<p> Latino students face many challenges on higher education campuses. These challenges require faculty and staff to respond in direct and meaningful ways. Often families have different backgrounds, backgrounds that warrant serious research. Understanding the student as a whole person means understating their families and where they came from. Sometimes this means looking for and listening to their voice. College administrators need to understand the motivational components of incoming Latino students to serve them well. In this transformative autoethonographic study, I focused on understanding stories told by one first-generation, immigrant Latino family's journey through higher education, and their challenges and successes attaining a degree in predominantly White institutions.</p>

<p>This study explored biographicity as the process through which individuals repeatedly shape and reshape their lives to meet their own needs and desires in response to conditions of life in late modernity, a time of rapid social and economic change. The study highlighted the particular issues faced by marginalized populations, and especially urban young adults, who were the focus of the study. </p><p> Using biographical research methodology, the study sought to understand the complex interplay between individuals and the constraints and/or supports of social structures and contexts. Seventeen adults, aged 23 to 32, participated. The participants attended high-poverty urban schools where historically fewer than 50% of students receive a high school diploma. Each was the first in the family to attend college. Participants told their life stories in extended, unstructured interviews, producing their own <i>narrated life</i>. Interpretation of this interview <i>data</i> was an iterative, abductive process that explored the life stories through structural descriptions of the narratives, process structures of the life course, and thematic horizons that emerged from the life stories as told. </p><p> Three thematic horizons (expectations/imagining a different future, suffering, and belonging) formed the foundation for the exploration of patterns of meaning that concluded that certain consistent elements were essential to participants&rsquo; exercise of biographicity. These elements led to a configuration that allows scholars and practitioners to understand biographicity as a complex, organic process that cannot be reduced to simple characteristics or a linear set of variables. The study concluded that learning and biographicity are inseparably linked, forming an <i>enactive ecology of learning</i> in which individuals engage in processes that allow them to interact with their environment across the learning domains of cognition, emotion, and social interaction as well as participatory sensemaking and autonomy/heteronomy. In addition, experiences of recognition are essential to the exercise of biographicity. Biographicity was found to be a continual process of learning from one&rsquo;s life experiences and enacting a desired future as a form of lifelong learning. Finally, these particular participants provided insights that contribute to recommendations for theory, research, and practice that reflect their own experiences of biographicity. </p>

<p> Following the 1994 uprising of the Zapatistas, an indigenous army in southern Mexico, a small community arts and education center was developed in East Los Angeles that believed another world was possible. This research seeks to examine the alternative nature and learning of the EastSide Caf&eacute;. Guided by Zapatismo, Chicana Feminism, and decolonial theory, seven EastSide Caf&eacute; members were asked to offer the details of <i>how</i> the EastSide Caf&eacute; promotes alternative learning. The findings present a simple culture of horizontality, but more importantly, a praxis of a liberated learning zone that shifts the consciousness of participants by showing that another world, another way, is possible.</p>

<p> This qualitative dissertation study explores the various roles and practices that classroom teachers can enact in their work to increase the college going rates of working-class Latina/o youth. Utilizing Stanton-Salazar's (2011) <i> empowerment social capital</i> theoretical framework, this study examined the role and identity development, practices, and challenges of 14 classroom teachers whose college-focused work aimed to increase their students' <i> social capital</i>, resources, and opportunities for higher education. In addition, it also examined those cases when educators extended their work to actively counter the inequitable schooling conditions and structures facing working-class Latina/o youth (i.e., <i>empowerment agents</i>). Utilizing interviews, document collection, and journal responses, some of the emerging themes included: the role that teachers' personal identities play in their practices for college access and social justice, the lack of funding and resources for students' college planning prompting educators' efforts, and the various challenging schooling structures and policies testing teacher sustainability. Policy and practice recommendations aim to increase the development of resource-generating and empowering relationships between working-class Latina/o youth and their teachers, as well as to develop structures and environments required for teacher sustainability. Recommendations for further research are also provided.</p>

<p> Faith-based school-family-community partnerships have been a federal mandate over the past decade, yet little has been written about the outcomes of these faith-based partnerships. A need exists to understand if the potential in these faith-based partnerships is indeed realized in positive outcomes for students and schools. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a faith-based school-family-community partnership, Just Love. Just Love is a faith-based school-family-community partnership between a large suburban church and a Title 1, urban elementary school, Charisma Elementary School (Charisma ES), implemented in what is considered a "failing school". Just Love's purpose was to have the volunteers from the church provide love, care, supportive adult relationships and service to the teachers, students, and parents of Charisma ES through a comprehensive, systemic program: <b>Just Mentor</b> (i.e., a school-based mentoring program), <b>Just Connect</b> (i.e., a classroom adoption program), and <b>Just Rewards</b> (i.e., a school wide student incentives/rewards and parent involvement program). The Bryan and Henry (2012) School-Family-Community Partnership Process Model was used in developing Just Love.</p><p> The Model for Collaborative Evaluations (MCE) was used in this evaluation to actively engage stakeholders during the evaluation process and to answer the evaluation questions. A mixed methods research design was used. Differences in student outcomes (i.e. academic, behavior and attendance) were examined between Charisma ES and another matching school without a faith-based school-family-community partnership were analyzed with descriptive statistics, paired T-tests, and mixed ANOVAs. Student outcomes were also investigated relevant to different aspects of the Just Love programs including adopted classrooms compared to non-adopted classrooms and mentored students compared to non-mentored students. </p><p> In addition, this study gave 20 children (i.e., mentees) who had experienced all aspects of the Just Love programs an opportunity to share their perceived satisfactions, experiences, challenges and recommendations regarding Just Love through the method of photo elicitation including picture selection and interviews. The transcribed data from the interviews and the pictures used in the photo-elicitation process were analyzed using thematic analysis with a focus on capturing the voices of the students.</p><p> Student outcome data were collected for three years from 2010-2013, with 2009 as a baseline year. The findings from the quantitative aspect of this study revealed that students in Charisma ES made significantly greater gains in reading than students in Joseph ES following the implementation of the partnership. Further, number of disciplinary referrals decreased dramatically at Charisma ES in contrast to Joseph ES whose disciplinary referrals increased. Attendance rates differed significantly between the two schools with students in Joseph Elementary School having higher attendance rates than students in Charisma Elementary School.</p><p> On average, both adopted and non-adopted classes made gains in reading in each of the three years although adopted classes appeared to have higher reading scores in 2011-2012 than non-adopted classes. The average number of disciplinary referrals per class was lower for adopted classes than for non-adopted classes in 2011-2012, one academic year after the Just Love partnership program was implemented. Concerning attendance, there were no significant differences in attendance rates between students in adopted and non-adopted classes at Charisma ES.</p><p> Mentored students at Charisma made significant improvements in reading. They also had a dramatically lower average number of disciplinary referrals than non-mentored students in 2012-2013, just two years after the Just Love partnership was implemented. When compared to non-mentored students, mentored students had significantly higher attendance than non-mentored students in 2011-2012, just one year after the Just Love partnership began. Further, attendance appeared to have a positive relation to the number of years students were mentored.</p><p> Findings from the qualitative aspect of this study were captured using thematic analysis of the children's perceived satisfactions, experiences, challenges and recommendations concerning Just Love. The six categories that emerged from the data were (a) perceptions of Just Love, (b) positive feelings, (c) positive relationships and connectedness, (d) classroom and school climate, (e) experiences, and (f) support and resources. Each of these categories comprised a number of themes that aligned with identified protective factors and developmental assets necessary for the resiliency of and successful outcomes for children. </p><p> Taken together, the findings reveal that Just Love, a faith-based school-family-community partnership contributed to improved student outcomes in reading achievement, behavior and attendance and provided important protective factors and developmental assets for the children in Charisma ES. The Just Love partnership program presents a viable model for schools, school districts, and faith-based and community organizations that have a desire to foster resilience in children at-risk, generate positive academic, behavior, and attendance outcomes for children and decrease the chances of children growing up and developing risky behaviors. Implications for practice, training, evaluation, policy, and future research are discussed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

<p> How do young people in Paraguay develop social identities as they engage in multilingual language practices? What are the impacts of language policies that at times encourage the use of Guaran&iacute;, and at others discourage it? The primary goal of this study is to explore the relationships between children's language ideologies and the sociohistorical roots of societal level discourses regarding the power and prestige associated with Spanish and Guaran&iacute; in Paraguay. Of equal importance is the role of educators in either challenging or reinforcing those discourses. Field-work was conducted in an urban school in Paraguay's capital, Asunci&oacute;n. Participants' language use, language ideologies, and processes of social identification were analyzed through classroom observations, unstructured interviews, and surveys. </p><p> Findings revealed that students' and teachers' use of Guaran&iacute; is closely related to perceptions of the language's ability to provide opportunities for upward social mobility. Data also suggests a generational decrease in the use of Guaran&iacute; amongst students, and a tendency to reserve Guaran&iacute; for the private sphere. Despite efforts to elevate the status of Guaran&iacute;, prestige is overwhelmingly associated with European languages (Spanish, English, and Portuguese). Guaran&iacute;, in contrast, is strongly associated with Paraguayan national identity, and communicating closeness. While English and Portuguese are perceived to potentially provide financial and social capital, students lack similar motivation to learn Guaran&iacute; within the context of the classroom. Although teachers cannot change societal discourses that devalue Guaran&iacute;, they <i>can</i> facilitate a critical inquiry into such attitudes, and encourage students to challenge the status quo.</p>

<p> International assessments such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) have exhibited United States students specifically in the fourth and eighth grades, are not performing well when compared to their international peers. Educational stakeholders including parents, teachers, politicians, and the business community are putting more pressure on schools to improve their student&rsquo;s academic performance. The stakeholders want improved performance on not only American assessments but also on international tests. The purpose of the current qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions of educators in the United States to investigate the possible use of alternative educational innovations as a means for bridging the achievement gap between learners. The qualitative research study involved investigating the perceptions of 52 educational professionals through an online web-based survey and analyzing the data using the three steps outlined by Merriam. Two themes emerged from the data and two subthemes were revealed. The themes were finances and training and professional development. The subthemes were funding allocation and teacher compensation.</p>

<p> Nationwide, teacher attrition is a steady and costly phenomenon. Teachers have left the field of education or have left urban schools for better teaching assignments. Although many studies delineated some factors for teacher attrition, namely urban teacher attrition, little has been done to reverse the cycle of teachers leaving prior to realizing their full potential as an educator. A gap in knowledge exists because researchers have not addressed if administrators of teacher preparation programs have included sufficient experiences and supports in the program to prepare teachers for the urban classroom. The implications for urban teacher attrition are far reaching. Urban attrition can force urban students to have an unsteady influx of beginning teachers with limited experience and skills who leave the schools after a few years. To assist with closing the achievement gap and making sure urban students are ready for the competitive job market, urban students need teachers with increased experience and skills. Teachers enter the teaching profession academically prepared but unprepared for the challenges and demands of the urban classroom. The findings from this phenomenological study produced five themes and one subtheme that teachers believe are important preparation experiences to for urban teacher preparation and reducing attrition. The themes were (a) comprehensive preparation, (b) subtheme support, (c) classroom management, (d) field experience, (e) necessary skills, and (f) multicultural preparation. The recommendations invite future studies that can include input from educational leaders, policy makers, and stakeholders to take a proactive role in reducing urban teacher attrition. </p>

<p> Globalization has resulted in the need for not only competent leaders but also leaders who have high levels of cultural intelligence. Currently there is a paucity of empirical research demonstrating causes of cultural intelligence, especially in the educational setting (Haigh, 2002; Knight, 2007; Rivera, Jr., 2010). The purpose of the current investigation is to examine whether educational experience (class level) has an impact on cultural intelligence and whether there is a statistical interaction between levels of cultural exposure and educational experience (class level) on cultural intelligence scores. A causal-comparative quasi-experimental cross-sectional quantitative study was used for the current investigation to describe differences between selected independent variables of educational experience (class level) and cultural exposure (none, minimal, moderate, high) on the dependent variable of cultural intelligence scores as measured by the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) (Ang et al., 2007). Main and interaction effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable indicated that differences in educational experience (class level) and/or cultural exposure level have an impact on cultural intelligence scores. The data were collected from a population consisting of business administration students at a community college in the midwestern United States. A convenience sampling technique was used, drawing from the database of students enrolled in the business administration program. Because differences in cultural intelligence scores were found between class levels in college in the additional analyses, education might impact cultural intelligence positively, and strategies to foster more educational opportunities were recommended. Differences in cultural exposure levels resulted in differences in cultural intelligence scores in both the primary and the additional analysis and additional opportunities for cultural exposure expansion were recommended. The results of this study are useful because institutions of higher education prepare students for a global environment and advance the cultural knowledge of their students. The information from this study corroborates and adds to the literature on education and cultural intelligence and may suggest that institutions of higher learning should promote augmented cultural information/exposure. </p>

<p> Globalization has resulted in the need for not only competent leaders but also leaders who have high levels of cultural intelligence. Currently there is a paucity of empirical research demonstrating causes of cultural intelligence, especially in the educational setting (Haigh, 2002; Knight, 2007; Rivera, Jr., 2010). The purpose of the current investigation is to examine whether educational experience (class level) has an impact on cultural intelligence and whether there is a statistical interaction between levels of cultural exposure and educational experience (class level) on cultural intelligence scores. A causal-comparative quasi-experimental cross-sectional quantitative study was used for the current investigation to describe differences between selected independent variables of educational experience (class level) and cultural exposure (none, minimal, moderate, high) on the dependent variable of cultural intelligence scores as measured by the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) (Ang et al., 2007). Main and interaction effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable indicated that differences in educational experience (class level) and/or cultural exposure level have an impact on cultural intelligence scores. The data were collected from a population consisting of business administration students at a community college in the midwestern United States. A convenience sampling technique was used, drawing from the database of students enrolled in the business administration program. Because differences in cultural intelligence scores were found between class levels in college in the additional analyses, education might impact cultural intelligence positively, and strategies to foster more educational opportunities were recommended. Differences in cultural exposure levels resulted in differences in cultural intelligence scores in both the primary and the additional analysis and additional opportunities for cultural exposure expansion were recommended. The results of this study are useful because institutions of higher education prepare students for a global environment and advance the cultural knowledge of their students. The information from this study corroborates and adds to the literature on education and cultural intelligence and may suggest that institutions of higher learning should promote augmented cultural information/exposure.</p>