This dissertation presents the findings of an on-line survey completed by 222 FYC (First Year Composition) instructors at universities and community colleges across the United States along with supplemental information derived from multiple open-ended interviews with seven FYC instructors in Arizona. Both survey and interview questions were designed to accomplish three primary goals: to determine which conventions of academic English FYC instructors identify as most important; to understand the common problems encountered by instructors in teaching those conventions, and; to solicit instructors' perceptions about ways in which learning outcomes might be improved. Results indicate general consensus among FYC instructors on which skills are both the most critical to academic English proficiency and the most difficult for their students to learn. At the same time, the survey and interview responses reflect widespread dissatisfaction with the ways in which academic English sequences are currently structured, apparently related to the instructors' common perception that the sequences are only "somewhat" successful in terms of preparing students for successful academic writing. Accordingly, the overwhelming majority of FYC instructors suggest changes for increasing the effectiveness of their programs; however, there is surprisingly little agreement among them on what those changes should be. The concluding section of this study presents pragmatic suggestions - congruent with a number of the instructors' observations - for reconfiguring FYC sequences. Additionally, it is argued that, aside from the targeted skills addressed by the instructors, the survey and interview responses indicate that academic English has been implicitly invested with culture-specific values which should be made explicit in instruction and which, given the gatekeeping status of FYC courses, the increasing diversity of student populations and the growing divide between the academic and wider cultures, require critical examination.

This case study explores the Spanish speaking and writing practices of middle-school Latina/o youth in Miami, Florida. Its ethnographic approach aims to re-present students learning English as a second language as emerging bilinguals (Escamilla, 2006; García, 2009) who access, maintain, and develop their first language to varying degrees while learning English. Through my position as an attached member (Wax, 1971) of a Spanish-English dual language school, I examined students' Spanish production within larger socio-historical and institutional frames of reference. Shadowing students in their Spanish-instruction classes (e.g., Mathematics, Humanities, and Spanish), I drew from observations, student work, interviews with students, educators and parents, and student focus groups. Analysis of data sources reveal that students, together with influential adults, created and received messages about language--ideologies of language as standard, evolving, and dynamic. Youth engaged in normative translanguaging and transliteracy practices in mathematics class; confronted institutionally-created labels and articulated their bilingual identities as members of two language programs; and developed their Spanish writing as part of varying, yet often prescriptive, literacy instruction. This study adds to the limited research on Latina/o middle-school experiences and K-12 heritage language education. This research has pedagogical and language policy implications for those who educate and oversee the education of bilingual youth.

Engagement with global children's literature is an effective way to introduce multiple perspectives into the classroom dialogue. Yet teachers are often unfamiliar with ways of helping students understand diverse cultural practices and beliefs. The result is that global children's literature continues to be an underused resource. This action research study looked at 25 highly diverse educator study groups as they used global literature with pre-K - 12 students. The goal was to support the development of intercultural understanding. The study groups received $1,000 grants from Worlds of Words (wowlit.org) to fund their yearlong inquiry. The groups met face-to-face throughout the year to reflect on the interactions taking place in their classrooms. All groups met online on a members-only site. Data collected included proposals, reports, teacher vignettes, and interviews. The data was used to document range of study group structures and interactions with global literature. The study groups and online forum were supported by a grant from the Longview Foundation. Through constant comparative analysis, new transformative understandings were identified. Key elements in the development of intercultural understanding included open inquiry, recognition of complexity and multiple perspectives, thinking about culture at a conceptual level, and engaging in open dialogue. Teachers reported an increased understanding of their competence as professionals, their student's competence as problem-posers and thinkers, and the parents' competence as important contributors to intercultural understanding. The study concludes with implications for practitioners wanting to engage in classroom inquiries using global literature to support developing intercultural understanding. A second set of implications suggests ways in which the study group process can be made more effective. New questions are proposed for future research related to the use of global literature in various contexts, including classrooms, online professional development, and libraries.

According to critical pedagogues and post-development scholars, globalization and transnational movement open up new avenues for pedagogy; to be sure, some scholars assert the development sector is in need of a paradigm shift to accommodate "new forms of pedagogy" (Appadurai, 2000) while subaltern scholars call for "alternative pedagogies" (Sherpa, 2014) for the theorizing and understanding of subaltern, marginalized groups within the educational realm. In the search for and transition to a subaltern pedagogy, it is necessary to tap into the very voices of those who comprise the subaltern, because, as Kelly and Lusis (2006) assert, "Researchers are frequently interested in understanding the experiences of 'the immigrant,' as an objective analytical category, rather than the experiences of 'an immigrant'" (p. 831). The aim of this study is to examine the interplay between knowledge production of migrant workers, power as domination and empowerment, and the appropriation of space in considering how these groups are able to segue subaltern epistemologies into forms of activism and empowerment; as such, this study looks at constructions and deconstructions of power among historically oppressed peoples in macro, meso and micro contexts. I assert that dominant discourses of power attempt to perpetuate an intentional subjugation of oppressed groups, in this case, migrant workers, especially female domestic workers. However, via the creation of a critical, oppositional consciousness by way of reciprocity and dialogism within the migrant worker and Lebanese activist community, migrant workers are able to harness agency and empowerment even within the most oppressive of societal conditions. What this research reveals is that migrant workers are able to create powerful counter-cultural communities of practice and epistemological spaces for learning. Based on this research, I assert a subaltern praxis, a paradigm shift comprising of a subaltern pedagogy and practice, that incorporates ideas of critical pedagogy, spatial analysis, and postcolonial/third world feminisms; this dialectic triad informs the subaltern interstitial and liminal experience, the need for the building of a critical consciousness for educators and learners alike, and a re-mapping and re-configuration of subaltern epistemologies for the benefit of all who desire to learn about migration and the refugee experience.

This thesis is a re-evaluation of a movement founded to provide what Samuel Smiles called “the road to learning” for workers in the nineteenth century. Mechanics’ institutes emerged during the 1820s to both criticism and acclaim, becoming part of the physical and intellectual fabric of the age and inspiring a nationwide building programme funded entirely by public subscription. Beginning with a handful of examples in major British cities, they eventually spread across the Anglophone world. They were at the forefront of public engagement with arts, science and technology. This thesis is a history of the mechanics’ institute movement in the British Isles from the 1820s through to the late 1860s, when State involvement in areas previously dominated by private enterprises such as mechanics’ institutes, for example library provision and elementary schooling, became more pronounced. The existing historiography on mechanics’ institutes is primarily regional in scope and this thesis breaks new ground by synthesising a national perspective on their wider social, political and cultural histories. It contributes to these broader themes, as well as areas as diverse as educational history, the history of public exhibition and public spaces, visual culture, print culture, popular literacy and literature (including literature generated by the Institutes themselves, such as poetry and prose composed by members), financial services, education in cultural and aesthetic judgement, Institutes as sources of protest by means of Parliamentary petitions, economic history, and the nature, theory and practice of the popular dissemination of ideas. These advances free the thesis from ongoing debate around the success or failure of mechanics’ institutes, allowing the emphasis to be on the experiential history of the “living” Institute. The diverse source base for the thesis includes art, sculpture, poetry and memoir alongside such things as economic data, library loan statistics, membership numbers and profit / loss accounts from institute reports. The methodology therefore incorporates qualitative (for example, tracing the evolution of attitudes towards Institutes in contemporary culture by analysing the language used to describe them over time) and quantitative (for example, exploring Institutes as providers of financial services to working people) techniques. For the first time, mechanics’ institutes are studied in relation to political corruption, debates concerning the morality of literature and literacy during the nineteenth century, and the legislative processes of the period.

With increasing numbers of first-generation college students enrolling in colleges and universities across the US, so too is the need to begin preparing such underrepresented students for graduate school and a career in academia. As a phenomenological case study of student transformation, this dissertation examines the experience of nine first-generation college students in the summer research portion of the Ronald E. McNair Achievement Program (McNair) at University of Arizona. The qualitative data collected includes in-depth interviewing, observing the students' in-class presentations on the progress of their summer research, and reviewing the students' written work. Drawing on Adult Transformational Learning Theory (Mezirow, 1991) and Gee's writings on student identity (2000) and Discourse (2005), this study primarily addresses the following questions: 1) How do UA McNair students take on and use the Discourse of research during the 10 week summer program? And 2) as they engage in the Discourse of research (in classes, with mentors, with peers, in written work), what academic identity transformations are observed (in the classroom, in interviews, and in written work)? Narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) was utilized to organize and examine the data, and research texts consist of academic biographies written for each student. Findings reveal that student transformation is the noticeable difference in the students' utilization and integration of a language system used to describe their summer research and to define their research interests. Defined as the Discourse of research, this becomes the basis for students enacting the identity of undergraduate researcher. As a cohort of nine McNair Scholars, students share the experience of undergraduate research and engage in conversations which address the insecurities they have as first-generation college students. Through this formation of an affinity group (Gee, 2005) and their utilization of the Discourse of research, students engage in critical reflection, reevaluate their academic identities, and begin preparing themselves for their transition from undergraduate students to first-year doctoral students.