Education Commons^™

An Ethnographic Interpretation Of Latino Perspectives On Family Engagement In Education, Mary Pollema

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this period of intense demographic change and educational reform that strongly emphasizes the imperative of family engagement, yet implicates minority culture parents as not being involved, it behooves the field of education to take a closer look at the rigidity that schools utilize in their normalized perceptions and practices of parental involvement. Effective involvement can consist of a number of different activities, but only a few are acknowledged in educational discourse. Therefore, it is important to hear the perspectives of families of other cultures in order to bring to light new understanding that will assist schools in building stronger …

Testimonio And Counterstorytelling By Immigrant-Origin Children And Youth: Insights That Amplify Immigrant Subjectivities, Ariana Mangual Figueroa, Wendy Barrales

Publications and Research

This article seeks to amplify our scholarly view of immigrant identity by centering the first-person narratives of immigrant-origin children and youth. Our theoretical and methodological framework centers on testimonio—a narrative practice popularized in Latin American social movements in which an individual recounts a lived experience that is intended to be representative of a collective struggle. Our goal is to foreground first-person narratives of childhood as told by immigrant-origin children and youth in order to gain insight into what they believe we should know about them. We argue for the power of testimonio to communicate both extraordinary hardship and everyday experiences …

Using Families' Funds Of Knowledge Literacy To Enhance Family-School Relationships, Kaitlyn Greenwood

Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents the initial findings from an ethnographic case study, in a small South Jersey town. Using a socio-cultural framework and drawing from Moll and Gonzalez's funds of knowledge study, the specific aim of the study was to investigate the literacy practices students bring to the classroom, families' views of home to school connection, educators' impression of the family school partnership, and the role of student's funds of knowledge in the classroom. Three second grade families participated in home visits which involved in-depth interviews detailing family literacies including culture, traditions, family background, early literacy practices, and value of education. …

Navigating Mainstream Environments: The Impact Of Modality Selection For Children With Cochlear Implants, Kristine Plasse

Doctoral Dissertations

Communication is a fundamental component in education. For children who are deaf, cochlear implantation provides access to spoken communication; however, that access is different from that which typically hearing students experience. Because cochlear implants (CIs) have made it possible for many deaf individuals to communicate through spoken language, controversy exists in the education field as to which modes of communication should be considered for children who are deaf and have CIs in mainstream classrooms. This dissertation discusses a qualitative multi-case study that was conducted using ethnographic methods in order to examine the communication practices of two students with cochlear implants …

Journeys Through Rough Country: An Ethnographic Study Of Blind Adults Successfully Employed In American Corporations, Kirk Adams

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Blind and visually impaired people in the United States face a dire employment situation within professional careers and corporate employment. The purpose of this research study was to gain insights into the phenomenon of employment of blind people through analyzing the lived experience of successfully employed blind adults through ethnographic interviews. Previous research has shown that seven out of ten blind adults are not in the workforce, that a large percentage of those who are employed consider themselves underemployed, and that these numbers have not improved over time. Missing from previous research were insights into the conditions leading to successful …

What About Students’ Experiences: (Re)Imagining Success Through Photovoice At A High-Achieving Urban “No-Excuses” Charter School, L. Trenton S. Marsh

Intersections: Critical Issues in Education

The article highlights the use of photovoice, a method that gives power to creators of images to capture experiences that are central to their life. Students verbal considerations of success in the context of the “no-excuses” school is included, as is a sample of students’ visual data about what success is outside of the “no-excuses” context. The study reveals the “no-excuses” orientation fosters an oppressive definition of success in the context of classrooms. However, the photovoice component reveals students are able to resist the limited view as four emergent findings reveal how students make meaning of success: (1) human connection; …

Finding Their Place: An Ethnographic Study Of The Culture Of Students Attending A Rural, Self-Paced, Alternative Evening High School, Teena Atkins

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to provide a cultural portrait as well as identify methods of success of nontraditional students attending a self-paced, alternative evening high school in the southeast region of the United States in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. An ethnographic research design was utilized employing data triangulation through observations, interviews, focus group, and journals as methods of data collection. Participants included nontraditional students who were currently attending or recently graduated from an alternative evening high school in the southeast region of the United States. This study sought to better understand what factors contributed to …

Breaking The “Fourth Wall” In Qualitative Research: Participant-Led Digital Data Construction, Nettie Boivin, Anna Cohenmiller

The Qualitative Report

This article reconstructs the typical researcher-participant focus - where the participants are doing for us - instead we followed the participants’ lead in the construction of research. Using a qualitative literacy event case study as an example, we describe how participants unexpectedly co-constructed knowledge through a participant-led digital data collection. In this theoretical article, we provide an explanation of the original study, which used observations, semi-structured interviews, and home visits as a collective qualitative case study on parental participation in social literacy practices. The original investigation led to the important shift that occurred in participant-researcher roles. In this article, using …

H.E.L.L.A.: A Bay Area Critical Racial Affinity Group Committed To Healing, Empowerment, Love, Liberation, And Action, Farima Pour-Khorshid

School of Education Faculty Research

Despite repeated pleas for diversifying a predominantly White U.S. teacher workforce, a significant teacher diversity gap persists in almost every state of the country (Boser, 2014). Teachers of Color who enter the profession with commitments to social justice, in particular, face an array of racist structural and interpersonal challenges often leading to their burnout and in some cases push out from the field (Kohli & Pizarro, 2016). In response to neoliberal, color evasive, and apolitical approaches to teacher support, educators and organizers have reclaimed and reframed their pedagogies through critical professional development (Kohli, Picower, Martinez, & Ortiz, 2015) to center …

The Song (Does Not) Remain The Same: Re-Envisioning Portraiture Methodology In Educational Research, Spirit D. Brooks

The Qualitative Report

This conceptual paper explores how portraiture methodology re-envisioned was used in an educational research project with white teachers. What qualifies as authentic voice and an appraisal of how portraiture and auto-ethnography hold up against the critique of voice-centered research made by Lather (2009), Mazzei and Jackson (2012a) and English (2000) are discussed in the context of the author’s personal narrative journey to the use of portraiture methodology. Next, the trail blazing methodological contribution portraiture makes by allowing an expansion of creative research methods in education is discussed.

Multilingual Literacies: Invisible Representation Of Literacy In A Rural Classroom, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba

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

In many countries, educational policies typically mandate school activities that promote a homogeneous and narrow range of academic literacies for all learners despite the diverse nature of human learning. This ethnographic case study examines how a 12-year-old Kenyan fourth-grade student performing below average on all standardized tests used multiple invisible literacies while documenting his knowledge and life experiences in a rural context. Invisible literacies are covert meaning- making literacy practices that are not privileged in the classroom. Examination of these practices shows a convergence between school and home literacies, suggesting a need for education stakeholders to identify literacies that are …

Partnerships Through Adult Education: Re-Conceptualizing Family Literacy In The New Latino Diaspora, Jennifer Leigh Stacy

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Schools are complex social institutions that mediate the experiences of newcomer families in the US. In recent years, a body of scholarship known as New Latino Diaspora has followed the migration of Latino families as they have moved away from traditional gateway communities and settled into territories that have previously been home to few, if any, Latino families. As a result, both institutionalized and grassroots educational initiatives have emerged as vehicles to support newcomer families as they learn English and adapt to living in a new community. This dissertation looks at the cultural space of a family literacy program that …

Dual Language K-2 Latina Teachers: Juxtaposing Linguistic Identities And Pedagogical Practices On The U.S.-Mexico Frontera, Brenda Oriana Fuentes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This ethnographic study explored the linguistic identities and pedagogical practices of Latina bilingual-certified K-2 teachers in a dual language (DL) program in the U.S.-Mexico border area. Drawing on sociocultural theory, methods of data collection and analysis focused on linking DL Latina teachers' identity formation with both their conceptions of teaching and their actual pedagogical practices related to language use. The findings from this study painted a portrait of how DL teachersâ?? languages, literacies, and identities intertwined to shape their pedagogical practice. The linguistic backgrounds of DL teachers on the border were shaped by country of origin and languages, schooling experiences, …

‘‘Where I’M From’’ And Belonging: A Multimodal, Cosmopolitan Perspective On Arts And Inquiry, Tiffany A. Dejaynes

Publications and Research

The paper draws upon a year-long practitioner inquiry with adolescents who conducted auto-ethnographies as part of a research course in their urban public high school. Through ethnographic data collection, youth researched their own lives, cultures, and beliefs with the end goal of producing multimodal films that represented their embodied senses of ‘‘Where I’m From’’, broadly defined. As youth collected and interpreted culturally and personally meaningful artifacts, stories, memories, and family discourses, the cosmopolitan habits of mind and heart that it is argued are important for nurturing reflective citizens of the world. In the process of video production or self-curation, youth …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

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.

“This Is Our Life. We Can’T Drive Home.” An Analysis Of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy As Perceived By Elementary Teachers, Students And Families In An Urban Charter School, Elaine Azalia Mcneil-Girmai

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

As schools have become more diverse ethnically and linguistically, the likelihood of cultural mismatches among students, families, and teachers has increased (Frank, 1999). Culturally relevant pedagogy has at its core the understanding that incorporating students‘ culture into the practices of the school and the classroom through culturally relevant curriculum is likely to improve student cooperation, inspire a greater understanding of the educational program, and increase academic outcomes (Brown, 2004). These pedagogies have the potential to be a vital tool toward closing the achievement gap, yet the practices associated with them are in danger of meeting the same fate as multicultural …

Working The System: The Role Of Islam In Student Negotiations Of A Midwestern Charter School, Elizabeth J. Baer

Religious Studies Honors Projects

“What should the role of Islam be in American public life?” Rather than answer this question through broad, theoretical discourse, I turn to a case study of Somali Muslims in a Midwestern charter school. Through this case study, I analyze how individual Muslims, tied to communities and Allah in diverse ways, actively negotiate how to incorporate their religious practices into public space. I argue that by examining specific strategies used by individuals in an actual school setting, as opposed to making generalizing assumptions, one can better understand that Islam already plays a variety of constantly changing roles in American public …

Korean American Cultural Differences In Classroom Literacy Activities: Observations From An Ethnographic Case Study., Heriberto Godina Phd, Jeonghee Choi Phd

Heriberto Godina PhD

This study explores teacher-student perceptions about cultural differences and their influence upon classroom literacy activities. An ethnographic case method focuses on a Korean American student. Secondary participants include a parent, teacher, and classmates in a white Midwestern community. The study accentuates the generalizable discourse that neglects the complexity inherent to intercultural relationships in a changing elementary classroom. Implications include how multicultural children’s literature deemed appropriate for minorities can be problematically situated for effective instruction.

"Beating The Odds": How Bi-Lingual Hispanic Students Work Through Adversity To Become High Achieving Students, Mark Hassinger

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine characteristics of academically successful Hispanic students. Rather than ask ourselves why so many Hispanic students are failing, this study takes a more positive approach to this subject. Despite repeated failures and early academic difficulties, some Hispanic students continue to fight through the adversity. Some children have a positive attitude toward school although there are monumental barriers for these at-risk children. This study asks, "What piece of the puzzle do these students possess that the others do not?" In essence, this is an "asset-oriented" approach rather than a deficit-assessment approach. The purpose …

Contradictory Literacy Practices Of Mexican-Background Students: An Ethnography From The Rural Midwest, Heriberto Godina Phd

Heriberto Godina PhD

This ethnographic study explores the contradictory literacy practices of 10 high school students of Mexican background from the rural Midwest. The author uses the term Mexican background to encompass both settled Mexican Americans and recent-immigrant Mexicanos. Literacy is investigated through English and Spanish in a sociocultural context. Findings reveal how Mexican-background students demonstrate different literacy practices in their homes and communities than those acknowledged at school. Educators in the school setting did not recognize Mexican-background students’ linguistic proficiency. In school, Mexican-background students were viewed in terms of their limited-English status and were mostly enrolled in low academic tracks. At home, …

Sociolinguistic Perspectives On Decisions Of Correctness In New Mexico Spanish, Leslie Merryl Kravitz

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the attitudes of Spanish speakers of an Albuquerque community toward local and standard Mexican Spanish. The preferences expressed and the linguistic elements involved in such decisions were explored. Sociolinguistic factors related to individual and group choices were also considered.

In order to probe the relationship between social and linguistic facts, a single community was investigated. Martineztown, a small, insular Albuquerque Spanish-speaking community was first observed with regard to availability of formal models of Spanish. Sociolinguistic and ethnographic interviews were then conducted. Additional interviews were completed in other New Mexico communities to …