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African-American student achievement is a pervasive problem for school communities. This qualitative research explores the Black Church’s role in the bicultural development of six African-American male students. Using the critical theory of biculturalism this study seeks to determine what aspects of the Black Church experience influence the African-American male’s ability to navigate the school environment and participate in school. This dissertation study utilized to complementary methodologies, testimonies, and witnessing, to document the students experiences in the school and church communities. Data analysis included holistic-content analysis. Findings indicate the Black Church was an effective vehicle for the empowering process of biculturation. Thought its critical teachings, cultural responsive care, and engaged pedagogy, the Black Church affirms the bicultural students and helps them contend with their personal experiences with oppressive individuals and structures. The findings support the need for the Black church to participate in the education reform efforts affecting African-American students. The findings also support a renewed focus on engaging teachers in the utilization of culturally responsive care in their interactions with African-American students.

Despite the expressed need for bicultural teachers, research on teacher attrition has demonstrated that a growing number of bicultural educators are leaving the classroom. Bicultural male teachers, in particular, experience high rates of teacher attrition. Schools, unfortunately, are contexts in which Latino male teachers are constantly experiencing dilemmas related specifically to both their gendered and racialized positionality as males of color. Grounded in Antonia Darder’s critical bicultural framework, this autoethnographic study explored the complex factors that drive Latino male teachers out of the classroom, through an in-depth and grounded examination of a Latino male teacher who left the classroom. The study contributes to the conversation on bicultural teacher attrition, gendered relations, and their relationship to both teacher preparation and the education of bicultural students. Furthermore, the study explored how racism, sexism, classism, trauma, and heteronormativity mitigate the experiences of Latino male teachers, and how these manifest themselves through the hidden curriculum, asymmetrical relations of power, gendered essentialism, policing of behavior, the culture of silence, conditions of isolation, and disabling cultural response patterns. The implications of such factors in the life of one Latino male teacher are carefully analyzed and discussed, in an effort to consider their significance in rethinking teacher preparation programs, with respect to the needs of Latino males. Moreover, the study offers an engagement with critical autoethnography as a significant tool of reflection in the educational process and emancipatory process of bicultural teachers.

The notion of service has enjoyed historical longevity—rooted deeply within our institutions (i.e., churches, schools, government, military, etc.), reminiscent of indentured servitude, and rarely questioned as a colonizing practice that upholds oppression. Given the relentless insertion of service learning programs into working class communities, the sacrosanctity awarded and commonsensically given to service is challenged and understood within its colonial, historical, philosophical, economic, and ideological machinations. This political confrontation of service learning practices serves to: (a) critique the dominant epistemologies that reproduce social inequalities within the context of service learning theory and practice; and (b) move toward the formulation of a critical bicultural service learning theory and critical principles, in line with the humanizing and emancipatory intent of a critical decolonizing pedagogical practice. This dissertation is deeply influenced by the writings of Brazilian educational philosopher Paulo Freire and critical activist scholar Antonia Darder, among others, and incisively examines and critiques service learning through critical bicultural pedagogy and critical decolonizing interpretive methodology. As a radical political project, Darder’s decolonizing interpretive theoretical framework provides an opportunity to rupture the abyssal divide that epistemologically privileges the Eurocentric service learning discourse in an effort to place bicultural voices, scholarship, and communities at the forefront of this educational movement. In seeking to move toward equality and liberatory practices, both politically and pedagogically, it is imperative that critical consciousness be the guide to ensure that society does not stand by and accept the displacement and dehumanization of the oppressed by culturally invasive practices of service.

This study aimed to explore the indirect effect of parental attachment on psychological well-being via bicultural identity integration (BII) in a sample of bicultural young adult children of immigrant caregivers, as well as the moderator effect of language brokering on the relation between parental attachment and BII. The final sample included 107 participants who were recruited through various psychology listservs, social media advertisements, undergraduate psychological courses, and snowball sampling methods to complete an online survey via Qualtrics. Preliminary analyses revealed that age and race/ethnicity were significantly associated with some variables of interest. Results of primary analyses revealed a significant relation between parental attachment and psychological distress, but not with life satisfaction. Bivariate correlations revealed a significantly positive relation between BII blendedness and life satisfaction but no significant relation with psychological distress. However, BII harmony was not significantly correlated with either psychological well-being outcome. There were no significant findings when examining the indirect-effect, moderation, and moderated mediational effects. Findings derived from this study contribute to a greater understanding of the cognitive and affective processes that contribute to the integration of bicultural identities. Relevant literature, conceptual reasoning and empirical evidence for the research methods, and counseling implications of the findings, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

This master thesis is dedicated to an acculturation process and its relations to life satisfaction. In the theoretical part the concept of acculturation is presented and conceived as changes accompanying migration to a foreign country. Different acculturation strategies are described, as well as some of the factors that affect influence the complex process of acculturation. One of the chapters is dedicated to a Czech milieu and its legislative and social conditions for immigration, and describing two main third country migrant populations - Ukrainians and Vietnamese. Theoretical part is wrapped up with an introduction to subjective well-being and life satisfaction, with a focus on intercultural context. The empirical part consists of a description and results of a quantitative questionnaire survey among immigrants originally from Vietnam and Ukraine (N = 162) and it is based on Acculturation Scale (Cortés, Rogler, Malgady, 1994), Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, Griffin, 1985) and Bicultural Identity Integration Scale (Chen, Benet-Martínez, Bond, 2008). Most of the respondents adopted integration strategy, however there wasn't a significant difference in life satisfaction among acculturation strategies. The data analysis found several significant variables which participate on...

This thesis focuses on the rhetorical formations of identities of people of color through news media coverage. Specifically, I investigate news media coverage of the Arizona immigration legislation, Senate Bill 1070. Major commercial media and Spanish-language media systems associate the immigrant identity to the U.S. Latina/o identity and position U.S. Latina/os as second-class citizens in American society. The language of the legislation, in addition to media coverage of it, works to reinforce race relations and the ideologies of meritocracy and cultural difference in the United States. Chapter one presents up-to-date demographic data, stressing the continuing growth of a diverse American people. Specifically, I use data on the U.S. Latina/o population as a way to establish this reality given that the data are recent. This chapter also presents the argument that current norms and standards in political opinions, such as those considered by policy makers, excludes opinions deriving from people with distinct cultural backgrounds. I present this argument in order to define and exemplify contemporary U.S. culture. The next chapter is a comparative close-textual analysis of news media coverage of Arizona SB 1070. Chapter two also outlines a theoretical framework in order to understand the functions of the media in society in relation to the rhetorical forms of reinforcing dominant ideological values. Chapter three utilizes survey data that speaks to the identity of U.S. Latina/o college students. As part of the questionnaire, I pose questions regarding language preference, generational status, media consumption and political knowledge. The results exemplify the prevailing bicultural component of U.S. Latinas/os and suggest that this ethnic group draws from different and contrasting ideologies. When comparing the identities presented by the media to the results of the questionnaire, discourse analysis suggests the notion that bicultural Americans are not acknowledged fully as citizens. / text

Att veta vilken identitet man har i ett samhälle där olika normer och regler finns kan för många vara svårt, minst sagt för de individer som är uppväxta med dubbla kulturer. Undersökningen har utförts med syftet att få en djupare förståelse för hur identiteten hos unga vuxna med invandrarbakgrund har påverkats. Studiens empiri samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer där respondenterna var födda i Sverige och hade föräldrar från Mellanöstern. Av datan gjordes en tematisk analys för att ta fram teman. Empirin analyserades med hjälp av fyra socialpsykologiska teorier; social identitet, självrepresentation, ackulturation och bikulturell identitet. De centrala fenomenen som resultaten visar är att respondenterna upplever att kulturerna är som mest olika gällande kollektivism och individualism. Deltagarna berättade att inom ursprungskulturen identifierar individerna sig mer med sin grupp och det finns en annan värme sinsemellan. De berättar att de anpassar sig mycket efter olika situationer beroende på om de är med familj, vänner, på jobbet eller i andra situationer bland svenskar. Detta därför att passa in. Oavsett hur mycket respondenterna anpassar sig uppger de att de ändå inte blir fullt accepterade som svenskar vilket leder till att de identifierar sig som en blandning mellan kulturerna men mer med ursprungskulturen. Respondenterna förklarar att de känner sig mest som sig själva bland familj och vänner som också har en dubbelkultur då de känner att de inte behöver anpassa sig lika mycket. / Knowing your identity in a society where different norms and rules exist can be difficult for many, to say the least for those individuals who grew up with dual cultures. The study aims to get a deeper understanding of how the identity of young adults with an immigrant background has been affected.The study's data was collected through semi-structured interviews where the respondents were born in Sweden and had parents from the Middle East. To find the main themes of the data a thematic analysis was used. The results were analyzed by using four social psychological theories; social identity, self-representation, acculturation and bicultural identity.The central phenomena that the results show is that the respondents feel that the cultures are the most different in terms of collectivism and individualism. The participants told that within the native culture the individuals identify more with their group and there is a different bond between them. They said that they adjust themselves a lot to different situations depending on whether they are with family, friends, at work or in other situations among Swedes. They do this to fit in. Regardless of how much the respondents adapt, they state that they are still not fully accepted as Swedes, which leads them to identifying as a mix between the cultures but more with the native culture.The respondents explain that they feel more like their true selves among family and friends who also have a double culture as they do not have to adapt as much.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The analytical and creative chapters of my thesis display the best and the worst of bicultural daughters and their mothers as writers represent this relationship in short stories. Throughout the analytical chapters, I show that the through their fiction these writers help us understand that the bicultural daughter/immigrant mother relationship not only is affected by general feelings of matrophobia – as Adrienne Rich points out – but also by different pressures and paradigms that can only be experienced if the daughter belongs to and/or associates herself with a different culture than that of her mother. I hypothesize that the stories reflect these paradigms as usually negative because the pressures from both “American” society and the immigrant mother are often so great that the bicultural daughter cannot embrace either one fully. However, with the adverse feelings from both mother and daughter, comes a realization from both that neither will succeed in dominating the other. Once this is established, both mother and daughter will either reach a consensual agreement to disagree, or will continue having a hostile relationship. By including my own short stories in context with the analyses done for the stories by Kingston, Tan, Pietrzyk and Danticat, I hope to bring interest to this genre for further analysis on the bicultural daughter and immigrant mother relationship as depicted in short stories.

Indigenous* college students in both Canada and the United States have the lowest rates of obtaining postsecondary degrees, and their postsecondary dropout rates are higher than for any other minority (Freeman & Fox, 2005; Mendelson, 2004; Reddy, 1993). There has been very little research done to uncover possible reasons for such low academic achievement and high dropout rates for Indigenous students. Some of the research that has been done indicates that one challenge for Indigenous students is the difficulty in navigating the cultural differences between higher education and their Indigenous cultures. Biculturalism is the ability of an individual to navigate two different cultures (Bell, 1990; Das & Kemp, 1997). Several scholars have suggested that biculturalism is an important construct in understanding academic persistence among Indigenous students (Jackson, Smith & Hill, 2003; Schiller, 1987). This study explored biculturalism among Indigenous college students and how it impacts their higher education experience. Indigenous college students (n=26) from the southwestern United States and central Canada participated in qualitative interviews for the study. The interviews were transcribed and interpreted using a synthesis of qualitative methods. Several themes related to the participants' experience of biculturalism emerged from the qualitative analysis: institutional support for transition to college, racism, types of relationships to native culture, career issues, and family issues. The findings suggested that more needs to be done in terms of providing Indigenous students centers at universities, implementing mentor programs for incoming students, and educating future Indigenous college students, families, and communities about biculturalism and the culture of higher education. *Author's note: The term Indigenous will be used to describe Native American/American Indian, First Nation and Métis student participants. Interviews were collected both in the United States and Canada. The terminology used to describe these populations differs across cultures; therefore, Indigenous will be used as a more general term, to describe the participants. The terminology used by cited authors was retained.