ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2
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- All Subjects: English as a Second Language
- Creators: Mccarty, Teresa L.
Description
This qualitative study investigates the experiences of ten focal youth who came to the United States as refugees and were placed in Structured English Immersion (SEI) programs in Arizona high schools. The educational language policy for Arizona’s public schools (during the 2014-2015 school year) mandates SEI include four 60-minute classroom periods devoted to reading, writing, grammar, oral English exclusively. Students in SEI thus have restricted access to the full-range of general education courses required for graduation, as well as limited opportunities for social interaction with peers enrolled in the “mainstream” curriculum.
The study investigates how youth understand and navigate the school language policy, practices and discourses that position them, and specifically seeks to learn how being identified as an “English Language Learner” interacts with youth’s construction of academic and social identities. Adopting a critical sociocultural theory of language policy (following McCarty, 2011), employing ethnographically-informed research methods, and using social-positioning as an analytic lens, I aim to learn from an emic youth perspective and to amplify their voices. Eight Somali and two Iraqi students took part in two individual in-depth interviews; five students participated in a focus group; and all engaged in numerous informal conversations during 22 researcher site visits to an ethnic community-based organization (ECBO) and a family apartment.
Narratives recounting the participants’ lived experiences in the socio-cultural context of high school provide powerful examples of youth asserting personal agency and engaging in small acts of resistance to contest disagreeable positioning. The findings thus support the conceptualization of youth as creative producers of hybridity in response to their environments. This work also confirms the perennial significance of social categories and “othering” in high school. Though the institutional structure of separate classrooms and concomitant limited access to required courses hinder the study participants’ academic progress, the youth speak positively about the comfort of comradery and friendship in the shared safe space of the separate SEI classroom. The dissertation concludes with participants’ recommendations for educators, and the people refugee youth interact with in the context of high school, to improve refugee youth’s experience.
The study investigates how youth understand and navigate the school language policy, practices and discourses that position them, and specifically seeks to learn how being identified as an “English Language Learner” interacts with youth’s construction of academic and social identities. Adopting a critical sociocultural theory of language policy (following McCarty, 2011), employing ethnographically-informed research methods, and using social-positioning as an analytic lens, I aim to learn from an emic youth perspective and to amplify their voices. Eight Somali and two Iraqi students took part in two individual in-depth interviews; five students participated in a focus group; and all engaged in numerous informal conversations during 22 researcher site visits to an ethnic community-based organization (ECBO) and a family apartment.
Narratives recounting the participants’ lived experiences in the socio-cultural context of high school provide powerful examples of youth asserting personal agency and engaging in small acts of resistance to contest disagreeable positioning. The findings thus support the conceptualization of youth as creative producers of hybridity in response to their environments. This work also confirms the perennial significance of social categories and “othering” in high school. Though the institutional structure of separate classrooms and concomitant limited access to required courses hinder the study participants’ academic progress, the youth speak positively about the comfort of comradery and friendship in the shared safe space of the separate SEI classroom. The dissertation concludes with participants’ recommendations for educators, and the people refugee youth interact with in the context of high school, to improve refugee youth’s experience.
ContributorsCorley, Kathleen M (Author) / Mccarty, Teresa L. (Thesis advisor) / Swadener, Elizabeth B. (Thesis advisor) / Warriner, Doris (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Standing our sacred ground: one school community's struggle to negotiate restrictive language policy
Description
This is a qualitative case study using ethnographic methods of how one school community has been able to negotiate Arizona's restrictive English only language policies. Drawing from classroom and school-wide observations, extensive interviews, and document collection, this case study explores three key questions in relation to this school's negotiation process: 1) What characterizes the curriculum for English learners (ELs) and bilingual students at the case study school? 2) How do key actors, processes, and cultural practices at the case study school support the negotiation of Proposition 203 and House Bill 2064? and 3) What are the perspectives of key school community stakeholders in relation to the curriculum supporting bilingualism and the policy negotiation process? Findings show that by sharing certain key beliefs and practices, the school community has been able to work together, at times through struggle and perseverance, to negotiate for what they believe to be most important in school. They do so by sharing such key beliefs as the importance of seeing the whole child and teaching in ways that are real and meaningful. They also negotiate by engaging in a set of shared practices, which include: the use of Spanish campus-wide both for instruction and for the life and operation of the school, the cultivation of relationships amongst all school community members, and key curricular practices. These practices include providing a variety of learning experiences, especially those based upon the Arts, as well as a curriculum that focuses on providing opportunities to examine real world issues in an integrated and in-depth manner, to learn by integrating students' language, families, and experiences into the curriculum, and has a final goal of creating students who are critical thinkers, self-advocates, and agents within their own lives. All of these beliefs and practices contribute to a strong sense of community. It is this sense of community and the shared beliefs and practices, along with the increased agency this interconnectedness creates for all stakeholders, which has facilitated the successful use of parent waivers. These parent waivers have enabled parents to continue choosing alternative language education programs to those mandated by the state, namely integrated content and English instruction within the mainstream K-4 classroom and the Spanish/English dual language program option at the 5-8 grade levels.
ContributorsNewcomer, Sarah (Author) / Matsuda, Aya (Thesis advisor) / Mccarty, Teresa L. (Committee member) / Martinez-Roldán, Carmen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012