Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

¡Sí Se Puede!: Understanding The Experiences Of Latina Students During Their Doctoral Journey At A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Flor Del Rocio Acevedo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The existing body of literature on Latinas has mostly been focused on the undergraduate student experience (Hernandez, 2002; Hurtado et al., 1996; Kena et al., 2016; Tinto & Goodsell, 1994; Torres, 2004). Additionally, despite the increasing participation of women in graduate education since the 1980s (Walker et al., 2008), Latinas have been and continue to be underrepresented in doctoral programs and the professorate (Myers, 2016). In spite of recent increases in enrollment, Latinas attained just 8.8 percent of the doctoral degrees awarded from 2018-2019 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2020). As Latinas are projected to account for a third of …

Amjambo Africa! (December 2021), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In this Issue

Film: .......................................2/3

Le Intersection/Le Carrefour Zamzam Elmoge Black Owned Maine/Amjambo Holiday Gift Guide. ...........4/5

Editorial......................................6

Healthcare in Chad ...................8

French • Kinyarwanda Portuguese • Somali • Spanish Swahili

Poetry: My version of the American dream ......................13

Hermenegildo Paulo and Mathilde Micomyiza...............14

Diversity Calendar project.....16

Finance/All about cars............18

Columns. ............................18/19

Preble Street • MIRC • ILAP Maine Equal Justice • IntWork

5 New Mainers celebrate holidays...............................20-29

French • Kinyarwanda Portuguese • Somali • Spanish Swahili

Community Health Workers/CHOWs....................28

New Voices...............................29

Rupal Ramesh Shah • Roseline Souebele

Humanitarian crisis in Maine.31

Connecting A Community Through A Family Literacy Project And Virtual Writing Collaboration: University Students Facilitate Access To Literature During The Pandemic, Anne Katz Ph.D., Alexandria Sledge-Tollerson B.A. In Early Childhood Education

Georgia Journal of Literacy

The importance of accessing and sharing children’s literature took on new meaning as educators pivoted to remote and online learning models over the course of the past school year. In light of the pandemic, College of Education pre-service educators enrolled in a Fall 2020 Language and Literacy Development course (which is usually scheduled to meet face-to-face twice a week) was re-structured as hybrid, where a group of students were scheduled to meet partially face-to-face and partially online on a weekly basis. I planned to adapt my family literacy project collaboration with a local community center, an academic service learning assignment …

Culturally Relevant Teaching For The 21st Century: The Success And Challenges Of Pre-Service Teachers When Using Technology In Critical Ways, Virginie Jackson, Stacy Delacruz, Dominique Harry

Georgia Journal of Literacy

This case study examined pre-service teachers' use of technology as they implemented culturally relevant literacy lessons while tutoring elementary students in their field placement sites. As we enter a new decade, we want our students to be future-ready with technology skills. Here, we present an examination of how pre-service teachers integrated culturally relevant teaching with technology along with a discussion of the tools and devices their students used. Findings provided evidence that as pre-service teachers experienced authentic and engaging learning experiences within a supportive space, they emerged equipped to teach in culturally responsive ways that supported student learning and deeper …

I Know You Are Trying To Help Me, But …”: Complexity In Supporting Immigrant Youth And Communities Through Schooling, Ramona Fruja, Evelyn Baca

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Students’ And Teachers’ Beliefs About Learning English As A Second Language In Hindi Medium Schools In India, Samir Toppo

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study is an exploration of beliefs about learning English held by English as a second Language (ESL) students and teachers from Jharkhand, India. The basic premise of the study is that the learners’ and the instructors’ beliefs about learning a language affect the learning approach, learning strategy use, personal motivation, the choice of instructional material and the instructional method. Thus, beliefs indirectly affect language learning. The assumption of this study is also that the participants in this study hold debilitative beliefs about English language learning. A mixed method research approach was used in this study. The quantitative data …

A Call For Liberty And Justice For All: Unraveling The Complexities In 2021, Dr. Sheila P. Davis

Journal of Health Ethics

This Preface summarizes the articles in this issue. Seven articles are presented with center on liberty and justice for all populations discussed.

Collateral Damage: How Expanding Public Charge Policy Influences Adult Esl Enrollment, Allison M. Eckert

Master's Theses

This study used statistical analysis of enrollment records for ESL programs at community colleges throughout California from 2015-2019 to determine whether adult immigrants’ participation in public ESL programs was reduced under President Donald Trump. Immigrant families’ lesser use of public education services and means-tested federal benefits has been widely documented in the wake of Trump’s expansion of the public charge rule, which counted immigrants’ use of a wider array of public benefits against their case for residency in the United States than had any previous iteration of the rule. Failing the public charge test can block an immigrant’s entry into …

As Catholic Schools Become More Diverse, How Should We Prepare New Catholic School Educators For Inclusive Schools? An Analysis Of Research On University And Diocesan Teacher Training, Rebekka J. Jez, Julie C. Cantillon, Lauren H. Ramers, Melissa M. Burgess

Journal of Catholic Education

Educators can improve academic and socio-emotional wellbeing of their students if they are equipped with strategies and skills to support learners and families from a variety of diverse backgrounds and experiences, such as culturally and linguistically diverse students, students with differing abilities, and those who may experience trauma and/or socio-economic challenges. To learn more about this topic a Catholic university and local diocese examined the literature on the impact of Catholic teachers in under-resourced schools, practices for training Catholic educators with skills to meet the needs of all learners, and the structures needed to ensure that diocesan and university supervisors …

The Effects Of Watching Text-Relevant Video Segments On Reading Comprehension Of Culturally Unfamiliar Texts With Adult English Language Learners Supported By The Schematic Information-Processing (Sip) Model Of Reading Comprehension, Amirreza Karami

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods sequential explanatory study was to investigate the effects of watching text-relevant video segments on reading comprehension of a culturally unfamiliar text when technical words are present or absent. Therefore, 44 adult English Language Learners (ELLs) with higher-intermediate to advanced English language proficiency levels from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) School of Languages located in the Dominican Republic were chosen and randomly assigned to two different groups: control vs. experimental.

First, the researcher compared two different types of reading instruction—traditional text-based vs. video-based reading instruction supported by the Schematic Information-Processing (SIP) model of reading …

"Blazing The Trail" For The Future: Bipoc Students' Experiences With Colleges Of Agriculture, Logan Moss

Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Since its founding, the United States has faced a constant turmoil surrounding the equitable treatment of people from non-Caucasian backgrounds, especially regarding education. This study sought to examine BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) students experiences prior to entry and during their studies in colleges of agriculture within the State of Arkansas. Research has shown that across the country there are discrepancies between the percentage of BIPOC students in the State, university, and colleges of agriculture. This study used a qualitative interview method to determine the factors influencing minority students to enter and stay within a program of study …

The Lived Experiences Of Latinx Parents And Their Perception Of Bilingual Programs: A Phenomenological Reflection, Manuel O. Adrianzen

Dissertations

The aim of this study is two-fold. First, to better understand and capture the lived experiences of Latinx parents as they navigate the registration/enrollment process at the school and select a language program for their Pre-kindergarten child. Second, to understand what lived experiences influence their perception about bilingual education programs. Using Van Manen’s (2016) concept of human sciences and phenomenology, data was collected through the use of conversational interviews. The responses provided by the parents and school clerk revealed five themes, fear & anxiousness, hope for things to come & for a brighter future, use of social networks to understand …

The Impact Of A K-8 Stem Program On Grades And Student Choice Of Stem And Advanced Mathematics And Science Coursework In High School, Astrid Rodrigues

Dissertations

The demands of today’s workforce call for schools to prepare their students to have problem-solving skills and be critical thinkers and collaborative colleagues. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning has been known to cultivate, excite, and promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills in students from an early age.

This study explored the high school course selection of students who had participated in a compulsory Kindergarten to 8^th grade (K-8) STEM program, called Project Lead the Way (PLTW), while in middle school. Specifically, the study compared the number of STEM and advanced mathematics and science courses that students who …

Wellness Through Nature, Yulissa Ochoa

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Ventana Wildlife Society's mission statement is to conserve native wildlife through science, education, and collaboration. VWS addresses the lettuce curtain and lack of access to green spaces with “Salud y Naturaleza ''. The Lettuce Curtain refers to the disconnect between the Salinas Valley and the coast. This Nature Prescription program removes the barriers of transportation, cost, and language, giving access to nature to families in East Salinas by organizing free family trips to the coast and a weekly nature class. With easy access to nature, people will be encouraged to spend time in the outdoors to better their mental …

Why Culture Matters: The Importance And Effectiveness Of Creating A Multicultural Classroom When Teaching Elementary School Students In Public Schools, Haley Judith Quintana

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is to analyze the benefits of having a multicultural classroom in elementary schools. Multicultural education refers to any form of education or teaching that incorporates the histories, texts, values, beliefs, and perspectives of people from different cultural backgrounds. Teaching about multiculturalism can increase not only the teacher's knowledge, but also the students' learning. From this Capstone project the researchers learned how some teachers and parents feel about having different cultures being taught in the classroom. Based on the information that is collected the researchers found ways to incorporate multiculturalism. Upon interviewing four elementary teachers …

Why Culture Matters: The Importance And Effectiveness Of Creating A Multicultural Classroom When Teaching Elementary School Students In Public Schools, Juztina M. Rodriguez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is to analyze the benefits of having a multicultural classroom in elementary schools. Multicultural education refers to any form of education or teaching that incorporates the histories, texts, values, beliefs, and perspectives of people from different cultural backgrounds. Teaching about multiculturalism can increase not only the teacher's knowledge, but also the students' learning. From this Capstone project the researchers learned how some teachers and parents feel about having different cultures being taught in the classroom. Based on the information that is collected the researchers found ways to incorporate multiculturalism. Upon interviewing four elementary teachers …

Exploring That Fulbright Magic: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study Of Fulbright-Mescyt Alumni Who Return To The Dominican Republic, Joshabel De La Cruz

Dissertations

International higher education graduates may experience challenges related to reentry to their home countries as their expectations upon returning home may not match their reality (Alandejani, 2013; Butcher, 2002, Gaw, 2000). This study utilizes a transcendental phenomenological approach to understand the lived experiences of seven Fulbright-MESCYT alumni who completed U.S. graduate degree programs and returned home to the Dominican Republic (DR) between 2015 and 2018. The Fulbright-MESCYT Program in the DR is a joint initiative of the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo and the Dominican Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCYT) and adds funding for up to 10 …

Intragroup Marginalization Among Latinx Migrant Farmworker College Students, Annette Calvario Perales

Dissertations

The Latinx population is the fastest-growing racial minority group in the United States (U.S.) (Passel et al., 2014). There are nearly 2 million migrant families in the U.S. (Tippett, 2020). Most migrant families live below the poverty level, and children often provide significant supplemental income to that of their parents’ (Zalaquett et al., 2007). Many migrant families are faced with various challenges, such as secluded living conditions, financial instability, physical and mental health barriers, and educational barriers (Dreby, 2015; Thompson et al., 2002; BPHC, 1995). In addition, migrant students frequently find themselves in a dilemma between providing financial assistance to …

How Immigrant English Language Learners Used Internal Fortitude To Utilize Supports And Overcome Obstacles To Graduate From High School, Mark C. Peterson

Dissertations

Immigrants and English Language Learners (ELL) continue to receive attention in the research literature due in part to the continued immigration of families to the U.S. and the continued increasing number of students enrolled in U.S. schools under the ELL designation. The robust influx of immigrant’s school enrollment is reflected in schools across the country as classrooms are transformed from predominantly mono-cultural and mono-lingual environments to multi-cultural and multi-lingual ones. Unfortunately, the national average graduation rate for ELLs is a much lower than native-born students. The economic, social, and mental health ramifications for failing to graduate high school are dramatic; …

The Policy Feedback Loop: Exploring English Learner (El) Policy, Policy Implementation, And The Relationship Between Policy, Research, And Practice, Nathan D. Koerber

Doctoral Dissertations

This study will explore the EL policy implementation process and offer evaluative feedback by systematically reviewing the history of US federal educational language policy and its impact on schools and classrooms, as well as the role research, has played in the development of EL policy. Additionally, this study will explore how current language policy implementation impacts programming and practices in both the UK and the US through two separate case studies, as a means of providing evaluative feedback on the policies.

The purpose of this study is to elucidate the complicated history of EL policy and its impact, as well …

The Inequitable Consequences Of School Disciplinary Policies On Black Girls In Ohio, Terry Husband, Shamaine Bertrand

Journal of Global Education and Research

Studies have examined the effects of school disciplinary policies and practices on Black boys. Much of this research highlights the degree to which many of these disciplinary policies and practices have affected Black boys in P-12 contexts in negative ways. A small and emerging body of scholarship has begun to investigate the effects of school discipline policies and practices in P-12 contexts on Black girls. The focus of this study was to investigate the effects of disciplinary policies on Black girls in comparison to girls from other races in the 15 largest school districts in Ohio. Drawing from recent out-of-school …

Listening To Voices Of Latinx Immigrants In Rural America, Jacqueline Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to capture and gain an understanding of Latinx immigrants’ lived experiences during their transitions from their native countries to rural Arkansas. Using purposeful criterion-based sampling, the population of interest was five Latinx immigrant students and families who migrated from their native countries to the state of Arkansas. The analytic strategy included a single-case model of each family’s transcription, two-case model, cluster analysis to identify likeness, document portrait, and subtheme development. The structural descriptions that formed the essence of the experience resulted in three themes: education, migration, and emotional experiences. The three overall …

Cariño Pedagogy: A Framework Of Corazón, Ferial Pearson, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo, Gabriel Gutiérrez

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Change in the world of education has never been new or unexpected. However, the pandemic that swept the world at the beginning of 2020 caused our world to spin off its axis and force its practitioners into quickly re-evaluating their praxis, their priorities, and their professional responsibilities. Through this reflection, three BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) colleagues in the Teacher Education Department at a midwestern state university examine twelve months of teaching during the pandemic and the strategies they turned to, to stay true to their pedagogical values to ensure their students were taken care of personally and …

Education As Advocacy: The Foundations Of Support For Immigrant Youth, Pamela D'Andrea Martínez

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

This is a review of the film series Supporting Immigrants in Schools. After a brief description of the background to the series and its design, the review summarize the key ideas presented in each of the films provided by the many voices featured in the series, such as those of students, teachers, and school and district staff.

2021 Native American Heritage Read-In, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

Cultural Read-Ins

This event was co-sponsored by Peer Multicultural Educators (PME), Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the English team, the History/Social Science team, and the IRC.

Special Guest: Bill Miller

“It Kind Of Shows The Terrible Morality Of This Scene": Using Graphic Novels To Encourage Feminist Readings Of Jewish Hebrew Texts With Religious Significance, Talia Hurwich

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

This study considers whether and in what ways graphic novel adaptations of traditional Jewish Hebrew texts can encourage adolescent Modern Orthodox girls to adopt autonomous critical responses when encountering narratives that present women in unequal roles vis a vis men. According to scholars, Jewish literacy should teach students to read traditional Hebrew texts reverently while forming autonomous interpretations and opinions. Instead, Jewish educators teach normative readings posed by approved rabbinic authorities. This is particularly the case when teaching issues relating to gender among Modern Orthodox Jews, a conservative Jewish denomination, strives to synthesize tradition with the values of modern, secular …

Imagining Multimodal And Translanguaging Possibilities For Authentic Cultural Writing Experiences, Lucía Cárdenas Curiel, Christina M. Ponzio

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

This article proposes ways to authentically amplify writer’s workshop for emergent bilinguals. Through the study of one bilingual teacher’s mediation in teaching, we examined the affordances that translanguaging and transmodal practices have for emergent bilingual students’ writing processes. In this case study, we focused on a writing sequence associated with the well-known Latin American holiday of the Day of the Dead, in which 3rd grade emergent bilinguals wrote “calaveras,” or literary poems, as part of an interdisciplinary language arts and social studies lesson. Our work is framed by sociocultural theories of mediation, literacy, and language. Under a multiliteracies pedagogy, we …

Everybody Does It: The Pragmatics And Perceptions Of International Chinese Graduate Students And Their American Peers Regarding Gossip, Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth, Timothy John Ebsworth, Chencen Cai

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

Integrating natural observation, interviews, and quantitative analysis, we used a mixed design to compare the socio-linguistic judgments of international Chinese students at a private University on the East Coast of the United States (US) with those of their native English-speaking peers regarding a critical incident involving gossip. Ninety-two participants evaluated alternative sociolinguistic strategies offered in addressing the incident on semantic differential scales. Judgments by each group regarding four alternative responses were surveyed and compared. Twenty participants, ten from each group, participated in semi-structured interviews. Themes were developed through a recursive process: interpretations were validated by a bilingual bicultural expert. Several …

Changing Worlds, Changing Classrooms: Satellite Children And Their Teachers In The Transnational Era, Ming-Hsuan Wu, Sonna L. Opstad

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

The challenges for immigrants in the US and Canada include the difficulties of making a living while raising their children. Due to the high cost of living and childcare in cities, along with the realities of low paying jobs and long working hours among many working-class immigrants, growing numbers of families send their infant children to their countries of origin to be raised by relatives for a few years. When the children reach school age, they are returned to their parents in the US. Prior research has focused on immigrant parents’ decision-making rationale and their reports of adjustments that children …

Notes On Contributors To This Volume

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

No abstract provided.