This qualitative case study describes the language learning experiences of four South Asian women from their perspectives and uses tools of ethnographic inquiry such as interviews, participant observations and document analysis. The socio-cultural factors affecting their language learning process and acculturation are analyzed. Key elements of the lived experiences of these South Asian females surfacing in the case study data are isolation and gender inequity. Socio-cultural identity emerges as a very influential factor in the language learning process. I understand this identity as socially constructed, contradictory, and fluid. Peirce's poststructuralist conception of social identity as multiple, a site of struggle, and subject to change is used in the theoretical framework. Her concept of "investment" is employed to describe immigrant women's involvement in the language learning process. An umbrella category termed the "weight of society" is used to explain the influences of socio-cultural norms on the language learning processes of the four research participants. Implications for immigrant language training policies and further research are suggested.

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This phenomenological study delves into the nuanced lived experiences of Korean American college music majors in U.S. music education. Seven participants were recruited based on the specific criteria: (a) Korean immigrants, (b) experience in band classes or orchestra classes during their K-12 years in the U.S., and (c) majoring in music or music education. Based on the collected interview data, a structured analysis process was conducted. As a result, 5 units of meaning were identified, which were able to synthesize the experiences of Korean American immigrant music majors: (a) Culturally inclusive (or not) music experiences, (b) feeling included (or not), (c) supportive (or not) music teachers, (d) intricacies of Korean cultural music, and (e) cultural identity. After the analysis process, hermeneutic circle was conducted to refine the synthesized 5 overarching meaning units. Refined clustered units of meaning from the Hermeneutic circle were: (a) Experience of Korean cultural inclusion mostly outside of regular music classes at school, (b) Korean American college music majors felt included when musically engaged, (c) Korean American college music majors emphasized the important role of music teachers, (d) Korean American college music majors think that culturally responsive music education is not simply implementing cultural music in repertoire, and (e) Korean American college music majors argued that cultural identity is complexe and can be described differently, depending on the situation. Through the identification and exploration of 5 overarching units of meanings, it offers a profound understanding of how Korean Americans navigate cultural inclusion, engagement in music, the role of music teachers, the complexities of culturally responsive education, and the multifaceted nature of cultural identity. This exploration contributes to a richer comprehension of the diverse facets of Korean Americans' music education experiences and extends its impact by providing a broader perspective on the encounters of Asian immigrants in the U.S. The indirect comparison with the researcher's native Korean K-12 music education background adds a unique layer, unveiling insights into how Asian Americans actively navigate limitations within the U.S. music education system. The implications drawn from this study highlight the proactive engagement of Korean Americans in U.S. music education. Musicians, policymakers, and practitioner-researchers are encouraged to consider these insights in their respective roles. Musicians, regardless of cultural background, are urged to persist in creative endeavors, contributing to the creation of diverse arrangements and addressing the absence of representation. Policymakers should address the demographic imbalance among music teachers, actively working towards creating a more diverse and inclusive landscape within the field. Practitioner-researchers play a crucial role in researching and addressing the needs of culturally marginalized students in music education, focusing on fostering inclusivity.

The purpose of this study was to develop Gestalt guidelines for teachers working with refugee learners. These guidelines seek to assist teachers when facilitating refugee learners in their social adjustment to a new school environment. The researcher made use of the first four stages of the Design and Development model of intervention research. These stages included problem analysis and project planning, information gathering and synthesis, design, and the early development of the guidelines. For the purpose of this study, semi-structured focus groups were conducted with teachers working with refugee learners. The social adjustment process was then viewed in the context of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. Existing literature on the social adjustment of refugee learners in the South-African school system and literature on the Gestalt philosophy was used together with functional elements of existing social adjustment models to develop guidelines for teachers when facilitating refugee learners in their social adjustment to a new school environment. Throughout this research study, the refugee learner has been referred to as “he”. This was done for practical reasons only and no gender discrimination was intended. / Practical Theology / M. Diac. (Play Therapy)

Thesis (MEd (Education Policy Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / This investigation form part of an international about the facilitative role of school management regarding the emergence of immigrant children at schools The purpose of this study is to determine how selected school communities respond to their role with regards to the management and facilitation of immigrant learners in schools. In order to accomplish this, both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. Descriptive survey techniques were applied on the basis of their flexibility. Questionaires, informal discourse, formal interviews and the case study were utilised to establish the opinions, attitudes, preferences and perceptions of communities regarding the immigration of learners. This was done against the backdrop of an extensive and comprehensive literature review. Throughout the study an attempt was made to remain as faithful as possible to the facts through empirical research, and to minimise prejudice, stereotyping and preferences through using rational thinking. Internal testing was used to ensure validity and reliability. According to the current research, the responses regarding migration by learners are very diverse. The responses are realised within the following contexts: accessibility or inaccessibility of schools, culture, politics, ideology, ethnicity, religion, language and even racial classification. Although geographical location is not a significant factor, social stratification patterns as well as the status play a role in this regard. The researcher concludes that the targeted school communities still lack the expertise, experience and ability to handle, facilitate and settle issues relating to multi-cultural diversity. Research findings show that this state of affairs is largely due to a lack of undestanding of transformation in the school context as well as regarding the implementation and execution of this transformation.

本論文探討來自中國內地和南亞國家的少年移民學生如何適應香港的教育和生活。他們是香港兩大移民群體，儘管他們的族群和文化背景截然不同，香港人一般都認為他們落後和貧困，與香港社會格格不入。本研究旨在了解他們的求學道路和身份建構過程。而在社會化的討論背景下，求學道路和身份建構是兩個相互關聯、相互重疊的概念。田野調查在香港四所收了大批移民學生的中學進行，時間由幾個月到一年多不等。 / 本研究發現，雖然兩組學生的背景不同，在香港的教育制度下，他們面對相似的限制及不利因素。本文指出，教師認為這兩組學生有類近的學習問題，但卻成因各異，教師亦對自己可以起的作用有不同看法。以上種種皆會影響青少年作為社會成員的身份認同。本文又指出，這兩組學生，在不同程度上自稱是香港的一份子。然而，他們的理由不一，理解也不盡同。 / 在學校層面發生的事情是重要的，因為它反映了在社會層面，大家如何界定誰是社會成員，如何在不同的歷史、文化和社經環境下，轉變想法和做法，以及社會和個人如何在過程中互動。在當前全球化的時代，人口遷移不斷影響世界各地的社會經濟和人口結構。本文提出一個新的角度，以重新思考移民和教育的理論。 / This thesis explores the immigration and schooling experiences of the teenage children of immigrants of the two largest incoming groups to Hong Kong: from Mainland China and from South Asia. Most people in Hong Kong think that both groups are culturally backward and economically impoverished, which means that both do not fit in, despite the fact that they have utterly different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. I seek to understand the factors that are shaping their educational pathways and identity formation, which I consider to be two interrelated and overlapping concepts against the backdrop of socialization. Data are largely drawn from ethnographic fieldwork, from a few months to more than a year, in four secondary schools in Hong Kong which admit a large number of immigrants. / I argue that despite their different backgrounds, both groups of students face very similar structural constraints and disadvantages in Hong Kong’s education system. I also argue that teachers perceive very similar learning problems in these two groups of students, but they see the problems to have stemmed from different causes, and have different understandings how much teachers can do. This has implications on the teenagers’ identities as members of society. I further argue that both groups, albeit to different extents, claim their belonging to Hong Kong in terms of their identity. However, they seem to base their claims on different grounds, and have different understandings of their belonging to Hong Kong. / What goes on in the classroom is important because it reflects in the larger society how people understand and practice who they include and who they exclude; how the ideologies and practices at work change in different historical, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts; and how individuals negotiate the shaping and the inclusion or exclusion. My thesis adds a new perspective for us to rethink theories of migration and education in an era of globalization when the mass movement of people is defining and redefining the socioeconomic and demographic landscapes in many parts of the world. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Chee, Wai Chi. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 383-415). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.iii / Abbreviations --- p.v / Language, Name, and Currency --- p.vi / Tables and Graph --- p.vii / Chapter 1. --- Introduction / Introduction --- p.1 / Research Questions and Objectives --- p.1 / Immigrant Students in Hong Kong’s Education System --- p.6 / Significance of Research --- p.9 / Literature Review --- p.15 / Methodology --- p.54 / Some Ethical Concerns --- p.63 / Chapter Overview --- p.67 / Chapter 2. --- Immigration Motivations, Trajectories and Predicaments: Positioning Teenage Immigrants in Hong Kong / Introduction --- p.74 / Ebbs and Flows of People from Mainland China into Hong Hong --- p.77 / Emergence of Hong Kong Identity --- p.79 / Situating Mainland Chinese Teenagers in Hong Kong’s Immigration Context --- p.82 / Situating South Asian Teenage Immigrants in Hong Kong’s Immigration Context --- p.87 / Immigration Motivations and Predicaments --- p.96 / Conclusion --- p.113 / Chapter 3. --- On the Threshold of the Mainstream: Initiation Program and its Completion Ceremony / Introduction --- p.115 / Initiation Program and Its Completion Ceremony --- p.119 / Form, Content, and Meanings of the Completion Ceremony: The Case of Lily School --- p.126 / Form, Content, and Meanings of the Completion Ceremony: The Case of Peony School --- p.141 / Dramatized Epitome of the Initiation Program --- p.159 / Conclusion --- p.166 / Chapter 4. --- Entering the Mainstream: From Initiation Program to Mainstream Education / Introduction --- p.169 / Looking for a Place in a Mainstream School --- p.172 / Entering the Educational Mainstream --- p.182 / Out of the "Greenhouse" --- p.191 / Future Educational Pathways --- p.198 / Conclusion --- p.208 / Chapter 5. --- Ideologies and Practices of Inclusion/Exclusion: Immigrant Students in Hong Kong’s Education System / Introduction --- p.211 / Perception, Inclusion, Exclusion: Mainlanders and South Asians in Hong Kong --- p.214 / Adapting to Education and Life in a "Greenhouse" --- p.229 / Educational Greenhouse Effect --- p.246 / Conclusion --- p.258 / Chapter 6. --- Socialization and Citizen-Making: The Role of Educators / Introduction --- p.260 / What an Ideal Student Should be Like --- p.264 / The Making of “Ideal Students --- p.267 / Double-Edged Teacher-Student Relationships --- p.300 / Paradoxical Effect of the Attempt to Create "Ideal Students" --- p.305 / Conclusion --- p.313 / Chapter 7. --- The Politics of Belonging: What Does It Mean to Be a Teenage Immigrant Student in Hong Kong? / Introduction --- p.318 / (Re)Evaluating Hong Kong --- p.323 / Positioning Hong Kong in Immigrant Children’s Migration Trajectories --- p.329 / Identity and the Politics of Belonging --- p.341 / Conclusion --- p.352 / Chapter 8. --- Conclusion / Introduction --- p.356 / Theorizing "Envisioned Belonging" --- p.358 / Theorizing the "Educational Greenhouse Effect" --- p.368 / Rethinking Theories of Migration and Education --- p.372 / More Supportive Educational Policies for Immigrant Students --- p.377 / Hong Kong and Immigration --- p.380 / References --- p.383

Due to the ever growing numbers of immigrants entering this country, school districts are faced with ever greater challenges for educating newly arrived immigrant students. Often these students arrive with little to no English ability and little to no school experience. Several educational program models, including ESL and bilingual education, have been popularized in school districts experiencing immigrant population growth. Recently, a supplemental model, the newcomer center/program, has gained popularity. The newcomer model seeks to educate and nurture newly arrived immigrant students with little to no English ability in the social and school expectations of the United States. Due to difficulties in conducting research and the relative newness of the program, there is a lack of quantitative research on the effectiveness of the newcomer model. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the newcomer program in one city school district by comparing students who had completed the newcomer program to students who had been unable to attend and were instead directly mainstreamed into their regular assigned schools. The study used a questionnaire design in which the mainstream teachers were asked to rate the students using a Likert scale. Students were rated on their social and school adjustment. In addition to comparing students by program model group (newcomer and pre-beginner), statistical analyses were also used to determine any possible differences among gender, language groups and student ages. Although no significant difference was found between the group of students who successfully completed the newcomer program and the group of students who were directly mainstreamed, there were a few significant findings among gender, age and language comparisons.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The purpose of this study was to develop Gestalt guidelines for teachers working with refugee learners. These guidelines seek to assist teachers when facilitating refugee learners in their social adjustment to a new school environment. The researcher made use of the first four stages of the Design and Development model of intervention research. These stages included problem analysis and project planning, information gathering and synthesis, design, and the early development of the guidelines. For the purpose of this study, semi-structured focus groups were conducted with teachers working with refugee learners. The social adjustment process was then viewed in the context of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. Existing literature on the social adjustment of refugee learners in the South-African school system and literature on the Gestalt philosophy was used together with functional elements of existing social adjustment models to develop guidelines for teachers when facilitating refugee learners in their social adjustment to a new school environment. Throughout this research study, the refugee learner has been referred to as “he”. This was done for practical reasons only and no gender discrimination was intended. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Diac. (Play Therapy)

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