Integration of Local Poetic Voices: an Interview with Lawson Fusao Inada

An interview with Lawson Fusoa Inad

Fostering Successful Communities of Collaboration Through Educational Partnerships: Strengthening Bilingual Learners\u27 Language and Literacy Achievement Along the Texas-Mexican Border

There is an undisputable need to form collaborative partnerships between schools, families, homes, and communities across the nation. Collaborative educational partnerships are the cornerstone for student success. With increasingly diverse student populations, schools must communicate and collaborate with families and communities to bridge the wide gap that exists between home and school. With a dominant Spanish-speaking population of Mexican descent, as that of children living in the Southern tip of the Texas-Mexican border, known as The Rio Grande Valley, barriers such as low social economic status and limited English proficiency may impede much-needed communication between schools, homes, and communities. These barriers that negatively impede student success must be replaced with strong bridges that support student achievement. Recommendations are anchored in opportunities to increase academic and social partnerships among schools, families, homes, and communities. The premise for establishing educational partnerships is ultimately student achievement and success

Interview with Erica Almaguer

Erica Almaguer is a Latinx woman who is from the Bay Area and a mother of three. She received her Bachelor of Arts from San Francisco State University (SFSU) and she is the current director of the Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) at SFSU. Before joining the Auntie Sewing Squad, she made scrub caps for nurses and doctors.https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/auntiesewing_interviews/1055/thumbnail.jp

Magnifying English Language Learners\u27 Success Through Culturally Relevant Teaching and Learning Frameworks: Acknowledging the Multidimensional Implications on Language, Literacy, and Learning

There is a need to amplify the voices of English language learners through authentic language and literacy learning using a multifaceted culturally relevant and responsive teaching and learning framework that encompasses social justice. Specifically, framing the chapter through the lens of the sociocultural theory to better recognize, acknowledge, and understand the influence of culturally relevant learning. Culture plays a crucial role in forming identity and agency, so we must rethink the effect of culturally relevant pedagogy by linking principles of learning to the cultural realities of children, families, and communities on literacy. English language learners require more empowering and engaging pedagogy that actively involves them in learning experiences while developing self-efficacy through varied opportunities for academic and linguistic proficiency development to further support them as global scholars. As such, parallels exist in literacy development across diverse people and cultures, specifically the Mexican American culture and the Native Hawaiian culture

(Re) Actualizing Culturally Sustaining Read Aloud Practices: Enriching Latinx Bilingual Learners’ Literacy Development

Focusing on culturally sustaining literacy practices, I sought to conceptualize the integration of culturally rich literature as inclusionary practices for the reading and literacy development of Latinx bilingual learners. It is forecasted that by 2036, Latinx students will make up a third of the nation’s 3 to 17 year old learners - our school age population (US Census Bureau, 2010). Recognizing the importance of engaging with culturally sustaining read alouds and the value in learners seeing themselves reflected in the stories allows for increased opportunities for engagement in the literature used in the read alouds. I steadfastly advocate for asset-based perspectives that validate and respect students’ funds of knowledge and cultural capital and use this to counter deficit perspectives and discriminatory narratives. I capitalize on the importance of embracing the power of culturally relevant literacy practices, including read alouds to support language and literacy development. Equivalently validating cultural identity by recognizing the power anchored in our culture that harnesses contextualized spaces which are grounded in culturally relevant literature and pedagogical practices to catapult Latinx bilingual learners as global scholars

Gamer Resistance to Marketization of Play

Video games provide an important context to understand the role of markets in a virtual space. Particularly, consumerism has appeared to have transferred from actual reality in the virtual reality in video games. For instance, growth in use of microtransactions by companies enable consumers to exchange real currency for in-game currency. Thus, the distinction between reality and fiction appears to be blurring. This may be problematic given the hegemony of AAA video game developers (Triple-A games are those with very high development and promotion budgets), commonality of neoliberal appeals in video games, and the potential influence that video games can have on the gamer’s material world. This article provides an analysis of the connections between video games and a market society and identifies some forms of consumer rejection of the commodification of virtual items in the virtual worlds established by video games. Additionally, the implications of microtransactions on the market in video games along with resistance to commodification of video games are discussed

Some observations on the publication of articles in Medicine

The University is not only a school for adults, but it plays a major role in the search of new knowledge, in other words, research. In addition to assisting patients, teaching colleagues and students --- undergraduates as well as postgraduates --- it is important to highlight the need and duty of doctors to be involved in research. This does not necessarily require a great set of skills or special knowledge; it can be as simple as to cooperate in a workgroup that searches for new knowledge of a specific disease, or more complex activities, like designing and implementing a prospective/comparative study in search of new evidence and different paths than those previously established