Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Contemplative Education: How Contemplative Practices Can Support And Improve Education, Judith Johannes

Master's Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to explore how contemplative education can have a viable role in education. In the first part of this thesis I will share my own personal experience with contemplative practices and how they led to my personal growth and transformation.

The second part will give some brief insights about the benefits the ancient wisdom traditions Hinduism and Buddhism attributed to contemplative practices. They claim that those practices help to reach a state of expanded awareness and stillness of the mind. Contemplative practices such as mindfulness, which is a Buddhist meditation technique, were used to better …

The Relationship Between Faculty's Pedagogical Content Knowledge And Students' Knowledge About Diversity In Online Courses, Mitali Chaudhery

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this proposed study will be to examine the relationship between faculty's pedagogical content knowledge and the design of online curriculum to teach students about diversity in a higher education environment. One hundred twenty-seven faculty teaching online courses at a Midwestern state will be selected on non-random sampling to participate in this study. Two main measures will be used to collected data: (1) Faculty Demographic and Background Survey, and (2) Diversity Teaching survey. The Diversity Teaching Survey was broken into 3 subscales that will examine the following: (1) Faculty's Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills, (2) Online Curriculum Design, and …

Reclaiming And Re-Visioning Indigenous Voices: The Case Of The Language, Edward Shizha

Edward Shizha

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of teaching science to rural primary school students using a second language (English) in Zimbabwe. The study also investigated the opinions and attitudes of primary school teachers toward teaching science using an indigenous language (chiShona). Qualitative data was collected using twenty classroom observations and interviews with ten purposely selected primary school teachers. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis. The findings revealed institutional and attitudinal barriers to using chiShona as a language of instruction in science teaching and learning. The results also showed that some teachers frustrate and silence students’ …

Understanding The Basics Of Traditional Knowledge And Intellectual Property Rights In The Pacific Islands, Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka'uta

Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka'uta

No abstract provided.

The Personal As Political: 1 A Self-Reflective Essay On The Act Of Poetry Making And Creating The “1angrynative” Persona., Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka'uta

Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka'uta

No abstract provided.

Accessing High-Quality Instructional Strategies, Edmund T. Hamann, Jenelle Reeves

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

Instructional strategies figure centrally in what happens in classrooms, are critical to educational outcomes, and central to the narrowing of achievement gaps. However, broad improvement of schools, including the narrowing of these gaps, will depend on changes in instructional strategy and improved student access to educators using these strategies. Much of the research on instructional strategies identifies universal aspects of effective instruction that pertain across subject matter, grade level and student characteristics. Other important findings from instructional strategy research are not as broadly applicable. These second kind of findings, are more specific to particular grade levels, topics of instruction, students’ …

Goal Setting And Student Achievement: A Longitudinal Study, Aleidine Kramer Moeller, Janine M. Theiler, Chaorong Wu

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

The connection between goals and student motivation has been widely investigated in the research literature, but the relationship of goal setting and student achievement at the classroom level has remained largely unexplored. This article reports the findings of a 5-year quasi-experimental study examining goal setting and student achievement in the high school Spanish language classroom. The implementation of LinguaFolio, a portfolio that focuses on student self-assessment, goal setting, and collection of evidence of language achievement, was introduced into 23 high schools with a total of 1,273 students. By using a hierarchical linear model, researchers were able to analyze the relationship …

Supporting English Language Learners In Today's Early Childhood Classrooms, Katie Furlong

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this review is to identify the kind(s) of early childhood instruction and learning environment that best supports students whose primary language is not English. The research examined focused on which teacher strategies used in the classroom improve academic achievement for English Language Learners (ELLs). In addition, the research compared the effects of dual language, or two-way immersion (TWI) and monolingual English immersion (El) early childhood education program models on children's learning. A variety of sources were used and synthesized to provide the reader with informational data and recommendations.

Growing Effective Cld Teachers For Today’S Classrooms Of Cld Children, Gayla Lohfink, Amanda Morales, Gail Shroyer, Sally Yahnke

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

Using a case study design, this investigation examined the effective teaching characteristics of nontraditional, culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) student teachers placed in rural, elementary schools with high populations of Latino/a students. Data collected reflected high percentages of effective teaching characteristics in multiple domains with specific indicators reflective of consistent teaching over time. A discussion of these findings considered aspects within the distance-delivery model that facilitated the CLD participants’ development of effective teaching and noted (1) consistent leadership, (2) explicit teacher instruction within CLD school settings, and (3) the strong cohesive nature of the CLD participants’ cohort as positively affecting …

From Remediation To Acceleration: Recruiting, Retaining, And Graduating Future Culturally And Linguistically Diverse (Cld) Educators, Socorro Herrera, Amanda Morales, Melissa Holmes, Dawn Herrera Terry

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

This ethnographic case study explores one mid-western state university’s response to the challenge of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), especially Latino/a, student recruitment and retention. BESITOS (Bilingual/ Bicultural Education Students Interacting To Obtain Success) is an integrated teacher preparation program implemented at a predominantly White university that seeks to both increase Latino/a students’ initial access to higher education and provide institutional support to facilitate a high rate of graduation. The researchers consider key elements of the BESITOS program model as they relate to and support the sociocultural, linguistic, academic, and cognitive dimensions of the CLD student biography. For each dimension, …

How Porous Are The Walls That Separate Us?: Transformative Service-Learning, Women’S Incarceration, And The Unsettled Self, Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Journal Articles

In this article, we refine a politics of thinking from the margins by exploring a pedagogical model that advances transformative notions of service learning as social justice teaching. Drawing on a recent course we taught involving both incarcerated women and traditional college students, we contend that when communication among differentiated and stratified parties occurs, one possible result is not just a view of the other but also a transformation of the self and other. More specifically, we suggest that an engaged feminist praxis of teaching incarcerated women together with college students helps illuminate the porous nature of fixed markers that …

Improving Elementary American Indian Students’ Math Achievement With Inquiry-Based Mathematics And Games, Jamalee Stone, Edmund T. Hamann

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

Project Inquiry-Based Mathematics was a National Science Foundation Math-Science Partnership implemented in a Great Plains city school district with a significant K-12 Native American population. One goal of the project was to reduce the achievement gap between Native American and non-Native students enrolled in the district. This gap reduction was to be achieved using inquiry-based mathematics curricula along with cognitively guided instructional strategies, particularly at the elementary level. This study focuses on whether inquiry-based mathematics strategies were consistently implemented in three fifth-grade classrooms at K-5 elementary schools with significant Native American student populations. Test result of Native American students at …

Contextualizing The Path To Academic Success: Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students Gaining Voice And Agency In Higher Education, Melissa Holmes, Cristina Fanning, Amanda Morales, Pedro Espinoza, Socorro Herrera

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

This ethnographic case study documents the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) first-generation immigrant students as they developed their sense of voice and personal agency at a predominantly White, Midwestern university. The study is framed within the larger context of an ongoing, longitudinal study on the BESITOS (Bilingual/Bicultural Education Students Interacting To Obtain Success) model of recruitment and retention (Herrera & Morales, 2005; Herrera, Morales, Holmes, & Terry, 2011-2012), which was developed in 1999 to address the multifaceted assets and needs of Latina/o learners in higher education. The model takes into account literature on CLD student recruitment and retention …

Rural Latino High School Students Considering Identity And Belonging Through Comparative Study Of Newcomer Youth In South Africa, Edmund T. Hamann, Saloshna Vandeyar, Janet M. Eckerson

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

Precipitated by an arranged but unusual classroom activity — eight Latina immigrant high school students in the rural u.s. Midwest interviewing a visiting South African scholar of immigration and transnationalism — this study captures their deliberations as the consideration of youth immigration to South Africa compels their own autobiographic reflections on who they are, where they are 'of', and with what ethnic groups or nationalities they feel affiliation or welcome. For purposes of bracketing, it also juxtaposes the students' voices with those of the three coauthors: their classroom teacher of Spanish as a heritage language, the visiting scholar from South …

Are The Challenges And Opportunities In Contemporary Diverse Classrooms Being Met?, Loukia K. Sarroub, Lisa Patel Stevens, A. Jonathan Eakle

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

The following two essays underscore novel and powerful dimensions of the multiplicity of cultures and education. Unlike many of the essays in the present volume, both authors chose to write in the first person. This is not coincidental because culture is based on identifications—what allows one to articulate the “I” of group alliances and identity. In contrast, scientific writing style, such as that of the American Psychological Association (APA)—which is the standard for much professional publication in education—typically pushes the author “I” to the side, which can give an inaccurate view of how subjectivity influences research and writing. Such narrative …

Preventing Long-Term English Learners: Results From A Project-Based Differentiated Eld Intervention Program, Magaly Lavadenz, Ph.D., Elvira G. Armas, Ed.D., Rosalinda Barajas

Practitioner Journal Articles

In this article the authors describe efforts taken by a small southern California school district to develop and implement an innovative, research-based English Language Development program to address a growing concern over long-term English Learners (LTELs) in their district. With support from the Weingart Foundation this afterschool program served 3^rd and 7^th grade LTELs between 2008–2011 to accelerate language and literacy acquisition and prevent prolonged EL status. Program evaluation results indicated that the intervention was associated with improved English language proficiency as measured by the California English Language Development Test. Results also showed a heightened awareness of effective …

My Community, Their Community Our Community: "Musings" On Development, Grace Leonard

VA Engage Journal

This reflection explores the collision of anthropology and civic engagement, a combination that has come to define my senior research. My fieldwork at educational NGOs in Northern Richmond and Northern Ghana caused me to question the local relevancy of NGO management strategies. How can white, middle class teachers appropriately improve educational outcomes for low-income black students in Richmond? Is compulsory education appropriate training for Ghanaian farmers? Academic theories criticize “development” for furthering power against the oppressed, while the qualitative work of NGOs is quantified to fit the needs of grant writers. I find policy can never prescribe perfectly. In order …

Moments When The Weak Gained Ground: Viral Video As A Curriculum Of People, Michael J. Ryan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Author's abstract: The public school curriculum has devolved into merely being a political football for the forces of the dominant culture, no longer even attempting to serve the People of the community or the students that the school ostensibly should serve. In the absence of a curriculum that is meaningful to People, another curriculum has spontaneously appeared outside of school via shared online media between social networks. This new curriculum, identified by a relatively wide viewership and its challenge to social injustice, oppressive conventions or hegemonic forces, is a curriculum of viral videos shared because of their meaning and cogence …

Review Of The Book: Standing On The Outside Looking In: Underrepresented Students’ Experiences In Advanced Degree Programs By Mary F. Howard-Hamilton Et Al. (Eds.), Zeynep Isik-Ercan

Zeynep Isik-Ercan

No abstract provided.

“I Go To School Six Days A Week”: The Role Of Cultural And Religious Practices Within Hybrid Turkish-American Communities In Supporting Academic And Socioemotional Growth, Zeynep Isik-Ercan

Zeynep Isik-Ercan

No abstract provided.

Content-Based English Education In China: Students’ Experiences And Perspectives, Gulbahar Beckett, Fang Li

Gulbahar Beckett

Teaching “Other People’S Children” In Obama Era: Challenges And Promises, Zeynep Isik-Ercan

Zeynep Isik-Ercan

No abstract provided.

Teaching Question Making To Beginners, Sarah Marie Springsteen

Sarah Marie Springsteen

A best practice method for introducing grammatically accurate question making into a communicative beginners language class.

Tms 170: El Debate Sobre Los Tores, Carmela Ferradans

Carmela Ferradans