As the student body in the United States continues to become more diverse, it is critically important to understand the factors that influence African American and Latinx students’ engagement, including what they bring to the classroom, and their perceptions of what is occurring in the classroom. During early adolescence, youth are making meaning and internalizing the proximal influences their classrooms have on their sense of self and subsequent academic outcomes. Among school variables, teaching quality accounts for some amount of variation in student achievement. This dissertation project explored whether there were gender differences among 205 middle school students’ perceptions of classroom practices. The study also assessed whether differences in boys’ and girls’ perceptions of classroom practices had different influences on their self-systems (e.g., components of ethnic-racial identity and social efficacy with teacher), and classroom engagement. Study results suggest that boys and girls rate similar exposure to social-emotional classroom practices from their teachers, however invariance tests demonstrate these practices have different meanings for boys and girls. In addition, results indicate that exposure to social-emotional classroom practices is affirming for components of boys’ ethnic-racial identity, such as their racial centrality, public regard, and private regard, which in turn predicted higher classroom engagement. Whereas for girls, classroom practices only affirmed their private regard which in turn predicted higher classroom engagement. Social efficacy with one’s teacher did not mediate the association between classroom practices and classroom engagement as previously hypothesized for neither girls nor boys. This study also found that girls’ grade level was an important covariate in the model, which implies there are important developmental considerations in the dynamic relationship between the classroom context and students’ self-systems. Findings from this study suggest some important implications for policy and curricula development around teacher training and teaching practices that enhance academic and social outcomes for students of color. In particular, practices that encourage collaboration and sharing of ideas and knowledge among African and Latinx students are both developmentally, and culturally responsive for students’ sense of self and engagement in class.

The children of immigrants are often entrusted with the task of interpreting linguistic and cultural information between their native communities and their Anglo American communities, a process called language brokering. Much of the research indicates that the responsibilities of the task positively affect the social and cognitive development of brokers. The present quantitative study examined the social and academic self-efficacy of brokers as they relate to brokering frequency, the ways in which single and dual parent structures affect the bond between the broker and the parent(s), and the ways in which the parent-child bond affects the social and academic self-efficacy of the brokers. There were slight correlation in the results but not a lot of significance.

Submitted by Maria Medeiros (maria.dilva1@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-07-24T13:06:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MAYZA DE ARAÚJO BATISTA - DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGCS) 2017.pdf: 3835664 bytes, checksum: 97fcabaf5be343cdb58c27a7ea3ebb6c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-24T13:06:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MAYZA DE ARAÚJO BATISTA - DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGCS) 2017.pdf: 3835664 bytes, checksum: 97fcabaf5be343cdb58c27a7ea3ebb6c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-22 / Capes / Esta pesquisa busca compreender o processo de efetivação de práticas que nos remetem à direitos que se entendem como necessários para preservar a dignidade humana da população infanto-juvenil no Brasil. Nessa linha de pensamento, nossa pesquisa põe em discussão a efetividade do Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente (ECA) no contexto da atividade do Estado, bem como da atividade social. Diante da existência de proposições legais, a partir de uma perspectiva sociológica, buscamos perceber o implemento de políticas públicas e ações protecionistas para às crianças e adolescentes, de modo a reconhecer a existência de elementos comuns e que se favorecem na vivência da comunidade e na utopia plasmada no estatuto. Mapeando valores que constam no ECA, a ênfase da pesquisa rodeia os direitos à educação, à cultura, ao esporte e lazer, que se supõe deverem ser promovidos pelo Estado e pela sociedade em geral. Desse modo, a pergunta que norteia nossa pesquisa é a seguinte: como e em que medida esses direitos alcançam os menores de uma comunidade da periferia? Mediante o uso de uma metodologia de ordem qualitativa e do instrumental teórico das Ciências Sociais, buscamos captar as nuanças da relação entre políticas públicas e o modos de vida de crianças e adolescentes, o que a partir da teoria da estruturação nos permite alcançar a efetividade das disposições legais, a partir da correlação entre comunidade e legislação estatal. A coleta de dados empíricos foi realizada através da prática da observação participante na comunidade Jardim Borborema II, no bairro Três Irmãs, situado na periferia da cidade de Campina Grande, na Paraíba. Diante de uma atuação inerte do Estado no desenvolvimento das atividades da comunidade, os direitos previstos no ECA se mantém no plano ideário daquele, enquanto a atuação comunitária se revela como único instrumento em prol da consolidação de tais direitos. / This research seeks to understand the process of effecting practices that refer us to the rights that are understood as necessary to preserve the human dignity of the child and adolescent population in Brazil. In this line of thinking, our research challenges the effectiveness of the Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA) in the context of State activity, as well as social activity. Given the existence of legal propositions, from a sociological perspective, we seek to understand the implementation of public policies and protectionist actions for children and adolescents,in order to recognize the existence of common elements and that are favored in the community's experience and in the utopia established by the statute. Mapping values that are included in the ECA, the research emphasis surrounds the rights to education, culture, sports and leisure, which are supposed to be promoted by the State and by society in general. Thus, the question that guides our research is: how and to what extent do these rights reach the minors of a community on the periphery? Through the use of a qualitative methodology and the theoretical tools of the Social Sciences, we seek to capture the nuances of the relationship between public policies and the ways of life of children and adolescents, which from the structuring theory allows us to reach the effectiveness of the Legal provisions, based on the correlation between community and state legislation. The empirical data collection was performed through participatory observation practice in the Jardim Borborema II community, in the Três Irmãs neighborhood, located on the outskirts of the city of Campina Grande in Paraíba. Faced with an inert role of the State in the development of community activities, the rights provided for in the ECA remain in the ideals of the State, while community action is the only instrument for the consolidation of these rights.