A growing amount of empirical research and theory on educational development in multilingual contexts emphasises that mother tongue based education will benefit disadvantaged children. For most of the research and literature, led by UNESCO, it is argued that educational success in multilingual nations can only be achieved based on early learning and schooling in the mother tongue. Effective language policy based on mother tongue is crucial to the implementation of the educational system of any multilingual country, including Nigeria the case study, where the home and school languages are mainly uncoordinated. It also confirms that fluency and literacy in the mother tongue establish a cognitive and linguistic foundation for learning additional languages. Both the theoretical and empirical research agree that in order to drastically challenge the educational disadvantages and to be fair to various multi-ethnic groups, national education policy must promote multilingualism in the education system. This PhD thesis explores attitudes of Nigerian young people towards their mother tongue and English, in the context of Nigerian language and education policies. It describes the sociolinguistic realities of Nigeria and its language policy and planning situation, relating them to language use and attitudes among young people. It also aims to identify the role language plays in the widespread phenomenon of pupils who drop out of secondary education and pupils' attitudes towards the medium of instruction. These aims were supported by a language attitudes survey and fieldwork; where data were collected to study the attitudes of different young people, both secondary school pupils and school dropouts towards mother tongue and English, and to investigate differences in their language choice and use patterns. Findings from this research substantiate that mother tongue language policy within education can foster positive attitudes; they also confirm that there are attitudinal differences between certain groups of young people.

K–12 schools’ rapidly changing demographic compositions urge us to envisage the ways in which school curricula can support epistemological diversity for an increasingly bi- /multilingual and racially diversifying world. Using ethnographic methodologies, my dissertation explores the experiences of Chicanx and Latinx emergent bilingual learners (EBLs) enrolled in a high school Chicanx/Latinx Studies class. In this course, the teacher employed translanguaging pedagogies where languages are not seen as separable phenomena but as cooperating in fluid and sophisticated ways in the practices of bilingual people (García, 2009). I examine how and in what circumstances Chicanx and Latinx youth draw on and develop multilingual and multiliterate practices including oral, visual, and print channels to cultivate academic, counterhegemonic, and civic literacies. Of significance, this study documents the ways in which school curricula can support epistemological diversity and foster bi-/multilingual literacies of agency, civic engagement, and academic achievement. Toward this end, this study asks: How does student participation in the Chicanx/Latinx Studies course influence the language and literacy practices of emergent bilingual learners (EBLs)? While the institutionalization of secondary Ethnic Studies courses swiftly expands across California school districts, more research is necessary to understand the pedagogical and curricular nature of these courses, especially when enacted with bi-/multilingual youth. This study adds to the nascent empirical scholarship on secondary Ethnic Studies teaching and translanguaging practices in secondary “English-medium” courses, underscoring pedagogical processes of nourishing Chicanx and Latinx students’ fluid language and literacy practices. Since Latinxs remain one of the fastest growing school-aged populations in the United States, the future of this nation depends, in part, on how successfully this vital community is educated. This study’s findings feature what I call “literacies of power,” meaning the various forms of reading and writing that lead to the self-actualization of young people. These literacies of power contribute to four sets of important conversations: (a) the development of enriched literacy learning for Latinx students in the digital and media age; (b) pedagogical innovations, including translanguaging pedagogical practices, for EBLs in Ethnic Studies classrooms and other nonremedial, college-preparatory “English-medium” classrooms; (c) the identity development of Latinx youth that spans social worlds; and (d) the growing research on Ethnic Studies curricula and pedagogies in high school classrooms, especially as these courses increasingly become a high school graduation requirement throughout California and have been recently sanctioned by California Governor Jerry Brown’s signing of landmark Assembly Bill 2016.

<p> Global consciousness is an important trait for high-school students to exhibit. One way that global consciousness can be incorporated into the curriculum is via an elective International Studies class. The purpose of this study was to determine what effect, if any, taking an International Studies class would have on students&rsquo; global awareness. The questions that guided this study were: 1. What aspects of an international studies course resonated most with students? 2. What impact did participation in this course have on student global competence?</p><p> In order to research this topic, I conducted a case study in which an International Studies class was studied. The teacher who developed and taught the course was interviewed, in addition to three of her former students. Twenty-three students whom were students currently taking the class also participated in a survey.</p><p> The methodology for this study was consistent with the case-study approach. A school was selected that offered International Studies, former students and their teacher was interviewed, and current students volunteered to participate in a survey. The data were recorded and analyzed for possible themes. Three key themes emerged that spoke to the effect the course had upon students. First, the course served as a foundation of information the students were able to draw on and apply later in life. Second, the course served as an opportunity for students to increase their international literacy. Third, the course provided an opportunity for the students to become more globally aware citizens. These results were analyzed and interpreted through two theoretical lenses: John Dewey&rsquo;s <i>Theory of Experience</i> and James Banks&rsquo; <i> Theory of the Cosmopolitan Citizen.</i></p>

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<p>This exploratory qualitative study investigated the experiences of California community college undocumented students and their career development processes and issues. Twelve undocumented students from multiple backgrounds participated in semi-structured interviews. It was evident from the students' backgrounds that being undocumented was not just a Latino issue. Students identified career development barriers such as financial hardship, lack of support, and limitations in career related opportunities. Though these barriers were initially disruptive to the participants' career development, the same barriers eventually became an important part of the participants' identity as undocumented students. Making progress despite the barriers created learning experiences that enabled the students to garner support and ultimately forge forward. The idea of hope was a critical component of this process. While a faint sense of hope allowed participants to enter the community college, as they faced these barriers their sense of hope and resiliency was strengthened. An emerging theory of undocumented students' career development was presented as a result of the findings. </p>

<p> Trends throughout my graduate research in education include educational transformation, critical pedagogy and cross-cultural, globally oriented competencies for educators. These threads have woven their way into my lens on the world, prompting questions about educational and curricular policy and reform, particularly challenging the ubiquitous Euro-centric platform from which most schools in the United States operate. In June and July of 2012, sponsored by the United States-Colombian Fulbright commission, 16 educators had the professional development opportunity to study in Mexico and Colombia, all with the charge to develop authentic multicultural curricula for the benefit of students and teachers in the United States. Through documentation of the Fulbright-Hays 2012 participants' reflections, the study addresses the scope of the Seminar's transformative impact on teachers and subsequently students, supporting its relevancy as a government social-service program. The study examines the larger impact of the Fulbright-Hays Seminar on educators' pedagogical and philosophic orientations to their work in the classroom. This research may be utilized internally by the Fulbright-Hays commission for evidence of transformational experiences starting with seminar participants and, ideally, filtering down to students of diverse demographics. The development of culturally representative and responsive curricula is a pressing area of need in the United States, both in public and private spheres. Work in this field could contribute to social change and equity-driven reform within the educational sphere: pedagogically, methodologically, and philosophically. The study analyzes the development of teachers with increased cultural competencies, understanding of cultures outside their own culture (and yet often represented in their classrooms), therefore being poised to create more inclusive, anti-biased atmospheres for their students.</p>

<p> This critical ethnographic collective case study examined the process of becoming a teacher in the context of visual art education. This longitudinal study was grounded in larger educational concerns regarding the preparation of teachers for socially and culturally diverse U.S. public schools. This framing of teacher learning went beyond traditional dichotomies in educational research that maintain an artificial boundary between learning to teach content and learning to teach all students effectively and equitably. </p><p> In order to re-integrate the study of teacher learning, this research foregrounds the transactional relationship between a preservice art teacher&rsquo;s social locations (e.g., race, class, sex-gender, language) and how s/he makes sense of what it means to be an &ldquo;art teacher.&rdquo; Specifically, the study asked (a) how preservice art teachers negotiated their emerging art teacher identities in a university-based teacher education program, (b) how their social positions were implicated in that process, and (c) how their teacher identities were meditated by cultural narratives, artifacts, and practices. This approach eschewed simplistic and reductive analyses of teacher identities in order to attain a nuanced understanding of the multiple, sometimes contradictory social processes involved in becoming a teacher.</p><p> This collective case study centered six preservice art teachers with varied racial, class, gender, and sexual identities, all of whom attended the same undergraduate teacher education program in the southwestern U.S. Social practice theory of identity, and critical curriculum and cultural theory were employed in constructing a multi-leveled relational analysis of the commonalities and divergences in participants&rsquo; self-understandings over time.</p><p> Findings showed historical patterns of institutionalized racism, as well as complex class and sex-gendered meanings of art. These inequitable norms were reproduced in ways distinctive to the asocial and apolitical &ldquo;common sense&rdquo; knowledge that was mobilized within the world of art teacher education. Some participants experienced alienation and marginalization based on their social positioning in relation to the world of art education. The findings also illuminated the polyvalent nature of identity through the coexistence of hegemonic identities as well as counter-hegemonic agency. Implications and possibilities for generating more critical, equity-oriented teacher education and art education research, practice, and policy are considered.</p>

<p> This study is aimed at analyzing how contemporary urban Aymara youth hip hoppers and bloggers are creating their identities and are producing discourses in texts and lyrics to contest racist and colonial discourses. The research is situated in Bolivia, which is currently engaged in a cultural and political revolution supported by Indigenous movements. Theoretically the study is framed by a multi-perspective conceptual framework based on subaltern studies, coloniality of power, coloniality of knowledge, interculturality and decolonial theory. Aymara young people illustrate the possibility of preserving Indigenous identities, language, and knowledge while maximizing the benefits of urban society. This challenges the colonial ideology that has essentialized the rural origin of Indigenous identities. Moreover, this research argues that the health of Indigenous languages is interconnected with the health of the self-esteem of Indigenous people. Additionally, this study provides information about the relation of youth to the power of oral tradition, language policies, and the use of technology.</p>

<p> Colleges and universities are responding to the force of globalization by encouraging faculty and administrators to develop programs that support students in the global worlds of work and of citizenship. Through a partnership with the Salzburg Global Seminar's International Study Program (ISP), San Jos&eacute; State University (SJSU) is making efforts to "globalize the campus" through institutional change. The ISP draws on the Salzburg Global Seminar's experience with the Universities Project and with other institutions of higher education in the United States to create the desired change. This paper examined the progress of the SJSU Salzburg Program (the Program), drawing on a framework for success created by the Universities Project and on the author's experience as a participant in the Program.</p>