This study examines the perceptions of college students of color, about their community service (CS) experiences as tutors in public schools. It explores how Black and Latino students at one large public university and three small private colleges in the Northeast conceptualized their experiences as tutors, the impact of tutoring on their college education and the affects of tutoring on their career choices. This study is significant because it enhances our knowledge of the experiences of students of color in CS activities. This study has potential to generate information that is valid for the recruitment and retention of teachers of color and possibly open new avenues about the recipients of service. From a policy perspective, the information obtained is potentially useful to CS organizations, colleges and universities, public and private schools, local, state, and federal policymakers. Three methods of inquiry are used: (1) Pre-questionnaires were used to ascertain a biographical background of each participant. (2) Modified in-depth interviews were conducted with each participant and; (3) post-questionnaires provided opportunity for students to reflect on the pre-questionnaire and oral interview questions and draw further conclusions about their CS tutoring efforts. The research population included 14 undergraduate men and women of color from African American, Cape Verdean and Latino ethnic backgrounds, who participated in one of two CS tutoring projects. The findings revealed: (1) Students of color at both the large public university and the small private colleges reported that community service was an intense learning experience, prompting them to think about issues of tracking, teaching, methods, learning styles, and educational equity. (2) Students of color in both projects found themselves connecting their own educational experiences with those of their tutees, forging a crucial personal link that gave energy and commitment to their work in schools. (3) Students of color in both projects drew direct connections between their CS tutoring and their thinking about future careers; this affirmed and clarified in most cases the students plans to either enter teaching or pursue another professional field. (4) Students of color in both projects found race, ethnicity, and gender crucial to identifying with and maintaining relationships with tutees.

Due to the disruption of refugee women's lives before, during, and after flight, they take on new roles and responsibilities that raise the need for refugee women to acquire new skills and tools with which to handle their new life. The conventional approach is to look at a refugee as a problem and a deficit, desperately in need of services rather than looking at refugees as having agency, motivated, strong, and able to solve their own problems. This has resulted in programs that are not intended to empower refugee women but rather to provide for them. The main purpose of this research was to understand Sudanese refugee women's activist experiences within their communities in order to explore and analyze the possibilities of using Popular Education methods and philosophies in the context of refugee women's lives. A second related purpose was to inquire into the extent to which Sudanese refugee women activists were themselves adapting and using Popular Education methods in their daily struggles. My assumption was that none of these activists were familiar enough with Popular Education techniques to utilize them in their everyday work and reduce the burden of being frustrated and burned out as a result. I assured that if you provide services plus activism you get reform within the existing system and there is no radical change: but if you provide Popular Education and activism you get radical change because you build awareness and you sustain empowerment. As a result of this research the author found that refugee women in general and activists in particular need more than support for their basic livelihood needs. They require skills development and educational interventions that help them to be participants in the decision-making process involved in what, how and where programs should to be developed. There is a strong need for an educational intervention that develops awareness and promotes change by refugee women themselves. The Sudanese refugee women activists in this study lacked the knowledge and the tools to implement Popular Education methodologies. All the activists in this study had some experience with non-formal educational pedagogy, but all of them lacked specific training that would enable them to use Popular Education approaches in their daily struggles. There is a great need to develop programs that adapt Popular Education philosophies and methods so that the claim of empowering refugee women becomes reality. Qualitative research methods were used including intensive one-on-one interviews and a focus group was conducted to explore and understand the life histories of Sudanese refugee women activists who live and work within their communities in Cairo Egypt and in the United States.

This dissertation examines current multicultural art teacher practices and their student perspectives, to make implications for art teacher preparation in the postmodern era. The study addresses four interrelated challenges in art education: the postmodern framework on knowledge and learning, disagreements in higher education about future directions, the construction of the theory-practice gap, and the absence of teacher and student voices, especially from urban and marginalized communities. A review of the literature of modern and postmodern art historical contexts points to a web of tensions in the multiple worlds of art and art education. Those tensions guide a theoretical framework rooted in the dynamic intersection of postmodernism and multicultural education which is explored in a review of the literature regarding visual culture art education (Duncum, 2001, 2002). These frameworks led the Arts-Based Educational Research (Barone & Eisner, in press) to be presented in a series of "collages" (Bode, 2005) with an a/r/tographer's perspective (Irwin, 2004) into how teachers' roles and student participation might reinscribe (Derrida, 1994; Lather, 2003) the direction of art education programs. From four art classrooms, in settings where the participants indexed race, ethnicity, language and poverty in discourses of multiple identities, the voices of art teachers and their students highlight the role of visual culture in resistance to hegemony and in pursuit of academic achievement. Art teacher preparation may include such studies as a vehicle for in change art education communities that reconsider the role of art and art teachers.

It was the purpose of this study to explore and compare the differences in self concept, academic behavior, and self-reported personal experiences, between a group of high achieving African heritage students and underachieving African heritage students. This study was designed in order to better understand the factors that contribute to the success or underachievement of African heritage students who are judged by their teachers to be academically capable of success. This is a comparative study, using a blend of qualitative and quantitative methodologies involving a sample of fourteen African heritage male and female high school students from one central Massachusetts high school. Data was drawn from focus groups, demographic profiles, and a self-concept assessment. This study was an exploratory study designed to identify factors related to black student academic achievement. The significant findings include differences in ethnic and linguistic background, participation in extracurricular activities, parental attitudes toward school, student attitudes toward school, and differences in the formation of goals. Based on this data one can conclude that the high achievers of African descent in this study are motivated and invested in their education as a result of various factors including family influences, self determination, and participation in organized extracurricular activities. One can also conclude that the underachievers in this study have been unable to achieve their full potential as a result of various factors that include family influences, peer influences, previous academic experiences, and lack of self motivation. This research can be beneficial to educators and researchers as they continue to unravel the complexities of academic achievement between and among students of color.

As a consequence of the racial dilemma that exists in this society, Black students on White campuses experience education in ways that are different from that of their White cohorts. Black students tend to experience more social and academic alienation, more financial and personal problems, and feel less satisfaction with their educational experience. Much of the research on the experiences of Black students in higher education tends to use quantitative methodologies which do provide insights into the experiences of these students. However, these methodologies do not allow the students to speak for themselves about their experiences. Giving students the opportunity to explain their own realities is one way to deepen our understanding of that experience. This process calls for a qualitative approach, one which may expand our understanding of the experiences of these students. The qualitative approach used in this study includes a thematic analysis of interview data taken from Black students on a predominantly White college campus. The data from this study supported earlier research and confirmed that Black students experience alienation and isolation at this predominantly White college campus. Alienation and isolation was experienced in the classroom and in their living arrangements on campus. The students stated that one of the major learning experiences at the college was learning how to respond to racism and to manage their social relationships with White students and professors in a beneficial way. While students felt that the experience was difficult, they also found it beneficial in that they saw it as preparation for the world outside of college.

There are 184 active charter school districts in Texas, which use public tax dollars like traditional school districts, providing educational opportunities to over 350,000 Texas students. Charter schools accept state and federal funds and often operate with less oversight than their neighboring local public schools, yet they have the autonomy to accomplish the mission(s) set forth by the charter school operator. Although there have been numerous studies looking at the effectiveness of charter schools in terms of student achievement, very little research has been on the programs that charter schools implement to address the needs of their English learner populations. This study examined charter school leaders' perceptions in the selection of the EL instructional programs that are offered to their English Learners. Interviews of district bilingual/ESL directors of Texas charter schools, or their equivalents, were conducted. Using a constructivist grounded theory design, this study explored the factors and decisions of instructional leaders in implementing a particular second language program, with special attention to the ideologies informing these decisions. Themes emerged from the data and were be explored. The findings of this study are vital in helping other charter school operators better understand the challenges and potential pitfalls faced by current charter school operators in supporting their EL populations.

This study is a situated qualitative investigation of the multiple languages and identities of three Japanese international school students in Japan. These students had no foreign heritage or experience living outside Japan, but had been educated completely in English-medium international schools since kindergarten. In effect, they had been socialized into another culture and language without leaving Japan--a relatively monolingual and monocultural country. The participants' complex linguistic situations and identities were investigated using narrative inquiry over a period of 19 months. Their narratives, gathered primarily by interviews, were supplemented by observations, interviews of those close to them, and other data sources. Using postmodernist-influenced concepts as analytical lenses, I was able to bring to light the students' complex views on language and identity emerging from their unique linguistic and cultural experiences. The students in this study revealed that one does not necessarily belong to a single dominant culture or have a single "first language." These students felt most comfortable with their multiple cultures and languages in a 'third space' (Bhabha, 1994), and they actively took part in creating their own hybrid cultures, languages, and identities. The students' hybrid languages and identities were nurtured and secure within the international school community. However, once outside this community, the students realized the complexities within themselves, requiring that they learn to negotiate their identities, as identity crucially involves location and relationships with others. When they were able to visualize their futures as bilingual/bicultural individuals, their identities became somewhat clearer and less contested. At that point, they felt that their linguistic and cultural hybridity was not entirely an obstacle, but something that they could also use to their advantage. It was when they had to make either-or choices between cultures, languages, and identities that they felt troubled or deficient. Through their narratives, the participants revealed the extent to which static categories and monolithic notions of language and culture were imposed upon them, and how these affected their understanding and perceptions of themselves. In conclusion, I interrogate such static views and urge researchers, educators, and bilingual/bicultural individuals to view languages and identities in more complex ways. / CITE/Language Arts

This study's primary purpose was to investigate Korean ESL students' perceptions about reading in English and about themselves as readers of English texts, and to examine how those perceptions influence their reading processing strategies. The secondary purpose was to discover how the cultural background of a text affects Korean ESL students' reading strategies and reading comprehension. Differences between intermediate and advanced readers were analyzed. The study followed a qualitative case study methodology, targeting five Korean ESL students in a university-affiliated language program. Five data sources were employed: interviews, questionnaires, think-aloud protocols, follow-up discussions, and a researcher's journal. Major findings were that (1) intermediate as well as advanced readers possessed the notion that second language reading, like first language, is an active process of comprehension; (2) subjects' perceptions about reading in English affected their interactions with English texts; (3) subjects employed a variety of reading strategies to enhance their comprehension; (4) both advanced and intermediate readers focused on meaning construction, but intermediate readers also indicated a strong concern with vocabulary, which became an obstacle to their reading comprehension; (5) participants perceived that it was easier to comprehend a culturally familiar text than a culturally unfamiliar one; and (6) regardless of proficiency, participants generally did not consider themselves good ESL readers, as they still have difficulty interacting with English texts. However, an analysis of their reading strategies demonstrated that all should be viewed as proficient ESL readers; they understood what they read, clarified their misunderstandings, and employed reading strategies appropriate to the given task. Implications of this study for teaching and for materials selection and design are provided.

The present study investigated cultural bias in the WISC-R and problems that arise from translating the WISC-R from one language to another. Four Verbal subtests--Information, Similarity, Vocabulary, and Comprehension--were split in half by their odd and even items. The even items were translated into Bengali, a language spoken in India. The subtests were then administered as a group, pencil and paper test to 80 East Indian children, whose age ranged from 13 to 16 years. The obtained data was compared to that of an American sample of 51 students. Split half Reliabilities, T tests, Mixed Design ANOVAs, P-values and Chi-Squares were used to analyze the data. Results suggest that both groups performed better on the odd items, overall. Translation does affect the difficulty level of items. Further, some items were identified as biased, positively and negatively, against each of the two sample groups.

"A coyote in the outer world" is an observational exploration by an American Indian about the influences of culture change upon his own ancient Navajo traditions since 1868. The colonial model of an authoritarian bureaucratic state of faceless disempowered citizens serves as the abrupt change-agent for native and native American culture since circa 1780. Observations, opinions and culture specific models exemplify the culture-specific oral traditions contained in the complex mythologies, interpersonal theosophies and wisdom of the Navajo's kin-based community. Also included are strategies for self-definition that help distinguish between and revitalize one's ancient ancestral and contemporary historic oral traditions. Conveying American Indian perspectives about culture based self-definition in the United States reiterates that the Coyote is actively utilizing methodologies appropriate to his native perspective and acknowledges the dearth of scientific buttressing of culture specific observations.