Findings suggest the university's response significantly impacted the retention and enrollment of its American Indian students. Although a majority of the student activists reported feeling isolated or pushed out by the institution, they did not let this deter them from engaging in other social justice oriented efforts and remained dedicated to the pursuit of social justice and/or the protection of American Indian education rights long after they left the in institution. Students exercised agency and demonstrated personal resilience when, upon realizing the university environment was not malleable, responsive, or conducive to their concerns, they left to advocate for justice struggles elsewhere. Unfortunately for some, the university's strong resistance to their efforts caused some to exit the institution before they had completed their degree.
The aim of this dissertation, therefore, is to explore school and classroom practices that may be particularly effective in supporting the socio-emotional development of marginalized adolescents. I focus on two distinct populations: youth affected by violence in Colombia, and students of color within the United States. In Study 1, I explore whether three aspects of school climate – safety, connectedness, and services – buffer the negative implications of violence exposure for adolescent development in a Colombian sample. In Study 2, I determine how culturally responsive teaching practices in schools with high concentrations of students of color in the United States can be integrated into our current conceptualization of what constitutes high quality teaching, by examining profiles of teaching practices and associations between these profiles and teacher and classroom characteristics and student behaviors.
For the first part of the analysis, the author examined bilingual education and DLPs policies, access, and practices impacting Latina/o communities by utilizing a case study methodology framework to present the phenomenon of DLPs in a state that by law only supports English only education. The author discussed the case study research design to answer the research questions: (1) Which public k-12 schools are implementing Dual Language Programs (DLPs) in the state of AZ? (2) What are the DLPs’ characteristics? (3) Where are the schools located? (4) What are the stakeholder participants’ perceptions of DLPs and the context in which these DLPs navigate? The author also describe the context of the study, the participants, data, and the data collection process, as well as the analytical techniques she used to make sense of the data and draw findings.
The findings suggest that bilingual education programs in the form of DLPs are being implemented in the state of Arizona despite the English only law of Proposition 203, English for the Children. The growing demand for DLPs is increasing the implementation of such programs, however, language minority students that are classified as ELL are excluded from being part of such programs. Moreover, the findings of the study suggest that although bilingual education is being implemented in Arizona through DLPs, language minority education policy is being negatively influenced by Interest Convergence tenets and Racist Nativist ideology in which the interest of the dominant culture are further advanced to the detriment of minority groups’ interest.
The majority of trust research has focused on the benefits trust can have for individual actors, institutions, and organizations. This “optimistic bias” is particularly evident in work focused on institutional trust, where concepts such as procedural justice, shared values, and moral responsibility have gained prominence. But trust in institutions may not be exclusively good. We reveal implications for the “dark side” of institutional trust by reviewing relevant theories and empirical research that can contribute to a more holistic understanding. We frame our discussion by suggesting there may be a “Goldilocks principle” of institutional trust, where trust that is too low (typically the focus) or too high (not usually considered by trust researchers) may be problematic. The chapter focuses on the issue of too-high trust and processes through which such too-high trust might emerge. Specifically, excessive trust might result from external, internal, and intersecting external-internal processes. External processes refer to the actions institutions take that affect public trust, while internal processes refer to intrapersonal factors affecting a trustor’s level of trust. We describe how the beneficial psychological and behavioral outcomes of trust can be mitigated or circumvented through these processes and highlight the implications of a “darkest” side of trust when they intersect. We draw upon research on organizations and legal, governmental, and political systems to demonstrate the dark side of trust in different contexts. The conclusion outlines directions for future research and encourages researchers to consider the ethical nuances of studying how to increase institutional trust.