Parental rights bills are pieces of legislation that detail and lay out the rights and abilities that parents have in the educational systems in the United States. After diving deeper into the history and effects of parental rights bills historically throughout the nation as well as what factors contribute to the passing of parental rights bills, I take a closer look at the specific parental rights bill that is central to my analysis: Arizona House Bill 2161. I conducted a thorough analysis of the transitivity of the bill paying close attention to who the actors were and the type of process they were conducting. Then, I singled out all the modals and the abilities they were depicting. As a result of both methods, I found that parents are given exclusive and undeniable control over their children’s education. Additionally, I found that students are cast to the side and their voices are swept under the rug as they have no modals and are never the actor - only the clients.

This dissertation study investigated how Somali refugee families living in Nairobi, Kenya experience and negotiate their religious and secular identities through literacies. This study provided detailed experiences and reflections of individuals––children and parents about their literacies. The children in this study learned to read in English and Kiswahili in school, and they learned to read in classical Arabic—three languages they do not speak at home. The study explored Qur’anic schools which literacy researchers have long overlooked, yet these are spaces that shape many children’s rich multilingual, multiliterate, and multiscriptual repertoires while, at the same time, shaping and negotiating their fluid identities. Three themes, literacy as social practice, liturgical literacy, and funds of knowledge offered a complimentary lens through which this community was studied. Literacy, as a social practice, demonstrates how certain social groups use specific socially constructed literacies within specific contexts to achieve various goals. The concept of liturgical literacy foregrounds how minority languages, such as Classical Arabic, have great symbolic value for communities, including those who neither speak nor understand the language, while funds of knowledge conceptualize the knowledge and related activities present in homes that have the potential for contributing positively to children’s learning. Using the ethnographic methodology, this inquiry spanned six sites and focused on participants during their interactions with literacy, orality, and text for eight months. The study occurred in three homes, two Dugsis, and one school site. A rich description of the community was achieved by presenting language and literacy practices in a multi-sited ethnography. This dissertation ultimately also offers contemporary relevance: investigating a community whose literacies are invisible, minoritized, and marginalized, and aimed to inform educational researchers, policymakers, and teachers who are devoted to rethinking what counts as literacy, for whom, in what contexts, and with what kinds of consequences. In a time of increased movement of people across borders, this research has important implications for teacher preparation, theories of language learning, and literacy education.

Content-based instruction, task-based language teaching, and game-mediated learning are three pedagogical approaches that are perceived as effective in second and foreign language education. These approaches share common ground in a sociocultural and functional view of language learning and popularity as engaging classroom strategies in K-12 contexts. However, challenges may exist in attaining content-integrated language learning goals, designing engaging and efficient language learning tasks, or implementing game-mediated activities in classroom settings. Prior research has suggested an enhanced result in facilitating language learning as well as promoting student participation when combining some of these existing approaches. What is missing is an attempt to blend all three approaches which may lead to a synergistic way of utilizing task-based, game-mediated activities to help achieve the goals of content-integrated language learning. To address this gap in current literature and field practice, I proposed a game-mediated dual learning instructional model that aims to conceptually and practically discuss various ways of blending these aforementioned approaches. In addition, I adopted two analytical frameworks—a close analysis of language-related episodes and a three-step multimodal analysis of learners’ participation—to provide empirical evidence for participants’ language production and multimodal participation during a game-mediated project. This qualitative-driven study took place in a physics class in an independent high school in the northeastern U.S. from January to March 2022. Data sources for the project included (1) audio and video recorded data, and (2) observational data such as student-oriented notes taken during the stay at the research site. The findings of this project illustrate the diverse opportunities for language learning through participating in collaborative, game-mediated, and task-based activities. The findings also suggest that participants adopted multimodal ways of communication when engaging in these activities. This project contributes to the literature on game-mediated second and foreign language education by adopting an interdisciplinary approach to propose a new way of integrating several pedagogical approaches, while also providing an empirical account of this instructional model.

The U.S Census Bureau (2018)’s report calculated that from the total Latinx population, 11.6 % of this community has a Bachelor of Arts. The report also estimated that less than half of the Latinx students who begin pursuing higher education would eventually earn their degrees. Given the Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) field’s fast-paced growth, Carreira (2007) argued for the field to get involved in reducing the Latino Achievement Gap since this gap has severe consequences in students’ lives. The objective of the current study is to analyze 1. What types of capital do SHL students bring to the upper-division university course? 2. How do the types of capital that SHL students bring to the upper division university course shaped by the end of the course? And 3. How do SHL students understand the knowledge they bring to the course and 3.1. How do they see the course having shaped their knowledge by the end of the semester? The data collected via semi-structured interviews and student reflective journals were coded using thematic analysis (Seidman, 2013) and Yosso’s (2005; 2013) six types of capital. The findings show that the course helped students gain linguistic confidence, reinforcing their linguistic capital. Also, students developed their Critical Language Awareness, which strengthens their resistant and aspirational capital. Students also mentioned that the assignments and discussions validated their sense of belonging at ASU increasing their navigational capital. This data reflects how the SHL classroom leads students to strengthen their linguistic capital and gives them the tools to reinforce their familial, navigational, resistant, and aspirational capital. These findings point out the different ways SHL courses support students along their academic journey and provide insights into how SHL educators could contribute to narrow the Latino Achievement Gap.

This interpretive dissertation study draws upon a sociocultural framework to understand what happened when a seventh-grade teacher introduced drama-based pedagogy into her English Language Arts (ELA) classroom to aid emergent bilinguals’ participation and positioning within the classroom network of practice. The classroom teacher had little training in best practices for supporting emergent bilinguals and no training in drama-based pedagogical approaches for teaching and learning before she participated in this study. I trained the classroom teacher in these practices and provided guidance and feedback during the implementation of drama-based pedagogy. The following research question guided this investigation: What happens when drama-based pedagogy is introduced into a seventh-grade ELA class to support emergent bilinguals? Twenty-seven students from an urban middle school in the southwestern United States participated in this study. According to the state’s English language proficiency exam, three students were identified as English language learners. All three had attended schools in the United States since kindergarten. I conducted classroom observations and interviews with the student and teacher participants to gather data on how emergent bilinguals participated and were positioned during drama-based lessons. Then I analyzed the data corpus using multiple forms of coding, social network analysis, and multimodal interaction analysis. My findings describe the emergent bilinguals’ multimodal classroom interactions with their peers and the teacher during drama-based pedagogy. I present excerpts from interview, reflection meeting, and multimodal transcripts to support my analysis of participation and positioning. Based on my findings, I generated five assertions: (1) emergent bilinguals increased their access to academic resources within the peer academic network after engaging in drama-based pedagogy; (2) emergent bilinguals demonstrated moments of resistance and adaptation during drama-based pedagogy; (3) emergent bilinguals' participation during drama-based pedagogy fluctuated between moments of maintaining and becoming certain kinds of students; (4) incorporating drama-based pedagogy into the seventh-grade ELA class required the teacher to preserve time for more traditional ELA practices while also re-envisioning classroom instruction; and (5) students sometimes misinterpreted teacher facilitation as requirements which limited student agency during drama-based pedagogy. The dissertation concludes with implications for research and practice and outlines potential directions for future research.

The goal of this study was to illuminate areas of strength within a sample of Hispanic, Spanish-speaking children (n = 446) from the early head start research and evaluation project, a multi method, multi reporter longitudinal study that involved children starting at 14-months through pre-kindergarten, with a 5th grade follow up assessment. A longitudinal path model examined relations between external factors (i.e., parent warmth and responsivity, home cognitive and language environment, child-directed speech), and internal factors (i.e., child self-regulation), and Spanish language before kindergarten, and English language at 5th grade. In addition to direct paths, indirect paths were included from external factors to language outcomes through self-regulation and Spanish language. After controlling for important demographic variables, analyses indicated that parents’ warmth and responsivity was directly related to children’s self-regulation and children’s English language proficiency in 5th grade. Home environment and self-regulation were directly related to children’s Spanish language proficiency. Children’s Spanish language proficiency was directly related to English language proficiency. Significant indirect effects emerged between parent warmth and responsivity to both Spanish and English language via children’s self-regulation. Results additionally evidenced significant indirect paths from home environment and self-regulation to English language through Spanish language. Direct paths between parent warmth/responsivity and Spanish language, home environment and English language, and child-directed speech and child regulation, Spanish language, and English language were not significant. Implications include current and future interventions targeted at bolstering parent-child interactions and regulation skills and to promote early educational programs supportive of both heritage and second languages.

ABSTRACT

To remain competitive on local, state, and national levels and to achieve future economic and social goals, Imperial and Yuma County need an educated workforce. The primary industries supporting the desert region are technical, science, technology, enginnering and mathematics (STEM)-based, and require a highly skilled and educated workforce. There continue to be vast disparities in terms of numbers of students declared and enrolled in STEM transfer degree programs and the number of students completing STEM bachelor’s degrees.

Perceptions regarding post-secondary education start to develop at a young age and can prevent or enable a student’s development of post-secondary aspirations. Understanding a student’s perceptions of barriers are important because they can prevent students from completing a four-year degree. The pilot research provided in the study are the first steps in helping educators and community leaders understand what drives and form student perceived educational barriers and student perceptions of self, and then provide a better understanding of first-generation Hispanic students’ value of higher education.

As part of the study, I designed the science, technology, engineering, agriculture and mathematics (“STEAM”) College Success Program to help college students overcome the perceived barriers intervening with the completion of a bachelor’s degree. The program involved community, industry, and college students in a unique experience of incorporating a one-week camp, academic year of mentorship, STEM education, and college support. Pilot results of the “STEAM” College Success Program indicate the innovation was effective in reducing perceived barriers relating to college success and bachelor’s degree completion.and was most effective in the area of self-efficacy and personal achievement.

Transfer students have emerged as a growing student population in higher education. There is a need for higher education professionals to understand the needs of transfer students. In this study, the implemented intervention consisted of restructuring retention programming for first-semester transfer students. This qualitative action research study explored how first-semester transfer students understand and experience academic and social engagement across the semester they participate in retention programming. Students identified perceived barriers and facilitators to engagement. The researcher also examined transfer students’ experiences of the intervention. The findings indicate that students’ understanding of engagement align with their expectations of their first semester and remained consistent throughout the study. One of the biggest perceived barriers to engagement was lack of time. Overall, transfer students found the intervention useful during their transition to a new institution.

The purpose of this mixed-methods action research study was to discover the hindrances and apply new innovative ideas to the problematic stages of student acclimatization and acculturation to an American education and Taiwanese host culture. The goal was to improve academic success during the initial first year, improve the acclimatization process, and stimulate the acculturation process.

The study applied a mixed-methods approach. Four new foreign students participated in a 12-week innovation. This innovation consisted of establishing a protocol for school staff, creating and implementing a student-led Welcoming Committee, training at the beginning of the school year, establishing guidelines and expectations for participating Welcoming Committee members, assigning peer mentors to new students, and providing opportunities for socializing and meeting people. The participants took pre and post cultural self-efficacy tests. In addition, qualitative data was collected from the interviews of the four participants.

The new foreign students showed an increase in cultural self-efficacy from the beginning of the innovation to the conclusion of it. Findings of this study found that students used past experiences in creating initial perceptions, these perceptions changed after interactions with the Welcoming Committee, ample assistance was given to the new foreign students throughout the innovation, and Welcoming Committee members were relied on to make initial contact with others due to initial difficulties in this area.