Research shows evidence of overrepresentation of culturally and linguistically diverse children enrolled in special education services, a positive correlation between parent involvement and academic success, and a plethora of barriers impeding active 6 parent participation in IEP development. Barriers include language, culture, low income, . and school climate and team dynamics. The aim of this study was to explore: (a) In what ways do special education teachers engage with culturally and linguistically diverse families from low-income homes in the IEP development process? (b) In what ways do special education teachers address culturally and linguistically diverse children's educational needs while also addressing both legal and workplace expectations? (c) In what ways do special education teachers develop IEPs with culturally and linguistically diverse families from low-income homes addressing both legal and workplace expectations? These questions were addressed qualitatively utilizing Moustakas's heuristic inquiry. Deductively exploring themes using Lipsky's street-level bureaucracy framework exposed challenges special education teachers in this study had addressing both legal and workplace expectations, such as meeting IDEA 2004 mandates. With a systems theory approach, themes and subthemes were identified as being interconnected. Power imbalances between stakeholders and socioeconomic differences across families appeared to be the most prolific barriers impeding parent participation. Inductive analysis explored emergent and uncovered themes elucidating what it meant to be a special education teacher.

The aim of this study is to investigate how heads of schools perceive multilingualism as a resource for learning and to what extent the process of writing and implementing language policies has provided a support for developing a multilingual view on languages in schools. This is done in accordance with the multilingual turn, which states that although a multilingual view on languages has spread in the global North in recent decades due to globalization and migration, a monolinguistic hegemony still persists in countries such as Sweden. Qualitative interviews were carried out with three heads of schools in Sweden and the findings of the study are discussed in relation to theories on school development and a framework for critical reflection on multilingualism. The results show that although the interviewed heads of schools express a positive understanding of and attitude towards multilingualism and language policies, traces of a deficit discourse can be found in their answers and their teachers struggle to make multilingualism a natural part of their everyday school practice. Multilingualism and multilingual children and pupils are at times seen as problems rather than resources. Furthermore, the monolingual norm is still visible in the interviews and teachers seem stuck in the assimilation stage and heads of schools unable to overbridge the gap between ostensive and performative aspects of school development. Implications of the findings are that heads of schools as well as teachers need to further develop a multilingual and diversified view on languages as a resource for learning in order to facilitate learning for multilingual children and pupils.

Parent-teacher communication is a key element of parent-teacher relationship and of family involvement. Such communication influences children's wellbeing and academic success. There are many gaps in the literature regarding the dynamics of parent-teacher communication and how this influences family and school literacy practices. Using a qualitative design, this case study focused on the communication of a family from a culturally and linguistically diverse background and the children's teachers. The study examined the conceptions of communication and perspectives on parent-teacher communication of a mother and three teachers. The study also examined the diverse ways they communicated literacy practices and expectations to one another and the outcomes derived from their communication. Findings of this study revealed that parent-teacher communication is a complex process influenced by multiple factors related to the microsystems of school and home and the varied ways they interact. The study found a disconnection between parent and teacher communication conceptions and approaches.

No description available.

The evolution of social media platforms and other public forums in the digital realm has created an explosion of user-generated content and data as a component of the already content-saturated digital landscape. The distributed, horizontal nature of the internet as a platform makes it difficult to ascertain value and differentiate between texts of varying validity, bias, and purpose. In addition, the internet is not an inanimate interface. As Pariser (2011) argues, content aggregators, such as Google, actively filter, personalize, and therefore limit each individual's access to information, in both range and type. This has created a crisis of information valuation and control. Importantly, conventional curriculum does not furnish students with the information literacy tools necessary for them to navigate the digital landscape effectively. Information miners and developers, including news organizations, are falling victim to this fallacy as well. Lankshear and Knobel (2011) posit that empowering navigation and control in the digital landscape requires a new mindset. This research offers a context-driven approach that acknowledges this new mindset, promoting "rhetorical consciousness" (Murphy et al., 2003) within the network and providing a framework to recognize, challenge, and co-create gatekeeping roles and mechanism as they increasingly shift to the individual.

<p>  </p> <p>The highly diverse character of US universities provides an opportunity for writing programs to (re)examine the extent to which their current administrative, curricular, and pedagogical practices support a growing student population with unique linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds, resources, and needs. This dissertation research aimed to explores the ways in which writing programs address the increasing diversity in writing pedagogy education, as a key component of writing program administration work. The main goal of this research was to investigate how writing program administrators and teacher educators in my study context represent our current reality regarding engagement with the increased linguistic and cultural diversity in the activity of teaching to the newest members of the writing program, i.e., graduate teaching assistants. Analyses of data collected through semi-structured interviews and educational materials suggest that while issues surrounding diversity and multilingual students have been addressed in writing pedagogy education, there is still room for more work, especially integrative, (trans)disciplinary diversity work that will help turn the graduate composition practicum, as the main context for writing pedagogy education in writing programs, into a space where new writing teachers can navigate diversity in order to learn how to actively engage with and pedagogically respond to it in their writing instruction in the era of superdiversity. </p>

Esta dissertação de mestrado apresenta uma análise discursiva de enunciados veiculados na feira boliviana da Praça Kantuta, realizada aos domingos em São Paulo. O objetivo geral da pesquisa foi identificar nos discursos de pessoas da coletividade boliviana registrados em atos públicos realizados na Praça Kantuta os enunciados que indicassem filiações a memórias discursivas relacionadas à nacionalidade e à migração na América do Sul. Reunimos os enunciados selecionados em três grupos de fragmentos de discurso, que analisamos como sequências discursivas em função, principalmente, das repetições, da recorrência de formulações relacionadas à representação do ser boliviano em São Paulo, ao modo de referir a Praça Kantuta e ao processo de conquista/apropriação do espaço para realização da feira. Adotamos essa metodologia porque nos pareceu a mais adequada aos nossos objetivos; além disso, verificamos que há antecedentes, nos estudos discursivos, de trabalhos de análise nos quais o ordenamento desta se realiza a partir de unidades em repetição. Para construir nossa interpretação dos fatos de discurso observados na feira, levamos em conta as condições de produção do discurso, atentando tanto para o contexto imediato quanto para o contexto sócio-histórico, conforme propõe Orlandi (2012). Assim, nossa dissertação inclui um levantamento de estudos sobre as migrações bolivianas realizados por pesquisadores de outras áreas com as quais temos dialogado, fundamentalmente a sociologia e a geografia urbana. Consideramos as migrações bolivianas internas e internacionais; a ocupação dos espaços públicos pelos bolivianos que protagonizam deslocamentos populacionais massivos em busca de subsistência; a função das línguas no ambiente da Feira Kantuta; a representação do boliviano em enunciados veiculados na feira; e a construção do objeto de discurso Praça/Feira Kantuta. / This master\'s thesis presents a discursive analysis of enunciations made at Praça Kantuta\'s Bolivian market, which takes place on Sundays in São Paulo. The general objective of the research was to identify in the discourses of persons from the Bolivian community registered during public celebrations at Praça Kantuta the enunciations that could indicate affiliations to discursive memories related to nationality and to migration in South America. We divided the selected enunciations in three groups of discourse fragments that we analyze as discursive sequences due to repetitions, to recurrence of formulations related to the representation of being Bolivian in São Paulo, to the way to refer to Praça Kantuta and to the process of appropriation of a space where those migrants could implement their market. We used that methodology because it seemed the most adequate for our objectives; furthermore, we verified in discursive studies some examples of analysis where its organization is made in repeating units. In order to build our interpretation of the discursive facts that we found at the Bolivian market, we considered the speech production conditions, regarding the immediate context and the socio-historical context, as Orlandi (2012) suggests. Thus, our master\'s thesis includes an overview of studies about the Bolivian migrations made by researchers of other areas of knowledge that are interesting to us, such as sociology and urban geography. We do regard internal and international Bolivian migrations; the occupation of public spaces by those Bolivians starring massive population displacements looking for subsistence; the function of the languages at the Feira Kantuta; the representation of the Bolivians in enunciations made on the environment of their market; and the construction of the discourse object Praça/Feira Kantuta.

Esta dissertação de mestrado apresenta uma análise discursiva de enunciados veiculados na feira boliviana da Praça Kantuta, realizada aos domingos em São Paulo. O objetivo geral da pesquisa foi identificar nos discursos de pessoas da coletividade boliviana registrados em atos públicos realizados na Praça Kantuta os enunciados que indicassem filiações a memórias discursivas relacionadas à nacionalidade e à migração na América do Sul. Reunimos os enunciados selecionados em três grupos de fragmentos de discurso, que analisamos como sequências discursivas em função, principalmente, das repetições, da recorrência de formulações relacionadas à representação do ser boliviano em São Paulo, ao modo de referir a Praça Kantuta e ao processo de conquista/apropriação do espaço para realização da feira. Adotamos essa metodologia porque nos pareceu a mais adequada aos nossos objetivos; além disso, verificamos que há antecedentes, nos estudos discursivos, de trabalhos de análise nos quais o ordenamento desta se realiza a partir de unidades em repetição. Para construir nossa interpretação dos fatos de discurso observados na feira, levamos em conta as condições de produção do discurso, atentando tanto para o contexto imediato quanto para o contexto sócio-histórico, conforme propõe Orlandi (2012). Assim, nossa dissertação inclui um levantamento de estudos sobre as migrações bolivianas realizados por pesquisadores de outras áreas com as quais temos dialogado, fundamentalmente a sociologia e a geografia urbana. Consideramos as migrações bolivianas internas e internacionais; a ocupação dos espaços públicos pelos bolivianos que protagonizam deslocamentos populacionais massivos em busca de subsistência; a função das línguas no ambiente da Feira Kantuta; a representação do boliviano em enunciados veiculados na feira; e a construção do objeto de discurso Praça/Feira Kantuta. / This master\'s thesis presents a discursive analysis of enunciations made at Praça Kantuta\'s Bolivian market, which takes place on Sundays in São Paulo. The general objective of the research was to identify in the discourses of persons from the Bolivian community registered during public celebrations at Praça Kantuta the enunciations that could indicate affiliations to discursive memories related to nationality and to migration in South America. We divided the selected enunciations in three groups of discourse fragments that we analyze as discursive sequences due to repetitions, to recurrence of formulations related to the representation of being Bolivian in São Paulo, to the way to refer to Praça Kantuta and to the process of appropriation of a space where those migrants could implement their market. We used that methodology because it seemed the most adequate for our objectives; furthermore, we verified in discursive studies some examples of analysis where its organization is made in repeating units. In order to build our interpretation of the discursive facts that we found at the Bolivian market, we considered the speech production conditions, regarding the immediate context and the socio-historical context, as Orlandi (2012) suggests. Thus, our master\'s thesis includes an overview of studies about the Bolivian migrations made by researchers of other areas of knowledge that are interesting to us, such as sociology and urban geography. We do regard internal and international Bolivian migrations; the occupation of public spaces by those Bolivians starring massive population displacements looking for subsistence; the function of the languages at the Feira Kantuta; the representation of the Bolivians in enunciations made on the environment of their market; and the construction of the discourse object Praça/Feira Kantuta.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / It has been noted by Lin (2013) that studies on multilingual talk, as illustrated by code switching in the classroom, have been repetitive and descriptive, and have for a while not been underpinned by substantially new or different questions (Lin, 2013:15). First, many of the studies in the literature have, for instance, concluded that there is a functional allocation of languages (FAL) in multilingual classroom teacher talk (e.g. Baker, 2012; Martin, 1996; Probyn, 2006, 2014; Jegede, 2012; Modupeola, 2013; Salami, 2008), such that language „a‟ is used for presentational knowledge, and language „b‟ is used for explanatory knowledge, and these claims have not been subjected to sustained scrutiny. Secondly, codeswitching and translanguaging increasingly have been the dominant and exclusive frameworks used, and this has limited the kinds of insights that can be obtained or the kinds of questions that can be posed. Thirdly, where the effects of multilingual teacher talk on students‟ understanding or knowledge are at all captured in studies, such effects have either been based on researcher intuition or have not been the object of sustained empirical demonstration. Fourthly, many studies have assumed merely that it is the configuration of languages that produces claimed effects of multilingual teacher talk, and attention has hardly been paid to repetition of content or to knowledge structure. Fifthly, it is not often the case that studies or findings are presented in a nuanced form that takes into account the possible effect of different subject types, school types or levels of study. Sixthly, and overall, many studies making claims on the effect of teacher‟s code-switching or trans-languaging on students‟ knowledge do not theoretically engage with knowledge, beyond the distinction between presentational and explanatory forms of knowledge, thus illustrating what Maton (2013) regards as “knowledge-blindness” (that is, the paradox of limited engagement with knowledge structures in pedagogical research making knowledge claims). As a result, little is known about how specific units of knowledge are encoded according to categories in a theory of knowledge, how knowledge encodings interface with languages, and how composite knowledge structures-language profiles can be visualised. This study draws on Legitimation Code Theory Semantic and Terminology Theory in order to investigate the interface of language and knowledge in multilingual teacher-talk in science and business studies classrooms in Yola, North-Eastern Nigeria. This focus should make it possible to answer questions such as the following which, though important, have not often been posed on account of the limited engagement in the research on classroom multilingualism with theories of knowledge: a) to what extent is it appropriate to claim that there is a functional allocation of language in multilingual teacher-talk (in which language „a‟ is used for so-called presentational knowledge, and language „b‟ for explanatory knowledge)?; b) what kinds of encodings of knowledge occur in a set of science and business studies lessons?; c) given documented visual patterns of knowledge dynamics emerging from recent research in the sociology of knowledge (e.g. semantic waves, semantic flatlines both high and low, downward shift and upward shift), (Maton: 2013, 2014a, 2014b), what knowledge profiles are observable and how does language use in multilingual teacher-talk map onto these patterns?; d) how are any observed differences in the composite knowledge-language profiles to be explained?; and e) what effects do various language-knowledge profiles have on students‟ understanding of the lesson and on their demonstration of their knowledge? Data for the study was derived from transcripts of audio-recorded multilingual teacher-talk in two subjects (integrated science and business studies) as taught in grades seven and nine in four secondary schools (two private and two public schools) in Yola, North-East Nigeria. Findings show, among others, that it is not always the case that the official classroom language (English) is used for introductory discourses, and the non-official classroom languages are used for explanatory discourses. Findings further reveal that it is not primarily the functional allocation of languages that explains perceptions or empirical claims of enhanced student understanding. We also observed that the number of content iterations, combined with knowledge structures, is an important factor that enhances or explains the performance of students. While this research has paid a lot of attention to teacher talk in the classrooms in two sites in Yola, North-East, Nigeria, where the use of Hausa and Fulfulde languages by the students is mainly in the spoken form, it would be interesting for future research to replicate this type of study in an environment where the non-official language of the classroom is perhaps used more frequently in reading and writing.

Mandarin Chinese has long been known to possess a category of words known as ‘coverbs’ in the literature, which sit in the gray area between verb and preposition. Li and Thompson (1974) describe the historical origins of Mandarin coverbs to be full transitive verbs, despite their modern state being decidedly less verbal. They also note that coverbs are a non-homogenous class. This thesis works to establish categories of coverbs in Mandarin Chinese and their distance from true verbhood in order to understand the diachronic shift that coverbs are currently undergoing before our very eyes. I will draw on the work of scholars of Atlantic-Congo languages, Oceanic languages, and other languages of mainland Southeast Asia, to create semantic, syntactic, and morphological testing for Mandarin coverbs. Using the results of this three-pronged testing approach, I will map the results on a six-pointed verb-preposition matrix in order to visualize the space between verb and preposition and how Mandarin coverbs inhabit it. I will then use these diagrams to create a numerical score for each category of coverb and place them on a linear progression between verbhood and prepositionhood. Lastly, this work will analyze the theta roles assigned by Mandarin coverbs in each category and propose stages of diachronic development for Mandarin coverbs.