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Locating Safe Spaces For Food Insecure Female Community College Students, Michelle Errington Nicholson Jul 2020

Locating Safe Spaces For Food Insecure Female Community College Students, Michelle Errington Nicholson

Doctoral Dissertations

Food insecurity is a problem on many college campuses and as such is an increasing focus of research (Ferguson, 2004; et al., 2014; Meldrum & Willows, 2006; Patton-López, et al., 2014; Powers, 2012; Rondeau, 2007). These studies and others (Chaparro, et al., 2009; Freudenberg, et al, 2011; Hughes, et al., 2011; Lindsley & King, 2014) report that from 21-69% of college students experience food insecurity. I examined college student food insecurity at a small rural community college in Massachusetts in an attempt to discover safe spaces for female students to disclose food insecurity and the characteristics of those safe spaces. …


Shopping For Vibrators With My Abuela… #Space #Representation And #Latinidad In @Janethevirgin, Maria Guarino Apr 2020

Shopping For Vibrators With My Abuela… #Space #Representation And #Latinidad In @Janethevirgin, Maria Guarino

Masters Theses

Jane the Virgin debuted on the CW in 2014 at a time when anti-immigrant, particularly anti-Mexican and anti-Latinx, sentiment in the U.S. felt very prevalent. This TV show was the latest to offer representations of Latin@s at the forefront and advanced a distinct political stance on immigration by calling for #immigrationreform. The series has not only been a ratings hit amongst the Latinx community, but has garnered wide acclaim from other races, ethnicities, and gender identities across the United States. This thesis explores the representation of the character of Alba (Ivonne Coll), through an investigation of the various physical and …


Food And/As Communication, Leda M. Cooks Jan 2020

Food And/As Communication, Leda M. Cooks

Sustainability Education Resources

This is a two-semester, eight-credit Communication Honors Thesis Seminar focusing on the ways we create and reflect meanings made about food. The seminar delves into the material and social meanings of food and implications for identity, culture and social justice. Students will have the opportunity to research food in the context of the meanings made about it in various institutions, businesses, nonprofit organizations, neighborhoods, cultures and communities. The first semester HONORS 499 CL (Fall 2020) will 1) introduce students to food as a vehicle through which society and social life is communicated; 2) introduce methods and tools for conducting survey …


An Examined Life Of A Language Teacher Of Chinese: An Autoethnographic Investigation Into Agency, Ying Zhang Oct 2019

An Examined Life Of A Language Teacher Of Chinese: An Autoethnographic Investigation Into Agency, Ying Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

There is a paucity of research about and done by L2 Chinese educators regarding the theoretical construct of agency. It is also noted that the qualitative inquiry is marginalized in L2 Chinese research field, let alone the narrative study of the agency of experienced by L2 Chinese-teachers. In this dissertation research, I aim at filling in the gap by conducting a longitudinal autoethnography which captures over a decade (1997-2017) of my personal and professional development with an agency perspective. The highly personalized autoethnographic accounts open up my personal and professional life as an experienced, college-level, transnational, early 40’s female native …


Navigating Mainstream Environments: The Impact Of Modality Selection For Children With Cochlear Implants, Kristine Plasse Jul 2019

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 …


Parenting, Identity And Culture In An Era Of Migration And Globalization: How Bangladeshi Parents Navigate And Negotiate Child-Rearing Practices In The Usa, Mohammad Mahboob Morshed Oct 2018

Parenting, Identity And Culture In An Era Of Migration And Globalization: How Bangladeshi Parents Navigate And Negotiate Child-Rearing Practices In The Usa, Mohammad Mahboob Morshed

Doctoral Dissertations

Globalization puts into challenge the singular notion of identity and culture. Immigrant parents must navigate multiple cultural systems and constantly redefine their identities in order to cope with a new way of being. This dissertation is aimed at learning about this cultural encounter faced by Bangladeshi immigrant parents living in Western Massachusetts region of the USA. More specifically, I studied immigrant Bangladeshi parents’ identity negotiations, their navigation of transnational spaces, and cultural negotiation in relation to their children’s schooling. My research is informed by cultural theories of immigration and globalization. Guattari’s concept of ‘existential territory’ (Guattari, 1995, 2000), Appadurai’s ideas …


Let’S Take An Adventure: Exploring Beginner Writing In Chinese By Non-Heritage Learner, Ping Geng Jul 2017

Let’S Take An Adventure: Exploring Beginner Writing In Chinese By Non-Heritage Learner, Ping Geng

Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract Due to the globalization and economic growth, both the U.S. and Chinese governments increased their investment in Chinese language education across the US, especially in K-12 schools (Shi, 2010). This rapid development demands tremendous support, especially from the research on Chinese language learning and teaching. Unfortunately the research in this area is very limited, particularly on writing in Chinese. For those whose first language is alphabetical, writing in Chinese is tremendously difficult. Learners of Chinese usually do not compose writing until intermediate high level, before which learners usually learn to decode and write Chinese characters (Ke, 1998; Shen, 2005). …


Japanese Pronoun Adventure: A Japanese Language Learner's Exploration Of His Japanese Gender Pronoun, Takumi Nakano Nov 2016

Japanese Pronoun Adventure: A Japanese Language Learner's Exploration Of His Japanese Gender Pronoun, Takumi Nakano

Masters Theses

In Japanese, there are various kinds of first-person pronouns, and some of them express the referent’s gender identity. Gender-neutral pronouns are made in English- speaking world day by day, but there is not any common first-person pronoun which indicates the gender identity that positions the referent’s gender somewhere between masculine and feminine. The present paper conducted a life story research on the “Japanese life” of an advanced learner of Japanese at a university in the United States who has been exploring his gender identity by coining and using a new Japanese first- person pronoun 㛪 ore, which indicates “in the …


Mediations Of Multiple Identities In A Private University: International Students’ Experiences In The United States, Beata Z. Dolina Nov 2015

Mediations Of Multiple Identities In A Private University: International Students’ Experiences In The United States, Beata Z. Dolina

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT MEDIATIONS OF MULTIPLE IDENTITIES IN A PRIVATE UNIVERSITY: INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES IN THE UNITED STATES SEPTEMBER 2015 BEATA DOLINA, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW M.A., HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Ed. D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Theresa Austin Admitting ever-increasing numbers of international undergraduates, universities are beginning to grapple with the difficulties students experience in adapting to this new, for them, educational context. According to Glass (2012), “Given the growth of international student enrollment, there are compelling reasons to more closely examine the extent to which specific educational experiences may be associated with their learning, development, and …


Translanguaging And Identity In A Kindergarten Classroom: Validating Student's Home Culture And Language In An English-Only Era, Maria Eugenia Lozano Lenis Nov 2015

Translanguaging And Identity In A Kindergarten Classroom: Validating Student's Home Culture And Language In An English-Only Era, Maria Eugenia Lozano Lenis

Doctoral Dissertations

This ethnographic multi-year study examines the effects of federal and state education policies in language-minority school children’s in Western Massachusetts. Specifically, it explores, how, in an increasingly English Only era, a Latina kindergarten teacher resists Massachusetts' restrictive bilingual education law at the same time that she builds on her students’ multi-ethnic identity. Methodologically, this study combines ethnographic and discourse analysis methods and techniques analyzing the curricular effects that the NCLB and the state of Massachusetts language policy have on an underperforming school serving a predominantly Latino/a population. The focus of the study is the literacy practices enacted by a Dominican …


"Miss, Miss, I'Ve Got A Story!": Exploring Identity Through A Micro-Ethnographic Analysis Of Lunchtime Interactions With Four Somali Third Grade Students, Jean Marie Kosha May 2013

"Miss, Miss, I'Ve Got A Story!": Exploring Identity Through A Micro-Ethnographic Analysis Of Lunchtime Interactions With Four Somali Third Grade Students, Jean Marie Kosha

Open Access Dissertations

This study is an exploration of the ways in which four Somali students use language to express their identity and assert their views. The study explores the ways in which the Somali students' home culture and the school culture influence the development of their identity. Students participated in a lunchtime focus group on a regular basis over a period of several weeks. Using a micro-ethnographic approach to analysis, the students' interactions were reviewed while considering the ways in which knowledge was affirmed and contested, examples of intertextuality and intercontextuality were identified, and ideational notations or larger world view constructs were …


Racialized Spaces In Teacher Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Place-Based Identities In Roche Bois, Mauritius, Elsa Marie Wiehe Feb 2013

Racialized Spaces In Teacher Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Place-Based Identities In Roche Bois, Mauritius, Elsa Marie Wiehe

Open Access Dissertations

This eleven-month ethnographic study puts critical discourse analysis in dialogue with postmodern conceptualizations of space and place to explore how eight educators talk about space and in the process, produce racialized spaces in Roche Bois, Mauritius. The macro-historical context of racialization of this urban marginalized community informs the discursive analysis of educators' talk at school. Drawing on theories of race that call for the non-deterministic exploration of race relations as they occur in different contexts and times (Hall, 2000; Pandian & Kosek, 2003; Essed & Goldberg, 2000), I explore the spatial racialization of children in Roche Bois as a process …