Thesis has no abstract

Thesis advisor: Stephanie Berzin / In industrial organizational psychology, there is a well-established link between worker job satisfaction and worker engagement in their job. Similarly, research has found an association between a parent’s satisfaction with their child’s education services and a parent’s level of involvement in their child’s education. Levels of family involvement in their child’s education as early as preschool have been correlated with positive academic and behavioral outcomes throughout childhood. This line of research posits that families who are satisfied with their child’s education services are more likely to be involved in their child’s education and, consequentially, their children are more likely to have positive academic and behavioral outcomes. According to the theories proposed by industrial organization psychology and education research, this dissertation explores the potential links between satisfaction and involvement in Head Start services among U.S. born and immigrant families. To begin to understand the potential connection between satisfaction with services, engagement in services and the unique experiences of the immigrant communities in Head Start, this collection of three studies seeks to employ a mix of primary quantitative data and secondary quantitative data to examine satisfaction with and involvement in services among U.S. born and immigrant families in Head Start. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social work.

Thesis advisor: Marilynn Johnson / Notorious for bursting into flames, twentieth century Chelsea was a “city under fire.” Cast into the crossfire of industrialization and demographic flux, Chelsea suffered as people, industry, and financial assistance migrated in and out of the small city. Chelsea’s unique spectrum of urban problems, however, only explains the trials and tribulations leading up to the Great Fires of 1908 and 1973 and not the events created by them. In Chelsea, escalating urban crisis occurred simultaneously with rapidly growing immigrant populations. In the years before the fire of 1908, Jewish immigration pushed Chelsea to the brink of demographic succession; likewise, in the handful of years before the fire of 1973, Latino migrations forced Chelsea to recognize the changing dynamic of a once-homogeneous city. As isolated events, the Great Fire of 1908 and the Great Fire of 1973 were urban disasters, but as decisive moments in the local history of Jewish and Latino immigrants, the fires were nodal points in the interplay between urban-industrial life, urban crisis and immigration. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: History Honors Program. / Discipline: History.

Thesis advisor: David Scanlon / Family member-educator collaboration is envisioned as the "cornerstone" of the educational decision-making process for students with disabilities (e.g., Harry, 2008; Olivos, Friend and Cook, 2007, Gallagher and Aguilar, 2010). In the case of immigrant and refugee families, however, the ideal of coequal collaboration is often elusive for a variety of reasons (e.g., language barriers, disparate ideas about what familial involvement should be in educational decisions) (e.g., Lo, 2012). This qualitative multiple case study design (Yin, 2009) relied on interviews with family members and educators as well as observations of IEP meetings to examine the educational decision-making process in the context of Somali-American families of boys with autism. Findings from the present study echo many conclusions of previous research in terms of factors that facilitate (e.g., thoughtfully designed IEP meetings, frequent family-educator communication) and impede (e.g., divergent beliefs about the cause and course of autism, language barriers) family-educator collaboration in special education decision-making. The results, meanwhile, extended and challenged other aspects of existing literature. Analysis revealed, for example, the each school has a unique institutional culture whose norms (e.g., norms of parent participation in school activities, from dances and races to PTA meetings and in-class volunteering) can profoundly influence the ways in which family members and educators interact and engage in educational decision-making. In addition, while existing literature emphasizes the importance of cultural sensitivity among special educators (e.g., Harry, 1992; Lo, 2013), the present study suggests that in some cases, over-emphasis on cultural sensitivity can cause educators to be overly deferential and reluctant to actively engage with family members, in turn, leading to diminished or inauthentic communication. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Hispanic immigrant parents are a growing yet understudied population. Few studies have addressed the relationship between Hispanic immigrant parents and the acculturation process. The purpose of this study was to determine how acculturative stress, racism, language proficiency, poor coping style, and low levels of social support affect the psychological adjustment of Hispanic immigrant parents. Using the framework of acculturation theory, this quantitative study examined 92 immigrant Hispanic parents from an urban northeast school in the United States. Several established instruments that measured racism, coping style, language proficiency, social support, and psychological distress were used. The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that as Spanish competencies pressure increased, depressive symptoms increased. In addition, as interpersonal support increased, depressive symptoms decreased. Contrary to recent literature, racism, coping style, and language proficiency were not predictive of psychological distress. This study contributes to positive social change by understanding how Spanish competencies pressure can cause psychological distress, thereby giving therapists the sapience to better treat this population with effective therapies such as social support, and thus improving the quality of life of this population.

This dissertation investigates the internal and external barriers and successes in career preparation of a small group of immigrant doctoral students. Through three cycles of a four-year action research investigation that integrates interviews, surveys, participant reflections and autoethnography, the data was interpreted through the lenses of critical pedagogy, socio-cultural theory, ecological theory and dialectic theory. The study reveals some of the intercultural transformations that take place in order to reconstruct professional autonomy and perceptions of empowerment during the process of breaking downing internal and external barriers. In order for immigrant doctoral students to achieve professional integration the study presents recommendations to university leaders, graduate supervisors and graduate students themselves. The primary goals are to deepen the understanding of various barriers experienced by professional immigrant Ph.D. students and to identify the changes that occurred in reconstructing their professional autonomy and in their perception of empowerment during the process of breaking downing various external and internal barriers towards professional integration. This study should provide new understandings of what Canadian doctoral education means to professional immigrants, where gaps exist in universities programs of studies and their implementation, and between students career preparation needs and the services provided through university career support. In light of Canadas aggressive immigration policy, the findings point to the need to build an integrated career support system for immigrant doctoral students academic career transition success and encourage Canadian universities to reflect upon the humanistic and democratic values and approaches embedded in the internationalization of education. In addition, immigrant doctoral students may feel empowered by the stories being told and inspired by the insights and strategies revealed.

This qualitative case-study research investigated how Eastern European immigrant youth in a southern English public secondary school adjusted to and experienced the British educational system, which involves streaming students into levels of academic ability. The study focused on these students experiences of day-to-day life in a British secondary school and it explored the challenges and successes that they experienced. The study also investigated the experiences of teachers and administrators involved in the education of immigrant students. Through the use of student and faculty experiences, through recorded interviews, this study sought to understand how educators could improve the ways they are educating immigrant students.

The literature on the effects of race and ethnicity on informal caregiving is sparse and incomplete. Furthermore, most caregiving studies do not control for immigrant status. In the few studies that have analyzed the impact of ethnicity on informal care, ethnicity was categorized as African American, Hispanic, or non-Hispanic White. In Canada, the relationship between informal care and immigrant status and ethnicity needs to be better understood as the country has a growing population of immigrants and individuals who will require informal care in the future. This thesis aims to understand how immigrant status and ethnicity affects the propensity and intensity of care received by using probit and ordinary least squares models. Throughout the thesis, immigrant status was measured as binary variable (0/1) and as year of immigration and region of origin.

This thesis investigated the choice of nursing among immigrant women from Nigeria in Canada. I sought to understand why increasing numbers of immigrant women from Nigeria with degrees and professional backgrounds are opting for careers in nursing. The study was conducted through an antiracist feminist lens and uncovered the many dimensions in which African immigrant women encounter marginalization and discrimination in the Canadian labour market, resulting from entrenched norms and values. I placed centre stage the voices of the Nigerian women, and through their narratives found that the decision to change careers was based on barriers they faced, the availability of jobs within nursing, as well as personal perceptions and interactions with other Nigerian women who had successfully changed careers. The conclusion reached is that despite the structural barriers faced, the choice of nursing had overall benefited the women, elevating their status and improving their economic situation.

This research examines settlement services and their ability to provide assistance with social inclusion for newcomer youth in the Peel Region, Ontario. Focus groups are used to examine the experiences and perceptions of settlement services and their ability to enhance social inclusion among 44 newcomer youth. The findings indicate that newcomer youth have positive perceptions of settlement services. Furthermore, there are five arenas in which settlement services are assisting with social inclusion for newcomer youth. These include relational inclusion, labour market inclusion, spatial inclusion, educational inclusion, and socio-political inclusion. Additional research is required to examine the social inclusion impacts that settlement services have on newcomer youth over the life-course. Moreover, reconsidering government initiatives and policies involving funds for settlement services and community organizations is necessary.