Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Challenging Filipino Colonial Mentality With Philippine Art, Francesca V. Mateo

Master's Theses

For 350 years, the Philippines was colonized by Spain and the United States. The Philippines became a sovereign nation in 1946 yet, fifty years later, colonial teachings continue to oppress Filipinos due to their colonial mentality (CM.) CM is an internalized oppression among Filipinos in which they experience an automatic preference for anything Western—European or U.S. American—and rejection of anything Filipino. Although Filipinos show signs of a CM, there are Filipinos who are challenging CM by engaging in Philippine art. Philippine art is defined as Filipino-made visual art, literature, music, and dance intended to promote Philippine culture. This …

Implementing Vocational Training At Escuela Quiteña De Estudios Bíblicos, Joshua K. Marcum

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This DMin project addressed the problem of the absence of a viable training model to equip graduates of EQEB (Escuela Quiteña de Estudios Biblicos) for self-sustaining ministry. Based upon a theology of vocation, the project implemented and evaluated the inclusion of a technical-skills component to EQEB’s current seminary training. The project followed the integration of sixteen EQEB students in the vocational program implemented during the 2015-2016 school year. Qualitative research data gathered from five group interviews with these students, my own field notes, and a faculty interview provided the substance upon which I based the project´s findings. Over a seven-month …

"Let Me Tell You What I See" Creating A Culturally Relevant Arts Based Education Through The Use Of Photography And Storytelling, William Tran

Master's Projects and Capstones

There are many constructs that can hinder the ability of students of color to succeed in a classroom environment. Factors such as the construct of whiteness, microaggressions, the banking method, as well as cuts in arts based classes create a learning environment where oppression occurs on multiple levels. The construct of whiteness creates an environment in which only the ideas, values, lived experiences, and knowledge of whites are considered valid. Microaggressions uphold the construct of whiteness by insulting and invalidating any ideas, values, lived experiences, languages, and knowledge that are outside the construct of whiteness. The constructs of whiteness as …

Black Women's Search For Meaning: An Existential Portraiture Study On How Black Women Experience The 4 Existential Givens, Tamiko Lemberger-Truelove

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The purpose of the phenomenological, qualitative study was to explore how select Black women experience the four ultimate concerns of existence, including freedom, isolation, meaninglessness, and death. Existential psychology, from which the four existential givens emerge, is deeply grounded in existential philosophy, which rarely connects key principles and tenets of existentialism to the experiences of Black women. The existential givens have been posited as a universal framework and yet because Black women are faced with multiple forms of marginalization the current study operates from the assumption that universal experiences are filtered through patently Black experiences. To explore how the existential …

Acculturation Stress, Psychological And Sociocultural Adjustment, And Development Of American Adolescents: A Qualitative Study Of Newton High School Exchange Students In China, Binbin Zhu

Doctoral Dissertations

Theories from the extant acculturation literature functioned to categorize international students’ adaptation experiences and predict their acculturation outcomes. Also, relevant studies focused mainly on students at the tertiary level. For adolescent students seeking self-development toward independence and autonomy, how they negotiated their identity challenges and tensions in a cross-cultural context, and how surrounding others in their socialization impacted on their psychosocial adjustment process and transformative experiences have not been actively explored. This qualitative study approached adolescent students’ acculturation as an integrated development and learning process to explore the effects of developmental and cultural factors on their cross-cultural adaptation, especially examined …

Initial Validation Of The Race-Ethnicity Supervision Scale (Ress), Stephanie Bartell

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation study, the author reports on the initial psychometric evaluation of the Race-Ethnicity Supervision Scale (RESS) with data collected from three studies and 307 mental health counseling and psychology trainees. Exploratory factor analyses yielded a 29-item scale with a four factor model (a) Promoting Supervisee Racial/Ethnic Cultural Competence, (b) Development and Responsivity to Cultural Identity in Supervision, (c) Perceived Supervisor Cultural Competence, and (d) Harmful Supervisory Practices. RESS scores were internally consistent and remained stable over a 3-week period. Construct validity evidence suggested RESS scores were positively related to MSI scores and unrelated to social desirability. Limitations and …

Literacies Of Bilingual Youth: A Profile Of Bilingual Academic, Social, And Txt Literacies, Michelle A. Mcsweeney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation identifies three types of language skills that urban Spanish/English bilingual youth possess (academic, social, and texting language), and reports on their relationship while documenting and analyzing the features of text messaging among this population. The participants in this study are Spanish-dominant bilingual young adults enrolled in a high school completion program in New York City. They are in the process of developing both Spanish and English academic literacy skills, and it is well known that they tend to perform below the grade they are enrolled in. For this reason, they are often referred to as being “language-less” (DeCapua …

Transnational Indigenous Migration: Racialized Geographies And Power In Southern Highland Ecuador, Victoria Stone-Cadena

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the shifting landscape of social and economic inequalities in the remittance-dominated region of southern highland Ecuador, focusing on the transformations brought about by increased international migration since the early 2000s. The broader question is whether or not transnational migration has facilitated political and social upward mobility among indigenous communities. More specifically I ask: in what ways does indigenous identity figure in contemporary international migration practices, how does transnational indigenous migration complicate bounded notions of rural indigenous life, and how might the strategies employed by indigenous migrants transform social and economic inequalities in two small towns in the …

A National Bilingual Education Policy For The Economic And Academic Empowerment Of Youth In St. Lucia, West Indies, Gabriella Bellegarde

Capstone Collection

This campaign portfolio argues the case for a national bilingual education policy on the island of St. Lucia, where youth speak both St Lucian Creole and St. Lucian standard English. The portfolio consists of a policy paper and brief, an advocacy plan, a communications plan, monitoring and evaluation plan. The Bilingual Education Taskforce (BET), made up of teachers, parents and principals, is an advocacy organization that discovered the need for a bilingual education intervention when they observed, assessed and analyzed the written work of struggling readers at their school, the Anse la Raye Infant School on the west coast of …

The Acquisition Of Bare Nominals By Three Populations Of Spanish-English Bilingual Adults, Lauren Elizabeth Miller

Open Access Dissertations

The present study contributes to our understanding of cross-linguistic influence by studying three different groups of Spanish-English speakers’ knowledge of the distribution of definite articles in both of their languages using a battery of tests that require them to draw on different linguistic abilities. These three groups include native English speakers who learned Spanish after adolescence, native Spanish speakers who learned English after adolescence and simultaneous bilinguals who grew up in the United States speaking both English and Spanish from birth. Specifically, this study explores interpretation, production and intuition regarding the acceptability of definite articles in different contexts. Since the …

L2 Effect On Bilingual Spanish/English Encoding Of Motion Events: Does Manner Salience Transfer?, Heidi E. Parker

Open Access Dissertations

This study explores the potential effect of a second language (L2) on first language (L1) encoding of motion events. The domain of interest is MANNER and the goal is to investigate if the degree of manner salience can be restructured under the effect of a L2. Slobin (2004, 2006) proposes an expansion of Talmy’s (1985, 1991, 2000) binary typology and observes that the degree of manner saliencevaries cross-linguistically. The two languages investigated in this study, Spanish and English, are at divergent points along the cline of manner salience. In addition, Slobin (1996b) suggests dividing MANNER into tier one (T1) …

Perceptions Of Hmong Parents In A Hmong American Charter School: A Qualitative Descriptive Case Study On Hmong Parent Involvement, Kirk T. Lee

Dissertations and Theses

Parental involvement plays an essential role in the United States (U.S.) educational system. However, parental involvement poses many challenges for Hmong parents in American schools. Many assumptions are made on the parts of teachers, staff, and Hmong parents about parents' roles pertaining to their involvement in their children's education. Hmong parents struggle to reconcile beliefs, attitudes, and values that they bring with them from Laos with the expectations found in the U.S. due to their unfamiliarity with the U.S. educational system.

This study employed the used a qualitative, descriptive case study approach to examine the perceptions of Hmong parents involvement …

Youth Media And Social Change: Using Digital Storytelling As A Tool That Engages Youth To Become Change Agents, Soufiane Khebbaz

Capstone Collection

Today the importance of digital technology has significantly increased worldwide, as cameras, laptops, and easy-to-use applications and software have become available to educators and activists, enabling them to join the digital world. Through a digital storytelling workshop, I examined the use of digital storytelling as a potential means of empowerment for teenagers participating in the Access Micro-scholarship Program. Using qualitative methods, I looked at the students’ interactions with each other as well as with technology in the process of digital storytelling. The main purpose of this project was to investigate the opportunities that digital storytelling practices hold for youth in …

Who Is Like Whom? Reclassification And Performance Patterns For Different Groupings Of English Learners, Molly M. Faulkner-Bond

Doctoral Dissertations

Approximately 10 percent of the US K-12 population consists of English learners (ELs), or students who are learning English in addition to academic content in areas like English language arts (ELA) and mathematics. In addition to meeting the same academic content and performance standards set for all students, it is also a goal for ELs to be reclassified – i.e., to master English so that they can shed the EL label and participate in academic settings where English is used without needing special support. Working with a longitudinal cohort of ~28,000 ELs in grades 3 through 8 from one state, …

Understanding School And Interethnic Relations Of Mexican Immigrant Youth In A Post-Industrial Community, Roberto Martinez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is a dearth of literature on how immigrant groups understand minority groups in the United States, in particular, African-Americans. Increased technology and more rapid global movement in the 21st Century challenges 20th explanations of assimilation (Chicago School) and necessitates more research focused on how immigrant groups and racialized minorities interact to negotiate new worlds. This ethnographic research was conducted over thirteen months during 2012 and 2013 in a post-industrial neighborhood in the northeast that had been the site of 11 purported anti-bias attacks against Mexican immigrants during the summer of 2010. Research questions focused on: 1) Mexican immigrant youth …

Bilingual Latino Middle Schoolers On Languaging And Racialization In The Us, Sarah Hesson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores bilingual Latino middle schoolers’ articulated understandings of their language practices as well as the links between language practices and processes of racialization and discrimination in the US. The research was conducted in the context of an after-school program whose explicit aim was to not only document students’ experiences, but to use those experiences as a basis for generating individual and collective critical understandings among participants. The findings of this case study center on the ways youth understand processes of racialization, translanguaging, and translation in the context of an English-dominant society, and how these understandings are connected to …

The Influence Of Racial Socialization On The Academic Achievement Of Black College Students, Vanessa R. Laurent

Dissertations

Black college students continue to have difficulties reaching academic success in various domains; however, understanding the nature of how academic success is cultivated by Black college students is vital for counselors, educators, and university administrators. The objective of the study was to understand how racial socialization influenced academic success. Research suggests that racial socialization contributes to positive long-term outcomes among African Americans and may be connected to academic achievement (Bowman & Howard, 1985; Boykin & Tom, 1985; Davis & Stevenson, 2006; Neblett, Terzian, & Harriott, 2010; Stevenson, 1994, 1995). Participants were 349 Black college students from a predominately White institution …

The Current State Of Access To Basic Education For Syrian Refugee Children Living In The Za’Atari Camp, Theresa L. Frey

Capstone Collection

Using Rodman’s (2006) International Education Analytical Inquiry Matrix as a theoretical framework, the purpose of this study is to examine the current state of access to basic primary education for Syrian Refugee Children Living in the Za’atari camp. Within the scope of this study, access is examined in three parts, including:

(1) Who is accessing education within Za’atari and who is not?

(2) How are certain groups accessing education?

(3) What is the learning environment of Za’atari?

In addition to addressing existing issues of access to basic education in Za’atari, this study examines efforts made towards increasing access. By examining …

Reflect, React, Exchange: A Cultural Competency Co-Curriculum, Derrick Lewis

Capstone Collection

Cultural competency serves as key component to medical training and education and increasing interest in international health experiences denotes a recent need to respond to globalized health and populations. Reflect, React, Exchange (RRE) is a co-curriculum aims to provide a revised and integrated framework and foster awareness via experience, exchange, reflection, and dialogue at the Clinica de Familia La Romana in La Romana, Dominican Republic. RRE utilizes theories which are appropriate to the transformative learning aims and integral curricular activities of the CFLR Global Health Experience, an 8-week, global health internship experience for health science. It provides students with the …

Analysis Of African American And White American Cognitive Profiles For Language And Cultural Influences, Nicole Jones

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Abstract

One of the most concerning aspects of special education is the overrepresentation of African American minority youth receiving special education services. Samuel Ortiz and colleagues considered the issue of the representation of the Latino, English Language Learner (ELL) population in special education services based on cognitive performance in relation to the mainstream population. To target this concern they determined an estimated level of expected cognitive performance of ELL’s and impact of language and cultural differences to help eligibility teams more appropriately interpret and place students with the aid of the Culture-Language Interpretive Matrix (C-LIM) model they developed. The current …

Exploring The Effects Of Positive Behavioral Supports On Disciplinary Practices In Schools And It's Potential To Mitigate Disproportionality In Disciplinary Outcomes For African American Students, E'Lexus Emily King

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Disproportionality in special education and school discipline in the U.S. Education system has been a crucial and complex issue. Research has shown that evidence-based interventions that lie within the positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) framework has been effective in improving educational outcomes for all students. In this study, the author investigated the impact of the School-Wide Benchmarks of Quality, a PBIS fidelity measure, on student disciplinary outcomes. 380 schools presented four years of disciplinary outcome data. Results showed that the PBIS fidelity measure had a modest effect on the overall student disciplinary outcomes but did not address the disproportionate …

The Evaluation Of Family-School Collaboration With Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Families, Samantha Silver

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Research has demonstrated that when parents are involved in their children’s academic and school life, children experience improved language achievement, overall behavior, grades, test scores, have improved attendance, and a lower chance of dropping out of school (Friend and Cook, 2007). Despite the growing diversity of U.S. schools, there is a still a systemic lack of effort to include parents of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. This research study sought to examine barriers to establishing a successful collaborative relationship with these families from the perspective of elementary, middle, and high school teachers using an online survey. A total of 39 …

Disrupting Eurocentric Education Through A Social Justice Curriculm, Joanna Cidalia Miranda Dacunha

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This paper will illustrate the project conducted to disrupt Eurocentric education through a social justice curriculum. Eurocentric education has silenced and misconstrued the history and truth of marginalized communities. There is a need for curriculums that challenge the dominant narrative and help students of color acknowledge the triumphs and challenges their people face. This curriculum was created to assist students of color towards the process of developing critical consciousness and self-awareness. Through Critical Race Theory and other frameworks we were able to conduct a series of workshops. Through these workshops youth began a process of self-awareness and critical consciousness through …

Refugee Youth Challenges And Unique Needs In Worcester Public Schools That Are Satisfied By African Community Education, Heidi L. Biron

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The influx of refugee youth in United States challenges the structure of the US formal school system, as it struggles to manage the unique needs of refugee youth. This research explores African refugee youth needs in the formal school system in Worcester, MA, and how some of these needs are better supported in a supplementary education institution, African Community Education (ACE). The research draws on individual interviews and focus group discussions with refugee youth and ACE’s staff to analyze the complexities and challenges refugee youth are confronted within formal schools and how they are motivated to seek supplementary education. The …

Summer Internship At African Community Education, Stephen A. Chiavaroli Iii

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

My internship at African Community Education (ACE) took place from May to December 2015, where I worked with GISDE alum, Joshua Plisinski. My summer was split as a volunteer at ACE and GIS Analyst in partnership with a Worcester nonprofit Cultural Exchange Through Soccer (CETS). My duties at ACE included tutoring, mentoring, and leading the students in homework assignments and various recreational activities. I also completed several GIS tasks and instructed a GIS tutorial for the high school students of ACE. The other time during my summer was spent conducting a spatial network analysis of Worcester soccer fields for CETS …

Traditions And Proficiency Abroad - Spain (Tapas) Program: A High School Study Abroad Program For District 128, Michaela Kendzior

Capstone Collection

As colleges begin to internationalize campuses and global competencies continue to become a demand in the workforce, secondary schools should also aim to internationalize the curriculum and offer international education opportunities to their students. In an effort to do this, I have created the Traditions And Proficiency Abroad - Spain (TAPAS) Program for Community High School District 128 in Illinois. The TAPAS program is a 20-day summer intensive cultural and language immersion program created to maximize learning potential in D128 students. While the program’s focus is on Spanish language and culture education, the orientation and instructional activities have been designed …

A Phenomenological Approach Examining The Completion Of Latino High School Students Through The Lenses Of Critical Race Theory, Anna M. Rangel-Clawson

Dissertations

Latino students represent 24% of the American student population (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2002, 2013). Dropout rates for Latino students living in severe poverty are twice the dropout rate of other Americans at the same income level (National Center Educational Statistics, 2002, 2013). The strongest factor that influenced those who choose to drop out seems to be related to a family’s socioeconomic status (Fry & Taylor, 2013; Rumberger & Lim, 2008; Swanson, 2004).

This study sought to elicit the voices of Latino students who successfully completed high school in a school district with significantly lower graduation rates for Latinos …

Understanding Millennial, Generation X, And Baby Boomer Preferred Leadership Characteristics: Informing Today’S Leaders And Followers, Lee-Volker Cox

Dissertations

Purpose. This quantitative study’s purpose was to describe and determine the degree of difference and importance of leadership characteristics as perceived by Baby Boom, Generation X, and Millennial generational cohort followers in STEM-related U.S.-based or headquartered aerospace and computer organizations as measured by the Multigenerational Leadership Characteristics Questionnaire (MLCQ).

Methodology. This was a cross-sectional, nonexperimental, comparative and correlational quantitative, ex post facto study. A web-based MLCQ was developed after conducting an academic literature review. Participants used a 6-point Likert scale identifying the importance of 30 characteristics with 2 aggregation questions identifying the most and least important characteristics; 408 members of …

The New Ecology Of Biliteracy In California: An Exploratory Study Of The Early Implementation Of The State Seal Of Biliteracy, Tanya Margarita Deleon

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Nearly 25,000 graduating high school students across California have earned state recognition for achieving proficiency in multiple languages in 2014. This exploratory, mixed-methods study investigated the early implementation of the State Seal of Biliteracy (SSB) in California. Sixty-two district personnel were surveyed, three SSB directors were interviewed, and a document review was conducted. Overall, the study revealed four themes that influence the implementation of the SSB at the district level: Intentional Creation of an Ecology of Biliteracy, Developing Notions for Biliteracy Scripts and Assessment, Privileging Sequential Biliteracy Development—Scarcity of Biliteracy Pathways, and Individual and Collective Agency for Biliteracy. Hornberger’s (2003) …

Haitian Adult Immigrants As Learners And Parents, Dayana Octavien Philippi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Haitian immigrant parents often face challenges to visibly engage in their children's education in the United States due to social, cultural, and economic factors. This study addressed parent involvement (PI) among Haitian immigrant parents of adolescents in a Florida community. The purpose of this exploratory, multiple-case study was to better understand connections between immigrant Haitian parents' beliefs and learning experiences and their experiences supporting their adolescents' learning. Three research questions were developed to explore Haitian adults' lived experiences and perceptions of themselves as keepers of knowledge and as learners, their experiences and perceived roles as parents, and the resources they …