Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Using Photographic Storytelling To Cultivate Intercultural Awareness And Understanding With Immigrant And Refugee-Background Students, Sarah Lizdas

MA TESOL Collection

Photographs are an important visual aid to share our stories and expressions of culture. The need is great for the voices and stories of immigrant and refugee-background students to be heard, if they choose to share their stories. As English teachers, we can invite our students to participate in the contribution of an asset-based discourse rather than a deficit one regarding immigrants and refugee-background people in the US. How can we do this through ethnographic inquiry using photographs and storytelling? This paper includes a literature review to explore how photography and storytelling have been used to facilitate inter-cultural awareness and …

Immigrant Students In The Context Of Us School System Case Study Of Russian-Speaking Immigrant Community In West Springfield, Massachusetts Based On “Bridge” Project Materials, Natalia Oleshko

Master's Capstone Projects

The purpose of this paper is to describe Russian-speaking immigrant school students’ experiences in the United States and to explore issues of self-identification and the adaptive strategies associated with schooling. The case may shed some light on complex problems of clashes in cultural values, how the might influence the choice of adaptive strategies and efforts to excel in academia. The study of the case will not be limited by school environment; rather it will explore the issues and problems of students’ acculturation in a broader context that will include community, family, socioeconomic, cultural and historical factors.

The case study deals …

White Teachers, Race Matters, Ellen Bigler

Faculty Publications

Educational anthropologists address in their works the legacy of an enduring history of racial oppression in the United States. Drawing on observations from teaching courses on multicultural education I examine the ideologies of future white teachers forged in particular racial and class locations. Students' faith in the existence of equality of opportunity emerges as significant in shaping their receptivity in interrogating the status quo. Course activities provide contrary evidence, permitting greater engagement with anthropological theories.