<p> The under-representation of racial minority students in Gifted and Talented Education (GATE)programs has been an issue with little to no resolution (Ford, 2002). These under-represented racial minority groups are experiencing the obstacles of discrimination. Ogbu&rsquo;s (1987) observation offers a framework distinguishing minorities: voluntary and involuntary. </p><p> Researchers report on the under-representation of &ldquo;involuntary&rdquo; minority groups (McBee, 2006). Researchers have offered keys to opening the gates of GATE programs to bring about racial equity. Recruitment processes: alternative assessments and teacher referrals are available to identify minority GATE students (Elhoweris, Mutua, Alsheikh, &amp; Holloway, 2005). Retention practices: racial diversity of gate teachers, culturally responsive pedagogy, culturally responsive curriculum, and a classroom culture of caring are available to support racial minority gate students once in the program (Delpit, 2006). </p><p> This mixed-methods study is of one school&rsquo;s GATE program, Multicultural Middle School (MMS). The study used descriptive statistics to analyze percentages of racial representation of MMS&rsquo;s GATE students and GATE teachers. The study also used questionnaires, observations, and interviews to analyze MMS&rsquo;s GATE teachers&rsquo; knowledge and practices in regards to the research-based recruitment processes and retention practices of underrepresented racial minorities. </p><p> This study found that the <i>voluntary racial minority group</i> was over-represented and one of four <i>involuntary racial groups</i> was under-represented. This study also found that MMS&rsquo;s GATE program had achieved racial equity in three of the four involuntary racial minority groups. At the time of this study, MMS&rsquo;s GATE program was trending toward equity.</p>

<p> This qualitative research highlights the voices and lived experiences of adolescent Japanese sojourner students and their mothers residing in the Midwest. The central goals of this research are to understand what adolescent Japanese sojourner students&rsquo; school experiences in the U.S. are like&mdash;particularly in areas with small Japanese populations&mdash;and how their experiences in the U.S. shape their current identities as cultural and linguistic minority students. This research also aims to learn how the students&rsquo; sojourning experiences influenced their mindsets as future returnee students. I conducted an in-depth case study with a phenomenographic approach as the theoretical framework to deeply investigate the lives of adolescent Japanese sojourner students. The findings of this research revealed that the Japanese sojourner students&mdash;who were also considered cultural and linguistic minority students&mdash;encountered various difficulties and challenges at their local schools due to cultural differences and the language barrier; these issues often prevented the students from establishing friendships and expressing themselves at their local schools. At the same time, I found that several sojourner students and mothers valued the students&rsquo; local school experiences for the opportunity to learn authentic English and cultivate cultural awareness. The research findings suggest that the Japanese students&rsquo; sojourning experiences impacted their identity development&mdash;namely, identity negotiation and maintenance. Additionally, I extracted six prominent findings that are specific to sojourner residents in areas with small Japanese populations that are likely apply to any sojourner living in any area of the United States with a small Japanese population.</p>

<p> Traditional research often excludes the voices of marginalized populations such as African Americans, who are usually written about instead of being allowed to tell their own stories (King, 2005). This research gives African Americans the opportunity to &ldquo;tell their stories&rdquo; of segregation and integration. Leaving the telling of our stories to others may have already had severe consequences, such as the perpetuation of stereotypes of African Americans, their communities and their academic abilities (Brown, 2009). This research hopes to shine a different light on the cohesiveness of the Black community and the Black academic experiences these participants had during the 1950s-1970s. There were 20 participants identified from yearbooks, social media and snowball sampling; from the 20, nine were selected to be interviewed. All participants were African American, male or female, and were selected based on other criteria such as age and where they attended school between the years 1950 and 1970. The researcher included a personal narrative which orients the reader to the context for events recollected by the participants in this phenomenology utilizing historical narratives based on the researcher&rsquo;s personal experience and oral histories from other African American individuals from the community. Critical Race Theory was used to guide the research to answer how African Americans who attended Black neighborhood schools in a Southeastern Pennsylvania town during the 1950-1970 eras describe the influence of forced integration on their community and the Black academic experience. The findings from this study are that racial and cultural identity and the Black academic experience were important to student connectedness to the participants&rsquo; schools and neighborhood; and the teachers, extracurricular activities and relationships were critical characteristics influencing these participants&rsquo; perceptions of their segregated schools. </p>

<p> Despite the growing population of Muslim students in U.S. public schools, few empirically grounded studies appear in the literature that have reported the opinions and viewpoints about U.S. public schools from the perspective of Muslim parents. This study deeply investigates the perceptions Muslim parents hold about U.S. public schools and focuses on how Muslim identity and other factors shape those views. <i>Q</i> Methodology, a mixed methods technique for the systematic study of subjectivity, is applied to reveal and analyze a varied set of distinct models of shared viewpoints held by Muslim parents about public schools in the U.S. Data were analyzed from 54 Muslim parents in the metropolitan New York City region. This study identified and examined 8 models of shared viewpoints held by Muslim parents. Further analysis demonstrated the relative prevalence of each of the revealed shared viewpoints about U.S. public schools and ways in which the identified models reflect disagreements, consensus, and absence of salience in views about U.S. public schools. Muslim parents&rsquo; Muslim identity, their experience attending schools in the U.S., their children&rsquo;s experience attending schools in the U.S., their experience as school teachers or administrators, their gender, and their highest level of education were examined to predict the likelihood a parent would share views with a particular <i>Q</i> model. Understanding the shared viewpoints of Muslim parents can be useful for educational policymakers, leaders, and teachers, who must ensure an effective and comfortable learning environment for all of their students.</p>

<p> As the number of international students studying in the United States continues to grow, there&rsquo;s the need to know how they cope in a host country and the challenges they encounter both in the classroom and outside in order improve education and prepare students for the future. The purpose of this study is to know how international students relate with one another both inside and outside the school setting. The study findings were taken from observation and interview from both graduate and undergraduate classrooms.</p><p>

<p> Korean American students seem to excel in academics as soon as they enter formal schooling. How are Korean American parents preparing their children for kindergarten? This qualitative research case study's foundational theory is based on Sue and Okazaki's (1990) concept of relative functionalism, which proposes that "cultural practices ... maximize skills in gaining education" (p. 913). Five Korean American parents (one father, four mothers) were interviewed and discussed topics that could help answer the study's research questions: (a) how do Korean American parents perceive what school readiness means? and (b) how do Korean Americans decide what activities to engage their children in when preparing them for kindergarten?</p><p> As there exists no published research that documents the activities Korean American parents engage their children in with intentions of preparing them for formal schooling, literature in this study focused on the history of Korean American culture's valuation of education, relevant circumstances of Koreans living in the U.S., their childrearing priorities, and the effects of acculturation on Korean American educational values.</p><p> Themed findings include overall parental expectations of their children's academic goals, the perceived definition of school readiness, primary caregivers, and priorities for children's competencies. The fact that the Korean American culture is grounded in the philosophy of Confucianism, which includes the expectation that children should uphold family honor and the belief that success is achieved through effort, may help to explain why this study's participants placed high importance on their children's social&ndash;emotional competencies and on behaving "well."</p><p> As the primary caretaker in the family, Korean American mothers base their decisions regarding their children's activities on feedback received from friends from church, as well as from the broader local Korean community. Significant findings include that participants reported starting their children in academic training when they were as young as two years old, and that children are being raised as bilinguals in dualistic cultures. If shared with educational practitioners, this research could help to better support the home&ndash;school relationship with Korean American parents. Parents of non-Korean American students may also use Korean American educational practices to better support their own children to become more school ready prior to entering kindergarten, as well as throughout their educational careers.</p>

<p> This study employed a model of basic qualitative research which explored teachers&rsquo; pedagogical responses to the unique cultural gaps they experienced in schools where most students were of minority cultural identity. Eight teachers who self-identified as majority culture identity formed the sample group for this study. Semistructured interviews were used to collect their insights regarding their pedagogical decision making they used with the students in the school where they were teaching. Additionally, teachers shared what they described were culturally responsive curriculum samples and then provided a reflection on how they implemented this curriculum. The data showed that these teachers understood the value of providing a culturally responsive pedagogy in their classrooms. Despite this, for numerous reasons, teachers struggled to develop and then apply culturally responsive pedagogy that aligned with models described in literature.</p><p>

<p> While many Marshallese learners thrive in school environments, far more have struggled to find academic success, both at home and abroad. While this has been documented by educational researchers for decades, there is a dearth of research about how Marshallese students learn most effectively. Examining culturally-sustaining educational models that have resulted in successful student outcomes in other indigenous groups can inform strategies to improve educational experiences for Marshallese students. Understanding how recognized Marshallese experts in a range of fields have successfully learned and passed on knowledge and skills is important to understanding how formal school environments can be shaped to most effectively support Marshallese student learning.</p><p> This study examines the learning and teaching experiences of recognized Marshallese holders of traditional and contemporary knowledge and skills, in order to document a Marshallese indigenous learning framework. This research used bwebwenato (talk story) as a research method, to learn from the experiences of ten Marshallese experts in knowledge and skills ranging from sewing to linguistics and from canoe-making to business.</p><p> Key findings include the four key components of a Marshallese indigenous learning framework: &bull; Relationships &bull; Motivation for Learning &bull; Teaching Strategies &bull; Extending Networks Teaching strategies are comprised of the commonalities among the way Marshallese have learned and mastered both traditional and contemporary skills. Chief among these are: introducing the topic at a young age, scaffolding, demonstrating and observing, learning through relevant practice, and correcting learners constructively. To a lesser extent, and in a context in which the learner and teacher are not related in a familial way, learning and teaching occurs through visual aids and asking instructor for assistance.</p><p>

<p> This study explores how quality experienced teachers use culture to successfully deliver K-12 classroom instruction. Additionally, it develops and tests the effectiveness of a resource designed to instruct early career teachers on the use of culture to deliver classroom instruction. </p><p> Research was conducted in two phases over a four-year time frame (2014-2017). The study followed a mixed methods exploratory sequential design, using a participatory action research approach. Phase 1 gathered qualitative data from 20 experienced teachers located in two states, which were analyzed using constructed grounded theory. The results of this analysis, accompanied by a literature review, resulted in the development of a Chapter about Culture (CAC), an instructional resource on teaching through culture for early career teachers.</p><p> Phase 2 gathered quantitative data using a Checklist of Classroom Inventory (CCI) from eight Alaska early career teachers and one Montana experienced teacher, and were analyzed by averaging the pre/post CAC scores and comparing the differences. In addition, one open-ended question after use of CAC provided additional qualitative data about the resourcefulness of CAC, as well as the process for implementing the lessons.</p><p> Phase 1 results revealed five common themes when teaching through culture: Relationships, Communication, Connections, Respect, and Multicultural Resources. These themes contributed to the construction of a value-added theory of practice for teaching through culture, and served as the basis of the CAC. Phase 2 results demonstrated growth by early career teachers after using the newly created CAC in all five themes of teaching through culture.</p><p>

<p> Despite the growth in the US population of persons of color and the need for allied health professionals to improve healthcare disparity, people of color make up only 20% of the total enrollment in professional occupational therapy education programs (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2016a). Inequalities in the participation of people of color can lead to diminished educational experiences for all students, isolation for occupational therapy students and professionals of color, and decreased healthcare quality for minority clients. This five phase, qualitative interpretive/constructivist study explored the academic experiences of occupational therapists of color, guided by the following research questions: </p><p> 1. How do occupational therapy practitioners of color ascribe meaning to their educational experiences in their OT program? </p><p> 2. How do occupational therapy practitioners of color describe their perceived facilitators and barriers to educational success? </p><p> 3. In what ways do occupational therapy students/practitioners of color navigate their culture of origin and the majority White culture in order to succeed in occupational therapy educational programs and in professional practice? </p><p> AOTA (2016b) professionals (<i>N</i>=14) were solicited by email through their Multicultural, Diversity and Inclusion Network and participated in Phases I, II, and III. Participants completed demographic and interest questionnaires in Phase I; a reflective questionnaire regarding educational facilitators and barriers in Phase II; and depth interviews in Phase III. Using Colaizzi&rsquo;s data analysis strategy (Colaizzi,1978), the results of the Phase III interviews were used to complete the Phase IV elite informant interviews with OT leaders (<i>N</i>=4). Phase V consisted of a document analysis of historical and current policy documents. </p><p> Six themes emerged from this study: 1) Decision to Enroll in an OT program, 2) Educational Program Culture, 3) Faculty Relationships, 4) Peer Relationships, 5) Student Resilience, and 6) Working Professionals.These results reveal participant persistence towards professional OT goals; however, academic and leadership success did not shield participants from marginalization or racism. These results may inform OT professionals regarding enrollment strategies for students of color and the imperative for student-centered program standards and zero- tolerance policies regarding discrimination within OT educational programs. </p><p>