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Multilingual Education Curriculum Development In Low And Middle-Income Countries, Gena N. Wambsganss

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis evaluates the curricula implemented in four mother-tongue based multilingual education programs in the Philippines, Thailand, East Timor, and Cameroon. The method for conducting research in this thesis is based on the five principles to enhance learning presented by the World Bank and the prism model developed by Thomas and Collier. The five principles presented by the World Bank are as follows: (1) Teach children in a language they understand starting with Early Childhood Education and Care services through at least the first six years of primary schooling. (2) Use a language children understand for instruction in academic subjects …

Public Service Interpreter Education In The Gulf States: Ideas For Curriculum Design And Teaching, Mustapha Taibi

International Journal of Interpreter Education

The Gulf States host large numbers of non-Arabic-speaking residents and visitors. These non-nationals need to deal with such public services as hospitals, schools, courts, and other local administrations. In many cases, English is used as a lingua franca; however, not all public service staff or clients are able to speak or communicate effectively in this language. The communication needs in such situations require the assistance of professional public service interpreters, which, in turn, calls for appropriate education. In this paper, I outline education needs in public service interpreting in the Gulf States; provide an overview of common curricular contents and …

Using An Interactive Word Wall To Increase Spanish Language Acquisition For Urban Middle School Learners, Jordan Schuneman

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

My primary research question for my capstone project is: What are the ways in which interaction, collaboration, and dialogue impact students’ Spanish language acquisition? More specifically, my research and project aim to answer: How can an interactive word wall affect Spanish language acquisition in an urban classroom? I have created an interactive word wall curriculum. This was specifically designed to fit my context as a middle school Spanish teacher, grades 6-8. However, this interactive word wall curriculum can be utilized effectively in any content area. Through considering culturally and linguistically responsive teaching (Hollie, 2018) as well as how to best …

Studying The Self: Students Examining Culture And Identity For Improved Engagement And Achievement, Zara Pylvainen

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research has demonstrated that incorporating culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) into teaching can lead to greater academic success. The curriculum designed for this project focuses on using concepts of identity and culture as topics of study in a seventh-grade English language arts (ELA) class with the aim of improving student engagement and academic achievement. CSP argues that young people are in a fluid process of developing their identities, and our pedagogy should foster that development. CSP also maintains that classrooms need to provide space for communities of color to maintain, nurture, and sustain cultural practices. This curriculum design …

A High School Economics Course Curriculum That Effectively Integrates Language And Content Instruction For English Learners, Jennifer Weddell

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

While secondary English learners face barriers to learning across all content areas, social studies courses are especially linguistically complex, and have a high level of expected prior knowledge. In the author's experience as a high school EL teacher, economics is often a particularly challenging course for EL students. This prompted the research question: How can a high school economics curriculum be designed to help English learners gain a deep understanding of the course topics while improving their academic English proficiency? A review of the literature found that features of a sheltered instruction model will validate, engage, and benefit a diverse …

Increasing Student Engagement In Kindergarten Read Alouds, Sydney Cassidy

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research has shown that when students are given the opportunity to showcase their learnings in various settings, there will be a greater chance of student engagement and motivation when completing various classroom activities. The curriculum designed for this project uses Howard Gardner’s (2006) Theory of Multiple Intelligences and Thomas Armstrong’s (2009) work with integrating these intelligences into a classroom environment to target the various ways that students learn in the classroom that is best suited to the way their brain processes and applies information. The project involved creating a curriculum that was suitable for kindergarten students to engage in various …

Students Writing Restorative Justice, Rebekah Rentzel

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The need for systemic change has never been stronger. Schools are at a breaking point. In the wake of the uncertainties of COVID and the injustice seen in the racial uprisings after the police murder of George Floyd of 2020, students are dealing with trauma that needs to be addressed in schools. The practices of restorative justice, when applied with a cultural shift within the schools, are powerful ways to support students in their healing (Morgan, 2021). Studies find that when students are at the center of creating a restorative system, it is more effective because it directly reflects the …

Supporting Multilingual Learners In The Content Classroom Through Culturally And Linguistically Responsive Teaching Practices, Karen Martinez Tinajero

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Culturally and linguistically responsive teaching practices have been demonstrated to yield positive learning outcomes for multilingual learners. The curriculum designed for this project focuses on making direct use of the culturally and linguistically responsive guidelines, frameworks, and strategies as proposed by Zaretta Hammond, Sharroky Hollie, Sydney Snyder, and Diane Staehr Fenner in a secondary level history classroom for the purpose of maximizing learning opportunities for multilingual learners. This project involved creating a dynamic curriculum complete with teacher considerations to transform content learning through cultural and linguistic responsiveness. The curriculum will primarily be used in secondary social studies classrooms for multilingual …

Peacebuilding Through Education: The Case Of Cameroon’S Anglophone Crisis, Thomas D Aquin Mbatna Taiwe

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study explores peacebuilding promotion in Cameroon's schools amid the Anglophone crisis. The crisis is characterized by a violent social rebellion affecting education and society in Cameroon (Egoh, 2020). The theoretical framework for the study is critical peace education. According to Zembylas (2018), critical peace education must consider revising peace education curricula in former colonies, enriching them with local cultures to develop sustainable peace.I conducted a multiple case study inquiry in four Cameroonian schools using semi-structured interviews and observations and analyzed documents. The logic of replication was used, and a cross-case analysis and discussion led to recommendations for peacebuilding, including …

Expanding The Role Of Social Class In Multicultural Counselor Education Curricula, Derrick Shepard, Laura S. Wheat, Casey A. Barrio Minton

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

Although professional counselors are called to develop Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC; Ratts et al., 2016), and social and cultural diversity are highly researched (e.g., Barrio Minton et al., 2014), social class as a multicultural construct has received less attention and is often reduced to being defined as socioeconomic status (SES). Therefore, this article provides a brief historical context of social class, explores the current state of social class research in counseling and counselor education, and suggests methods for increasing inclusion of social class in counselor educators’ multicultural pedagogy.

Diversity As A Condition Of Cultures: Querying Assumptions Of Mainstream And Minorities In Education Policy And Curriculum, Sue Saltmarsh

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Highlights

• Discussions of diversity in relation to children’s education are often characterized by binaries of same/different, mainstream/margins, inclusion/exclusion, self/Other.

• Curriculum remains a contested site in educational debate, with differing views about curriculum as reinforcing social norms, beliefs, and values, as addressing the learning and social needs of learners from a variety of backgrounds and worldviews, or as a hybrid of these.

• Policy and curriculum designed or intended to address diversity tend to rest on assumptions of majority or dominant cultures as homogenous and distinct from the cultures of minority Other/s.

• Inequality is often multidimensional, intersecting with, …

Understanding Environmental Justice Instruction In Higher Education: Activist Epistemic Orientations And A Continuum Of Community Engaged Curricular And Pedagogical Practice, Christopher James Rabe

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Starting in the early 1980’s, the environmental justice (EJ) movement was critical in drawing much needed attention to how communities of color, low-income groups, Indigenous peoples, and other marginalized groups have experienced a disproportionate burden of environmental and ecological harms. The EJ movement sparked the birth of the EJ field of study. While originally focused on quantitative and distributional understandings of toxic waste in communities of color, the EJ field of study has since expanded to comprise community-based methodologies and new ways to understand justice, including participatory, recognition, and transformational approaches. The EJ field now represents multiple areas such as …

Gap Analysis Of 2slgbtqia+ Curriculum In Counseling Programs, Erika Graves

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The purpose of this paper is to propose additional curriculum specific to marginalized populations and communities for Clinical Mental Health Counseling programs. There is a systemic lack of purposeful education on marginalized communities that student clinicians will be serving, with an emphasis on expectations of being a lifelong learner, asking the student/counselor to educate themselves. This expectation is unsustainable in the context and acknowledgment of burnout among human service providers, and does not reinforce the lens of trauma informed care that is stressed in its programming. To build strong clinicians, support must be executed systemically within its programming as an …

The Theoretical And Practical Basis Of Role Games In Teaching Foreign Languageges, Tursunoy Ravshanova, Ruzigul Karshieva, Makhkam Kuvvatov

Mental Enlightenment Scientific-Methodological Journal

The article touches upon the topic of using the method of role-playing games / simulations in teaching students’ foreign language. Particular attention is paid to the question of how this method can be used in universities to encourage students to make the most of a foreign language in class. The author draws attention to the fact that the types of role-playing games can be different depending on the level complexity and language skills of students, and that the correct choice is necessary role-playing game corresponding to the level of knowledge of the group. The article demonstrates that role-playing games which …

Culturally Relevant Practices And Community: Increasing Minority Leadership In School Administration To Improve School Climate, Cassandra Suggs, Joy N. Rogers

Dissertations

This dissertation and research looks into the area of Culturally Relevant Practices and Leadership in K-12 schools and the potential effect on all students in having minority leadership present. The research dives into interviews of teachers, hiring leaders, district leaders and building leaders. It also uses survey results from over 700 students, with the central theme of the questions around school safety, climate, culture, support, academics and a sense of belonging. The research purpose was to look into the potential positive effect on students and staff, if Culturally Relevant Practices and hiring of minority leadership was in place within school …

Information Literacy In Curriculum Development And Online Learning During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Samsul Susilawati

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The development of civilization in the 21st century requires a different perspective in education. The rapid development of technology and information cannot be anticipated by blocking its use in the world of education. A lot of knowledge and knowledge is easily conveyed through technology media whose development is difficult to contain. The development of civilization must be a challenge for educators to prepare superior resources and become winners in global competition. Improvement and implementation of the 2013 Curriculum at the primary and secondary education levels is carried out in order to equip students with competencies that they can live life …

Decolonizing And Diversifying French Curriculum In Twin Cities K-12 Schools, Helen Radovic

French Honors Projects

French classes in United States K-12 schools are still largely Paris-Centric and targeted towards a white/upper-class student demographic. The purpose of this study is to examine K-12 French teacher’s strategies in promoting diversity in their classrooms, and what effect this has on student engagement. Participants include eight K-12 French immersion teachers in the Twin Cities (Minnesota). Results from the study are complex and varied, however, they indicate that use of authentic resources and connection to students’ personal interests and culture are major ways in which the French curriculum can be reshaped to promote diversity and engagement.

Empower! A Poetry Curriculum For The 21st Century Learner, Misty Maina

Honors Theses

By providing today’s high school students with a multimodal curriculum centered around critical inquiry, worldview, personal relevance, and by providing students will many opportunities to respond to these principles with their own writings, students will be empowered to engage with their learning and the world in meaningful and intentional ways. Empower! poetry curriculum is designed to help students ask questions about themselves, their immediate surroundings and influences, and about the world around them. Students will be encouraged to take the time and energy for deeper thinking and reflection as they engage with the activities of Empower! While there will be …

Authentic Low-Stakes Practice To Make Meaning Lasting For Ells: Creating Vocabulary Chants And Songs To Enhance The Word Generation Curriculum, Lori Cohen

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

This curriculum creation is designed to supplement the Word Generation (WordGen) vocabulary program for middle school students. It adds songs and chants of the weekly focus words for use as a mnemonic device to remember and synthesize word meaning. The WordGen curriculum is heavily based on reading and writing and English Language Learners (ELLs) are at a disadvantage when tasked with learning and understanding academic vocabulary due to the short length of time for mastery (Cummins, 1999; Collier, 1987; Thompson, 2017). This curriculum is inspired by the desire to appeal to ELLs who would respond favorably to music or kinesthetic …

Linguistic Justice In Peer Tutoring, Emily Livingston

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Academic standards in higher education often require students to conform to Standard American English language practices—a linguistically unsound approach to language use that can be harmful to multilingual and multidialectal learners. Peer tutors in Writing and Tutoring Centers often find themselves enforcing these standards without reflection. This capstone project addressed the following questions: How have the monolingual language policies of the U.S. education system encouraged linguistic biases? How might linguistic biases lead to inequitable outcomes for multilingual students? What training and education can be provided to peer tutors to critically reflect on and begin to address these inequities while tutoring …

Implementing Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy Through The Use Of Music In The Esl Classroom, Libby Arnosti

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

In a time when progressive educators in the United States are increasingly motivated to develop their pedagogies to embody anti-racist and culturally sustaining teaching practices, there is demand for authentic curricula that ground these theories in practice. One core component of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy is teaching in a way that puts students’ lived experiences at the center of their learning. However, finding curricula that center student choice in an authentic, culturally sustaining way can be a challenge. Music, being a meaningful component of personal identity and culture for most people beginning in adolescence, provides a means to craft such curricula. …

Esl Curriculum: Oral Language Acquisition For Teaching Under-Privileged School-Aged Children Of Hopeful Academy, Ibadan, Nigeria, Oloruntoba Ajibero

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This project is centered on the development of the ESL curriculum for teaching of oral language to under-privileged school-aged children of Hopeful Academy, Ibadan-Nigeria. It investigated the question “How does Poverty impact the Oral Language Acquisition of English by School-Aged Children in Nigeria?” The content-based learning approach and the input-based approach served as useful guides in designing this ESL curriculum. The materials, activities, and units of this ESL Curriculum are mostly based on the Total Physical Response (TPR) from the WIDA English Language Proficiency standards. Children’s poor environments prevent them from being exposed to higher quantity and quality language learning …

No “Pobrecito Student”: Translanguaging High-School Science For Academic Language Development, Agustina Borré

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Borré, A. (2022). No “Pobrecito Student”: Translanguaging High-School Science for Academic Language Development. The research questions addressed in this study were: what are the impacts of translanguaging on academic language development? And what are the challenges and successes in implementing translanguaging in highly culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms? Thus, the topics explored in the literature review range from research on academic language development and the teaching and learning of science in high school and the struggles and challenges English Language Learners (ELLs) face when learning then different content areas. The literature review also reveals some of the findings emerging from …

A Critical Analysis Of Cultura In Spanish World Language Textbooks, Amanda Holbrook

Education Doctorate Dissertations

This action-oriented multimodal discourse analysis explored how a high school Spanish world language textbook series construes Spanish speakers and cultures and invites students to engage with them through written texts and visual images. Through a lens of analysis based on systemic functional linguistics and influenced by critical discourse analysis and critical literacy pedagogy, this study found that the textbooks erase Spanish speakers as active creators of cultures, construe them as a standardized monolithic group when present, and construe cultures as tied to the interests of tourists and linked to place. Moreover, the textbook series invites students to engage with Spanish …

Where Did Librarianship Go In The Teaching Curricula Of Ischools?, Muhammad Arif Dr., Miguel Baptista Nunes Prof., Saima Kanwal Dr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Purpose – Information schools (iSchools) emerged because of the fast technological developments and the urgent need of information in the contemporary society. Despite many advantages, the iSchool movement confronted several challenges. The current study is aimed to address one of the key challenges, where did librarianship go in the teaching curricula of iSchools.

Design/methodology/approach – This research adopted a desktop-based survey of the North American and the European iSchools websites. Also, a comprehensive literature was reviewed to get insight on the phenomenon under discussion.

Findings – Literature based findings disclosed that iSchool movement is evolving, 19 members in 2005 and …

Teaching English In Afghan’S Schools And Its History, Samadi Nooria

Mental Enlightenment Scientific-Methodological Journal

This article illustrates the history of teaching English language , the current situation of educational system in Afghanistan and the usage of different teaching methods in Afghan schools from points of view of famous scholars. It is clear traditional teaching has along history in Afghanistan and used for centuries, so it is very difficult to bring changes in this system and it is hard to change with new methods.

What Factors Impact Black Adolescents’ Attitudes Towards Literacy In The Classroom?, Sheila R. Harris

Theses and Dissertations

In the Black community, there is a paradox about how education is a key to success and a way out of a person’s unfortunate socioeconomic situation (Mickelson, 1990). Over time, Black adolescents have continuously performed low academically (NAEP, 2019). According to the Nation’s Report Card (2019), when viewed by racial/ethnic groups, the percentages of students performing at or above Proficient ranged from 18% for Black students to 46% for white students (NAEP, 2019). While holding such a vital belief in the “power of an education” (focusing mainly on literacy as reading), the current study seeks to understand what factors play …

Transforming Sociology Courses With Human Rights Education: Curriculum, Pedagogy, And Classroom Environment Considerations, Karie Jo Peralta

Societies Without Borders

Sociology courses have significant potential to liberate students. A promising way to achieve this aim is by grounding courses in human rights principles such as respect, equity, equality, and democratic participation. Using a college-level, introductory sociology course as an example, this paper explores how a human rights education (HRE) framework can serve as a foundation for the teaching of sociology. The purpose is to show how sociology educators can relatively easily embed HRE into the learning experience. To begin, I will present a HRE framework. Then, I will illustrate how common course topics, teaching methods, and classroom conditions can be …

“It Wasn’T Just About Learning How To Speak Spanish”: Engaging Histories Of Oppression And Enslavement In Spanish Heritage Language Education, Tania Avilés, Anthony J. Harb

Publications and Research

We present a curricular intervention in elementary Spanish heritage language in a Hispanic serving institution located in the US Northeast (Bronx, NYC), that aims to contextualize Latinx students’ experiences and perceptions of Blackness within broader histories of oppression and enslavement. Our practice brings together critical Latinx pedagogy and critical approaches to Spanish heritage language education to facilitate sociohistorical consciousness for both language instructors and students through the use of open-access Latinx archival resources. We outline a three-week unit designed using the First Blacks in the Americas online collection curated by the City University of New York Dominican Studies Institute. During …

"We Are The Stories" : Narrative Competence And Cognitive Mapping As A Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy In The Education Of Emergent Bilinguals, Sepideh Yasrebi

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Much has been said about the drawbacks of “teaching to the test” in K-12 public education in the U.S. When it comes to English as a New Language (ENL), however, few studies have explored the ways in which ENL literacy and education is framed and conceptualized in the New York State Next Generation Learning Standards (NGLS), which, in turn, decisively shape ENL curriculum and instruction at schools. Considering the issues of deficits perspectives, context and pragmatics in Second Language Acquisition, mechanical approaches to writing, and narrative and agency, this study intends to reframe narrative writing around students’ lived experiences. In …