Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Reconceptualizing Cultural Competence: White Placeling De-/Reterritorialization Within Teacher Education, Melissa Winchell

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This ethnography reconceptualizes the paradigm of cultural competence used within the literature on teacher education to describe the multicultural learning of White teacher candidates. Within the cultural competence framework, White learning is problematic, dichotomously defined, and fixed. The binary of competence/incompetence established by this paradigm has recently been questioned within the literature as deficit-based and in conflict with postmodern, critical theories of learning and teaching espoused by multicultural education espouses. This study of the researcher's multicultural education class at a private, religious, four-year undergraduate college on the East Coast of the United States used co-constructed pedagogical practices--including a co-constructed community …

Wmu International News Fall 2013, Haenicke Institute

WMU International News

In this issue:

• Empowering global engagement across the arts and sciences
• Employees abroad: Spanish immersion program expands understanding of international education
• Excelling in public relations key goal for Chinese twinning student
• WMU cultural anthropologist examines migration and lupus in Ecuador
• Ambiguity of borders continues to intrigue alumna from Berlin
• Visits to 35 countries complements global studies major
• Veteran administrator tapped to lead University’s international initiatives
• Future Iraqi engineer discovers the world at WMU
• WMU alumna coach points Japanese tennis player to Kalamazoo

The Effects On Students' Intercultural Competence From Intensive Intercultural Service-Learning Through The $100 Solution™ Model, Nadia De León Sautú

Dissertations

This study evaluates the effects of an intensive intercultural service-learning program on the intercultural competence of undergraduate students enrolled in Cultural Diversity in the U.S., a general education course at Western Kentucky University. This program utilized The $100 Solution™ model, in which groups of students partnered with local immigrant and refugee families, to teach them about U.S. culture, learn about their cultures, and implement a project to assist them in their integration process. The program included two hours of out-of-classroom work for over twelve weeks. Through the principle of reciprocity, The $100 Solution™ model provided an interaction framework in which …

Segregation, Inequality, Demographic Change, And School Consolidation, William England, Edmund T. Hamann

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

We describe a rural/micropolitan example of the intertwining of school consolidation and demographic change with exacerbated segregation and inequality. To do this we consider Dawson County, Nebraska, which hosts the state's most Latino/a school district (Lexington) and which saw its number of schools decline from 37 to 19 during this century's first decade, and the number of local school districts lessened from 18 to 5. In particular, we call attention to the irony that consolidation was pursued with an explicit call for more equality in schooling in Dawson County (Swidler 2013) and yet population concentrations and variation in expenditures seemed …

Mexican-American Anglophile, Lorena A. Saldana

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Ell High School Students Of Mexican Ancestry: A Phenomenological Study Of Language Ideologies, Kristine Sudbeck

The Nebraska Educator: A Student-Led Journal

The formation of languages and dialects is frequently considered a social process (Gal & Irvine, 1995). As such, humans form their own ideologies about particular language varieties, placing values on certain ones in a given context more than others (Greenfield, 2010). The development of a person’s language ideology can be influenced by the profit of distinction, which Pierre Bourdieu (1984) describes as the “noted margin of difference for usefulness and prestige of a particular language” (p. 55). It is through the process of misrecognition (Bourdieu, 1984) that a particular language is “recognized as legitimate and appropriate for discourse in official …

Connecting Multiculturalism, Sustainability, & Teacher Education: A Case For Linking Martin Luther King Streets & The Power Of Place, Charlane Starks

Benerd College Faculty Articles

In "The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America," Kozol (2005) asked a question that many educators and other education stakeholders still wonder about in regards to the educational progress for many urban school students in the United States, "What do we need to do to alter these realities?" (p. 215). Altering realities requires new questions and creatively connecting educational issues such as multiculturalism, education for a sustainable living, and teacher education in different ways. In this article author Charlane Starks ascribes an urban location to multiculturalism, sustainability, and teacher education to draw attention toward transforming …

Multicultural Citizenship Education In Indonesia: The Case Of A Chinese Christian School, Chang Yau Hoon

Chang Yau HOON

No abstract provided.

Más Allá De Las Fronteras: Pasos Hacia La Educación Intercultural Basados En La Experiencia Con Alumnos Migrantes En 6 Escuelas Primarias En Buenos Aires, Argentina Y Santiago, Chile, Kendra Layton

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta investigación explora los efectos y los beneficios de la inmigración en Chile y Argentina en el ámbito escolar al tomar como foco seis escuelas en Santiago y Buenos Aires. Situadas en tensión con culturas que prescriben al paradigma de la asimilación, el objetivo general es indagar sobre la presencia de programas interculturales que se adapten a los alumnos migrantes, una modalidad basada en la apertura, reconocimiento y enriquecimiento de culturas distintas. Para indagar que tanto las escuelas emplean el enfoque de interculturalidad, la investigación analiza el discurso del personal, observa su práctica en el aula y explora los alcances …

The “Good” South African: Concepts Of Nation-Building And Social Cohesion In The Public School Setting, Kristi Carey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this research project is to examine the ways in which the classroom, teacher, and student dynamics of a South African urban primary school create a site for nation-building, citizenship, and the promotion of social cohesion. Understanding that the school serves as an institution for the production of ideology, socialization, and spreading of knowledge, this research will investigate how curriculum, authority, and policy influence what it means to be a “good” South African citizen, and thus, a contributor to forming both personal and national identity. Through observing the “Life Orientation” courses, the research attempts to grasp the kind …

L1 Transfer In Post-Verbal Preposition: An Inter-Level Comparison, Ali Jahangard, Hemaseh Bagheri

Ali Jahangard

The study intended to investigate the well-known issue of L1 transfer in L2 acquisition. The primary aim of this research was to compare the extent to which L1 transfer may take place in different developmental stages in L2 learning procedure. Persian learners of English have been observed to misuse a number of the prepositions with some of the verbs. Having scrutinized more than a hundred pieces of students’ writing assignments, the authors came up with a pattern of errors in this area. It was observed that the majority of these errors could be attributed to Persian: the learners’ choice of …

Librarians In The Midst, Barbara C. Harvey

Barbara C. Harvey

No abstract provided.

Review Of 2013 Aall Diversity Symposium, Affirmative Action, Banned Books, And Mexican American Studies: The Current State Of Diversity And Education In America, Michele Lucero

Faculty Publications

The Diversity Symposium offered an overview of how affirmative action and multi-cultural studies affect diversity in the professional world. The Symposium began with Ulysses N. Jaen, Ave Maria School of Law Library’s Head of Public Services, discussing how the need for diversity continues to be an element that the legal profession and library schools struggle with – with low numbers of diverse individuals within the profession. We have resources such as mentoring, scholarships, affirmative action, and ethnic studies, which help raise awareness but are not the definitive solution. Many people have differing viewpoints and ideas on what diversity is, with …

Fearless: Raksmeymony Yin, Raksmeymony Yin

SURGE

This summer, Raksmeymony Yin ’14, otherwise known as Rex, fearlessly taught from his own lesson plans, graded students’ papers, and organized brand new curriculums as one of twelve interns at the Breakthrough Collaborative in Philadelphia. During the nine-week program, Rex worked long hours in and outside of the classroom, effecting change by investing in the education of dozens of middle school students.

Teachers' Perceptions Toward Implementing English As A Foreign Language At Kindergarten: What Can We Learn From The Case Of Kuwaiti Kindergarten Teachers?, Kawthar M. Habeeb

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The teaching of English as a foreign language has a promising outlook in the nation of Kuwait. Recent policy reflects language development theories that see early childhood as an especially good period for the learning of a foreign language. Thus, English is now taught at 30 public kindergartens in Kuwait. However, the program apparently was implemented quickly, with little consideration for how teachers and other stakeholders would respond to it. This paper explores that program in the context of the perceptions and views of teachers affected by it.

A review of the existing curriculum points towards deficiencies, and investigation of …

Has Safeer Improved Sacm's Work And Helped Saudi Students In The Usa Resolve Their Needs Quickly, Faisal M. Alzomily

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined efficiency of the Safeer by gathering and analyzing the perception of 131 Saudi students from Bowling Green, KY. The purpose of the study was to ensure that the system is able to perform its function as the bridge between different institutions and Saudi students studying in the US who require assistance in processing their academic requirements. A self-administered survey using five scale points was employed. Results were summarized using descriptive statistics at 95% confidence level. The result confirmed the hypothesis that the use of the Safeer program provides quality service delivery within SACM, which in turn benefits …

Grammar Enhanced Biliteracy: Naskapi Language Structures For Facilitating Reading In Naskapi, William Joseph Jancewicz

Theses and Dissertations

The Naskapi language is the language of instruction in the early primary grades of the school in the Naskapi community. Only recently have Naskapi-speaking teachers received formal instruction in pedagogy, with a cohort of Naskapi teachers following courses for their Bachelor of Education degree towards careers teaching in the Naskapi language in their local school. These adults are highly motivated to become literate in their mother tongue in order to teach or prepare curriculum materials in the Naskapi language. This thesis explores how basic grammatical structures can be mastered, and provides insight into the form that pedagogical grammatical instruction should …

I Don't Want To Save Your Children, Katherine M. Patterson

SURGE

A few weeks ago, the moment that I’ve been dreaming of for almost half of a year finally arrived. I started the Heston Summer Experience as an intern in Gettysburg. An embarrassing amount of my winter break was devoted to writing and rewriting my applications. After receiving an invitation for an interview, I convened my roommates to help me choose an outfit and ask me practice questions, which is not something I do…ever. Getting my acceptance letter in the mail was the ultimate highlight of a long and difficult year. When I was home for the first few weeks of …

Brown Eyes, Brown Mind: What We Learn From What We See, Mauricio E. Novoa

SURGE

My summer days aren’t spent in a house on the beach or travelling to different states or countries with my family or friends, forgetting about the worries of the rest of the year and wondering what could be better than life under the sun. They are spent in a school building, the first place my younger self would have been eager to escape during off time. This is the second summer I am working at the LIU Migrant Education Summer School of Excellence. Unlike normal summer school, which usually consists of remedial classes for students who can’t seem to …

Newsletter Summer 2013, Grant Center For International Education

Grant Center Newsletters

No abstract provided.

The Lived Experiences Of Native Louisiana French Speakers Entering English-Only Elementary Schools In Lower Bayou Lafourche, Jolynda H. Strandberg

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to investigate the lived experiences of native Louisiana French speakers entering English-only elementary schools in lower Bayou Lafourche, Louisiana. Native Louisiana French speakers entering English-only elementary school was defined as those whose home language was Louisiana French prior to entering elementary school. While language attrition for non-English speakers and Louisiana French culture had been explored, the in depth, lived experiences of native Louisiana French speakers entering English elementary schools were unexplored (Blyth, 1997; Ryon, 2002; Sexton, 2000). Understanding how entering English-only schools affects student perceptions and identity was important in determining school …

The Effectiveness Of A Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program That Offer Special Benefits For Pregnant And Parenting Teens: A Qualitative Study, Marsha Brown

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Teen pregnancy continues to be a problem for families, educators, health care professionals, and the government. Teenagers are not afforded the opportunity to learn or receive reinforcement on God's laws on abstaining from premarital sex because religious education is not allowed in the public school system. This increase has led to the creation of the Teenage Parenting Center (TAPP), located in southwest Georgia. TAPP is one of 64 schools in a school district that offers special benefits for pregnant and parenting teens. This qualitative case study used a phenomenological approach to explore the experience of eight former attendees of the …

The Relationship Of Instructor Technical Literacy To The Academic Performance Of Students In Career Academies, Jorge Gomez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Career Academy instructors’ technical literacy is vital to the academic success of students. This nonexperimental ex post facto study examined the relationships between the level of technical literacy of instructors in career academies and student academic performance. It was also undertaken to explore the relationship between the pedagogical training of instructors and the academic performance of students.

Out of a heterogeneous population of 564 teachers in six targeted schools, 136 teachers (26.0 %) responded to an online survey. The survey was designed to gather demographic and teaching experience data. Each demographic item was linked by researchers to teachers’ technology use …

The Role Of Expectations On Nonnative English Speaking Students' Wrtiting, Sara Marie Van Dan Acker

Dissertations and Theses

This study centered on the expectations of a non-native English-speaking undergraduate student and her teacher in a general education course at Portland State University during winter term 2012. This was a qualitative case study, where I collected data throughout the duration of the course by means of interviews, classroom observations, and written assignment sheet data. I triangulated verbal data from interview transcripts from the two participants, along with data from the observation notes and the assignment sheets in order to gain a better understanding of the expectations each participant had about writing assignments.

Data from four sources were collected and …

Pedagogía De Hablantes De Herencia: Implicaciones Para El Entrenamiento De Instructores Al Nivel Universitario, Lina M. Reznicek-Parrado

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study researches the differences in pedagogical needs between learners of Spanish as a Foreign Language (FL learners) and learners of Spanish as a Heritage Language (HL learners) at the university level. By using the UNL Modern Languages and Literatures Department as an illustrative case and based on an analysis of the Heritage Language student profile in the context of the United States, this study seeks to explore arguments in favor of providing training for university-level instructors of Spanish that responds to the specific pedagogical needs of Heritage Language Learners.

The relevancy of this study is not only based on …

It's Not Just About The Money: Motivations For Youth Migration In Rural China, Yilin Chiang, Emily C. Hannum, Grace Kao

Emily C. Hannum

This study investigates the incentives for labor migration of youth in rural China using panel data from the Gansu Survey of Children and Families, a longitudinal study of youth in rural Gansu Province of China. We investigate the individual and altruistic economic motivations featured prominently in demographic and economic research on migration. However, we propose that the non-economic goal of personal development, a motivation suggested in numerous qualitative studies of women migrants in China and elsewhere, is also important, especially for young migrants. Analyzes indicate that, while young men and young women hold different motivations for migration, the desire for …

The Final Destination, Graduation: Increasing Retention Rates Of African American Males Through Student-Faculty Interaction During Study Abroad, Leota Evett Wilson

Black Issues Conference

Summary: As many predominately White institutions continue to emphasize the importance of diversity and multiculturalism, the recruitment of African American students has increased. However, many institutions struggle with retaining this particular student population to graduation, suggesting that they may require a different type of support to achieve degree completion.

Extensive research shows that African American students who participate in leadership or educational enrichment experiences and establish faculty relationships are likely to demonstrate a greater satisfaction with their college experience.

Study abroad offers a unique experiential learning environment that allows students to reinforce classroom knowledge, validate their career field, experience broader …

Latinos In Massachusetts Public Schools: Fall River, Michael Berardino

Gastón Institute Publications

This report provides a snapshot of current educational outcomes of Latino students in the city of Fall River. It is based on publicly available data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MADESE) that has been analyzed by the Gastón Institute for the 2013 Latinos in Massachusetts Regional Meeting in New Bedford. This report uses the ethno-racial categories assigned by MADESE. It focuses on the evolving demographic trends and the most recent educational outcomes of Latino students relative to other ethno-racial groups in the school district. The first section illustrates the demographic shift occurring in the Fall …

Latinos In Massachusetts Public Schools: New Bedford, Michael Berardino

Gastón Institute Publications

This report provides a snapshot of current educational outcomes of Latino students in the city of New Bedford. It is based on publicly available data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MADESE) that has been analyzed by the Gastón Institute for the 2013 Latinos in Massachusetts Regional Meeting in New Bedford. This report uses the ethno-racial categories assigned by MADESE. It focuses on the evolving demographic trends and the most recent educational outcomes of Latino students relative to other ethno-racial groups in the school district. The first section illustrates the demographic shift occurring in the New Bedford …

Latinos In Massachusetts Public Schools: Taunton, Michael Berardino

Gastón Institute Publications

This report provides a snapshot of current educational outcomes of Latino students in the town of Taunton. It is based on publically available data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MADESE) that has been analyzed by the Gastón Institute for the 2013 Latinos in Massachusetts Regional Meeting in New Bedford. This report uses the ethno-racial categories assigned by MADESE. It focuses on the evolving demographic trends and the most recent educational outcomes of Latino students relative to other ethno-racial groups in the school district. The first section illustrates the demographic shift occurring in the Taunton Public Schools, …