<p>In a rapidly changing society, education must make adjustments and keep learning focused on the needs of students by providing increased opportunities for success. Classrooms are filled with students of different cultural backgrounds which makes education a challenge to every building leader and teacher. The challenges are how to design instruction and implement it to meet the academic and social needs of all learners. Understanding different lifestyles, languages, word context, body language, traditions, and dress present opportunities for educators to expand their cultural knowledge and create learning objectives for students which ultimately affect student achievement in the educational environment. </p><p> The focus of this study was to determine the characteristics of a successful, diverse school and the training needed for staff to support students and the district. To give educational stakeholders more insight into what characteristics are need to create a culturally proficient environment that creates learning opportunities for children, data was collected, analyzed and coded. The coding revealed eight axial codes and from there four main theories emerged: (a) leadership, (2) instructional model, (3) environment that supports diversity and, (4) parent and community involvement. </p>

<p> As rapid demographic change transforms American classrooms, incongruities between the ways culturally diverse students are accustomed to learning and those emphasized in educational institutions can present barriers to learning. This study investigated culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP), a teaching approach that seeks to ameliorate such incongruities by basing instruction upon students' cultural knowledge, frames of reference, and preferred learning, communication, and performance styles (Gay, 2002). To complement studies that examine teachers' perceptions of CRP, this study sought to illuminate student perspectives. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to explore adolescent choral students' perceptions of culturally responsive teaching in an urban community children's choir. Research questions focused on how students perceived their choir experiences to be informed by cultural diversity, the barriers to CRP they identified, and how CRP influenced relationships between students' musical and cultural identities. </p><p> A multiple embedded case study design was used to investigate students' perceptions of CRP as practiced in three demographically contrasting choirs within an urban children's choir organization. Within each choir site, one teacher and three student participants framed the analysis. Data generation methods included semi-structured interviews, ethnographic field notes, autobiographical notes, and collection of material culture. </p><p> Students perceived their choral instruction to be culturally responsive in that their classroom experiences promoted understanding and appreciation of their own cultures while broadening their cultural, musical, and intellectual horizons. They identified three barriers to CRP: educators' lack of comfort teaching diverse music, the complexity of students' cultural identities, and the challenges involved in practicing CRP equitably given constraints on instructional time. In one site, experiences with diverse music were peripheral to a Eurocentric core curriculum and did not promote connections between students' musical and cultural identities. There, the discourses associated with Western classical singing defined students' identities and alienated some students from the belief that they were musicians. Two sites incorporated a greater range of discourse norms associated with singing diverse musics and featured greater responsiveness toward the cultural backgrounds of particular students. In those sites, CRP fostered intersections between students' musical and cultural identities by meaningfully bridging their musical experiences inside and outside of the classroom.</p>

<p> When searching for pluralistic models of bilingual education, looking globally for examples is beneficial. The overarching global perspective toward bilingual and multilingual education supports literacy in the student's first, second, and including the possibility of a third or more languages to attain socio-political pluralism. This dissertation project will specifically examine the voices of stakeholders in the local community of Flowers Bay, Roatan, Honduras where the mission of bilingual education is a pluralistic society. The goal of the research study is to examine the perspectives and experiences around language learning within the lens of language as a problem, a right, and a resource of stakeholders in their local community. Chapter I of this dissertation includes the problem statement of the research project, a historical and contextual explanation of the land, people, and social movement toward multilingual education on the Bay Islands of Honduras. Chapter II is a review of the literature surrounding the two frameworks in the research project. The first framework I utilize is the public sphere to describe who is or is not included in the conversations of multilingual education within the community of Flowers Bay, Roatan, Honduras. The second framework I utilize is language as a problem, a right, and a resource to describe and analyze the data collected from national policies, field observations, and stakeholders. Chapter III is an in-depth description of the research design, the demographics of the stakeholders in Flowers Bay, the method data collected and analysis of the data. Chapter IV features the findings from the data analysis using the two frameworks outlined in Chapter II. Chapter V offers a discussion of the frameworks and further research projects inspired by this dissertation project. Three themes emerged from framework of language as a right and resource of stakeholder voices from Flowers Bay, Roatan, Honduras: <i>access, economy,</i> and <i>identity.</i> Two themes emerged from the stakeholder voices not represented in the frameworks: <i>resources needed </i> and <i>parent engagement.</i></p>

<p> This ethnography reconceptualizes the paradigm of cultural competence used within the literature on teacher education to describe the multicultural learning of White teacher candidates. Within the cultural competence framework, White learning is problematic, dichotomously defined, and fixed. The binary of competence/incompetence established by this paradigm has recently been questioned within the literature as deficit-based and in conflict with postmodern, critical theories of learning and teaching espoused by multicultural education espouses. </p><p> This study of the researcher's multicultural education class at a private, religious, four-year undergraduate college on the East Coast of the United States used co-constructed pedagogical practices&mdash;including a co-constructed community engagement experience, dialogic critical reflection, student-led inquiry-based seminars, and student-teacher email dialogues&mdash;to reconceptualize White multicultural learning as a dynamic process involving both teacher candidates and the teacher educator. As such, this work is co-ethnographic because it analyzed the learning of both the researcher and her students. </p><p> The study found that antiracist White learning within multiple, co-constructed approaches on a public/private spectrum is related to learners' placeling identities; multicultural learning was a migration and re-negotiation of the histories of White learners' homes and geographies. This re-negotiation&mdash;called de-/reterritorialization&mdash;occurred within a dialectic of Whiteness as space and Whiteness as places; both universal characteristics and local expressions of Whiteness were important in the learning of this classroom. White placeling de-/reterritorialization was also found to be unique to each learner, thereby reconceptualizing White learners as diverse. In addition, White placeling de-/reterritorialization was incremental and agentic, extending previous studies' findings that White learners are disinterested and resistant within multicultural teacher education classrooms. </p><p> Within this study, patterns of de-/reterritorialization emerged as particular learning dynamics between the researcher and the teacher candidates; these dynamics included guarding and stagnating, pushing/pulling, and inviting. These patterns, their uniqueness within the encountering of placeling identities' borders, and the attempts at antiracist learning that were made by the White teacher candidates in this classroom offer a reconceptualization of cultural competence that is geographic and complex. Placeling de-/reterritorialization resists the flattening of White identities too often found in the multicultural literature, situates place as the site of antiracist inquiry when working with White learners, and offers a new paradigm for teaching and researching with White teacher candidates.</p>

Cultural competence in evaluation has different meanings for different evaluators. As evidenced by the literature the term "cultural competence" in itself conjures various definitions and implies certain assumptions. Given the elusiveness of an agreed upon definition, or even consistent terminology in evaluation, this research sought to understand cultural competence from a Black perspective. The goal of understanding cultural competence in evaluation from a Black perspective led to the use of a phenomenological research framework. While this research is not reflective of the collective perspectives and opinions of all Black evaluators, this exploration does attempt to provide information about the specific issues covered in this study. The purpose of this research is (1) to assess key characteristics about Black evaluators, (2) to identify the defining characteristics of cultural competence in evaluation, as identified by Black evaluators, and (3) to identify the skills one needs to become a culturally competent evaluator. A mixed-method approach, employing both qualitative and quantitative methods was used for data collection and analysis. For this study, quantitative data were collected through questionnaires and qualitative data were collected through interviews. These methods were chosen to help support the research purpose of better understanding the population of Black evaluators as identified in the Directory of Evaluators of Color and interviewing a sample of those evaluators. A questionnaire was developed using yes-no dichotomous responses, structured response items, and open-ended questions. In-depth interviews were also conducted during and after the administration of the questionnaire. The use of both survey data and in-depth interviews allowed the researcher to gain access to more descriptive information and thus provided more insight into the perspectives of Black evaluators. A review of the recent evaluation literature discloses several terms used when discussing the role of culture in evaluation. Despite the field's lack of agreement on the terms used to identify the role of culture in evaluation, the researcher adopted the use of cultural competence. In all survey and interview materials, cultural competence was the chosen terminology. The agreement of both the survey respondents and the interviewees in identifying essential components of cultural responsiveness and cultural competence, despite the use of different terms, indicates the impact of the interchangeable nature of the two terms. The inconsistency in the field signals not only the lack of consistency among evaluators and researchers, but also serves to weaken the overarching argument of the importance of culture in evaluation. This research contends that the terms cultural responsive evaluation and cultural responsiveness be adopted and used when referencing the incorporation of cultural context in evaluation. Clear distinctions between cultural competence and responsiveness should be used and enforced. The survey respondents and interviewees both included the knowledge of the evaluator (personal and cultural), as well as technical evaluation skills, in identifying the defining principles of culturally responsive evaluation. These principles overlap with and help to support the existing literature on culturally responsive evaluation. Blacks in evaluation have been an untapped research resource. Their professional and personal experiences help to add another dimension to the evaluation field. Their educational experiences show that they are credentialed and experienced in a variety of areas, including education and psychology. Their voices on cultural competence/responsiveness in evaluation are those that seem to lead the discussion in the field. Their scholarship creates a base from which to draw what we know about culture in evaluation. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2006. / March 16, 2006. / Black Evaluators, Culturally Responsive Evaluation, Evaluation, Culturally Competent Evaluation / Includes bibliographical references. / Marcy Driscoll, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Linda Schrader, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Robert A. Schwartz, Outside Committee Member; Joy Gaston-Gayles, Committee Member.

The purpose of this single-subject case study was to explore how a Muslim teacher made sense of her life and work in two different contexts, the United States and Egypt. This topic is important because an increasing number of women are converting to Islam and scant research explores religious conversion among teachers. The data I collected and analyzed used a sociological framework that explored the life and work of teachers through the constructs of context, culture, religion, religious conversion, gender, social class, interpersonal relationships, daily work, and work rewards (Barker, 2000; Butt, Raymond, McCue, & Yamagishi, 1992; DeMarrais & LeCompte, 1998; Goodson, 2000; Hargreaves, 2003; Ingersoll, 2003 Lortie, 1975; McAdamis, 2007; McNay & Graham, 2007; Pajak & Blase, 1989; Viadero, 2007; Westheimer, 1998). These nine sociological constructs allowed for a detailed, thorough, and nuanced exploration of a teacher's complex life and work in the United States and Egypt. I conducted multiple interviews with the participant as well spent time observing her teach in both the United States and Egypt. Conclusions drawn from the study indicated that context and social class outweighed the other factors that the sociology of teaching literature suggests are salient to understanding teaching and religious conversion. Context mediated Amy's experiences as a Muslim-American, teacher, wife and expatriate. As a teacher, Amy's success was dependent on school contexts. She was scared to reveal her faith and felt isolated from her coworkers in the American public schools. When she did reveal herself to be a Muslim, she was frustrated by their ignorance of Islam. Amy was most successful teaching at an Islamic school, where she used both her American background and her Islamic faith to her advantage. In this context, Amy thrived as a "whole person" where she merged her personal and professional life. Amy was less successful in a cross-cultural environment. In Egypt, Amy did not reflect on her teaching or adapt it to an Egyptian context. She was critical of her principals and viewed her American citizenship, teaching experience, and academic credentials as giving her the authority to voice oppositional opinions to the school leadership. Her overconfidence hindered her ability to create caring professional relationships with both teachers and students. In effect, the interplay of her ego with school contexts greatly influenced her success as a teacher. In her personal life, Amy embraced gender complimentarity and strove to follow gendered expectations. She viewed her role as wife as equal in importance to the work of her husband. In Egypt, Amy placed great importance on caring for her home and family and spent as little time as possible at her places of work. Consequently, her workplace relationships suffered. Although Amy limited the amount of time at work, her sense of self-importance made it possible for her to outwardly criticize both Egyptian society and her workplaces. She actively separated herself from the lower classes, looked down on a class she termed nouveau riche, and blamed the problems she faced in the classroom on the lower classes' lack of education. Yet, she continued to teach because of financial need. Although Amy earned more money as a teacher than her husband did as a pathologist, she viewed her American nationality and her marriage to a doctor as providing them entrée into the Egyptian upper class. Amy's religious conversion to Islam was a long process that changed both her career trajectory and outlook on life. She faced learning to navigate her American heritage, new Islamic identity, and the nuances of Egyptian culture. Her personal and professional relationships were met with varied success, illustrating the complexities of religious change and cross-cultural acculturation. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Education Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2009. / April 8, 2009. / Religious Conversion, Teacher work, Teacher Life, Cross-Cultural, Egypt / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey Milligan, Professor Directing Dissertation; Sherry Southerland, Outside Committee Member; Peter Easton, Committee Member; Thomas Luschei, Committee Member.

The Race to Educate is an exploration of Black resistance to educational segregation in Kentucky, 1865-1910. Set in Kentucky, this dissertation examines the ways in which Blacks struggled to address and mitigate the impact of U.S. segregation, especially as it related to education. Through the experiences of Blacks who resisted efforts to undermine their freedom, this dissertation challenges presumptions that segregation was an effort that Blacks did not try to address in its earliest forms. Additionally, this dissertation identifies individuals who participated in these efforts and investigates the relationship between oppression and segregation. Finally, this dissertation identifies such results of resistance as Kentucky State University and Lincoln Institute. The Race to Educate challenges the reader to recognize Blacks as active, engaged, and significant participants in their educational journey and thus their quest for freedom. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2010. / February 3, 2010. / Education, Segregation, Kentucky, Resistance, Black, School / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey Milligan, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Victoria-Maria MacDonald, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Alejandro Gallard, University Representative; Lora Cohen-Vogel, Committee Member.

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The study was aimed at investigating challenges hampering mother-tongue education with special reference to Afan Oromo in the Eastern Hararge Zone, the Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. The study mainly explored the available learning materials and the skilled teachers in mother-tongue education, attitudinal factors, the extent of stakeholders’ support for mother-tongue education, parents’ education and their awareness about education through mother tongue and parent school involvements. In the study, the researcher used a mixed method approach in which both quantitative and qualitative research designs were employed to corroborate the data obtained through one method by using other methods to minimise limitations observed in a single design. In the quantitative design, survey questionnaires were employed. Accordingly, 634 primary school teachers and 134 students were randomly selected and asked to fill the questionnaires. These quantitative data were analysed through the SPSS software and responses were analysed using the percentages and the chi-square. Qualitative data obtained through in-depth interviews and observations were analysed using thematic approaches. Documents on education policy, constitutions of the country and reports of the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia were also consulted and integrated with the analyses of the data. The study generally suggests unless strong political and administrative supports are given and public awareness about the mother tongue use in education and development is created, the effort to make Afan Oromo the language of education, intellectuals and development may remain fruitless. In this respect, all the stakeholders, intellectuals and leaders must work together to overcome challenges and dilemmas that impede the implementation of mother-tongue education. The practical works on the ground should match with the language policy of the country. Popular awareness raising activities and mobilization of the communities should be carried out carefully to involve all the communities / African Languages