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La Imposición Del Neoliberalismo En México: Resistencia Y Opresión Del Profesorado De Lenguas A Nivel Universitario, David Martinez-Prieto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Este estudio utiliza las ideas de Althusser (1970) sobre el aparato ideológico del Estado para examinar las trayectorias de profesores (n=4) de lenguas que enseñaron en la Meritoria Universidad de Puebla, una de las principales universidades públicas en México. A través del análisis de los testimonios de dichos participantes, el presente trabajo analiza la represión de la comunidad universitaria durante la imposición de políticas neoliberales que pretendían privatizar la educación pública y limitar el derecho a la libertad de cátedra en esta universidad. De igual forma, en este artículo se examina la opresión que los docentes de lengua han experimentado …

African Leadership In Brain Diplomacy: The Yaoundé Declaration Advances The Global Brain Economy Playbook For Better Brain Health, Alfred Kongnyu Njamnshi, Jacques Fame Ndongo, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, Lejeune Mbella Mbella, Paul M. Ghogomu, Séraphin M. Fouda, Marie-Thérèse A. Ondoa Obama, Madeleine Tchuinte, Alamine O. Mey, Gladys Maestre

School of Medicine Publications

Africa, the world’s second-largest continent is home to 1.5 billion people, accounting for nearly 20% of the global population, (60% under age 25). By 2050, Africa’s population will be 2.5 billion, and by 2035, more young Africans will be entering the workforce each year than in the rest of the world combined. Africa also hosts a rich social, cultural, and geopolitical diversity across its 5 geopolitical zones covering 54 countries. It is the most genetically, culturally, and linguistically diverse region on the planet. However, Africa’s contribution to the global economy could be more significant if it urgently embraces the brain …

Cultural And Linguistic Adaptation Of An Autism Parent Mediated Intervention For Spanish Speaking Latinos, Ana C. Ramirez, María Cecilia Montenegro, Bianca T. Villalobos, Nazaret Fresno, Gabriel González Núñez, Rocio Calderon, Susana Perez Kantor, Miriam Mares, Miriam Ortiz, Geohanna Noel, Cecilia Montiel-Nava

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

The Caregiver Skills Training (CST) was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to improve access to evidence-based services for children with developmental concerns from low-income backgrounds. While the CST program has undergone four significant revisions to increase feasibility of implementation and has been adapted and implemented in more than 30 countries, currently the Spanish version is outdated and has never been implemented in the U.S. This study aimed to culturally and linguistically adapt the Spanish-version of the CST for a predominantly Spanish-speaking Latino-populated region in the United States. The present study followed a community based participatory research (CBPR) approach …

The Marketing Of Populism And The Political-Economy Of War: Learning From The Russia-Ukraine Conflict, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Aras Ozgun, Deniz Atik

Marketing Faculty Publications

This conceptual study explores the social and political-economic conditions that spawn competing campaigns of democracy, populism, and autocracy from a macromarketing perspective. It delves into the less visible and deeper contexts that produce contemporary autocracies and international crises they provoke by analyzing the autocratic regime in Russia that resulted in its invasion of Ukraine. Instead of the reductive framing of this conflict as a contest between unsystematic notions of democracy and autocracy, this study offers a nuanced understanding of contemporary autocracies by investigating the links between populist political movements, neoliberal ideology, and state-sponsored capitalism as a growth oriented political-economic form. …

Acquisition Of The Tap-Trill-Lateral Contrast By Speakers Of L1 Cantonese-L2 Spanish, José Esteban Hernández

Spanish Faculty Publications

In the present study an assessment of the on-target and off-target production of liquids (laterals and rhotics) is undertaken in a corpus of second language (L2) Spanish. The Chinese-origin participants have immigrated to Mexicali, Mexico where they have acquired L2 Spanish in a natural setting. As a major aim, a quantitative analysis of the data is performed to determine the production of on-target and off-target articulations in lateral, tap, thrill, and syllable-coda rhotic. Internal and external factors are considered in the analysis; for example, liquid production in syllable onset, coda and consonant clusters was considered. The data were subjected to …

An Ethnomusicological Approach To Culture In Culturally Relevant Pedagogies And Curricula, Andrés R. Amado

School of Music Faculty Publications

Although the frameworks of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Culturally Responsive Teaching, and Culturally Responsive Curriculum tend to reduce educational disparities, pedagogical approaches focused on minoritized populations now draw controversy. This chapter exam ines the essentializing potential of historical notions of “culture” used in these frameworks and proposes instead an ethnomusicological definition that conceives culture as a malleable collection of habits shared by different individuals and groups. This definition avoids equating culture with specific traits of minoritized people and helps valorize collaborative teaching and learning. After situating Culturally Relevant Pedagogy within the intellectual history of “culture,” and overviewing the field of ethnomusicology …

Reciprocal Legibility: How School Social Workers Broker Equity For Legally Precarious Immigrant Students, Benjamin Roth, Leticia Villarreal Sosa

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

In this article, we explore how school social workers recognize and respond to the precarity of immigrant students in their schools, with particular attention to how they broker resources to improve educational equity for those who are undocumented. We introduce the concept of “reciprocal legibility,” which we define as the ability of school social workers to recognize the multidimensional needs of immigrant students while concurrently elevating their own visibility and trustworthiness among students who may otherwise avoid seeking help from mainstream institutions. Drawing on qualitative responses from a survey of school social workers (𝑛=324), we aim to answer the following …

Exploring Advanced Theory Of Mind Development Across Sociocultural Contexts: An Evaluation Of The Strange Stories In Children From Mexico And Us–Mexico Border Communities, Katherine Rice Warnell, Amy A. Weimer, Rong Huang, Daniela Kuri

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Recent research on advanced theory of mind (ToM) has questioned the extent to which existing ToM measures capture a single construct, particularly for groups understudied in developmental research. The present study examined the factor structure of one of the most commonly used advanced ToM measures, the Strange Stories task, in samples of low- and middle-income children in dual-language Spanish-English schools in US–Mexico border communities and in Mexico (N = 237 children, n = 108 male, n = 129 female, Mage = 10.05 years, SD = 1.15 years; 96.3% Hispanic/Latine). No clear factor structure emerged for the Strange Stories …

From Contamination To Consequence: Tracing Donna Lake’S Human Environmental History, Dean Kyne

Sociology Faculty Publications

The Donna Reservoir and Canal System (Donna Lake) in Texas has been a persistent source of environmental contamination for over a century, exposing surrounding communities to dangerous levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Originally built for agricultural irrigation, the system became a recreational fishing site before PCB contamination was discovered during public health investigations in the 1990s. This study examines patterns of demographic vulnerability, evaluates remediation efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and explores residents’ ongoing challenges related to toxic exposure. Using publicly available demographic data, EPA reports, and previous health assessments, the study analyzes variations in community characteristics …

Student Perceptions Of The Use Of Onenote To Create A Capstone Project In A Teacher Education Program, Carmen Pena

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

During the Fall 2023 semester, a group of students in their first semester of the elementary education program at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was required to use OneNote to complete a Community Case Study, which is a capstone project in the teacher education program at UTRGV. The projectconsists of three sections, which include a study of the school and district, visits to area attractions in the community, interviews with members of the community, and a final reflection on the project. The Community Case Study includes text-based files,graphics, and video. The authors used OneNote to have students …

Time To Listen: Engaging Latino Autistic Adults And Parents As Partners In Advancing Autism Research, Cecilia Montiel-Nava, Chenoa Navarro, Jessica Abouchard, Ana C. Ramirez, Victoria Villareal, Susana Perez Kantor, Valerie Neeley, Alberto Allegre, Antonio F. Pagán, María Cecilia Montenegro

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

The limited representation of Latino autistic individuals and their families in research studies limits our understanding of how autism presents and is experienced across diverse communities, emphasizing a need for more inclusive research methodologies and participant recruitment strategies. Our project aimed to explore how participatory research methods can be effectively implemented to develop culturally valid measurement tools and research protocols that accurately capture the experiences of bilingual/bicultural Latino autistic individuals and their families. This study used a phenomenological framework design guided by community-based Participatory research and the social model of disability principles. Two trained researchers conducted three focus groups with …

Finished!: How Newcomer Students Leveraged Family, Culture And Community To Complete A University Degree, Brenda Eliana Bocanegra

Theses and Dissertations

The transition from high school to college represents a pivotal time in the life of a student. For Latino/a students, this transition may be met with unique challenges shaped by their cultural, socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. This research aims to delve into the multifaceted experiences of newcomer Latino/a students as they navigate the transition from, high school to university, to educators, exploring the factors that influence their paths, the barriers they encounter, and the support systems that helped facilitate their success.

This research used Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth as the framework to examine the factors that influenced and impacted …

Achieving Reward-Based Crowdfunding Project Success: An Examination Of Value Congruence, Bright Frimpong, Emmanuel Wusuhon Yanibo Ayaburi, Francis K. Andoh-Baidoo

Information Systems Faculty Publications

Crowdfunding founders increasingly rely on reward-based platforms to raise capital for their projects. However, the low success rate of reward-based project campaigns remains a concern for many founders and platform managers. Prior studies investigating participants’ motivations have focused on either the founder or backer perspective, with little research examining the joint effects of founder and backer motivations. Drawing on the theory of basic human values, we assert that founders and backers are strategic about their motivations for engaging in crowdfunding campaigns. We identify four basic human values—self-transcendence, self-enhancement, openness to change, and conservation—that may reveal their intrinsic motivations and investigate …

Territorio Nepantla: A Visual Exploration Of The Matamoros – Brownsville Borderlands, Michel Valeria Flores Tavizón

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the work presented in the MFA exhibition titled Territorio Nepantla. A multidisciplinary exhibition featuring a visual exploration of the Matamoros and Rio Grande Valley borderlands through the perspective of a Mexican transfronteriza traversing the Matamoros – Brownsville border. The feminist Chicana theory of nepantla, a word from Nahuatl origin meaning “in-between” is central to the exhibition. Scholar Gloria Anzaldua defines the borderlands as a nepantla space, a liminal space where art and la frontera intersect. Nepantla represents the in-betweenness beyond physicality. A nepantla space can be emotional, spiritual, sexual, linguistical and more. This body of work …

Other Others At The Border: An Autoethnographic Inquiry, Clover Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation critically examines the concept of multiple otherness in online learning environments in Hispanic Serving Institutions. Hispanic Serving Institutions may unintentionally perpetuate practices and curricula that exclude and decenter the needs of older, disabled, or geographically diverse black women who may not identify within the university’s focus. Despite their missions to servingness of a stated population, Hispanic serving institutions must examine existing curricula that primarily cater to the dominant minority group they have tasked themselves to serve. By investigating existing curricular practices, this research seeks to maintain the integrity of minority-serving institutions while encouraging inclusivity for all students. By …

Translanguaging As A Cultural Bridge: Entretejiendo Voces Bilingües En La Frontera [Translanguaging As A Cultural Bridge: Interweaving Bilingual Voices At The Border], Gloria Sarahi Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

El presente estudio cualitativo explora las autohistorias de cuatro maestras bilingües que viven y enseñan en el Valle del Sur de Texas, una región fronteriza entre Estados Unidos y México. A través de pláticas íntimas, tejimos juntas narrativas que revelan la complejidad de ser mujer, ser educadora, ser transnacional, y ser bilingüe en un espacio donde las lenguas, culturas e identidades se cruzan, se fracturan y se reconstruyen. “Pláticas can provide a space of healing as the platicadoras release past trauma and current struggles rigged with sexism, racism, classism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism” (Morales et al., 2023). Utilizando un …

Exploring Secondary Content And Career And Technical Education (Cte) Teacher Self-Efficacy In Supporting The Literacy Needs Of Long-Termed Emergent Bilinguals: A Mixed-Methods Inquiry, Jennifer Louise Burden

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation employed a mixed-methods convergent design, incorporating survey data and semi-structured interviews to investigate the self-efficacy of high school teachers in content areas and Career and Technical Education (CTE) towards their perceived abilities to support emergent bilingual students, particularly in content-specific literacy.

Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of Bandura's (1977) self-efficacy theory and Dweck's (2008) growth mindset, this study explores how educators' perceptions of their abilities impact their instructional practices and student outcomes.

Findings reveal a need for more training and resources to increase student engagement, which impacts academic outcomes and attendance and calls for comprehensive reforms in teacher …

¿Puedo Decirlo En Español?: Teacher Views On Utilizing Translanguaging Pedagogies To Bridge The Language Gap In Secondary Classrooms, Luis Carlos Bocanegra

Theses and Dissertations

Translanguaging disrupts the notion of language as a fixed, separate system, offering a deeper insight into how individuals fluidly navigate and construct meaning across linguistic boundaries. This research study uses narrative research and participatory action research to employ translanguaging as a pedagogical framework to create inclusive spaces where emergent bilinguals could fully utilize their linguistic repertoire in secondary schools in the borderlands of the Rio Grande Vally in deep South Texas.

The findings of this study are organized into two overarching themes: cultural relevance and inclusivity in borderland schools, which brings to light the importance of culture, inclusivity, and supportive …

El Cuerpo Puede Curar, Crear Y Cocinar: Analyzing Chicana Embodied Knowledge In The U.S-Mexico Borderlands, Kimberly Monserrat Grimaldo

Theses and Dissertations

The U.S.–Mexico borderlands, specifically the Rio Grande Valley, is a culturally rich site yet deeply affected by coloniality where Indigenous cultures have been erased and suppressed. The Mexican American War devastated Indigenous communities as their knowledge of healing was dismissed by Western science and predominantly buried. This history of oppression and colonization in the borderlands rendered the region with “una herida abierta,” in the words of Chicana scholar Gloria Anzaldúa. However, despite an open wound, there is potential healing that can be incited through colonial resistance within the home. Texts that convey culinary and healing epistemologies include cultural productions such …

Emotional Outbursts In Latinx Autistic Youth With Intact Or Non-Intact Families; Frequency, Severity, And Socio-Demographic Correlates, Sandra Lucia Masso Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, communication, and restricted repetitive behaviors. One of the core difficulties in individuals with ASD is related to emotional outbursts. Emotional outbursts (EO) are behavioral episodes in response to situations, environmental and physiological stimuli that occur in an extreme, unpleasant, sometimes aggressive way, often disproportionate to the context. Considering the impacts that EO’s can cause in populations with neurodevelopmental disorders and on the well-being and mental health of parents/caregivers, the need arises to evaluate these populations. Due to the core characteristics of ASD (such as a rigid mentality, …

Climate Change And The Field Of Farm Labor In The Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas, Cody Richard Mortell

Theses and Dissertations

Farm workers in the United States are often vulnerable to adverse impacts of climate change, particularly extreme heat. This study explores farm workers’ climate change perceptions (CCP) as a mediating force in climate adaptation. Using latent class analysis, in-person survey data (n=404) from Lower Rio Grande Valley, TX (2024) and NOAA data were analyzed. Results were interpreted using Bourdieu’s field analysis framework and his notions of capital and symbolic power. Findings include: a social hierarchy with three latent classes of workers based on economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital, which statistically significantly affected CCP. Workers in higher structural positions were …

Linguistic (In) Security And Persistence In Doctoral Studies: A Mixed-Methods Study Of The Impact Of Metapragmatic Discourses On The Persistence Of Multilingual Doctoral Students, Germaine Tondji

Theses and Dissertations

Linguistic beliefs and practices in doctoral studies have often been overlooked, partly due to the assumption that advanced students face fewer language-related challenges. However, research on multilingualism in hypernormative academic contexts suggests that linguistic concerns persist even among the most educated. Multilingual doctoral students (MDSs) operate at the intersection of multiple linguistic and epistemic systems. In English-dominant, monoglossic environments, they must not only navigate the complexities of doctoral study but also reconcile competing linguistic and epistemic identities. This study explores the role of linguistic insecurity (LI) in MDSs' doctoral persistence through a mixed-methods design. The quantitative phase draws on survey …

Exploring The “4-Trans” In Bi/Multilingual Teacher Education: Introduction To The Special Issue, Sandra I. Musanti, David Martinez-Prieto, Xiaodi Zhou

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

In this introductory essay, the editors of the special issue on the 4-trans in bi/multilingual teacher education, highlight the contributions of one or more of the “4-trans” lenses—transnationalism, transculturalism, translanguaging, and transdisciplinarity—to explain, question, challenge, or propose new ways of understanding bi/multilingual teacher education. Eight articles that challenge monolithic perspectives of teacher education are presented.

Dialogic Foundations Of The “4-Trans” Framework: Towards A Comprehensive And Dynamic Understanding Of Multilingual Teacher Education, David Martinez-Prieto, Sandra I. Musanti, Xiaodi Zhou

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

In this article, we develop the “4-trans” framework by reflecting on the way current multilingual teacher preparation scholarship has addressed translanguaging, transnationalism, transculturality, and transdisciplinarity either in compartmentalized or integrative manners. While current literature has addressed some “trans” intersections, we propose the enunciation of the “4-trans” as permeable and complementary principles in multilingual education that can serve to better examine the experiences and challenges of multilingual pre-service teachers. To amalgamate the “4-trans” to examine the development of multilingual pre-service teachers, this article describes the construction of a multidimensional framework based on a dialogic conception of social …

A Performance Comparison Between Two Speech-To-Asl-Gesture-Projection Translation Implementations, Alexandra Kashani Motlagh, Shikha Mehta, Ishfaq Ahmad, Addison Clark, Hansheng Lei

Informatics and Engineering Systems Faculty Publications

Millions of people with hearing disabilities use sign language for communication, creating a communication gap with those who are not fluent in ASL (American Sign Language). This paper aims to introduce an ASL interpreter system using a smart-glasses-based augmented reality system. We begin by introducing and comparing two models that translate spoken language into ASL poses. The first system translates spoken text to ASL Gloss, an intermediate representation, before generating ASL poses. The second system directly translates the text to ASL poses. Our analysis shows that using ASL Gloss as an intermediate step significantly improves the translation speed. We then …

Shaping Mathematics Identity: An Exploratory Study On Specifications Grading In Calculus I At A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Luis M. Fernandez, Kaitlyn Stephens Serbin, Cristina Villalobos, Shaghayegh Azadi Setayesh, Guillermo Garza

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Calculus I courses play a pivotal role in shaping students' STEM pathways, making it essential to adopt pedagogies that foster both achievement and mathematics identity development, particularly among underserved groups such as Hispanic students. This study explores the impact of Specifications Grading, an alternative assessment method where students meet specific course learning objectives through multiple attempts, on students’ mathematics identity development. Through a comparative case study of two Calculus I students at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, one enrolled in a specification graded course and the other in a traditionally-graded course, we examine shifts in their self-perceptions of competence, interest, recognition in …

Emoji Marketing: Toward A Theory Of Brand Paralinguistics, Jacob Almaguer, Reto Felix, Colleen M. Harmeling

Marketing Faculty Publications

Emojis, or pictographs that supplement or replace written language, have become ubiquitous in contemporary communication, including emoji marketing. Drawing on insights from linguistics and sign theory, the current research proposes an emoji marketing framework in which emoji symbolism (symbolic vs. iconic emoji use) affects consumers’ message appraisals (perceived message intimacy and clarity), which in turn influence brand cultural relevance (propositions P1 and P2). Emoji syntax (i.e., whether emojis are supplemented with text or not) and marketer-consumer group relatedness (shared vs. unshared group membership) moderate the relationship between emoji symbolism and consumers’ message appraisals. The framework suggests that messages that use …

Poder Familiar: A Culturally Tailored Health Intervention For Latino Families Of Children With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities, Amy Pei-Lung Yu, Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, Vanessa L. Errisuriz, Deborah Parra-Medina, Mansha Mirza, Minyu Zhang, Pei-Chiang Lee, Weiwen Zeng, Jasmine P. Brown-Hollie, Nazanin M. Heydarian

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: This two-site pilot study examined the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary outcomes of PODER Familiar, a culturally tailored intervention to promote the health and well-being of Latina family caregivers and their children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Method: Using the Promotora de Salud model and mixed-methods design, we co-developed PODER Familiar with Latina caregivers of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and community stakeholders. Thirty Latina caregivers and their children with disabilities were recruited to participate in the intervention, which included 10 individual sessions and 3 group sessions.

Results: Twenty-six Latina caregivers completed all 10 individual sessions, with high intervention …

Evidence-Based Teaching Interventions For Emergent Multilingual Students In High School Science Classrooms: A Literature Review, Uma Ganesan

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

As student populations in the United States grow increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse, asset-oriented pedagogical approaches become essential for leveraging the linguistic talents of multilingual students in science education. This literature review explores evidence-based instructional interventions supporting emergent multilingual learners in deeply engaging with scientific practices and communication in high school science classrooms. The review examined nine peer-reviewed studies published between 2012 and 2023, focusing on instructional strategies for multilingual learners in secondary science education. Findings reveal promising interventions such as the 5E instructional model, think-pair-share discussions, translanguaging techniques, and culturally responsive pedagogy. These approaches, grounded in sociocultural theory and …

Predictors Of Bi-Directional Transitions From Mild Cognitive Impairment In A Diverse Cohort, Mitzi M. Gonzales, Roman Fernandez, Sarah Kremen, Zaldy S. Tan, Amy E. Werry, Xueqiu Jian, John Hart, Donald Royall, Gladys Maestre, Sara Espinoza

School of Medicine Publications

Trajectories following a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are varied and may fluctuate over time. Among diverse ethnic and racial groups, social factors, medical comorbidities, and biases in assessment procedures may contribute to greater heterogeneity in the MCI diagnostic category and affect its prognostic significance for dementia. The study goal was to evaluate the frequency and variables associated with MCI transitions among non-Hispanic White (NHW) and Latinx older adults. Multistate Markov models characterized transitions across diagnostic states (cognitively unimpaired (CU), MCI, dementia) over ten years. Variables associated with transitions were assessed using hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals …