Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

A Deeper Semiotic Richness: Empowering English Language Students Through Digital Storytelling, Karah Parks

Master's Projects and Capstones

The current philosophies underpinning TESOL higher education curricula and classroom practices still reinforce the essentialized narrative of the native speaker and teach English as an objective, disinterested, linguistic system of static signs (Blommaert, 2010; Kramsch, 2009; Larsen-Freeman, 2015; Pennycook, 1997). This has significantly limited the development students’ identities, and agency within English language speaking communities. To address this issue, this project contains a supplemental, online digital storytelling curriculum for intermediate to advanced adult learners at the university level in U.S. colleges as a means of scaffolding intentional identity development through multimodal, symbolic competence in the English language. Entitled Creative ESOL: …

Mediations Of Multiple Identities In A Private University: International Students’ Experiences In The United States, Beata Z. Dolina

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT MEDIATIONS OF MULTIPLE IDENTITIES IN A PRIVATE UNIVERSITY: INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES IN THE UNITED STATES SEPTEMBER 2015 BEATA DOLINA, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW M.A., HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Ed. D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Theresa Austin Admitting ever-increasing numbers of international undergraduates, universities are beginning to grapple with the difficulties students experience in adapting to this new, for them, educational context. According to Glass (2012), “Given the growth of international student enrollment, there are compelling reasons to more closely examine the extent to which specific educational experiences may be associated with their learning, development, and …

Translanguaging And Identity In A Kindergarten Classroom: Validating Student's Home Culture And Language In An English-Only Era, Maria Eugenia Lozano Lenis

Doctoral Dissertations

This ethnographic multi-year study examines the effects of federal and state education policies in language-minority school children’s in Western Massachusetts. Specifically, it explores, how, in an increasingly English Only era, a Latina kindergarten teacher resists Massachusetts' restrictive bilingual education law at the same time that she builds on her students’ multi-ethnic identity. Methodologically, this study combines ethnographic and discourse analysis methods and techniques analyzing the curricular effects that the NCLB and the state of Massachusetts language policy have on an underperforming school serving a predominantly Latino/a population. The focus of the study is the literacy practices enacted by a Dominican …

Community Colleges And First-Generation Students: Academic Discourse In The Writing Classroom, Jan Osborn

English Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Community Colleges and First-Generation Students examines how first-generation students from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds are initiated into what is known as academic discourse, particularly at the community college. Osborn systematically looks at specific classroom discourses through detailed evidence provided by the diversities represented by the students, and how the students negotiated their identities in terms of the ideological directionality in play.

The download link above only contains chapter 2 of Dr. Osborn's book, "Identities: A Context of Multiplicity".

Decoding The Ethnic Labels Used By Undergraduates Of Latin American Descent, Carlos Hipolito-Delgado

Carlos P. Hipolito-Delgado

Ethnic labels provide insights to a client’s self-definition and meaning making. Results from a study of 500 undergraduates indicate that those who identified as Chicana/o, Latina/o, Hispanic, “hyphenated American” (e.g., Cuban American), or who identified by nationality differed on key psychological constructs. The importance of self-definition in counseling and research is discussed.

The Development Of Language And Identity: A Sociocultural Study Of Five International Graduate Students Living In The U.S., Alexandra Dema

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this sociocultural study was to analyze the longitudinal process of identity development of international graduate students as their lives unfolded across time and experience in the second languaculture. Furthermore, it was aimed at exploring what role is attributed to second language in this process. The study relied on the mainstream sociocultural perspectives on individual development that originated from Vygotsky’s work and were further elaborated by his followers to address the issues of identity and language development of second language learners. As part of such perspectives, it integrated the unit of perezhivanie into the examination of individual experiences …

Hearing The Silence: Acknowledging The Voice Of My Latina Sisters, Emily Martinez-Vogt

Business Faculty Publications

Latina community college students experience a number of challenges during their transition to college. Findings from a larger study indicated that Latina community college students experienced racism and stereotyping on campus responding with silence. Silence occurred in two ways: (1) Latinas were forced to be silent, and/or (2) Latinas chose to be silent. This article presents the Latina Silence to Resilience Pathway Model illustrating the four phases experienced by Latina community college students beginning with the experience of racism on campus ultimately resulting in personal outcomes. Along the continuum of the model Latinas also often experience an identity transition.

Education, Crystal C. Gray

Eddie Mabry Diversity Award

Education is a spoken word poem that explores many aspects of the African American struggle within (self-knowledge). It starts with an African American college student who is disappointed with the lack of courses about her culture. Most curricula in the United States tend to be from a Eurocentric perspective, leaving out a multitude of information about people of color. All groups of people of color have unique experiences, however, African Americans have the most known (or perhaps I should say, unknown) history. The standard explanation of their existence is often limited to the start of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, when …

Language As The Foundation Of Identity Among Sherpa Youth In Nepal, Joshua H. Ginder

Student Publications

This paper explores how young Sherpas in Nepal use their language as a tool for identifying themselves as uniquely Sherpa in a mutlicultural Nepal. By analyzing the way Sherpas use their language in social settings and at a radio station, the author suggests the Sherpa language is perhaps the only truly unique quality that delineates Sherpas from other Nepalis.

A Critical Study Of Language Minority Students' Participation In Language Communities In The Korean Context, Miso Kim, Tae-Young Kim

Dr. Tae-Young Kim (김태영, 金兌英)

In South Korea, Damunwha students (students from multicultural family backgrounds) have difficulties at school because of others’ derogatory perception of them and the different linguistic and cultural settings. In light of this issue, this paper addresses the Damunwha students’ identities and participation within the language communities from a community of practice perspective and a critical pedagogy perspective. Four students (two from international marriage families and two from immigrant workers’ families), their teachers, and their supervisors participated in the study from March to April 2013. The findings suggest that Damunwha students’ participation in Korean society depends on their resources, others’ perception …

Words Flying On The Wind: Buriat Mongolian Children In A Chinese Bilingual School, Valerie Sartor

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This study focused on the language socialization experiences non-mainstream Indigenous Buriat youth from the Republic of Buriatia, Russian Federation, encountered as they attended a bilingual school in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China. They migrated in order to start language studies which would eventually allow them to study alternative Mongolian medicine in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. Both the Russian Federation and the Republic of China are countries in transition. The Russian educational and economic systems have made dramatic changes after the fall of the Soviet Union in December 1991; currently, the economy and educational opportunities are in decline and there is a widening …

Constructing And Resisting Disability In Mathematics Classrooms: A Case Study Exploring The Impact Of Different Pedagogies, Rachel Lambert

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study demonstrates the importance of a critical lens on disability in mathematics educational research. This ethnographic and interview study investigated how ability and disability were constructed over 1 year in a middle school mathematics classroom. Children participated in two kinds of mathematical pedagogy that positioned children differently: procedural and discussion-based. These practices shifted over time, as the teacher increasingly focused on memorization of procedures to prepare for state testing. Two Latino/a children with learning disabilities, Ana and Luis, used multiple cultural practices as resources, mixing and remixing their engagement in and identifications with mathematics. Ana, though mastering the procedural …

The Self-Perception And Campus Experiences Of Traditional Age Female Muslim American Students, Carol Warren Koller

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Religion and spirituality have been found to contribute to the well-being of American university students. Although practiced by a small minority, Islam is the fastest growing faith in the United States, indicating a growing campus presence. The purpose of this study was to identify campus experiences that influenced the identity perception of traditional age Muslim American women. The conceptual framework included theories of identity negotiation, intergroup contact, and religious identity as well as campus climate structures developed to improve diversity. This phenomenological study took place at 2 public 4-year universities in California and included interviews with 6 participants. Interview protocol …

Wrestling With Expectations: An Examination Of How Asian American College Students Negotiate Personal, Parental, And Societal Expectations, Michelle Samura

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This research draws on a broader study that situates Asian American college students within larger sociohistorical and political contexts. I examined Asian American college students’ experiences and what it means to be “Asian American” in and through these experiences. Two types of expectations emerged from the data: students’ internal expectations—the expectations that they have for themselves as well as their college and postcollege experiences, and external expectations from family and society. The various ways that students negotiate internal and external expectations translate into particular understandings of freedom and possibility they carry into college. I also discuss students’ precollege racial awareness …