All education systems are charged with improving the language abilities of the students for whom they have responsibility. The challenge is particularly acute for policy makers when the issue as to which languages are to feature in the curriculum is politicized. Language planning has provided educators with many insights into language-in-education issues and how to successfully respond to those issues. However, the contribution of language planning is piecemeal and scattered, and it is the need for a coherent and integrated view that underlies this study. This study has three aims. The first aim is to bring together, as a language-in-education planning model, the processes that occur from when a language-in-education issue emerges from a linguistic environment to when the issue is resolved in an education system by the successful implementation of an appropriate plan. The second aim focuses on part of the model, specifically on ascertaining the resources, by required languages, for each option. The concern is to establish (a) the interrelationship between language linked identity aims, curriculum programs (i.e. mediums of instruction and curriculum subjects) and resources and (b) the consequence for resources when a change in these aims causes a change in the curriculum programs. Resources, by required languages, refers to all those resources which need to have language specific attributes, e.g. the languages that teachers and advisors need to speak and materials need to be written in. The third aim is to apply the language-in-education planning model to the complex, politicized linguistic situation in New Hebrides and Vanuatu from the 1820s to 1991 and to the education system as it was in 1990. Five relevant options are presented and analyzed. The analysis shows that the model successfully discriminates along several important language-in-education planning dimensions. Consequently, the use of the model can result in more explicit advocacy, development of superior options, more informed decision making about the demand for personnel with skills in specific languages, and improved implementation of plans.

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The purpose of this study is to gather and present biographies on afro-american female scientists and inventors to be used in interdisciplinary units of core curriculum. Black female students without the benefit of experiencing black female scientist and inventor role models during their school career, lack appropriate modeling for choosing careers in the fields of science and technology. The youngsters are therefore underrepresented in professional science careers and are usually relegated to low paying jobs and poor self esteem. The development of these biographies of black female inventors has shown that black women have historically always had a strong committment to science and inventive technology in America. Yet, there is a lack of discussion about these women. It is as though they never existed. It is also noted, through the biographical interviews, that black women have not relied on white support of themselves in their science and technology careers for they have understood that not to be included has been a political statement made by the state and the nation about their being. What has been uncovered in these biographical statements is not new to the women themselves. Invisible dignity, unshouted courage, and quiet grace have been the attributes utilized to encourage each to find meaning in her life and to create something where nothing was before. To arrest this incomplete educational tragedy, a sample interdisciplinary curriculum guide utilizing the biographical profiles of one of the women has been developed in order to offer educators examples of appropriate curriculum development for black female students. It is generally agreed that the differential representation between black females and persons of other racial and gender groups in the scientific community is especially presaged by educational patterns at the elementary and secondary levels. Schools simply are not offering role models for these youngsters to bond with. It is expected then that this study, designed especially to be used at the elementary and middle school levels, will be a beginning tool for promoting change in an usable and exciting manner.

Our ever-changing society has placed new challenges on our schools to educate a new generation of students. This generation comes to the schoolhouse doors with the same hunger and need to learn, with differences in culture, spoken language, and socioeconomic backgrounds. The challenge is not the ability of the students to learn, but the inability of the schools to teach them. Due, in part, to dwindling economic support, there is an increased interest in collaborations between schools and institutions of higher education. Such collaboration can be useful in addressing some of the additional support and academic needs of these students. Since my arrival three years ago at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, I have been working with the Lawrence High School Guidance Office to develop a supplemental educational project known as the College Prep Program. The project is conducted at the University, and it provides academic, social, and cultural opportunities to Lawrence High students during a summer program as well as on Saturdays during the school year. The program has been designed so that students and teachers have a voice in the decisions made about the program. In addition, the program theory of action draws from current research on learning and teaching. The focus of the project is to inspire students to pursue higher education. The subject of this proposal is to examine this program design and how this approach has affected the students who have graduated from Lawrence High School and the College Prep Program over the last three years. The study proposes to measure this phenomenon by documenting three case studies, using one student from each graduating class (1990, 1991, and 1992). In addition, the study administered a questionnaire to a group of 25 individuals drawn from the same pool of students. The intention of the questionnaire was to enrich the discussion of the case studies with the additional information obtained from these questionnaires. This method ensured the availability of both qualitative and quantitative information to verify the impact of the program on the lives of the students.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which support service programs are available for Black and Hispanic students attending the nation's twenty-eight Jesuit colleges and universities. Where programs existed the objective was to describe their makeup. A subsidiary goal of the study was to introduce the Donald Brown Retention Model which is a series of elements that are essential to recruiting and retaining Black and Hispanic students on predominantly White campuses. The researcher hypothesized that as a result of cutbacks in federal and state funding during the latter part of the 1960's and continuing into the 1970's, Jesuit institutions, like other institutions of higher education, cut back, if not completely eliminated support service programs. Since the subjects of the study were scattered throughout the country, the data gathering technique deemed most appropriate was a questionnaire. Rather than select a statistical random sampling from the population, it was determined that all twenty-eight Jesuit colleges and universities would be included in the study. Among the major findings of the study was the eighteen (69.2 percent) of the twenty-six (92.8 percent) respondents indicated that a support service program had been established for Black and Hispanic students on their campus. The major services provided by these programs are academic advisement, tutorial assistance, personal, group and career counseling. Contrary to the hypothesis alluded to earlier, which suggested that support service programs fell to their demise during the late 1960's and early 1970's due to diminished funding, it was determined that virtually half of such programs did not begin until the 1970's. A further revelation was that funding for these programs, for the most part, came from the institution's themselves. It appears that Black and Hispanic students are succeeding at Jesuit colleges and universities. Yet, there are areas that can be improved. It is hoped that the Donald Brown Retention Model will prove useful in recruiting and retaining Black and Hispanic students at Jesuit, and indeed, all institutions of higher education.

The dissertation was a hypothesis-generating study which investigated the scope and nature of learnings provided by an integrated model of training in cross-cultural transition. The model consisted of a conceptual tool, the Model For Cross-Cultural Synthesis and Growth, which describes cross-cultural transition as an on-going process of adaptation and growth experienced by human beings who significantly interact with one or more varying cultures. The model also consisted of an experiential learning tool, the Somis, Amicans, and Nirions exercise, which simulates critical interactional dynamics and dilemmas inherent in the process of cross-cultural transition. Two six-hour workshops were conducted on consecutive days, with participants with undergraduate or graduate training in the fields of education, human services, and management, using the same model and training staff. The participants were predominantly female, English speaking U.S.A. citizens, with European American cultural backgrounds. Journal and open-ended questionnaire data were gathered. They were analyzed by the constant comparative method of grounded theory. The findings revealed very strong support for the model as an effective tool in providing meaningful learning in the process of cross-cultural transition. They were equally as supportive of the conceptual tool, as accurately depicting the process of cross-cultural transition, and of the experiential learning tool, as a powerful simulation which effectively transmits meaningful knowledge of this process. Ethnocentrism, identity, and power dynamics were focal points in the learnings of the participants. Differences in individual interaction style and engagement mode were found. All participants reported significant learnings regardless of these differences.

The purpose of this study was to test the video education tool, Choosing Cambodian Foods Wisely, to determine if Cambodian refugees would respond to this intervention as culturally appropriate and nutritionally educational. An evaluation study consisting of a pretest, posttest 1 and posttest 2 was introduced to a cluster sample of 20 Cambodian refugees; however, due to attrition, the analysis of the data was based on 17 cases. An ANOVA test revealed a significant difference between the means of the test scores. These results supported the hypothesis that the video education tool was effective in increasing the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of the subjects in regard to the nutritional elements iron, calcium, cholesterol, sugar, and salt. The research further suggested that these increases were sustained over a one month period. Ninety percent of the subjects reported that the video provided at least some culturally appropriate, accurate, and useful nutrition information and that they would recommend the video to others. These study results suggest that health educators focus their attention on media methods to achieve health interventions for cultural groups.

This case study is intended to heighten awareness and draw attention to the fact that in spite of the enlightened intent of the Brown decision and the educational opportunity initiatives of the Great Society, broad, dramatic and troubling inequalities continue to separate American society today. These inequalities are pervasive and show themselves along racial, social and economic parameters. Across America, and most dramatically in urban cities like Boston, disparities in employment, income, housing, health, and educational attainment are pervasive. As a result, there is a compelling need to continue to expand educational opportunities. The primary purpose of this study will be to provide a detailed account of the development and evolution of educational opportunity programs at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. This study will examine the interplay between the university's mission and the development and implementation of programs designed to advance equal educational opportunity for historically under served students. Woven within the fabric of this analysis will be a contextual discussion of certain public policy and economic events at the national level which influenced the development of programs at the Boston campus. The study will begin in 1966 with the establishment of the College Preparatory Program and chronologically trace the development of a unique set of other educational opportunity programs at the University. The study will conclude with a discussion of the Upward Bound Math Science Initiative funded in 1990. Each of the programs studied will be reviewed from a number of different perspectives. The analysis will show the specific need each program was designed to address as well as the specific goals, objectives, and activities that would be implemented to meet these needs. The study will also highlight significant developments over time and key lessons learned. This study will, therefore, trace the evolution of policy and programmatic initiatives which were developed and pioneered at the University of Massachusetts at Boston to address education needs of disadvantaged students. In doing this, important insights will be gained into the contextual and programmatic elements which most effectively meet the needs of this increasingly important population. Finally, this study will show that as UMass/Boston is pulled to become a more traditional university, the educational opportunity programs discussed in this study play an important role in helping the campus to maintain a clear focus on services and programs designed to address the disadvantaged student population cited in UMass/Boston's founding principles.

The purpose of this study is to create in the Bilingual Puerto Rican Teachers an awareness of his/her role as a transmitter of Puerto Rican cultural values. This dissertation proposes the development of a Teaching Handbook which teachers can use to amplify his/her knowledge of his/her own culture and which can serve those teachers that are not Puerto Rican as a learning/teaching guide. The investigator conducted a review of literature which includes: (a) aspects of the culture learned through literature; (b) aspects of the culture not necessarily found in literary sources and is acquired. The investigator presented the results from the findings of the present study that reveal that the majority of Puerto Rican teachers in the United States come here for different reasons. Later they became teachers in different parts of Western Massachusetts. Each one of the teachers agreed that they are and should be transmitters of the culture. Other findings were the fact that some students had problems or cultural shocks in the new country. For example: language, climate, foods and in high school a greater problem communicating with other students and teachers. Those parents that were interviewed agreed that they came to this country to help their children in receiving a better education. Another of the parental worries of those parents that were interviewed, was that their children's adaptation to the new school system was difficult. The parents were concerned that the education of their children should include the Puerto Rican culture. They saw it as something that they could learn in the schools via the teacher. The investigator introduces a model for a handbook to serve as an outline for the transmission of cultural knowledge to Puerto Rican teachers and non-Puerto Rican teachers and the students they teach. It was concluded from the study that through the proposed cultural workshops, bilingual teachers will be able to acquire a wider knowledge of Puerto Rican culture. Through the handbook s/he will get a clearer idea of the possible way in which s/he can communicate this knowledge to his/her Puerto Rican students.

In an era of mathematics and science evaluation, concerns have been raised about the underachievement and underrepresentation of minority students in mathematics. Their opportunities to take advanced courses in these areas could be limited by many factors that only members of a minority group get to experience. Many studies have been concerned about comparing ethnic groups' achievement in the area of mathematics. However, there is a need to study those problems affecting each group individually. The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between Hispanic students' attitude toward mathematics and students' academic achievement, program of study, gender and career interests or goals. Six research questions guided the study. Three survey instruments were utilized to gather the information needed to respond to the six research questions guiding the study. The Mathematics Attitude Inventory (MAI) was used to determine students' attitude toward mathematics of secondary school students in grades 10 to 12. The Metropolitan Achievement Test was used to obtain a measure of students' achievement in mathematics in grade 10. The students' Personal Data Form was used to collect the nominal data necessary. One hundred twenty Hispanic students from regular and bilingual programs participated in the study. Frequency counts and percentages were made. Mean scores and standard deviation were computed for the total attitude toward mathematics for each of six subareas. For the Metropolitan Achievement Test, mean scores and standard deviation were computed. They represented the average percentage of items answered correctly. The Pearson Product-Moment Correlation coefficients subprogram of SPSSX was utilized to analyze the data collected by the instruments. No significant differences were found regarding the six research questions. However, significant differences were found in the areas of students' attitude. Students participating in the bilingual program showed a more positive attitude toward mathematics and also showed less anxiety toward learning mathematics. The value of mathematics did affect students' attitude toward mathematics. The study has raised more questions than it has answered. Other variables must be considered in future studies if we are to help Hispanic students achieve more and participate in mathematics-related careers and activities.