The purpose of this study was to explore the content of children's responses to culturally relevant literature in Hawai'i and how their individual understandings and responses evolved over time. This study utilized qualitative research methods and ethnographic techniques. A case study group of six students, three girls and three boys of differing ethnicity, was selected from a fifth grade class in Hawai'i. Children participated in four different literature discussions, a short story, novel study, text set study, and class read-aloud. Data collection included transcripts from literature discussions, interviews, observational field notes, and collections of written artifacts. Categories were constructed through inductive analysis of data. The findings showed that through literature discussions of culturally relevant literature the children defined what it means to belong to their local culture in Hawai'i, refined their beliefs about the concept of culture, used their knowledge about history to build understandings, and shared how they connected with the literature. As a result of the literature discussions, individual children were able to identify with the literature and came to new understandings about themselves and their cultural lives. Children should be encouraged to read books that show representations of their cultural lives. However, merely reading literature is not enough. Children need instructional and teacher support so that they may engage in thoughtful discussions about the literature and find issues that are meaningful to them. Providing opportunities for children to find and discuss personal and cultural issues, establishing a supportive environment to talk about literature, and using powerful selections of literature are ways teachers help children engage in discussions about culturally relevant literature.

<p> The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of Hispanic mothers of primary grade students with regard to the home and school relationship. The Hispanic population accounted for over half of the growth of the total U.S. population between 2000 and 2010 (Ennis, Rios-Vargas, &amp; Albert, 2011), and Hispanic enrollment in schools increased from 15% to 20% of total enrollment in the U.S. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). With an increasing number of Hispanic students in U.S. public schools, it is important to understand how mothers of Hispanic students view education, schools, and teachers. </p><p> This study included three focus groups and seven in-depth individual interviews. Participants described their individual experiences with and perceptions of their interactions with school administrators, staff, and teachers; their relationships with their child's school, staff, and teachers; and how they work with and help their child with school related issues. Three primary themes emerged: (a) Affective Responses, (b) Relationships, and (c) Mothers' Engagement and Advocacy with the Teaching and Learning Process. Each mother's story gave a voice to the disconnect felt between their Hispanic homes and the American school. The mothers shared feelings of trust, fear, communication gaps, confusion, and frustration as they described their lived experiences. </p><p> The overall aim of this study was to contribute to the field of education by providing useful suggestions to enhance the home and school relationship. Some of the suggestions included: holding a monthly or bi-monthly forum for mothers to voice concerns, coordinating Hispanic bilingual mothers to serve as volunteers for the school year, providing homework examples and instructions in Spanish, and offering tutoring classes to specifically teach Hispanic mothers how to help their children with school at home. Literature supports a dissonance between the dominant school culture and the Hispanic home culture with neither side understanding the values and norms of the other (Wortham, Murillo, &amp; Hamann, 2002). This research may be used to provide strategies for schools to communicate effectively with Hispanic mothers and increase their engagement in both the school and their child's education.</p>

This study outlines relationships between ideological construction and conversational performances, or utterances during casual conversation whose aesthetic quality is highlighted. I identify a distinction between native and nonnative English speakers that is imagined in predictable ways and expressed in regularized discourse patterns. The ideology of nativeness is rooted in a monolingualist view of the world--an association of one language with one nation--and intersects with ideologies of race and education. The regularity of patterns associated with this ideology provides resources for performances by white, middle-class U.S. university students about incomprehensible accents, bad teachers, lazy or angry foreigners, and rude code-switching or uses of non-English languages. Speakers use performative strategies such as rhythm, dialogue, and emphatic stress, to frame performances as worthy of special attention. Utterances are interpreted as more or less performative depending on the density and intensity of those strategies. The notion of the discourse frame accounts for speakers' desire to complete performances and for listeners' understanding that they are expected to respond positively. Performance and ideology are reciprocally related, such that performances index and depend on the stability of ideological models while providing opportunities for sudden shifts in ideological position as well as for transformations of those models. As speakers frame performances, they simultaneously create social truths, such as exaggerated hierarchical relationships between linguistic in-groups and out-groups, in ways that become memorable and at least momentarily acceptable. Because performances are bounded and memorable, they are decontextualizable, which enables them to be re-performed by the same speakers or by their listeners in other contexts. Performances thus contribute to the pervasiveness of the ideological discourse patterns that form the basis of those performances. Because of many speakers' drive to establish social solidarity with their listeners, performances can coincide with a dramatic shift in ideological position. Such shifts are also understandable if we recognize that dominant ideologies are embedded in highly regularized discursive patterns, readily available to any speaker who wishes to employ them.

This study was undertaken as a means of describing the language of high school students as they responded to a Cultural Identity course. The purpose of this course was to increase cultural sensitivity and understanding among high school freshmen, and therefore, to reduce violence and cultural misunderstandings on campus. This course made use of the published curriculum, Building Cultural Bridges, in part, and the remaining course design was developed by the teacher-researcher. Specific aspects of the problem studied are included in the following questions that guided the methodology: (1) In what ways are students' attitudes reflected in their written language in response to specific assignments in the course, Cultural Identity? (2) In what ways are perceptions of conflict and conflict resolution reflected in students' written language? (3) In what ways does students' written language indicate an awareness of cultural sensitivity? (4) What language is used in students' oral language during classroom interactions that indicates an awareness of cultural sensitivity? These questions were answered while taking into consideration: (a) the context of the classroom activities, and (b) the social context that students carried with them into the classroom which, therefore, became a presence in the classroom. This study involved a theoretical and pragmatic view of teaching multicultural, anti-racist, and conflict resolution curricula. After a review of the literature and the establishment of the problem, a descriptive design was employed for guiding data collection and analysis. Participants' written language was analyzed which included: (a) students' journal writing in response to teacher prompts, (b) student-generated multicultural conflict and resolution plays, (c) conflict resolution questionnaires, and (d) student-generated informational brochures on relevant topics. Participants' oral language was also analyzed and recorded in field notes. This was taken from conversation and behavior demonstrated by participants during classroom activities. Participants' written language in the prompted response journals indicated a developing awareness of cultural sensitivity. The written language in the multicultural conflict and resolution plays indicated a developing sense of cultural sensitivity and the usefulness of conflict resolution strategies. Written language found in the conflict resolution questionnaires over time indicated an increased awareness of the usefulness of conflict resolution strategies and indicated their understanding of how conflicts are resolved, rather than avoided. The informational brochures demonstrated students' awareness of the effects of stereotyping, shifts in their stereotypical behavior, and demonstrated their use of conflict resolution strategies in classroom interactions.

This study provides an analysis of the historical events that shaped the public school education of Mexican American children in Arizona in the first half of the twentieth century. This study also examines how segregation was established in two cities in northern Arizona and how schooling affected the feelings and emotions of former students. From about 1900 to 1950 Mexican American children were required to attend segregated schools or were segregated in different classrooms even though there were no laws that mandated segregation. Segregation was established under the guise of providing special accommodations for Spanish-speakers. However, it was clear that the education policies of Arizona in the 1930s and 1940s were to prepare Mexican children for "Mexican" occupations. These educational programs had their roots in Americanization policies implemented earlier in the twentieth century. At the root of the Americanization policies in the Southwest was the notion that the Mexican immigrant was culturally inferior and could not be assimilated into the American mainstream until the Mexican culture and language were eradicated. Included in these policies were Mexican Americans, although they were United States citizens. Mexican children in school were publicly humiliated, physically and verbally abused for speaking Spanish on school grounds. The high school dropout rates for Mexican Americans in those years were very high. Mexican students were not encouraged to go to college by educators because they felt that the students did not have the mental skills to achieve academic success and because they did not need a higher education for the "Mexican" jobs they would be working. Most people are unaware of the extent of public school segregation of Mexican Americans in the state of Arizona. The public is generally aware of the segregation of African Americans in public schools and to some degree of the segregation of Native Americans in boarding schools. Segregation of Mexican Americans in the public schools is an important chapter in Arizona history that must be told to illustrate the struggle in the daily lives of past generations of Mexican Americans to overcome the numerous racial and discriminatory practices they experienced.

The Functional Head Constraint (Belazi, Rubin and Toribio, 1994) states that codeswitching is not allowed between a functional head and its complement. This predicts that switches between determiners and noun phrase complements, complementizers and inflected clausal (IP) complements, and auxiliaries and verb phrase complements should be ungrammatical. Conversely, the proposed constraint predicts that verb-complement and preposition-complement switches should be grammatical. This study tested four of these five predictions, using codeswitched Spanish/English sentences which met or violated the Functional Head Constraint. The subjects were Spanish-English bilinguals who had learned both languages before the age of six and who use both languages in their daily lives. Data were collected using the Response-Contingent Matching Task (Stevenson, 1992). Subjects read a sentence displayed on a computer screen and press a button when the reading is completed. They then read a second sentence aligned below the first one and press one of two buttons to indicate whether the two sentences on the screen are the SAME or DIFFERENT. Grammaticality of the codeswitch was established by comparing reading times on all SAME sentences. The sentences that violated the Functional Head Constraint were expected to receive significantly longer reading times than the sentences which comply with the constraint. The results obtained do not support the predictions made by the Functional Head Constraint, but do confirm the validity of the task procedure. The findings are compared with naturalistic data and are interpreted using the Minimalist Theory of Chomsky (1991 and 1992).

A significant number of American Indian women have taught and still teach children in both public and government Indian schools. Yet there is very little written about these Native American women teachers, how they view themselves, and their relationship to their professional teaching careers throughout history. In addition, historical accounts on Native education are often inaccurate, disrespectful, and biased. To address issues about Native American women teachers, a qualitative study was conducted to determine the elements in their lives that influenced them to select elementary school teaching as a career choice, and to identify and examine the common patterns and similarities within those elements. The research documented the key elements for success of Native American female teacher including (a) a supportive family, (b) mentoring and positive role models for young Native American girls in elementary and secondary school is vital to their continuing onto higher education, and (c) a strong sense of cultural identity. Five Native American women elementary public school teachers in a large southwestern city, representing four different tribes, participated in individual in-depth interviews to gather information regarding what elements in their lives lead them to educational success. Two had taught in the public school system for more then 20 years, the other three had been in the classroom for less then five years. The research revealed that Native American mothers today are the most influential family members in terms of their daughters educational success in elementary and secondary school, along with being the primary factor in providing moral support during their college years. Mentors and positive role models for young Native American girls in elementary and secondary school are vital to their continuing on the road to higher education. All participants felt that their strong sense of cultural identity helped them as adults to deal with cultural conflict in the workplace. Recommendations for further study, based on participant comments include: increase the number of teachers involved in the study, and interview these same teachers five years from now to see if their reflections changed.

This ethnographic study illuminates the connections between race, class, and academic engagement and the role that schools and educators exert in shaping them. The critical events portrayed demonstrate the power of social stereotyping and racism in relationship to academic engagement and the aspirations of culturally diverse high school students. At the same time, the study shows that human relationships are at the heart of schooling, and that the power relations of the broader society are often enacted in the interactions that occur between students and teachers in the classroom. Two Latino high school students, one foreign born and one U.S. born, shared candidly their points of view and perceptions about students' attrition and academic disengagement. Their perspectives were later compared to the views of thirty-three educators employed at the same urban educational institutions these students attended. A survey of these educators expanded our understanding of the forces that influence teachers' views of Latino students and their communities. The present study also examined Ogbu's influential theory of differential school success, and the connections between opposition, identity, and academic engagement. However, this study corroborated Jim Cummins' recent work, suggesting that students' behavior and motivation is influenced not only from historically or politically derived structures, but most importantly from day-to-day interactions with members of the institutional setting. During the study, the students spoke at length about school practices and policies that serve to separate students along ethnic and class lines, and that favor certain dominant ideologies over others. Issues of selective enforcement of strict disciplinary school rules, marginalization of Latino students in the curriculum, and a deteriorated school climate characterized by the absence of a true "community" among the diverse ethnic groups represented in the schools were some of the issues that emerged. The study concluded with a summary of the main recommendations for change and reform based on suggestions of the students themselves. These recommendations emanate from the sincere and genuine voices of Latino youth, representing much needed insights if we are to reverse the ongoing pattern of failure among Latino populations.

This study examines the role of community-based, minority language resources in dual language schooling. A rapidly growing form of bilingual education, dual language programs involve the co-instruction of children from language majority and language minority backgrounds via the languages of both groups. In contrast to studies of English language development, this study is concerned with Spanish language development by children from English-speaking and Spanish-speaking homes. Using a case study design, the study draws on theoretical frameworks from the fields of language planning, language revitalization, and funds of knowledge to propose that dual language programs may support minority language acquisition by incorporating local language resources--linguistic funds of knowledge--to counter the hegemony of English that undermines additive bilingual efforts in many schools. By showing how historical conditions associated with English-only schooling and punitive approaches to use of Spanish in barrio schools and the legacy of local bilingual education pioneers have contributed to the development of a dual language program, it demonstrates the continued importance of past practices in present dual language planning. The study triangulates ethnographic data from participant observation in classrooms, literacy instruction, and other school domains, teacher, parent, and community interviews, and document and archival analysis. These data, along with findings of changing patterns of language dominance in the case study community, indicate that the minority language resources most immediately available--in the form of fluent bilingual elders and recent immigrants from Mexico--are less likely to be incorporated into planned curriculum than the knowledge and experiences of language majority parents. This pattern is a consequence of the social distance between educators and barrio families, the ambivalence of Mexican American parents and school staff toward the use of non-standard varieties of Spanish in schooling, and the need for greater awareness of language shift. Based on these findings, the study proposes that dual language programs move beyond efforts to increase use of the minority language as language of instruction. Instead, the study suggests, programs should consider practices that tap the linguistic funds of knowledge residing in the vital language minority communities in which schools are embedded.

El presente estudio examina el papel de la escuela en el mantenimiento de la lengua y la cultura Arhuaco. Un creciente interes en los procesos de educacion indigena ha llevado a la comunidad Ika a replantear la educacion impartida desde el Estado para hacer una aproximacion al diseno de una educacion propia. Esto ha conllevado un analisis profundo por parte de las autoridades indigenas y los maestros sobre nuevos procesos educativos que contribuyan a la preservacion de la cultura autoctona. Utilizando un diseno etnografico, este estudio tomo como orientacion teorica analisis sobre planificacion linguistica, reproduccion cultural y economica a traves de la escuela y revitalizacion cultural y linguistica. Partiendo de una descripcion historica sobre el contacto con la cultura europea que propicio el desplazamiento cultural en las comunidades indigenas de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, esta investigacion demuestra la importancia de las luchas lideradas por los Arhuacos con las cuales se logro la expulsion de la mision Capuchina, para tomar control sobre sus escuelas. Posterior a esto se inicia el diseno de una educacion mas acorde con la cultura que toma como parte fundamental la lengua Ika. Este estudio articula datos etnograficos obtenidos mediante observacion participante en la escuela, las familias y las actividades comunitarias con la revision de documentos y archivos historicos que los indigenas poseen sobre sus procesos de resistencia. Los datos analizados demuestran que el Ika es una lengua cuya vitalidad se debe no solo a la transmision de esta en los ambitos familiar y comunitario, sino tambien a los procesos de revitalizacion linguistica y cultural que los indigenas vienen promoviendo para tratar de contener los procesos de aculturacion occidental que todavia se presentan con fuerza dentro del espacio escolar. Basado en los anteriores hallazgos este estudio propone el diseno de un programa de educacion bilingue dentro de la escuela que contribuya tanto al mantenimiento de la lengua Ika como al desarrollo de competencias en espanol por parte de los ninos. Igualmente recomienda un mayor acercamiento entre comunidad y escuela de tal manera que incremente la participacion comunitaria en el fortalecimiento y apropiacion del espacio escolar.