In the field of foreign language learning, a leading concern is with political and ideological messages that might be communicated through teaching and learning a foreign language. Worries about possible ideological indoctrination via Chinese language programs on Chinese language learners is a fundamental concern for both the United States of America and The People’s Republic of China. This research project involved a case study that investigated the representations of China in the curriculum and pedagogy of an intermediate level Chinese language course offered at an American university. Data gathered included the textbook, observer field notes of instruction taken over a 16-week period, and interviews with two language instructors and all eight students who were enrolled in the course. Through data analysis the research uncovered how China was represented in the formal curriculum, enacted curriculum, and how the enacted curriculum influenced students’ understanding of China and their attitudes toward China. Analysis indicated that, by utilizing comparisons between “New China vs. Old China” and “China vs. the U.S.,” the textbook provided a pro-China ideology that communicated positive images of a new China, and encouraged a positive attitude towards China. China was depicted in the textbook as a country that has been making tremendous social and economic progress since the Chinese economic reform the 1970’s. The textbook also advocated for Westerners to hold a more tolerant and understanding attitude towards China. Due to the instructors’ traditional audio-lingo pedagogy, which was highly teacher-centered and textbook-centered, the positive representations of China and positive attitudes towards China provided in the formal curriculum were consistently privileged in the classroom. Additional supplementary materials also conveyed a similar pro-China ideology to students. This pro-China ideology was taught, practiced, and reviewed repeatedly, alongside the Chinese language teaching. Thus, the ideology of this second-year Chinese language course provided pro-China cultural resources to students, outfitting them with positive representations of China and its people, culture, and society. However, how students responded to these positive representations of China and the extent to which they utilized these in thinking about China depended on the students’ previous experiences and knowledge of China, with the enacted curriculum being a more important resource for students who had few alternative sources of information about China or who had not visited China prior to taking the course.

The guiding question for this qualitative study centered on what it means to be a principal in a high school that has been put on notice as a failure and labeled Program Improvement (PI). The evidence shed light on the unique challenges, role expectations, and varying social conditions faced by two female principals as they managed underprivileged schools. It also pointed to the detrimental consequences of the continued emphasis on standardized testing in math and English, the pressures to raise standardized test scores to untenable levels, the scope of comprehensive professional expectation, and the reality of limited resources. Ominously, a culture of triage educational practices existed in which school district resources were narrowly focused on those activities and students thought to raise test scores in math and English most significantly, and the poorest and lowest-achieving students could potentially be disregarded within the teaching and learning process. These two principals were inconsistent in their resistance to the broader effects of triage measures by often complying with labeling and tracking systems while struggling to ethically manage interventions for the lowest performing students. Morale was persistent but low, and professional sustainability was tenuous given their inability to continually gain higher test scores each year, the long and taxing working conditions, the regular threat of job loss or transfer, and the difficulty in directly connecting their efforts with positive change.

The United States’ Naturalization Test is a non-standardized test that requires officers of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Office to assess a candidate’s English ability and knowledge of U.S. Civics. To assess a candidate’s English ability, the USCIS officers can ask any clarifying questions from the information provided by the candidate in their N-400 Form Application for Naturalization. To assess a candidate’s Civics knowledge, on the other hand, the officer may select up to 10 questions from the office’s 100 published Civics Questions. This non-standardized exam format favors memorization of as many key terms, concepts, and dates as possible, as students can never be sure of the questions they will be asked. This exam format problematizes learning for EL students who may memorize the terms but not understand the concepts. This thesis identified discussions of films that deal with important civics concepts as a potential tool to help EL students engage with civics concepts beyond memorization. This thesis introduced the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance into the curriculum of an adult Civics and ESL class to facilitate a discussion around the concepts of elections, representatives, and statehood. In this context, film was a potential, but imperfect tool. Students were able to connect the visual memory of what they had seen in the film with their understandings of Civics concepts, despite their language barriers. However, a clear purpose, viewing guide, and guided discussion are needed in future iterations to ensure that students engage with the concepts outlined and with complicated presentations of other topics. Furthermore, the format of the test remains a concern, as students were hesitant to connect with the film when they felt it was a distraction from their memorization exercises.

History textbooks often cause friction in diplomatic relations between nations, especially between East Asian countries. Several studies have demonstrated that revisions to history textbooks can be the result of changes in a state’s interests, resulting in different, often conflicting, accounts of historical events in history textbooks that represent the political ideologies of different nations. Despite the large number of studies of textbook content, there has been limited research examining the representation of specific historical events in the high school history textbooks of Mainland China and Taiwan. This investigation analyzed two widely used textbook series in Mainland China and Taiwan, focusing on the accounts of four armed conflicts — the Battle of Penghu, the First Sino-Japanese War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War — to discover if these textbooks presented different accounts of these events and if so, if these accounts reflected the different ideological interests of these nations. Findings indicate that these textbooks do present different accounts of historical events and that these represent official historical narratives that reflect the differing political ideologies of Mainland China and Taiwan and that these narratives provide students with collective memories of the past that shape the national identities of Chinese and Taiwanese citizens.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a hotbed of debate in today's discussions of online education. Having rapidly expanded and developed since their 2008 introduction, these courses have been called a "transformative revolution" in education with both advocates and detractors alike speaking of their potential far reaching impacts. Despite their recognition however, research into the nascent field remains relatively limited with even fewer efforts having been made to examine the motivational components that impact students' behaviors within this unique educational context. Seeking to explore this gap in research, this study examines student motivation and engagement behaviors in MOOCs through a combination of a literature review and a series of semi-structured interviews with past and present MOOC participants. This study takes a two tier approach to data analysis. The first tier looks at the general experiences and perceptions of MOOC participants. This examines similarities and differences between this study's participants' experiences and those of other research findings in the field. The primary findings from this level of analysis suggest the importance of program utility value, the potential benefit of the creation of an additional subcategory of MOOC (pMOOC) and the need for continued research into the supplemental uses of MOOC. The second tier of analysis explores the ways in which this study's findings relate to the predominate theories in the field of Motivational Studies. Using Self-Determination Theory (SDT), Socio-Cognitive Theory (SCT), and Expectancy Value Theory (EVT) as theoretical frameworks, this study explores how participant experiences map onto motivational models. Findings at this level of analysis indicate that, while participants frequently addressed many factors tied to all three motivational theories, EVT demonstrated the most salient pattern in relation achievement and engagement behaviors within this study. In closing, this paper examines its own shortcomings and provides suggestions for future research.

ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION

Serious Students and Good Girls: Differential Achievement and the Negotiation of Identities Among Middle School Latinas

by

Rosenda Amalia Pike

Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Education

University of California, Riverside, December 2015

Dr. Begoña Echeverria, Co-Chairperson

Dr. John Wills, Co-Chairperson

The differential achievement between White students and underrepresented minority students is not a matter easily explained by attending to just one factor such as socioeconomic status or race. Research suggests that racial, ethnic, class, and gender identity constructs impact students’ schooling experiences and academic achievement (Ayala, 2006; Akom, 2008; Bettie, 2003; Carter, 2006; Carter 2008; Connell, 1993; Finders, 1997; Fine, 1993; Fordham, 1993; Gallegos-Castillo, 2006; Hartman, 2006; Lopez, 2006; Matute-Bianchi, 2008; Mendoza-Denton, 2008; O’Connor, 2001; Romo, L.F., Kouyoumdjian, C., Nadeem, E., Sigman, M., 2006; Stevenson & Ellsworth, 1993; Weis, 1993; and Zentella, 1997). The implications of differential academic achievement reach far beyond the confines of K-12 schooling, impacting college graduation rates, fields of study and degree completion, and employment and pay opportunities (Landivar, 2013).

The purpose of my investigation was to capture young Latinas’ understandings of their schooling experiences in order to explain the processes by which they became high- or low- achieving students, particularly in STEM related subjects such as 8th grade General Physical Science and Honors Science. The study focused on six middle school, 8th grade Latina students, their teachers, and parents to uncover what it meant for these girls to be successful and how recognition of certain social identities (Institution, Discourse, and Affinity) (Gee, 2000) mediated their academic achievement. Few studies have addressed differential academic achievement among middle school Latinas and none through the perspective of social identity theory (Burke and Stets, 2009; Gee, 2000; Jenkins, 2008). I utilized qualitative research methods, including observations and interviews, to gather data to inform this study. Themes were determined based on repetitive instances of specific dialogue and behaviors of girls enacting, and others recognizing, social identities that could be viewed with the identity lens as outlined by Gee (2000) and Burke and Stets (2009).

I found that Honors AVID Latinas and General AVID Latinas achieved different academic outcomes due to enacted behaviors and recognition of those behaviors. Honors AVID Latinas intentionally negotiated academic behaviors associated with recognition as serious students, which meant being present and future goal-oriented. How parents, teachers, and peers recognized Honors AVID Latinas as serious students hinged on the work involved in maintaining this multifaceted social identity. General AVID Latinas enacted behaviors associated with recognition as good students and good girls, which meant doing well in school, being well behaved, and being future oriented. Their parents, however, privileged social behavior over academics and, therefore, recognized their daughters’ enactments of good student as good girl performances. Through this recognition, the two groups of girls achieved different academic outcomes.

Overview of Chapters

The first chapter provides an explanation of the problem of differential achievement among underrepresented minorities and a background on the existing body of research addressing this topic. The second chapter consists of a review of the scholarly literature that has addressed the issue of differential achievement. Chapter Two explains the social identity conceptual framework used to guide the analysis of data collected. Chapter Three describes the study design and methods used to collect and analyze data. To answer my research questions, I drew upon observational and interview data from my focal students, their parents and teachers. For this study, I borrowed from Gee’s identity categories (Gee, 2000) and Jenkins’ social identity theory (Jenkins, 2008) to inform my analysis of 8th grade Latinas’ identity performances in school and their parents’, peers’, and teachers’ recognitions of them to understand how they came achieve differently as Honors AVID or General AVID students. To do so, I examined how their academic achievements were mediated by their social identities.

Chapter Four presents and explains my findings for Honors AVID Latinas. In this chapter, I argue that Honors AVID Latinas intentionally negotiated schooling experiences and carefully chose to enact the preferred behaviors associated with being perceived as a serious student. For Honors AVID Latinas, serious student meant being present and future goal-oriented. These girls performed much like the Mexican-descent group of students Matute-Bianchi (2008) described as Mexican-oriented students that were “achievement-oriented and goal-oriented”, enrolled in advanced courses, earned above average grades, and maintained regular attendance (p. 417). Honors AVID Latinas gained recognition as serious students from parents, teachers, and peers.

In Chapter Five I present and explain my findings for General AVID Latinas. I contend that General AVID Latinas performed as good students because they perceived that doing so fit their parents’ expectations. For these girls, their interpretation of good student meant doing well in school, being well behaved, and being future oriented. While, General AVID Latinas performed as good students, they gained recognition as good girls from parents and teachers. The complex relationship between performance and recognition set the stage for the negotiation of a dual identity, which further distinguished these girls from their Honors AVID counterparts.

In both Chapters Four and Five, I argue that through intentional negotiation and recognition of certain social identities, Honors AVID and General AVID Latinas were able to gain recognition as certain types of people (Gee, 2000); serious students and good students and good girls, and in doing so achieved different levels of academic achievement.

Finally, Chapter Six includes a discussion of the significance of these findings and recommendations for further research. In this chapter, I argue that the findings of this study have implications for what teachers should know about the complexity of pro-academic identities. Based on my findings, it is clear that pro-academic identities do not look the same among 8th grade Latina students and, therefore, it is imperative that teachers become aware of the factors that influence pro-academic identity performances such as present and future goal orientation and familial and institutional expectations. My findings also raise issues regarding students’ access to resources within untracking programs such as AVID. Moreover, I suggest that future research on the academic achievement of underrepresented minorities from the perspective of identity performance and recognition may serve to further understand how these students reach varying levels of academic achievement. In this way, my investigation contributes not only to the scholarly literature on differential student achievement but also to practitioners’ (i.e., teachers and administrators) understandings of how Latinas’ identity performances mediate academic achievement.

As a response to the national dropout/pushout crisis, alternative high schools were first developed to meet the needs of students that were typically unavailable in traditional high schools (Kelly, 1993). Since the beginning of their establishment, alternative schools gained the reputation of serving as “dumping grounds,” and softer “juvenile detention centers,” for youth labeled “troubled” and “problematic” (Kim, 2011). Scholars have also argued that alternative schools are often “second chance” opportunities that work as “idealistic heavens” for students deemed unsuccessful in a traditional school system (Inbar, 1995; Kim, 2011). Nationwide, traditional high schools are recognized as some of the top feeder schools in the alternative education system, yet there is limited critical research to understand the role of institutional and systemic racism in the overrepresentation (Malagon & Alvarez, 2010) of Black and Latinx students in alternative schools. To hold institutions more accountable for the equitable education of Students of Color, this dissertation calls attention to the policies and practices governing schools that force large numbers of Black and Latinx students into enrolling in alternative schools. Guided by Critical Race Theory (CRT), this study provides a deep dive into the process of school transfer in one California school district to reveal structural flaws and inconsistencies that are often racialized and are supported by deficit framed ideologies that result in internalized racism, anti-black racism, and linguistic racism. Using qualitative methods, this study also draws on counterstorytelling methods to include counter-narratives of student resistance to demonstrate how they rely on their resistant capital (Yosso, 2004) to navigate their transition into continuation high school and defy normalized expectations.

The implementation of new policy is often influenced by factors within and outside of an organization. This qualitative case study examines the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in the field of history-social studies (HSS) in a Southern California school district. The literature on implementation points to three possible explanations for variations in policy implementation at the local level. One is lack of understanding of the policy itself on the part of actors implementing the policy. Another is competing priorities both inside and outside the organization that lessen the importance of a new policy. The third is the role of front-line implementers in tailoring policy to the particular needs of the client base they serve. Data from this study suggests that all three factors played a role in standards implementation in the school district studied. Teachers in the district were exposed to three different interpretations of the CCSS and their meaning to the HSS curriculum. One interpretation, dubbed the “literacy” interpretation, suggested that HSS classrooms were to be a location for explicit instruction on reading and writing. Another, labeled the “inquiry” interpretation, envisioned HSS classrooms as a location for student questioning and history education as a process of investigation. The third, the “rigor” perspective, saw CCSS implementation in HSS as a process involving higher levels of student cognition. Given these mixed signals, as well as other demands from district and site administration, teachers in the district studied implemented the CCSS in HSS in a manner I call defensive implementation. Drawing on McNeil’s (1986, 2000) concept of defensive teaching, defensive implementation was characterized by three factors: a reliance on outside “experts” as the source of knowledge, compartmentalization of authority and responsibility, and essentialization and display of the reform as implementation of the reform. This study concludes that despite the label of reform carried by the CCSS standards, implementation of the CCSS in HSS classrooms was not uniform. Instead, teachers drew from existing understandings and were mindful of what they believed were more important priorities within the school district to implement the CCSS defensively.

This study investigated the curricular representations of the environment and the human-environment relationship at one residential school sponsored science camp. Data gathered included field notes from observational time at the camp, interviews with staff and classroom teachers, and documents from the site’s website, guides, manuals, and curricular guides. These data were analyzed to understand how the camp represented the human-environment relationship and the “proper” human-environment relationship to its participants. Analysis indicated that the camp’s official and enacted curriculum was shaped in response to two perceived problems, (1) students were perceived as having a disconnected relationship with the outdoors and lacking in outdoor experiences; and (2) staff members of the camp believed that time for science during the school day had diminished and that students were not receiving adequate science instruction at school. In response, the goal of the camp was to connect students to the outdoors through hands-on, sensory, experience based science and outdoor education experiences. However, key aspects of the camp experience and the formal and enacted curriculum unintentionally positioned students as separate from nature. The camp experience presented a vacation like understanding of the human-environment relationship as students became tourists of the outdoors. Despite the site’s goal of connecting students to the outdoors, the science camp experience worked to distance students from the outdoors by unintentionally representing the outdoors as a place that existed away from home and students’ everyday lives. Notably, nature became a place that existed in the past, separate from modernity. Students were tourists in an exotic location - nature. They received tours of the foreign outdoors, had fun, and returned home to their ordinary lives that were separate and distinct from the natural world.