Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Evaluating The Attitudes Of Preservice Teachers Toward Multicultural Competence, Angela D. Marshall

Theses and Dissertations

Changes in the ethnicity of the student population across the nation necessitated a change in teacher education curricula. This explanatory, sequential, mixed-method study examined how a group of preservice teachers viewed the importance of multicultural competence before and after student teaching. Specifically, an evaluation of preservice teachers’ attitudes about their own multicultural preparedness was made prior to and after being given full responsibility for an ethnically diverse classroom.

The study employed quantitative and qualitative measures to assess preservice teachers’ levels of multicultural competence as well as their awareness of self-perceptions of multicultural competence that contribute to attitudes toward teaching an …

Language, Culture, And Identity Negotiation: Perspectives Of Adolescent Japanese Sojourner Students In The Midwest, Usa, Reiko Akiyama

Open Access Dissertations

This qualitative research highlights the voices and lived experiences of adolescent Japanese sojourner students and their mothers residing in the Midwest. The central goals of this research are to understand what adolescent Japanese sojourner students’ school experiences in the U.S. are like—particularly in areas with small Japanese populations—and how their experiences in the U.S. shape their current identities as cultural and linguistic minority students. This research also aims to learn how the students’ sojourning experiences influenced their mindsets as future returnee students. I conducted an in-depth case study with a phenomenographic approach as the theoretical framework to deeply investigate the …

The Importance Of Linguistic Diversity Instruction Within Teacher Education Programs, Rhiannon L. Finney

Honors College Theses

The United States is continuously growing, and as it grows it has become more and more diverse. As diversity increases, awareness of culture becomes a more pressing and important manner. So, while schools have often worked to include and encourage multiculturalism and diversity within their boundaries, one major section has been left out of the equation. The importance of linguistic diversity is vastly misunderstood and left out of teacher education programs, negatively impacting young students, particularly those of traditionally marginalized groups. In order to better prepare prospective teachers and to help provide a real social change in an inherently racialized …

Disentangling Language Differences From Disability: A Case Study Of District-Preservice Collaboration, Julie Esparza Brown, Phyllis Campbell Ault

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

Identifying which K-12 English Learners (ELs) should receive special education services has historically been challenging and fraught with error. Educators are commonly puzzled as to whether an EL student’s academic difficulties are the result of insufficient academic English language, inappropriate instruction, or an intrinsic learning disability. This article examines the influence of a university–district partnership designed to prepare bilingual/bicultural special educators with specific skills and knowledge in disentangling language difference from disability. A unique aspect of the program was that these “BiSped” educators were mostly bilingual, bicultural paraprofessionals in their schools. This feature of the program recognized the unique position …

Teachers' Preparation To Teach English Language Learners (Ells): An Investigation Of Perceptions, Preparation, And Current Practices, Pamela K. Correll

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

This qualitative case study examined the perceptions of 79 elementary teachers regarding their preparation to teach students learning English as a second language (ELLs). The focus of this inquiry centered on factors related to the preparation of teachers for serving non-native English speaking students. The research questions that guided this study are: (a) What are teachers’ perceptions of their preparation for teaching English learners?; (b) What types of preparatory experiences do teachers perceive as supportive of their preparation for teaching ELLs?; and (c) How do teachers’ perceptions of their preparation shape their practices with ELL students?

Findings of this study …

Cross-Cultural Communication In Teacher Education, Aijing Jin, Maxine Cooper, Barry Golding

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper presents a case study of the experiences and reflections of four fourth year pre-service teachers from Federation University Australia who completed their three-week teaching placement in Anshan, Liaoning Province, China, in April 2014. The study also explores the perspectives and opinions of both the Chinese mentor teachers and Chinese students towards the Australian pre-service teachers. The research confirms the mutual benefits of cross-cultural teacher education professional experiences for pre-service teachers, Chinese mentor teachers and Chinese students. The teaching experiences revealed major differences in educational concepts and teaching strategies and approaches between the two systems because of the different …

Investigation Of Teacher Education Delivery Of Bicultural Education, Chris J. Jenkin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The national bicultural early childhood curriculum in New Zealand, Te Whāriki, and the Graduating Teacher Standards require that graduating teachers are competent in Māori language as well as English, and have an understanding of aspects of Māori knowledge. However, research shows that teachers are not yet proficient in the skills needed to deliver the bicultural curriculum effectively. This paper explores the role of teacher-education providers in equipping their graduates to deliver that curriculum. Framed by an appreciative inquiry approach, data were collected from courses displayed on the websites of ten early-childhood tertiary teacher-education providers, followed by interviews with four participants …

Navigating The Challenges Of Becoming A Culturally Responsive Teacher: Supportive Networking May Be The Key, Nina L. Nilsson Ph.D., Ailing Kong Ph.D., Shantel Hubert

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Research shows graduates of teacher education programs do not always transfer, or apply, the best practices they learn to instructional practice due to factors related to course features, the student, and workplace environment (e.g., Brown & Bentley, 2004; de Jong et al., 2010). This study examined the challenges a secondary-level English teacher in the United States encountered when she attempted to implement culturally responsive teaching practices she learned from a graduate course to her class with ELLs. Findings indicate she faced strategy- and language-related challenges due to student culture and school environment factors (“external challenges”), as well as her own …

Preparing Linguistically Responsive Teachers: Why Service-Learning Is Such A Good Idea, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo

Scholarship of Metropolitan Mission

Research data will be presented on a service-learning experience through which teacher candidates (TCs) worked with ELLs from a local middle school.  Even though TCs expressed concerns on their ability to communicate with the ELLs and their families, they engaged with them and confronted their own perceived barriers.  TCs learned to overcome the communication barrier to implement quality academic experiences and in the process developed caring relationships with ELLs.

Exploring Cultural Proficiency: A Case Study Of A Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Middle School In A Predominantly White School District, Jared Peo

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

Issues of diversity continue to plague our nation. Recent events and Supreme Court cases have revealed a side of the United States that many wanted to believe was only part of our nation’s past. Diversity is a reality and predictions about future population demographics estimate an increase in diversity. As diversity increases, conflict becomes more frequent because “difference threatens dominance” (Howard, 2006, p. 57). The academic achievement and socioeconomic gaps between minorities and the dominant culture have been extensively researched and debated. However, they have not diminished despite legislation aimed at reducing them. This begs the question: how will the …

The Racial Discourses Of Teacher Education Students In The Urban Southwest, Virginia Necochea

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This study seeks to understand the racial discourses of teacher education students (TES) in the urban Southwest. This study is needed given the current post-racial or 'we're beyond race' climate in the U.S. (Bonilla-Silva, 2009). This study adds to the discussion of whether or not TES are really 'beyond race.' By critically analyzing TES' racial discourses it is hoped that a deeper understanding can be gained as to how this specific population both conforms and resists current racial discourses in the US. Because discourse reveals how people understand and represent the world, interviewing participants was a key method used in …

Long-Term Impact Of Teacher Training For Mexican English-Language Teachers, Rochelle Keogh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the long-term impact of the Summer Workshop for English Teachers. Moving beyond participant satisfaction surveys and even measures of participant learning outcomes, this project sought to describe the ways that teachers implemented their program training after returning to Mexico and what affect that had in their classrooms, their schools, and the wider English-teaching community. I surveyed 203 former Summer Workshop participants and conducted focus group interviews with 18 more who attended the professional development training at a U.S. host institution between 2002 and 2013. The data showed that the participants were using …

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 …

Teac 921b: Seminar In Literacy Studies (Special Topics: Schooling And The Multilingual Mind)—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Theresa Catalano

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio will document the creation and implementation of a new doctoral seminar in my department. This introductory course to multilingualism and schooling (TEAC 921B) will cover topics related to teaching and learning in the multilingual classroom. The key goals for creating this portfolio are to aid me in creating this new doctoral seminar that reflects and builds on departmental goals for graduate students. In particular I would like to document and address the implementation of two new activities to my teaching ; a language study/journal, and the creation of a documentary film. I foresee using this course portfolio as …

Traditional Methods Versus Tprs: Effects On Introductory French Students At A Medium-Sized Public University In The Midwestern United States, Rishani Samari Merinnage De Costa

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to measure the effectiveness of introducing a Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) approach in a French immersion classroom in comparison with a method which does not incorporate a story context within the lesson. This research was conducted in an introductory college level classroom setting. It is hypothesized that the language skills of the students in the experimental group using the TPRS method would show greater improvements on measures of listening, vocabulary, culture, grammar and writing abilities than those taught using methods which do not incorporate the story context. The research utilized a …

Navigating Discourses Of Cultural Literacy In Teacher Education, Kelsey Halbert, Philemon Chigeza

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Pre-service teachers’ understandings, skills and dispositions as global, culturally literate citizens and agents of change have arguably never been more important. Professional standards, systemic policies and frameworks and a broad range of scholarly perspectives on culture position pre-service teachers to take up cultural education in sometimes conflicting ways. It is these orientations to culture within a teacher education program and how they sit alongside potentially incongruent policies, practices and worldviews that are the focus of this paper. The practitioner research draws on cultural identity theories, policies and student experiences in the teaching and learning of an undergraduate education subject entitled …

Dual Language K-2 Latina Teachers: Juxtaposing Linguistic Identities And Pedagogical Practices On The U.S.-Mexico Frontera, Brenda Oriana Fuentes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This ethnographic study explored the linguistic identities and pedagogical practices of Latina bilingual-certified K-2 teachers in a dual language (DL) program in the U.S.-Mexico border area. Drawing on sociocultural theory, methods of data collection and analysis focused on linking DL Latina teachers' identity formation with both their conceptions of teaching and their actual pedagogical practices related to language use. The findings from this study painted a portrait of how DL teachersâ?? languages, literacies, and identities intertwined to shape their pedagogical practice. The linguistic backgrounds of DL teachers on the border were shaped by country of origin and languages, schooling experiences, …

Insight For Teacher Preparation Program Administrators: Enhancing Pre-Service Educators’ Intercultural Sensitivity And Deep Proficiency In Culturally Responsive Teaching Through Short-Term Study Abroad, Gloria J. Gresham Dr., Paula Griffin, Tracey Hasbun, Vikki Boatman

Faculty Publications

Teacher preparation program administrators face the issue of expanding curricula to prepare teacher candidates for the diverse population of students they will encounter (Trent, Kea, Oh, 2008). Globalization demands that teacher candidates grasp how to function in a more integrated and interdependent society (McGrew, 2005). According to Smith-Davis (2004) students from non-English speaking countries compose the fastest growing United States K-12 student population, and those identified as limited English proficient were over 10 million in 2004. The United States Census reported in the ''New Census Bureau Report" the number of individuals five and older who speak languages other than English …

Engaging In Deep Cultural Learning Through The Intersection Of Multiple Contexts, Maria Northcote, Peter Kilgour, Daniel Reynaud, Phil Fitzsimmons

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The type of learning that takes place in teacher education courses typically results in pre-service teachers developing a mixture of knowledge, skills and values that enable them to become effective teachers in schools in the future. During their journey to become qualified teachers, pre-service teachers typically engage in coursework and experiential-based learning.

By engaging in coursework experiences, an overseas practicum and an overseas study tour, students experienced a range of reflection-promoting activities and contexts during which they broadened and deepened their understanding of cultures other than their own.

Using a cross-case analysis approach, the data gathered in these three cases …

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 …

La Preparación De Los Maestros Para Afrontar La Diversidad En La Escuela. Estudio Comparativo Entre Castilla-La Mancha Y El Estado De Nebraska / Training Teachers To Deal With Diversity In School. Comparative Study Of Castilla-La Mancha And The State Of Nebraska, Olga Elwes Aguilar, Aránzazu Bernardo Jiménez, Maria Victoria Guadamillas Gómez, Theresa Catalano, Thomas Mcgowan

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

El presente artículo, de naturaleza comparativa, pretende estudiar la preparación de los maestros para atender la diversidad lingüística y cultural en las aulas en dos contextos diferentes a simple vista, pero que presentan ciertos paralelismos (Nebraska-Lincoln, EEUU y Castilla-La Mancha, España). En primer lugar, analizaremos la literatura existente; posteriormente, propondremos una hipótesis de partida sobre dicha preparación lingüística y didáctica en el trabajo con niños inmigrantes sobre tres ejes fundamentales: la formación de los maestros a nivel universitario a través de encuestas, la práctica educativa a través de entrevistas y la revisión de los planes de estudio. Por último, y …

Stem Literacy For Ells Through Service Learning, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo, Barbara Brimmerman, Olga Zeisler

Teacher Education Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

This presentation features: Rationale, Model of Academic Language Proficiency/ Jim Cummins’s Quadrant, STEM Literacy for ELLs, ELLS-OPS, Tall grasses and Wildflowers of Nebraska: A Service Learning Experience, UNO Students, Objectives, First Year: 2011-2012, Second Year: 2012-2013, Community Partner: Allwine Prairie, Support from Service Learning Academy, Research Presentations, Literacy Strategies, Service Learning Project Outcomes, Visit to the Prairie, and Future Research.

Strategy Use Of Russian Pre-Service Tefl University Students: Using A Strategy Inventory For Program Effectiveness Evaluation, Alla Zareva, Anna Fomina

English Faculty Publications

The focus of the present study is on identifying categories of learning strategies that are mostly used by Russian university students in an English Linguistics Program with a TEFL concentration. The more specific goal of the study is to offer a model of evaluation of the effectiveness of TEFL-oriented programs in terms of the language learning strategies their students use and recognize as pedagogically applicable to their EFL environment. To this end, two groups of students were compared on their self-reported frequency of strategy use -- 1st year students (n = 23), who had just entered the program, and 4th …

Teacher Education And Supporting Immigrant Students In The Standards-Based Education Era, Edmund T. Hamann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This commentary reflects on pre-service and in-service teachers' sense that teaching to standards and being responsive to immigrant newcomers are, if not incompatible, unlikely to be reconciled by peers or administration. It highlights that away from classroom leaders (e.g., superintendents) are positioned to challenge this unnecessary dichotomy in the interest of educational equity and success.

Let’S Produce Culturally Responsive Pedagogues On Deck. A Response To "There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here: A Critical Race Perspective", Christopher C. Jett

Democracy & Education

In this response, I extend the conversation started by Hayes and Juárez (2012) by highlighting how culturally responsive teaching is spoken in one teacher education program where I worked and served in the preparation of middle-level teachers. I also share my reflections concerning this idea and pose questions for critical thought, dialogue, and action. Finally, I challenge teacher-educators to speak, enact, and work to produce culturally responsive teaching/teachers in their teacher preparation programs.

A Critical Look At Four Multicultural Reform Efforts In One Urban College Of Education, Mary Gove, Dinah Volk, Kristine Lynn Still, Grace Hui-Chen Huang, Sashelle Thomas-Alexander

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

The article describes multicultural reform projects at an urban college of education including analyses of student's descriptions of their experiences in urban schools, the results of a faculty diversity self-study group and issues arising from culturally responsive pedagogy in an early childhood teaching class. The author's assertion that diversity education is an essential part of teacher education is discussed, and the importance of continuous critical analysis of teacher education is emphasized.

Beginning With El Barrio: Learning From Exemplary Teachers Of Latino Students, Jason G. Irizarry, John Raible

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This study draws from data collected through phenomenological interviews with a group of urban teachers identified as “exemplary” by Latino students, parents, and community members. The authors critically examine the participants’ biographies and document factors they cited as most germane and influential to informing their practice with Latino students. The article concludes with a discussion of barrio-based epistemologies and ontologies, or ways of being and knowing that are informed by extended immersion in and connection to Latino cultural and linguistic communities, particularly as they are developed explicitly and leveraged to improve educational experiences and outcomes for Latino youth.

Using Peer Review To Promote Writing Development In Esl Classes, Dira Thokwane

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The aim of this Alternate Plan Paper was to explore whether peer review promote writing development in ESL classes. Recent literature on peer review presented conflicting results in relation to its use in ESL writing classes. Some studies reported that peer review had positive effect on students' academic performance; others argued that peer review could not be trusted as teaching technique. However, most of the reviewed literature argued in favor of peer review. Carr (2008) stated that peer review is an important teaching strategy in which students read and make comments about their peers' written work. Carr (2008) also stated …

Redirecting The Teacher's Gaze: Teacher Education, Youth Surveillance And The School-To-Prison Pipeline, John Raible, Jason G. Irizarry

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This article addresses an apparent contradiction in American teacher education that results in conflicting goals for educators. It asks: How do we prepare teachers to interrogate their inherited professional roles in the surveillance and disciplining of youth? How might teacher education inspire pre-service teachers to care more about youth who belong to populations that have been deemed "undesirable" and expendable? We critically examine the role of teacher education in contributing to the criminalization of certain youth in urban communities and the resulting school-to-prison pipeline crisis that leads too many students from the schoolhouse to the jailhouse.

Alumnos Transnacionales: Las Escuelas Mexicanas Frente A La Globalización, Víctor Zúñiga, Edmund T. Hamann, Juan Sánchez García

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Counter to the expectations that Mexico-U.S. migration is one-way, adult, and from Mexico to the United States, this Spanish-language book includes nine chapters describing various facets of the lives and educational circumstances of students encountered in Mexican schools who have previously attended U.S. schools. Data were derived from written questionnaires from a sample of more than 24,000 students in the Mexican states of Zacatecas and Nuevo León, of whom 632 had U.S. school experience and/or a U.S. birthplace and thereby American citizenship, and from more than 125 interviews with transnational students and their teachers. This study variously considers transnational students' …