In many ways, traditional arts in schools bear the bruises of the early years of multicultural education, and the failed practices that created what has been termed a tourist curriculum, comprised of the superficial study of folktales, festivals, foods, and facts. Consequently, the use of art forms of cultures is often approached with caution by teachers, or avoided altogether. This thesis re-frames the use of traditional arts in the classroom through current research and knowledge, defining their efficacy and role in today’s classroom. Traditional arts are examined through the lenses of arts integration, culturally responsive pedagogical practice and creative processes. A qualitative, research portraiture methodology was employed, and executed through the lens of four case studies in order to more coherently incorporate the arts-based nature of this research. The research sites include classes studying Maori visual arts, waiata (song), and haka (dance) in Christchurch, New Zealand, chant, hula, and plant weaving at an Hawaiian charter school, and social dance and song of the Oneida tribe in the US. Research results indicated that when teachers facilitate experiences in traditional arts in such a way that students are exposed to entry points for their own interaction with the forms, students respond with self reflection, engagement, and a tendency to elevate the status of affiliation with the culture undertaken. While students and teachers do not become conversant in the culture as a result of such study, working with traditional arts in this way may serve to break down culturally bound ways of seeing the world. When traditional arts are employed in classrooms, they may engage students in a creative process that takes the form of embodied or physicalized, interpretive, or improvisational interactions with the forms. When traditional arts are employed in this way, relying on creative process, they also meet goals for culturally responsive learning, legitimizing how students experience and make sense of the world. Traditional arts provide a critical, under-utilized, strategy for embedding culture in the educational setting. In order to best meet the goals of the learning setting, traditional arts must incorporate creative processes. Hybridization of the forms, while increasing accessibility for teachers and students, must be carefully undertaken. Traditional arts utilized in this way hold potential for addressing broader curricular content.

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This inquiry began with a global question: Why are Aboriginal high school students underrepresented in the sciences? This led to the following series of questions: What is science? Is Aboriginal knowledge about nature and naturally occurring events science? What is science literacy? What are culturally responsive approaches to science education? The initial inquiry began as part of the Aboriginal Knowledge and Science Education Research Project, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Over time the inquiry morphed into two case studies. The first case study focused on a quantitative exploration to examine the current state of student performance in British Columbia secondary school science (Biology 12, Chemistry 12, and Physics 12), and mathematics (Principles of Mathematics 12). The examination of performance trends for over a decade confirmed the underperformance of Aboriginal students in secondary school sciences and mathematics when compared to non-Aboriginal students. The second case study sought to establish criteria, identify, and document a model project that incorporated the methods of western modern science (WMS) knowledge and ways of knowing represented by traditional ecological knowledge and wisdom (TEKW), local ecological knowledge (LEK), and indigenous knowledge (IK) in a local environment (place-based) and that was culturally responsive to students and faithful to science education principles. A model project was identified in British Columbia operating within the Heiltsuk First Nation territory by the Qqs (pronounced “kucks”) Projects Society. This project exemplified the Te Kotahitanga Project in Aotearoa/New Zealand by engaging student interns in science in place. Qqs partnered with a number of non-governmental organizations to develop the Supporting Emerging Aboriginal Stewards (SEAS) Initiative, whereby interns used WMS techniques to study their traditional territory in the Great Bear Rainforest. The SEAS project was deemed to make science more relevant for Aboriginal students, who may otherwise have rejected it because of a possible conflict with their cultural value systems and personal relevance. There is a persistent tension between science espoused by WMS, and the wisdom and sacredness of indigenous knowledge and wisdom (IKW). Finally, recommendations are proposed for a Two-row Wampum Belt or a trans-systemic practice that would enable IKW and WMS knowledge to operate in a spirit of mutual cultural responsiveness, followed by recommendations for future study. / Graduate

Thesis advisor: Elizabeth A. Twomey / Thesis advisor: James Marini / This qualitative case study focused on a Response to Intervention (RTI) literacy initiative in a suburban elementary school near an urban area in New England. The initiative incorporated professional development about RTI and implementation of components of an RTI model. The participant-researcher analyzed teachers' feedback regarding the professional development and the RTI model, as the initiative developed, with a specific focus on the teachers' perceptions about the impact of the initiative on the school's capacity to effectively instruct urban students of color who are participants in a voluntary desegregation program. The professional development about RTI incorporated three features which are recommended for professional learning communities: content which is research-based, process which includes reflection and dialogue, and context which is job-embedded. The RTI model utilized the "problem-solving" approach, and incorporated progress-monitoring and interventions. The findings from the study indicated that the combination of three elements (sustained professional development about RTI, implementation of RTI in the school setting, and conversations and questions about addressing the needs of urban students of color) resulted in increased teacher confidence in their ability to provide effective instruction to this population of students. Further, the interaction of these three elements resulted in identification of next steps which the teachers believe will specifically address these students' needs. However, several teachers questioned whether RTI was adequate to address the complex issues of students of color in a voluntary desegregation program. They recognized that they needed more information about effective instructional strategies to match the learning profiles of this population of students. Combining the results of this case study with the recommendations of the professional literature about culturally responsive teaching, it appears that Response to Intervention has the potential to address the learning needs of urban students of color, but only if practitioners incorporate some basic principles of culturally responsive teaching. Integrating the results of this study with the professional literature about Response to Intervention, culturally responsive teaching, and effective professional development, the participant-researcher recommends that policymakers and educators should consider incorporating culturally responsive teaching into their RTI models in order to truly make RTI effective for addressing the achievement gap. Further, the researcher recommends that schools should provide sustained professional development (with content based upon research, process which includes reflection and dialogue, and context which is job-embedded) to increase teachers' understanding about Response to Intervention and about culturally responsive teaching. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration.

This study examined perceptions of effective, urban, elementary general music teachers concerning effective teaching and pre-service preparation for urban, elementary general music classrooms. The study was conducted in two phases: survey and interview. Survey phase participants were experienced, urban, elementary general music teachers from different geographical areas of the United States, who had been identified as effective teachers by music teacher educators or music supervisors. Interview phase participants comprised a subset of survey participants who achieved high levels of potential cross-cultural adaptability on the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (Kelley & Meyers, 1995). A comprehensive interview instrument was administered to each participant in a collective case study research design. From the gathered data, 162 themes emerged from coded passages, with 100 themes comprising commonalities among the six interview participants. In addition to specific traits, beliefs, and strategies, the following four meta-themes emerged from an examination of commonalities: flexibility, cultural knowledge and skills, caring and responsive attitude, and musical knowledge and music teaching skills. From these meta-themes, a model of effective, urban, elementary general music teaching was generated. Findings and implications of the study were also discussed, and recommendations were made for future research.

This study explored the social inclusiveness of classrooms with culturally competent teachers who were identified both by their participation in in-service diversity training and by principal nomination. The design of this study was primarily quantitative using a one-way ANOVA to analyze whether fourth and fifth grade students (N = 125) in classrooms with teachers identified as culturally competent are more inclusive in their mutual friendships than students (N = 117) in classrooms with not trained teachers at the same schools. Sociometric questionnaires were used to collect data on mutual friendships. Observations of students in lunchroom settings were also conducted. Findings from the sociometric questionnaire suggest that students with culturally competent teachers, also referred to as culturally responsive teachers in the literature, have broader and more diverse social networks than students in classrooms with not trained teachers. However, in the lunchroom settings where a given student must choose a limited number of students to sit next to at the lunch table, no notable differences between the classrooms emerged. Other than training in diversity issues, teachers in the two groups were very similar.

The discourse on education for Aboriginal people has long been limited to a curriculum of cultural assimilation often resulting in an erosion of self-esteem and disengagement. Consequently, this research puts forth narratives of how fiddle programs in northern Manitoba work as a culturally responsive curriculum that in turn address such curricular erosions. As a research methodology, Metissage afforded me pedagogical opportunities to weave the various perspectives of community members, parents, instructors, and former students into an intricate story that attempts to represent some of their social, cultural and historical experiences within the north. Braiding stories of the historical and present impacts of fiddle playing reveals the generative possibilities of school fiddle programs in Canadian Indigenous communities. In addition to building intergenerational bridges, the stories put forth in this thesis demonstrate how the fiddle has become a contemporary instrument of social change for many communities across northern Manitoba.