Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Building Community And Bridging Cultures: The Role Of Volunteer Tutors In Oregon’S Latino Serving Community-Based Organizations, Troy Vaughn Hickman

Dissertations and Theses

Literature for and about successful volunteer literacy programs highlight and advocate for practices that inform administrators and trainers of the needs and expectations of volunteer tutors. Applications of this knowledge can affect the type of policies that administrators implement in their programs and the type of support that they provide for their tutors. This project was an opportunity for the researcher to reflect on his experiences as a consultant and trainer with community-based programs and to increase his understanding of the volunteers in order to assist in future administration and training work.

Community-based volunteer literacy programs across Oregon are unique …

Incorporating Service-Learning Into The Esl Curriculum: What Aspiring Practitioners Need To Know, Andres R. Reyes

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

As an ESL teacher at a community college, my constant goal is to synergize teaching approaches and strategies so that in addition to maximizing students' language learning, their critical thinking skills, cultural competence, and reflectivity - as members of an increasingly growing multicultural society - are heightened. Most recently, I have been pursuing service-learning as a philosophy, pedagogy, and practice that can help students connect their classroom learning to concrete, exciting, and challenging learning situations beyond the classroom. This paper is an attempt to highlight service-learning as a powerful tool that can make a difference in students' lives as they …

Working The System: The Role Of Islam In Student Negotiations Of A Midwestern Charter School, Elizabeth J. Baer

Religious Studies Honors Projects

“What should the role of Islam be in American public life?” Rather than answer this question through broad, theoretical discourse, I turn to a case study of Somali Muslims in a Midwestern charter school. Through this case study, I analyze how individual Muslims, tied to communities and Allah in diverse ways, actively negotiate how to incorporate their religious practices into public space. I argue that by examining specific strategies used by individuals in an actual school setting, as opposed to making generalizing assumptions, one can better understand that Islam already plays a variety of constantly changing roles in American public …

It's All Happening At The Zoo: Children's Environmental Learning After School, Jason A. Douglas, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

Pairing dynamic out-of-school-time (OST) programs with zoos can encourage young people's relationships with and sense of responsibility for animals and the environment. The project presented in this article, Animal Rescuers, gave the authors the opportunity to examine how such a pairing can work. OST programs enable learning in settings that are generally unavailable during school time (Honig & McDonald, 2005). They provide space for collaboration among students, teachers, and others such as program visitors or outside educators. Taking advantage of the flexibility, location, and educational playfulness of an OST setting, the authors worked intensively with a small number of 10-12-year-old …

A Phenomenological Case Study Of The Multicultural Counseling Experience Of Students And Faculty In Relation To Their Perceptions Of Their Multicultural Competency And Cacrep Standards, Nial P. Quinlan

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

The shifting population demographics of the United States are an unmistakable sign that the work of professional counselors and educators will continue to see an increase in the diversity of their client populations. It can be surmised, that paralleling this population change will be a subsequent increase in the demand for multicultural sensitive education and counseling, with particular attention being given to oppressed and marginalized groups who have been traditionally underserved. The counseling profession, guided by the American Counseling Association's (ACA) Code of Ethics, has unequivocally stated that professional counselors need to be proficient at providing multicultural competent counseling services …

English Learners In Boston Public Schools: Enrollment And Educational Outcomes Of Native Spanish Speakers, Miren Uriarte, Nicole Lavan, Nicole Agusti, Faye Karp

Gastón Institute Publications

In November 2002, the voters of Massachusetts approved Referendum Question 2. This referendum spelled an end to Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) as the primary program available for children requiring language support in Massachusetts. In its place came a radically different policy called Sheltered English Immersion (SEI). Unlike TBE, which relies on the English learners’ own language to facilitate the learning of academic subjects as they master English, SEI programs rely on the use of simple English in the classroom to impart academic content; teachers use students’ native language only to assist them in completing tasks or to answer a question. …

English Learners In Boston Public Schools: Enrollment, Engagement And Academic Outcomes Of Native Speakers Of Cape Verdean Creole, Chinese Dialects, Haitian Creole, Spanish, And Vietnamese, Miren Uriarte, Nicole Lavan, Nicole Agusti, Mandira Kala, Faye Karp, Peter Nien-Chu Kiang, Lusa Lo, Rosann Tung, Cassandra Villari

Gastón Institute Publications

This study focuses on the academic experience of English Learners (ELs) in Boston’s public schools in the year before and in the three years following the implementation of Referendum Question 2. In 2002, this referendum spelled an end to Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) as the primary program available for children requiring language support in Massachusetts public schools, replacing it with Sheltered English Immersion (SEI). Specifically, this report focuses on the enrollment and academic outcomes of the five largest groups of native speakers of languages other than English in the Boston Public Schools: speakers of Spanish, Chinese dialects, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, …

English Learners In Boston Public Schools: Enrollment, Engagement And Academic Outcomes, Ay2003-Ay2006 Final Report, Rosann Tung, Miren Uriarte, Virginia Diez, Nicole Lavan, Nicole Agusti, Faye Karp, Tatjana Meschede

Gastón Institute Publications

In 2002, Massachusetts voters approved a referendum against the continuance of Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) as a method of instruction for English language learners. The study undertaken by the Mauricio Gaston Institute at UMass Boston in collaboration with the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston finds that, in the three years following the implementation of Question 2 in the Boston Public Schools, the identification of students of limited English proficiency declined as did the enrollment in programs for English; the enrollment of English Learners in substantially separate Special Education programs more than doubled; and service options for English Learners narrowed. …

Engaging Latinos In Culturally Specific Educational Programming: A Multidisciplinary Approach, Paul R. Springer, Cody S. Hollist, Karen Buchfink

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Results from the 2000 United States census highlighted that the Latino population had exceeded the African American population as the largest U.S. minority group. Furthermore, during the past 20 years, migration patterns for Latino families have spread throughout the West, Midwest, and South and not merely in the border states. To meet the rising educational and human service needs, professionals have sought to develop programs that are effective at helping the Latino populations. This article presents a theoretical model for engaging Latinos in family and consumer science education and outreach programs. The model was designed for family and consumer science …

Challenging Colorblind Education: A Descriptive Analysis Of Teacher Racial Attitudes, Melanie S. Hinojosa, Amanda Moras

Sociology Faculty Publications

Research suggests that many public school teachers are not prepared to deal with the growing number of diverse students in the schools. Questions are raised by researchers about the ability of the current teaching force to adequately meet the needs of the growing number of students of Color in the schools. Small-scale qualitative studies find that many White teachers feel unsure of their ability to teach students of Color, tend to hold stereotypical beliefs about urban students and/ or students of Color, and tend to use cultural deficiency models for explaining their academic performance. To date, no quantitative studies have …

Bilingual Education And English Proficiency, Christopher Jepsen

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

English Learners, students who are not proficient in English and speak a non-English language at home, make up more than 10 percent of the nation’s K-12 student body. Achieving proficiency in English for these students is a major goal of both state and federal education policy, motivating the provision of bilingual education policies. Using data for nearly 500,000 English Learners from California, I show that students in bilingual education have substantially lower English proficiency than other English Learners in first and second grades. In contrast, there is little difference between bilingual education and other programs for students in grades three …

Imaginary Friends: Using Guided Imagery, Line Drawings And Webquests To Incorporate Culture Into The Foreign Language Curriculum, J.E. Buckingham

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the integration of authentic cultural experience into the foreign language curriculum through the use of guided imagery, line drawings, and a WebQuest designed to facilitate the creation of an imaginary friend living within a country where the target language is spoken. The student uses these techniques to vicariously communicate with and experience a proscribed facet of that imaginary friend’s life. Through the use of the guided imagery and web-based research, the student will breathe life into a black and white line drawing by coloring in an appropriate complexion and by giving the character a name which would …

Creating A Safe Learning Space For The Discussion Of Multicultural Issues In The Classroom, Katherine M. Helm

Psychology Department Faculty Articles

This paper reviews best pedagogic practices for creating a safe environment in which to hold courses on race, racism, and multicultural issues. Inherent in these courses are student feelings of angst, vulnerability, guilt, trepidation, and sometimes anger and hostility. The sensitive educator must manage and acknowledge these feelings so that learning can occur without diminishing the power and impact issues of race have on our collective and individual psyches and experiences. Strategies for managing and incorporating students' strong emotions into the dialogue on multiculturalism will be reviewed.

Exploring Mothers’ And Fathers’ Relationships With Sons Versus Daughters: Links To Adolescent Adjustment In Mexican Immigrant Families, Kimberly A. Updegraff, Melissa Y. Delgado, Lorey A. Wheeler

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Drawing on ecological and gender socialization perspectives, this study examined mothers’ and fathers’ relationships with young adolescents, exploring differences between mothers and fathers, for sons versus daughters, and as a function of parents’ division of paid labor. Mexican immigrant families (N = 162) participated in home interviews and seven nightly phone calls. Findings revealed that mothers reported higher levels of acceptance toward adolescents and greater knowledge of adolescents’ daily activities than did fathers, and mothers spent more time with daughters than with sons. Linkages between parent-adolescent relationship qualities and youth adjustment were moderated by adolescent gender and parents’ division …

Hungary, Slovakia, And Romania: International Relations Examined Through Minority Language Education, Julianna Connelly Stockton

Mathematics Faculty Publications

The Hungarians in Romania and Slovakia are not just ethnic minorities but also linguistic minorities whose language has almost no linguistic similarity to their host nations’ language. One aspect of life in which linguistic minority issues arise most frequently is that of education. Should minority linguistic groups be forced to learn the national language in order to attend school or participate in official functions or should the government provide or allow for education in their native language?

The ethnic Hungarian minorities did not, for the most part, emigrate from Hungary to these other countries by choice the way most immigrants …

Practices For Dispreferred Responses Using "No" By A Learner Of English, John Hellermann

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Responding in a manner that does not align with an action or affiliate with a stance implicated in just prior talk is potentially sensitive work. Conversation Analysis (CA) has shown that participants orient to the sensitive nature of sequences of talk used to project responses that do not align, or, are dispreferred (Pomerantz 1984) in some way. This paper examines such responses, especially with the use of no tokens. The talk comes from the interactions of one adult learner of English in a language learning classroom over the course of five ten-week terms. The findings show that the participant’s use …

Esl Placement And Schools: Effect On Immigrant Achievement, Rebecca Callahan, Lindsey Wilkinson, Chandra Muller, Michelle Frisco

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this study, the authors explore English as a Second Language (ESL) placement as a measure of how schools label and process immigrant students. Using propensity score matching and data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the authors estimate the effect of ESL placement on immigrant achievement. In schools with more immigrant students, the authors find that ESL placement results in higher levels of academic performance; in schools with few immigrant students, the effect reverses. This is not to suggest a one-size-fits-all policy; many immigrant students, regardless of school composition, …

Sojourners In Mexico With U.S. School Experience: A New Taxonomy For Transnational Students, Víctor Zúñiga, Edmund T. Hamann

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

There are many school-age children involved in the transnational movement of peoples between the United States and Mexico. Among those currently in Mexico (typically regarded as a sending country rather than a receiving country), most expect to return to the United States someday, although not necessarily permanently, and they variously identify as Mexican, Mexican American, or American. This suggests that the prospect of enduring geographic mobility affects the complicated work of identity formation and affiliation. Central to this negotiation are Mexican schools, which, like U.S. schools, are not deliberately designed to consider the needs, understandings, and wants of an increasingly …

Longitudinal And Reciprocal Effects Of Ethnic Identity And Experiences Of Discrimination On Psychosocial Adjustment Of Navajo (Diné) Adolescents, Matthew D. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the relationships among ethnic identity, cultural identity, experiences of discrimination, their interactions, and their effects on various psychosocial outcomes (self-esteem, depression, sense of school membership, social functioning, substance abuse, substance related problems, delinquent behaviors, and grade point average [GPA]). Data were collected twice over a 2-year period.

Change across time was observed in male adolescents' experiences of discrimination. Affirmation and belonging to Navajo culture was the strongest protective predictor at Time 1, but at Time 2 less consistent patterns of association emerged. Also at Time 2, experiences of discrimination emerged as a powerful negative predictor of psychosocial …

Where We Go To School: Latino Students And The Public Schools Of Boston, Miren Uriarte, Jie Chen, Mandira Kala

Gastón Institute Publications

Where we go to School: Latino Students and the Public Schools of Boston focuses on the experience of Latino children in the Boston Public Schools (BPS). Using available public data that had not previously been compiled, it aims at the fullest view possible of the Latino school population.

Boston Public Schools is the largest school district in the state, enrolling 56,765 students in AY 2006, the school year that is the focus of this study. School enrollments in Boston have been both shrinking and diversifying. In 2000-2001, for example, enrollments numbered 63,024; just five years later, enrollment was 9.6% lower. …

Biliteracy And Skills Transfer: Literacy Skills Transfer From Arabic To English Focusing On Lexical Access, Henry J. Hauser

Theses and Dissertations

This research was designed to gain understanding of literacy skills transfer from a first language involving a particular writing system to a second language which uses another, divergent writing system. The author has worked in adult literacy in an area of the Sahara desert where the people's first language is Arabic and the majority of adults were illiterate. The present research utilized this setting to study literacy skills transfer from Arabic to English. Specific questions addressed in the research were: what skills transfer from L1 to L2, at what point should instruction in L2 begin, and can lexical access be …

The Right To Learn Across The Tracks: An Analysis Of School Funding And Integration In Seattle, Houston, Philadelphia, Chicago And Washington, D.C., Erin M. Pollard

Politics Honors Papers

Through examining the levels of integration in public and private schools across the United States, it is clear that the spirit of Brown v. Board of Education was never fulfilled. Students are still learning in an overwhelmingly homogeneous environment. Even in diverse neighborhoods there is a difference: the poor and minority children attend the public schools and the wealthy children attend private school. Thus, the urban public schools remain overwhelmingly minority, while private schools are overwhelmingly white. There is a clear discrepancy between black and white students in terms of size of school and quality of education.

To determine whether …

Status Of Latino Education In Massachusetts: A Report, Nicole Lavan, Miren Uriarte

Gastón Institute Publications

Educational reform has brought great improvements in educational outcomes for Massachusetts students. In the past decade, achievement scores have risen for all students in Massachusetts; today the Commonwealth ranks first among all states in the overall National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores. However, it also ranks among the five states with the widest “gap” in achievement between white and Latino students in both NAEP Math and Reading. These gaps in achievement show that the benefits are not reaching all children. Latinos especially, but also African American children, are often left behind in a state with excellent academic institutions. Examining …

From Nuevo León To The Usa And Back Again: Transnational Students In Mexico, Edmund T. Hamann, Víctor A. Zúñiga, Juan Sánchez Garcia

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

The movement of Mexicans to the United States is both longstanding and long studied and from that study we know that for many newcomers the attachment to the receiving community is fraught and tentative. The experience of immigrant children in U.S. schools is also relatively well studied and reveals challenges of intercultural communication as well as concurrent and contradictory features of welcome and unwelcome. What is less well known, in the study of migration generally and of transnational students in particular, is how students moving in a less common direction — from the U.S. to Mexico — experience that movement. …

Alumnos Transnacionales: Las Escuelas Mexicanas Frente A La Globalización, Víctor Zúñiga, Edmund T. Hamann, Juan Sánchez García

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

Counter to the expectations that Mexico-U.S. migration is one-way, adult, and from Mexico to the United States, this Spanish-language book includes nine chapters describing various facets of the lives and educational circumstances of students encountered in Mexican schools who have previously attended U.S. schools. Data were derived from written questionnaires from a sample of more than 24,000 students in the Mexican states of Zacatecas and Nuevo León, of whom 632 had U.S. school experience and/or a U.S. birthplace and thereby American citizenship, and from more than 125 interviews with transnational students and their teachers. This study variously considers transnational students' …

Gender Disparity In Nigerian Education: Women’S Experience Of Barriers To Equal Educational Opportunity, Eugene Okoli

Dissertations

Discrepancies between males and females in access to schooling, school completion rates, and participation in employment opportunities are still more the norm in some regions of the world than others. Limited access to education plagues women in Nigeria as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa. Disparity in access to educational opportunity is a pressing gender equity issue in Nigeria (World Bank, 2003).

Relatively few studies have focused on obtaining the viewpoints of women who experience this phenomenon. To hear the voices of these women regarding how they gained or were denied access to education in the Nigerian context, a cross-section of …

Beyond The Classroom Walls: A Study Of Out-Of-Class English Use By Adult Community College Esl Students, Tracey Louise Knight

Dissertations and Theses

Research in Second Language Acquisition indicates that using English outside of the classroom is an important part of the language learning process. However, studies done on university level ESL and EFL students indicate that students use English minimally when outside of the classroom. This thesis furthers the research on English use outside of the classroom in order to more fully understand all types of language learners and the link between language proficiency and out-of-class English use.

Developing The Whole Child: An Evaluation Of The Latino After‐School Initiative (Lasi), Virginia Diez

Gastón Institute Publications

This report presents findings from an evaluation of the Latino After-School Initiative (LASI), an umbrella organization that provides funding, educational guidelines, staff development, and networking opportunities to after-school programs in the Greater Boston area. LASI funds seven Latino-led after-school programs servicing children ages 7-14. The programs are located in Lynn, Cambridge, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and Chelsea. LASI was established in 2001 by the United Way of Massachusetts Bay as a five-year demonstration project to improve academic achievement—as measured by MCAS scores and high school retention rates—among Latino children.

2007 Multicultural Development Plan, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Resources

The appreciation, affirmation, and inclusion of multiple cultures is important to ensure that all students, faculty, and staff will be able to enjoy the educational benefits of a multicultural academic environment and that these various perspectives will also enrich the educational enterprise. From this perspective it is important that community members be effective at interacting across cultures, which is essential to IMSA’s mission of being “the world’s leading teaching and learning laboratory for imagination and inquiry , igniting and nurturing creative, ethical scientific minds that advance the human condition....” The multiple cultures that make up the IMSA community include individual …

A Comparative Study Of International And American Study Abroad Students' Expectations And Experiences With Host Countries., Evelyn Domville-Roach

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This was a comparative study of international and American study abroad students' experiences and expectations with the host countries. The rationale for this study was to acquire a deeper understanding of different experiences of students who study abroad and to understand whether their expectations of the host country have an impact on their experiences. An opportunity sample of American study abroad and international students was selected from the United States student population and their expectations and experiences of the host country compared. The study addressed 6 research questions, using a mixed-method approach. The principal instrument for the investigation was the …