<p>Some educational reform efforts include College Board?s Advanced Placement (AP) programs as a means of increasing equity and access to rigorous, college-like curriculums for all students. In 2013, the nineteen states with the highest American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) populations had not closed the participation or performance gaps for AI/AN students on AP exams (College Board, 2014), indicating inequality in receiving the benefits offered from AP programs. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of AI/AN AP students in public mainstream U.S. high schools and sought to answer the overarching research question: How and what do AI/AN students experience in AP? Specifically, the following subquestions were addressed: How and what do AI/AN students describe as their AP course experiences? How do AI/AN students understand AP as opportunity? How and what do AI/AN students describe as their experience of AP exams? Involuntary minority status and structural inequality theory provided the frameworks to ground the study. van Kaam?s (1966) phenomenological design presented by Moustakas (1994) was implemented to answer the overarching research question. Four AI/AN participants who had taken at least one AP course in a mainstream public U.S. high school engaged in a one-on-one in-depth interview with the researcher. Data were organized and analyzed by grouping and reducing, thematizing, constructing individual and composite textural and structural descriptions, and finally composing a composite textural-structural description representing the group as a whole. Findings indicate two essences of the phenomenon: position of self and awareness of a hidden curriculum. The researcher concluded that AI/AN students experience an incongruence between being AI/AN and being an AP student; AI/AN students interpret AP as offering unequal opportunities for personal and collective benefits; and AP curriculums and exams represent barriers that affect how AI/AN students make meaning of their education. The study provides awareness about AI/AN experiences in AP and offers recommendations for policy, practice, and future research.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [91]-99).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 109 p. : ill., map. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-102).

<p> This study explored the ways faculty members incorporate multicultural teaching strategies into their teaching to benefit minority students and the diverse patient population. Learning about culture in the bachelor degree nursing program is paramount to enable the nursing students to meet the cultural competency expected in professional practice. Though faculty members have been integrating culture in the curriculum, previous studies indicated that some faculty members have trouble with the application of cultural competency and integrating it into the curriculum. The need to further investigate how faculty members incorporate culture into the curriculum, identification of effective practices that facilitate culturally competent healthcare workers and the need to refine the way culture is taught was specified in the literature reviewed. Thus, this study explored the experience of Alberta bachelor of nursing faculty members&rsquo; application of culturally competent teaching techniques for the students of different ethnic minority groups. A basic qualitative research design method was used with an interest in uncovering how individuals construct and give meaning to their world. Faculty members from bachelor degree nursing programs were interviewed individually and their documents reviewed for cultural contents. Notes taken from the observation of faculty members during the interview were included in data which was analyzed thematically following categorization. The themes that emerged from the data portrayed how the participants learned and applied multicultural teaching strategies in their practices. The results showed two implications: some faculty who consider students&rsquo; cultures could be said to be culturally competent, while those who do not consider the students&rsquo; cultures are termed culturally incompetent. Of the 10 participants interviewed, only four specified considering the students&rsquo; cultures in their teaching.</p><p>

<p> After the Syrian Civil War began, refugee exodus gained unprecedented momentum. Turkey, as one of the major destinations of Syrian refugees, experienced problems regarding the accommodation of a high number of refugees (Dorman, 2014; UNICEF, 2014; USAID, 2015). The scholars widely debated the problems regarding educating refugee (Akkaya, 2013; Arabaci et al. 2013), but the available studies do not focus on experiences of refugee students in the schools.</p><p> This dissertation study, therefore, examines the schooling experiences of Syrian child refugees in a Turkish public school with a developing conceptual framework named as Middle East Refugee Protection Model (MRPM). The MRPM originates as a result of the different expectations and motives among the host countries located in Europe and the Middle East.</p><p> This study uses Critical Qualitative Research. The data is collected through interviews and classroom observations. I employed the reconstructive data analysis strategies and used NVivo qualitative data analysis software to analyze the data.</p><p> The results show that the Syrian refugee students&rsquo; experiences in the school in Turkey are not dependent on the liability of the legal instruments but social norms and values. The school staff and classroom teachers use a child-centric approach to educate and integrate refugee students through accentuating values such as transparency and honesty, determination and commitment, and approving authority. Syrian refugee students in the public school face challenges due to their language skills, the host communities&rsquo; social expectations, and the lack of sustainable refugee education policy. As they continue facing challenges, refugee students begin constructing survival skills and these survival skills help them become an independent being and develop a sense of agency.</p><p> Based on the interpretation of the results, I have created two models to explain the refugee education strategies in the school, and how refugee students make sense of the school staff's approach in educating them. The first model is the refugee education and protection model. It explains the concepts and principles that school staff uses to regulate their refugee education system. The second model is agency and independence development, which explains the stages that refugee students go through to be an agent and an independent student. This dissertation suggests theoretical, political and practical implications of the use of models and effective strategies for educating refugees.</p><p>

<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>

<p> To address the void in scholarly literature, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and describe the experiences of counseling supervisors involved in cross-disciplinary supervision in post-educational settings. This research study was qualitative in nature and utilized a phenomenological approach. The central questions being asked were: (a) How do counseling supervisors experience cross-disciplinary supervision? and (b) How does power impact cross-disciplinary supervision? Seven participants were interviewed from the following professional disciplines within the state of North Carolina: social work, professional counseling, marriage and family therapy, and counseling psychology. Data analysis yielded the following textural themes: (a) challenging, (b) collaborative experiencing, (c) impact on belief system, and (d) managing power in relationships. Analysis also yielded the following structural themes: (a) supervision setting, (b) supervision format, (c) supervision structure, and (d) supervision perspective. Supervisors regarded cross-disciplinary supervision as a valuable part of their professional career, despite the challenges. From the findings, cross-disciplinary supervision is an experience of interdependence that encourages professional growth and development, and ultimately supports quality client care. Recommendations for future research include: (a) expanding the target population to include a more diverse supervisor demographic, (b) including field observations, (c) investigating the frequency of supervisees who engage in cross-disciplinary supervision and (d) exploring the impact of a more formal evaluative process, specifically for cross-disciplinary supervision experiences.</p><p>

<p> This study was conducted to determine how immigrants and the immigration experience are represented in current young adult (YA) literature. In the study, I asked the following questions: Who are the immigrant characters in recent YA books? Why do they come? How do they experience immigration? How are they perceived or treated by others? A content analysis methodology was used to examine, from a critical literacy viewpoint, recent young adult novels with immigration themes. Data were analyzed by identifying and interpreting patterns in themes across 22 YA novels with immigrant protagonists or other important characters, published between 2013 and 2017. Data indicated that the protagonists in the study reflected current immigration trends fairly accurately, came to the United States primarily to escape violence or persecution in their home countries, experienced a variety of challenges, tended to hold onto their home country cultures, and were often the objects of racism, but also found kindness and friendship in the United States. Teachers who desire to include authentic immigrant literature in their classroom libraries should consider from whose perspectives the books have been written, and learn about the authors&rsquo; backgrounds and the messages that authors want to convey through the books that they write. In addition, immigrants can be encouraged to write children&rsquo;s and young adult books, sharing their experiences and contributing to the supply of realistic immigrant literature with complex and authentic immigrant characters.</p><p>

<p> This purpose of this study was to examine the best practices used by facilitators of global collaborations in education. Four research questions were examined to address this purpose, which included: (a) challenges faced by facilitators in developing online international collaborations in education (b) current strategies used by facilitators in developing online international collaborations in education (c) how success is measured and tracked (d) recommendations for future online international collaborations in education. </p><p> This qualitative, phenomenological study utilized a purposive sample of 14 participants who were ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) award recipients or conference presenters between 2014&ndash;2017 affiliated with global collaboration. Data collection was done through a semi-structured interview protocol comprised of six questions. The recorded interviews were transcribed, coded and analyzed to determine 27 total themes that emerged from the data. </p><p> With some themes reinforced by literature and some unique to the study, results led to establishing &ldquo;dimensions of leading global collaboration.&rdquo; This includes two primary dimensions: (a) the responsibilities dimension, which entails the tasks and logistical aspects needed in global collaboration efforts, such as planning, practices during the collaboration, and logistical considerations (b) the characteristics dimension, which refers to the qualities that characterize a good global collaboration leader and partner, such as empathy, accountability, and willingness to take risks. Additionally, this study highlights the importance of people and developing a peer to peer network in the dynamic among facilitators (who should be seen as leaders) of global collaboration.</p><p>

<p> Racial microaggressions are present in daily classroom interactions between White teachers and students of color. White teachers, however, may be oblivious to the types of racial microaggressions they exhibit and how they perform them in their classrooms. Using autoethnographic research methods, this study seeks to expose implicit racial bias into explicit moments of teacher decision-making, transform dysconscious racism into conscious and concrete thoughts, and interpret previously unseen racist acts into seen and recognizable activities. The study asks the following research questions: (a) When and how do I permit my racial microaggressions to emerge and transgress in my classroom? And (b) In what ways, if at all, can a White teacher use autoethnography to detect and examine her racial microaggressions toward her students of color? Later, the study explores the ways in which critical self-reflexivity might promote an evolving anti-racist teaching identity. </p><p> The researcher, a classroom teacher, gathered data using daily reflective self-observations, daily reflexive field note journals, and periodic videotaping of her practice. She commenced the study with an introductory culturegram positioning her racial and cultural self-identity and concluded it with a final self-interview to complete the data-gathering. The researcher categorized each microaggressive event by form, medium, and theme using Sue&rsquo;s (2010b) &ldquo;Taxonomy of Microaggressions.&rdquo; Findings reveal (a) uninterrogated Whiteness dominates all aspects of the researcher&rsquo;s classroom, extending from her teaching to her White students&rsquo; behaviors and (b) transitional time, non-academic teacher talk, and other unstructured time remain especially hazardous for students of color in terms of receiving teacher-perpetuated racial microaggressions.</p><p>