Education Commons^™

Critical Race Religious Literacy: Exposing The Taproot Of Contemporary Evangelical Attacks On Crt, Robert O. Smith, Aja Y. Martinez

Journal of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

No abstract provided.

Digitally Rural: Identifying How Technological Inequity Impacts Rural Students In First-Year Writing Courses, Jo Anna M. Nevada

English Language and Literature ETDs

To teach composition in this era means to engage students with technology; it is all but an unspoken requirement at the majority of universities. This dissertation theorizes, however, that the imbricated use of technology in first-year writing (FYW) classrooms places rural students at an inherent disadvantage, with issues of inadequate technological proficiency and inconsistent access causing a substantial learning disparity between this student population and their urban peers. Through mixed-methods data analysis of student survey responses and final FYW course portfolios, this study reveals that the expectation of technological access and presumption of digital literacy is detrimental to rural student …

Rewriting Web 2.0 Discourses Of The Local For Socio-Spatial Literacy Theory, Erin Daugherty

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to provide a framework for engaging with two spatial concepts that have been foundational to theorizing literacy across time but have often been taken for granted as passive backdrops to the social action of literacy practice: the notions of “the local” and “the global.” By interrogating the histories, both past and ongoing, of these two spatial concepts as they are interwoven into the sociocultural paradigm of literacy theory, research, and pedagogy, this project identifies new ways that literacy researchers and educators can attend to spatial concepts so as to promote and encourage literacy research and learning that …

Exploring Lenses Used In Case Study Research In Literacy Over Time, Diane Barone

The Qualitative Report

This study is a case study analysis where book length case studies were aggregated for review. The review focused on the lenses that researchers used to analyze their data. The results indicated most case studies used a neutral lens where careful description of a literacy event was the goal. A few researchers moved to a critical lens of positioning theory to describe their results. Historical shifts and issues were shared that included a focus on participants and lenses and views of teachers.

My Journey As An Emergent Bilingual, Cynthia Villarreal Cantu

The Qualitative Report

This autoethnography was conducted at an elementary school not far from the South Texas border. I documented how my journey as a kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade student has impacted me to become a better educator. Through this qualitative study, I planned to determine if my childhood experiences as an emergent bilingual learner have made an impact in my teaching and the connections I have formed with my students. I analyzed observations of my current teaching practices and my elementary report cards and test scores. After observing my students’ interactions among their peers and my reaction towards their conversations, I found …

Developing Stable Partnerships Among Parents, Students, And Schools – A Parents’ Philosophy On Learning, Adriana Ghoul

Journal of the Arab American University مجلة الجامعة العربية الامريكية للبحوث

This study describes the development of stable partnerships among parents, students and schools to promote literacy skills. It sets out to explore the involvement of a limited number of parents from different walks of life in their children’s academic life, school provisions in this respect and specific community activities which might contribute to the development of this partnership. The research questions are related to the way parents understand their partnership with schools and to the degree of their “involvement in their children school life”. The participants in this study were parents from different social categories with children at different school …

A Study Of Incarcerated Youth: How Does Interest Affect Comprehension And Engagement, Grace Mutti

Honors Projects

Current research explores the relationship between high-interest reading material and comprehension in classrooms as well as the impact of literacy on recidivism; however, there is a shortage of research on effective instructional reading practices for incarcerated youth. This qualitative study examines the experience of five white, male incarcerated youth as they experience one-on-one reading instruction from five of BGSU’s pre-service teachers. Instructional strategies used in the study were modeled off of an online program called A-Z Reading and focused on developing students’ fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. The study initially aimed to examine the impact of high-interest materials on the …

Challenging Girlhood, Mary Ann Harlan

School of Information Student Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Early Childhood Leadership: A Photovoice Exploration, Kristi Cheyney-Collante, Melissa Cheyney

The Qualitative Report

The first five years of a child’s life represent critical windows in physiological, social-emotional, and cognitive development. Administrators of early childhood (EC) programs play a pivotal role in determining the quality of experiences that unfold for young children in center-based care. Using photovoice, semi-structured administrator interviews, and participant-observation, we aimed to identify the factors contributing to one center’s atypically excellent outcomes with diverse children and families. Our textual and photographic analyses revealed three findings. First, administrators saw themselves as embedded within a larger system of barriers characterized by low positionality within an educational caste system that is marked by pervasive …

Friend Or Foe? A Case Study Of Ipad Usage During Small Group Reading Instruction, Terry Husband 7078260, Roland K. Schendel

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this case study is to examine how two early childhood teachers in one university laboratory school utilize the iPad in their reading practices. Data collection involved: (a) observations, (b) audio recordings, and (c) researcher journal. Findings indicate that the teachers had a continuum of purposeful uses for the iPad and the associated applications during their small group reading instruction. In addition, the teachers had mixed overall perceptions toward using the iPad as an effective literacy tool. Implications for practice are presented.

Translanguaging Supports Reading With Deaf Adult Bilinguals: A Qualitative Approach, Dan Hoffman, Ju-Lee Wolsey, Jean Andrews, Diane Clark

The Qualitative Report

Translanguaging is a pedagogical theory and an approach to teaching language. It conceptualizes the dynamic ways in which bilinguals use their linguistic repertoire and language practices in both languages for learning, meaning-making, reading, and writing. This study reports on the results of a qualitative study using Grounded Theory. The research question posed was, “what insights do bilingual Deaf readers provide regarding their metalinguistic processes and reading strategies used during translanguaging? To answer this question, responses were gathered from Deaf adults who were interviewed on their language and literacy histories. Further, they were queried about their reading comprehension practices using translanguaging. …

The Effect Of A Fluent Signing Narrator On Quality Of Maternal Behavior During E-Book Shared Reading Interactions With Their Children With Hearing Loss, Mar Alejandra Bonilla Yáñez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Purpose: The average high school student with hearing loss graduates reading at a 4th grade level. A factor that may contribute to the literacy development in children with typical hearing is language modeling and support surrounding shared book reading. The shared book reading experiences of children with hearing loss (CHL) and their parents may be different in quantity and quality from their peers with typical hearing. There is evidence reporting parental frustration and feeling of incompetence when reading to their CHL due to a sensory mismatch between the childâ??s and the parentâ??s mode of communication and skills. This study investigated …

Reading Queerly In The High School Classroom: Exploring A Gay And Lesbian Literature Course, Kirsten Helmer

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how teaching an English literature curriculum centered on the stories, experiences, cultures, histories, and politics of LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex) people constitutes a meaningful site for teaching and learning in a high school classroom. The dissertation offers insights on how the teaching of LGBTQI-themed texts in English language arts classes can be reframed by bridging the goals, practices and conceptual tools of queer theory to critical literacies teaching. The project follows principles of critical qualitative research and employs an ethnographic case study approach with the purpose of transforming educational …

Deficit Discourse, Literate Lives: Success Narratives Of Black Youth, Ann Marie Bennett

Doctoral Dissertations

The current dialogue surrounding Black youth portrays these youth as “thugs” who come from “broken” families and “apathetic” communities. Even some educational discourses portray Black youth as “at-risk” students who lack the resources necessary to achieve in school. These dialogues traffic in deficit language without paying attention to the successes found in the Black community. The purpose of this study was to utilize an anti-deficit perspective to capture the stories of how urban Black children in a mid-sized Southeastern city are achieving positive literacy and academic outcomes in the upper elementary and middle grades. I sought to understand how Black …

Education, Print Culture, Social Literacy, And Religiosity: A Multi-Grounded Theory Of Textual Mediation Found In Early And Contemporary Mormonism, Ezra G. Gwilliam

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study is a multi-grounded theory (Goldkuhl & Cronholm, 2010) approach to identify potential relationships between print culture, uses of social literacy, and education found in historical Mormonism (1830-1844) and the contemporary church, which has a reported parity between education and religiosity (Cooperman, 2012). Through the theoretical model of multi-grounded theory, scholars of Mormon history were identified and interviewed to help establish what relationship may have existed and if there is relevance between the past and present church in the context of print, literacy, religiosity and education. Two literacy theories, Venezky’s (1996) theory of literacy expansion and Barton and Hamilton’s …

Village Literacy: Adult Education In Northeastern Kenya, Jodi Heidorn

Senior Honors Theses

The underdevelopment of effective adult literacy programs in Northern Kenya is a problem that must be addressed to meet the needs of a changing generation of nomadic pastoralists. Existing programs must be reevaluated in order to increase their efficiency and incorporate the unique aspects of local cultures into their design. This paper explores the broadening definition of literacy and discusses how there are in fact multiple literacies in any given culture. Next, it examines the history of education in Kenya and the barriers that may be unique to adult literacy programs in Northern Kenya. Also, it examines how changes in …

Parents’ Perceptions Of Partners In Print, A Family Literacy Program, Rebecca Jane Godbey

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Partners in Print, a family literacy program, was brought to the urban elementary school in this study to educate and empower kindergarten and first grade parents to promote literacy development at home. This research aimed to explore the impact of participation in this program after consistent participation by utilizing a one-group pre-test, post-test research design. The Parent Empowerment and Home Literacy Environment Survey, which included both structured and unstructured questions, was administered before and after participation in the program to elicit notions of parent empowerment and growth in the home literacy environment. Parent participants also completed a document review of …

Blogging About Summer Reading, Janice Becker Place

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

The purpose of this study was to investigate what happened when grade 11 high school honors students blogged about their summer reading under the monitoring of a teacher during vacation. I proposed that an educational blog might serve as an effective tool during summer vacation to help students retain skills or learning while at a physical distance from their school and teacher. In addition to the blog’s transcripts, a pre-project survey, post-project survey,and post-project interviews provided complementary data to inform my analysis. Qualitative analysis was applied to the blog discussion entries for evidence of peer learning, scaffolding, critical thinking, and …

Community University Project For Literacy (Cupl), Carol Chandler-Rourke

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Community-University Project for Literacy (CUPL) provides an academic structure for undergraduates to work as tutors in community-based learning centers. Students who enroll in CUPL commit to tutoring four hours each week at a community learning program while attending a credit-bearing academic seminar at UMass/Boston offered each semester. That is the Language, Literacy and Community in the Fall semester and ESL Tutor Training Seminar in the Spring semester.

What Do Middle School Boys Read? An Observation Of Middle School Boys' Reading Choices, Sheilah Cooper Barnett

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative study investigated what current middle school boys are reading. The purpose of this study was to gain information that would aid educators in providing those reading materials and communicating with male students concerning their reading habits. Six middle school males were chosen for this study, which utilized a phenomenological approach to capture individual experiences. Results showed that boys do read, but they often read materials which educators do not generally accept as valid reading material, such as magazines. Boys often do not view themselves as readers. Males enjoy books with a lot of action and prefer to observe …

Escenario Lingüístico Multilingüe: Una Evidencia De Vitalidad Etnolingüística, Maria Eugenia De Luna Villalón

Maria Eugenia De Luna Villalón

No abstract provided.

Making Waves With Critical Literacy, Carolyn Fortuna

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

A qualitative study undertaken in 2007 that explores the application of critical literacy pedagogy within English language arts classes of an upper middle class public high school. Results demonstrate that when students recontextualize their own modalities, literacies, and cultures as part of their learning experience, they begin to understand the concept of social justice for all.

El Hogar Como Un Contexto Sociocultural De Prácticas De Lectoescritura De Inmigrantes Mexicanos En Canadá., Maria Eugenia De Luna Villalón

Maria Eugenia De Luna Villalón

El propósito de este estudio es investigar, describir y explicar cuáles son las prácticas de lectoescritura en el hogar de cuatro familias mexicanas inmigrantes en Canadá; conocer la interrelación de las prácticas de lectoescritura en el hogar y las prácticas de lectoescritura escolar; el papel que juega la familia como mediadora en el ejercicio de las prácticas de lectoescritura y finalmente las diferencias y semejanzas que encuentran los participantes entre las prácticas de lectoescritura en el hogar en México y en Canadá. Canadá es una nación de inmigrantes que basa su política migratoria en la política multicultural que reconoce, promueve …

School, Home, And Community: A Symbiosis For A Literacy Partnership, Karen C. Waters

Education Faculty Publications

With the belief that fertile ground for a literate environment is created through lots of oral language, ancestral anecdotes, and reading a variety of genre in fiction and nonfiction, it is possible to link home and school literacy communities. This chapter describes the connection between district literacy events and functional home activities as the basis for a partnership in developing higher level thinking that transcends the classroom. At monthly get-togethers, families were encouraged to participate in the very activities that were used in the classroom as part of the district's literacy block. In helping families acquire a few basic strategies …

Rethinking Critical Literacy In The New Information Age, Panayota Gounari

Panayota Gounari

This article looks at new information and communication technologies (ICTs) as sites of public pedagogy in that they produce particular forms of knowledge and literacies and reproduce representations that are always mediated through specific social relations. Public pedagogy as a process that constitutes a broader category beyond classroom practices, official curricula, and educational canons, extends to all sectors of human life, including virtual spaces. No longer restricted to traditional sites of learning such as educational or religious sites, public pedagogy produces new forms of knowledge and apprenticeship and new narratives for agency and for naming the world. Virtual spaces as …

Prácticas De Lectoescritura En Los Exvotos, Maria Eugenia De Luna Villalón

Maria Eugenia De Luna Villalón

Prácticas de Lectoescritura en los Exvotos Abstract Maria Eugenia de Luna University of Western Ontario mdelunav@uwo.ca En este trabajo estudio las prácticas de lectoescritura en los exvotos, su producción y usos, tomando en cuenta que las prácticas de lectoescritura nos ayudan a tener una mejor idea del concepto de cómo se unen en la práctica la escritura y la lectura con las estructuras sociales. Un exvoto es un documento lleno de información tanto visual como narrativa y gracias a estos se puede decir que se tienen un acervo histórico popular, donde a través de los siglos podemos ver ilustrados y …

Disrupting Preconceptions: Postcolonialism And Education, Ed. By Anne Hickling-Hudson, Julie Matthews, And Annette Woods, James C. Carl

Education Faculty Publications

Book review by Jim Carl:

Hickling-Hudson, Anne, Julie Matthews, and Annette Woods, eds. Disrupting Preconceptions: Postcolonialism and Education. Brisbane: Post Pressed, 2004.

ISBN 1-876682-56-6

The book grew out of a conference held in August 2001 at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. It is composed of a collection of thirteen essays that address postcolonialism in education. The presenters examine the postcolonial in educational structures and practices in Asia, Africa, North America, and Australia, but the colonial legacy remains—the language of the conference is English, the publisher is Australian, and the book is printed in Great Britain.

Overall, this …

An Examination Of The Theoretical Orientation To Reading Profile (Torp): Results Of Selected Graduate Students In A Literacy Course, Guadalupe Sotelo

Student Dissertations & Theses

This survey research study was utilized to explore participants’ views and knowledge of balanced literacy programs before and after a 45-hour graduate level literacy course and to document any changes using the Theoretical Orientation to Reading Profile (TORP; Deford, 1985) questionnaire. The TORP’s main purpose is to designate the philosophical position of individuals on their preferences to teaching reading. The TORP examines orientation to phonics, skills, and whole language. Twenty-seven participants who designated themselves either as established school administrators or graduate students pursuing Master’s degrees in Educational Leadership or Reading were surveyed at the beginning and end of the course …

There's Good News From The Nation's Classrooms, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Last May at the finals of the National Geographic Bee held in Washington, DC, Alex Trebeck was getting concerned because he thought that he would be running out of questions for the ten finalists who came from throughout the country. Well, he did have enough, although it was close.

In the previous year it took just 80 questions to determine a winner of the Bee, an annual event sponsored by the National Geographic Society in which over five million kids nationwide from grades four through eight compete. In 1999, however, it took 140 questions before a winner was determined. In …

Read And Lead: Fostering Literacy Through Cross-Age Tutoring (Facilitator's Manual To Implement A National Literacy Corps), Institute For Global Education And Service Learning

Curriculum

Congratulations on choosing the Read & Lead Facilitator's Guide for your cross-age tutoring program! This guide is designed to help you facilitate a National Literacy Corps in your own school, after school program, organization, or community. The National Literacy Corps began in Philadelphia high schools in 1991. Since that time the National Literacy Corps model has been implemented in schools across the country and in England. The National Literacy Corps was recognized as an exemplary model at the President's Summit on America's Future in April 1997. Since 2000, the model has been modified for successful implementation in middle and upper …