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Thesis advisor: Charles P. Proctor / This dissertation develops, theorizes, and investigates the notion of metalinguistic engagement (ME). Within the context of reading research for upper elementary bi/multilingual students, which is relatively sparse and particularly lacking in qualitative detail, there are some emerging and promising findings related to the impacts of ME on students’ overall literacy development (Proctor et al,. 2012; Silverman et al., 2014). These outcomes specifically suggest that the development of component language (semantic, morphology, syntax) knowledge, skills, and strategies through ME provides substantial support to bi/multilingual students (Proctor et al., 2015; Silverman et al., 2015). CLAVES, a quasi-experimental language-based reading intervention and curriculum project (Proctor et al., 2020), highlighted the instructional malleability of ME, demonstrating positive effects for both language proficiency and reading comprehension among the participating fourth and fifth grade Spanish/English and Portuguese/English bi/multilingual students. However, the nature of the students’ ME and the extent to which their naturally dynamic linguistic repertoires emerged and were capitalized on during learning is currently unknown. In order to address gaps in research, this dissertation theorizes and investigates ME and contributes a qualitative analysis to the larger quasi-experimental intervention from Proctor et al (2020). This dissertation presents three case studies of teachers and their fourth-grade, Spanish/English bi/multilingual student working groups. A theoretical framework of cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) (Greeno & Engström, 2014; Roth & Lee, 2007) informed by heteroglossia (Bakhtin, 1981) was employed to attend to the tensions between the centripetal forces of classrooms’ goal-oriented activity and the centrifugal aspects of multiple voices and repertoires during ME (Wertsch, 2009). Findings highlight the various actions and resources through which students and teachers participate in ME. The ‘multivoicedness’ of students’ practices were shown to mediate ME goals, while also moving alongside and against the pressures from both the curriculum structure and teachers’ facilitation. Furthermore, dialectics between the curriculum and teachers within ME activities emphasize overarching tensions related to the goals of ME and the students’ opportunities and outcomes within ME. Findings accentuate the flexibility and constraints on bi/multilingual students’ practice and participation during ME and have implications for curriculum, instruction, and teacher preparation. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Human trafficking, the cruel and inhumane crime that it is, exploits the lives of millions of people around the world. My study explores the common vulnerabilities that exist for victims of cross-national human trafficking. First, I analyze literature discussing individual and country- level victim demographics to identify characteristics that predict recruitment or abduction into human trafficking. Using the 2017 Counter Trafficking Data Collaborative, I demonstrate the applicability of Cohen and Felson's 1979 Routine Activity Theory (RAT) to explain the vulnerabilities to victimization further. More specifically, I use VIVA to assess the methods of control and types of exploitation utilized by domestic and international traffickers. A sociological study that combines the work of RAT and VIVA in relation to human trafficking victimization is yet to exist, therefore I am seeking to fill this research gap. The overarching goal of this study is to form a victim profile through cluster analysis and logistic regression in order to locate the unique patterns of victimization. My findings demonstrate that there is a significant relationship between the three clusters formed, the methods of control used by the perpetrator (physical, psychological, and economic abuse), and the types of exploitation suffered by the victim (sexual and labor exploitation). / Master of Science / Human trafficking is the abduction and exploitation of individuals, in which victims are manipulated into sex or labor trafficking in unfamiliar environments without compensation. Trafficking occurs beyond national borders, therefore I look at victims originating from all over the globe. The literature I utilize looks at individual-level demographics and national-level characteristics. I then use a database to link certain social and theoretical elements of these demographics and characteristics to the methods of control and types of exploitation traffickers enforce upon their victims. Overall, this study forms a victim profile and locates the unique patterns of trafficking victimization through multiple data applications. My thesis concludes with findings on clusters that combine age, gender, recruiter relations, literacy rates, and trafficking laws and regressions that link these clusters to physical, psychological, and economic control as well as sexual and labor exploitation.

I explore the relationships between hate group activity, community factors, and the likelihood of hate crime occurrence within a county area. I integrate considerations raised by Routine Activity and Social Control theorists as well as current hate crime literature to frame my concept of the hate manager, an agent of social control that utilizes hate crimes as a means of enacting extralegal self-help for hate groups. I explore the relationship between hate managers and hate crime by testing a model relating hate group activity and hate crime occurrences by location. Next, I correlate hate crime occurrences with hate group activity at the county level for the state of Virginia using public data. I find that a hate group's presence holds greater predictive power than nearly any other factor for hate crime likelihood. My findings illustrate the nature of hate crime as a means of social control; whereby hate groups act as a parochial order and maintain hierarchical relations between offenders and victims through means of disciplinary crimes. I conclude by outlining suggestions for future research into the role of the hate manager. / Master of Science / In my thesis, I ask the question of how hate groups methodically encourage where hate crimes occur. I do this by creating the concept of the hate manager. Hate managers are figures which influence would-be criminals into their illegal acts. They do this by stoking the fears necessary for them to act outside legal boundaries in reaction to some feeling of threat, an act known as self-help. Hate crimes, I argue, are a form of self-help where the feeling of threat is directed towards individuals belonging to some marginalized group. By looking at data collected by various agencies in the state of Virginia, I discover that the presence of a hate group in a county is a stronger predictor for such acts than any other factor for hate crime likelihood. By doing so, I demonstrate that hate crimes are a form of social control. That is, I argue that hate groups maintain a sense of order or ranking by means of illegal and disciplinary self-help in the form of hate crimes. I conclude my thesis by outlining suggestions for future exploration of the hate manager’s role.

Yes / As part of a CETL funded project (ALPS 2006) 29 student midwives and their link lecturers were given an electronic version of a clinical portfolio on hand held computers (PDAs). These devices were used during an eight week clinical practice placement to record tripartite assessment interviews and to facilitate grading of the placement. Three focus groups conducted at the end of the placement explored the concept of clinical practice assessment and the impact of the electronic portfolio on the students’ experience of clinical practice and its assessment. Data was analysed from an activity theory perspective in that the electronic assessment tool was viewed as an artefact mediating situated knowing about student assessment in a particular socio-historical context. Findings suggest that students perceive clinical assessment as contested with different assessors having different understandings of it. However the electronic devise facilitated changes to the assessment tool. These changes promoted a shared understanding of the assessment process which was pragmatic and acceptable to students and clinicians. The significance of this study is that it highlights the role of assessment tools in creating a shared understanding of the assessment process rather than simply articulating that understanding.