This teacher-researcher study examines the experiences of secondary students in a unique Upward Bound program exclusively for Native Americans. The study followed the reading and writing experiences of these students during a 2-year period. The focus of the dissertation is on the literacy experiences of students as they were exposed to a rich writing program that used culture as the invitation to literacy. The investigation follows both teacher researcher and students during the emergence of a transactional curriculum that closely followed the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force recommendations for Native American learners. The study enlisted 20 Native American students who were already participating in the Upward Bound program. This program was chosen because it was the only such program in the United States exclusively for Native American students. These students attended public high schools in Tucson, Arizona, or high schools on the Tohono O'odham reservation outside Tucson. The curriculum focus is on transactional literacy experiences and inquiry. These focuses and the concept of teacher as researcher provide the theoretical framework. This framework illuminates curriculum as it attempts to transform the educational experiences of Native American adolescents immersed in writing experiences rooted in Native American ways of viewing the world. This analysis of one distinctive writing class suggests that the often documented institutionally-produced factors that contribute to Native American adolescent failure and discontinuity in secondary writing settings can be overcome when Native American culture is not only valued, but embraced as the focus of literacy in school. This dissertation provides insights into the uniqueness of Native American school experiences and extends the current body of literature on Native American education by considering culture as the invitation into literacy and the teacher as change agent. This study also asks others to pick up the torch. Finally, teacher researcher generated recommendations provide an opportunity for teachers themselves to begin the process of changing the discontinuity of learning often felt by Native Americans in their own classrooms. These recommendations include five conditions for an emerging curriculum: (a) creating space for transactional dialogues, (b) sharing responsibility, (c) trusting inquiry, (d) using multiple sign systems, and (e) accessing personal and social ways of knowing. We need not wait for institutional change to make a difference. As has often been stated in educational research, the teacher makes the difference.

This micro-ethnographic classroom-based case study explores analytic and experiential teaching strategies that lead to engaged student participation and increased learning opportunities in German and French first grade language arts and math classes. The data were collected from two successful public elementary immersion schools in Milwaukee where English-speaking children learn the school curriculum through a second language (German or French) starting from kindergarten. The data in this study were collected in a seven-month time period by using data collection methods such as field notes, audiotaping, videotaping, and interviews. The constant comparative method, based on grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), and enumerative techniques were used for data analysis. The data have shown that the first grade immersion teachers used analytic and experiential teaching strategies in learning contexts in order to promote oral second language use and content learning in language arts and math classes. Analytic teaching strategies focus on specific features of the target language, such as syntactic structures, pronunciation, and vocabulary, whereas, experiential teaching strategies focused on the use of the target language in a meaningful and contextualized way. This study also suggests that teachers' learning and teaching philosophies are reflected in their actions and behaviors, and analytic and experiential teaching strategies are the reflections of the teachers' belief systems and their instructional practices. The knowledge gained from this study may form a solid background for pre-service and in-service teacher education programs by demonstrating the needs of immersion teachers, and also recognizing the challenges of immersion education.

The purpose of this qualitative teacher research study was to explore the characteristics of literature circles with preservice teachers and children. Drawing on Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural theory and Rosenblatt's (1938) transactional theory, this study focuses on the talk of preservice teachers in literature circles with children and the perceptions of preservice teachers about these literature circles. The study was conducted in a fourth grade classroom and a university children's literature course in the southwestern United States over one academic year. Thirty children and 27-28 preservice teachers participated in three to five literature circles each semester. A total of 47 literature circles were tape recorded, transcribed and analyzed. Other sources of data included a teaching journal, free writes from participants and interviews with some preservice teachers. The methods of analysis included coding, visual markers and constant comparison. These literature circles were investigated through a detailed description of the data. There were certain characteristics to organizing the discussions such as selecting books, developing the discussion strategies, planning the circles, producing free writes and reflecting on the experience. This study focuses on how the talk of preservice teachers in literature circles with children evolved over time. The results indicate that the preservice teachers initiated and facilitated discussion, asked and answered questions, dominated discussion, listened, supported and explored children's talk, and shared personal connections and responses as a reader. In addition, the study explores preservice teachers' perceptions of literature circles with children. Three major themes were found: The preservice teachers learned about children in the literature circles, how to do circles and the value these circles for children. Finally, the findings illustrate how the literature experience with preservice teachers influenced the children. According to the data, the children had significant relationships with young adults, managed the literature circles, considered different perspectives in the discussions, gained confidence in their ability to talk, gained perspectives on college and acquired personal advocates. This study shows the importance of partnerships between universities and elementary schools. The preservice teachers were given opportunities to experience reading, writing, learning and teaching with children. The college students were able to observe children learning and to reflect on these experiences.

Astronomical images are found on monumental structures and decorative art, and metaphorically in seasonal myths, and are documented by calendars. In Israel and the southern Levant, images of the sun, the moon, and the stars were common decorating motifs. They were found on walls, pottery, and seals and date to as early as the Chalcolithic period; for example, the wall painting of a star at Teleilat Ghassul (North 1961). This dissertation establishes that the people of the Levant were aware of the apparent movement of the sun, and this will be discussed in Chapter 4. They began recording through representation drawings, astronomical phenomena no later than the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age and continued to do so late into the Middle Bronze Age. The argument moves beyond the simple use of symbols to the use of images to represent constellations, with the focus on the constellation Leo in Chapter 5. Furthermore, the use of astronomy as a power and political tool is also suggested in Chapter 6. Nonetheless, the primary purpose that is addressed here is the tendency in Syro-Palestinian archaeology has been to attribute technological evidence found in the northern and southern Levant as diffused from Egypt or Assyria, particularly astronomy. This dissertation firmly establishes that astronomy was used in the southern Levant before any significant contact with the civilizations of Egypt or Assyria.

Recent trends in immigration to the German speaking countries have contributed to a new multi-cultural demographic in the "culture boxes" of L2 German textbooks. A close analysis of their content, however, reveals a racist discourse that promotes and reinforces a power-based, hegemonic majority culture at the expense of minorities, as well as materials that reinforce U.S. American cultural values at the expense of German ones by imagining a community of German speakers that meets U.S. national identity needs. Utilizing tools from the fields of semiotics, critical discourse analysis and cultural studies, the dissertation demonstrates how both racism toward the German "Other" and U.S. American ethnocentrism are promoted by discourse strategies including but not limited to: narration, indexicality, myth, metaphor and metonym. This dissertation views and comments on the L2 German textbook from the perspective of text itself, the culture therein represented, and the users of the materials, proposing that "reading" the L2 German textbook from a Cultural Studies perspective effectively addresses current theories about culture teaching and disciplinarity while bringing basic language learners into a much-advocated arena of critical thinking about the self and others. Such activities align basic language instruction more closely with beliefs about the responsibilities and goals of Humanities and General Education teaching in the United States.

This study is an investigation of issues of language planning and education in Aruba and how these might facilitate effective change on the island. The questions for this study were. (1) What are the predominant language varieties in Aruba, and to what uses are they put? (2) What is the official plan the Aruba government has put into place for educational change? (3) What generalizable implications for language planning and education surface from an in depth look at the context in Aruba? Major findings are the following: (1) The four predominant languages in Aruba are Papiamento, Dutch, Spanish and English. Papiamento is the indigenous language of the island used at home and as the lingua franca for island business. Dutch is the language of all official government documents and is the medium of instruction in the schools. Spanish language is utilized in homes of Aruban immigrants from Spanish speaking homelands and is commonly spoken among tourists and businesses catering to tourism. English is the vernacular language used at home for many Aruban families living in the San Nicolas geographic area of Aruba and is the language that dominates the tourism business. (2) The Aruban Department of Education has developed various plans for innovative change for their education system and is working in conjunction with several other agencies to bring systematic change to education in Aruba. These plans address language issues among others and are being implemented as legal strides are made. (3) In the context of Aruban culture and language, (a) education professionals have a responsibility to explore the ideological foundations of their theories and practices, (b) a commitment to structural equality is necessary, and (c) commitment to language planning in Aruba, and in any nation, requires a commitment to the struggle for language rights. Aruba's current political efforts are focused on initiating change for educational practice and theory. Aruba is in a position of unlimited possibilities to plan, design, and implement a new revised educational system that will change the culture of schooling in Aruba.

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore a situated technology integration professional development experience from the perspective of six university-level foreign and second language teachers as they engaged and participated in a best practices professional development model. Assuming variability in development based on contextual and individual factors, the study aimed to (1) illuminate the underlying issues by exploring how and why each teacher-learner experienced the professional development; (2) investigate the similarities and differences among the cases in order to more fully understand what was involved in advancing the development process, and (3) locate patterns among the cases that provide insight into what constitutes successful and effective technology integration professional development. This dissertation took a comparative multi-case study approach to achieving these research goals and employed a variety of interview, observation, and document data collection techniques. These included pre- and post-questionnaires that focused on the teacher-learners' technological, pedagogical, curricular, and development attitudes, beliefs, and goals; pre- and post-inventories measuring technology integration familiarity, use, and interest; six formative questionnaires by which the teacher-learners measured their own progression; group, pair, and individual interviews examining the teacher-learners experiences at different points; participatory and semi-participatory observations of the teacher-learners' participation in the various events that made up the model, including workshops, one-on-one consultations, collegial presentations, and in-class technology integration implementations; and document evidence in the form of the model's help sheets and lesson plans, as well as the syllabi and curriculum records kept by the teacher-learners themselves regarding their technology integration efforts. The resulting data were analyzed using a constant comparative method, quantitative visual display, and a grounded theory approach to coding for process. The study's findings supported the originally assumed development variability among the six technology integration professional development cases. Such variability was shown to be a product of the teacher-learners' own agency, which was revealed to exist in the individualized and contextualized ways they responded to and, thereby, shaped their experiences. The effectiveness vs. ineffectiveness of these means to advance the development processes support language teacher-learners undertaking situated cognition-based dialogic and reflective learning scenarios infused with self-directed learning and transformative learning opportunities.

The purpose of this study is to examine the theories of orientations in the context of a Japanese-as-a-foreign-language (JFL) classroom in the Northwest of the United States. Using a Grounded Theory methodology, this study includes data from card-sorting activities, teacher and student interviews, classroom observations, and scenario studies. The perspectives of language planning--theories of orientations--bring socio-political aspects to the foreign language classroom context, and help to describe the participants' voices, hopes and determinations toward learning Japanese in a foreign language classroom setting. The existing theories of orientations and the abstraction of the data results are merged into a new taxonomy. The notion of Grounded Theory--an interplay of data and theories--is a central perspective throughout the study. The JFL program in the Northwest reflects many aspects of the language-as-resource orientation. Most of the participants' voices and hopes are explicitly included in the program and in some standards on foreign language education. However, heritage language and identity issues are not explicitly discussed in this program. The research suggests that this program consider this aspect and develop an appropriate methodology for this population. In addition, a new descriptive orientation taxonomy is suggested in the coding process: Language as means of communication, Language as linguistic means, and Language as a mediator of culture (with two different emphases: First language and culture; and Any language and culture). The research findings and interpretations were negotiated with the participants in order to assure their appropriateness, and the study includes two-year data from various interviews, ranging from a pilot study to final interviews. Final interviews were conducted in addition to the main study in order to assure the results and my interpretations of interview quotations. This study contributes to research methodology itself by incorporating various research tools including descriptive statistics and traditional qualitative methods. As an exploration of this topic, this study presents important implications to foreign language education and pedagogy, and to theory development in language planning and policy.

Four-year colleges and universities in the US have a lengthy history of educating traditional students from privileged backgrounds. Such students usually arrive on campus with behaviors, beliefs, and learning strategies designed to help them succeed in classes that depend upon lectures as the primary mode of instruction. As increased numbers of nontraditional students have gained admission to four-year schools, college instructors have struggled to accommodate the diverse learning styles of this burgeoning student population. Unlike traditional students, nontraditional students generally lack a large repertoire of effective behaviors, beliefs, and learning strategies needed to succeed in college. Poor learning practices mean less learning and less learning transferred across assignments and courses. Although college composition classes tend to provide student-centered instruction designed to facilitate learning, nontraditional students continue to struggle to learn. In response to the learning challenges and failures that nontraditional students encounter at college, some four-year schools have chosen to redirect these students to two-year colleges. This dissertation argues in favor of equipping nontraditional students at four-year schools with effective learning practices via instruction in student self-regulation and self-efficacy inside the college classroom.

During the last several years, the growing interest in the teachability of pragmatics in a second or foreign language has been represented by a number of interventional studies that have examined either the possibility of teaching certain pragmatic features, or the effectiveness of specific teaching methods. This classroom-based project designed to investigate the teachability of pragmatics, focused on four intact classes at two different proficiency levels, using a quasi-experimental research design with the following structure: pretest - treatment - posttest - and delayed posttest. Participants were enrolled in a program of Foreign Languages at a university in Colombia. Two groups of students of basic English 2 (second semester) and two groups of students of intermediate English 1 (fifth semester) were the participants. The four groups received a written discourse completion test (WDCT) and a paired video-taped role-play (RP) as pretests. Results from the WDCT showed no significant differences between the two groups at each level, so the type of treatment (T1: pragmatics-based, and T2: institutionally imparted) was randomly assigned to the groups at each level. Treatment 1 provided learners with sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic information and practice of receptive and productive skills in the TL. The treatment lasted 20 hours distributed across three weeks, after which, all the participants received a post-test in the same two forms taken by the pretest. The comparison of paired samples between the pre-test and the post-test, and the comparison of multivariate means between groups at each level showed significant differences that confirmed the efficiency of the pragmatics-based instruction, although improvement was more evident in WDCT performance than in RP performance. The qualitative analysis indicated progress in the ability to perform the expected speech act, the use of typical expressions, and the amount of information given. Improvement was also salient in macrolevel cultural aspects such as the expression of appropriate levels of formality, directness and politeness for the realizations of requests, apologies and compliments, as measured by the WDCT and the RP. The delayed post-test suggests that the pragmatics-oriented instruction favored both retention and improvement for the WDCT, while for the RP, the main effect was retention.