Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Cognitive And Academic Effects Of Aversive Stress On Latinx And European American Elementary Students, Annalise M. Manns

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

This study sought to examine the relationship between perceived stress, social-emotional functioning, cognitive functioning, and statewide academic testing in both European American and Latinx students in third grade classes in two schools in rural Oregon. A total of 47 third grade students participated in the study, including 31 European American students and 13 Latinx students. A non-verbal measure of cognitive ability (The Wechsler Nonverbal Scale of intelligence) was administered individually to each of the 47 students. Additionally, a rating scale of social emotional intelligence (Social Emotional Assets and Resilience Scales Short Form for child and Teacher) was self-reported (SEARS-C) and …

Creating School Partnerships: Multilingual Family Engagement Through The Arts, Sarah Davila, Maura Mendoza

Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice

Music artist and School-based Family and Community Liaison, Maura Mendoza Quiroz from the Somerville Family Learning Collaborative (SFLC), shares her experiences of how mu-sic, visual arts and language workshops have served as the entry point for immigrant families in the Somerville Public Schools. The examples help teachers “read” their community of parents and create spaces responding to families’ needs instead of providing arts programs that are un-familiar to them. As parents participate in these activities, their “physical time” inside the school increased, home-school communications improved, and over all the welcoming efforts translated into better school attendance. Sarah Davila, director of …

A Cross-Cultural Study Of Italian And U.S. Children's Perceptions Of Interethnic And Interracial Friendships In Two Urban Schools, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Davide Antognazza, Joshua J. Marland, Alberto Crescentini

Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works

This cross-cultural and cross-sectional study investigated Italian and US children’s perceptions of interethnic and interracial friendships, also known as intergroup friendships. A total sample of 226 children attending two urban, elementary schools in a middle-sized Northeastern US city and a middle-sized northern Italian city, were interviewed employing the questionnaire. Results indicate that Italian and US children’s perceptions of intra-racial and interracial friendships differed with students of color in the US rating intragroup friendships more positively than intergroup ones. In addition, students of color in Italy and white students in the US rated intergroup and intragroup friendships similarly.

Pan-African Commons 1-Year Comprehensive Assessment Report, Shanice Clarke, Cynthia Carmina Gómez, Cece Ridder

Cultural Resource Centers Reports and Resources

The Cultural Resource Centers (CRCs) at Portland State University (PSU) create a student-centered inclusive environment that enriches the university experience. The CRCs value diversity, social justice, cultural traditions, student identities, success and leadership. On November 2, 2016, PSU held a grand opening celebrating the expansion of the CRCs with the addition of two new centers, including the Pan-African Commons (PAC). The growth of the CRCs marks a milestone in PSU’s commitment to social justice and equity.

The purpose of the Pan-African Commons 1-Year Assessment was to measure how student experiences and needs within institutional memory related to the experiences of …

Teaching Race In Cyberspace: Reflections On The “Virtual Privilege Walk” Exercise, Kafi D. Kumasi

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Teaching for Justice describes the efforts of LIS faculty and instructors who feature social justice theory and strategies in their courses and classroom practices

An Empirical Assessment Of Multicultural Education Programs In Reducing Islamophobia On A College Campus, Amin Asfari

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Anti-Muslim prejudice has increased precipitously since the attacks of September 11, 2001, including prejudicial effects related to socio-cultural differences on college campuses. The purpose of this quasi-experimental exploratory research was to understand the effectiveness of multicultural education programs (MEPs) in reducing anti-Muslim prejudice in higher education. Grounded in intergroup threat theory and frame analysis, it was hypothesized that students who are not engaged in multicultural affairs will perceive Muslims as more threatening and will therefore hold more prejudiced views than would students who active in multicultural affairs. The sample consisted of 125 respondents (N = 51 from a group participating …

Taking It To Heart : A Case Study Of Supporting English Language Learners Through Culturally Responsive Teaching, Collaboration, And Esol-Focused Leadership, Gretchen Oliver Oliver

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

A continued increase in the number of English language learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools has made educators consider the ways they approach teaching and learning for these students. Culturally responsive teaching is one way many educators have attempted to meet ELLs’ unique needs, valuing the cultural and linguistic diversity that they bring to school with them. Moreover, through collaboration and ESOL-focused leadership, educators are able to take a system-approach to teaching and learning for these students, and in doing so, they are able to provide ELLs with meaningful and authentic learning experiences that will allow them to be inclusive members …

Molding Minds For Peace: A Curriculum For Early Childhood Educators To Teach Peacebuilding Concepts And Skills, Marissa D. Gray

Master's Projects and Capstones

The United States is amidst a period of substantial growth in diversity. This diversification along with feelings of anti-immigrant sentiment has also led to an increase in tension and violence. Molding Minds for Peace: A Curriculum for Early Childhood Educators To Teach Peacebuilding Concepts is a project designed to teach early childhood students the skills that they need to peacefully navigate conflict and difference. After exploring literature about early childhood education/development, multicultural education, and peace education, this project provides early childhood educators with six complete lesson plans that are fully ready for implementation. These lessons have been developed in such …

Perceptions Of Hmong Parents In A Hmong American Charter School: A Qualitative Descriptive Case Study On Hmong Parent Involvement, Kirk T. Lee

Dissertations and Theses

Parental involvement plays an essential role in the United States (U.S.) educational system. However, parental involvement poses many challenges for Hmong parents in American schools. Many assumptions are made on the parts of teachers, staff, and Hmong parents about parents' roles pertaining to their involvement in their children's education. Hmong parents struggle to reconcile beliefs, attitudes, and values that they bring with them from Laos with the expectations found in the U.S. due to their unfamiliarity with the U.S. educational system.

This study employed the used a qualitative, descriptive case study approach to examine the perceptions of Hmong parents involvement …

Intercultural Interactions Among Burmese Refugees In Multicultural Middle School Classrooms, Matthew Carl Mcparker

Dissertations and Theses

The largest refugee group entering the United States in recent years is from Burma. Refugee students face a daunting set of challenges, from language and cultural differences to living in poverty, in becoming successful in their new homes. To be successful in schools and gain cultural and social capital, refugee students must learn and internalize the specific norms of their classrooms. In middle school, students are particularly reliant upon their peers for support, making peer interactions especially important. In multicultural settings, students have ample opportunities for intercultural interactions, which can help refugee students navigate their new settings and become more …

Teaching Diversity Through Multicultural Children's Literature: A Guidebook For Korean English Elementary School Teachers, Yeon Sook Lee

Master's Projects and Capstones

This project focuses on developing guides and lesson plans promoting multiculturalism, intended for Korean teachers to use during English language immersion camps. The goals are to encourage students to affirm themselves as unique individuals, accept and respect others who are different, learn about other cultures, overcome prejudice, apply critical thinking skills to issues related to cultural diversity, and become advocates for social justice. With these goals in mind, a literature review of established conceptual frameworks for multicultural education is presented, along with an exploration of ways in which students benefit from multicultural literature. Results of recent studies and surveys of …

Culturally Specific Bilingual Arts Integration, Danielle L. Malan

Student Research Symposium

Today's young people are a source of growing social and academic concern. Combined with economic, cultural and linguistic barriers, Latino students are an even greater concern. Studies have demonstrated qualitative improved learning with either arts integration or with bilingual education. After a literature review, there was no conclusive quantitative evidence done prior to this study in 2015, for the benefits of combining the two to use bilingual arts integration as a method for improved learning. Could bilingual arts education improve learning? The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of bilingual arts integration on learning, and the positive …

Teacher Responsiveness To Engaging African American Males: A Qualitative Examination Of Inclusion And Understanding, John D. Marshall

Dissertations

This study examined the influence of teacher practices on the engagement of African American males. Two teachers were selected for observation while teaching African American males. The teachers for this study were found to have a propensity to be culturally responsive and to exude some of those qualities while engaging the African American males. The observations were held in one high school with a high percentage of African American males. The observations, supported by field tested inventories, the Culturally Responsive Inventory Observation Protocol, and the Multicultural Education Awareness Survey, revealed that teachers with an understanding of inclusion and responsiveness (1) …

Religious Literacy In The New Latino Diaspora: Combating The “Othering” Of Muslim Refugee Students In Nebraska, Jessica Sierk

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Many communities across the United States have been undergoing recent demographic changes. Since the 1980s, low-skilled labor (e.g. meatpacking) has attracted Latino families to settle in communities that historically have been home to few, if any, Latinos (i.e. the New Latino Diaspora). In more recent years, these same job opportunities have also characterized these communities as prime locations for refugees from countries like Somalia and Sudan. As a result, schools in these settings are serving an even more diverse student population than they were twenty, ten, or even five years ago. Given that the contexts of the New Latino Diaspora …

Bilingual Education: History, Controversies, And The Philosophies That Drive It, Dia Gary

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Education and Professional Studies

The purpose of this literature review is to examine the history of bilingual education. The literature review will investigate the various controversies that surround bilingual education, and the philosophical forces behind bilingual education.

Comparison Of Intercultural Competency Between Russian And American University Students = Сравнение Межкультурной Компетенции Студентов Российских И Американских Университетов, Elizabeth J. Sandell, Olga Victorovna Klypa, Elizabeth A. Lohrenz, Oleg Voskresensky

Elementary and Literacy Education Department Publications

Intercultural competency influences the quality of international relations as cultural and global perceptions impact individual and collective attitudes and levels of participation. Research addressing differences and causes of varying levels of intercultural competency could ultimately provide insight, understanding, and progress towards enhancing global awareness. The purpose of this study was to compare American undergraduate university students' intercultural competency to that of Russian undergraduate university students. This study was theoretically based on the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), developed by Bennett (1986). The DMIS described six stages of intercultural competency: (a) Denial or Unaware; (b) Polarization or Defense; (c) Minimization; …

The Influence Of University Coursework On Pre-Service Middle And High School Teachers’ Experiences With Multicultural Themes, Geeta Verma

Geeta Verma

The study explored the influence of university-based teacher education courses on pre-service middle and high school teachers’ experiences with multicultural themes in a secondary science alternative certification program. Eight participants (N = 8), six women and two men, volunteered to be a part of the study that took place over a period of four semesters. Qualitative data was collected, coded and analyzed to make meaning of the participants’ experiences. Data comprised of participants’ reflective journals, personal and group interviews, and classroom observations done in middle school practicum and high school student teaching placements. The findings indicated that while the participants …

Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs And Knowledge About Multiculturalism, Emmanuel Acquah, Nancy Commins

Nancy L. Commins

The present study examined pre-service teachers’ knowledge of issues related to multiculturalism and diversity before and after taking a multicultural education course. Data from 38 degree students in an urban university in the southwest of Finland were analysed using a mixed method approach. The results indicate that pre-service teachers’ knowledge levels increased with respect to diversity and multicultural education after taking the course. In addition, pre-service teachers felt more competent and prepared to teach students with diverse backgrounds after the exposure. The implications of the findings for teacher education programmes and teacher educators are discussed.

Performing Critical Consciousness In Teaching: Entanglements Of Knowing, Feeling And Relating, Kathleen A. Mcdonough

Doctoral Dissertations

At a time when education reform is guided by neoliberalism, accountability and standardization have reshaped teaching as highly technocratic and threatened the democratic possibilities of public education. Even so, many teacher education programs have taken up the call to prepare teachers to teach for social justice, whether framed as multicultural education, critical literacy, or critical pedagogy. A construct that ties these pedagogical approaches together is critical consciousness, with the aim of some teacher education efforts to evoke critical consciousness among preservice teachers. This study focuses on exploring how nine educators from elementary grades to higher education experience and enact critical …

A Critical Race Analysis Of Travel For Transformation: Pedagogy For The Privileged Or Vehicle For Socio-Cultural Transformation?, James Arthur Gambrell

Dissertations and Theses

Transformative learning theory (TLT) describes the process of reframing discriminative, untenable worldviews with a more inclusive, permeable, and reflective epistemology. Although TLT has been around for more than 50 years, few studies empirically engage critical theoretical frameworks to move beyond personal learning to identify the impacts of transformation on society. Through a critical race theory (CRT) framework, this study analyzed how the participants' socio-cultural identities (race, class, gender, sexuality, and heritage language) impacted the transformative learning of eight study-abroad students from a medium-sized, rural Midwestern university. Focusing on the extent to which the participants experienced the elements of transformative …

Challenges To Multiculturalism, Jorge Capetillo-Ponce

Jorge Capetillo-Ponce

An anti-bilingual education referendum was offered to citizens of Massachusetts in November of 2002. The referendum read, in part, “The current state law providing for transitional bilingual education in public schools will be replaced with a law requiring that, with limited exceptions, all public school children must be taught English by being taught all subjects in English and being placed in English language classrooms.” The University of Massachusetts Gaston Institute analyzed the results of that referendum, here reported on by Jorge Capetillo-Ponce.

White Novice Teachers' Perceptions Regarding Their Preparation For Teaching Culturally Diverse Students, Karen Marie Spader

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

At a Midwestern university, White novice teachers struggled to be prepared to implement culturally responsive pedagogy. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore White novice teachers' perceptions about how their higher education classroom experiences had equipped them for teaching a culturally diverse population of students. The theoretical/conceptual frameworks of this study were White identity development theory, a multicultural education framework, culturally relevant pedagogy, and the motivational framework for culturally responsive teaching. Data were collected by interviewing 8 White novice teachers to convey their perceptions of teaching culturally diverse classrooms and how these perceptions influenced their behaviors. Data were …

White Privilege In Teacher Education : A Critical Analysis Of Discourse, Kenneth P. Sider

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This inquiry seeks to understand how preservice teachers interact with White privilege during a teacher education course dedicated to diversity and teaching. By pairing grounded theory with phenomenology, insights into participants’ pre-existing beliefs around race and Whiteness are examined. Given the cultural mismatch between an increasingly diverse public school student population and the historically stable White preservice teacher population, a closer look at persistent and resistant linguistic phenomena undergirding White dominance in the educational setting is useful. Participants’ pre- and post-term papers are used to anchor the research, and an asynchronous, online, peer-mediated discussion of bell hooks’ autoethnographic essay “Learning …

A Multiple Case Study Of Whiteness And Critical Literacy Practices Among White Elementary Teachers In Urban Public Schools, Amanda Rose Vandehei

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether white elementary teachers' perception of Whiteness influences critical literacy practices in elementary classrooms in an urban school district in the Southwest United States. This study consists of six white elementary school teachers.

Using Hardiman's model of White Identity Development, (WID) this study specifically explores the phenomenon of Whiteness and how teachers view themselves as having white privilege and advantage in American society. Hardiman's WID model includes five stages of white racial identity development in which a white person begins with no awareness of him or herself as a racial being and …

The Portrayal Of Immigrants In Children's And Young Adults' American Trade Books During Two Peak United States Immigration Eras (1880-1930 And 1980-2010s), Rina Roula Bousalis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Although immigrants are an integral part of the nation's founding and history, it is unclear how they have been historically portrayed in children's and young adults' American trade books, especially at the turn of the 20th century. This study offers a critical and comparative analysis focusing on the historical evolution, depiction of immigrants, and authors' perspectives of selected trade books written during two peak United States immigration eras (1880-1930 and 1980-2010s).

Utilizing a discourse analysis approach, this study examined how first-generation immigrants were portrayed in selected trade books and how various themes and representations may have affected students and …

Reflection On Student Action Research, Genan Anderson, Julie Nelson, Bryan Waite

Genan Anderson

This article is a summary by the authors on the research done by two student teachers of early childhood education, Joelle Fierro and Rachel Probst. These student teachers were concerned about how best to serve the ethnic diversity they would experience as preservice teachers, and they developed creative teaching methods, through reflection, to address the issue. One of the ideas that emerged from their reflection was their very creative use of the Writer’s Workshop to encourage the children to write in their own diverse languages, share translations and stories, and thereby grow in acceptance of, and friendship with, one another …

Investigation Of Cultural Beliefs Of Physical Education Teacher Candidates With Faculty Of Education, Yaprak Kalemoglu Varol, Mustafa Kayihan Erbas

Mustafa Kayihan Erbas

The purpose of this study is to adapt the Turkish version of Teacher's Cultural Beliefs Scale (OCDS) that is developed by Hachfeld et al (2011) that determines the cultural beliefs of teacher candidates, to determine physical education teachers' cultural beliefs and to compare physical education teacher candidates and other teacher candidates in terms of cultural beliefs and in addition, to examine cultural beliefs in terms of gender and grade variables in education. The research group consists of 330 teacher candidates in total that are educated at the faculty of physical education and training. As a data collection tool, OCDC and …

Impact Of Study Circles On Attitudes Toward Racial And Ethnic Equity Among Adolescent Student Participants, William Anders

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

abstract

Reconceptualizing Cultural Competence: White Placeling De-/Reterritorialization Within Teacher Education, Melissa Winchell

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This ethnography reconceptualizes the paradigm of cultural competence used within the literature on teacher education to describe the multicultural learning of White teacher candidates. Within the cultural competence framework, White learning is problematic, dichotomously defined, and fixed. The binary of competence/incompetence established by this paradigm has recently been questioned within the literature as deficit-based and in conflict with postmodern, critical theories of learning and teaching espoused by multicultural education espouses. This study of the researcher's multicultural education class at a private, religious, four-year undergraduate college on the East Coast of the United States used co-constructed pedagogical practices--including a co-constructed community …

The Impact Of Race And Ethnicity On The Identification Process For Giftedness In Utah, Russell Warne, Braydon Anderson, Alyce Johnson

Russell T Warne

Many gifted education experts have found that Black, Hispanic, and Native American students are less likely to be identified for gifted programs than Asian American and White students. A study was conducted to ascertain the degree of underrepresentation of these groups in gifted programs in Utah. Using state-collected data from 14,781 students in six representative school districts in Utah, it was found through multiple logistic regression analysis that there was no statistically significant difference in the likelihoods that Black, Hispanic, or Native American students and White students would be identified as gifted; Asian American and Pacific Islander students were more …