This thesis investigates a high school scholarship program created by a bioreserve in Yucatan Mexico for local Maya-speaking students. The scholarship program experienced difficulty retaining scholarship students and placing students in jobs after graduating high school. This thesis uses ethnographic and historical research to understand why the scholarship program was not as successful as expected. The main conclusion of this thesis is that the scholarship program unintentionally created division among students and the community. Future research and project development should focus on creating educational programs that engage whole communities and use education as a means to an end, not an end in itself. / 1 / Phillip Lee Boyett

<p> Educational reform movements are constantly in the process of trying to improve a fractured educational system. Many scholars contend there is a discrepancy between educational outcomes for White students and students from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Some educators in working class communities of color have begun to infuse elements of students' social and cultural backgrounds, including popular culture, to create instructional methods that can better engage and pique student interest. Hip-hop Pedagogy is one of the methods, rooted in popular culture, which is being used in classroom settings to increase students' awareness about the societal constructs and issues in their communities that may affect them. Student access to Hip-hop based instructional methods, however, have been limited and virtually absent from elementary education settings. However the consumption of Hip-hop culture persists in urban communities worldwide. This qualitative study implemented a Hip-hop emergent-based curriculum in an elementary school setting, closely documenting the perceptions and responses to the curriculum by four young males students of color. The study consisted of five consecutive classroom sessions, in which the curriculum and dialogue focused on different expressions of Hip-hop culture. Student viewpoints were logged daily in focus groups and the data that emerged from the sessions and focus groups informed the emergent curriculum. Graffiti became the Hip-hop element of focus chosen for deeper exploration by the participants in this study. The study revealed a number of findings that point to the potential value of an emergent Hip-hop curriculum with elementary male students of color. </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Leadership and Policy Studies, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Nov. 20, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-03, Section: A, page: 0926. Adviser: Phil F. Carspecken.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Anthropology, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on May 11, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-08, Section: A, page: 3192. Adviser: Sarah D. Phillips.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 1851. Adviser: Janet D. Keller. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 351-370) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Anthropology and School of Education, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed July 16, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-10, Section: A, page: 3877. Adviser: Thomas A. Schwandt.

<p> This mixed-method study identified undergraduate students enrolled in a teacher education program that embedded an urban field placement into their teacher education program as a way to educate teacher candidates about children of color&rsquo;s cultural identity and improve application of culturally responsive pedagogy. The focus of the study was to determine how the urban field experience made teacher candidates more aware of their intentions to teach in urban areas and if the experience made teacher candidates become more conscious of their multicultural attitudes towards teaching children of color. In addition, it was important for the study to consider if teacher candidates were more aware of their perceptions of teaching in low socioeconomic and diverse urban settings.</p><p> The participants in this study (n=19) were students enrolled in an Education course, taught by faculty members of the institution. The teacher candidates&rsquo; course work, which included journal response, field notes, evolving conceptual framework and CRP lesson plans along with a Multicultural Teacher Candidate survey were examined to determine if there was an increase in the teacher candidates&rsquo; awareness of their intentions, attitudes or perceptions about teaching children of color. Teacher candidates&rsquo; comments highlighted that they were aware of their increasing levels of commitment and cultural understanding necessary in educating children of color from urban communities. Examining the data points illuminated that teacher candidates increased their awareness about the academic and social needs of children of color. In addition, teacher candidates reflected on their craft and infused a higher level of cultural diversity.</p><p>

Most colleges and universities in the United States today claim that "diversity" is an important institutional value, but it is not always clear what this term means or how "diversity" is actually experienced and understood by students at predominantly white institutions. This ethnographic study examines a predominantly white liberal arts woman's college in New England, applying data from participant observation, semi-structured interviews, autoethnography, and textual data. My research addresses three intersecting areas of inquiry: the experience of students attending a predominantly white institution in relation to issues of race and racial identity, institutional practices related to race, "diversity," and "culture," and examples of "white cultural practices" within the institution. The study found that institutional discourse promotes an ideology that marks "students of color" as "other" and the embodiment of "diversity" and creates a dynamic where white students are placed in the role of cultural tourists. Throughout the college community the invisibility and silences surrounding whiteness reinforced an ideology of white privilege. The analysis focuses on four central themes or narratives that circulate through a predominantly white campus. The first theme is the articulation of "diversity" and the "diverse community" specifically through the lens of the college admissions process. The next theme is "culture" as understood through an examination of institutional sites where "culture" is named and deployed on campus such as student cultural organizations. The third looks at the invisibility of whiteness and "white culture." The final theme considers what happens on a predominantly white campus when there is a high profile racial conflict, or "racial incident." The conclusion provides specific recommendations and interventions for the broader higher education community related to "re-framing" the "diverse community" and shifting towards the creation of "diverse, inclusive, and engaged learning environments." Possible interventions include integrating the academic mission of the college more closely with the goals of diversity and inclusion; providing more opportunities for white students to think critically about race and their own racial identity; and an increasing emphasis on the intersections and complexity of identity rather than a reliance on monolithic categories such as "students of color."

In recent years the Midway School System in Midway, Tennessee (pseudonyms are used for the town, the school, and the participants in this research), has experienced a significant demographic change that has had both social and academic impacts. An influx of Hispanic students, primarily from Mexico, has brought students who are culturally different and for whom English is not the first language into a school that has traditionally been comprised of almost all white English speaking students. In the era of No Child Left Behind and other large scale educational reforms, this demographic change presents many new challenges to educators in this environment and although standardized test scores are available to track student achievement across certain population groups, rarely do reports or studies focus on the perspectives of teachers. This ethnographic study of teachers at Midway High School focused on teacher perspectives on the population change, how it has impacted their work as educators, and the positive and negative effects of educational reforms in multicultural classroom settings. This study involved observations and interviews of teachers in various content areas and of the school principal. The results highlight many social and academic concerns that are in many ways disregarded by No Child Left Behind and by state-imposed reform efforts implemented in recent years.

In recent years the Midway School System in Midway, Tennessee (pseudonyms are used for the town, the school, and the participants in this research), has experienced a significant demographic change that has had both social and academic impacts. An influx of Hispanic students, primarily from Mexico, has brought students who are culturally different and for whom English is not the first language into a school that has traditionally been comprised of almost all white English speaking students. In the era of No Child Left Behind and other large scale educational reforms, this demographic change presents many new challenges to educators in this environment and although standardized test scores are available to track student achievement across certain population groups, rarely do reports or studies focus on the perspectives of teachers. This ethnographic study of teachers at Midway High School focused on teacher perspectives on the population change, how it has impacted their work as educators, and the positive and negative effects of educational reforms in multicultural classroom settings. This study involved observations and interviews of teachers in various content areas and of the school principal. The results highlight many social and academic concerns that are in many ways disregarded by No Child Left Behind and by state-imposed reform efforts implemented in recent years.