This research study explores use of Internet resources for learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in Taiwanese high school EFL education. The overall objectives of this research are to examine qualitatively 40 high school students' performance, attitudes, and learning strategies using an experimental Internet-integrated learning mode; to consider its potential impact on current EFL education in Taiwan; and to gain insight into the feasibility of integrating the Internet into Taiwanese high school EFL standard curriculum. Subjects were engaged in thematic, purposeful, collaborative Internet-integrated learning activities where English is used for data searching, group discussion, and individual presentation, as well as for acquiring knowledge of other subject matter. E-mail messages, mailing lists, interviews, questionnaires and subjects' writing samples were collected and analyzed. Students' performances were recorded through fieldnotes, audiotaping, and videotaping. Results indicate that the Internet-integrated learning environment sufficiently scaffolded subjects in information processing and knowledge construction of the target language via exploration, discovery, and meaning-negotiated interactions. Results are discussed in terms of meeting the demands of information and human resources required for effective EFL learning and reshaping the role of instructor as guide and co-learner. Also discussed is how the Internet-integrated mode facilitates interdisciplinary, collaborative and learner-centered EFL learning and incorporates students' and teachers' interests and expertise. Finally, recommendations are offered for future research studies, including possibly developing a compatible assessment system and establishing an EFL instruction web station to convince and support teachers interested in conducting authentic, cross-cultural, and learner-centered EFL instruction with the aid of rich and dynamic multimedia resources on the Internet.

Design studios, the core of architectural education, are the locus in which students develop design skills while being socialized into the culture of the architectural profession. This qualitative case study examines a first year design studio taught by an experienced professor inspired by cultural feminist principles and student-centered pedagogy. This study explores the questions: (1) How do the professor's pedagogical principles influence and shape the educational dynamic within the design studio? (2) How are students' creative processes influenced by this professor's pedagogy? and, (3) What can be learned from this case study to make design studios supportive and positive learning environments? Answering these questions led to the following conclusions: (1) The professor's personal beliefs and professional values, love for teaching, and willingness to be a co-explorer of students' ideas shaped a studio dynamic in which students' individual needs and learning styles were acknowledged within the requirements of the School and Freshman Design Studios curricula. She consciously worked out conflicts between the program's traditional goals to architectural education (developing technically and aesthetically proficient, highly competitive architects) and her own student-centered, cultural feminist pedagogy (developing environmentally aware, socially just architects). (2) The priority given to students' development as individuals meant sharing professorial authority and power. Her multidisciplinary background and experience promoted a creative pedagogy that empowered students as individuals and fostered a strong group identity through networking, thus increasing personal and collective responsibility for their work, self-awareness, confidence, and willingness to take risks in their approaches to design. Consequently, the studio dynamic evolved into a positive learning environment, supporting each student's creative process and the quality of their designs and learning. (3) This case study is an atypical learning environment for an introductory design studio within traditionally oriented professional degree programs. More in-depth studies are needed on the underlying premises of studios that create psychological climates leading to enhanced creativity and empowerment or to unproductiveness and frustration in students. Further, an interdisciplinary look at cultural politics could help build guidelines for better preparing architects to deal with the pressing demands for change in the profession and towards social justice.

Japanese student in the United States have an opportunity to receive education in American public schools and in Japanese weekend supplementary schools guided by the Ministry of Education in Japan. This "bi-schooled" situation emphasizes positive aspects of educating biliterate children. However, developing literacy skills in both English and Japanese is a complicated task for students. Focusing on maintenance and development of literacy skills in Japanese as a first language, this study provides an intensive description of the Japanese writing experiences and practices of four ninth graders and of teaching experiences of three Japanese teachers in one weekend school in the United States. The students are native-born Japanese who have received more than five years of education in both American and the Japanese weekend school. All three teachers have experience teaching in Japan and have lived in the United States for over seven years. There is gap between the present situation of Japanese bi-schooling students and these teachers' standards in the weekend school. Investigating these students and teachers allows us to perceive this gap. Data collected through a phenomenological in-depth interview method is presented in the following three aspects: students' self-understanding, their positive perspectives on learning two languages, and their difficulties under current conditions of bi-schooling. Also from teachers' perspectives, the teachers' observations of problems in the students' essays, their perception of problems in the students' bi-schooled situation, their strategies for instruction in Japanese composition, and their understanding of the role of Japanese weekend schools are examined. The examinations of thirteen students writing samples by the teachers were included in the interviews. The findings identify important insights and approaches in the following areas: bilingual education, language-minority education, and teachers' roles, including their academic expectations of students, in educational settings. This study has implications for meaning of bilingual education, issues of language-minority education, the importance of teachers' awareness of issues and problems faced by language-minority students, the importance of parental involvement in education. In addition, it has ramifications for Japanese education in the United States as well as Japanese bilingual education in Japan.

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the critical reflective dialogue of a collaborative team composed of a cooperating teacher, a native language informant, and a researcher. The goal of this task-based team was to develop and implement a culture-based thematic unit on Puerto Rico for a second year Spanish class in an American public high school. The process of group deliberation is described as an interactional experience that involves tension as a normative behavior (McCutcheon 1995, Zacarian, 1996). This study examined the claim that groups comprised of members from diverse cultures and differing professional knowledge systems are more likely to experience tension (Deketelaere & Kelchtermans, 1996; McCutcheon, 1994; Zacarian, 1996). However, when members are willing to critically and collaboratively examine their tension, it can have positive effects on their communicative process, curricular task, and professional development by allowing members to benefit from the 'complementary competence' of the different collaborating professionals (Deketelaere & Kelchtermans, 1996; McCutcheon 1995, Zacarian, 1996). This study also examined the claim that the language used by speakers in groups reflects their ideologies, social relations, and identities that are continually co-constructed during their interactions (Schiffrin, 1994, p. 106). This study researched these claims by analyzing the critical reflective dialogue that emerged within the planning and implementation phases of a collaborative curriculum development team. The results of this research reveal that the critical reflective dialogue of the collaborative team members influenced a shift in their initial ideologies. The results also reveal that accompanying this shift in ideologies was a realignment of the social relations and identities of the group members. It was found that the NLI contributed to the collaborative curriculum process in significant ways and at multiple levels. Further, the findings suggest that including the NLI in the implementation phase provided communicative opportunities for all parties to engage in a critical reflective dialogue that moved beyond mere technical and practical curricular concerns. In this study it provided collaborative members with increased opportunities to gain a deeper understanding of the complex issues of stereotypes from multiple perspectives. Most significantly, it was seen that engagement in a critical reflective dialogue provided the CT with the opportunity to examine her own assumptions on her own innocence with regard to stereotypes about the culture and people of Puerto Rico.

The purpose of this study is to examine how entering and exiting college students with learning disabilities (LD) understand and make meaning of themselves as learning disabled. The study is exploratory in that it attempts to identify, describe and analyze the processes involved in LD identity development. There have been few research studies that address the issue of identity and self-understanding for college students with learning disabilities. Overall, this study has theoretical and practical significance because it bridges the gaps that exist between current theoretical frameworks of social identity development and the field of learning disabilities. This will be achieved by providing descriptions of the ways in which college students with learning disabilities (LD) understand and make meaning of their learning disabilities. It is my intention that this study will assist educators and practitioners foster and create opportunities for LD college students which challenge their internalized perceptions of themselves as LD. This study utilized an exploratory qualitative research method consisting of three data collection methods: individual interviews, a focus group, and a written description of participants' learning disabilities. The interpretive framework for this study was constant comparative method (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992) and inductive analysis (Patton, 1990). Two findings of special significance emerged from this research data. First, the process of being labeled LD with its subsequent attached stigma negatively affects one's self-esteem and self-acceptance. In essence, LD students, who almost always internalize prescribed socially constructed stereotypes, initially believe the dominant ideology, experience feelings of shame, embarrassment, isolation and most often remain invisible in an attempt to pass as non-LD. Secondly, the data suggests that the process of identity formation for LD college students appears to be developmental, as suggested by three stages, denial, transition, and acceptance.

This study examines the perceptions of college students of color, about their community service (CS) experiences as tutors in public schools. It explores how Black and Latino students at one large public university and three small private colleges in the Northeast conceptualized their experiences as tutors, the impact of tutoring on their college education and the affects of tutoring on their career choices. This study is significant because it enhances our knowledge of the experiences of students of color in CS activities. This study has potential to generate information that is valid for the recruitment and retention of teachers of color and possibly open new avenues about the recipients of service. From a policy perspective, the information obtained is potentially useful to CS organizations, colleges and universities, public and private schools, local, state, and federal policymakers. Three methods of inquiry are used: (1) Pre-questionnaires were used to ascertain a biographical background of each participant. (2) Modified in-depth interviews were conducted with each participant and; (3) post-questionnaires provided opportunity for students to reflect on the pre-questionnaire and oral interview questions and draw further conclusions about their CS tutoring efforts. The research population included 14 undergraduate men and women of color from African American, Cape Verdean and Latino ethnic backgrounds, who participated in one of two CS tutoring projects. The findings revealed: (1) Students of color at both the large public university and the small private colleges reported that community service was an intense learning experience, prompting them to think about issues of tracking, teaching, methods, learning styles, and educational equity. (2) Students of color in both projects found themselves connecting their own educational experiences with those of their tutees, forging a crucial personal link that gave energy and commitment to their work in schools. (3) Students of color in both projects drew direct connections between their CS tutoring and their thinking about future careers; this affirmed and clarified in most cases the students plans to either enter teaching or pursue another professional field. (4) Students of color in both projects found race, ethnicity, and gender crucial to identifying with and maintaining relationships with tutees.

Due to the disruption of refugee women's lives before, during, and after flight, they take on new roles and responsibilities that raise the need for refugee women to acquire new skills and tools with which to handle their new life. The conventional approach is to look at a refugee as a problem and a deficit, desperately in need of services rather than looking at refugees as having agency, motivated, strong, and able to solve their own problems. This has resulted in programs that are not intended to empower refugee women but rather to provide for them. The main purpose of this research was to understand Sudanese refugee women's activist experiences within their communities in order to explore and analyze the possibilities of using Popular Education methods and philosophies in the context of refugee women's lives. A second related purpose was to inquire into the extent to which Sudanese refugee women activists were themselves adapting and using Popular Education methods in their daily struggles. My assumption was that none of these activists were familiar enough with Popular Education techniques to utilize them in their everyday work and reduce the burden of being frustrated and burned out as a result. I assured that if you provide services plus activism you get reform within the existing system and there is no radical change: but if you provide Popular Education and activism you get radical change because you build awareness and you sustain empowerment. As a result of this research the author found that refugee women in general and activists in particular need more than support for their basic livelihood needs. They require skills development and educational interventions that help them to be participants in the decision-making process involved in what, how and where programs should to be developed. There is a strong need for an educational intervention that develops awareness and promotes change by refugee women themselves. The Sudanese refugee women activists in this study lacked the knowledge and the tools to implement Popular Education methodologies. All the activists in this study had some experience with non-formal educational pedagogy, but all of them lacked specific training that would enable them to use Popular Education approaches in their daily struggles. There is a great need to develop programs that adapt Popular Education philosophies and methods so that the claim of empowering refugee women becomes reality. Qualitative research methods were used including intensive one-on-one interviews and a focus group was conducted to explore and understand the life histories of Sudanese refugee women activists who live and work within their communities in Cairo Egypt and in the United States.

The field of international development has long been criticized for its insensitivity towards the traditions, dignity and honor of indigenous people. This study uses a grounded theory approach for identifying patterns in an Andean Amerindian way of life so as to provide an alternative construct to development theory and practice as perceived in the central Andes of Bolivia. Initial research lead to the surfacing of the concept of “nurturance,” understood to be a system of reciprocity that is grounded in open, frank, and willing conversation with another—be this human or otherwise—as a means of communicating feelings, needs, and longings that can lead towards change. It is a process that is integral to an Andean Amerindian way of life that is neither imposed or alien to the way of thinking and doing; it is part of life itself. Four aspects of nurturance are explored in some depth in order to provide a firm understanding of: the spiritual perspective, community spirit, environmental ethic, and economic cooperation that makes living in the traditional Andes possible. The dissertation is meant to inform a western audience—particularly a western audience working in the field of development in the Andean region—and provide a fresh outlook on what is lived and experienced by Andean Amerindians; to exemplify the notion that Andean Amerindians are not the vulnerable other in need of hand holding that governments and development projects would sometimes lead the public to believe. Rather, I propose that the concept of “nurturance” is a powerful construct for development to embrace. In order for this embrace to take place, I propose “engagement” as a concept for the operationalization of nurturance into communities of scale. What I propose is a process of engagement that is informed by nurturance and its four elements (spirituality, community, nature, economy) in order to foster and strengthen community life. This process of nurturance allows for members of the human species to interact with one another non-aggressively and has the potential to move Andean Amerindians and non-Andean Amerindians toward a genuine understanding of another.

The growing Latino/a population is generating an influx of students with different educational needs into U.S. public schools. As a result, educators are faced with the challenge of teaching basic skills to second-language learners (SLL) while simultaneously promoting the development of their second language. Despite the fact that SLL from Spanish-speaking backgrounds are about twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to be reading below average for their age (Moss & Puma, 1995), research on second-language children's reading is limited in scope and quantity. The limited research has indicated that the reading rate of SLL might be slower than that of native-English speakers (Geva, Wade-Woolley, & Shaney, 1997; Mace-Matluck, 1979). This study was conducted with the purpose of (a) examining SLL weekly rates of growth (slopes) in reading, (b) comparing these rates to those demonstrated by of native-English speakers in a study conducted by Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett, Walz, and Germann (1993), and (c) understanding whether certain factors typically discussed in the educational literature on SLL contribute to positive slopes in reading. The sample was composed of SLL in second through fourth grade (n = 69) attending two urban elementary schools in Western Massachusetts. Grade-level Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) English reading probes were administered to children once a week for 12-weeks. A z-test for independent samples was used to compare slopes found in the present study and those found by Fuchs et al. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine the degree of influence of proficiency in English and/or Spanish, age, Spanish reading fluency, and language(s) used for reading instruction on weekly outcomes in reading. Both descriptive and correlational research methods were used to answer these questions. The pattern of reading growth across grades identified in the present study suggests that SLL make the most dramatic reading growth in the later grades (i.e., fourth grade). Proficiency in English and/or Spanish, age, Spanish reading fluency, and language(s) used for reading instruction together explained only 18% of the variance of the slopes. Hypothesis regarding explanations for these results, limitations to the study and future research directions are discussed.

In the 1860s in the aftermath of the Civil War and in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement, northern White teachers, mostly women, went South to teach in Black communities. This study examines the experiences of White teachers living and teaching in southern Black communities during these two historic periods. Their stories reveal their motivations to teach in the South as well as their reasons for becoming teachers. The teachers in the 1960s cohort also identify the impact of their experience on their teaching practice when they returned to the North. For the 1860s, five lengthy, first-person accounts provided the lens through which to view the experiences of White teachers in the South. Secondary sources supplemented first person accounts. For the 1960s, twelve teachers who taught in Mississippi Freedom Schools during the tumultuous summer of 1964, volunteered to be interviewed. A single template provided the framework to interrogate historical and living witnesses, though there are obvious limitations to interrogating historical texts. Library and archival resources provided the context for sponsoring organizations. In the 1860s, White educators were leaders in the missionary societies which sponsored the teachers. In the 1960s, Black leadership in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee extended the invitation for northern Whites to go to Mississippi. The findings reveal that experiences of cultural immersion in the South challenged White teachers' stereotypes of Black people, exposed the nature of racial and economic oppression in the United States, and complicated the teachers' understanding of themselves as White people. Their experiences illustrate the importance of teachers' extending themselves beyond the classroom to meet students and families in their own communities. The Freedom School teachers returned to the North with new pedagogical strategies, an expanded knowledge base of Black history, and a deepened commitment to social justice in schools and in the nation. Their stories provide inspiration and insight into cross-cultural, interracial teaching that can inform today's White teachers striving to develop an anti-racist teaching practice.