Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1216. Advisers: Jesse H. Goodman; Mary B. McMullen. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 14, 2007)."

The central question this study addresses is how one school of human services (SHS) became more fully racially diverse while embedded in a predominantly White institution of higher education. The goal was to collect data to answer three questions: (1) How did SHS evolve into a racially diverse organization? (2) How did this transition impact the faculty at SHS? and (3) How does SHS maintain its current level of racial diversity? To conduct this study a descriptive qualitative case study approach was utilized that incorporated 74 hours of field observations, sixteen qualitative interviews with the SHS faculty, and a documentation review of materials relevant to the School's development. The study was carried out from February 1990 to August 1990. To analyze the results of the interviews a White peer reviewer was used to assist the Latino researcher in the verification and reliability of the interpretations of the data. The seven major conclusions and recommendations of this study are that: (1) There is a need to incorporate organizational theories relevant to higher education when undertaking organizational development (OD) or multicultural organizational development (MCOD) in a college or university setting; (2) A mission statement directly tied to teaching and service to communities of color is central to SHS's evolving into a racially diverse school; (3) "Word-of-mouth" networks play a key role in the success of SHS's recruitment and retention processes; (4) By expanding the concept of "qualified" to include racial diversity and the ability to work in a multicultural setting, SHS consistently succeeded in attracting "qualified" candidates (both White and of color); (5) The multiracial collegium at SHS is an intense place to work, full of rewards and challenging conflicts involving vision, trust and issues of organizational power for both White faculty and faculty of color; (6) Therefore, attending to issues of social justice (via MCOD) and effective community building (via OD) are essential to creating more multiracial collegium; (7) Units, schools or institutions interested in racial diversity should consider an open systems approach including more fluid boundaries with communities of color. Finally, this study raised serious methodological concerns about utilizing individualistic qualitative research in examining multiracial settings.

The question of how to design educational programs which are relevant to Native American Indians, has plagued both Indian and non-Indian educators for more than a century. How does an educational system provide instruction which is vital for survival in mainstream society and at the same time, maintain a Native student's rights to think and exist in the world as an indigenous person? The devastating shortage of Native American Indian teachers, and administrators, as well as the urgent need for bilingual education and culturally appropriate curriculum, continue as unresolved obstacles. Perhaps in order to constructively alleviate the dilemmas of contemporary Indian education, one must look to the past and determine where failings and successes occurred. Historically, a major contributor to the American Indian education of the twentieth century, has been the off-reservation boarding school system. Both the school system and the educational training programs have had a direct effect on Native American Indian cultures. The model for the off-reservation boarding school was established in 1878 at Hampton Agricultural and Normal School, in Hampton, Virginia. The Hampton Indian educational plan had two major components, the instruction of English and the development of vocational skills. In 1879, Hampton Institute established a summer outing system program. The study presents a historical record of the significant events which lead to the development of the Hampton Institute's outing program in western Massachusetts, its influences on Indian education and its historical connection to the Americanization policies for Native American Indians during the late nineteenth century. The time period examined by this research is from 1878 to 1912, the years during which Hampton's Indian educational program received funding from the United States government. The process of using education as a means of Americanizing Indian students continues to exist in contemporary times. The research conducted for this study further reveals and confirms this and provides some broad generalizations and recommendations which may lead to the development of Native and non-Native educators guiding principals for modification of current and future Indian educational programs.

Lao folk opera is a unique blend of popular theatre and sung poetry performed among Lao-speaking people of rural Southeast Asia for a wide range of social and religious purposes. As a traditional medium for popular education, its primary function has been to preserve the cultural identity of the ethnic Lao by re-enacting ancient myths, local folk legends, and morality tales based on the penultimate lives of the Buddha. This dissertation explores the role of Lao folk opera as a medium for constructively addressing problems of cultural conflict and acculturative stress that have arisen among lowland Lao refugees and their children in urban America. The central focus of the inquiry is on the ways Lao folk opera currently functions as a learning medium in the resettlement context. The need for validation of such locally produced endogenous media has become increasingly apparent as long term resettlement issues continue to emerge as threats to linguistic and cultural identity. The review of literature encompasses the role of oral specialists in traditional societies, Buddhist epistemology in the Theravada tradition, and community education in rural Lao culture. These sources provide the background necessary to an understanding of the medium's capacity for encapsulating culture and teaching ethical values in ways that connect past to present, distant to near. The field research, which was accomplished in collaboration with a Lao folk opera troupe based in New England, adapted the action research model originally proposed by Kurt Lewin to the principles of Buddhist community education. The videotaped performance of a drama based on the refugee experience and subsequent audience reactions formed the main body of qualitative data. Group reflections revealed that the medium provides a viable context for performance artists to assume the role of critical culture makers with a potent educational agenda. Recommendations include the encouragement of local media producers to take advantage of community access facilities to counteract the homogenizing influences of the dominant media and the more active inclusion of elders in the transfer of language and culture across generational borders.

The formation and development of newcomer ethnic organizations, particularly mutual assistance associations (MAAs), result from specific social forces and interactions unique to the refugee and immigrant communities they represent and serve. As such, they reflect and become part of a newcomer community's culture and ethnic identity. As bicultural organizations, MAAs have unique roles as vital links between ethnic and mainstream communities. However, MAAs struggle to adjust to dominant models of organizations, an adjustment needed to function effectively in American society. Their problems result partially from their own process of cross-cultural adaptation as they learn to govern themselves, adjust to new roles, and adapt to differing values and norms. Conforming to the dominant standard of formal organizations creates conflicts among indigenous organizational members. This study examines various dimensions of cross-cultural adaptation during the formation and development of a Cambodian MAA. Based on the Samakom Khmer (SK) organization, the research explores cross-cultural issues experienced by SK's ethnic board and staff as they contend with conflicting Cambodian and American cultures. Participant observation, in-depth interviewing, and document analysis are the primary methods used for an "insider's", Cambodian's view of social reality. Several findings emerge which underscore this social phenomenon's complexity and uniqueness and its significance for the field of organizational studies. Culture and acculturation are vital and interrelated concepts in understanding SK's dynamics and behavior. The process of acculturation implies cross-cultural transitions occurring at individual, group, and organizational levels. Conflicting ethnocentric traditions and dominant norms caused SK to respond to issues of cultural convergence or divergence, acceptance of or resistance to cultural change. Consequently, members underwent processes of cross-cultural adaptation, including interpreting new symbols; understanding and making new roles; negotiating and restructuring social relations; maintaining and reshaping ethnic identity; creating images; and establishing and defining relations. The adaptive mechanisms of creating, rejecting, blending, and synthesizing elements of old and new cultures influenced the organization's structures and processes. Gleaned from SK's experience, it is critical to recognize that MAAs are cross-culturally embedded in the larger context of its sociocultural environment.

Multiculturalism and a committment to an ideology of cultural pluralism has been both a high profile and contentious government policy since its origin in Canada in the early seventies. Multiculturalism has also influenced educational practices and opened the way for multicultural and race relations education. With continuing high immigration, successfully meeting the challenges of cultural pluralism in society and education, and gaining support for its commitments from the public, is increasingly important. This study examines these challenges by considering the ideals, strengths, weaknesses, evolution and misconceptions of a philosophy of multiculturalism with emphasis upon educational implications. Three fundamental elements of multiculturalism are considered: ethnic identity, social integration and intergroup relations. This research contributes to the literature by providing a qualitative component focusing upon the experiences and perceptions of immigrant youth who are experiencing social integration into the Canadian multicultural society. The above themes are examined through the relevant literature and an exploratory study. Group discussions were held with adolescents, mostly immigrants, in homogeneous or similar ethnic/cultural groups--Latin Americans, Chinese, Vietnamese and South Asians. The conversations focused upon ethnic identity development, acculturation, intergroup relations and the youths' perspectives on North American culture and multiculturalism--particularly in the context of secondary schools in Vancouver. Three of the groups were held in the mother tongue. The themes are discussed by respective ethnic/cultural groups and comparisons and commonalties between the groups are explored. The interviews emphasize the development of "new ethnicities" as the youths engage in "cross-cultural analysis" and accommodate their new environment without forfeiting their ethnic identities. The latter part of the study exposes misconceptions around multiculturalism and, supported by the findings from both the literature and the interviews, illustrates both the evolution and potential of multiculturalism as an approach to managing cultural diversity. The final section examines the implications of the findings for schooling in a culturally pluralistic society. Although the study is set in the Canadian context, it has applicability for various culturally diverse nations concerned with social integration, intergroup relations and their educational implications.

This dissertation describes how and why high school students in a developing country may resist educational processes intended to make them into modern citizens. The research set out to illuminate in-school processes which affected students' academic engagement and to help explicate an eight-year decline on the Grade 10 School Certificate Examination in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. The report is based on one year of ethnographic research conducted in Pere village on the southeast coast and two high schools in Lorengau, the provincial capital, in 1994-95. I claim that at the time of study a shift away from the village in critical economic resources, rising unemployment, the ongoing viability of the subsistence base, and a need to maintain a degree of control over those living in towns led many Pere Villagers to be discouraged about the value of educational investment and to make claims to a somewhat invented "traditionality." In the high schools in Lorengau, students were aware of the limited opportunity structure after grade 10, and that they could return to their villages after finishing school and make their living from subsistence economics. A critical mass of students rationalized that school success, with its unlikely rewards, was not worth its requirements of hard work and conformity to rules. These students pursued social experience in school, resisted teachers, and valorized an egalitarian village-based identity within the student culture. I argue that the ongoing construction of this identity led these students to conduct routine surveillance of their peers for signs of acting "extra:" Appropriating Western behaviors which were associated with hierarchical status positions in the cash economy, or making strident efforts in school to obtain such a position. Accordingly, I show that Manus high schools functioned as social fields for the negotiation of Melanesian personhood. I conclude that people in Pere and Manus high schools lay claim to a moral "good" inherent in Melanesian egalitarianism, and that these were creative and rational responses which both critiqued the tendency of capitalist development to create hierarchical status differences and served to maintain these peoples' sense of worth in contexts of increasing powerlessness.

This is a report of an ethnographic study of a graduate level Methods course for ESL/Bilingual teachers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The course is organized around task-based, small group, facilitative and collaborative learning. One of the intriguing aspects of the course is the opportunities it provides for students to identify, understand and critique the ways that they share power and authority with each other and with the course professor. This research investigates the early inception of the role of facilitator within this complex educational practice. The role is purposefully under-defined so that facilitators can experiment with it, and turn it into something that has meaning for them. My research questions address the enactments or "dance" of authority--how it is experienced, voiced and shared by facilitators and students in this classroom community. I have developed a theoretical framework for three concepts or "modes" of authority and their consequent acts. They are: compassionate authority, involving the act of imaginatively taking up positions for one another (Jones, 1993); scholarship authority--the act of reframing and generating theories of the facilitation practice in order to understand and critique this pedagogy (Christ, 1987); and inventive authority--the act of creating, finding and remembering the substance of discourse (Lefevre, 1986). These modes of authority are mutually sustaining, and when converged steer us away from conceiving of authority dichotomously. Drawing on the notions of positioning (Carbaugh, 1994b) and intertextuality (Bloome & Egan-Robertson, 1993), I highlight the distinctive social positions that are created discursively when students uphold, reject and resist these modes of authority. The findings reveal that authoritative relationships at this site are contingent, patterned in moment-by-moment changes and often asymmetrical. The findings also reveal that the interactions constitute a balancing act--a power of balance--among the three modes of authority. Ultimately, this study should provide insights into discourses of compassion, critique and invention in multicultural and multilingual education.

The problem. Teachers have been given responsibility for providing the academic, social and vocational education necessary for students to function as whole and healthy citizens in society. In the United States, public schooling has stood at the center of viable democratic processes. This study examines the extent to which one large, urban school district with a multicultural population, provides multicultural educational opportunities to classroom teachers. Scope of study. The primary questions this study seeks to address include: (1) What multicultural staff development opportunities are available to teachers in the District of Columbia school system? (2) Are teachers given release times to participate in multicultural staff development training? (3) What incentives are provided to encourage teachers to participate in multicultural staff development training? and (4) What resources have been made available to assist teachers with training and development in multicultural education? Chapter one outlines the statement and background of the research topic and research questions. The significance of the study and study's assumptions and limitations are described. In addition, definitions of the key terms used in the study are provided. Chapter two provides a review of the literature on multicultural education. Research on teacher education and staff development and multicultural curriculum development is also reviewed. Chapter three outlines the research design. This includes a description of the data collection and analysis procedure, the population of the study and the methodology used in the data analysis. Chapter four presents the study's findings and chapter five provides a summary of the conclusions, implications and recommendations of the study. Method. A six-point Likert type scale questionnaire consisting of 27 items was designed to measure four categories related to multicultural education training and development opportunities for middle school teachers in three randomly selected middle schools. Subsequently, a total of 57 out of 65 respondents returned questionnaires. In conclusion, an overall review of the qualitative data reveals the level and frequency of participation of middle school classroom teachers within three randomly selected middle schools in multicultural staff development activities. Further, the analysis of the data will serve as a guide for subsequent planning with system-wide training.

Barely a quarter century in this country, the Hmong are among the newest Americans. Since 1975, when United States' troops pulled out of Laos, more than 170,000 Hmong refugees and their children have adopted this as their new land, settling primarily in the cities of California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Products of an agrarian economy and a clan-centered, historically preliterate, homogeneous, insulated culture, they arrived in American airports ill-equipped to deal with a capitalistic, technological, industrial, heterogeneous, media-saturated culture. Overnight, their world had changed. They had to meld two contrasting worlds if they were to become part of their adopted country. As the children of refugees, Hmong teenagers have had the intensified challenge of responding to cultural change as they are learning how to be part of American youth subculture and school communities. Because of their cultural heritage, Hmong students may have learned to perceive and approach tasks differently than their non-Hmong classmates, using cognitive processes supported in their families but not reinforced in American schools. In families, they have learned primarily through observation and demonstration, cooperative problem-solving strategies, deductive reasoning, and reliance on contextual cues for meaning. Their approach to learning has been characterized by extrinsic motivation, sensitivity to others, and social responsiveness. In the daily transition from home to school, they confront the standards and expectations sanctioned in most high schools: that students will learn primarily through lecture and print materials, individual problem-solving strategies, inductive reasoning, and reliance on analysis and logic; and that students will be intrinsically motivated and desire personal recognition. The confrontation between different modes of learning and cultural values sanctioned by the Hmong and American worlds poses challenges for Hmong high school students and for educators who assist them in learning. This study identifies cultural values and practices, examines cognitive approaches to learning, and describes instructional practices judged to be effective by educators and/or students in promoting learning in Hmong high school students. It suggests practical improvements individual schools, as socializing institutions, may pursue in working with Hmong students reconciling culturally influenced modes of learning with longstanding American educational practices.