http://hdl.handle.net/1903/1647 2013-05-23T11:10:41Z 2013-05-23T11:10:41Z Rudolph, Nathanael John http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13852 2013-04-05T02:33:02Z 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Borderlands and Border Crossing: Japanese Professors of English and the Negotiation of Translinguistic and Transcultural Identity Authors: Rudolph, Nathanael John Abstract: Recent scholarship in the field of ELT posits that critical constructions of the Native Speaker/Non-Native Speaker and Native English Speaker Teacher/Non-Native English Speaker Teacher binaries in the ELT literature have oversimplified and essentialized categories of teacher identity (e.g., Menard-Warwick, 2008; Park, 2012) and as a result cannot account for contextualized negotiations of borders of linguistic and cultural identity around the world. In the interest of addressing this issue, the following study explores the lived experiences of four Japanese professors negotiating their translinguistic and transcultural identities in the field of English language teaching (ELT) in Japan, and how through these experiences they have arrived at challenging who they might be or become as English language learners, teachers and users. Employing narrative inquiry and the use of semi-structured interviews, the study attempts to provide a sociohistorically-situated account of participants' lived experiences conceptualizing and negotiating borders of being and becoming as English language learners, users and teaching professionals. In doing so, the study attempts to examine the interplay of local and global discourses of identity implicated in the construction and perpetuation of borders within ELT in the Japanese context. The study seeks to encourage dialogue in the ELT research and teaching community both within and beyond Japan, related to how these discourses might adversely affect learner, teacher and user identity and contextualized language teaching. In addition, the study attempts to contribute to debate within ELT scholarship regarding who "non-native" teachers might be or become and the roles "native" and "non-native" teachers might play in globalized ELT.

2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Malkus, Nathaniel Nelson http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13851 2013-04-05T02:32:52Z 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Beneath the District Averages: Intradistrict differences in teacher compensation expenditures Authors: Malkus, Nathaniel Nelson Abstract: Previous research indicates that typical district budgeting practices mask large between-school teacher compensation expenditures (TCE) differences, that teacher sorting drives those TCE differences, and that TCE differences drive overall resource inequities. While scarce accurate school-level resource data has hindered intradistrict equity research, extant analyses have shown substantial TCE differences disadvantage schools with more non-white, poor and low-performing students. Though compelling, these findings are limited empirically because they examine small numbers of districts and conceptually because they examine average salaries, which cannot control for between-school differences in pupil-teacher ratios or student compensatory needs that could legitimately alter TCE between schools. Empirically, this study expands evidence of intradistrict inequities by measuring TCE variation using universe teacher-salary data for schools and districts in 16 states. Conceptually, this study allows for improved intradistrict TCE equity comparisons through a novel weighting approach that adjusts per-pupil TCE to control for differences in schools' compensatory needs and pupil-teacher ratios. Using detailed data for four states, each district's de facto staff-allocation weights are estimated and used to weight schools' student counts to statistically control for different allocations of teachers relative to student compensatory needs. Schools' TCE is indexed by weighted pupil counts to control for legitimate TCE differences associated with compensatory needs. By measuring TCE at the student level while controlling for compensatory needs, this weighted per-pupil TCE approach provides a more precise measure of intradistrict TCE equity than the average salaries used in previous research. Using descriptive statistics, district-level OLS regressions and hierarchical models on schools within districts, these analyses gauge the scope of TCE inequity and identify the district and school characteristics associated with it. Findings reveal that TCE variation is a widespread district phenomenon, and that districts with greater between-school variation in student poverty, race, and performance have more TCE variation. Within districts, schools with more poor, non-white, and low performing students receive below-average TCE. At the district and school levels, teacher sorting is strongly associated with the distribution of TCE. These findings suggest that intradistrict TCE inequities are widespread and divert targeted compensatory funds. Moreover, intradistrict resource equity deserves increased policy and research attention.

2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Prell, Vanessa Sylvie Calvo http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13848 2013-04-05T02:32:08Z 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: MULTICULTURAL PEDAGOGIES: THREE TEACHERS' UNDERSTANDING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION Authors: Prell, Vanessa Sylvie Calvo Abstract: While multicultural curriculum is widely used, little is known about how teachers conceive of this curriculum. The purpose of this thesis is to explore teachers' understanding and implementation of multicultural curriculum, including the factors that affect, their beliefs about and practices of multicultural education. My study identifies two pedagogies of multicultural education: student centered and curriculum centered. These pedagogies are shaped by the teachers' view of student engagement, teacher authority, curriculum flexibility, and critical thinking. Teachers' motivations to include multicultural curriculum derived from personal experiences with race and culture. However, teachers struggled with organizational barriers such as limited time, incomplete multicultural knowledge, unachievable curriculum standards, and incompatible mandated texts. This research opens avenues for increased reflection upon and use of multicultural curriculum.

2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Parsons, Sarah Katherine http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13841 2013-04-05T02:32:42Z 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Multiple Dimensions of Peer Victimization and Their Relations with Children's Psychological, Social, Behavioral and Academic Functioning Authors: Parsons, Sarah Katherine Abstract: This study investigated the relations among victimization and psychological, social, behavioral, and academic functioning while considering how these constructs are conceptualized and measured. Victimization was treated as a multidimensional variable that can be distinguished in terms of form (relational vs. overt), informant (self vs. teacher vs. peer report), and its overlap with aggression. Participants were 99 ethnically diverse second and third graders from the mid-Atlantic region. The observed relations between victimization and functioning were impacted by issues of informant, form, and aggression. When examining different measures of the same construct, correlations were more often statistically significant for same-informant pairs of measures compared to cross-informant pairs. Correlations between peer and teacher reports were stronger than correlations between self- and other-reports. Self-other agreement was higher for aggression than for victimization, suggesting that victimization is more individualistically experienced than aggression. Peer and teacher reports of victimization were not significantly related to self-reported functioning and vice versa. Teacher and peer reports did not add to self-reports of victimization in predicting self-reported functioning. Peer and teacher reports of victimization uniquely predicted peer and teacher reports of functioning, but self-reported victimization did not make an additive contribution. These results provide evidence of a self-other dichotomy in the assessment of victimization. Overt and relational victimization emerged as distinct constructs in exploratory factor analyses. However, they were significantly correlated, and self-reports of relational victimization did not uniquely predict functioning after accounting for overt victimization. There were not significant gender differences in the two types of victimization. Aggression and victimization were significantly correlated. Peer-reported victimization was related to teacher-reported externalizing and school problems, but was not a significant predictor after accounting for aggression. This finding suggests that failing to account for the overlap between aggression and victimization might obscure the complexity of the relationship between victimization and functioning. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.

2012-01-01T00:00:00Z