Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Self-Reported Multicultural Teaching Knowledge Of K-12 Teachers, Ailish Raftery

Masters Theses

Research continues to show that students who belong to racial and/or ethnic minority groups face a variety of challenges at school, such as disproportionate rates of drop out, behavioral problems, exclusionary discipline practices, absenteeism, placement in special education, and more. These challenges are thought to contribute to the academic achievement gap between White and racial/ethnic minority students throughout the American public school system. Therefore, it is important to assess the multicultural teaching competence of American teachers and investigate barriers to improving culturally responsive teaching practices. Past research has investigated teachers’ multicultural teaching competence, but fewer compared general and special education …

Citizens Of The English Language: Sociolinguistic Perspectives On Postcolonial India, Prateek Shankar

Masters Theses

This paper introduces the concept of "extralingual citizenship," which I define as an expansion of translingualism to include the ethnoracial logic of the nation-state and demonstrates the entanglement of language, governance, and education in the policing of knowledge infrastructures and discursive practices. I am interested in the codification of postcolonial disparity into the teaching, social performance, and material assessment of English language users, and the infrastructural disqualification of World Englishes (and their amalgams) in favor of a standardized English. I frame extralingualism as a kind of citizenship, shifting the focus of English pedagogy/practice from the syntactical/etymological concerns of language …

Moving At The Speed Of Trust, Sun Ho Lee

Masters Theses

Moving at the Speed of Trust is a workbook of strategies — practices, definitions, and techniques — to nurture community-building in support of inbetweeners who live between power structures and cultures and are often left out. Inbetweeners are those individuals whose lives are in transition through recent immigration or forced translocation from Asia to America.

These strategies revolve around threads of trust: kin, giggles, vulnerability, and shared experience. With these threads, we can question power. We can preserve stories, expand the ways we connect, shift perspectives on what is “standard,” and cultivate a community rooted in understanding. To understand each …

The Acquisition Of Advanced Level Chinese Heritage Language (Chl) Learners：A Comparative Analysis Concerning The Aspect Marker “Le了”, Jingjing Ao

Masters Theses

Over the decades, research on heritage language learners has been quite popular, but most studies concern Russian, Spanish and other languages rather than Chinese. The Chinese heritage language learner’s studies focus mainly on K-12 students and their learning motivations, writing characteristics, and identification recognition and those concerned with language acquisition address their vocabulary and verbal Chinese development. There have been very few studies about learning grammar. This study emphasizes on the acquisition of the aspect marker LE among advanced learners.

To investigate the acquisition characteristics of advanced CHL learners, this study adopted the advanced CHL learners as the research group …

Self-Reported Multicultural Teaching Knowledge And Skills Of School Professionals, Julia Kedzior

Masters Theses

Diverse learners face a variety of challenges, such as achievement gaps, behavior problems, and absenteeism. Therefore, it is important for their educators to have both multicultural teaching knowledge and skills to address these challenges and work towards a successful school experience for all students. Although research has sought to measure the cultural competence of teachers, not many studies have examined cultural competence in other school professionals (administrators, school psychologists, social workers, interventionists, instructional assistants, and other individuals who directly work with students in the school environment). In the current study, 185 teachers and other school professionals completed an adapted version …

The Role Of Translation Style In Fostering Cultural Connections Through World Literature, Bridget Baudinet

Masters Theses

While many high school English instructors in the United States teach world literature in translation, few of them explicitly present the literature as translated. High school English students would benefit from learning more about the linguistic origins of the world literature they read. This awareness would increase student understanding of the source culture and benefit their language skills. Various translation theorists have suggested methods to teach translational awareness, but few have offered advice on the type of translation to select. In my research, I examined the question of whether students would derive more cultural knowledge, and specifically language-related knowledge, by …

Kofifi/Covfefe: How The Costumes Of "Sophiatown" Bring 1950s South Africa To Western Massachusetts In 2020, Emma Hollows

Masters Theses

This thesis paper reflects upon the costume design process taken by Emma Hollows to produce a realist production of the Junction Avenue Theatre Company’s musical Sophiatown at the Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts in May 2020. Sophiatown follows a household forcibly removed from their homes by the Native Resettlement Act of 1954 amid apartheid in South Africa. The paper discusses her attempts as a costume designer to strike a balance between replicating history and making artistic changes for theatre, while always striving to create believable characters.

Ethnic Identity Development Of 1.5 Generation Filipino American Immigrants: A Qualitative Study, Catherine Welsh

Masters Theses

This qualitative study examines ethnic identity development of 1.5 generation Filipino American immigrants in U.S. The survey methods used in the study were a demographic questionnaire, and semi-structured interview. Two Filipino students, one from the Southwest and the other from the Midwest regions of the U.S. participated in the study. Two research questions guided this study; what factors influence the ethnic identity development of the 1.5 generation Filipino American immigrants, and what strategies educators can use to facilitate 1.5 generation Filipino American immigrant student success. The results of the study revealed six themes. Three themes emerged from research question one …

Ways In Which Community Involvement May Influence Girls’ Education In Senegal, Babou Ndiaye

Masters Theses

This study attempts to examine through the lens of social feminist theory the ways in which community involvement may influence girls’ education in Senegal. It highlights the extent to which networking, advocacy, and meaningful interactions between community and school may contribute to improving access, learning conditions, and academic achievements for girls. The paper also provides an analysis of the adverse effects of community involvement on girls’ education in Senegal. It underscores the extent to which patriarchy and class interfere to shape community involvement and undermine girls’ education, in terms of both access and quality. The paper further sketches a combination …

Spanish-English Bilingual Adolescents' Attitude Towards Home Language: Effects On Narrative Language, Rebecca M. Hunt

Masters Theses

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between use of English as a second language in academic and social settings, and attitude towards home language (Spanish) in bilingual adolescents in a Central Illinois high school. In addition, the study evaluated the possible relationship between home language attitude and the structure of a personal narrative. Participants included include 11 Spanish-English bilingual high school students who resided in Spanish-speaking homes. Participants completed a questionnaire pertaining to self-rated proficiency of English and Spanish, frequency of use in various settings, and attitude towards English, Spanish, and bilingualism. English narrative samples …

There’S An App For That: Foreign Language Learning Through Mobile- And Social Media-Based Video Games, Trenton Edward Hoy

Masters Theses

There is no doubt that the video game industry is undergoing a major upheaval, yet in spite of the recent reconceptualization of video games, educational games as a whole remain the pariah of the industry. Very little has been done in the wake of recent social and industry trends to adapt instruction of academic subjects, especially foreign language, for delivery through video games. Prior studies discussing the potential of games developed specifically for language learning have focused primarily on general principles and have offered no recommendations for platform, genre, or other aspects of design. Through an online survey as well …

An Investigation Of Affirmative Action Policies And Practices Of Recruiting, Hiring, Mentoring And Retention Of African American Teachers And Administrators, U. S. Davidson Jr.

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the affirmative action policies and practices of recruiting, hiring, mentoring and retention of African American teachers and administrators throughout the State of Illinois. Since public elementary and secondary school systems provide numerous and varied jobs in virtually every community in the nation, it is assumed that if a quality education is to be attained, students must be exposed to the variety of cultural perspectives that represent the nation at large (American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, 1990).

This study examined policies and practices of districts throughout the State of Illinois inquiring …

The Role Of Socialization In The Process Of Political Life: An Analysis Of Gender Roles In Elementary School Textbooks On Taiwan, Chien-Hong Lee

Masters Theses

This thesis contains both theoretical and applied research. In the theoretical part, political socialization is the main theme to be studied; and an incorporated model is designed to examine how political socialization can be viewed in the process of political life. In the applied part, three sets of elementary school textbooks have been examined and we have found that those textbooks contain clear sex-typed images of adult behavior; and male characters are emphasized more than female characters, which might contribute to the understanding why women are rarely seen in any positions of power in any realm on Taiwan.

School Racial Composition: A Social-Psychological Study Of Self Images And Achievement, Ellyn Ruth Robert

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.