Once the door is closed: An ethnographic description of one content-based english language program as four teachers implemented it

In the mid-1980s, the federal government designated the community in which this study was conducted as a relocation site for Southeast Asian refugees. The local school district received more than 300 students in grades k-8 from Cambodia and Laos. The students had limited formal schooling, had lived in refugee camps for 2-5 years, and less than 5% spoke any English. The district director asked me to work with the teachers and a consultant to develop a program to teach academic subjects to the students while they learned English. Together we designed an ethnographic study to document the program implementation process, understand the ways the program was implemented in individual classrooms, and identify effective instructional practices to work with refugee students who had little or no English or formal schooling. This PhD case details the process and methods of conducting an ethnographic study in a school district, including entry into the field, earning the trust of the participants, and the importance of long-term on-site participant observation. It examines the role of assumptions I made as an ethnographer and the need to make explicit those assumptions and understand their impact on the research design and data collection

Retaining American Indian/Alaskan Native Students in Higher Education: A Case Study of One Partnership between the Tohono O’odham Nation and Pima Community College, Tucson, AZ

Curriculum developers and faculty working with American Indian students in traditional Eurocentric higher education institutional settings face many challenges. These include the development of culturally responsive, community-based programs that meet students\u27 needs, encourage and support student persistence and retention, and integrate culturally relevant materials into required coursework. Licensing programs must also meet institutional, state and federal professional certification requirements. The purpose of this paper is to examine the complex contextual factors that influenced the development of one educational partnership with a student completion rate of just over 40%. The functional/collaborate model used to plan, design and implement the program is discussed. Variables are examined that influenced the development of a culturally responsive English and writing curriculum. Factors are identified and discussed that resulted in a successful partnership in which all stakeholders participated. Implications of those factors for curriculum planning, implementation, and evaluation of programs serving American Indian students are discussed

Academic Culture and Language: Implications for Educating Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students in the United States

The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of academic culture and its implications for educating linguistically and culturally diverse student populations. Although the research presented in this paper has been done primarily with students in U.S. schools who are from different language backgrounds and/ or countries, the research findings and theoretical frameworks have application for students from the same country who speak different dialects, who are from different geographical regions, who are of different genders, who come from rural or urban areas, who are handicapped, or who come from different social classes (Banks, 1994). I begin with a general discussion of culture, the differences between surface and deep culture, and the ways in which they influence how people think about and organize educational experiences for students. Next, I describe some current changes in the immigrant student population in the United States and implications of those changes for teacher preparation. I also discuss some common assumptions held by United States educators about program development, the role those assumptions play in educational practice, and their implications for educating linguistically and culturally diverse students. I then review Some key research on academic literacy and culture and discuss the implications of the research findings for program analysis and development. I have found that this research can enable preservice as well as inservice teachers to understand the complexity of academic culture and its relationship to student success in school; analyze the values, assumptions and beliefs underlying their own practices; identify cultural differences that may affect student success; and develop culturally sensitive educational programs for linguistically and culturally diverse student populations. I conclude with a brief summary and some suggestions for instructional practice that will enable linguistically and culturally diverse students to become successful participants in the academic culture of school

Elementary (Grades 2-6) Long-Term English Language Learners: Factors Related to Acquisition of English

This study presents findings from one high needs school district of the factors that were predictors of long-term elementary (grades 2-6) English language learners (ELLs) progress in English. Data included 1,031 elementary Spanish-speaking students who were continuously enrolled greater than 2.5 years in the district’s language support programs. Regression analysis revealed that Pre-LAS-O English and Spanish total scores contributed significantly (4.2%) to the prediction of current English level. For students taking the LAS-O at entry, variables of entry age of student, English and Spanish total scores were not statistically significant in helping understand current English level. Findings and implications for teachers, district-level data collection, and language policy with respect to NCLB mandates are discussed for those students left behind

Welcoming the culture of computing into the K-12 classroom: Technological fluency and lessons learned from second language acquisition and cross-cultural studies

Discusses the integration of innovative technologies into the K-12 curriculum and its impact on instructional programs for linguistically and culturally diverse students. Describes the debate over whether the culture of computing is inclusive or exclusive, examining: educational technology standards; information technology and fluency; speech registers; postulating registers of information technology fluency; and the role of automaticity in developing fluency

Cognitive demands and second-language learners: A framework for analyzing mathematical instructional contexts

The issues involved in teaching English language learners mathematics while they are learning English pose many challenges for mathematics teachers and highlight the need to focus on language-processing issues related to teaching mathematical content. Two realistic-type problems from high-stakes tests are used to illustrate the complex interactions between culture, language, and mathematical learning. The analyses focus on aspects of the problems that potentially increase cognitive demands for second-language learners. An analytical framework is presented that is designed to enable mathematics teachers to identify critical elements in problems and the learning environment that contribute to increased cognitive demands for students of English as a second language. The framework is proposed as a cycle of teacher reflection that would extend a constructivist model of teaching to include broader linguistic, cultural, and cognitive processing issues of mathematics teaching, as well as enable teachers to develop more accurate mental models of student learning

A link between high serum levels of human chorionic gonadotrophin and chorionic expression of its mature functional receptor (LHCGR) in Down's syndrome pregnancies

Human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) is released from placental trophoblasts and is involved in establishing pregnancy by maintaining progesterone secretion from the corpus luteum. Serum hCG is detected in the maternal circulation within the first 2–3 wks of gestation and peaks at the end of the first trimester before declining. In Down's syndrome (DS) pregnancies, serum hCG remains significantly high compared to gestation age-matched uncompromised pregnancies. It has been proposed that increased serum hCG levels could be due to transcriptional hyper-activation of the CGB (hCG beta) gene, or an increased half life of glycosylated hCG hormone, or both. Another possibility is that serum hCG levels remain high due to reduced availability of the hormone's cognate receptor, LHCGR, leading to lack of hormone utilization. We have tested this hypothesis by quantifying the expression of the hCG beta (CGB) RNA, LHCGR RNA and LHCGR proteins in chorionic villous samples. We demonstrate that chorionic expression of hCG beta (CGB) mRNA directly correlates with high serum hCG levels. The steady-state synthesis of LHCGR mRNA (exons 1–5) in DS pregnancies was significantly higher than that of controls, but the expression of full-length LHCGR mRNA (exons 1–11) in DS was comparable to that of uncompromised pregnancies. However, the synthesis of high molecular weight mature LHCGR proteins was significantly reduced in DS compared to uncompromised pregnancies, suggesting a lack of utilization of circulating hCG in DS pregnancies