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- All Subjects: Education Policy
- All Subjects: Video games and children
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
Description
This study examines the experiences of parents in mixed marriages (Vietnamese married to non-Vietnamese) raising their children in the United States. Specifically, this study focused on what factors influence parents' development of family language policies and patterns of language use. While research has been done on language policy and planning at the macro-level and there are an increasing number of studies on family language policy at the microlevel, few studies have focused on couples in mixed marriages who are heritage language speakers of the language they are trying to teach their children. This study used both surveys and interviews to gather data about parents' beliefs and attitudes towards bilingualism and the heritage language (HL), strategies parents are using to teach their children the HL, and major challenges they face in doing so. There were three main findings. First, parents without full fluency in the HL nevertheless are able to pass the HL on to their children. Second, an important factor influencing parents' family language policies and patterns of language use were parents' attitudes towards the HL--specifically, if parents felt it was important for their children to learn the HL and if parents were willing to push their children to do so. Third, proximity to a large Vietnamese community and access to Vietnamese resources (e.g., Vietnamese language school, Vietnamese church/temple, etc.) did not assure families' involvement in the Vietnamese community or use of the available Vietnamese resources. The findings of this study reveal that though language shift is occurring in these families, parents are still trying to pass on the HL to their children despite the many challenges of raising them bilingually in the U.S.
ContributorsLam, Ha (Author) / Wiley, Terrence (Thesis advisor) / Appleton, Nicholas (Thesis advisor) / Tobin, Joseph (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
A bilingual, bicultural interpreter and researcher navigates blurry boundaries and intersectionality
Description
A researcher reflects using a close reading of interview transcripts and description to share what happened while participating in multiple roles in a larger ethnographic study of the acculturation process of deaf students in kindergarten classrooms in three countries. The course of this paper will focus on three instances that took place in Japan and America. The analysis of these examples will bring to light the concept of taking on multiple roles, including graduate research assistant, interpreter, cultural mediator, and sociolinguistic consultant within a research project serving to uncover challenging personal and professional dilemmas and crossing boundaries; the dual roles, interpreter and researcher being the primary focus. This analysis results in a brief look at a thought provoking, yet evolving task of the researcher/interpreter. Maintaining multiple roles in the study the researcher is able to potentially identify and contribute "hidden" knowledge that may have been overlooked by other members of the research team. Balancing these different roles become key implications when interpreting practice, ethical boundaries, and participant research at times the lines of separation are blurred.
ContributorsHensley, Jennifer Scarboro (Author) / Tobin, Joseph (Thesis advisor) / Artiles, Alfredo (Committee member) / Horejes, Thomas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
According to UNESCO's 2010 survey results of 58 member countries, 34 of the countries had less than 1 percent of children enrolled in special education programs. Ten of these countries provided special education provision for less than .01 percent of children. However, the demand to educate students with disabilities in inclusive educational settings continues to grow. Thus, there are many national initiatives aimed at finding ways of creating forms of inclusive educational settings that can respond to children with special needs. In this study, the purpose was to better understand the processes of local adaptation and modification of UNESCO's inclusive education policies, the possible resistances to global forces in inclusive education in Turkey, and the consequences of the implications of those policies in Ankara, Turkey from local educators' views. With that goal in mind, recently adopted Turkish inclusive educational policies implemented after the Salamanca Statement in 1994 were reviewed on a selective basis. The discussion of the policy and document analysis section helped to make connections between the global inclusive education policy changes and local practices in the Turkish education system. In the second part of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with local educators in Ankara (teachers, administrators, and academic advisors) and policy makers from the Ministry of National Education. An analysis of the interview data highlighted the various complexities, tensions, and inadequacies in the conceptualization of inclusive education in Turkish public primary schools that study participants have observed and experienced. In light of the findings, possible reasons behind the gap between theory and practice and the discrepancies between Western and Turkish interpretations of inclusive education in Turkey are discussed. In the current inclusive education system in Turkey, the challenge of modifying deeply held attitudes at both personal and institutional levels, providing clearly constructed inclusive education policies and approaches, offering appropriate training to key stakeholders, and making adequate resources available appear to be the primary issues for moving forward with full inclusion initiatives.
ContributorsCiyer, Aysegul (Author) / Swadener, Beth B (Thesis advisor) / Artiles, Alfredo (Committee member) / Tobin, Joseph (Committee member) / Mathur, Sarup (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
This dissertation examines how young children engage with digital games at home and how parents think and talk about their children's digital gaming. This is an ethnographic case study of the digital game playing of six three-year-old children in six families. This study combines ethnographic methods and critical perspectives to construct analyses that have the potential to rethink young children's digital game play. The focus of this study is on understanding how digital gaming functions in children's everyday lives. This study shows that young children's digital game play takes place in the interstices of their everyday family life. Digital games do not entirely change or displace other practices in early childhood, but they are integrated into existing young children's everyday practices in their family life. Digital games as a source of young children's imagination enrich young children's play rather than substitute for young children's spontaneous non-digital play. Young children and their parents tactically use young children's mobile game play to cope with their modern life. Negotiating over game selections, time, and space between young children and their parents is an everyday practice of families and digital games are a site not only for family power struggles but also of shared activity. Digital games reflect the dominant culture in which they are produced. However, this study shows that young children do not passively receive the messages in the games but rather make sense of the game contents according to their everyday local experiences. Digital games are now a part of everyday practices for both adults and young children, and young children's digital game play reflects contemporary society.
ContributorsHuh, Youn Jung (Author) / Tobin, Joseph (Thesis advisor) / Nakagawa, Kathryn (Thesis advisor) / Arzubiaga, Angela (Committee member) / Lee, Kyunghwa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015