This purpose of this dissertation is to investigate how four Mexican American male adolescents perceive their literacy within and outside of school. Particular attention is given to the literacies found in the family, gang, school, and juvenile court communities. Initially, the four Mexican American male adolescents who participated in this study were students in my alternative classroom. Later, I officially advocated for them and their families in the educational system. I worked with each participant for four years. Each participant is a member of a gang and has struggled with being successful in school. The ethnographic case study design of the research, enabled me to examine each participant's literacy story. Data collection methods included in-depth interviews, participant observation and field notes, and the gathering of written and visual artifacts such as school assignments, personal journals, individual tags, personally written raps, and photographs. Data were organized into "case study data bases" and each participant's story contributed to a larger discussion of the individual communities in which the four members participated. The research revealed that all four participants come from rich literacy environments and that the social and political roles of literacy varied within the different communities. These multiple roles controlled the participants' use of literacies to navigate within the educational and juvenile court systems.

Border Pedagogy for Democratic Practice articulates a pedagogy that awakens a more nuanced political consciousness, a sense of empathy and agency about social justice, and an increased comfort with ambiguities, for both student and teacher. By combining a theory of border pedagogy (developed by Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, Renato Rosaldo and others), with tenets from cultural studies, postcolonial literary theory and critical pedagogy/literacy, I argue for a new understanding in the way we teach diverse texts, an understanding that can be applied to the ongoing shifts in history and culture, and local and global politics. The first section historicizes, explores and synthesizes the major theorists and questions from which my framework arises. In the second chapter I analyze the border texts of Sherman Alexie, Rigoberta Menchu, and Guillermo Gomez-Pena, which I find useful in classroom exploration of border theory. In the final section, I offer models of courses each designed with the intent of facilitating an environment for critical literacy, political agency and "border thought," including the courses "Contemporary American Indian Literature," "Critical Thinking" and "The Arts in Society." My hope is that border pedagogy for democratic practice will encourage active citizenship in the interest of social justice.

Comparing Japanese and Mexican groups, the present study investigated cross-cultural differences in ESL learners' affective traits specific to formal settings. The target traits were measured by self-reporting questionnaires and class observations. Factor analysis of the questionnaire extracted four factors of ESL learners' affective traits, which were termed "activity", "social-awareness", "desirable behavior in formal learning", and "social isolation". The results indicated that some of these factors were strongly related with learners' cultural backgrounds. More specifically, the results showed Mexican students tended to take a more active approach toward in-class learning than their Japanese counterpart. However, the results also suggested that, in spite of passive learning behaviors they usually displayed, Japanese students valued active learning behaviors. Generally, the findings of this study are fairly congruent with the model constructed prior to the study.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the linguistic components of phonotactic and orthotactic probability affected children’s ability to fast-map orthographic information and whether orthographic processing explained unique variance on children’s literacy skills above and beyond that of phonological processing. Moreover, the current study examined whether kindergarten children with and without typical language abilities were differentially affected by linguistic processes on reading and spelling tasks. Fifty-six kindergarten children, 31 with typical language abilities and 25 with diagnosed language impairments, were exposed to novel nonwords through a computerized story format and asked to generate and identify these nonword spellings through a fast-mapping protocol. A battery of tasks also was administered which assessed the children’s phonological processing, rapid automatized naming, letter identification, vocabulary, reading, and spelling skills. The children fast-mapped orthographic information after minimal exposure to written words; children with typical language abilities performed significantly better on orthographic fast-mapping measures than children with language impairments. For all the children, more nonwords of high phonotactic and high orthotactic probability were fastmapped or generated, whereas more nonwords were identified in a low phonotactic probability condition. For children with typical language abilities, orthographic processing was found to explain unique variance above and beyond that explained by phonological processing on reading and spelling measures; for children with language impairments, neither phonological processing nor orthographic processing accounted for significant variance in their reading and spelling performance. The practical significance of these results and suggestions for future research are discussed. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Jean Francois Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition provides useful tools for investigating the student-student and student-teacher relationships in a composition class conducted on a computer network via modems. Lyotard's examination of how knowledge has been legitimated in the classical to postmodern period suggests that along with the delegitimation of the grand narratives of emancipation and speculation has come a reduction in power of narrative means of legitimation, leading to the postmodern age of paralogy, in which knowledge is legitimated by local groups of experts enacting momentary rules to guide their specific discussions. Throughout this text, Lyotard dispenses with the idea that narration might hold a strong position as a legitimating structure. At best, he suggests that "little narratives" continue to exert importance, but only at the level of examples and statements made by scientists, not at the level of the laws or rules of significance. At the same time, Lyotard privileges the importance of scientific knowledge and scientific means of legitimation. Relatedly, he also privileges technology, suggesting ultimately that computer data banks will provide society with an efficient means for determining the rules needed to guide the experts involved in paralogical legitimation. Such privileging of science and technology is not fully justified, for narrative means of legitimation are still important, as is shown by the data saved from a class taught over a computer network as part of a distance education program using modems. The data from this computer modem course suggest that narration is still powerful as a force for legitimation, both in how the class is legitimated as a structure, and in how the students and teachers play legitimating roles with each other. Class members speak to each other from narrative positions of power. However, they speak from multiple narratives forming cross-cutting and blurring senses of narrative power. Thus, these narratives lead to disruptions in the class, disruptions that operate in ways similar to Lyotard's notions of paralogy, leading to a system of narrative paralogy.

This dissertation is an analysis of the history of the modern bilingual education movement of the 1960s, the older bilingual tradition of schooling in this nation since the nineteenth century, and the early to middle years of the twentieth century when English-Only pedagogy appeared as a, dramatic aberration to the American bilingual tradition. The historiography and interpretive battles of this subject are examined and explained in the Introduction. Chapter One offers a brief historical sketch of bilingual schooling in Texas during the nineteenth century. Chapter Two evaluates the role of the Progressive Education Movement in Texas and the destruction of the long-held practice of bilingual schooling. Chapters Three through Five demonstrate the influence of the Americanization Movement in Texas, the practice of English-only pedagogy, and the role of intelligence testing in the education of Mexican Americans. Chapter Six examines the developments in language instruction during World War II and the post-war changes in pedagogy. Chapter Seven analyzes the Mexican American response to the English-only language policies of Texas and relates that response to the community's sense of cultural identity. Finally, Chapter Eight documents the birth in the 1960s of the official bilingual education movement. This study has several important implications for the controversial issue of bilingual education and the study of education in American history. Too often, the judgments of respected historians and the opinions of nativists virtually agree on the same assumptions and complaints regarding bilingual education. This is largely because historians have neglected to write the history of bilingual education and the development of public school language policy and pedagogy. This work, largely through the case study of Texas offers a glimpse of bilingual instruction that demonstrates its former rich acceptance and widely disseminated practice in everyday American life. The bilingual tradition was not an aberration; rather, the more recent practice of English-only is the true fluke in American education history. With this massive reorientation in historical conceptualization, perhaps attitudes regarding modern bilingual instruction can become more reflective and sophisticated, and less based on misinformation and passion. Also, the tolerance, spirit of democratic localism, and implicit multiculturalism inherent in the practice of bilingual instruction all offer new ways in which to view the American past, causing a re-evaluation of the validity of the American melting-pot metaphor, the traditional myth arguing for rapid and relatively painless immigrant assimilation.

No description available.

<p>This study explores second and third year students' and teachers‟ views on factors that hinder or facilitate the mastery of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in the Science and Engineering Technology Higher Institutions of learning in Rwanda (KIST) and seeks to establish the extent to which the current programme meets the needs of the students. This is done by highlighting a whole range of teacher and student perspectives on the EAP programme. Two key requirements invite students to write their academic assignments in the form of research proposals and research project reports. In order to help them perform well in their field subjects, KIST introduced a department of English with a General English Programme under the umbrella of the then School of Language Studies (SORAS) in 1997. The department‟s first assigned mission was to teach English to students in all departments in a bid to support and encourage them to cope with their field specific courses which are taught in English. Rwanda‟s National Council for Higher Education (2007), on language teaching and learning, states that the trio, that is Kinyarwanda (the Mother Tongue and national language) and English and French (as foreign languages), should be taught at primary, secondary and higher education levels in order to reconcile the divide between Rwandan returnees (who had lived abroad for many decades) and locals. It is in this context that KIST, one of the institutions of higher learning, adopted the bilingual policy to cater to students‟ needs to learn both French and English as media of academic communication. However, after Rwanda‟s integration into the East African Community and the Commonwealth, English has been officially adopted as the medium of instruction in all schools and higher institutions of education. That is why there was a sudden language shift in 2006 from French to English as a medium of instruction at KIST. French and Kinyarwanda are now merely taught as subjects. The motive behind the move was to cater for Rwanda‟s needs to fully participate in the economic community of East African Community in general and in the global economy in particular. The move drastically affected students‟ ability to read and write English in their respective disciplines. The move also affected lecturers of other speciality areas. To avert the obvious challenges emanating from this sudden shift in language policy, the Institute introduced the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programmes under the then KIST School of Language Studies (SOLAS) and the KIST Language Centre. However, appropriate instructional materials for such courses have not been easily available. Given this situation, English teachers have had to create their own materials rather than the existing generalised and pre-packaged language teaching materials. As a result, students‟ specific needs for induction into a scientific writing community at tertiary level have rarely been met. It is against this background that the study seeks to investigate factors that are facilitating and the mastery of EAP. The study operates on post-colonial/post-structuralist theoretical perspectives. These were founded on the analytical framework that is guided by thematic and/or conceptual underpinnings of language policy in the post-colonial Africa. Thus, English Language Teaching (ELT), developed into English as a second and additional language that is multi-semiotic and multi-modality in EAP and science genres, focusing mostly on its academic literacy, identity, ideology, power and agency, as well as its investment in language teaching and learning and the scientific community practice. Using a combination of ethnographic principles/practices like participants‟ observations, oneto- one interviews, focus group discussions and documentary review in data collection, the study utilises thematic/conceptual analysis to draw its conclusions. Drawing from the above conceptual perspectives, therefore, as well as from the methodological approach, this thesis emphasises the fact that the inability of students to successfully master EAP is caused by various factors, including the choice of English language learning materials. Contradictory approaches to language learning and to academic literacy practices create further challenges to the Rwandan students‟ advancement in English mastery. These same practices also serve to limit the students‟ ability to learn this language and complicate their access to local and global cultural exposure that is necessary for their socio-economic development of Rwanda. The study also reveals lack of appropriate discursive competence and multi-semiotic repertoires as some of the major factors inhibiting students‟ academic progress. This is partly explained by the nature of the English language learning and teaching materials that is in use which neither provides general nor disciplinary specific academic and learning opportunities in English. Similarly, a range of structural and professional constraints on &bdquo / agency‟ exists for teachers of English in Rwanda as an additional language to the students, including lack of induction into scientific discourses or the EAP community of language practice. The overall lack of power and agency by teachers also contributes to constraints and constrictions in English language learning practices for these students in Rwanda. The study, however, observes that this situation is not only peculiar to KIST, as it is also common in almost all tertiary institutions in Rwanda. Specific recommendations are made in the study to improve the quality of English language learning and teaching in general and EAP in particular at KIST as an institution of higher learning, through the establishment of a clearer language policy and training opportunities for staff to update and develop required language skills in EAP, especially with regards to writing skills in sciences and engineering. The government of Rwanda, under the umbrella of Rwanda Education Board (REB) and the contribution of English language experts at the Institute, should provide a clearer direction of the language policy and curriculum that addresses Rwandan students‟ specific needs. KIST, as an institution of higher learning, should value and facilitate the teaching and learning of English in general and the teaching of EAP in particular, bearing in mind its assigned mission. The management of the Institute should encourage interaction between EAP and subject area lecturers to discuss and agree upon, text types to be used by EAP lecturers in teaching. KIST management should also provide room for regular interactions with English lecturers to listen to their views and offer them further language training opportunities in order to update and develop the required skills in EAP, especially with regards to writing skills in science and engineering.</p>

No description available.

<p> This dissertation reports the results of a qualitative research project investigating an approach to composition instruction in a high school social studies course that is based on the Upanishadic concept of <i>tat tvam asi</i> (you are that). Research for this study was conducted while I taught a section of Non-West History to high school juniors and seniors. This dissertation addresses the issues involved in the teaching of writing in a high school social science course. Specifically it focuses on the issues involved when a teacher attempts to construct a class that engages students to read and write in ways that promote empathic understanding of the other. To make this argument, I collected data in the Non-West History courses that I taught in 2012. The data consists largely of writing prompts I gave students dealing with literature we read and films we watched as well as their written responses. This dissertation argues that writing in a social science class should not be limited to research papers and essay tests. Further, this dissertation argues (citing the work of Jeremy Rifkin, J. Krishnamurti, Carl Rogers, Rollo May, Thomas Merton, and S. Radhakrishnan) that writing assignments should also be given that promote the empathic awareness that the self is the other. Further, I will offer a counter notion that writing in Social Studies classes should not be just about "conveying information" or "demonstrating knowledge" (<i>cf.</i> Kiuhara et al. 150). Instead, writing should be used to give students the opportunities to creatively develop new insights about their place in the world. Thus, this dissertation concludes by proposing a new model for the teaching of writing in a high school social science course. </p>