The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the use of certain music activities in meeting some of the needs peculiar to a group of older, retarded Latin-American children. It is an effort to determine whether certain music activities may or may not help to give Latin-American children a more satisfying school experience and better equip them to live in the Anglo-American society of which they have become a part.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

<p>While the number of graduate students from different parts of the world in the United States is decreasing, the trend in Latin American populations is the opposite. Nonetheless, the current lack of information regarding the reasons behind this tendency, in terms of English language proficiency and cultural aspects, affects all parts involved: graduate students do not know what type of opportunities they can make use of; American universities do not have enough information to provide Latin American students with a sheltering environment; and Latin American governments are unable to make policies that encourage the application and facilitate admission to graduate school in American universities.</p> <p>The aim of this study is to establish a starting point for understanding the linguistic and cultural complexities of the Latin American population in graduate school in the United States. To do so, surveys and interviews were carried out to explore academic experiences, cultural influences and socioeconomic patterns that influenced the admission of Latin American students to graduate school. Mixed methods were used to describe the patterns of the survey responses quantitatively while leaving room for confirmatory quantitative analysis using the information of the interviews. The participants of this study were graduate students from Purdue University, one of the American universities with the highest number of Latin American graduate students. </p> <p>The results of this study underscore the importance of effective English language instruction during college years for reaching the graduate school admission scores, especially in cases when English language training during school was not possible or had little impact on the functional proficiency of the learner. Also, there is a large body of evidence indicating that undergraduate research internships could be one of the opportunities with the highest potential to recruit graduate Latin American students, regardless of their socioeconomic background.</p>

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 259-270) Based on 18-months fieldwork, 1997-1999, in various organisations, social clubs and radio programs that were constructed by participants and 'outsiders' as an expression of a local migrant community. Attempts to answer and challenge what it means to be a Latin American in Adelaide and in what sense Latin American migrants and refugees in Adelaide can be spoken about as members of an 'ethnic/migrant community' in relation to the official multiculturalism discourse and popular representations of migrants in Australia.

This thesis explores the immigration experiences of five Latino-American women who reside in Lethbridge, Alberta. Rather than using interviews as a research protocol, the author used conversation as a tool to explore the narratives of these women’s experiences. Four of the five told their story in Spanish, and after transcribing the conversations, the author used critical inquiry to find common ground between the women’s narratives and her own immigration experiences. This thesis explores topics such as belonging and connections to different communities and how these women use stories of change and continuity in constructing their identities. Language, employment, recognition of previous education as well as separation from their families and support networks were the main difficulties identified. As anticipated, these women accessed federally funded and provincially delivered immigrant settlement services, such as ESL classes. While hesitant to use formal counselling, three of the women accessed these services for gendered matters such as spousal abuse. Relationships based on kinship were crucial resources and central to their narratives as was church, which provided both a familiar and significant source of community and support. This study found that when using conversation the researcher establishes relationships with the participants, other writers/academics, as well as the readers. Thus this thesis suggests that narrative research is fundamentally a relational activity. In this context stories are considered gifts, and the exchange of gifts an important aspect of research design. The narratives were shaped by, and interpreted in light of, various contextual factors such as the women’s relationships with the researcher, and their individual as well as socio-cultural and historical circumstances. The five women who participated in this research were found through community networking, and had some familiarity with counselling–either as service recipients or a professional connection–circumstances which shaped their willingness to participate as well as the stories they narrated about their immigration experiences. In constructing the narratives of their past experiences, from the vantage point of the present, the women emphasize gratitude to Canada and only subtly allude to issues such as racism or stereotyping. / viii, 170 leaves ; 29 cm. --

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 98-103).

This thesis is the outcome of my twelve-month ethnographic fieldwork among Latin Americans in Edinburgh. Using life story interviews, participant observation and online communication technologies, the research aims to explore the senses of belonging that different Latin Americans in Edinburgh have claimed at different moments of their lives and the dynamics of concurrent identities – the maintenance and reconstruction of national identity as well as the emergence of Latin American identity. It also addresses the multiplicity of reasons why various individuals have chosen to belong to the Latin American 'community' in Edinburgh and scrutinises their manifold home-making processes. Moreover, this thesis hopes to contribute to the studies on Latin Americans and to a debate regarding whether members of communities should be treated as individuals or as collective actors.

xi, 246 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This dissertation focuses on Latin American survivors of political violence and the staff members involved with one of the few torture treatment centers in the US. Relying primarily on life histories and semi-structured interviews, my research focuses on the social construction of suffering (Kleinman et al. 1997) created by the staff and participants over the course of three different eras of the center. While the clients of this center lead lives that are tremendously impacted by the violent histories of their home countries, they do so while living in a country where this history is almost completely invisible. As exiles, they are removed from the arena of collective memory reflected in debates in postwar transitional Latin American societies about the meaning of the past, the reasons for their suffering, and the need for historical truth. Consequently, I examine the torture treatment center as one arena where this history and the suffering of survivors is acknowledged. As such, I argue that the staff serves as a critical social network--indeed, perhaps the only one--that influences the individual interpretations, narratives, and actions of survivors about the meaning of trauma, the importance of the past, and how one best heals from violence. First, I illustrate how the biographies of staff shape their involvement with the center and the meaning the center has for them, which, in turn, leads to both the promise and predicaments of their work for social change. Second, this research illustrates the diverse forms that trauma can take and argues for a connection among structural, transitional, and political violence. Third, I explore how the meaning attributed to trauma and the past shapes notions held by the center's staff and participants regarding how one best heals from trauma. Throughout the exploration of these themes, my work identifies the presence of certain discourses and the absence of others--the frictions and fragments occurring in engagements between social service networks and those they serve (Tsing 2005)--that reflect the possibilities for and limitations of individual healing and collective change and that make this center a "fragile community." / Advisers: Dr. Lynn Stephen, Co-Chair; Dr. Philip Young, Co-Chair

It is the purpose of this writer to determine if there is any significant difference between the teacher ratings of Latin-Americans and Anglo-Americans and if such differences are found to exist, an attempt will be made to determine the extent to which they prevail.