This dissertation describes a qualitative research study about the educational experiences of Cambodian American students conducted in a community in the northeastern United States from January to November of 2003. The study investigated the experiences of fourteen Cambodian American young people, ages 16–23, in a small college community using both individual and group interviews as the primary source of data collection. The study examined how the participants' cultural identities and family expectations influenced their interaction with the school system and how teachers' practices and institutional policies affected the young people's striving for academic achievement. This study contributes to understanding why schools are not providing successful educational experiences for Cambodian American students as suggested by their disproportionate rates of dropping out and classification as learning disabled, and by views held by their teachers and sometimes themselves that they are low achieving students. The participants reflected the diversity among Cambodian American students: some were still in school; some had graduated; some had dropped out. They included males and females, those who had been born in Cambodia or in refugee camps and those who were born in the United States. They all presented their perspectives on both the supportive aspects of school and those aspects that had hindered their success. The study described in this dissertation explored the participants' experiences through the theoretical perspectives of multicultural education, culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race theory. An important aspect of this study was the centering of the young people's voices as the primary source of knowledge. This study generated a number of significant findings that emerged from the data. One finding illustrated the extensive influence their families and cultural teachings exerted on the students' lives, most relevantly in the school context. Another finding portrayed the dynamic nature of the students' identities in their lives as adolescents and bicultural border crossers. Other findings depicted the school experiences that supported the students in their educational journey as well as the obstacles that hindered their progress.

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This study examines the impact of microteaching techniques toward the development of the thinking process from simple to complex skills. The study was conducted with twenty-three Spanish-speaking students in the Springfield (Massachusetts) Public Schools who were enrolled in the Special Education Program for children with specific learning disabilities. The students attended Van Sickle Middle School and Chestnut Middle School. Two groups were utilized in this study: Group A received treatments with microteaching techniques, while Group B did not receive any treatments with microteaching. Both groups were submitted to pre/posttests. Group A's teacher was trained with microteaching techniques, while Group B's teacher was not. Group A was subjected to three pre/posttests for the purpose of manipulation of a variety of treatments. Group B was submitted to a pretest/posttest. This was the test used to compare the results of both groups at the end of the study. This exploratory study did not deal with hypothesis testing. It set the basis for the formulation of hypothesis to be tested in future research endeavors. The instruments used in this study were in Spanish and consisted of three pretests/posttests used to evaluate simple and complex thinking skills. The pretests/posttests consisted of short readings in order to: determine the order of details using pictures; identify issues related to the main character in the study; express ideas that were not explicit in the stories; and find the central idea, order of successes, imply ideas, imply cause-and-effect, and main idea. The following microteaching techniques were used in the development of simple and complex thinking skills by the teacher that worked with Group A: diagnostic, introduction to learning, multiple reference markers, the art of formulating questions, and contra-interrogatory. The teacher who worked with Group B did not use the microteaching technique. Results indicated that Group A, after having used microteaching techniques in the posttests ("The Greedy Bear" and "The Wave That Wanted to Travel"), obtained 69 percent control in the following skills: order of successes, details, personal characteristics, imply ideas, imply cause-and-effect, and main idea. According to the results, after having utilized the test "The Wave That Wanted to Travel", it was found that the students from Group B were not able to master the simple and complex thinking skills. With Group B, the microteaching technique was not used. Based on the results mentioned, recommendations were formulated for administrators and teachers, as well as for future work and research in the field of Special Education with Spanish-speaking students.

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The author uses a framework developed by J. Victor Baldridge (Power and Conflict in the University, John Wiley, New York, 1971) to present a case study of equal opportunity programs in the United States Navy. The study is presented in the context of a complex systems change effort. For organizations attempting to create a healthy EO climate the author suggests that the most important part of any strategy for long term effect is to identify the primary means of power and control in the organization and to address EO through that channel, secondly she suggests that EO is a political phenomenon and must take into account the political dynamics of the organization. In addition she recommends attention to the following; organization culture and environment; systems perspective; on going assessment and strategic planning; long term planning; historical patterns of change in the organization; the need for strong leadership; and defining EO to include selection and inclusion assimilation and integration into the mainstream of the organization. Finally she concludes that an organization has accomplished an EO climate when it has spanned the "program" stage and EO efforts are replaced by efforts of good management.

This study investigated three major cultural theories of cross-cultural conflicts: (1) perceptual differences; (2) absence of cultural awareness; and (3) inability to accept cultural differences. The methodology in this study included: (1) a review of literature, which explored the need to cross cultures and investigated three major theories responsible for cultural conflicts; (2) in-depth interviewing of a small group of Cape Verdeans, which revealed incidents of cross-cultural conflicts experienced by them when they attempted to break through cultural barriers; (3) an analysis of these cross-cultural conflicts, which manifested their connection to the three major theories; (4) a review of the three major approaches to teaching cross-cultural communication: (a) the didactic; (b) the experiential; and (c) the humanistic, which examined their strengths and weaknesses; and (5) a presentation of some generalized strategies designed to surmount cross-cultural conflicts. The study concluded that: (1) global interdependency emphasizes the need to cross cultures; (2) perceptual differences, absence of cultural awareness, and the inability to accept cultural differences inhibit effective communication across cultural boundaries; (3) the three major theories of cultural conflicts that were proposed were causes of cross-cultural conflicts experienced by the Cape Verdeans in this study, although they may not have been the only causes; (4) the three major approaches to teaching cross-cultural communication (didactic, experiential, and humanistic) would be most effective when used together; and (5) some generalized strategies can be designed to overcome cross-cultural conflicts. Recommendations are made for the future study of the causes of cultural conflicts.

Most of the pedagogical efforts in the field of English as a Second-Language teaching of this century have been devoted to the skills of speaking, listening, and reading. The development of appropriate methodologies for teaching the skill of ESL writing has been neglected until recently. This dissertation addresses itself to this area. Its focus has been the development of a new approach to teach the writing of simple sentences to elementary ESL Hispanic college students using syntax as a pedagogical tool. The study is based on the assumption that one basic problem elementary ESL college students encounter when writing sentences is that they use their native-language syntax to construct sentences with the lexical and grammatical English structures they have acquired. To avoid this situation, the approach purports to help the students in the transition from thinking in the native language to writing in English. The study was conducted in the Eugenio Mar(')ia de Hostos Community College of the City University of New York. A specially designed manual was developed for the study. The manual was field tested with four groups of ESL Hispanic College students, two groups each of low elementary and high elementary ESL students. The dissertation analyzes the results of the study and presents recommendations for further study.

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