The Perceptions Of School Psychologists Regarding The Disproportionality In Special Education For Students Of Color: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study

Racial disproportionality in special education has been a problem of practice since Dunn called attention to it in 1968. Research has demonstrated the adverse effects on students including stigma, labeling, reduced access to high-quality educational opportunities, restrictive settings, and lower expectations and educational outcomes. Little research on disproportionality has examined how individual characteristics and societal factors intersect with specific school variables and contexts. Using disability critical race theory as a lens for exploration, this qualitative phenomenological study examined the phenomenon of disproportionality situated within a specific context to uncover how local factors may contribute to the incidence of disproportionality. Seven school psychologists from a suburban school district cited by the state for racial disproportionality in special education were interviewed to capture their lived experiences with the phenomenon. This study found five themes and eleven subthemes. Themes included lack of consistent pre-referral policies and practices; disparity patterns in the identification of students in the Open Choice population; staff perceptions in their low sense of self-efficacy to support students and perceived benefits of special education; bias; and disparity patterns in student externalizing behaviors and teacher response. Findings indicate the need for further allocation of resources to strengthen the pre-referral process and data collection, increased professional learning in the areas of intervention strategies and culturally responsive teaching practices, and leveraging of protective factors for struggling students

Does Study Abroad Impact Students’ Personality?

International education is universally valued both in academics and the job market because of the perception that those who study abroad have increased intercultural awareness, experience with diversity, and opportunity for personal growth. Given that students who are studying abroad are experiencing increased independence and experience with a new culture, this is a potential time for the development of perspective-taking, empathic concern, non-prejudice, and other forms of personal growth. The present, longitudinal study collected narrative and non-narrative data on these qualities of personality development before, during, and after the participants’ studies. For comparison, we gathered the same measures with a group of students who were taking a summer course on campus. Contrary to popular views of studying abroad, we did not find evidence that summer study abroad facilitated personality development more than summer study on campus. We did find that students were more likely to report personal growth after studying abroad than studying on campus, but this was explained by the fact that the study-abroad group had higher expectations for personal growth before summer studies

Faculty and student perspectives on the development of community college baccalaureate degrees in career, technical, and professional programs in rural Texas

Includes bibliographical references.2015 Summer.Cohen and Brawer (2003) identified community colleges as critical to the process of educational democracy in the United States. Community colleges have been a model for change, facing numerous challenges over time. Both societal and institutional perspectives contribute to the rationale for the community college baccalaureate. However, perceptions about the Community College Baccalaureate vary across the college campus. This study explored the perspectives of faculty, administrators, and student respondents from three community colleges in a rural area of Texas toward the development of baccalaureate programs at the community college level. The intent was to establish an initial framework for community colleges to follow in order to determine if the pursuit of community college baccalaureate degrees within their CTE and professional programs might be warranted. Few studies have explored the lack of higher degree opportunities for Career and Technical Education (CTE) and professional programs as a reason for failure to transfer or complete a degree. Many career and technical professions are requiring education beyond associate degrees for entry-level positions, and many are looking for bachelor degree graduates with technical skills. It could be that the time has come for the development of baccalaureate programs at the community college level, especially for CTE and professional programs. This study was approached from a pragmatic perspective and utilized primarily quantitative methods, but incorporated open-ended questions at the end of each survey and a focus group to support the findings of the quantitative data. Factor analysis of two surveys (one for faculty/administrators, and one for students) determined three constructs: Student Access (to baccalaureate degrees), Workforce Needs, and Mission Expansion, also identified in other studies by Townsend and Bragg (2009), and Walker (2005), leading researchers in this area. Cronbach’s alphas were computed for the each of the three groups for both surveys. In the Faculty/administrator survey Student Access had a strong alpha score of α = .89, Workforce Needs α = .75 (moderate), and Mission Expansion α =.68 (marginally acceptable level). Reliability results for the Student Survey showed Cronbach’s Alpha was at an acceptable level of α = .825, but the next two factors had low reliability ratings (α = .41, α = .39) probably due to a low number of items as well as lower loading numbers. Results indicated that faculty were concerned with the logistics of developing baccalaureate programs at their institutions and that there would need to be a concerted effort across disciplines and throughout administrative levels in order to develop and provide for the sustainability of those programs. Several expressed concerns over existing and needed resources, as well as assurances of administrative support. Students were concerned with the availability of baccalaureate programs for their fields of study within a reasonable distance, and that the possibility of lower costs associated with ready access would affect their pursuit of education past an Associate’s degree. Both results were in agreement with existing literature (Bragg, 2001; Hoffman, 1998; Floyd, 2006; Floyd and Walker, 2009). Findings from this research study were significant in that they establish an interest by students and some faculty and administrators for baccalaureate development at the institutions participating in the study for selected Career and Technical and professional programs and an initial framework for program development. However, as supported by this study and existing literature, extensive conversations with local, area, and regional industry should be held to help determine which programs should be considered for development into 4-year programs. The structure of the degree itself should be explored and defined according to institutional and workforce needs. Faculty should be evaluated for not only their educational qualifications, but for their industry connections as well. Institutions should consider innovative delivery methods to help meet the needs for programs quality and flexibility for the non-traditional student. How the community college would address non-technical skills (critical thinking, workplace etiquette, job-seeking skills, etc.) should also be considered. Conversations should take place with nearby universities with graduate programs to ensure the ability of students who wish to go further would be accepted into those graduate programs (Grothe, 2009). Community colleges are a model for change, facing numerous challenges over time. Perhaps it is time to look more seriously at the opportunities offered through development of baccalaureate degrees at the community college level in selected CTE and professional programs

Good Foundations: An Analysis of the Configurations of Factors Affecting Success in Non-Traditional Students on a Foundation Programme

Good Foundations: An Analysis of the Configurations of Factors Affecting Success in Non-Traditional Students on a Foundation Programme Abstract In the last decade, there has been a strong focus on educational policies to improve social mobility with universities required to demonstrate through their Fair Access Agreements what action they are taking with regard to making Higher Education available to underrepresented groups. The literature review presented here used the ideas of Bourdieu to examine which groups are underrepresented in Higher Education and to explore to what extent this underrepresentation may be attributed to poor initial education, recruitment bias on the part of institutions or an alienation on behalf of the learner with the dominant culture found in Higher Education. Some of the different approaches to widening participation were considered, focusing on the role of Foundation Programmes in order to site the programme analysed in this thesis in the range of widening participation activity generally and the national Foundation Programme sector specifically. The literature on graduateness and academic thinking skills was explored as a way of articulating a desirable outcome for degree preparation in a research intensive university. This then led to an examination of the issues around teaching and learning for non-traditional students. The research described in this thesis was conducted on the factors affecting successful outcomes for students studying on the Foundation Programme at Durham University using both available audit-style demographic and academic outcome data for seven cohorts of Foundation students and a more in-depth analysis of one cohort. The data were analysed using the relatively novel approach of Qualitative Comparative analysis as this case-led approach retains the nuances within the data and allows for the variety of different combinations of factors within individual students. The results show that there were a range of combinations of factors leading to a successful outcome for students, that previous qualifications were not necessary for success, but that attitudinal factors, as measured using a Conscientiousness Index, were important. A link was established between an ability to use concepts of evidence, a high average score on the Foundation Programme and achievement of a good honours degree. The implications of the results were then considered in respect of taking a deficit approach to remedy gaps in initial education, aspects of recruitment policy for non-traditional students and managing diversity of learner identity

The Influence of Humour and Cultural References in the Dubbing of the Series Fawlty Towers into both Spanish and Catalan

Treball Final de Grau en Traducció i Interpretació. Codi: TI0983. Curs: 2017/2018Translating humour and cultural references from one language to another can create some of translations greatest challenges in the digital era we live in. These together with multilingual situations, henceforth referred to as multilingualism, can sometimes make the audiovisual translator’s job a difficult one. This dissertation aims to address these issues of contemporary relevance in the 1975 series Fawlty Towers (John Cleese and Connie Booth), translated into both Spanish and Catalan years later. In this British sitcom, the main characters attempt to run a fictional hotel with the help of Manuel, played by Andrew Sachs, an English-challenged Spanish waiter who swaps between languages throughout both series, trying to make sense of strange and challenging situations. We will firstly take a step back and offer a theoretical reflection about the main problems encountered in audiovisual translation. We will then analyse the similarities and differences encountered between the translations, and create a table to classify said findings from the information obtained in the three chosen episodes (“Basil the Rat”, “The Builders” and “The Anniversary”). The analysis of the dubbing into both Spanish and Catalan will help us present a classification of the humour and multilingualism, and reflect on the techniques chosen as to resolve the problems at hand. We will visually display these methods and techniques with both a quantitive and qualitative analysis

Switching modalities in a sentence verification task: ERP evidence for embodied language processing

In an event related potential (ERP) experiment using written language materials only, we investigated a potential modulation of the N400 by the modality switch effect. The modality switch effect occurs when a first sentence, describing a fact grounded in one modality, is followed by a second sentence describing a second fact grounded in a different modality. For example, "A cellar is dark" (visual), was preceded by either another visual property "Ham is pink" or by a tactile property "A mitten is soft." We also investigated whether the modality switch effect occurs for false sentences ("A cellar is light"). We found that, for true sentences, the ERP at the critical word "dark" elicited a significantly greater frontal, early N400-like effect (270370 ms) when there was a modality mismatch than when there was a modality-match. This pattern was not found for the critical word "light" in false sentences. Results similar to the frontal negativity were obtained in a late time window (500700 ms). The obtained ERP effect is similar to one previously obtained for pictures. We conclude that in this paradigm we obtained fast access to conceptual properties for modality-matched pairs, which leads to embodiment effects similar to those previously obtained with pictorial stimuli

Going Viral with IL: Integrating Information Literacy into Your Library’s Social Media

Social media outlets dominate the way many library users consume information and communicate with others. In an effort to promote information literacy instruction beyond the classroom and to spread awareness about the library, this session examines the integration of information literacy concepts into an academic library’s social media platforms. Looking to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for inspiration, the presenters discuss how they developed and implemented a content strategy for the library and government document social media pages which included monthly themes, promotion of services, and more interactive content. The presenters consider what types of content worked well, what did not, and steps for assessing and improving content to reach more users. This presentation aims to inspire new ideas about ways to discuss information literacy and to encourage others to explore what social media platforms would work best for their libraries, design content to engage users, and develop strategies for navigating social media in today’s partisan environment