Immigrant populations are growing and permanently changing the demographic profile of the United States. Diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds are manifested in the families in each community, imposing demands and challenges to agencies that provide services to them. A large population of immigrant families, especially first and second generations, experiences a process of acculturation while they are adapting to a new country. Recognizing this reality is crucial when culturally sensitive screening services are offered. Culturally sensitive assessments are not always available to families with young children, and psychometric properties of these instruments are not always thoughtfully studied. As a consequence, families might not receive reliable information about their children's skills. Psychometric examination of properties of screening tools is required to be responsive to the needs of diverse families. This study is aimed at examining the item equivalence of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires 3rd Edition (ASQ-3) for the 9, 18 and 30 month intervals and the cultural appropriateness, readability and utility of the Spanish ASQ-3 translation. Quantitative and qualitative techniques were used to determine item characteristic invariance across the English and Spanish versions and cultural appropriateness. Findings show that most of the ASQ-3 items function invariantly across language versions, indicating that these items are productive for gathering information, present an adequate hierarchy difficulty for order of items, and are properly using the response categories included on the tool. In addition, most of the values and qualities selected by parents are congruent with the content of activities included on the ASQ-3 items. Parents identified questions as useful for helping them to think more about their children's development. Accessible and sensitive instruments may facilitate parent participation in assessment, increasing the number of children correctly identified as having developmental risk regardless of ethnicity or linguistic background. Implications for practice and research are discussed, supporting cross-cultural studies on parent-completed questionnaires as an effective strategy for conducting screening and monitoring of young children's development in a context of cultural and linguistic diversity.

O objetivo do presente estudo é conhecer e analisar o debate acerca das iniciativas de implantação e de condução dos processos educativos no município de Barão, no período de 1930 a 1960. O texto contempla a identificação e compara as políticas públicas educacionais ao modelo já estabelecido na região povoada por imigrantes sensibilizando para as questões que envolvem a cultura e os significados que estas têm para as comunidades, bem como para as necessidades da preservação cultural, tendo a escola como entidade de apoio para preservar. Conhecer e discutir as práticas e políticas educacionais realizadas nas escolas étnicocomunitárias e valorizar as histórias das comunidades, as unidades de ensino e as culturas regionais são objetivos elencados nesta pesquisa que tem como base os conceitos de representação e apropriação implícitos nas iniciativas e práticas escolares dos imigrantes e dos processos comunitários implantados. Através da perspectiva da História Cultural, a análise dos documentos e dos indícios proporcionou a interpretação e a reconstrução de alguns tempos e espaços escolares. A dissertação se organiza em quatro capítulos, sendo que o primeiro apresenta considerações a respeito da cultura de um povo, da diversidade cultural, da pluralidade cultural. No segundo capítulo a região pesquisada é apresentada em seus aspectos históricos de chegada, organização e iniciativas dos imigrantes, destacando num segundo momento as iniciativas e práticas escolares. Na sequência o texto aprofunda a legislação de nacionalização do ensino para que no capítulo final sejam feitos os entrecruzamentos e análises da cultura escolar instituínte e instituída. As práticas escolares apresentaram forte influencia da cultura dos imigrantes, sendo a língua o aspecto mais marcante. As politicas de cunho nacionalista influenciaram e modificaram as práticas escolares e as iniciativas escolares públicas contribuíram para o fechamento das escolas étnico-comunitárias. Dentre os contributos das iniciativas dos imigrantes destaca-se a importância do ensino, da escolarização para o desenvolvimento de um povo e de uma região. / Submitted by Marcelo Teixeira (mvteixeira@ucs.br) on 2014-06-03T12:45:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Fernanda Zanatta.pdf: 4861494 bytes, checksum: 495e2697a8b4f304bd10e8b043e73449 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-03T12:45:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Fernanda Zanatta.pdf: 4861494 bytes, checksum: 495e2697a8b4f304bd10e8b043e73449 (MD5) / The objective of this study is to analyze and debate the initiatives the deployment and conduct of educational processes in the town of Baron, in the period 1930 to 1960. The text provides for the identification and compares educational policies to the model already established in the region populated by immigrants by raising awareness of the issues surrounding culture and the meanings that they have on communities and the needs for cultural preservation, with the school as a support entity to preserve. Know and discuss the educational policies and practices carried out in schools, ethnic community and value the stories of communities, teaching units and regional cultures are goals listed in this research that is based on the concepts of representation and appropriation implicit in the initiatives and school practices of immigrants and community processes in place. Through the perspective of cultural history, analysis of documents and evidence provided interpretation and reconstruction of school a few times and spaces. The dissertation is organized into four chapters, the first of which presents considerations about the culture of a people, cultural diversity, cultural plurality. In the second chapter the area surveyed is presented in its historical arrival, organization and initiatives of immigrants, highlighting a second time initiatives and school practices. Following the text deepens the rules of nationalization of education to be made in the final chapter analyzes the crossovers and the school culture instituting and instituted. The school practices were strongly influenced the culture of immigrants, the language being the most striking aspect. The policies of a nationalist influenced and changed school practices and public school initiatives contributed to the closure of schools-ethnic community. Among the initiatives of the contributions of immigrants highlights the importance of education, education for the development of a people and a region.

O objetivo do presente estudo é conhecer e analisar o debate acerca das iniciativas de implantação e de condução dos processos educativos no município de Barão, no período de 1930 a 1960. O texto contempla a identificação e compara as políticas públicas educacionais ao modelo já estabelecido na região povoada por imigrantes sensibilizando para as questões que envolvem a cultura e os significados que estas têm para as comunidades, bem como para as necessidades da preservação cultural, tendo a escola como entidade de apoio para preservar. Conhecer e discutir as práticas e políticas educacionais realizadas nas escolas étnicocomunitárias e valorizar as histórias das comunidades, as unidades de ensino e as culturas regionais são objetivos elencados nesta pesquisa que tem como base os conceitos de representação e apropriação implícitos nas iniciativas e práticas escolares dos imigrantes e dos processos comunitários implantados. Através da perspectiva da História Cultural, a análise dos documentos e dos indícios proporcionou a interpretação e a reconstrução de alguns tempos e espaços escolares. A dissertação se organiza em quatro capítulos, sendo que o primeiro apresenta considerações a respeito da cultura de um povo, da diversidade cultural, da pluralidade cultural. No segundo capítulo a região pesquisada é apresentada em seus aspectos históricos de chegada, organização e iniciativas dos imigrantes, destacando num segundo momento as iniciativas e práticas escolares. Na sequência o texto aprofunda a legislação de nacionalização do ensino para que no capítulo final sejam feitos os entrecruzamentos e análises da cultura escolar instituínte e instituída. As práticas escolares apresentaram forte influencia da cultura dos imigrantes, sendo a língua o aspecto mais marcante. As politicas de cunho nacionalista influenciaram e modificaram as práticas escolares e as iniciativas escolares públicas contribuíram para o fechamento das escolas étnico-comunitárias. Dentre os contributos das iniciativas dos imigrantes destaca-se a importância do ensino, da escolarização para o desenvolvimento de um povo e de uma região. / The objective of this study is to analyze and debate the initiatives the deployment and conduct of educational processes in the town of Baron, in the period 1930 to 1960. The text provides for the identification and compares educational policies to the model already established in the region populated by immigrants by raising awareness of the issues surrounding culture and the meanings that they have on communities and the needs for cultural preservation, with the school as a support entity to preserve. Know and discuss the educational policies and practices carried out in schools, ethnic community and value the stories of communities, teaching units and regional cultures are goals listed in this research that is based on the concepts of representation and appropriation implicit in the initiatives and school practices of immigrants and community processes in place. Through the perspective of cultural history, analysis of documents and evidence provided interpretation and reconstruction of school a few times and spaces. The dissertation is organized into four chapters, the first of which presents considerations about the culture of a people, cultural diversity, cultural plurality. In the second chapter the area surveyed is presented in its historical arrival, organization and initiatives of immigrants, highlighting a second time initiatives and school practices. Following the text deepens the rules of nationalization of education to be made in the final chapter analyzes the crossovers and the school culture instituting and instituted. The school practices were strongly influenced the culture of immigrants, the language being the most striking aspect. The policies of a nationalist influenced and changed school practices and public school initiatives contributed to the closure of schools-ethnic community. Among the initiatives of the contributions of immigrants highlights the importance of education, education for the development of a people and a region.

This study focused on understanding the lived experiences of men from a conservative Christian background who had disidentified as gay and subordinated their sexual identity to their spiritual identity. The study was intended to create understanding of the social, cultural, and valuative frameworks that informed and guided their attempts at resolving the conflict between spiritual and sexual identity. The study included three research questions: What are the emergent core themes associated with competing spiritual and sexual identities? How has the response of their faith community affected their struggle? How has the response of the gay community affected their struggle? Through the lens of postmodern theory that identity formation is socially constructed, the qualitative collective case study inquiry included interviews with six participants. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews and photo-elicitation. The interviews were divided into personal experiences, church experiences, and application of experiences. Using analytic techniques of pattern matching and explanation building, four emergent themes were identified: conflict; importance of faith; feelings of being alone, fearful, and misunderstood; and God is forgiving and loving. The photo-elicitation consisted of six photos, and participants responded to each photo. The interview responses were coded separately from the photo-elicitation responses to better understand the participants' journey in experiencing identity conflict and to identify their current experience of the conflict. The social change implications include generating information aimed at reducing stigma and negative perceptions for those who experience competing identities and to minimize the marginalization of this group of people.

The thesis focuses on the subject of multicultural coexistence with the stress on the western European and north European countries. It proposes the main thesis, if this multicultural coexistence, in its present form, is or is not functioning, and if there is the potential for future also. The question also is, if there really comes the so called "crisis of multiculturalism" and so there would be substantive transformation necessary in the future. As the background for this research will serve the theoretical part of the thesis, which tries to show the different approaches to the multicultural phenomenon on the academical ground and their emergence. The second empirical part will illustrate, on the example of three European countries Sweden, Germany and France, how these theoretical models can appear in the reality.

The concept of social loafing is important with regard to organizational effectiveness particularly as organizations are relying on teams as a means to drive productivity. The composition of those teams is likely to reflect the current movement of racial and ethnic minorities in the work place. The primary purpose of this research was to determine the role cultural diversity plays in enhancing performance and thereby eliminating social loafing. The research study is significant because 1) it is among the first to use culturally diverse work groups while examining the social loafing phenomenon, and 2) the groups were intact project teams, rather than ad-hoc groups commonly found in social loafing experiments. It was anticipated that the members of culturally homogeneous groups would engage in social loafing when their individual efforts were "buried." However, subjects in both culturally diverse and culturally homogeneous groups resisted social loafing behaviors. Additional statistical analysis revealed that as group orientation increased, performance levels increased as well. Group orientation, then, appears to be a more powerful determinant of performance than group composition. It is expected that the time these groups had together and the performance feedback opportunities provided them, prior to the experiment, contributed significantly to these results. Future research suggestions were made that could help establish a causal relationship.

Community college instructors confront many challenges, teaching increasingly diverse students in their classrooms. This study's purpose was to enhance educational literature on diversity, and assist community college faculty in personal self-reflection and professional skill review to meet multicultural student body needs. In addition, the relationship between these perceptions and faculty characteristics, such as faculty status, gender, race/ethnicity, age, years of teaching experience, program area, teaching locale, instructing locality, diversity training, years of teaching, teaching division, and previous diversity instruction, were examined. The participants were 194 randomly selected, full and part-time faculty members who taught at four community colleges within the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). The most common profile of respondents included Caucasian females who were 50+ years of age, had been employed 10 or fewer years as part-time faculty in the Liberal Arts and Social Sciences program area of a community college in a suburban location, and had participated in previous diversity training. This study utilized the Survey of Community College Faculty (SCCF), a combined survey of the Multicultural Teaching Scale (MTS) and Pluralism and Diversity Attitude Assessment (PADAA) that framed the research. The MTS assessed self-reported cultural competencies categorized into five dimensions: (a) Content Integration, (b) Knowledge Construction, (c) Prejudice Reduction, (d) Equity Pedagogy, and (e) Empowering School Culture (Banks, 1993). The PADAA assessed cultural diversity attitudes on four subscales: (a) Appreciate Cultural Pluralism, (b) Value Cultural Pluralism, (c) Implement Cultural Pluralism, and (d) Uncomfortable with Cultural Diversity (Stanley, 1992). The investigation results revealed that faculty members perceived themselves as having high multicultural competence in the Equity Pedagogy dimension and moderate multicultural competence in the other four dimensions. Additionally, faculty indicated a strong appreciation and value for cultural diversity and pluralism but demonstrated an unwillingness to implement cultural pluralism ideologies into their instructional practices. Outcomes of regression analysis of selected respondent characteristics revealed previous diversity instruction and instructional program area (Business, Engineering, and Technology) were significant in predicting perceived increased multicultural competence of community college faculty in all five dimensions. Study findings indicated gender (female) and race (African American) also contributed positively in the prediction of multicultural competence. / Ph. D.

This study examined if college students supportive of social nudity would differ from students opposed to social nudity on self-acceptance, acceptance of ethnically diverse others, social development, and on secularism/liberalism. Using data from 384 participants, pro- and anti-nudity groups were formed based on students scoring in the upper (n = 59) and lower (n = 64) quartiles on a measure assessing attitudes toward social nudity. Results indicated that pro-nudity students did not significantly differ from antinudity students on self-esteem, self-acceptance, or on body image. Pro-nudity students were significantly more accepting of other religious groups and gays and lesbians compared to anti0 nudity students, although the two groups did not differ on their tolerance for ethnically dissimilar others, the disabled, or in their interest in other cultures. The two groups did not differ on independent thinking or in social development, although the pro-nudity students had modestly higher scores on a measure of psychopathic features. Finally, pro-nudity students were less religious, more open to sexuality, and more liberal in political ideology relative to anti-nudity students. Although the findings were somewhat mixed, overall these results suggest that pro-nudity college students are not vastly different from anti-nudity students.

No description available.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop a better understanding of how eight preservice teachers perceived the culturally diverse students they encountered during their one-year teaching internship. Their personal and professional experiences with diversity were investigated in order to identify the direct and indirect influences they brought to a culturally diverse classroom. The data for this study consisted of narratives from their one-year teaching internship and their home, schooling, and college experiences with cultural diversity. Each preservice teacher was interviewed twice. The issues that emerged from their narratives were individually presented to give a clear picture of how they each perceived classroom cultural diversity. From their narratives, it is clear that how each of these preservice teachers perceived culturally diverse students was largely influenced by their life histories and experiences with cultural diversity. Cultural preparation in college acquired great significance as they each reflected on their preparation to teach in culturally diverse settings. None of them felt prepared to teach culturally diverse students. Instead, they indicated a preference of working in school settings that exhibited students similar to their own backgrounds. Classroom cultural diversity was seen as presenting special challenges, none of them felt prepared to handle. The implications from this study suggest that more preparation on how to work within culturally diverse classrooms is needed prior to, and during the student teaching internship. / Ph. D.