Education Commons^™

Mental Health Stigma As A Sociocultural Complex Within Panamanian Culture, Arielle Sanders

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

The purpose of this study is to examine mental health stigma within the sociocultural context shared by members of the Panamanian population. Mental health stigma is complex because it manifests itself differently according to the cultural context in which it is experienced. Culture informs individual beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes regarding how a person should live within their immediate household and within society. This social conditioning is accomplished through a variety of means, including the passing down of social norms, traditions, and customs. Ultimately, these cultural characteristics encourage socially acceptable behaviors while simultaneously discouraging undesirable behaviors in order to maintain group …

The Impact Of A Culturally Responsive Approach In Science Education On Kindergarten Students, Monique Hite-Patterson

Dissertations

Classrooms today are more ethnically and linguistically diverse. Unfortunately, students of color demonstrate a history of marginalized educational inequities (Williamson et al., 2007). These marginalized educational inequities impact academic achievement across all content areas especially literacy, math, and science. To improve the academic performance of students who are culturally, racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse, methods of instruction and pedagogy that better facilitate learning among diverse student populations must be instituted (Ladson-Billings, 2005). A mixed methods study was conducted in response to the need to examine the impact of using culturally responsive strategies on kindergarten student’s attitudes towards science and their …

Journey “Box” Assignment Description, David Wolff

Open Educational Resources - Teaching and Learning

The Journey “Box” allows preservice teachers to explore and share their own historical narrative as they different aspects of their own family’s journey to America. The Journey “Box” first asks preservice teachers to explore themes by reading children’s literature and then positions preservice teachers as interviewers as they seek out different facets of their family’s historical narrative from members of their family. Preservice teachers then use their experience with a Journey “Box” to design an inquiry that could be used in their field experience. The Journey “Box” integrates social studies standards and best practices with ELA standards.

Global Engineering Ethics: What? Why? How? And When?, Rockwell F. Clancy Iii, Qin Zhu

Journal of International Engineering Education

Even though engineering programs, accreditation bodies, and multinational corporations have become increasingly interested in introducing global dimensions into professional engineering practice, little work in the existing literature provides an overview of questions fundamental to global engineering ethics, such as what global engineering ethics is, why it should be taught, how it should be taught, and when it should be introduced. This paper describes the what, why, how, and when of global engineering ethics – a form adopted from a 1996 article by Charles Harris, Michael Davis, Michael Pritchard, and Michael Rabins, which has influenced the development of engineering ethics for …

Breaking Bias, Building Belonging: Racism And Misogyny In Campus Communities, Kayla Batalha

Honors Projects in English and Cultural Studies

Breaking Bias, Building Belonging: Racism and Misogyny in Campus Communities is a project that uses art as a research medium in order to first understand how the Bryant community perceives issues of race, gender, and bias, as well as using creative modes of expression to educate participants on issues that are often invisible and go undiscussed on campus. Using qualitative and ethnographic research methods, this exhibit is infused with both primary and secondary research. Data gathered from the literature review explores the theme of community, which serves as the foundation for this project that was subsequently narrowed to focus on …

Racial And Cultural Competence Through The Eyes Of Public-School Educators, Laquita Mcmillion

Dissertations

The discussion of racial and cultural competence in public schools today is necessary. The student population of public schools across the United States has significantly grown racially and culturally diverse. Through the use of a narrative inquiry and a critical lens, this study explored the perception and experiences of public-school educators focused on the topic of racial and cultural competence as it relates to their classroom practice and educational policies. The focus of this research (1) describes and analyzes my personal experiences through the use of qualitative approaches, (2) shares the experiences and perceptions of three public-school educators, and (3) …

Focus On The Busy Intersections Of Culture And Cultural Change, Laura Elder

Journal of Global Catholicism

The dynamics of religious resurgence reveal the important ways that religious ritual and performance are meaning making spaces which are not self-contained or cut off from the rest of culture, but rather are a key locus of cultural change. A renewed emphasis on the busy intersections of meaning making – as rituals are connected, disconnected, and reconnected to other domains of social life – would improve the utility of the Catholics & Cultures website for understanding global cultural change. And a renewed emphasis on cultural change would also provide a better means for exploring reflexively by seeking to understand both …

Writing To Transgress: Autobiographies And Family Trees As Multimodal And Culturally Sustaining Writing Pedagogy, John Wesley White, Cynthia Lynn Sumner

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Engaging today's students in writing often requires more than formulas and prompts; it requires the use of culturally sustaining genres and modalities that speak to students' lived experiences and what they know best. This paper chronicles an urban teacher's attempt to create and use a writing prompt and a genre that would speak to and engage students who had previously experienced discouragement surrounding their academic writing. More specifically, we examine how the teacher used family trees, student-led interviews with family members, and family artifacts to engage his students in telling their own stories and, subsequently, how changes in this teacher's …

Research-Based Course Re-Design For Human Relations In A Multicultural Society, Academic Years 2010-2012, Elizabeth J. Sandell

Elementary and Literacy Education Department Publications

Intercultural competence is one way to describe how individuals and groups understand and adapt their behavior to cultural differences. University students can increase their intercultural competence by understanding behaviors and by experiencing cultural differences. One way to do this is by participating in a course, such as Human Relations in a Multicultural Society. The course's objective was to help students in understanding their own cultural roots, as well as those of other culture groups. This study responded to questions about the impact of multicultural education on intercultural competence among undergraduates. The data set included more than 130 students who took …

"It Goes Both Ways" : How White Teachers View And Respond To Culture In The Diverse Classroom, Danielle Martin

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how white teachers in a diverse school district view, respond to, and bridge cultural differences in the classroom. A pre-question, survey, audio recorded discussions, notes in a teacher research journal, and a post question were all analyzed to determine how four white, female teachers incorporated culture into the classroom as well as their receptiveness to culturally sustaining pedagogy. Findings were that these four teachers had a rudimentary understanding of culturally sustaining pedagogy prior to the study and while they made attempts to include culture in the classroom, these attempts were limited and …

Changing The Narrative: Building A Conceptual Framework For Advocating Representation In History Textbooks, Valerie Paul

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

At a time where Americans are beginning to engage in critical dialogue about the representation of minorities in the media, conversations about representation in education have been somewhat elusive or condensed. With the popular focus for marginalized communities being on issues of stereotype threat, achievement deficits, and culturally responsive pedagogy, it seems that policy makers are often left to make decisions that lack considerable connection between the cognitive, social and emotional implications of inclusivity in educational curriculum. Furthermore, there hasn't appeared to be an extensive analysis of these issues between and among relative disciplines. For example, when we discuss representation …

Just "Level The Playing Field" And Watch Me Excel!, Baruti K. Kafele, Baruti K. Kafele

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

This engaging, interactive, self-reflective session focuses on equity at the classroom level. It challenges teachers to look within themselves relative to how they relate to and engage with their at-risk students of color and other underserved students. It challenges teachers to confront whatever biases they may bring to these students that may be either blatant, subtle, undetected or unacknowledged. It argues that high-performance is an impossibility in classroom environments where equity fails to exist.

Linguistic Interactions Of Spanish Speaking Mexican American Families, Adelfio J. Garcia

Dissertations

This study explored the bilingual linguistic interactions in Mexican families and their impact on children’s language and literacy development. This qualitative study gathered data using different methods, namely, interviews, direct observations, participant observation, and physical artifacts to examine parents’ perceptions of their own educational path in comparison to their children’s educational path in an American school system, together with their daily linguistic interactions in various social contexts, and the features, themes and roles of linguistic interactions participants. Study results assisted in gaining deeper understanding of daily conversations happening in different social contexts and their impact on the language and literacy …

Mediation In The Mediterranean: Italy As A Crucible For Immigration And Intercultural Mediation, Nicole Patteuw Abetti

MA TESOL Collection

Europe is again in an intense state of migration influx. While some European countries have historical precedence for these types of population shifts, Italy has largely remained outside the modern phenomenon, since it did not experience the economic boom of post WW2 and the subsequent demand for migrant workers, nor did it experience the pull effect of language migrants after the decolonization of Africa. Italy therefore also missed the second surge of migration during the 70’s and 80’s when families of these immigrants began arriving in Europe. What Italy did experience throughout the 20^th century, and continues to experience …

The Curriculum Of Cultural Reconciliation At West Virginia State University And The General Education Curriculum, Michael Carpenter Harris Ii

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This qualitative study examined the perceptions and experiences of the faculty and students involved in the creation and administration of the General Education program at WVSU. This study focused on the themes of the creation of the original General Education curriculum that included the Origins and Race, Gender, and Human Identity classes, the redesign of the curriculum due to the state mandate, and how the new version of the General Education curriculum compares to the original. The findings provide insight into strengths and weaknesses of the program, faculty and student perceptions, government policy affecting education, and possible pathways forward to …

Walking The Tightrope Of Visibility, Leigh Patel

Occasional Paper Series

This essay cautions projects of visibility that are twinned with intersectional analyses. Arguing for a deliberate rupture in schooling’s categorical logics and a historical analysis of the cultural force of individual identity, I caution that the individual identity tendencies of modernity hold some risks for the substantial and long-standing imperatives of intersectional analysis. I ground this argument in Audre Lorde’s work and how it is often sampled insufficiently.

Intention, Questions, And Creative Expression: An Antidiscriminatory Diversity Statement, Hannah S. Bright

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

Supporting education that reflects diversity involves maintaining awareness of one’s personal positionality, creating safe and inclusive learning communities, and using creativity and choice to empower and honor student voice and individual development. When working in educational settings, teachers may involve students in selecting relevant materials, and follow their lead in creating critical dialogue about salient factors of identity.

A Phenomenological Study Of Military Veteran Student Attrition At Western Virginia Community Colleges, Gordon Cavendish

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experience of “discontinued enrollment” for military veteran students at western Virginia community colleges. The theory guiding this study was Schlossberg’s (1981) transition theory, as the military veteran students were in transition from the military to the community college. The research questions were, how did military veterans describe their experiences at the community college, and what factors did military veterans identify as influencing their decision to discontinue enrollment? The methodology chosen was transcendental phenomenology which followed a focused structure and data collection methods including interviews, a questionnaire, member checks, and collection …

The Importance Of National Identity In Social Studies Classes In Puerto Rico: An Examination Of Teacher And Student Perceptions Of “Lo Nacional”, Jesus Daniel Diaz

Dissertations

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, is home to approximately 3.4 million U.S. citizens. The literature on Puerto Rican national identity (PRNI) describes how and why it has been debated on the island for more than five hundred years throughout the colonial trajectory, once under Spain and now as a commonwealth of the United States.

The education system in Puerto Rico, and particularly the social studies curriculum, has been used to promote particular ideologies regarding national identity. This study identifies what middle school teachers teach about PRNI and how seventh grade students identify themselves …

Culturally Responsive Teaching: Implications For Educational Justice, Magnus O. Bassey

Publications and Research

Educational justice is a major global challenge. In most underdeveloped countries, many students do not have access to education and in most advanced democracies, school attainment and success are still, to a large extent, dependent on a student’s social background. However, it has often been argued that social justice is an essential part of teachers’ work in a democracy. This article raises an important overriding question: how can we realize the goal of educational justice in the field of teaching? In this essay, I examine culturally responsive teaching as an educational practice and conclude that it is possible to realize …

Beliefs About Social Workers Among Black Males, Tavon Antonio Harris

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

It’s been more than a decade since the National Institute of Mental Health (NAMI) initiated its public campaign, ‘Real Men Real Depression.’ Despite increased awareness, research and relevant studies indicate that African American / Black men continue to underutilize mental health treatment while still having the highest all-cause mortality rates of any racial/ ethnic group in the United States. When reading this statement, one must question what impact that the beliefs about ‘social workers’ through the lens of Black males in the United States, may play. This very simply, yet flammable, question not only seems pertinent but also seems to …

The City From Above, Guadalupe Astorga Contreras

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

The city of Tijuana, Mexico has become a second home to many LMU students through programs like De Colores, which introduce students to issues of immigration, poverty, and education. The city varies from L.A.-style skyscrapers and paved roads to shacks along dirt paths. This image shows some of the diversity and growth of the city as it continues to develop, and provides a different perspective on the crowded communities that make up Tijuana.

Tourist To My Own Culture, Guadalupe Astorga Contreras

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

After nine years of living in the U.S. and staying away from her cultural homeland of Mexico, photographer Astorga returned to some of the places she remembered visiting as a child in her native country. Throughout the trip, the unthinkable change from intimacy to unfamiliarity was clear. These pictures show that progression and invite the viewer to become a tourist alongside Astorga as she visits a place she once considered home.

The Transformative Experiences Of Female Educators As A Catalyst For Social Change In The World, April D. Jordan

Dissertations

As social justice issues become known, one may be moved to act in the hopes of alleviating the conditions that burden marginalized and oppressed people. What is sometimes missing from the discourse when discussing oppressive issues is the role women play in counteracting such subjugation. Also essential, yet missing from the research, are studies that underscore the importance of educators fostering social action change outside of and apart from institutions of learning and curriculum planning. This qualitative study examined the lives of six, nontraditional, female educator intellectuals whose perceptions of self (identity) and the world were transformed by engaging in …

When All Hope Is Gone, Trust Then Believe: “At Risk” Or “At Potential"?, Erica C. Pooler, Barbara Kirby-Bentley Dr.

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

The Cards of Life, when all hope is gone; trust then believe forces educators to view students differently. The notion that we can’t teach students until we truly begin to know them and they begin to trust us is challenged. The fact that our actions have to align with our words and meaningful conversations and relationships must be established in the classroom. At Risk or At Potential? Every school across the nation have students that struggle, academically, socially or behaviorally. There are a variety of reasons as to why? We can no longer ignore these students and pad the numbers …

School Culture For The Mobile Digital Age, Helen Crompton, Diane Burke

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

School culture is a nebulous blend of traditions, values, beliefs, and rituals built up over time. Recent mobile technologies are disrupting this culture in favor of learning that is personalized, on demand, ubiquitous knowledge. This paper provides a historical overview of the adoption of mobile technologies in school culture. An epistemological dissonance is uncovered regarding a slow rate of adoption and effective pedagogical practices. Finally, building from existing literature, a new framework is presented to elucidate a new school culture that involves students as curators of the web, creators of knowledge, and custodians of learning.

Math, Class, And Katrina Aftermath: The Impact Of Experiences Teaching Mathematics To Low-Income Middle School Students On Middle-Income Teachers’ Pedagogical Strategies, Susan J. Ikenberry

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Despite a century of educational reforms, no matter how achievement is measured, learning and opportunity gaps can still be predicted by race and socioeconomic status. Teachers and schools are blamed for functioning to reproduce social inequality. This study investigated teacher agency and transformative potentials. It considered how teachers modified their pedagogical practices when teaching low-income and high-poverty students. In order to capture teacher beliefs and logic, a qualitative approach was used involving in-depth interviews of a small number of participants.

The research used the context of the dislocation of students from high-poverty Orleans Parish schools in the year following Hurricane …

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 …

Culture, Leadership, And Activism: Translating Fink’S Taxonomy Of Significant Learning Into Pedagogical Practice, Toby S. Jenkins

Toby S Jenkins

Through the article, I share the theoretical foundations, structure, knowledge acquisition, and outcomes of a cultural leadership course. The process for course development integrates several theories and research methods into practice: L. Dee Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning, Feminist Theory, Critical Race Theory, and Portraiture/Phenomenology. This course has been piloted at two universities and represents a partnership between the Student Affairs Division and the College of Humanities & Social Sciences at both institutions. This article explores the importance of culture, examines knowledge production on leadership outside of traditional academic venues, and paints a portrait of culture and leadership in the …

Addressing Academic Integrity: Perspectives From Virginia Commonwealth University In Qatar, Nancy E. Fawley

Nancy Fawley

Understanding the cultural aspects that affect a student’s ability to appropriately use resources is important in developing outreach and instruction in multicultural settings. Differences in educational philosophies, students’ previous scholastic training and cultural differences in individual motivation are all factors that may affect a freshman’s ability to understand an American university’s idea of academic integrity and can inadvertently cause problems where independent work and critical thinking are required. At Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCU Qatar), a branch campus of the American university in the Middle East, a special class on academic integrity and ethical behavior was integrated into the …