children As Bearers Of Culture: How Authorities Interpret Law Protecting Culture In International Adoption, Erica Ditmore

Sociology Honors Projects

How is culture protected in transnational and transracial adoption? Through the examination of international, national and local laws and policies, I look at how culture is at once a global, national, racial, and individual attribute and at what aspects of these varying definitions of culture are deemed so important by adoption authorities that they are protected through policy. A content analysis of international conventions, the policies of China, Russia, Guatemala, and Native American tribes as sending countries, and the procedures of adoption agencies shows how global ideas of culture are reinterpreted to have specific meanings. I found that international laws …

Enhancing Cultural Competence Among Dental Students Through Active Teaching And Experiential Learning, Linda S. Behar-Horenstein, Xiaoying Feng

The Qualitative Report

Dental schools are required to utilize teaching practices that increase students’ culture competence and ensure their ability to deliver equitable oral care. This study explored the impact of active teaching, an approach that offered comprehensive engagement and experiential learning. Students participated in small group activities, conducted interviews and developed reflective writings. A QUAN→qual sequential mixed method was used to analyze their reflective writings. Quantitative results indicated that students’ cultural competence was significantly enhanced. Qualitative findings showed that students recognized their unconscious biases and reported an increase of cultural competence. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of experiential learning, particularly the addition …

Expression And Reception: An Analytic Method For Assessing Message Production And Consumption In Cmc, Kang Namkoong, Dhavan V. Shah, Bryan Mclaughlin, Ming-Yuan Chih, Tae Joon Moon, Shawnika Hull, David H. Gustafson

Community & Leadership Development Faculty Publications

This article presents an innovative methodology to study computer-mediated communication (CMC), which allows analysis of the multi-layered effects of online expression and reception. The methodology is demonstrated by combining the following three data sets collected from a widely tested eHealth system, the Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (CHESS): (1) a flexible and precise computer-aided content analysis; (2) a record of individual message posting and reading; and (3) longitudinal survey data. Further, this article discusses how the resulting data can be applied to online social network analysis and demonstrates how to construct two distinct types of online social networks—open and targeted …

What Demotivates Foreign Efl Teachers? A Case Study In Turkish Context, Turgay Han, Zinat Mahzoun

The Qualitative Report

This article is the report of a qualitative case study proposed to investigate the demotivation factors of foreign EFL teachers in Turkish context. To that end, two foreign teachers of English language were chosen as the subjects at a primary/ secondary school in east of Turkey. Face-to-face interviews, profile forms, field notes and diaries were used to obtain the necessary data for the research. The findings indicated that lack of effective communication with school administration and colleagues and lack of interest, attention and respect from behalf of students were the main causes of demotivation at work for both teachers.

Recent Demographic Change In The Rio Grande Valley Of Texas: The Importance Of Domestic Migration, Igor Ryabov, Stephen M. Merino

Sociology Faculty Publications

The present study examines the role of domestic migration in a massive demographic change in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) of Texas with a special focus on ethnic composition of migration flows. Specifically, using two datasets derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and American Community Survey (ACS), this project: (1) outlines demographic profiles of domestic inbound and outbound migrants; (2) identifies determinants of migration for different types of movers; and (3) predicts the change in the Index of Dissimilarity (IT) at the census-tract level in the RGV. Results indicate that: (1) compared to stayers, Anglos were overrepresented among all …

Reaching For The Heart: An Analysis Of Language As A Weapon Of Empathy For Three Capetonians, Sarah Mcdonald

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this paper, I examine the role that cross-cultural language study plays in the lives of three Capetonians in order to explore its capacity to foster empathy between people of different backgrounds. Framed in the context of South African history and modern academic discourse around language use in educational and public spaces in the country, I present the stories of my three interviewees and analyze particular experiences that they relayed in order to trace trends of empathy and understanding through their language use.

Through my discussion of this qualitative data, I reach the conclusion that language can be an effective …

The Power Dynamics Of Language: An Analysis Of The Positionality Of Amazigh Language In Morocco, Jessica Schwed

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In 2001, in an unprecedented act, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, stated in a speech that he would take actions to create an organization dedicated to the protection of Amaizgh language and culture. A few months later, he issued a royal Dahair that created the Insitut Royale de la Culture Amazighe (IRCAM), an organization that was tasked with protecting the Amazigh language and culture, as well as, advising King Mohammed VI on all matters related to Amazigh language and culture. The creation of this institution led to the start of a standardization process, whereby the IRCAM has committed to creating …

Marbles And Machiavelli: The Role Of Game Play In Children's Social Development, David F. Lancy, M. Annette Grove

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The authors review several case studies of children engaged in rule-governed play and conclude that the process of learning rules—and of breaking them and making new ones—promotes what they call gamesmanship. They link the development of gamesmanship to the theory of Machiavellian intelligence, which considers social interaction primary in the evolution of human intelligence. They also question the benefits of adult-managed child play and assess the impact it may have on the ability of children to develop gamesmanship.

Vogel, S. Thinking Like A Mall: Environmental Philosophy After The End Of Nature. Cambridge, Ma.: The Mit Press, 2015., Tarique Niazi Ph.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

Book review.

Knowledge Production, Pedagogy And Research In Ir: Perspectives From India, Seema Narain Ph.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

The implications of Eurocentrism in the production of historical and theoretical knowledge have been the subject of debates in multiple disciplines, including anthropology, history, and geography, yet in the field of International Relations (IR), an examination of the implications of Eurocentrism has, until recently, been little studied. Therefore, there is a critical need to revisit pedagogy and research in India to address this gap. This paper looks at knowledge production, pedagogy and research in India from the point of view of countering Eurocentrism in the IR discipline. It first discusses Eurocentrism and highlights the implications of Eurocentrism in the field …

The Model Minority Myths: Racism And Sexism Against Asian-American Community, Yingda Guo 17

Honor Scholar Theses

This project aims to investigate the negative influences of the model minority stereotypes to Asian Americans. The model minority myth is the idea that members from a minority group with Asian heritages are considered to achieve a higher degree of educational and socioeconomic success than the average population. Asian Americans are usually perceived as model minorities who achieve high educational and socioeconomic success without many negative experiences in the U.S. However, a closer examination of the model minority myth indicates that this idea is quite generalized and misleading, which cannot stand for the diversity and complexity of Asian American experiences. …

Working With Refugees In The U.S.: Trauma-Informed And Structurally Competent Social Work Approaches, Jason Ostrander, Alysse Melville, S. Megan Berthold

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Social workers, government, and non-governmental organizations in the United States have been inadequately prepared to address the impact of trauma faced by refugees fleeing persecution. Compounding their initial trauma experiences, refugees often undergo further traumatic migration experiences and challenges after resettlement that can have long-lasting effects on their health and mental health. Micro and macro social work practitioners must understand the impact of these experiences in order to promote policies, social work training, and clinical practice that further the health and well-being of refugees and society. Social workers are in a unique position to provide multi-dimensional, structurally competent care and …

Ethnicity, Religion And Violence In Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jusuf Salih

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The violence that erupted in the Balkans at the end of the second millennium made fierce enemies of people who had lived together in peace as neighbors, friends, classmates, and married couples. Nationalism, chauvinism, and religious fanaticism quickly grew stronger, leading to the disappearance of centuries-long harmony among its inhabitants. Among the reasons for the conflict were the experienced communist leaders who skillfully used religious slogans to advance their campaigns; also, religious leaders became close associates to political leaders with hopes that they would attain the religious rights denied and limited during the old governance. As a result, nationalism and …

“Minority Banks, Homeownership, And Prospects For New York City’S Multi-Racial Immigrant Neighborhoods”, Tarry Hum

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.