With the assistance of my thesis committee, I created a podcast to fulfill my objective of interviewing survivors of sexual abuse/grooming practices and their support systems. I utilized this method to have in-depth discussions and provide people with a safe space to share their experiences. By doing so, we were able to reflect on the areas in which professionals can improve on recognizing signs of abuse in their communities. My goal was to show how training teachers to recognize signs of trauma is essential for effectively assisting the population we serve. Ultimately, this came down to what instruction was taught in the Teachers College. Curricula centered on properly managing trauma in the classroom, including sexual abuse, should be required for courses in the upper and lower division degree program for Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.

The education that a student receives in the United States is influenced by an array of factors. One of the main influential factors is the financial resources a school has access to. Additionally, identities such as race, class, and gender all substantially impact the level of education a student has access to. Often students in minority groups, such as Hispanic students, experience additional challenging educational experiences than others. This is due to the intersectionality of their identities impacting their education. Within the Hispanic population, the unique educational experiences of Hispanic females are often disregarded. This paper analyzes the implications of intersectionality on the education of Hispanic females in Arizona. In order to examine this, a qualitative research study involving interviews with Hispanic female college students was done. Interviews consisted of questioning the participants about their K-12 educational experiences in Arizona’s education system, the school factors impacting their education, the familial factors impacting their education, and their college experiences. Key findings show that the educational experiences of Hispanic female students in Arizona are impacted by (a) familial support, (b) the role of Hispanic values/traditional gender roles, (c) a lack of financial resources, (d) an underrepresentation of Hispanic culture, (e) and inadequate college readiness resources. The findings of the study show that the intersectionality of gender and race/ethnicity creates additional disadvantages for the education of Hispanic female students. Furthermore, the results emphasize the need to take intersectionality into account when examining the educational differences that exist in the education system.

I created a flash unit on American Ethnic Literature and delivered it in a high school classroom. The purpose was to introduce students to ethnic literature and to highlight the value of ethnic literature as a form of cultural agency and an authentic record of cultural history. I did research on the importance of ethnic literature, why it has been absent from the standard curriculum, and why it should be a part of the standard curriculum. Because of ethnic literature's importance and absence, I constructed the unit for secondary education and created a micro-unit on ethnic fiction and a micro-unit on ethnic poetry. I delivered the micro-unit on ethnic fiction at Metro Tech High School, gathered data, and reflected on the outcomes. Based on the outcomes, I revised the unit for future teaching and application.

Beautiful and rich in history, the Arabic language is spoken by over 422 million people. The language has significant social and political importance, and it is increasingly taught in universities around the United States. When languages are taught their aim should be not only to teach learners to communicate effectively, but also to gain a deep understanding and respect of culture, people, and history. The Al-Kitaab textbook series by Georgetown University Press is utilized as the main learning material in most universities in the United States to teach Arabic language. The highly political and negative nature of the series limits students’ comprehension to a political perspective influenced by the conflicts in the Middle East and has a severe impact on not only students’ learning ability but also their perception of the Arabic language and culture. While the series sufficiently provides the political vocabulary necessary for roles in government, it overlooks the importance of a full understanding of the cultural richness and nuances of the Arabic language necessary for an appreciation of history, arts, and literature of the region. The overarching objective of this project is to analyze the Georgetown University Press Al-Kitaab textbook series for Arabic language instruction and compare it to the Vista Higher Learning Sentieri textbook for Italian language instruction to plan a new Arabic curriculum to increase student enrollment. This comparison will explore recurring themes present in each textbook series and display the detrimental and outdated depictions of Arab culture presented throughout the Al-Kitaab series. Different aspects of the textbooks will be discussed including vocabulary and vocabulary progression, biographies of important figures, in-text activities, reading passages, and recurrent themes. Through revamping the learning materials used to teach Arabic, Arizona State University (ASU) and the School of International Letters and Cultures (SILC) can become innovative leaders in the instruction of university-level Arabic language.