Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Acknowledgement

New and Dangerous Ideas

The editorial team’s acknowledgement of Gabriella Caron and faculty advisors' contribution to the publication of the journal.

Letter From The Editor

New and Dangerous Ideas

A summary of the second issue of New and Dangerous Ideas.

Front Cover

New and Dangerous Ideas

Page Image of New and Dangerous Ideas Front Cover.

Two Cents, Sam Avila

New and Dangerous Ideas

I took a Literature class a couple of years ago where we read different poems and short stories that focused on the Civil Rights Movement as well as social justice as a broader theme. I remember reading the poem “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall, which magnified the emotions of African-American families in a powerful piece of literature. When I read that piece, I fell in love with writing again and I wanted to share stories through literature.

I wrote this piece because it was a way for me to reflect on a society that can act so hateful towards …

That Is So Gay, Daniel Nemec

New and Dangerous Ideas

The piece I created shows the complex and varied subject that is identity, specifically pertaining to the queer community.

The United States Healthcare System Keeps Failing Black Women, Vanessa Malkia

New and Dangerous Ideas

Writing this piece, I was pushed by the anger I constantly feel anytime I am reminded of the state of black women’s health in our country. As a black woman in a world that constantly reminds black people that we do not matter, hearing about the negative experiences black women face at the hands of healthcare professionals is incredibly frightening. It begs this question to be asked: Where are we safe? Racism (racist beliefs and acts) has real repercussions that sometimes put minoritized groups in deadly situations.

Due to a combination of implicit bias and structural inequalities, black women have …

This Is Not A Woman's Body, Av Binns

New and Dangerous Ideas

I was inspired to create this drawing while learning about the AIDS crisis, and the use of human bodies in acts of civil disobedience calling for government recognition and medical support of people living with AIDS. The queer community, with limited financial and political support, used their bodies for tools of resistance and visibility. Queer bodies were not only tools for marching and blocking streets; they were evidence of the severity of the issue at hand. AIDS was hard to ignore when it was gathered in the streets. Decades later, queer bodies remain an essential tool of advocacy for the …

David Wojnarowicz By Peter Hujar (1981), Kieran Binney

New and Dangerous Ideas

The poem is an ekphrastic piece, meaning it was inspired by a work of art — in this case, a portrait of David Wojnarowicz, photographed by Peter Hujar in 1981. Both Wojnarowicz and Hujar were prominent artists and gay activists in the 1970s and 80s, during the height of the AIDS crisis, and both died of AIDS-related illnesses.

I originally picked this portrait to write about for a class assignment simply because it was a striking image, but as I looked into Wojnarowicz’s background I grew more interested in both his life and the time in which he lived, and …

Like Mother, Like Daughter, Savannah Fox-Tree Mcgrath

New and Dangerous Ideas

My motivation for this piece was to shed light on what it is like growing up with a heritage, knowing it from your experience and family, and yet, having people challenge you your whole life to prove it. No one questions my German, Irish, or Finnish ethnicity, but, since I don’t match the stereotype of a Native American, I am constantly challenged.The image on my painting depicts my twin sister, Indigo, the only one of us five kids to have blonde hair and blue eyes, from my mother’s mother and my father’s mother and father. Having a mother who was …

Would You Be Comfortable Living With Someone Who Identifies As Homophobic?

New and Dangerous Ideas

Entering college for the first time is a very exciting time. You are starting a new chapter of your life, meeting new people, and living independently. While I had the same anxieties that many have over making friends and adjusting to college life, I could not have been prepared for the experience of my freshman year. My first semester at Roger Williams was a very dark time. I cannot express how harmful it is to be excluded and disliked in your living space because of a part of yourself which you cannot change. I was fortunate that I was able …

Artist Statements

New and Dangerous Ideas

Statements of artistic creations and ideas.

What Is The Opportunity Cost And Burden Of Confronting Oppression In And Out Of Classroom?, Beza Tadess

New and Dangerous Ideas

I was inspired to write this piece because at many points in my college career, I have felt exploited by the hands of white patriarchy that deemed the issues that I faced in and out of the classroom as my own to solve. This piece is my heart and intellect in order for me to leave this institution feeling like someone with power will be forced to hear it. I did not write this piece with the intention of inciting pity but rather to start a conversation with the larger university and higher education community about the ways in which …

New And Dangerous Ideas Back Cover

New and Dangerous Ideas

Page Image of New and Dangerous Ideas Back Cover.

Zine Team Advisors And Members Of Faculty Selection Committee

New and Dangerous Ideas

Page image of Zine Team Advisors and Members of Faculty Selection Committee.

A Poem For A Small Town Queer Kid, Indigo Martin

New and Dangerous Ideas

I wrote this piece originally for myself. It was a healing piece about coming to terms with my past and embracing it. Embracing my past is important to me because being discriminated against, being put in violent situations, experiencing microaggressions, and being made to feel like less than a human being has made me stronger. Minoritized people who do social justice work have often experienced some deep trauma. It is important to focus on healing and take care of one’s mental health in order to be able to be activists for social justice.

This piece opens with my experiences being …

Effects Of Multicultural Education On English Language Learners, Donna Dias

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

It is no surprise to step into a classroom with little to no multicultural education being implemented in the curricula, but when there are English language learners (ELLs) in these classes, the stakes run high. In a predominantly Eurocentric society, the U.S. population has become more diverse. It is important for diverse ELL students to feel heard and understood in their classrooms. This senior capstone will examine and discuss the effects of the different types of multicultural education on English Language Learning students through the use of literature review, interview with teachers and principals, and student surveys. The findings indicate …

Benefits Of Bilingual Education Programs For Elementary School Students, Jesica Moreno

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The benefits of bilingual education programs are endless; however, with Prop 227, students were disregarded the opportunity to learn in a more accepting, multicultural classroom environment. Now with the passage of the new Prop 58 in recent year, it is important for our community to become more familiar with the most effective bilingual education programs and their benefits on students. The purpose of this senior capstone is to examine the benefits of bilingual education programs on elementary school students through a literature review, interviews with teachers, and interviews with parents. The results reveal that the benefits of bilingual education programs …

The Effects Of Songs On Hmong Vocabulary Acquisition, Julie Thao

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

This action research assessed the effects of singing a song to learn language in a bilingual classroom. The research took place at a bilingual Hmong-English Montessori preschool program. 28 preschool-aged children participated in the research which was conducted over five weeks. Data sources included a parent questionnaire, vocabulary pre-test, vocabulary post-test with a follow-up conversation, daily observation logs, and tally sheet. The children were taught 16 Hmong vocabulary words with half the words sung to the tune of a common children’s song and the other half by simple reciting. The results from the vocabulary post-test showed that there was an …

Ancestry, Indigo Martin

New and Dangerous Ideas

Ancestry websites like 23 and Me or Ancestry.com remove the culture and the meaning behind the concept of ancestry. Ancestry as a concept means looking back at the culture we come from and the ways of life that shaped our ancestors. With queerness, ancestry cannot be traced through bloodlines. It is a passing down of culture through word of mouth. This culture has not been preserved over time but rather erased. This piece is a social commentary on the erased culture of queerness and showing the culture and what has kept it hidden. As someone who identifies as both queer …

System Challenges For Bilingual Clinical Social Work In Forensic Settings, Roberto G. Arroyo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Little information exists about challenges that bilingual clinical social workers face when engaging individuals with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in forensic settings, which may influence the efficacy of services provided. Bilingual clinical social workers in the U.S. state of South Carolina lack operational guidelines to assist people with LEP who are involved in forensic matters. The purpose of this study was to explore challenges that affect delivery of bilingual clinical social work to people with LEP in forensic settings. Ecological systems theory served as the conceptual framework for this study. Purposive and snowball sampling methods led to the participation of …

Implications Of Dual Language Scoring Of The Preschool Language Scale-Fifth Edition Spanish For Bilingual Preschool-Aged Children, Callie Mae Mathis

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Purpose: Spanish versions of standardized tests used in language evaluations are not well studied. The purpose of this study is to further examine the appropriateness of the Preschool Language Scale, Fifth Edition Spanish (PLS-5S) in a U.S./Mexico border community by comparing the Dual language scores versus the Spanish only scores and comparing the normative sample of the PLS-5S to the population of El Paso, TX.

Method: Twenty-three bilingual preschool aged children in the El Paso area completed the Spanish Edition of the PLS-5S. The parents and teachers of the participants completed two language proficiency questionnaires (Bilingual Input Output Survey; BIOS …

Effects Of An Elementary Immersion Program On Academic Achievement In Core Subject Areas, Marlee Schmidt

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This study sought to find out if students who became bilingual score

higher, lower, or the same on standardized tests as their monolingual peers across

multiple disciplines. An answer was obtained by comparing the Minnesota

Comprehensive Assessment scores of Spanish language immersion students to

scores of non-immersion students for the following subject areas: reading in

grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10; math in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11; and science

in 5, 8, and high school. The scores used came from a graduating class of 2018

with approximately 342 students. Data was analyzed …

A Sentence Construction Intervention For Elementary-Aged Spanish-Speaking Language-Minority Students With Writing Difficulties, Tim Andress

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The present replication study used a multiple probe across participant single-case experimental design to measure the effect of a sentence construction intervention on Spanish-speaking language-minority students with writing difficulties. Participants were two males and one female, aged eight to ten. Dependent variables tracked were frequency of correct word sequences, incorrect word sequences, complete sentences, and incomplete sentences written in one-minute sentence construction probes. A pre-and post-test five-minute paragraph probe served as a secondary measure to determine whether sentence-level instruction improved paragraph-level writing. Results were an increase in frequency of correct word sequence and complete sentences for all participants, as well …

Building Bridges, Not Walls, Between Latinx Immigrant Parents And Schools, Kiyomi Sánchez-Suzuki Colegrove

Occasional Paper Series

As a teacher educator and former bilingual teacher, I have encountered many teachers who have negative misconceptions about immigrant parents. These misconceptions prevent teachers from forming reciprocal and meaningful relationships with parents and even with children (Colegrove, forthcoming). Negative misconceptions impact teachers’ abilities to be equitable as well as their willingness to offer high-quality learning experiences to children (Adair, 2015; Crosnoe, 2006) or to include parents in meaningful, educational decision-making (Doucet, 2011, 2008).

This essay addresses some of these misconceptions as they were articulated during a large video-cued ethnographic study of Latinx immigrant parents of young children in Texas and …

Multilingual Families Homeschooling: Reasons, Goals, And Challenges, Georgina J.J. Aubin

Master's Theses

This study examines homeschooling among multilingual families by providing insight into multilingual parents’ motivations, goals, and challenges in homeschooling, along with their perception of the role their diverse language background plays in their homeschooling experience. Through the LangCrit framework, this study explores the intersection of language and parental involvement in the identities multilingual parents live as they homeschool their children. Findings demonstrate that parents’ goals and challenges center on academic and social concerns, rather than language issues. Rather, the influence of their language background emerges in descriptions directly focused on language and culture. The fluid dimensions of their identities are …

Dear Students Of Color, Melissa Mota

New and Dangerous Ideas

Why are we hated for the things that we cannot control? Why is the killing of a black man just another sequel? Why don’t black lives matter?

Sensuality, Sara Slowik

New and Dangerous Ideas

My quilt is an intimate object that explores sexuality, feminism, beauty, and the vulnerability of women. I explored these topics through hand-stitching sensual images onto squares of fabric, which I then sewed into a quilt. There is a conflicting connection between the security of a quilt and the vulnerability of the images. In my Mixed Media class, I explored the ways in which society's views on nudity causes tension between security and vulnerability. Sensuality is a taboo topic, yet it fills the media. Where is the line between sexualizing women and embracing their bodies and beauty? This quilt was created …

Letter From The Editor, Lily Schenk

New and Dangerous Ideas

A summary of the first issue of New and Dangerous Ideas.

On Apocalypses: 11.9.16, Raffi Altman-Allen

New and Dangerous Ideas

I wrote this piece as my way of trying to come to terms with the most recent presidential election. I needed to process how weird it was that something so impactful and terrible had happened, but everyday life didn't stop existing. My hope is that this poem will offer encouragement to those of us involved in social justice work in the wake of the election. I would also want this to act as an acknowledgment that in other places in the world people are living in war-zones, surrounded constantly by death and destruction, and still get up in the morning …

Lotus Blossom, Meg Dela Dingco

New and Dangerous Ideas

In making Lotus Blossom, I hoped to bring light to the fact that Asians do face racism and how Asian women, in particular, have been fetishized. There are many misconceptions that racism is only violent in specific ways, such as the genocide of Indigenous people or much of America being built on the slavery of Blacks and African Americans. Through ｌｏｔｕｓ ｂｌｏｓｓｏｍ, I wanted to show that racism isn't based only on physical violence (although I did cover the demographics of Asians when it comes to being victims of sexual assault), it is also about history.