Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

International Education Week! Nov 14-18, Allison Roberts

Allison Roberts

Poster created for the UT Libraries Diversity Committee joins the International House and the Center for International Education in International Education Week 2011! Check out our display of culturally enlightening titles in the Culture Corner section first floor Galleria, Hodges Library. International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is part of our efforts to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in …

Understanding Immigrant College Students: Applying A Developmental Ecology Framework Tot He Practice Of Academic Advising, Michael J. Stebleton

Michael J. Stebleton

Immigrant college student populations continue to grow, but the complexity of their unique needs and issues remain relatively unknown. To gain a better understanding of the multiple contextual factors impacting immigrant students from a systems-based approach, I applied Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) human ecology framework to the study. Students interact with the environment, including exchanges with academic advisors, that influence student development, success, and retention. In this theory-based essay, I contend that the philosophy of a developmental ecology approach parallels the foundational tenets of developmental academic advising, mainly through an emphasis on context and working with the whole student. I offer strategies …

Impacts Of A Social Support Intervention For Somali And Sudanese Refugees In Canada, Miriam Stewart, Laura Simich, Morton Beiser, Knox Makumbe, Edward Makwarimba, Edward Shizha

Edward Shizha

The aim of this paper is to design and pilot test a culturally tailored intervention that meets the support needs and preferences of two refugee groups. The study employed a multi-method participatory research design and was conducted in two urban centres in western and central Canada. Support was delivered to Sudanese and Somali refugees (n = 58), by trained peer and professional helpers, in face-to-face groups matched by gender and ethnicity and in telephone dyads. Participants completed three quantitative measures before (pre-test) and following (post-test) the intervention. Group interviews with refugee participants and individual interviews with peer and professional helpers …

Challenges And Barriers To Services For Immigrant Seniors In Canada: "You Are Among Others But You Feel Alone", Miriam Stewart, Edward Shizha, Edward Makwarimba, Denise Spitzer, Ernest N. Khalema, Christina D. Nsaliwa

Edward Shizha

This paper seeks to explore varied interrelated challenges and barriers experienced by immigrant seniors. Senior immigrants representing diverse ethnicities (Chinese, Afro Caribbean, Former Yugoslavian, Spanish) described their challenges, support needs, and barriers to service access. Service providers and policy makers from organizations serving immigrant seniors were interviewed to elicit their views on barriers to access and appropriateness of services for immigrant seniors. Qualitative methods were employed to enhance understanding of meanings, perceptions, beliefs, values, and behaviors of immigrant seniors, and investigate sensitive issues experienced by vulnerable groups. The qualitative data were subjected to thematic content analysis. Findings indicate that seniors …

Health And Wellness In Southern Africa: Incorporating Indigenous And Western Healing Practices, Edward Shizha, John Charema

Edward Shizha

Current healing systems in Southern Africa focus on the holistic approach to the health and wellness of patients. Biomedical approaches and traditional healing systems that incorporate spiritual healing, mental healing, physical and social healing play a crucial and significant role in health delivery systems in Southern Africa. An integrative approach has been accepted as a vital component of holistic healing. Often, biomedicine has been criticized for overlooking the relationship of the social and spiritual being to the body and the effect the former has on the latter. Medicine and healing are cultural practices; hence the process of healing and the …

Book Review Of "Culture, Curriculum, And Identity In Education" By H. Richard Milner (Ed.) (2010), New York, Palgrave Mcmilla., Edward Shizha

Edward Shizha

Identity involves different facets of human self-definition and is unequivocally a vital element of individuals’ lives, especially in diverse societies. Culture and identity are intertwined. In education, culture in the curriculum plays a vital component in students’ identity formations. Supportive school environments provide socially, culturally and linguistically appropriate curricula that legitimize identity formations. Teachers and the curricula they teach are sources of identity formation. Every classroom encounter is largely dictated by the teacher’s role and the perception the teacher has of the students.

Nanny Of The Maroons And The Mythology Of [My]Self, Marva S. Mcclean Dr.

Marva S McClean Dr.

This paper examines the central role Nanny of the Maroon plays within the West Indian ideology of resistance & empowerment.

The Interface Of Neoliberal Globalization, Science Education And Indigenous African Knowledges In Africa, Edward Shizha

Edward Shizha

In a globalized neo-colonial world, an insidious and often debilitating crisis of knowledge construction and legitimation does not only continue to undermine the local and indigenous knowledge systems, but it also perpetuates a neo-colonial and oppressive socio-cultural science educational system that debilitates the social and cultural identity of the indigenous African student. As Schissel and Wotherspoon (2003: vii) argue, "Educational relations are critical elements of our humanity and sociability." This paper explores the homogenizing effects of globalization and the oppressive forces of neo-colonialism that continue to work together to privilege "western-based scientific knowledge" at the expense of indigenous knowledge systems. …

A Primary Human Challenge, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

We may ask why, at both the individual and collective levels, it has seemed so difficult for us to choose to evolve our human games with Joy. There is no one answer for such a question, for each of us has the gift of free will. I will suggest, however, that built into our human games is what I call a primary human challenge. That primary human challenge is a dynamic tension, flowing from our creative urge for the freedom “to be” who we really are in our current physical form, and simultaneously to embrace our responsibility for our Being-ness.

The Hegemony Of English As A Global Language, Gulbahar Beckett, Yan Guo

Gulbahar Beckett

The Academic And Occupational Outcomes Of Private Residential High School Student Instruction, Linda Serra Hagedorn, Hye Sun Moon, Shawn M. Kanaiaupuni, Katherine A. Tibbetts

Linda Serra Hagedorn

Using a population of graduates from a large high school with both residential and commuter students serving specifically students with Native Hawaiian ancestry, the study compares outcomes such as high school graduation, college attendance, college graduation, occupational status, and overall life happiness to determine the effects of residential status. Results indicated that the strongest variable that separated the college completers from the non-completers was receipt of college financial aid. Other important variables included Hawaiian culture, locus of control, family predominance of standard English, and beginning college at a community college

Language & Leadership: Exploring The Relationship Between Critical Theories And The Hegemonic Construction Of Student Achievement, Marva S. Mcclean Dr.

Marva S McClean Dr.

This paper applies the principles of critical literacy and critical discourse analysis to interrogate the relationship between student achievement and hegemonic discourses within the field of education. This paper offers a set of practical recommendations on how educators can apply critical discourse analysis to arrive at more adequate solutions to the vexing problem of the achievement gap.

Making School To College Programs Work: Academics, Goals, And Aspirations, Linda Serra Hagedorn, Shereen F. Fogel

Linda Serra Hagedorn