Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Borderland Voices: Exploring The Educational Journey Of Transfronterizx Students, Families, And Educators For Enhanced Engagement And Empowerment, Sobeida Velazquez

Dissertations

Transfronterizx students and their families cross the U.S.–Mexico border for academic, economic, social, cultural, and linguistic reasons. Socioeconomic disparities, deportation, and work have propelled some families to live in Mexico and enroll their U.S.-born children in U.S. schools to provide more socioeconomic opportunities in the United States. Educators of transfronterizx students are uniquely tasked to work with these nontraditional students. Moreover, transfronterizx students and their families have distinct needs in U.S. schools; as such, there is a need for further research on the transfronterizx experience in the U.S. K–12 system. This qualitative narrative inquiry study aimed to understand the experiences …

Black Genius: An Achievement Distortion, Brenda Burgo

Dissertations

Is the achievement gap real? Using a mixed-methods approach, this study reframed standardized testing through a Quantitative Critical and Black Critical lens. It interrogated the deficit framing of Black student achievement by asking the following questions: (1) To what extent do the aggregated standardized test scores for Black students in California correlate with other measures of achievement? Included in this analysis are: (a) To what degree does the ratio of Black students relate to the achievement variables? and (b) To what extent did COVID impact this correlation? (2) What beliefs do Black educators have regarding the standardized test scores of …

Ripple Of Hope: Understanding The Lived Experience And Academic Achievement Of Latinx Students At Arrupe College And Dougherty Family College: A Case Study, Richard P. Virgin

Dissertations

One of the most common and important entry points into higher education for Latinx and other underrepresented students is through community college. However, national completion rates for Latinx community college students have been trailing their white peers. This gap in academic achievement has prevailed since the 1990s. The trailing rates of degree completion for Latinx students can lead to lower lifetime salary earnings, lack of career advancement, greater risk of losing employment, and an increased chance of living in poverty. However, a successful community college model may be seen as a disruptor in the educational sector due to its much …

Culturally Sustaining Pedagogical Practices In Early Literacy Classrooms: A Qualitative Case Study Of Two Kindergarten Classrooms, Elizabeth Carlton Phd

Dissertations

Students who attend school possess their own “funds of knowledge” from their home life and prior experiences (Moll et al., 1992). Yet, learners from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds are not viewed from a strengths-based perspective but rather a deficit perspective. The deficit perspective perpetuates the oppression and marginalization of students of color and multilingual students. Using a qualitative comparative case study research design, the study is rooted in the tenets of Critical Pedagogy (Freire, 2000), Critical Literacy, and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy as it sought to uncover insights into asset-based instructional strategies that allow multilingual learners opportunities to participate equitably …

An Analysis Of The Effects Of Parent And Family Engagement Programs On The Academic Success Of 4th Grade Students In Title I Elementary Schools, Farah Leila Henderson

Dissertations

Parent and family engagement has become an essential part of education reform for schools across the United States. There were over 50 years of research on the topic and its impact on student achievement. The purpose of my evaluation was to study how implementing specific parent and family engagement activities at Title I elementary schools affected the reading achievement of fourth-grade students. The context of this inquiry was a large urban public school district where Parent Engagement Liaisons (PEL) were placed in Title I schools to coordinate the district-directed Parent and Family Engagement (PFE) program. I used a mixed-methods design …

Software Developers’ Experiences With Call In The Context Of The Four Language Competencies (Reading, Writing, Listening, And Speaking) And Teacher And Learner Fit: A Qualitative Descriptive Study, Artem Kalyanov

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how CALL software developers identify and describe their experiences with developing CALL software in the context of the four language competencies: reading, writing, listening, and speaking, along with teacher and learner fit.

Findings: The analysis of the collected data revealed six key findings that shed light on the developers’ experiences. The findings related to how CALL software developers combine different language competencies; how they implement continuous testing and evaluating of key elements of the language competencies; and how they ensure the development of a CALL program that is both …

Cross-Linguistic Awareness In 90/10 Two-Way Bilingual Immersion Programs, Patricia Mondragón-Doty

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify, describe, and recommend the specific cross-linguistic connection instructional strategies that teachers in TWBI 90/10 programs have found to be most effective for fostering language and literacy development.

Methodology: This qualitative phenomenological study explored how teachers of TWBI 90/10 programs perceived the use of specific cross-linguistic connection instructional strategies to better serve emergent bilingual learners (EBLs) and what implications cross-linguistic connections had on dual language instruction. To determine what best instructional strategies support bilingualism, biliteracy, academic achievement and cultural competence, in-depth semi structured interviews were conducted. Ten teachers were selected to …