The Experiences of Refugee Students with Interrupted Formal Education in an Urban

Secondary School Newcomer Program

Rabia Hos

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the

Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Supervised by

Professor Mary Jane Curry

Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development

University of Rochester

Rochester, New York

2012

ii

Dedication

This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my mother Hava Savas, who never had

the opportunity to go to school and who passed away halfway through my PhD

studies. I know you’re watching down from heaven.

iii

Curriculum Vitae

The author was born in Kutahya, Turkey. She attended elementary and

secondary school in various cities in Turkey, including Manisa and Usak. She then

immigrated to the United States with her family in 1996 when she was a junior in the

high school and attended Ocean View High School in California. She then attended

Monroe Community College from 1998 to1999 and transferred to the University of

Rochester after completing her Associate’s degree. She attended University of

Rochester from 2000-2001 and graduated with degrees in English and Psychology in

May 2001. She then pursued a Master of Science degree in Teaching English

Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the Warner Graduate School of

Education from 2001-2002. After graduating, she started working as an ESOL teacher

in public schools in 2001, teaching adults, elementary school, and secondary school.

In 2005 she decided to pursue a PhD degree and came back to the Warner School of

Education as a doctoral student and received the Michael W. Scandling Fellowship

from 2005-2007 as she studied full-time. She then went back to teaching full-time and

pursuing her doctoral degree part-time. In 2010, she joined the Warner School’s

Teaching & Curriculum department as a part-time visiting instructor, teaching courses

in TESOL and Foreign Language teaching. She pursued her research on the

experiences of refugee students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) in an urban

secondary school under the direction of Dr. Mary Jane Curry.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost I would like to thank God. In the process of my studies He has

given me the power and patience to pursue this degree. Thank you for giving me the

health and wisdom to reach this stage. It is only through His assistance I have reached

this point and only through the support of family, friends, and colleagues that my PhD

study came to an end.

To my parents, Hava and Ahmet Savas who have instilled in me the importance of

education and have encouraged me to always pursue my dreams. To my brother, Mustafa

Savas, who have always been by my side to support me whenever I needed it. I am

blessed to have had such supportive upbringing.

To my husband, Alim Hos. I am speechless when it comes to your support and

encouragement. I am thankful that I had you pushing me at times I was ready to give up.

Thank you for believing in me and wiping away my tears as I struggled to balance a life as

a mother, wife, and student. I am so grateful to have you by my side. I love you!

To my kids, Beria Hatice and Emin Beren, whom have suffered the most

throughout my studies and had to share their mother with her third baby called

‘dissertation’. I am sorry that I was not able to spend time with you as much as I wanted

during the past seven years, but your presence made all the difference and gave me the

courage to complete this dissertation. I love you always and forever!

I am especially grateful to my dissertation adviser, Dr. Mary Jane Curry, for her

guidance and assistance. Her support and encouragement enabled me to grow

academically and gain confidence in my abilities as a researcher and scholar. Thank you

for believing in me! I also would like to thank my committee members throughout my

v

PhD studies, Dr. Stephanie Waterman, Dr. Joyce McDonough, Dr. Joanne Larson, Dr.

Doug Guiffrida, for their advice, guidance, patience, flexibility, and understanding. Your

valuable feedback have pushed me and provided a new direction to make this dissertation

better.

I also want to thank my mentors, colleagues, and support staff at the Warner

community for their ongoing support and encouragement: Thank you Dr. Jeffrey Choppin,

for sharing your resources with me and taking the time to process my video recordings.

Thank you Dr. Raffaella Borasi, Dr. Brian Brent, Dr. Nancy Ares, Dr. Edward

Brockenbrough, Dr. Julia White, Dr. Carol St. George, Dr. April Luehmann, Dr. Judy

Kiyama, Dr. Jayne Lammers, Dr. Kevin Meuwissen, Dr. Constance Flahive, Dr. Logan

Hazen, Ms. Brenda Grosswirth, Ms. Crys Cassano, Mr. Chris Nardi, Ms. Pamela Kaptein,

Ms. Janet Moore, Ms. Christine Ghinazzi and Ms. Cathy Ercolamento for your positive

outlook and support.

This would not have been possible without the support of the current and past

members of the First Friday peer Group (FFG), Maryam Razvi-Padela, Anissa Wicktor-

Lynch, Matilda Tang, Michelle Palermo-Biggs, Hairong Shang, Martha French, Alicia

Van Borsum, Rachel Chaffee, Jennifer Smith Lapointe, Linda Quinlan, Yanti Sri Rezeki,

Shufang Dong, Farzana Hafsa, Lisa Barton, Patricia Kenney, Jessica Cuculick, Eva

Flores, Qiao Li, Shaofei Lu, Nan Cheung, and Joseph Jones.

In addition to FFG, I am deeply grateful to the support of my friends and

colleagues at the Warner School: Kankana Mukhopadhyay, Jennifer King, Leman

Kaniturk-Kose, Joyce Duckles, Dr. Burke Scarbrough, Sandra Quinones-Rosado, Dr.

Shaza Khan, Dr. Trisha Stewart, Dr. Sharon Vegh-Williams, Dr. Emily Daniels, Dr. Alice

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Harnishfeger, Alis Simpson, Dr. Liz Hallmark, and many others whom I may not have

mentioned. I am sorry if I had missed your name but you are not forgotten.

I am also blessed to have such supportive community of friends and family who

have showered me with their prayers through the difficult stages of the doctoral studies.

Fatma Yasar, you have been like a second mother with your care and support to me and

my kids, I cannot thank you enough. My sister-in-law, Aysel, thank you for all the

support. My dear friends Esra and Zeynep, and all my extended family and friends in

Turkey that blessed me with their prayers, thank you!

Most importantly, this dissertation would not have been possible without Mrs.

Smith, who has allowed me to be part of her classroom for a whole year and beyond.

Thank you for being a source of support for the students and providing them with a safe

environment and insure they have adequate supports to achieve success. I also would

like to thank Amal Fahad, Isse Abukar, and Than Da for their assistance in translating.

I especially thank the students who participated in this study and shared their stories and

dreams. It is my sincere hope that each of these students will one day reach their goals

and be successful in whatever they choose to do in life. Each student in this study was a

reminder for all educators that we need to hear their stories and genuinely care about them

in order to make a difference in their lives.

vii

Abstract

The Experiences of Refugee Students with Interrupted Formal Education in an

Urban Secondary School Newcomer Program

Rabia Hos, PhD Candidate

Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development University of Rochester

Supervising Professor: Mary Jane Curry, PhD

The purpose of this dissertation study was to examine the experiences of

adolescent refugee students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) in an urban

secondary school in the northeastern United States. SIFE are a subset of the larger

group of English language learners (ELLs), with particular histories and needs. Many

refugee children experience interrupted education in refugee camps and some arrive in

the United States speaking languages that do not have a written form.

Critical theory, ethics of care, and culturally responsive pedagogy were used as

theoretical frameworks for this dissertation. Critical theory provided an overarching

critical lens when looking at SIFE’s experiences in secondary school. The framework

of ethics of care and culturally responsive pedagogy brought out information about

how a teacher can create a positive learning atmosphere for SIFE and help students

adjust to school in the United States.

The study used an ethnographic methodology to examine and analyze the

experiences of refugee adolescent students and their teacher in a newcomer program.

viii

The data were collected during the 2010-2011 academic year. Data sources were field

notes constructed from participant observations of the classroom; videotapes and

audiotapes of class activities; transcripts of audio-recorded individual interviews with

students, teachers; and documentation, such as curriculum materials, class records,

student work, and my researcher journal.

Data were coded using the NVivo8 software program. Initially data were

analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Data and findings were then organized

to construct analysis of the themes that arose. The data were analyzed using the

frameworks of critical theory (Apple, 1996, 2004; Gee, 1996, 1999, 2005; Giroux,

1997, 2003; McLaren, 1994, 2003), an ethics of care (Noddings, 1984; 1995),

culturally responsive pedagogy (Gay, 2000, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995). The

findings of the study demonstrate that despite a relatively unsupportive environment in

the school, the participant teacher in the classroom enacted both an ethics of care and

culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy. As a result she created a culture that allowed

ELL SIFE to adapt successfully into the U.S. education system. The findings of the

study should help both policymakers and practitioners to develop and improve

programs for adolescent SIFE.

ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Curriculum Vitae iii

Acknowledgements iv

Abstract vii

List of Artifacts, Figures and Tables xi

Foreword 1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 2

Research Positionality 7

Purpose/Significance of the Dissertation Study 7

Organization of the Dissertation 11

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 13

CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 36

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES 52

CHAPTER 5: THE RESEARCH SITE AND PARTICIPANTS 73

CHAPTER 6: EDUCATIONAL PORTRAITS OF THE FOCAL STUDENTS 89

CHAPTER 7: SUPPORTING LEARNING FOR SIFE THROUGH ETHICS OF 129

CARE AND CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE/RELEVANT PEDAGOGY

CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS, and RECOMMENDATIONS 167

REFERENCES 178

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: Student Interview Protocol 1 209

APPENDIX B: Student Interview Protocol 2 211

APPENDIX C: Teacher Interview Protocol 1 213

APPENDIX D: Teacher Interview Protocol 2 215

APPENDIX E: Student Information Letter 217

APPENDIX F: Student Assent Form 220

APPENDIX G: Parent Consent Form 223

APPENDIX H: Arabic Parent Consent Form 227

x

APPENDIX I: Burmese Parent Consent Form 232

APPENDIX J: Somali Parent Consent Form 235

APPENDIX K: Teacher Information Letter 237

APPENDIX L: Daily Class Schedule 239

xi

LIST OF ARTIFACTS, FIGURES AND TABLES

Artifact Title

Artifact 1 Than’s reading report 11/9/10 113

Artifact 2 Than’s reading report 3/31/11 114

Artifact 3 Saen’s writing report 12/6/10 116

Artifact 4 Saen’s graphic organizer 118

Artifact 5 Saen’s essay 123

Artifact 6 Sunny’s essay 126

Artifact 7 Social studies reading comprehension questions 135

Artifact 8 Message on Adopt-a-classroom 141

Artifact 9 Rubric for partner reading 143

Artifact 10 Leveled questions 161

Artifact 11 Assignment poster for Chinese inventions 163

Artifact 12 Chinese inventions rubric 163

Artifact 13 Student posters on Chinese inventions 163

Artifact 14 Student work-Venn diagram 164

Figure

Fig. 6.1 Sunita’s weather chart 104

Fig. 6.2 Classroom Set-up 107

Fig. 6.3 Reading Report 111

Fig. 6.4 Main Idea & Supporting Detail Organizer 117

Fig. 6.5 Mrs. Smith’s writing checklist 121

Fig. 6.6 List of writing topics 125

Fig. 7.1/7.2 Students working collaboratively 159

Fig. 7.3 Complete mural 159

Table Title

5.1 Newcomer Student Demographics 80

1

Foreword

The author completed all of the research for this dissertation project.

2

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Immigration in the United States is growing at a rapid rate and will continue to

rise. It is estimated that approximately 38.1 million immigrants live in the United States,

which accounts for 12.6 percent of the total U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010).

An immigrant is a foreign national who is lawfully admitted to the United States through

a visa to live and work permanently in the United States (U.S. Department of Homeland

Security, 2008). Immigrants come to the United States for varying reasons, including

economic, familial, political, and security. Although immigrants and refugees are often

categorized together, there is a distinction between people who immigrate voluntarily and

people who come as refugees, involuntarily leaving their countries of origin because of

fear of persecution or being killed (Cortes, 2001; Schmid, 2001). Voluntary immigrants

often leave their countries in search of better opportunities, while refugees flee without

choice. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (1950) defines a

refugee as “a person who is forced to leave their country due to a well-founded fear of

being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular

social group, or political opinion” (p.16). Historically, refugees have arrived in the

United States from all over the world, typically as a result of war in their home countries.

According to resettlement statistics, the United States accepted 60,200 refugees in 2008

(U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2008). Refugees are given asylum status in the

United States; once they are settled they are issued work permits and permanent

residencies within a short time. After five years of permanent residence, they can apply

to become naturalized citizens.

3

Refugees often leave their countries because of environmental tragedies or violent

circumstances such as civil wars (UNHCR, 2000). Many refugees are placed in

temporary camps until they are granted refugee status from another country (Cowart &

Cowart, 2002). Living conditions in camps are usually poor, with insufficient food,

shelter, and medical care (Westermeyer & Wahmanholm, 1996). The living conditions

of the camps contribute to significant health and psychological problems for refugees

(Trueba, Jacobs, & Kirton, 1990). Additionally, many refugee children miss out on

formal schooling while in refugee camps.

Concomitant with the growing number of immigrants and refugees in the United

States is a parallel growth of immigrant and refugee students in schools. It is estimated

that a result of current immigration trends, 40% of the elementary and secondary school

population to the United States will be composed of English language learners (ELLs) by

the year 2030 (Thomas & Collier, 2001). In 2004–05, more than10.3% percent of the

nation's K–12 students were identified as English Language Learners (ELLs) (National

Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2006). In fact, ELLs represent the fastest

growing student population in the United States (National Clearinghouse for English

Language Acquisition [NCELA], 2007). Between 1990 and 2000 the number of ELLs in

public schools increased by nearly 76% from 2.1 million to 3.7 million overall (U.S.

Department of Education, 2005). In particular, the number of high school-aged

immigrants has grown (Ruiz-De-Velasco, Fix, & Clewell, 2001). Between 1992 and

2002, the number of high school-aged immigrants increased by 70% (Hoffman & Sable,

2006). In these statistics, immigrant and refugee students have not been broken down

into separate categories; therefore, refugee students are seen as a subset of immigrants.

4

Many adolescent refugees come from war-torn countries where they have lived

most of their lives in refugee camps. In fact, over 30 percent1 of the world's 33 million

displaced refugees who have fled across international borders or are internally displaced

within their own country are aged 10 to 24. There are important differences in the

backgrounds and experiences of immigrant and refugee students. For example, some

immigrant students come from wealthy and well-educated families who have prepared

their children to succeed in educational settings. On the other hand, some immigrant

children arrive with no formal schooling, with parents who have unstable incomes and

lack the means to prepare their children for school (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco,

2001). Of the two groups of students, the first group is more likely to succeed in school

and graduate from high school and continue to post-secondary education (Suarez-Orozco

& Suarez-Orozco, 2001). Clearly, socioeconomic status and previous educational

experiences play a role in students’ academic success (Curry, 2007).

The majority of refugee students are those with interrupted formal education

(SIFE) (Walsh, 1999). SIFE are defined as students who have come from homes in

which a language other than English is spoken, have entered a U.S. school after second

grade, have had at least two fewer years of schooling than their peers, and function at

least two years below grade level in reading and mathematics (DeCapua, Smathers, &

Tang, 2007). SIFE may display the following characteristics: a) low or no levels of

literacy in their native language; b) minimal understanding of the function of literacy; and

c) lack of awareness of the organization and culture of school (TESOL, 2002). Indeed, 1 While absolute figures are not available for displaced populations, the United Nations reports

that some 30% of the population of least developed countries is between 10 and 24 years old and one can assume that the figures among the displaced are similar. http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/ageing/ageing2006chart.pdf. Accessed on September 15, 2008.

5

some adolescent SIFE are just learning to read and write, thus are significantly different

from other immigrant students.

While the arrival of refugees in the United States is not a new phenomenon,

schools are often unprepared to serve many refugee children - particularly those who

have experienced atrocities of war (Duffy, 2007). Few research studies have sought to

understand the experiences of these children and their families in acclimating to U.S.

classrooms and communities (Rong & Brown, 2002). Many studies of refugees have

focused on issues of health care, health care literacy, and counseling related to the trauma

that many refugees experience in camps or their country of origin (Allen, Matthew, &

Boland, 2004; Kamya, 1997). While these studies are important, it is also necessary to

understand the experiences of refugees, particularly adolescents, within the school

context. Schools, in most cases, are the primary contexts through which refugee children

learn about and are socialized to their relocation community. Knowledge of the school

experiences of adolescent refugee SIFE is necessary in order to provide support for

students to achieve success in the United States education system.

Although education is significant for all students, regardless of family

background, it may be even more important for immigrant and refugee SIFE to adapt to

their new location. Educational performance can reflect how well SIFE will be included

into the mainstream in the future (Zsembik & Llanes, 1996). Compared to those whose

parents are non-immigrants, children whose parents are immigrants may be

disadvantaged from a lack of English proficiency and knowledge about the U.S.

educational system (Curry, 2007; Ngo, 2006). For example, 26% of children in

immigrant families live in households in which no one over the age 13 speaks English

6

fluently (Child Trends, 2007). The lack of English proficiency makes it difficult for

immigrant and refugee families to navigate the education system in the United States,

therefore making it difficult for immigrant and refugee children to succeed.

Because of these disadvantages, immigrant and refugee children are more likely

than other children to fail and/or drop out of school (Warren, 1996). ELLs who reported

speaking English with difficulty in 2000 had only an 18% likelihood of finishing high

school (NCES, 2008). In 2000 the drop-out rate for English language learners (ELLs) or

SIFE in the United States was three times higher than that for young adults who speak

English at home (NCES, 2008). Within the broader context of ELLs, adolescent refugee

SIFE, especially in high school, are also categorized as being “the highest of high-risk

students” (Walsh, 1999, p. 6) due to the many characteristics described above (Morse,

2005). With limited or no literacy in their native language or in English, they often have

difficulty reaching their potential academically as they educational preparation afforded

by continual formal schooling (DeCapua, Smathers, & Tang, 2007).

There is a tremendous need to find strategies to teach refugee students in order for

them to achieve success in U.S. secondary schools. While some literature proposes

effective ways of teaching SIFE (e.g., Freeman, Freeman, & Mercuri, 2003; Lucas,

Henze, & Donato, 1990), very little research documents what works best for SIFE or

what their experiences are in secondary schools. Although there are large number of

refugees in the United States, few studies seek to understand the experiences of these

families and children in acclimating to U.S. classrooms and communities (Rong &

Brown, 2002). Therefore, by shedding light on the experiences of adolescent refugee

7

SIFE, my dissertation study contributes to the field of education for practitioners,

administrators, and policymakers.

Research Positionality

The desire to conduct a study with adolescent refugee SIFE is informed in part by

my own experience of being an immigrant who came to the United States when I was 16

years old. Like the participants in this study, I also came to the United States as an

adolescent and went to high school for two years. Although I had studied English as a

foreign language in my native country, I struggled to learn the ways of schooling in the

United States. I was also fortunate in that when I immigrated to the United States, my

parents instilled in me the importance of getting an education and taking advantage of the

opportunities available in the United States. Like many immigrant families, my parents

lacked the social and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1991) related to schooling in the United

States, so I was the first person in my family to experience it.

I was always motivated to get an education, and therefore tried to navigate the

education system on my own. When I started my first school as a junior in a

predominantly white suburban high school in California, I was singled out as being “a

foreign student” and put into separate classroom from the mainstream. I struggled with

being singled out because of my way of dressing and my lack of English language skills.

However, I was determined to succeed. Within a year, I was able to move out of the

separate classroom into the regular mainstream classes. I then was a senior in high

school. When I asked the counselors in school about college application procedures, they

encouraged me to consider community colleges and offered little help. I then set out to

explore higher education on my own. I filled out applications to four-year universities

8

but then stumbled upon a roadblock when I heard about the SATs. I had never been told

about the SATs at school but then learned that it was a requirement for most four-year

universities. I attended a SAT preparation course given at a community center and

prepared for it as much as I could with my limited language skills. I took the SAT and

did pretty well in math but not too well in English. I was accepted by a few four-year

universities but then my parents decided to move to Rochester, New York, right after I

graduated from high school. Since application deadlines for four-year institutions had

passed, I attended a community college, which I found to be a very rewarding experience.

I did well and was able to transfer to a four-year university. During this time, I was

always on the lookout for information about opportunities in school. I was frustrated

many times when I found out about opportunities such as scholarships to graduate school

that I missed because I did not have the required social and cultural capital. I was

inspired by my own experiences as an immigrant student and wanted to become an

educator for this population.

Thus my motivation to conduct this study has also been influenced by my

experience of being an ESOL teacher for SIFE and other immigrant populations for eight

years. This time, I witnessed many motivated immigrant and refugee students working

hard to accomplish success but not being able to due to structural or familial struggles. I

believe that that the findings of this study will provide insights to the worlds of the

adolescent refugee SIFE and allow researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to

improve opportunities for this population.

9

Purpose/Significance of the Dissertation

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the experiences of adolescent

refugee students with interrupted formal education in a newcomer program an urban

secondary school in a northeastern city in the U.S. The study explored the practices of

the classroom teacher in as well as the perceptions of the adolescent refugee SIFE of their

experiences in the newcomer program and their interests in education.

This research was necessary for several reasons. As noted, a gap exists exploring

the experiences of adolescent refugee SIFE in the research literature (Davies, 2008;

Roxas, 2008). Second, the qualitative nature of this study provided an in-depth

understanding of the educational experiences of SIFE in the United States. Finally, this

study was conducted in a medium-sized northeastern city, where there are many

adolescent SIFE in schools. The findings from this study will provide insights to

researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to better understand the experiences of SIFE

in secondary schools and thus improve the education provided to them.

My research question, therefore, was “What are the experiences of adolescent

refugee SIFE in the newcomer program at an urban secondary school?”

Definition of Key Terms

In this dissertation I have carefully chosen the terminology I use to discuss

participants and the broader immigrant/refugee population. English language learners

(ELLs): English language learners is a term used in education to label a student who is

learning to use English. Although the term ‘Limited English Proficient’ (LEP) is used in

government documents, I prefer to use ELL as the term LEP highlights students’ deficits

rather than accomplishment. In this study, I focus on a subset of ELLs who have had

10

interrupted formal education prior to arriving in the United States, students with

interrupted formal education (SIFE).

The terms English for Speakers of Other languages (ESOL) and English as a

Second Language (ESL) have been used interchangeably in the education research

literature, government documents and teaching practice to refer to students and the

programs in place for ELLs in general. As the term ESL has labels students as learners of

a second language, while some students may be learning English as a third or fourth

language, I use the term ESOL.

Newcomer students are “recent immigrants who have little or no English

proficiency and who may have had limited formal education in their native countries.

These students have needs that traditional English-as-a-second language (ESL) and

bilingual programs are usually not designed to address such as support with literacy

development, academic language development (Short & Boyson, 2003, p. 3).

‘Newcomer’ is not a blanket term for all recently arrived ELLs because ‘newcomer’

programs for ‘newcomer’ students are usually designed within schools that have a large

number of recent arrived immigrants and refugees that has not had strong academic

preparation in their native languages. Some immigrant students arrive in the U.S. with

strong academic preparation and these students need English language support as they

may be at or above equivalent grade levels in academic subjects. However, ‘newcomer’

students may not have had strong educational background in their native countries due to

various reasons, therefore may need support in both in English language development

and academic subjects. Schools with large influx of refugees and immigrants often create

11

‘newcomer programs’ that shelters the ‘newcomer students’ for a period of time in order

for them to develop both English and academic language competency.

Newcomer program: A newcomer program is

a program that places recent immigrant students who have limited English

proficiency and often low or limited educational experience in their native

countries into a special academic environment separate from native English-

speaking students for a limited period of time (usually from six months to two

years) (Short & Boyson, 2003, p. 1)

Newcomer programs are usually designed to meet the needs of large number of ELL

students in schools who may have had limited formal education. Newcomer programs

are designed to be transitional programs, where students spend one to two years acquiring

English language and some academic content then transition into the mainstream

classrooms after that.

Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE): Students who have come

from homes in which a language other than English is spoken, have entered a U.S. school

after second grade, have had at least two fewer years of schooling than their peers, and

function at least two years below grade level in reading and mathematics (NYSED,

2011).

Organization of the Dissertation

The dissertation is organized into eight chapters. The second chapter examines the

literature on ELL SIFE and contextualizes adolescent refugee SIFE’s experiences. The

third chapter reviews the theoretical frameworks that the dissertation study draw on:

critical theory, ethics of care, culturally responsive pedagogy, and social and cultural

12

capital. The fourth chapter describes the methodology that was used for the dissertation

study. The fifth chapter provides a thick description of the research site and the

participants. The sixth chapter reports findings on the experiences of the focal students

and their adaptation to the classroom and the teaching practices that were supportive of

their experiences. The seventh chapter reports findings on the classroom culture that was

created through ethics of care and culturally responsive pedagogy. Finally, the eighth

chapter provides conclusions and implications for the future. The appendices provide the

Institutional Review Board Protocol, letters of information for teachers and students, and

the interview protocols for students, and teachers.

13

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

In Chapter 1, I offered a brief introduction to adolescent refugee SIFE’s

background. In this chapter, I provide a comprehensive review of the extant literature on

adolescent refugee SIFE’s experiences in U.S. schools. I include literature that provides

both an understanding of the broader historical, social, and political contexts in which

SIFE live and insights into some of the issues they face. I also examine the ways that

educators have responded to these challenges. The review of literature is organized into

four sections. The first section examines the differences between refugees and other

immigrants in order to understand the circumstances of refugees in the United States. The

second section examines literature on the issues and challenges associated with

adolescent SIFE in secondary schools. In the third section, I examine some of the ways in

which adolescent SIFE and teachers of SIFE have responded to these challenges,

including programs available for ELLs and specifically designed for SIFE. Finally, I

explain how the dissertation aims to fill the gap in this area.

Historical, Cultural, and Political Contexts of Adolescent Refugee SIFE

In this section, I discuss the ways in which refugees are different from other

immigrant groups and factors that might affect their learning in schools. Understanding

these differences is important to understanding the experiences and needs of adolescent

refugee SIFE.

Refugees versus Immigrants

14

The line between refugees and immigrants is often blurred in the research

literature (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001; Pryor, 2001). It is common to find disagreement

about terms such as migrant, immigrant, and refugee (Stein, 1981; Turton, 2003).

Broadly, immigrants and refugees are defined using a historical/political perspective,

which defines the immigrant as one who moves for economic reasons, and the refugee as

one who flees for political reasons (Cortes, 2001; Schmid, 2001). Despite conflicting

views on how to categorize refugees, there are many ways that they are different from

other immigrants, including the choice of immigration, experiences before immigration

that affect their well-being, prior educational experiences, and adjustment to the new

culture.

The first characteristic that separates refugees from immigrants is that refugees do

not immigrate by choice (UNHCR, 2000) and are not able to choose the new country to

which they are resettling (Cowart & Cowart, 2002). Waniganayake (2001) states that

“refugees’ sense of homelessness thus makes the direct application of strategies that are

effective with free immigrants rather awkward and inadequate” (p. 289). Another

difference between refugees and immigrants is that refugees are not able to return to their

country of origin if the need arises. Refugees must start a new life in the country that

receives them. On the other hand, immigrants may be able to visit their home countries if

they have the means (Cortes, 2001).

For both immigrants and refugees, the experiences of dealing with the disruption

of migrating to a new country and adjusting to a different culture and lifestyle might be

similar; however, stress is considerably higher among refugees (Berry, Kim, Minde, &

Mok, 1987). Psychosocial risk factors faced by refugee children include social

15

disruption, impoverishment, changes in their roles and responsibilities, and increased

vulnerability (Boyden, de Berry, Feeny, & Hart, 2002). Some children flee alone or

become separated from their families as they search for safety (Stein, Comer, Gardner, &

Kelleher, 1999). They lose the continuity of family and community routines, and their

educational opportunities are disrupted. Many refugees are also poor and have few

possessions to bring to their new life. Refugees may live in camps for years until they

receive notice that a third country is willing to resettle them. Some adolescent refugee

SIFE have been born in refugee camps and never lived in their countries of origin. In

addition, many refugees do not come with marketable skills or English proficiency

(Zhou, 2001). Many refugees come with no formal education because of difficulties such

as lack of food and health care in refugee camps due to war. Because of these conditions,

many refugees are uneducated in their native language.

All of the characteristics discussed above therefore distinguish refugees from

immigrants in general. Adjusting to a new country and system of education may be easier

for younger refugee students, while older adolescent refugees struggle more because of

the gap in years of prior formal education. Therefore it is important to discuss the issues

and challenges that the adolescent refugee SIFE face, which I turn to next.

Issues and Challenges Facing Adolescent Refugee SIFE

In this section, I explore the issues and challenges that adolescent refugee SIFE

face both in and out of school, including external and individual challenges. The various

circumstances that bring adolescent refugees to a new country create issues and

challenges. In the next two sections I discuss the psychosocial factors and physical

factors involved in these issues.

16

Psychosocial Factors

Psychosocial factors that affect refugee adolescents include social disruption,

changes in their roles and responsibilities, impoverishment and increased vulnerability

(Boyden et al., 2002). Many children become separated from their families in the search

for safety and their education is interrupted. They may also become victims of human

trafficking (Stein et al., 1999). These factors may create many stressors once refugee

adolescents are resettling into a new country. Adolescent refugees may be vulnerable to

mental health problems resulting from stressors such as migration, acculturative stress,

and the stress of learning a new language.

Migration stress is defined as the confusion that arises when one moves to a new

place without the support of family and friends (Birman, Trickett, & Buchanan, 2005).

Being separated from families due to war and conflict in their home countries is a great

challenge for adolescent refugee SIFE. Refugee youth may also not have any way of

getting in touch with people from their country of origin. Another stressor for adolescent

refugees is acculturative stress, which is defined as the stress that appears when adjusting

to a new cultural context (Birman et al., 2005). The living conditions of refugees in the

United States may make it difficult for refugees to begin new lives and handle all the

stressors that come with it. Many refugees are resettled in areas that are high in poverty

but low in housing costs (Kataoka, Stein, Jaycox, Wong, Escudero, Tu, Zaragoza, &

Fink, 2003), which increases stress.

Trauma and past violence experienced by adolescent refugees, as described

above, are likely to cause many psychological problems such as depression, sleep

disorders, and emotional instability. Sutner (2002) reports that many adolescent refugees

17

are diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), defined as: “a psychiatric

disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events

such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent

personal assaults like rape” (National Center for PTSD, 2008, p. 1). Sutner (2002) also

reports that signs of PTSD were still apparent in refugee children even after ten years in

the United States. Indeed, more than 80 percent of adolescent refugees still had serious

concerns about their separation from family members; nearly 70 percent retained stressful

memories of war and their flight from their home country; and nearly 60 percent were

homesick and worried about communication difficulties with friends and families in their

countries (Stein et al., 2003).

In addition to the stressors of migration and acculturation, adolescent refugee

SIFE need to deal with the stress of learning a new language. Schuman (1986) highlights

that an important measure of refugees’ success in adapting to their new environment is

the extent to which they are successful learning the language of the host country. While

the traumatic and stressful nature of migration may indirectly affect adolescent refugee

SIFE’s second language learning, other factors, such as prior education, may have a more

direct influence. First language education has been found to be correlated with increased

proficiency after resettlement in studies of Southeast Asian refugees in the United States

(Westermeyer & Her, 1996) and Australia (Boua, 1990). The implication of these

findings is that refugees with lower levels of formal education are more likely to have

difficulties in second language development. For example, Khmer in Australia (Boua,

1990) and Somalis in New Zealand (Humpage, 1999) who arrived with little formal

education and no literacy in their first language had greater difficulties than their

18

immigrant counterparts who had prior formal education. Curry (2001) also highlights

that immigrants who are familiar with the ways and practices of schooling and who have

prior formal education do better in schools compared to those who do not.

When adolescent refugees’ schooling is severely interrupted, the students are

missing many years of academic knowledge. In addition to the cognitive development

which takes place over many years at school, the language of schooling, ways of being

and behaving in school, cultural expectations, and content knowledge are also missed out.

In learning an additional language, Cummins (1981) suggests that two sets of skills

define language proficiency: basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and

cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). BICS refers to the language skills that

learners need in order to engage effectively in face-to-face interaction, and involves the

mastery of contextualized language. By contrast, CALP refers to the linguistic

knowledge and literacy abilities needed to engage effectively in academic study

(Cummins, 1981). While BICS may develop through exposure to language as a result of

daily communication, the development of CALP is more difficult. Collier (1987) found

that it may take four to eight years for ELL students with low English proficiency to

reach the average grade level proficiency of their English-speaking peers. Similarly,

Cummins (1994) suggests that it may take at least five years for ELL students to reach

levels of academic English proficiency comparable to their English-speaking peers.

The Social Worlds of Adolescent Refugee SIFE

The social factors that play a role in the adjustment of refugees include resilience,

struggles over identity, and structural and individual discrimination. Resilience is defined

as “the manifestation of competence in children although they have been exposed to

19

stressful events” (Garmezy, Mesten, Tellegen, 1984, p. 97). Resilience has been found to

be a trait of child survivors of war (Apfel & Simon, 2005). These researchers theorized

that resilience helps refugees to manage the escape from their homelands, endure the

difficulties in camps, and adapt to new cultural environments. Apfel and Simon (2005)

also discuss other traits shown by refugee children, such as having goals, resourcefulness,

curiosity, and a vision for better life. They conclude that positive school experiences are

crucial to re-establish order in the lives of the refugee children traumatized by violence.

The positive schooling experience may support self-esteem and confidence in refugee

children. Education is essential for refugee youths’ rehabilitation and proper integration

into their new countries (McBrien, 2005).

In researching Muslim refugee girls from Bosnia, Mosselson (2002) found

evidence that the adjustment process was very complex for these adolescents. The

adolescent refugee girls in this study had high grades and realized that their success

moved them from the status of alien to an identity that could blend into the dominant

culture. However, the overall experiences of the refugee adolescent girls in this study in

U.S. schools were negative. One student commented that teachers asked her questions

“like I came from some kind of jungle” (p. 12). Mosselson’s (2002) study highlights that

school success implies the positive adjustment of the refugee adolescents. Supportive

schools encourage refugee adolescents to succeed and realize their full potential to

achieve it.

Some studies have also found structural discrimination against refugees in

schools, which resulted in their marginalization. Gitlin, Buendia, Crosland, and

Doumbia’s (2003) study used qualitative methods to examine ways in which Latino,

20

Bosnian, Somali, and Sudanese students/SIFE were at once welcomed and marginalized

by structures and discourses in place at one U.S. middle school. Their study found

different forms of structural and attitudinal racism toward immigrant and refugee

students. The policies and attitudes displayed by the school staff showed that language

and practices outside the U.S. mainstream were seen as deficits to be overcome by

assimilation. Gitlin et al. (2003) also found a lack of after-school transportation for

refugee students, a segregated lunchroom, school assemblies dominated by White

students and disciplinary practices guided by cultural stereotypes. These researchers

concluded that structural racism along with attitudinal racism marginalized immigrant

and refugee students, even though the administrators and policies said they welcomed

diversity. So while welcoming discourses were apparent, there were also strong

exclusion practices, which may have resulted in students viewing failure as an individual

rather than a structural issue.

In another study of recently arrived immigrant and refugee children, many

students completed the sentence “Most Americans think that we are _____” with negative

adjectives and nouns such as “garbage,” “useless,” and “drug addicts” (Suarez-Orozco &

Suarez-Orozco, 2001, p. 97). This study was a longitudinal study of immigrant and

refugee children from Central America, China, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and

Mexico living in Massachusetts and California. Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco

(2001) used a concept they called a “social mirror” (p. 170) to investigate ways in which

immigrant and refugee children created their self-concept/identity around the viewpoints

of their U.S. peers. They found that children responded in three ways: 1. self-doubt and

shame that lead to low ambitions; 2. acting out that lead to gang-like activities; 3.

21

maintaining a positive self-concept despite the negative social mirror. This third category

was called “transcultural identity” (p. 171) by the researchers. Similar to Portes and

Rumbaut (2001), Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco concluded that successful

acculturation of immigrant/refugee children depended on both what they brought to their

lives and how they were received by the host society.

Another study also documents isolation, discrimination based on culture and

religion, and identity formation in a needs assessment of Somali refugee adolescents in

one Maryland community. Birman, Trickett, and Bacchus (2001) interviewed 12 Somali

middle and high school students, four parents, and 20 school staff. Somali students stated

that they were not prepared for the stereotypes that their U.S. peers had for them. Some

Somali students also reported experiencing negative treatment from other students

because they were doing well in class. In another example, U.S. students would ask the

Somalis if they live in trees and went naked in Africa. The students also expressed

experiences of discrimination because of their religious affiliation. In particular, Somali

girls reported being teased about their clothing (head scarves). Some students mentioned

dropping out of school, in order to earn money and because of age limits for staying in

school. Other students expressed difficulties with academic subjects in school due to

gaps in their education. Birman et al. (2001) noted that many Somali students had high

expectations and goals for their futures, but some did not know how to achieve their

goals. Teachers in this study also stated that they were not happy with parental

involvement and that many ESOL students did not blend well with American students.

Home-school miscommunication is a common theme in many studies, which I

review in the next section.

22

Home-School Relations of Immigrant/Refugee Students

In some cultures, education is not a given but a luxury; thus the education and

cultural expectations in the United States may be different from what many refugees

expect, which may also create misunderstandings between parents and teachers. Poor

communication between home and school is a theme that emerges in much research

about immigrants’ and refugees’ experiences of education. Humpage’s (1999) study of

Somali refugees in New Zealand secondary schools highlights poor parent-school

communication and cultural dissonance between home and school, including children’s

career aspirations (emerging from the home) being discounted as unrealistic by their

teachers. To engage parents and encourage their involvement in school, Perez and

Torrez-Guzman (2002) highlight the importance of considering parents as students’ first

teacher and valuing their knowledge. Getting to know the families and their backgrounds

can only be accomplished by having the parents in school, whether it is within-school or

out-of-school activities (Perez, Drake, & Barton, 2005).

An understanding of various issues relating to home-school links is important

when considering the needs of refugee students. Two researchers in this area, Crozier

(2000) and Vincent (2000), have examined parental interactions with their children’s

schools (Crozier, 2000; Crozier & Reay, 2004; Vincent, 2000). Their research suggests

that while some parents manage to negotiate positive links with schools, others have a

much more troubled relationship. Social class and parental occupation appear to be key

determinants of the success of the relationship. Both Crozier (2000) and Vincent and

Warren (1998) stress that parents, schools, and teachers have little consensus about what

constitutes a good home-school relationship. Parents and school personnel may both be

23

unclear about what is expected in their respective roles. There ought to be a clear

understanding of the extent of the relationship between the school and parents for both

from the standpoint of parents, districts, and teachers so that there can be enough support

between the home and school. It is very likely that although both the families and

teachers may try to connect through different means, there is usually not a clear program

set for communication between the home of the immigrant/refugee students and school.

According to Dale (1986), immigrant and refugee students and their parents need a

network of support to familiarize them with the school environment and the system,

including the school culture, customs, routines, rules, and other services that may be

available to them. This network usually begins with teachers as found in Valenzuela’s

study (1999). Valenzuela states how crucial the teacher-students connections are for

students and parents as they create their understanding of the world around them.

To provide a supportive environment for both students and parents, Campey

(2002) offers some key elements: school-wide cultural celebrations, providing translation

services for school forms and documents, events and conferences, offering daily lunches

that reflect cultural and religious dietary requirements, developing “buddy” systems for

new students, and providing culturally and linguistically appropriate materials. While

these ideas are offered, no research has documented that these procedures are actually in

place at schools.

In the next section I review some physical factors that may affect the refugee

adolescent SIFE’s experiences in acclimating to the United States.

Physical Factors

24

The physical factors that contribute to the success or failure of adolescent refugee

SIFE include the neighborhoods that they live in and the schools that they attend. It is

indicated in the research that socioeconomic status and previous educational experiences

play a role in students’ academic success (Curry, 2007; Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco,

2001); therefore, it is important to look at the physical factors that contribute to this

outcome.

Immigrants and refugees usually live in areas that offer affordable housing

(Orfield, 1998), which are typically, located in highly segregated areas where “poverty

prevails” (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 2001, p. 130) and which lacks contact with a

broad range of Americans. Thus, this physical context can affect the kind of English

language that the children learn, the networks that are available to them, and the quality

of the local schools (Orfield, 1998). When poverty and racial segregation are combined,

outcomes are often unfavorable to student success.

Another physical factor that plays a role in adolescent refugee SIFE’s academic

success is schools. Many studies of adolescent immigrants and refugees describe what

needs to be in place in order for students to successfully negotiate their way through high

school. It is crucial to respect students’ language and culture and create a welcoming,

accepting and caring environment (Casanova, 2006; Cummins, 1986; Freeman &

Freeman, 1989; Freeman, Freeman, & Mercuri, 2002; Walsh, 1999). It is essential to

provide a safe environment where adolescents are able to explore their racial and ethnic

identities. Students also have better and positive learning experiences when they are

taught in a developmental rather than a deficit manner and are allowed to build on their

existing knowledge (Moll & Ruiz, 2002). It is also essential to have ESOL teachers who

25

are trained and offer meaningful and challenging education (Harklau, 1994). It also helps

to have bilingual counseling in students’ native languages (Casanova, 2006; Mace-

Matluck, Alexander-Kasparik, & Queen, 1998; Walsh, 1999).

It is also important to have a specialized curriculum in place so that the adolescent

immigrants/refugees can succeed academically. Secondary schools place great demands

on students in the content areas, which adolescent refugee SIFE in secondary schools

have limited time to meet. By the time they acquire enough English to handle instruction

in content areas; they are significantly behind their mainstream peers in content

knowledge (Collier, 1987). The following section will review academic programs

available for adolescent immigrants and refugees, instructional practices, and challenges

that are faced by both school and students in these programs.

Programs Available for ELL Immigrants and Refugees

Public schools have the responsibility to provide adequate programs under the

federal legislation based on Title VI of Civil Rights Act of 1964 and The Bilingual

Education Act of 1968. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965) has

influenced ESOL program delivery, as with the passage of Title VII of ESEA schools

established bilingual education programs for ELLs (Echevarria & Graves, 2003). With

amendments to ESEA in 1984 and 1988 came additional funding for ELLs with special

needs; family literacy programs; teacher education; and special alternative programs for

ELLs (Fleischman & Hopstock, 1993). When in 1994 ESEA was reauthorized with

Improving America’s Schools Act, and funding for immigrant education was allocated.

Most recently with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (2001, 2010) schools were

required to establish research-based programs for immigrant students (Echevarria &

26

Graves, 2003) that meet their needs academically and socially. However, once

immigrant/refugee students reach high school, state and local regulations do not allow for

flexibility in terms of graduation requirements and exams. The next section will describe

how NCLB has affected ELLs.

Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act

According to Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001), schools are required

to identify and serve students who require educational assistance or support based on

English language proficiency. There are two main goals in this provision, to promote

English language learning, and to teach academic content at the same time students are

learning English through meaningful instruction (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005). As the

provision does not mandate certain types of program, school districts have the freedom to

employ a program that is most appropriate for their student body that is research based

avnd proven to be effective (Lazarin, 2006).

The types of programs that are used by school districts must adhere to the federal

guidelines and must provide a research-based successful program that covers both

academic content and English language development (Gonzalez, Minaya-Rowe, &

Yawkey, 2006). But because of the increased number of ELLs in the United States,

schools may not be prepared to meet the academic needs of students.

There are various academic programs specifically designed to meet the needs of

second language students in the United States (August & Hakuta, 1997). These are:

traditional ESOL, content based ESOL, sheltered immersion, structured immersion,

transitional bilingual education, maintenance bilingual education, and two-way bilingual

education. The programs are characterized by a student’s number of years of formal

schooling and English language proficiency and by the approach used to teach academic

27

content (Linquanti, 1999). These programs will be described in the following

paragraphs.

The purpose of an ESOL program is to provide academic, cultural, social, and

support services to ELLs. Comprehensible teaching is delivered in English language in

order to support acquisition skills along with thematic concepts, which enable language

to become real for the students (Minaya-Rowe, 2008). According to the ESL Standards

published by the Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

organization, the aim of ESOL instruction is to teach students to communicate in social

settings, to use English in academic settings, and to use English in socially and culturally

appropriate ways (Short & Boyson, 1997). ESOL programs differ depending upon the

number of ELLs in the school and district and the availability of resources, such as full-

time teachers (Minaya-Rowe, 2008). Regular ESOL programs are monolingual English

programs, where teachers instruct only in English. Students are usually pulled-out of

their mainstream classroom for special instruction in English language. However, some

schools implement push-in ESOL programs where the ESOL teacher goes into the

mainstream classroom to support the ELLs within the mainstream classroom. However,

in terms of the characteristics of adolescent refugee SIFE discussed in previous sections,

most ESOL programs do not provide the support needed (Gitlin et al., 2003; Suarez-

Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 2001).

Content-based ESOL programs use curriculum material developed for academic

classrooms such as mathematics, science, and social studies. The main focus of content-

based ESL is on learning to use the language for particular tasks, not just the

decontextualized study of the language. Content-based ESOL programs are usually

28

based on the theory that language acquisition is based on input that is meaningful and

understandable to the learner (Krashen, 1981, 1982). Content-based ESOL programs

usually provide sheltered instruction that focuses on learning academic content (Minaya-

Rowe, 2008). The content is presented in a way that takes the student’s proficiency into

consideration. ELLs are the only students in the sheltered classrooms and because of

this sheltered programs are sometimes “misconstrued as places where content is watered

down” (Minaya-Rowe, 2008, p. 2). However, sheltered classrooms provide content

instruction by certified teachers with a help of a certified ESOL teacher. The content

should follow grade level curriculum that is modified to meet the needs of the ELLs in

the classroom.

In contrast, transitional bilingual education (TBE) programs offer some

instruction and academic subjects in the students’ primary languages (Minaya-Rowe,

2008). In this program students are initially taught in their native language along with

instruction in English. The amount of primary language instruction gradually decreases

so that ELLs can transition into the mainstream classes. The goal of the transitional

bilingual program both is English language development and bilingualism (Minaya-

Rowe, 2008). However, the amount of primary and English language instruction varies

from program to program thus TBE has sometimes been critiqued as “remedial” program

for lower track students (Minaya-Rowe, 2008, p. 2).

On the other hand, maintenance bilingual programs have as their goal to maintain

the students’ primary language and add to the students’ linguistic abilities as they learn an

additional language (Baker, 1996). Some of the key features of this program are: a)

Parents are given a choice of maintenance bilingual programs versus mainstream

29

programs; b) students are using their home language at least half or more of the time; c)

programs are usually designed for elementary school students. The purpose of the

maintenance bilingual program is to develop both languages and to preserve the culture

of the minority group (Baker, 1996). Since maintenance bilingual programs start early in

elementary school, they are generally not helpful for adolescent refugee SIFE.

Finally, two-way bilingual programs combine both native English speakers and

ELLs in one classroom where instruction is given equally in two languages so that both

groups benefit from learning the languages. Many of the two-way programs in the

United States are geared toward younger elementary students, therefore are not functional

for adolescent refugee SIFE (Baker, 1996).

Many of the programs that have been described above do not adequately meet the

needs of the adolescent refugee SIFE on their own. To meet the needs of adolescent

refugee SIFE various programs have been put in place, including ‘newcomer’ programs.

Three models of newcomer programs are common and will be discussed in the next

section.

Newcomer Programs

Newcomer programs are specialized programs for newly arrived refugees and

immigrants that emphasize students getting used to the school, learning the English

language, and learning academic language and concepts. The Center for Applied

Linguistics (CAL) defines a newcomer program as one that places recent immigrant

students, who have limited English proficiency and often low or limited educational

experience in their native countries, into a special academic environment separate from

native English-speaking students for a limited time (usually six months to two years)

30

(Short & Boyson, 2004, p. 8). In newcomer programs, students are introduced to the

system of the school, provided with English and content instruction, and are introduced to

the culture of the United States. The goal of these programs is to meet the objectives of

transitioning students to the culture of the school by providing instruction in content

subject areas, in order to catch them up with their peers so that they can be mainstreamed.

CAL has identified 115 secondary level newcomer programs, the majority of which are

located California, New York, and Texas (Short & Boyson, 2004). Many of these

programs followed one of three models: Within-school programs, within-school courses,

and whole school programs. Each program will be described in the following sections.

Within-school Programs

Within-school programs are usually comprehensive ESOL programs housed in

the same school as the mainstream program. In this model, students are placed in

appropriate classes depending on their English proficiency and level of native language

literacy. If students have had prior formal schooling and some English proficiency, they

take ESOL courses throughout the day as an additional language support alongside

mainstream courses in other subjects, such as science, social studies, and mathematics.

In some schools, Spanish-speaking SIFE are given instruction in Spanish, for which they

receive graduation credits2. This approach tends to be restricted to serving Latino/a

students because of the availability of staff and resources.

2 Because of the ample resources available including Spanish textbooks that are at

grade level, these students are taught with grade level content in their native languages and receive credit for the courses that they take. In addition to the course credit, the students are also provided with an opportunity to take high school Regents Examination in Spanish.

31

Short and Byson (2004) also studied newcomer programs and found that 75% of

those they studied were within-school programs. SIFE are usually given sheltered

content instruction as they learn the English language. These courses are often non-credit

bearing3, because they do not fulfill the criteria needed for credit bearing courses in terms

of the grade level content that prepares students to high school Regents Exams that they

will need to take after taking the courses. The sheltered instruction observation protocol

(SIOP) model is the norm for within-school programs (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2000).

Although the ultimate goal of the SIOP model is for students to acquire grade-level

content and concepts while they continue to improve their English language proficiency,

it remains difficult for SIFE to meet grade-level standards and to meet requirements for

graduation. As it takes a few years for SIFE to acquire enough English language and

content knowledge to succeed in mainstream content area classes, many of them spend a

few years within the newcomer program and therefore become too old to be able to

graduate before they ‘age out’ of being eligible to stay in high school; in the state where

the study was conducted, the age limit for high school is 21. SIOP has been found to be

one of the best practices that help ELLs, because it allows teachers to present curricular

content that are aligned with state standards through different strategies to make it

comprehensible for ELLs (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004).

Within-school Courses

This type of program is common in schools with few immigrant and refugee

students (Short & Boyson, 2004). In the within-school course model, students receive

3 The classes are remedial and do not cover grade level content and curriculum. In most cases the

courses are not taught by subject certified teachers but by ESOL teachers.

32

intensive English instruction, depending on their proficiency level, for a few hours a day

and take mainstream courses at the same time. Once they reach a sufficient score on an

exit test of English, they are mainstreamed into regular classes. This type of program is

usually available at schools that do not have a large number of ELLs. Some of the ELLs

that attend schools that have these programs may have had strong academic preparation

in their native languages, therefore are easily able to transfer their first language

knowledge into acquiring the second language. However, for refugee students who may

not have had strong formal education in their native languages struggle in mainstream

classes that may not provide enough support.

Some of the within-school programs are not able to offer a full range of ESOL

classes because of shortages of ESOL teachers and resources or because of low numbers

of ESOL students. Thus immigrant and refugee students are often placed in mainstream

classes with teachers who have little or no training in ESOL (Carasquillo & Rodriguez,

2002). Many mainstream teachers become frustrated by ESOL students because they

may struggle with comprehending all of the content instruction.

Whole-school Programs

Whole school newcomer programs are rare in the United States. The

International School in New York City is a one of the few of such programs. Housed at

LaGuardia Community College, the International School has 450 students from a range

countries (Walqui, 2000). This school was designed as an alternative high school and

unlike other newcomer programs is not a temporary program. Students are encouraged to

use their native languages during class activities and projects. However, as this approach

assumes that each student knows a written form of language is literate in their native

33

tongue, it may not work well for SIFE who may not have written literacy in their native

languages.

Calexico High School in California is example of a whole school program, which,

although not exclusively for immigrant and refugee students, has 98 percent Latino/a

students and 80 percent ELLs. The school offers classes in Spanish, English, or sheltered

English. The school offers the necessary support systems and staff with high

expectations for all students. The program has a high level of success with graduating

students because it provides students with grade level content instruction and prepares

students to graduate from high school (Short & Boyson, 2004). However, as the program

is designed specifically for Latino/a students, it does not serve the needs of most

adolescent refugee SIFE.

The Limited English Academy Program (LEAP) is another whole school program

used in a four-year high school in St. Paul, Minnesota, for newcomers that uses ESOL

classes, sheltered content courses, cultural awareness courses, and individual tutoring.

Serving students aged 16 to 26, the curriculum is framed around the academics that

students need. The school offers both day and evening classes to accommodate students’

work and family responsibilities. The program also has an accent reduction in English

program that involves college students and community members to provide LEAP

students with contact with native English speakers. After the completion of this program,

students are awarded high school diplomas and are encouraged to continue to higher

education (Short & Boyson, 2004).

The research on the various models of newcomer programs provides useful

information for policymakers and school districts looking to implement different

34

programs. Although there are numerous newcomer programs available, the whole-school

models with grade level instruction have been found to be effective in supporting

newcomer students, such as the International School, Calexico High School that offer

alternative assessments for newcomer students who may need more time to complete

high school (Short & Boyson, 1997). However, in general, the programs described

above are not designed to meet the needs of adolescent refugee SIFE; therefore, there is a

need to improve the current newcomer programs to support adolescent refugee SIFE.

For this reason, the current study is a step toward understanding the experiences of the

adolescent refugee SIFE so that programs that will meet their needs can be designed.

Conclusion

Immigration to the United States is continuing to bring many new people to this

country. Some are arriving well equipped with education and job skills. However,

recently, many refugees have arrived from war-torn countries or refugee camps where

they have had little or no opportunity to engage in the type of learning that is valued in

U.S. schools. In this chapter, I have examined the literature on the challenges facing

adolescent refugee SIFE and the limited range of programs that exist to meet the

challenges facing the larger group of ELLs [these programs were not designed for SIFE].

Several general claims can be made about this population. First, the historical, cultural,

and political contexts of adolescent refugee SIFE directly affect their schooling

experiences. Second, like all immigrants, this population is typically struggling to meet

the demands of adjusting to a new country as well as academics; however, SIFE have

additional adjustment challenges related to their experiences as refugees, including

psychological adjustment as a result of their often traumatic past experiences as refugees.

35

For example, they may struggle with being separated from close family members, in

some cases, permanently.

Research has provided recommendations on what should be done to support SIFE

in secondary schools; however, not many researchers have discussed the impact of these

programs on adolescent refugee SIFE. Adolescent refugee SIFE may be actively

engaged in responding to their challenges through a variety of strategies that we are not

familiar with. From my experiences as an ESOL teacher of adolescent refugee SIFE, I

have seen that despite past traumatic experiences, most SIFE are ambitious, resilient, and

diligent about learning English. They care about their studies. To help these students

succeed, schools must tailor their curriculum and pedagogical techniques to what works

best for the adolescent refugee SIFE while assisting them in linking their previous

knowledge and experiences, that is, in making connections to new knowledge.

36

CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS

Introduction

In Chapter 2, I gave an overview of the challenges facing adolescent refugee

SIFE. In this chapter I present three theoretical frameworks that I draw on for my

dissertation study: critical theory (Apple, 1996, 2004; Gee, 1996, 1999, 2005; Giddens,

1993; Giroux, 1997, 2003; McLaren, 1994, 2003), the ethics of care (Noddings, 1995;

Valenzuela, 1999), and culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy (Gay, 2000, 2010;

Ladson-Billings, 1995). In this chapter, I describe how these theoretical frameworks

enable me to construct a useful perspective for analyzing the experiences of adolescent

SIFE in secondary schools.

Critical educators such as Apple (1995, 2004), Giroux (1997, 2003), Shor (1992),

and McLaren (1989, 1994, 2003) advocate that students learn, act, and reflect on

culturally, historically, socially and politically relevant and meaningful experiences. This

body of literature critiques institutions that sustain elitist knowledge regimes and that

discredit student and community knowledge and expertise. Critical theory claims that

learners who are encouraged to analyze and question problems will generate knowledge

and answers to real questions. Educational models that promote experience, action, and

reflection offer students and community members the possibility of becoming learners

and teachers of their world (Freire, 1973) through an understanding of issues in situated

contexts (Giles & Eyler, 1994).

The second section looks at the theory of ethics of care (Noddings, 1995).

Noddings argue that schools are usually not institutions that are designed around caring

but where places where a central ideology is enacted (Noddings, 1992). However,

37

despite the ideologies, schools can still be “designed to support caring” (Noddings, 2003,

p. 182).

The third section explores the concept of culturally responsive pedagogy (Gay,

2000, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995). This concept recognizes, respects, and includes the

multiple resources that racially and ethnically diverse students and communities possess.

Each section starts with an outline of the central principles of the theoretical

models and describes the relationships among the theories. Later, I describe how each

theoretical model contributes to framing and analyzing my dissertation study. The chapter

concludes by drawing together the main aspects of these theoretical models to create a

comprehensive framework for analysis of the issues I address in my dissertation study of

adolescent refugee SIFE’s experiences in secondary schools.

Critical Theory

Critical theory can be traced to the early 1920s, when scholars of the Frankfurt

School examined the nature of bourgeois society (Giroux, 2003). Understanding

hegemony, the power that dominant sociocultural classes exert over subordinate groups

(Gramsci, 2002), allows critical theorists to analyze how domination is created and to

challenge, and ideally transform, the conditions that enable the marginalization of

subordinate groups. Hegemony persists when historical positions are presented, and

accepted, as natural occurrences (McLaren, 2003) both by the dominant and the

subordinated. Giddens (1993) explains that critical theory is tied to emancipatory

interests “by seeking to free individuals from domination; not only from domination of

others, but from domination by forces which they do not understand or control (including

forces that are in fact themselves humanly created)” (p. 67). Critical theory

38

points educators toward a mode of analysis that stresses the breaks,

discontinuities, and tensions in history, all of which become valuable in that they

highlight centrality of human agency and struggle while simultaneously revealing

the gap between society as it presently exists and society as it might be. (Giroux,

1983, p. 36)

Critical theory is concerned with how social inequalities are reproduced, and allows us to

look at the relationship between knowledge, schooling, and power. Knowledge in

schools is produced through inclusion and exclusion (Giroux, 1995). Therefore, it is

necessary to look at the practices in schools and examine whose knowledge is created and

validated. Tierney (1999) highlights that the knowledge of those who are oppressed is

usually not valued. Similar to the “banking concept” of education, dominance is

maintained by those “who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they

consider to know nothing” (Freire, 1970, p. 72). Within the banking model, teachers are

the ones that possess the knowledge to be passed on to students while ignoring the voices,

experiences, and social practices of students. For the current study, I explore how

knowledge is produced within the newcomer classroom and the power relations existing

within and outside of the classroom and the school.

The hidden curriculum serves to assist in the replication of power and social

stratification that produce unequal class systems (Apple, 1996, 2004; Curry, 2001).

Tracking that supports social stratification is embedded within educational systems

(Apple, 1996). As the curricular paths into which many students are tracked have been

labeled vocational or academic, the rigor and learning outcomes of the tracks are

different and create social hierarchy. Because of their backgrounds and current

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situations, adolescent refugee SIFE may be victims of “hidden” stratification within the

education system. They do not possess strong formal education; they are tracked in

lower class tracks in schools; and their prior experiences do not count as valuable

knowledge in U.S. schools. Beyond status and power, knowledge, too, is hierarchized.

Apple (1993) asks “Whose knowledge?” since certain sorts of knowledge have been

privileged while others have been ignored. Since most SIFE do not have the knowledge

that is valued in schools, they are likely to face many challenges.

Critical theory describes how schools construct knowledge through hegemonic

practices that leads to reproduction and maintenance of the dominant groups in society.

Apple (1980) calls this ideological hegemony and describes it as “bourgeois domination

of the thought, the common sense, the life-ways, and everyday assumptions of large

groups of people in a society…the routine structures of everyday thought and action that

helped reproduce class domination and inequality” (p. 60). One example of ideological

hegemony can be the arguments for bilingual versus monolingual education.

Creswell (2007) notes that "critical theory perspectives are concerned with

empowering human beings to transcend the constraints placed on them by races, class

and gender" (p. 27). The use of critical theory may increase possibilities for increased

choice for individuals within our social structures (Denzin, 2008; Hooks, 1994).

Through the understanding of different constraints within schools, teachers have an

opportunity to make choices to challenge the systems in place. Patton (2002) states:

The 'critical' nature of critical theory flows from a commitment to go beyond just

studying society for the sake of increased understanding. Critical theorists set out

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to use research to critique society, raise consciousness, and to change the balance

of power in favor of those less powerful. (p. 548)

My desire to conduct a study with adolescent refugee SIFE that may be able to influence

their futures is supported by Agger (2006) in terms of the role that critical theory can play

in the "possibility of progress" (p. 4), allowing us to "raise consciousness about present

oppression and to demonstrate the possibility of a qualitatively different future society"

(p. 4). The use of critical theory in the current study will involve looking at the different

systems in place at the school that the refugee SIFE attend to and how decisions are made

for the schooling of SIFE.

Critical theorists such as Aronowitz (2001), Giroux (1997, 2003), Macedo (1994),

McLaren (2003), and Apple (1990, 2004) believe that schools can be sites of social

reproduction but also institutions where critical thinking and radical ideas can emerge and

develop. This thinking, then, has the potential to challenge, transform, and change the

status quo.

As adolescent refugee SIFE are at risk of dropping out of school, they tend to be

usually seen from a deficit perspective (Cummins, 1986; Wotherspoon & Schissel, 2001).

It is important then to understand that the deficit view of looking at language minority

students is deeply rooted in society. Another way of approaching this would be not to

look at the individuals and families themselves, but to look at the society as a whole and

recognize that difficulties experienced by minority groups are a result of larger social

inequalities of poverty, marginalization, and disadvantage. Cummins (1986) contends

that students from disadvantaged groups perform poorly in school that is directly affected

by inequalities in the society as a whole, and suggests that teachers can help to overcome

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these inequalities by creating positive classroom experiences for these students that

invalidates the inequalities in society. Conchas (2001) found in his study of Latino

students, that if there were strong relationships between the students and adults around

them, these “strong support mechanisms” (p. 502) would help them succeed in school.

Although schools may be part of the system that reproduces inequalities, teachers can

alter this through support and care. In order to provide support for these students, it

needs to start from individual teachers by acknowledgement of the challenges and

offering ways to help these students through ethics of care. Although teachers may be

change agents, the change would also need to come from administrative policies or

school district wide structures that make decisions on how refugee SIFE are placed and

fare in schools. In the next section, I discuss the concept of ethics of care as it is related

to the refugee SIFE.

Ethics of Care

Noddings (1984) emphasizes that caring should be at the core of the educational

system. Her concept of caring serves as a foundation for the theoretical framework of

ethics of care in education. The basic assumption of caring in educational contexts is the

reciprocal relationship between the “one caring” and the “one cared for” (Noddings,

1984, p. 30). In this context, the teacher is the one caring and the students are seen as the

ones cared for. In order for ethical care to occur, teachers should see themselves as

“responsible for empowering their students” (Owens & Ennis, 2005, p. 418). This means

that teachers must take it upon themselves to act on for the students rather than leave it to

others. The characteristics of the caring teacher include engagement with the cared-for

(student), a commitment to the cared-for (student), and a motivational shift from a focus

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on the teacher self to a focus on the student. But the student, who is the cared for, also

needs to be responsive to the teacher’s efforts in order for the caring relationship to be

established. Nodding’s theory involves two main areas of caring: aesthetic caring, caring

about learning and professional practice; and authentic caring, reciprocal relationships

between teacher and students as foundation of learning. Aesthetic care involves caring

about things and ideas involved in “form and non-personal content” (Noddings, 2003, p.

21). Aesthetic caring has to do with teaching the content, being engaged in the subject

that is taught, and delivering well-planned instruction. Authentic care on the other hand

involves caring toward the individual students themselves apart from the curriculum. It

requires being involved in students’ personal lives and getting to know them on a

personal level.

Depending on an individual teacher, caring can be demonstrated in different

forms. In Caldwell’s (1999) study of high school students, students classified the

different themes of care by the teachers as being: student-oriented, work-oriented,

engaging students, and active. The students in Caldwell’s (1999) study described the

characteristics of the student-oriented teacher as: treats all students with respect; believes

in students; listens; patient; engages students in thinking. The work-oriented teacher was

described as: willing to adjust work load; base grades on more than homework and tests;

provides extra time for completion of work; accepts more than one answer to questions;

and willing to change classroom rules as necessary. The engaging teacher was described

as: an expert in the subject he/she teaches; helps students to become independent;

provides extra time to complete assignments; and offers extra-credit work. The active

teacher was described as: having sense of humor; energetic; telling stories and providing

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examples; providing engaging assignments and activities; and basing grades on more

than homework and tests.

Noddings (1992) identifies four means to caring: modeling (teachers modeling

behavior they expect from students and what it means to care); dialogue (engaging in a

dialogue about what we cannot model); practice (providing opportunities to practice

caring relationships); and confirmation of students’ accomplishments (student

encouraging the best in students and praising them for the good in them). These four

means of caring will be explored in the next section.

Modeling of Care

Teachers in classrooms can be seen as role models for their students. Noddings

(1995) states that through modeling teachers show that they “want to show in [their]

behavior what it means to care” (p. 190), rather than telling students to care. Youniss and

Yates (1997) in their study of high school students confirmed that modeling was an

important characteristic of a respected teacher. They found that one of the teachers at

their school was highly respected by his students, while another new teacher was not

accepted by the students. Students believed that the first teacher, Mr. Siwek, modeled

care through his involvement in the community and his availability to students. On the

other hand, while the new teacher, Ms. O’Connell, was not accepted at first, through her

care and commitment to the students, students eventually accepted and respected her.

When teachers can model behaviors that demonstrate their care for the students—

including high expectations—positive, trusting relationships can develop among students

and teachers. Indeed, Bell, Washington, Weinstein, and Love (1997) argue that teachers

are “texts for [their] students” (p. 307) and through their modeling behavior and

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“openness about [their] own process of learning’ can create a caring atmosphere in the

classroom for students. Through the different ways of care that teachers demonstrate,

they provide students with a model of the way that they teach including adjustment of

classroom assignments based on students’ needs; respecting their backgrounds; providing

ample time. These modeling behaviors are the key in providing refugee SIFE with

predictable learning environment which will help them in adjusting to the schools in the

U.S.

Dialogue about Care

The next mean for establishing care is through dialogue. Teachers and students

can understand each other through respectful dialogue, which requires the absence of

preconceived assumptions about each other. Dialogue is a means to developing trusting

relationships, a core component of the establishment of care in the classrooms. The

dialogue needs to be reciprocal and requires “listening, a genuine respect for the partner

in dialogue and a mutual commitment to inform, learn, and make decisions” (Noddings,

2006, p. 80). In addition to the reciprocal exchange between the teacher and the students,

dialogue should serve as a tool for critical thinking to emerge by encouraging students to

engage in critical thinking about various issues. The caring teacher engages in dialogue

with his/her students and encourages them to think and listens to them if they have

concerns (Caldwell, 1999). Dialogue for refugee SIFE may be one of the key

components of the way that teachers can demonstrate care by listening to them, providing

them with flexible yet challenging content, and encouraging them to think.

Practice of Care

The third mean to establishing care in the classroom is through practice, which is

established when “students are encouraged to support each other, opportunities for peer

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interaction are provided, and the quality of that interaction is as important (to both

teacher and students) as the academic outcomes” (Noddings, 1995, p. 223). Through the

practice of care, the whole child as a human is valued and supported and academic

competence is supported. Academic competence of the refugee SIFE can be supported

through the ways that teachers engage them in adapting to the schooling in the U.S.

through classroom practices both socially and academically. Teachers can engage in

practice of care in the classroom through establishing group work activities in which

students are encouraged students to care for each other while learning, and by engaging

in discussion of real life issues in the classroom environment. Encouraging students to

become independent learners and cooperating with each other within the classroom

environment allows them to learn to care and develop mutual respect for both the teacher

and their peers. Especially for refugee SIFE who may not be familiar with the ways of

schooling and expectations, encouraging them to engage in the classroom comfortably

will allow them to adjust well and make an easy transition to the school.

Confirmation of the good in students

The last part of establishing care in the classroom in Noddings’ care theory is

confirmation of the good in students. Noddings (1995) claims that “through

confirmation, the teacher encourages and shapes the student by assisting in the

construction of his or her self-ideal” (p. 223). However, confirmation needs to be

supported by dialogue and practice. In this manner, the teacher is seen as the responsible

adult that can provide advice for students and students can trust, therefore encouraging

the best in the student. Along with dialogue and practice of care, confirmation enables

teachers to bring out the best in their students. For refugee SIFE who may not be familiar

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with the ways of schooling, through practice of care and by integrating the students’

backgrounds into the classroom, teachers may build on what the students are already

familiar with. By respecting students’ background a caring teacher validates and builds

upon the students’ strengths and allows students to engage in the classroom comfortably.

In addition to Noddings’ (1984, 1995, 2006) means of establishing care, Rauner

(2000) proposes that care in the classroom is composed of attentiveness, responsiveness,

and competence. She describes attentiveness as being concerned for others;

responsiveness as the motivation for caring behavior; and competence as a way that care

is put in practice by the teacher. As many refugee SIFE are in dire need of care as they

adapt to their lives in U.S. schools, a caring teacher would create a classroom for students

established on mutual trust, where students can express their ideas without being judged

and where they can interact with each other respectfully. As refugee SIFE come with

various strengths and weaknesses, a caring teacher would create a classroom where the

students work at their own pace and support each other. In this classroom students

would be seen as having valuable experiences and the ability to contribute to a positive

environment of the classroom.

Valenzuela (1999) describes how care is enacted in a predominantly Latino High

School. In this school, the teacher, Ms. Aranda, establishes a caring classroom by setting

boundaries. She believes that “kids have to know the line so that they know not to cross

it, and so they know that they’ve crossed it. Whenever students are acting up, I take them

out of the classroom and ask them, ‘What have I done that would cause you to act that

way?’ ” (p. 99). Ms. Aranda communicated to the students that it may have been she

who made a mistake that may have caused a student to misbehave. She also allowed

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students flexibility in completing assignments if time conflicts prevented them from

finishing school work, such as from working outside of school. Through Ms. Aranda’s

respectful treatment of students, students felt that she was a caring teacher (Valenzuela,

1999, pp. 101-102).

In addition to demonstrating mutual respect, to create a caring classroom, a

participating teacher in Nias’s (1989) study argues “if you really want to educate children

you’ve got to share yourself with them, as a person. They’ve got to know you, your

interests, your life out of school, the sort of person you are” (p. 187). This quotation

highlights a critical point that the students benefit from knowing that the teacher is also a

person who has a life outside of school. Sharing teachers’ backgrounds help students to

relate to their teachers; similarly, in order for caring to be established teachers must be

willing to step into the lives of students and understand their backgrounds and what they

bring into the school (Gay, 2000).

Therefore teachers need to become familiar with students’ cultural backgrounds.

It may be difficult to create care in a school when there are misunderstandings between

cultures that negatively affect student academic achievement (Valenzuela, 1999).

However, it is possible to create positive schooling experiences for students through

culturally responsive pedagogy. Gay (2000) asserts that caring about students as people

is a key characteristic of a culturally responsive teacher. The framework of culturally

responsive pedagogy will be discussed in the next section as it relates to refugee SIFE in

secondary schools.

Culturally Responsive/Relevant Pedagogy

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Valuing students’ cultural backgrounds and languages is the key to creating a

culturally responsive and relevant curriculum and classroom. Various terms have been

used to refer to creating a culture in the classroom that takes into account students’

backgrounds: culturally responsive (Gay, 2000, 2010); culturally congruent (Mohatt &

Erickson, 1981); and culturally relevant (Ladson-Billings, 1995). For the purposes of this

dissertation, I am using the term culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy (CRP).

Although CRP has mainly been used with African American students, it has clear

potential for use with diverse ELLs (Tse, 2001). CRP involves acknowledging and

including the cultural knowledge of students in the classroom with a goal of promoting

academic achievement (Howard, 2003).

Culturally responsive teachers view their students as whole people, not only as

students in the classroom, and therefore learn about their practices outside of school as

well (Ladson-Billings, 1995). Using learner-centered pedagogy, culturally responsive

teachers use what students already know to help them make connections to what they are

learning in school (Ladson-Billings, 2001). Gay (2000) sees culture as a fluid concept

that includes our worldview, values, and beliefs as well as food, holidays, community

practices, and family relationships. Doucet and Tudge (2007) define culture as “a shared

set of values, beliefs, practices, access to resources, social institutions, and sense of

identity, and that communicates those values, beliefs, and so forth to the next generation”

(p. 310). Culture affects not only how teachers deliver instruction but also how children

respond to the curriculum (Gay, 2000). Therefore, culture, language learning, and

academic development are related to teach other. As there may be “significant

differences between the students’ culture and the schools’ culture” (Delpit, 2006, p. 167),

49

misunderstandings among teachers and students may arise. Therefore, teachers, who

often come from different backgrounds than their students, need to learn about students’

backgrounds and cultures in order to be able to relate to their students.

Furthermore, Gay (2000) considers culture as a tool for understanding the different

learning styles of students. She defines culturally responsive pedagogy as “using the cultural

knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically

diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them” (p. 29).

Gay (2000) asserts that it is critical for teachers to have high expectations for students,

especially for those who are usually viewed from a deficit perspective. Therefore, a central

component of CRP is the rejection of a deficit view of culturally diverse students (Howard,

2003). Teachers who implement CRP create classrooms that are inclusive of students’

cultures and backgrounds; allows students to make connections between their home life

and school; and use meaningful instructional materials. Teachers who create culturally

relevant classrooms consistently confirm students’ backgrounds and cultures in the

classroom (Armento, 2001; Ladson-Billings, 1995). Additionally, teachers who engage

in culturally responsive and relevant instruction provide opportunities for cross cultural

exchanges, encourage cooperative group work, and engage students in the classroom

(Howard, 2003).

In their study of culturally relevant teachers, Gustein, Lipman, Hernandez, and

Reyes (1997) highlighted the importance of culturally relevant instruction for ELLs. In

their study, a teacher built on his students’ prior knowledge and validated students’

cultural and linguistic backgrounds. By integrating cultural and linguistic knowledge,

this teacher allowed students to view speaking a different language as a valuable asset.

Iddings and Katz (2007) was found that a culturally relevant teacher created a positive

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learning environment for Mexican immigrant students by allowing them to make home-

school connections, valuing students’ and families’ input, and providing meaningful

instruction by allowing students to code-switch and bring their identities into the

classroom. These practices confirmed that students had valuable backgrounds that they

could share in the classroom and encouraged cultural and academic competence.

Unified Theoretical Framework

In this section I discuss how I weave together notions from the frameworks

presented above to create a unified theoretical framework for the dissertation. Critical

theory assumes that unequal power relations in society are rooted in the social and

historical relations. It is through ethics of care and culturally responsive/relevant

pedagogy students can be engaged in positive learning experiences that allow them to

accumulate the necessary social and academic competence to succeed in U.S. schools.

All of these theories claim that minority cultures have not been valued because the values

of the dominant culture hold sway (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). Critical theory serving

as an overarching theoretical framework, ethics of care and culturally responsive/relevant

pedagogy allow for change in the ways that ELL SIFE are schooled and valued and given

opportunities to accumulate the necessary social and academic knowledge in order to

transition into the mainstream education in the U.S. All of the theories provided a useful

framework in analyzing ELL SIFE’s experiences in the urban secondary school.

Conclusion

This chapter incorporates components of four theoretical models to create a

framework for the analysis of the experiences of adolescent refugee ELL SIFE in

secondary schools in the United States. Critical theory provides an overarching lens for

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looking at ELL SIFE’s experiences in a U.S. secondary school. Drawing on critical

theory, ethics of care and culturally responsive/ relevant pedagogy is useful in

understanding the educational experiences of ELL SIFE, including relationships with

their teachers and each other. In summary, the combination of the theories will provide a

deeper understanding of the experiences of the adolescent refugee ELL SIFE in

secondary schools in the United States.

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CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

This chapter presents my research question, design, and rationale for using a

qualitative/ ethnographic study, including my analytic frameworks. Then I introduce the

study participants, research site, and data collection methods and sources. Finally, I

discuss criteria of soundness, ethical considerations, and methodological limitations and

implications. My research question is “What are the experiences of adolescent refugee

ELL SIFE in the newcomer program at an urban secondary school?”

Qualitative Study Design

Qualitative research is used to understand and explain the meanings made by

participants in an activity or context (Morrow & Smith, 2000). More specifically,

Creswell (1998) defines qualitative research as “an inquiry process of understanding

based on distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that explore a social or human

problem. The researcher builds a complex, holistic picture, analyzes words, reports

detailed views of informants, and conducts the study in a natural setting” (p.15). Thus,

using qualitative research methodology allows me to explore the experiences of

adolescent refugee SIFE in the naturalistic setting of a classroom and school. This study

has helped me to understand, interpret, make connections with, and illuminate the voices

of participants (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Merriam, 2002; Silverman, 2000). In this section,

I provide a brief overview of the research traditions of qualitative ethnographic studies as

they relate to my dissertation study.

Qualitative/Ethnographic Methods

Qualitative methods, which are interpretive, facilitate an understanding of how the

world is constructed. Becker (1986) points out that qualitative research examines how

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meaning is constructed and shaped in relation to the everyday world. Qualitative

research is appropriate when the researcher seeks: to understand, rather to explain; to

assume a personal, rather than an impersonal, role; and to construct knowledge rather

than discover it (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005; Marshall & Rossman, 2006; Stake, 1995). In

contrast to quantitative methods, qualitative methods are generally inductive rather than

deductive, generative rather than verificative, constructive rather than enumerative, and

subjective rather than objective (LeCompte & Preissle, 2003). In this dissertation study,

the schooling experiences of SIFE and the relationships among and between the students

and teachers were investigated. Strauss and Corbin (1990) claim that qualitative research

methods are ideally suited for research that seeks to explore the nature of people’s

experiences with phenomena. In the area of research on refugee studies, Taft (1986)

recommends a qualitative approach as useful with refugees whose values and beliefs may

be different than those of the researcher. He advocates for the researcher’s position being

one of true curiosity and exploration, giving room to the refugees’ expertise, experience

and direction. Given the characteristics of refugees detailed in the previous chapters,

qualitative methods are well suited to studying adolescent refugee SIFE and their

schooling experiences.

Qualitative methods also allow the researcher to collect data through a variety of

formal and informal approaches such as observation, interviews, and participant writing.

Patton (1990) states that “qualitative methods permit [the researcher] to study selected

issues in depth and detail and approach fieldwork without being constrained by

predetermined categories of analysis that contribute to the depth, opened and detail of the

qualitative inquiry” (p. 13).

54

Qualitative methods provide a framework of thinking and conducting research.

Ethnography is an approach to qualitative research that “seeks to describe and understand

the behavior of a particular social or cultural group” (Richards, 2003, p.14) in naturally

occurring settings. Emphasis is often given to people’s cultural and social activities

(Richards, 2003). The ethnographer’s goal is to provide a description and an

interpretative-explanatory account of what people do in a setting (such as classroom,

neighborhood, or community), the outcome of their interactions, and the way they

understand what they are doing (Richards, 2003, p. 576). This description includes

several key concepts of ethnographic research. First, unlike experimental research,

ethnographic research should be conducted in naturally occurring settings. Second,

ethnographic research is holistic (Agar, 1996), meaning that . It goes beyond a simple

description of a single action that has been observed. Instead, behavior is explained “in

relation to the whole system of which it is a part” (Watson-Gegeo, 1988, p. 577).

A third feature of ethnographic research is that it tends to be longitudinal,

taking place over periods from six months to multiple years. Although there is no

definite length of ethnography, Fetterman (2009) recommends six months as the

minimum period for ethnographic research to allow researchers time and adequate data to

develop both “thick description” (Geertz, 1973) and, “thick explanation” which takes

“into account all relevant contextual influences on the interaction” (Watson-Gegeo &

Ulichny, 1988, p. 3). As Hymes (1980) writes, “Our ability to learn ethnographically is

an extension of what every human being must do, that is, learn the meanings, norms,

patterns of a way of life” (p. 98). The final characteristic of ethnographic research is that

it incorporates an emic perspective, which means that the situations being examined must

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be understood from the viewpoint of the participants. This stance is often referred to as

the insider’s perspective and is critical because without it, a holistic explanation of

participant behavior is not possible. Therefore the ethnographer must spend time

becoming familiar with a culture and asking questions. Classroom ethnography requires

the researcher to spend intensive amount of observation of the classroom over a period of

time (a semester or a full academic year), supplemented with audio/video-recordings of

the classroom and interviews of students, teachers, and parents (Hornberger & Corson,

1997).

Ethnography is an appropriate methodological approach in the dissertation

research because of its emphasis on participant meanings and its grounding in

interpretation of meaning. As the researcher I attempted to understand the meanings and

the culture that the adolescent SIFE make within the classroom. “Thick” ethnographic

description serves as a primary means of capturing context in this study. Classroom

ethnography, like other forms of ethnography, involves the extended, intense observation

of a particular group, and, as Watson-Gegeo (1997) writes:

Classroom ethnography emphasizes the sociocultural nature of teaching and

learning processes, incorporates participants’ perspectives on their own behavior,

and offers a holistic analysis sensitive to levels of context in which interactions

and classrooms are situated. (p. 135)

In the classroom that was the site of my research, participant-observation and the

composition of field notes enabled the overall understanding of the culture of the class,

school, and the lives of the adolescent refugee SIFE. I observed and videotape as many

class sessions as possible and conducted interviews with students and the teacher.

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Interviews provided an emic perspective on participants’ experiences. The research site

and participants will be discussed in the next section.

Data Collection, Research Sites, and Participants

The data collection for the dissertation study took take place in two phases. I

describe the time period and research site for each phase in turn.

Phase I: Summer International Program

The first phase of data collection was completed during a two-week summer

program for newcomer ELLs in the Sunnyside School District. The International

Program has taken place annually since 2005 during the first two weeks of August in one

of the elementary schools in the Sunnyside School District. Approximately 100 students

are enrolled from first grade through high school. The school day runs from 9:00 a.m. to

3:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Students are provided with free lunch in the school

cafeteria. The classroom that I observed is a class that is designed for middle and high

school newcomers. The program is designed for newcomer students who are not familiar

with the American school system and who do not speak English. Certified ESOL

teachers cover the basics of school rules, show students around the school, and teach

them how to read schedules. Students also begin to learn English and about United States

culture as well as content areas such as mathematics and social studies.

The data sources during Phase I, the International Program, included: field notes

constructed from participant observations in the program classrooms and a researcher

reflective journal I collected. These data were collected as a way of entering the research

site gradually and acclimating myself to the participants and activities going on. Three

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participants in the summer program also participated in Phase 2, the larger study taking

place during the school year.

Phase II: The School Year Study

The second phase took place in the newcomer classroom at Georgetown High

School (GHS) during the 2010-2011 academic year. The data sources for Phase 2

included participant observations; field notes; video-recordings of classroom activities;

audio-taped interviews with students, teachers, and collections of artifacts including the

curriculum and student work.

GHS is an urban secondary school, hosting grades 7-12, located in a metropolitan

city in northeastern United States. The student population is about 1,200. In addition to

conducting my study at this site, I also have experience teaching in this program. The

newcomer classroom is a sheltered classroom where, within distinct grade levels,

students are grouped according to their level of formal schooling and level of English.

Students are instructed by ESOL teachers in the following subject areas: English

Language Arts (ELA)/ESOL, mathematics, science, and social studies. Students also

take mainstream music, physical education, and art classes with the same group of peers.

The average classroom size is 25 to 30 students. I collected data during the ESOL class

periods which consist of two 90 minutes of block periods. The first block starts at 8:29

a.m. and ends at 9:59 a.m. The second block that I observed was social studies, 90

minutes of class time that starts at 10:03 a.m. and ends at 11:25 a.m. The decision to

collect data in the two different subject classrooms was informed by the classroom

teacher who is in charge of teaching the newcomer ESOL class as well as the social

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studies class for the SIFE. The teacher volunteered to participate in the study; therefore

her lessons were accessible for data collection.

Participants

The participants in both phases of data collection were immigrant and refugee

adolescent students in grades 7 to 12, who were enrolled in the summer program and the

newcomer program at GHS. Typically, students come from countries such as Burma,

Thailand, Somalia, Yemen, Burundi, Liberia, Iraq, Ethiopia, Kenya, Dominican

Republic, and Puerto Rico. According to 2009 records accessed from the ELL student

database in the Sunnyside School District, there were approximately 310 English

Language Learners at GHS. Of these, approximately 100 are SIFE at the various levels

in the newcomer program. Of the total number of students, 139 are Asian, 115 are

African, 41 are Hispanic, and 11 are European or Middle Eastern. One hundred seventy-

nine of the students are male and 126 are female.

Data Collection Methods and Data Sources

The ethnographic data sources for the study included participant observations,

field notes, interviews, and collection of documents and artifacts (Merriam, 1998; Stake,

1995; Yin, 2003). Here I describe these procedures in turn.

Participant Observation and Field Notes

In ethnographic research, researchers are considered the primary instruments of

data collection (Dyson & Genishi, 2005; Heath & Street, 2008), engaging in direct

observations and participant observations, from which field notes are constructed (Dyson

& Genishi, 2005; Heath & Street, 2008). Direct observation does not require the

researcher to be a participant in the classroom as the observations are detached from the

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participants. Direct observation is usually focused and may look for specific incidences

of certain behavior, rather than the whole behavior. However, participant observation in

ethnography requires the researcher to be an active participant within the natural

environment of the research site over a sustained period of time (Dewalt & Dewalt,

2002). Participant observation involves the process of establishing rapport within a

community and learning to act in such a way as to blend into the community so that its

members will act naturally, then removing oneself from the setting or community to

immerse oneself in the data to analyze and write about it. The participant observer

needs to have a nonjudgmental attitude and open mind in order to be a careful observer

(Dewalt & Dewalt, 2002).

Merriam (1998) notes the importance of observation within qualitative research,

that it offers “a firsthand account of the situation under study” (p. 111). Through

observations I was able to gain an understanding of the experiences of the newcomer

classroom, conceptualizing their students’ and teacher’s joys, challenges, and frustrations

associated with attending school in the United States. The observations provided a rich

description of the participants’ experiences.

I was a participant observer both in the International Program classroom and in

the newcomer classroom. During Phase 2 of data collection I used video and audio-

recordings of the classroom.

As a participant-observer, it was important for me to make field notes during my

observations. However, because I participated in classroom activities at times it was not

possible to take extensive field notes. Therefore, it was important to jot down words as

reminders for reference to the audio and video recordings later. In addition, field notes

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might include “analysis-in-description” (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995, p. 8) meaning

the themes that the researcher can identify in relation to the research question, which

affects the ongoing focus of observations. As Emerson et al. point out, “Writing field

note descriptions is not so much a matter of passively copying down ‘facts’ about ‘what

happened.’ Rather, such writing involves active processes of interpretation and sense-

making” (p. 8). In this regard, field notes can be descriptive, reflective, and analytical at

the same time (Bogdan & Biklen, 2003; Dyson & Genishi, 2005; Emerson et al., 1995),

which is what I aimed to create.

Reflective Journal

Another source of data was the reflective research journal I kept. The journal

allows the researcher to describe her feelings about the research. According to Morrow

and Smith (2000), the use of a reflective journal adds rigor to qualitative inquiry as the

investigator is able to record her reactions, assumptions, expectations, and biases about

the research process. I wrote in my reflective journal almost every day after I completed

collecting data for the day. I typed my reflective journal and saved it on my personal

computer.

Video Recordings

The use of video recordings allows researchers to capture complex interactions

such as gestures, facial expressions, and non-verbal cues (Marshall & Rossman, 2006;

Miller & Zhou, 2007). Moreover, video recordings can be helpful with capturing details

that might be missed in field notes and observations (Lemke, 2007). Video recordings

also provide a permanent record of the participants in their natural settings that might

help with later analysis (Marshall & Rossman, 2006). Additionally, video recordings

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allow the researcher to view the recordings repeatedly during the process of analysis

(Lemke, 2007).

I video recorded during Phase 2 of data collection beginning four months into the

study. I used a digital video camera with a microphone. I wanted to wait to start video

recording until students felt comfortable having me in the classroom and trust me. When

I started videotaping the students did not feel uncomfortable and it did not become a

distraction. From this point on, I video recorded the classroom every day during

instruction of ELA and social studies. The decision about where to place the camera on

any given day was made in relation to the activities taking place (Hall, 2000). My

rationale for what and whom to record was also noted in my research journal each day.

Interviews

A common method used in qualitative studies to learn how people feel and think

is interviewing. Individual interviews facilitate such understanding by providing a format

for researchers to ask questions about individuals’ experiences and the meanings they

make about those experiences. Moreover, interviews can yield rich insights into people’s

lives, experiences, opinions, values, aspirations, attitudes, and feelings. Interviews are

useful for getting the story behind participants’ experiences. Therefore, interviewing

consists not only of asking questions and getting answers but also of exchanging

information collaboratively (Fontana & Frey, 2005). Interviews seek to elicit

participants’ descriptions of the meanings of their worlds and to understand the meaning

of what the interviewees say (Kvale, 1996). In the current study, interviews provided

insights about students’ and the teacher’s perspectives and experiences.

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Semi-structured interviews provide an open framework that allows for giving and

receiving information. They start with general questions and topics and lead to more

specific questions as the conversation goes on. Phase 2 of data collection involved semi-

structured in-depth interviews of seven focal students about their life histories,

experiences settling in the United States, and schooling experiences. I decided to

interview seven students to obtain a range of perspectives and experiences.

I decided which students to interview through convenience sampling, meaning I

chose students that provided me with a range of information about SIFE experiences

(Creswell, 1998). Focal students were chosen to represent both genders and all the home

countries represented in the classroom, different numbers of years of schooling and

various refugee experiences. Therefore, the sampling was also purposeful, informed by

the literature on refugee student experiences (e.g., REFS). I conducted two interviews

with each student, one as a baseline at the beginning of the year, and one at the end of the

year. I also interviewed the classroom teacher twice during the academic year. The

interview protocols are found in Appendices.

Documentation and Artifacts

Collecting documents and artifacts is advised in addition to making field notes

and conducting interviews because these index activities in the research site and hold

meaning for participants (Marshall & Rossman, 2006). For this study, I collected

documents such as student work, classroom records, and curriculum materials to bolster

my understanding of the activities that SIFE are engaged in the classroom setting.

Additionally, the documents and artifacts provided a source of data for analyzing the

contextual issues that may shape and affect instruction and classroom interaction.

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Data Organization and Preparation

In this section I discuss the organization and preparation of my data, including

how the data were managed, stored, and transcribed.

Qualitative and ethnographic studies generate a large amount of data, so before

and during the analysis stage the data need to be organized. For video recordings, Hall

(2007) recommends indexing video recordings and creating a log of the date and time,

names of participants, and the activities taking place. To manage the video recordings, I

indexed each recording to enable transcription and comparison with field notes (Engle,

Conant, & Greeno, 2007). The interviews were captured on audio-recordings which were

entered into a log along with notes made during the interview. The classroom documents

and other artifacts gathered were also logged with details of date and context. The

documents that could be scanned electronically were logged and kept electronically on

my personal computer. The field notes were also logged and stored in a Microsoft Word

file in my personal computer which was backed up on an external hard drive. My

research journal was also typed in electronic format and saved and backed up.

Transcription

Before the data can be analyzed, they need to be selected/reduced for

transcription. The decision about which video and audio recordings to transcribe was

made according to key events and themes that took place in the classroom and noted in

the field notes and research journal. The process of transcribing allows the researcher to

become acquainted with the data and start thinking about themes that may emerge

(Riessman, 1993). The data selected were transcribed verbatim by selecting particular

times, contexts, and particular projects to be transcribed. I created Microsoft Word

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format files for the interviews, observations, and journal entries, which were importable

into the qualitative analysis software program NVivo 8.

The selected video and audio files as well as field notes were also imported into

NVivo 8 for coding and analysis. NVivo8 software was used to organize and code the

interviews, field notes, audio and video data. NVivo8 allowed me to transcribe and code

large amounts of data through different trees, which are nodes that are available to sort

the data.

Analytic Frameworks

Although there are many approaches to data analysis in qualitative studies

(Bogdan & Biklen, 2003), many ethnographic researchers use grounded theory to analyze

data, which I discuss in the next section (Charmaz, 2006). Here I begin by discussing the

analytical frameworks that I used.

Grounded Theory

Charmaz (2006) describes grounded theory as methods that “consist of

systematic, yet flexible guidelines for collecting and analyzing qualitative data to

construct theories ‘grounded’ in the data themselves” (p. 2). The aim in grounded theory

is for the researcher to begin with an area of study and allow what is relevant to one’s

research question to emerge from the data. Since my study with adolescent refugee SIFE

is broad, grounded theory allows for themes and meanings to emerge. Hutchinson (1988)

highlights the relevance of the grounded theory methodology to education, noting that it

allows for the explanation of the everyday world of teachers, students, administrators,

and the school bureaucracy. With “a focus on lived experience, patterns of experience

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and judging and appraising the experience,” grounded theory offers a systematic way to

“study the richness and diversity of human experience” (Hutchinson, 1988, p. 127).

In using grounded theory, ideally the data should be analyzed as they are collected

(Strauss & Corbin, 1998). I began to analyze data that were collected during Phase 1, the

summer program, and in Phase 2 of data collection while I was collecting data so that

emerging analyses could provide direction for ongoing data collection. Creativity also

plays a role in the grounded theory approach in that the researcher can “break through

assumptions and create new order out of the old” (p. 27). Being creative allows for

naming categories and making associations that can generate stimulating questions,

eventually arriving at comparisons that lead to discovery.

Grounded theory follows a three-stage process to coding the data: open coding,

axial coding, and selective coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Open coding involves

identifying concepts. Data collected from observations, interviews, and artifacts are

compared and sorted according to themes. Open coding also involves categorization of

data and then moving onto the second stage in the process, axial coding. In the axial

coding stage, the researcher looks for relationships among categories. Axial coding

allows making connections among conditions, contexts, and interactions by exploring the

various influences that may affect the phenomenon being studied. It is called axial

coding because analyzing “revolves around the ‘axis’ of one category at a time” (Strauss

& Corbin 1990, p. 32). Axial coding then often entails conducting additional interviews

and observations that focus on the emerging analytic themes. At this stage of the coding,

constant comparison is used to support the relationships among categories and to

establish a story line that describes the phenomenon. During axial coding, data are

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collected to look for answers to new questions that may emerge. The third stage is the

selective coding, where the researcher looks for recurring patterns and themes in the

categories. In selective coding the core category in which the final analysis will be

conducted is selected. A story line is created during selective coding and validated by

looking at relationships between concepts.

Grounded theory is generated by themes; however, there needs to be a starting

point, which is called the sensitizing of concepts. Charmaz (2003) refers to these as

“background ideas that inform the overall research problem” (p. 259). The sensitizing

concepts I used to analyze the data were critical theory, ethics of care, culturally

responsive and relevant pedagogy and social and cultural capital. Critical theory was

useful in analyzing the power structures that was in place within the school and the

classroom and how decisions were made for the education of refugee SIFE. Ethics of

care and culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy were helpful in looking at the practices

of the classroom teacher and how these practices affected refugee SIFE’s adjustment to

the schools in the U.S. Through the analysis of ethics of care and culturally

responsive/relevant pedagogy of the classroom teacher, theories of social and cultural

capital framework was helpful in understanding the accumulation of necessary capital for

refugee SIFE as they transition into the mainstream education. Blaikie (2000) suggests

that the grounded theory approach to research requires sensitizing concepts but no

hypotheses. That is, the data guides the emergence of sensitizing concepts and allows us

to make sense of it. The sensitizing concepts in the proposed study were informed by the

review of literature on the theoretical frameworks. These concepts set the context of

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analysis, provided an analytic frame, and served as a point of reference and a guide in the

analysis of data with theory-producing potential.

Initial coding involved coding transcribed data word-by-word, line-by-line, and

event-by-event. Charmaz (2006) describes open, line-by-line coding as

breaking the data up into their component parts or properties; defining the actions

on which they rest; looking for tacit assumptions; explicating implicit actions and

meanings; crystallizing the significant of the points; comparing data with data;

identifying gaps in the data. (p. 50)

As part of the initial coding process, the data were broken into segments called

“incidents,” which form the units of analysis (Charmaz, 2006). During the initial coding

process, codes related to a common theme were organized into “concepts” which are

similar codes group together. Then concepts are grouped according to similar themes and

become “categories.” The review process during data collection and analysis is

described as “constant comparison” in which the concept and categories that emerge from

initial analysis are applied to other data to see if they fit (Charmaz, 2006; Strauss &

Corbin, 1990).

Memoing, Coding, Drafting, and Writing

As the field notes, research journal, and interview data were imported into NVivo

8, data analyses were done simultaneously with data collection. In addition, analytic

memos were written weekly after each round of data collection. As Heath and Street

(2008) and Charmaz (2006) recommend, writing memos is a critical practice for

researchers to analyze the data and create codes during the research process as well as to

remind the researchers of key ideas at later stages of analysis.

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Drafting of the research findings is considered to go hand in hand with various

phases of data analysis (Charmaz, 2006). My memos represented salient interpretations

of the data; therefore, they served as the basis for drafting my findings. Wolcott (2009)

recommends starting drafting early in the research process to get a sense of what needs to

be included in a research report. Denzin (1994) also notes that researchers “can neither

make sense of nor understand what has been learned until they sit down and write

interpretive text” (p. 502). Throughout the study, I wrote memos that allowed for themes

to emerge and to guide me through drafting and rewriting.

Criteria of Soundness

In order for research to be trusted criteria for quality need to be in play (Lincoln &

Guba, 2000; Marshall & Rossman, 2006). Lincoln and Guba (1985) refer to these criteria

as “truth value” (p. 290). Four constructs make up these criteria: credibility,

transferability, dependability, and confirmability (Marshall & Rossman, 2006), which I

discuss in the following sections.

Credibility within a qualitative study is demonstrated when the researcher

“explores a problem or describe a setting, process, social group, or pattern of interaction”

with in-depth and clear identification of the problem (Marshall & Rossman, p. 201). In

the current study, credibility is based on the analyzed data from a year-long classroom

study that provided in-depth understanding of the experiences of SIFE. Credibility is also

addressed by triangulation, which involves the careful reviewing and comparing of data

collected from multiple sources to examine a phenomenon. Aspects of triangulation

include data triangulation, which is conducted by using different data sources;

methodological triangulation, which is done by comparing different methods of data

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sources in the study; investigator triangulation, which is done by including multiple

investigators and participants’ perspectives; member checking; and theory triangulation,

which is addressed by including multiple theoretical frameworks to study a phenomenon

(Stake, 1995). Potential threats to credibility in the form of observer bias and observer

effects in the observation and interview processes, these are addressed by triangulating

the data sources (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2006). The combination of data from different

sources through triangulation was employed to check the accuracy of findings in this

study. Identifying consistent patterns across themes in classroom observations and

interviews lends credence to the transferability and dependability of the findings of the

study. Data triangulation, methodological triangulation, and theoretical triangulation are

embedded within the study design. Investigator triangulation was addressed by having

my advisor, Dr. Curry, and my doctoral peer group provide feedback during data analysis

sessions and respond to drafts of my research findings. Investigator triangulation was

also addressed by having the participating teacher provide feedback on summaries of the

data analyses and a summary of the final results of the study.

Transferability is demonstrated when researchers “argue that findings will be

useful to others in similar situations, with similar research questions or questions of

practice” (Marshall & Rossman, 2006, p. 201). Marshall and Rossman (2006)

recommend “triangulation of multiple sources of data” to demonstrate transferability of

the research (p. 201). Confirmability in research refers to the internal consistency of the

data in relation to findings, interpretations, and recommendations. To attend to

confirmability, researchers need to make “sure that the findings reflect the participants

and the inquiry itself rather than a fabrication from the researcher’s biases or prejudices”

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(Marshall & Rossman, 2006, p. 201). To address confirmability, I situated the current

study in the research literature and used a grounded theory approach to data analysis. In

summary, these criteria of soundness allow for a classroom ethnographic study to be

internally valid while providing transferable findings of potential use to other researchers,

practitioners, and policymakers. I next turn to the ethical considerations involved in

conducting the study.

Ethical Considerations

In the dissertation study, all of the ethical guidelines of the University of

Rochester Institutional Review Board (IRB) were followed. Critical concerns were

considered to ensure protection of the participants. Students are considered to be a

vulnerable population if they are under the age of 18 and have “limited autonomy”

(RSRB Guidance, 2010, p. 37). However, because the proposed study took place within

“normal educational practices and settings” (RSRB, 2010, p. 37), it presented little

potential risk to the participants. Nonetheless, there is some risk when studying students

and teachers involved in the power relations of the school structures.

The first step in addressing potential risks is to ensure confidentiality of all

participants. In order to protect the participants’ privacy, I took caution when recording

the data and constructing documents from the data. The audiovisual data were recorded

with a digital audio recorder and a digital camcorder; digital files were saved on my

personal portable computer that only I have access to and back-up files were saved on an

external hard or thumb drives. All of the data were transcribed using pseudonyms for

the participants and the locations then analyzed on my computer. The data on my

personal computer were password-protected and the computer was locked when not in

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use. All of the participants were made aware that I would be careful to protect their

confidentiality and privacy. As is customary, they were also offered the opportunity to

withdraw from the study at any time without prejudice.

The second consideration when dealing with refugee families is potential

language issues. All of the students who requested interpreters were interviewed about

their experiences with the assistance of interpreters. The participants in the proposed

study may have also felt uncomfortable discussing their experiences or personal

information. During interviews, therefore, participants were informed that they may

decline to answer any question without prejudice, or decline to participate in interviews at

all.

The next ethical consideration was my position as a former teacher in the

newcomer program. The ethical considerations that I identified as arising from this

history was forming rapport with former students as a researcher; thus it was possible that

the classroom teacher would have felt threatened or subject to criticism. On the other

hand, students may have seen me as an ally of teachers/administrators. To address these

concerns I explained my role as a participant researcher in the class while aiming to

obtain consent/assent from students, teachers, and parents. Parents/guardians were

informed of the consent through the informative meeting that took place at the beginning

of the second phase of the data collection. The consent/assent forms emphasized that

participation in this study was voluntary and that participants could withdraw from the

study at any time without consequences. Member checking (Marshall & Rossman,

2006) was also done throughout the data collection process, by asking the newcomer

classroom teacher to verify the findings I provided in draft and final versions.

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The final ethical consideration in this study is reciprocity. Marshall and Rossman

(2006) remind us that “qualitative studies intrude into settings as people adjust to the

researcher’s presence,” therefore the researcher should “reciprocate” (p. 81), or give

something back to participants. In current dissertation study, the participating teacher

and students have given their time, their experiences, life stories, and insights throughout

the year. As a way of reciprocating, I assisted the teacher as feasible within the

classroom setting, which was at times detrimental to my video-taping classroom

activities.

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CHAPTER 5

THE RESEARCH SITE AND PARTICIPANTS

This chapter presents a thick description of the context of the study including the

city, the neighborhood, the school, the “newcomer” program, the teacher and the

students. Sunnyside City,4 the site of this study, is a medium-sized metropolitan area in

northeastern United States. Although the city has been a center of industry, in the past 15

to 20 years it has been in post-industrial decline, with poverty rates rising up to 40

percent. The city is home to various ethnic groups, with the largest being

Hispanic/Latino/a. According to the 2010 Census, the city's population is 43.7% White

(37.6% non-Hispanic White), 41.7% Black or African American (38.8% non-Hispanic

Black or African American), 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 3.1% Asian,

6.6% from another race and 4.4% from two or more races. Of the total population 16.4%

is Hispanic or Latino of any race, mostly made up of Puerto Ricans (U.S. Census Bureau,

2010). Many of the neighborhoods in the city are segregated along class and racial/ethnic

lines.

Selection of the School as Research Site

The selection criterion for using this school as the site of my study was the

program it offers to recently arrived immigrants and refugees, specifically ELL SIFE. In

terms of refugee numbers, the state in which Sunnyside is located ranks fourth in the

nation for receiving refugees in the United States. Since 2003 Sunnyside has been one of

the cities in the state designated to receive recent refugee arrivals (Office of Refugee

Resettlement, 2010). Between 2003 and 2006, Sunnyside received 7,130 4 A pseudonym, as are names used for the school and research participants.

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immigrants/refugees of the 27,000 arriving in the state (Regional Institute, 2008). In

terms of the number of immigrants and refugees in the state and the city, the city is

representative of other cities in the United States that have received refugees in recent

years (Boyson & Short, 2003). Since the influx of immigrants/refugees in Sunnyside

in 2003, the school district has enrolled about 1285 immigrants/refugees annually.

There are four “newcomer programs” in the district, three elementary and one

secondary. A newcomer program “places recent immigrant/refugee students who have

limited English proficiency and often low or limited educational experience in their

native countries into a special academic environment separate from native English-

speaking students for a limited period of time (usually from six months to two years)”

(Short & Boyson, 2003, p. 1). Although newcomer programs can result in segregated

classes that deliver inadequate education (Feinberg, 2000), if used correctly, such

programs help newly arriving students transition into mainstream classrooms within two

years. The newcomer program under study was initiated during the 2004-2005 school

year with three classrooms and improved annually. The influx of refugees to the

Sunnyside School District since 2003 resulted in an increase in newcomer classes to

accommodate the students. In the GHS newcomer program students receive sheltered

instruction, which is an instructional approach I describe in Chapter 6. The classrooms

are mixed age and grade leveled. Newly arrived English language learners are tested at

the district office and placed in the newcomer program or another program depending

upon their level of language proficiency and years of formal schooling. For the most

part, Spanish-speaking students are placed in secondary schools that have bilingual

programs.

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Georgetown High School

Georgetown High School (GHS) is one of the 23 secondary schools in the

Sunnyside School District. GHS has one of the city’s highest populations of ELLs, both

SIFE and other immigrants, housing 398 of the 3,574 ELLs in the district. It is located in

a predominantly poor and high-crime area of the city that suffers from gangs, violence,

and drugs. Ninety-three percent of its students are eligible for free or reduced lunch

(RCSD, 2011). Immigrants and refugees often end up in these kinds of poor and unsafe

areas because of inexpensive housing that is offered for large families and the availability

of public transportation (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 2001). Many of the students

in the study have experienced or witnessed violence, vandalism, and robbery as they

walked through the neighborhood. They have also witnessed many fights between

students at Georgetown High School.

GHS has about 1200 students in grades seven through 12, with a typical student-

teacher ratio of 13 to one. The school ranks 1059 out of the 1112 public secondary

schools statewide, based on mathematics and reading scores. In 2010 its graduation rate

was 39%. The Georgetown High School building is in poor physical condition, with the

roof leaking into classrooms throughout the year. The school was built in 1919 as a

junior high school and is in need of structural repair and asbestos removal. Entering the

building, one encounters metal detectors where students and visitors are searched and

bags are passed through a monitor. The school has four main floors, with mainstream

classrooms, offices, the gymnasium and the cafeteria located on the first three floors; on

the fourth floor are special education, music, and art classrooms. The newcomer program

occupies part of back wing of the third floor, with seven classrooms and an office for the

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program administrator and counselor. However, this space is separated from the main

hallways and classrooms and the rest of the students in the school. Indeed, to reach the

school library on the second floor, because tables are placed across the main entrance to

the library on the second floor hallway, students cannot walk through, so they must walk

from one side of the building around to the other to get to the library.

After being placed on the No Child Left Behind (2001) list of Schools under

Review because of its low student performance (NYSED, 2007), since 2003 GHS has

undergone various restructuring processes. In the most recent redesign, which took place

in 2009-10, the year before this study, the school was divided into three small learning

communities: The Dreams School of Art; the School of Entrepreneurial Studies, and the

School of Sports and Health Sciences. Each learning community has its own

administrator, teaching staff, counseling staff, office staff, and curriculum as well as its

own schedule and extra-curricular activities. The newcomer program was housed in the

Dreams School of Art; thus ELL students, unlike other students, did not have an option

about which learning community to enroll in.

The newcomer program at GHS offers support for students’ simultaneous

development of English language proficiency and content-area concepts through

sheltered instruction in English. However, while in the newcomer program, the students

did not receive any credits from their courses toward graduation. As explored in chapter

two, this ‘newcomer program’ is a within-school newcomer program that uses the SIOP

Model. SIFE are placed into this program for up to two years of time, but for those

whose formal education is severely interrupted, they end up staying in the newcomer

program longer than two years. Similar scenarios are present in the study site that after

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spending on an average of two years in the newcomer program, many SIFE do not have

enough credits to be able to graduate from high school. Many of the in-school courses

that the SIFE are enrolled in do not bear any credit towards high school graduation

because they are transitional classes that teach SIFE not necessarily on grade-level but

the basics such as basic mathematics, science, and social studies by modifying the grade

level curricula.

The newcomer program had a block schedule that aimed to help newcomers learn

how American public schools operate. (See Appendix L for daily schedule.) The school

followed an alternate A, B, C, D day schedule rotation for various subject classes;

however, in the first block of each day newcomer students had English Language Arts

class which replaced ESOL because of state mandates that ELLs need to receive both

ELA and ESL instruction. The ELA classes were taught by ESOL certified teachers

except for one class, which had an uncertified long-term substitute teacher.5 After

teaching the ELA class, the ESOL teachers then taught mathematics, science, social

studies, technology, and art, despite not being certified in these subjects. In addition, they

were required to create curriculum materials to teach these subjects to ELL SIFE.

At the beginning of the year of the study there were five newcomer classes at

GHS, four classes mainly consisting of students with interrupted formal education and

one “transitional” class where students gradually took mainstream courses in addition to

ESOL. Most students in the newcomer program had arrived in the country within the past

5 All newcomer classes had certified ESOL teachers at the beginning of the year,

but one new teacher who did not feel comfortable teaching mathematics quit within the first week of school. As a replacement an uncertified teacher was hired, despite the school district being included on the state’s schools under improvement list, which mandates certified teachers being hired.

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six months. However, some students had been in the country for closer to one year.

Registration and enrollment were ongoing throughout the school year. There was no

policy of limiting enrollment of students in the newcomer program; therefore many

classrooms were often overcrowded, with 28 to 30 students in each classroom, in contrast

to the overall student-teacher ratio of 13 to one in the school, and in contrast to the ideal

class size recommended for newcomer programs of 15 (Boyson & Short, 2003). The

scripted reading curriculum that was implemented in the classroom after four months also

called for 12 students in the ELA class (Scholastic, 2009); however the smallest ELA

class size was 19. The other subject classes in the newcomer program had 28 students on

average, which at times went up to 32. The average class size in the Sunnyside School

District ranges from 18 to 25.

Description of the Classroom

The classroom under study had 22 student desks, arranged in groups of four

oriented for students to face each other. The teacher’s desk was in front corner of the

classroom near the window. The room was outfitted with six computers located in the

back of the room against the wall. There was also an overhead projector connected to a

SMART Board and a blackboard in front of the classroom. The classroom library of

approximately 100 books, dictionaries, magazines, and other resources stood against the

side wall near the computer center. Near the classroom library was a round table with

four chairs and two additional folding chairs. This was the “reading center,” where

students picked out books to read independently or with partners. Next to the reading

center stood a metal shelf that held student mail folders (for returned assignments) and

bins with student folders. There was also a tall metal locked cabinet for classroom

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supplies. The other side of the room had two long foldable rectangular tables with

crayons, markers, writing utensils, and drawing books and was labeled the “writing

center.” Next to the writing center was another tall locked metal cabinet for adults to

store their bags. The classroom had two doors connecting it to two other newcomer

classrooms.

Adults in the Classroom

Mrs. Smith (a pseudonym), the participating teacher in the study, taught ELA and

social studies, and co-taught science. The focus of my ethnography was Mrs. Smith’s

daily ELA and social studies classes, which alternated on B and D days (every other day).

Mrs. Smith, who is a white, middle-class female in her mid-thirties, holds a bachelor’s

degree in English and master’s degree in TESOL as well as teacher certification in

TESOL. At the time of the study, she had been working in the Newcomer Program for

two years, not yet long enough to be tenured in the school district. With teaching

experience in other U.S. schools and Japan, she is dedicated, organized and creative, and

highly respected by both colleagues and students. Mrs. Smith is the main income earner

in her family; during the time of the study she had a newborn baby and toward the end of

the study she became pregnant with her second child.

The second adult in the classroom every day was Mrs. Kim (a pseudonym), the

sign language interpreter for a student who was deaf and usually spent the daily ELA

class learning sign language with a teacher for the deaf. On most days during this time

Mrs. Kim stayed in the ELA classroom and helped Mrs. Smith’s students with their work.

Participating Students

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The number of students in the class fluctuated between 15 and 28 until December,

when it stabilized at 19 for the remainder of the year because of the introduction of a

scripted curriculum, System 44, which I discuss in the next chapter. Table 5.1 describes

these 19 students.

Table 5.1 Newcomer Student Demographics

Student

(Pseudonym)

Age Gender Country of

Origin

Years of Prior

Schooling

Ray* 15 Male Thailand 4

Libby 13 Female Thailand 5

Moeh* 13 Female Thailand 4

Haoh* 18 Male Thailand 4

Ehan 13 Male Thailand 4

Mark 15 Male Thailand 5

Moew 15 Male Thailand 5

Than* 15 Male Thailand 3

Phan 16 Male Thailand 4

Laoh 18 Female Thailand 0

Saen 17 Female Thailand 3

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Dani 14 Female Nepal 5

Perry 17 Female Nepal 5

Sunita* 15 Female Nepal 5

Sunny 13 Male Nepal 4

Kurung 16 Male Nepal 5

Hasan 17 Male Yemen 6

Saleh* 16 Male Yemen 5

Mohamed 17 Male Yemen 5

*Focal students; all names are pseudonyms (assigned by the researcher)

As Table 5.1 shows, there were 13 boys and six girls in the class, with ages

ranging from 13 to 18. Although the majority of the students were Burmese/Karenni

refugees from Thailand, there were also immigrants from Yemen and refugees from

Nepal. The majority of the students from Thailand shared a common language

(Burmese), while some students also spoke the Karen language. Their years of prior

schooling ranged from zero to six, with students’ average years of schooling at 4.5.

Despite the range in student ages, students in the newcomer classroom were not

designated to be in different grade levels.

The Focal Students and Their Home Countries

As mentioned, I chose seven focal students from among the students in the class

on the basis of gender, national/ethnic origin, years of schooling, aspirations/goals, and

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refugee experiences. In this section I describe these students in terms of personal data

and educational background. First, however, I include a brief profile of the students’

homelands in order to contextualize students’ experiences before arriving in the United

States.

Burmese/Karen from Thailand

Although the students from Thailand report that they consider themselves from

Thailand, they also consider themselves ethnically different from the Thai majority. The

Karenni are a mainly rural, diverse, non-Burman ethnic minority population from

Karenni State in eastern Burma who settled in refugee camps in Thailand because of

political conflict in Burma (Cardozo, Talley, Burton, & Crawford, 2004). Historically,

the Karenni descended from Mongolian people and gradually settled in what is now

Burma starting in 739 B.C. Karenni are the largest ethnic group in Burma, which has

distinct culture and language from the Burmese majority. While the Karenni mostly lived

in mountainous areas, Burmese live in southern part of the country, mainly in cities.

Human Rights Watch (2010) reports that the Burmese army carried out much

violence, including torture, recruitment of child soldiers, and other violence against the

Karenni. The Karen National Union (KNU) is the armed opposition group that fought

against the Burmese army; according to Amnesty International U.S.A. (2010), many

ethnic Karenni report witnessing the killing of their friends and relatives by the Burmese

army. Due to these conflicts, most Karenni lived in rural areas as farmers before settling

in the refugee camps.

Many ethnic Karenni fled to refugee camps in Thailand to escape the conflict.

According to a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2012), refugees in the

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camps usually lead lives of poverty. In addition, although many children attended

primary school, many children stopped attending as they reached secondary school age in

order to work to support their families. Refugee camp schools are typically in poor repair

and lack school supplies, curriculum, and trained teachers. Until a few decades ago, the

Karenni language did not have a written form; so many Karenni cannot read their own

language (Center for Applied Linguistics, 2012). Many of these students in the study

speak both Karenni and Burmese; some can also read Burmese, having learned it in

refugee camp schools.

Bhutan/Nepal

The Bhutanese students considered themselves as being from Nepal, as they had

lived in refugee camps in Nepal for most of their lives. Before the Bhutanese sought

refuge in Nepal, they were an ethnic group living in southern Bhutan. When the

Bhutanese government attempted to force the Nepali to assimilate into Bhutan, conflict

began. Previously the Nepali were able to maintain their language, culture, and religion.

If Nepalis did not conform to the new rules, they were subject to having their citizenship

revoked. Activists who wanted freedom for ethnic Nepali were arrested, their property

was destroyed, and their citizenship was revoked. Ethnic Nepalis thus sought refuge in

Nepal or in Bengal state in India. Many Nepali who tried to cross back to Bhutan killed

or injured by the police.

In 2007, there were over 100,000 refugees in seven overcrowded Nepali refugee

camps; in 2008, the United States accepted 60,000 refugees for resettlement (Non-Profit

Assistance Center, 2008). As refugees were not allowed to work outside of the camp,

they depended on help from non-governmental aid agencies. However, refugee camps

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are often violent, with women and girls reporting violence and sexual assault (Human

Rights Watch, 2003). Most Nepali refugees in the camps were educated in Nepali and

English.

Yemen

Although South and North Yemen were united in 1990, South Yemen’s desire for

independence caused a civil war in 1994. Because of the Gulf War in 1990s, many

Yemeni men resettled in the United States to work and send money back to Yemen. It is

rare to find whole Yemeni families in the United States. Many young boys arrive in the

United States to live with their brothers, uncles, or fathers who often own corner stores.

Many young Yemeni students have good oral English from working in these corner

stores while they attend school. Because many Yemeni youth contribute to supporting

their families in Yemen, it is difficult to balance school and work. In addition, because of

constant movement between Yemen and United States, some Yemeni youth experience

interrupted schooling.

As described above, many of the students in the newcomer classroom share

difficult experiences, whether in refugee camps or not. Most of them have experienced

interrupted education for various reasons, often resulting from civil war and violence in

their countries. Many come from poor living conditions. As the descriptions of each

focal student that follow portray, students have varying goals and hopes for success in the

United States.

Focal Students in the Study

Ray, 15, Thailand (Karenni)

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Ray had come to the United States with his mother and four siblings. His father

had been shot and killed in fighting with Burmese soldiers during a conflict along the

Thai/Burma border. Before going to school in refugee camps for four years, Ray was a

soldier for the Karenni army. He is able to read in Burmese but not in Karenni. Ray was

in his second year in the newcomer classroom during the period of the study. As his oral

English is well developed, he often served as an interpreter for other Karen d Burmese

students at GHS. He often talked about seeing his friends being killed and he says he

wanted to go back to Burma to fight. Ray was involved at the local Baptist church that

offers a service in Karen which had helped sponsor some of the Karenni refugees. He

attended youth activities at the church. Ray often came to school lacking hygiene, with

unwashed clothing hands, and feet. He usually wore flip flops or sandals to school. He

often seemed sleepy, especially on Mondays, after watching movies or talking with

relatives in Burma at night. Thus he was not always able to pay attention in class and

became frustrated.

Moeh, 13, Thailand

Moeh came to the United States with her parents and three siblings. Like Ray,

she went to school in the refugee camps, for four years. In her first year in the newcomer

classroom, Moeh, a petite young woman, was quiet and shy, but also worked hard. Moeh

wore clean clothes and took care with her hair styles. Moeh actively participated at the

local Baptist church for the Karenni and took on responsibilities in the youth group. She

performed a traditional dance at the Karen New Year Celebration at the church. She

wants to become an interpreter working in health care settings.

Haoh, 18, Thailand

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Haoh came to the United States with his parents and five siblings. In Thai refugee

camps he had gone to school for four years then worked in masonry from the age of ten.

In his first year in the newcomer classroom, Haoh was a good artist who also played the

guitar. He wore clean clothes and had good hygiene. He was very respectful and

friendly. He attended the local Karenni church and participated in the youth events

organized at the church. A local Baptist church, that has religious service for the Karenni

population in Sunnyside City. Haoh took on various responsibilities at his church and

was responsible for recording the Karen new-year celebration. He also performed in the

Karen dance group.

Than, 15, Thailand

Than came to the United States with his parents and four siblings. He had gone to

school for three years in Thailand then worked on a farm from the age of nine. In his first

year in the newcomer classroom, Than was quiet and shy. He came to school dressed

well and had stylish hair that he dyed various colors throughout the year. He is the oldest

in his family, and often cooked at home. During the study his mother had a new baby.

Than is artistic, expressing himself by drawing. He worked hard and was optimistic

about his future in the United States.

Sunita, 15, Nepal

Sunita came to the United States with both parents, sponsored by an aunt who

lived in the United States. She has two younger sisters. She is tall and dresses well.

Sunita went to school for five years in Nepal. She spoke of Nepali schools not being very

helpful and said that she liked the school in the United States. Sunita was in her second

year in the newcomer program and had higher English proficiency than other students.

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She often cooked at home to help her mother. She wants to go to college and study

English.

Saleh, 16, Yemen

Saleh came to the United States with his uncle and lives with three other men

whom he considers uncles. He arrived in the newcomer classroom in December. He is

literate in Arabic but had interrupted schooling because of moving multiple times and not

attending school regularly. After school and on the weekends Saleh worked in his

uncle’s corner store. He usually did not complete homework assignments and believed

he could continue to work in his uncle’s store if he does not finish school.

Summary

In this chapter, I have described the city, the school district, Georgetown High

School, the newcomer program, the adults and students in the classroom under study, and

the backgrounds of the students. Immigrant and refugee students face numerous

challenges as they adjust to their new lives in the United States including navigating new

school settings, learning language and academics at the same time, psychosocial trauma,

and adjusting to the new culture (Guerrero, 2004). Having come from poverty and

struggle, many immigrant and refugees live in the same neighborhoods as their schools.

The condition of many of the schools, including GHS, that immigrant and refugee

students attend, is fragile and schools are marked by academic failure (McDonnell &

Hill, 1993). Aside from poverty, research has shown that literacy in the first language

influences the acquisition of the second language. Cummins (1981) argues that the

cognitive academic skills in the first language transfers to the second language. Because

many of the immigrants and refugees in the newcomer programs do not have strong

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academic skills in their first languages, it is more difficult and takes time for them to

acquire the academic skills required to succeed in U.S. schools. Despite the poor

housing and schooling conditions in the United States, many of the immigrant and

refugee students are very appreciative of the opportunities available to them in the United

States. This appreciation stems from their past experiences with the absence or

interruption of schooling. As a result, many immigrant and refugee students become

highly motivated to succeed and if provided with a safe and welcoming environment,

progress socially and academically. Teachers play an essential part in providing the

necessary support in order to help immigrant and refugee students to adjust to their new

environments. In the next chapter, I describe the experiences of the focal students as they

adapted to the school in the United States.

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CHAPTER 6: EDUCATIONAL PORTRAITS OF THE FOCAL STUDENTS

Introduction

This chapter addresses my primary research question: What are the experiences of

refugee adolescent students with interrupted education in an urban secondary school

newcomer classroom? Although my research primarily looked at students’ experiences

after their arrival into the newcomer program, their stories began even before they arrived

in the United States. This chapter focuses on the educational adaptation of the six focal

students in the study. Based on my analyses of the ethnographic data, four themes

emerged as being at the forefront of refugee SIFE’s experiences in the newcomer

classroom as they were being prepared to transition into mainstream education: 1)

students’ needs for social-emotional support; 2) students’ aspirations and incomplete

knowledge of the U.S. education system; 3) students’ responsibilities outside of school;

and 4) the power of classroom routines in supporting students’ adaptation to the U.S.

educational system. I elaborate on each of these themes in the next sections.

Theme 1: Students’ need for social-emotional support

As discussed in Chapter 2, immigrant students, and refugee students more

specifically, face emotional challenges as they also adapt to their new environment and

learning a new language. Once resettled, refugees in particular may feel isolated, as they

may have left family behind and did not know where they were going to be resettled.

Refugee resettlement can be especially difficult as many refugees often have limited

financial and institutional support (Shields & Berhman, 2004). In addition to these

considerations, refugees may also have emotional scars from their experiences of

violence and war (Hurt, Malmud, Brodsky, & Giannetta, 2001). Some students may not

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have been able to attend school while living in refugee camps for many years (Jaycox,

Stein, Kataoka, et al., 2002). Thus the past experiences of students in the ‘newcomer’

classroom and the emotional stress that they experienced influence their adaptation to

school. For example, Ray, a Karenni refugee, pointed out a gun wound he had on his

stomach, saying and noted:

Burmese soldiers kill people. I fought with them. I had a gun. They killed my

friend. My friend died. I want to go back and fight them. (Interview, 3/3/11).

Clearly, such traumatic memories of dangerous experiences were still active in Ray’s

mind. Although he was often able to focus on his studies, Ray easily became upset

during classes and could not pay attention. When he was upset, he would want to leave

and go home, as this example from field notes demonstrates:

Mrs. Smith passed out students’ English midterms back to be corrected during the

guided group work so she could give them extra points. Ray sat through the

guided group and corrected his test. When the rotation was over, he came to sit at

the reading center and put his head down. He crumpled his test and threw it in the

garbage can. Then he sat through the reading center very upset for the rest of the

rotation. I tried to talk to him but he did not want to engage in any way. (Field

notes, 1/31/11)

Ray’s frustration often stemmed from not being able to cope with failure. Mrs. Smith

spoke of her frustration that refugee students like Ray, who need emotional support, were

not getting what they deserved:

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He has every right to receive support services and all I want is for him to get the

support that he is entitled to. (Field notes, 11/8/10)

Eisenbruch (1988) claims that schools play a large role in refugee students’ success, as

with support and effective teachers and programs, refugees can overcome the barriers

easily. Often Mrs. Smith was able to handle Ray’s frustrations and calm him down, but

other times she had to send him out to the school counselor. However, because school

counseling services were limited (one counselor for more than 200 students), Ray did not

receive psychological counseling. Thus instead of providing support, the counselor

would send Ray home or have him call home.

Other refugee students were also in need of psychological support to cope with

problems or stressful situations that they had encountered. For example, at the beginning

of the school year, Than, a student from Thailand, would often come to class and not

interact with other students or the teacher. When I asked why he seemed sad he

responded, with a help of a translator:

I don’t like the people in the classroom. I don’t understand what is happening so

it’s frustrating. (Field notes, 9/23/10)

Than’s frustrations as he entered the school setting and expectations were part of the

refugee experience caused by remnants of past trauma. As described in McBrien’s

(2005) review, even five years after resettlement refugees with difficult experiences still

had stressful memories. During my first interview with him, for example, shared that he

only went to school for three years and then could not go to school because he “lived in

the jungle” (Interview, 3/3/11). He mentioned that he had to stay back and work in the

farm. Having had to take on responsibilities within his family from a young age, Than

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was not able to acquire the necessary schooling experiences that would help him

transition into schools here. Not knowing the different ways of schooling and

expectations, Than became overwhelmed and frustrated when faced with a challenge.

Acculturative stress, as defined in Chapter 2, involves the transition of refugees and

immigrants as they resettle into a new country and includes stress of learning a new

language and facing difficulties with the daily challenges of life (Berry et al., 1987).

Acculturative stress was also evident with the 16-year-old Yemeni student Saleh,

who lived away from his parents and had a lot of responsibility outside of school. Saleh

reported:

I really miss my mom. I live with my uncle and work in his store after school and

on the weekends. (Interview, 3/11/11).

Not having the support of a family environment made it difficult for Saleh to concentrate

in school. He often did not complete homework assignments and did not take school

seriously. In addition to acculturative stress, Saleh was also experiencing the stress of

being away from his parents and facing challenges without his parents’ emotional

support.

Students’ stress also resulted from changes in their family relationships after

resettlement in their new setting. For instance, in her journal, Saen, an 18 year old

student from Thailand, made a connection between a book that she was reading in class

and her family life:

I want to tell my feelings. Sometimes my mom and dad fight at home. I feel

angry and sad. I read a book about a girl who tells her feelings, I want to tell

about my feelings too. That’s all about me. (Journal entry, 4/16/11).

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Past trauma and current acculturative stresses were common as many of the refugee and

immigrant students adapted to their new environments. For some students, it may take

years to overcome these traumas, hindering their ability to focus on academics in the

classroom. Through different expressions, refugee students voiced their needs for

psychological support, which was not readily available in the school. The school did play

a role in helping refugee students to overcome some of their traumatic experiences.

However, this support mainly came from the teachers rather than the administration. In

addition to acquiring general English language, students also faced the task of learning

the academic language that would help them transition into the mainstream education in

the following year. Academic support offered as refugees adapted to school will be

discussed in the next chapter. In the next section I discuss the second theme that was

apparent in students’ experience, their high aspirations for the future and their incomplete

knowledge of the U.S. education system.

Theme 2: Students’ Aspirations and Incomplete Knowledge of the U.S. Educational

System

From interviews with the students, it became apparent that they all lacked

sufficient knowledge of the U.S. educational system to project realistic future career

trajectories and understand what would be necessary to do to achieve their goals. First,

although they all had specific goals, including graduating from high school and going to

college, they knew very little about the requirements for high school graduation. They

were not aware of how many credits they needed to graduate, whether they were

receiving credit for their classes, or what they needed to do to apply to and go to college.

For example, when asked about his future plans, 18-year-old Haoh said that:

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I want to finish high school and go to college. I had to work in my country

[Thailand] and couldn’t go to school but I want to study here and go to college. I

want to study geography in college. (Interview, 3/3/11)

When asked, Haoh did not know the requirements to finish high school. At his age, it

seemed unlikely that he would earn enough credits to graduate from high school in time

and pass the state required examinations.

Likewise, Saleh, who was 16 years old, believed that he was currently in the ninth

grade and would be graduating from high school after three years. Discussing his future,

he said he wanted to finish high school and go to college. He was confident that he

would be finished in three years because he was in ninth grade. The students’ placements

in a specific grade level while in the newcomer program lead them to believe that their

grade levels were parallel to those of domestic students in the high school and thus that

they would be on a similar trajectory to graduate after four years of high school.

However, because the students did not receive credit for the newcomer program courses,

this goal was unrealistic. In fact, the students were not aware that they were not receiving

credit for classes they took at the newcomer program. Indeed, students first needed to

learn enough English and academic content to enroll in mainstream academic classes and

be able to pass the examinations.

As noted in Chapter 5, Ray was in his second year in the newcomer classroom.

When asked about his goals, he stated, “I want to learn English well and help others.”

(Interview, 3/3/11). As Ray’s basic interpersonal skills (BICS, Krashen, 1985) were

strong, he often served as an interpreter for other students from Thailand. In fact, Ray

was sometimes taken out of the classroom to help the counselor make phone calls to

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other students’ families and translate for them. In addition to learning English, Ray

wanted to go to college. However, like other students, he did not know the graduation

requirements.

Likewise, 15-year-old Sunita wanted to go to college in order to get a good job to

support her family, although she was not sure what she wanted to study. Like Ray, she

did not know the graduation requirements, nor that she was not receiving credit for her

classes. Similarly, although Moeh wanted to become a medical interpreter working in

hospitals, she did not know about the requirements, merely saying “I need to learn

English and go to college” (Field notes, 3/10/11). Thus, students saw learning English

and going to college as a critical component of their future in the United States. They

were aware that they needed to go to college in order to reach their aspired career goals.

However, while all students wanted to go to college, their goals were vague and they

lacked knowledge about how to reach their goals (see Curry, 2001, for similar findings

with refugee/immigrant community college students).

As noted, neither administrators, counselors, or teachers in the school informed

students about the requirements for the high school graduation. Mrs. Smith felt a tension

between supporting the aspirations that students articulated and helping them to have

realistic ideas about the timeframes to achieve their goals:

I struggle with that. I don’t want to be the one to tell them look, you know,

you’re seventeen years old and [getting] no credit. I kind of think that’s the

counselor’s job if they weren’t overwhelmed. Especially the ones that say I want

to be a doctor or something, I guess I felt for their first year in America I don’t

want to be the one to beat them down. (Interview, 10/21/10)

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Although Mrs. Smith may not have wanted to add to students’ acculturative stress by

overwhelming them with the requirements, it is clear that students needed this crucial

information about graduation requirements in the United States. While students may not

have been able to fulfill the requirements in time to graduate before aging out, they

should have been notified about their options. If provided with academic cultural capital

about options for future education, students would be able to make informed decisions

about their futures. In fact, maintaining the absence of knowledge about schooling had

the effect of marginalizing students; in effect, this neglect by school personnel functioned

to make choices for students’ futures rather than empowering them to do so themselves.

Consistent with the literature on minority students and the inequalities in their

access to college, there are multiple factors that influence this inequality, such as

inadequate secondary school preparation and high standards for admissions (Auerbach,

2004; Kiyama, 2008). Aside from the college entrance requirements, these students

were not aware of any of the requirements for completing of high school, let alone

college. Although, the newcomer program was supposed to serve as a place for these

students to get acculturated to the U.S. education system, there were not enough supports

in place.

Theme 3: Responsibilities Outside of School

A common theme emerging from my interview data was the focal students’ out of

school responsibilities in their families. Students mentioned household responsibilities

such as chores, taking care of younger siblings, and working outside of the home to earn

money.

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When asked to recount a typical day in her life, Sunita, a 15-year-old student from

Nepal, reported that as the oldest child in her family, on most days she cooked for her

family after school because her father was working and her mother was at school.

Similarly, Haoh, an 18-year-old student from Thailand, also noted that he “cooked and

helped” his mother. He said, “I make very good chicken” (Interview, 3/3/11). Also an

eldest child, Haoh had taken on responsibilities to help his family financially as a young

child in Thailand. During my first interview with him he reported:

I went to school for three years and then didn’t go to school because I did

masonry work. I worked in a small place. I didn’t go to school because we

needed money. (Interview, 3/3/11)

The responsibilities that Haoh took on from a young age helped him gain many

skills, such as his expertise in masonry. Likewise, Ray served as the head of his

household after his father was killed in the war. Speaking about a typical day in the

United States, he said:

I go home, cook some food and watch TV. I cook for my mom too. (Interview,

3/3/11)

In addition to his traumatic experiences of working as a soldier fighting the Burmese

army, Ray had taken on a lot of responsibilities from a young age. He struggled with

emotional issues that stemmed from his past experiences, but came to school every day.

However, he often came with dirty hands, feet, and clothes, seeming to have rushed to

school.

Than, a 15-year-old student from Thailand, also took on the responsibility to care

for his younger siblings when his mother had a baby during the school year. When his

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mother had the baby, Than seemed under stress and was very quiet. One day during the

reading rotation, he remarked to me:

I hate my life. I want to die. (Field notes, 3/10/11)

In subsequent conversation with Than, he said that he didn’t like his life. He couldn’t

sleep at home because of the baby. Along with his past experiences, and the

acculturative stress of resettling and adjusting to school, the new baby at home made it

harder for him to cope, affecting his engagement in school as he could not concentrate on

school work.

Saleh worked in his uncle’s store daily after school and on weekends. He often

did not complete homework assignments. Living with his uncle and other Yemeni men,

he was responsible for cooking for himself, doing his own laundry, and caring for the

basic necessities. His responsibilities outside of the school hindered his ability to

concentrate in school and complete school work, particularly because of his view that:

I don’t have to finish school. I can just work in my uncle’s store. (Field notes,

3/10/11)

Although Saleh’s situation as an immigrant differed from those of the refugee students

who lived through previous trauma, he also experienced acculturative stress while

working, adjusting to school, and learning English. Being away from his family and

lacking emotional support, Saleh was faced with making adult decisions on his own, a

situation he shared with some of the refugee students.

These emotional and personal challenges in the lives of the refugee and immigrant

students often distracted them from their schoolwork, likely slowing their academic

achievement. Often, refugee and immigrant students have more family responsibilities

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than do their peers, which may affect their academic success in schools (Townsend & Fu,

2001). Although many of the students in the study dealt with emotional stress and

responsibilities outside of school, they managed to come to school on a daily basis and

persevered. Even though the administration of the school did not make an effort to meet

their psychological needs, the emotional and caring support in Mrs. Smith’s classroom

provided them with a safe haven to want to come to school regularly, as I explore in

chapters below.

While teachers cannot influence the past issues that refugee and immigrant

students have experienced, they still play a critical role in helping students adjust to

school academically and socially. Teachers can meet the affective and academic needs

of refugee students by creating a safe and supportive learning environment in the

classroom, in particular by creating predictable routines. In the next section, I discuss the

routines and classroom practices that Mrs. Smith created that helped refugee students

adjust to school in the United States.

Theme 4: The Power of Routines

Providing a quality education that promotes a sense of safety, self, and transition to

their new schooling for refugee ELL SIFE has utmost importance in helping them

overcome the psychological trauma they may have experienced in the past (Sinclair,

2001). Through regular routines in place, refugee ELL SIFE can have some normalcy

and hope as they heal from their past experiences. Mrs. Smith’s teaching philosophy

focused on creating an environment where students worked in small groups, chose a

variety of tasks, shared their work with each other, and learned social skills. Mrs. Smith

believed that refugee students needed to be explicitly taught things such as “what’s going

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on in school, the routine, what does it mean to have a change-up schedule, where are we

going to go, what is roller skating” (Interview, 10/24/10). Thus learning to follow

consistent routines and procedure played a large role for Mrs. Smith’s students in

adapting to U.S. school culture. In the next section I describe the classroom routines and

instructional practices that took place during the English Language Arts (ELA) block that

began each day in the newcomer program to demonstrate the effectiveness of routines to

help refugee ELL SIFE to adapt to the school.

Classroom Routines and Instructional Practices in the ELA Class

Students arrived in class between 8:20 and 8:30 a.m. Mrs. Smith typically greeted

the students at the door. The students then approached the plastic bins placed behind the

work tables to take out their notebooks and color-coded folders for ELA and social

studies, the class following ELA. Each day’s Essential Question (EQ) was displayed on

the SMART Board and on chart paper for students to copy in their notebooks and to

answer by the end of class. The EQ reflected the focus of the day’s lesson and what

students would be able to answer at the end of the lesson. Students copied the EQ so that

they could refer back to it throughout the lesson as well as to give them practice writing

in English. At the beginning of the year, while putting this routine in place, Mrs. Smith

went around the classroom to compliment students for copying the EQ. After a few

weeks it became routine, with students automatically doing this activity on their own.

While students copied the EQ and settled into the classroom, school-wide

announcements were made over the intercom. Often these announcements were not

relevant to students in Mrs. Smith’s classroom; however, when general announcements

affected them, Mrs. Smith explained the announcements and discussed them with

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students before starting her lesson. For example, although classes would not be held at

Georgetown High School during Regents Exam week, students in the newcomer program

were scheduled to take their mid-term exams during that week; thus, teachers were asked

to create a modified schedule for testing. As the following field notes extract shows, Mrs.

Smith explained this change to her students:

The principal announced that Regents Exam practice sessions would be offered

during the Regents week. Although students in the newcomer program did not

take the Regents Exams, teachers were asked to conduct midterm exams. Mrs.

Smith clarified the Regents week modified schedule and which tests students

were going to take:

Mrs. Smith: “What is a midterm? Is it at the end of the year, middle of the year?”

Students: “It’s a middle of the year test.”

Mrs. Smith: “It’s a middle of the year test. Are you ready for your English

midterm? Tuesday will be our English test; Wednesday will be our social studies

test. Thursday you will go to take your math test. Your computer class

PowerPoint presentation will be on Thursday during science class in the

afternoon, and Friday we will have a science test in the morning. Do you have

any questions about the tests next week? We have a lot of tests. Make sure you

come to school.” (Field notes, 1/20/11)

In this example, Mrs. Smith anticipated that students might be confused by the changes;

her discussion with them thereby eased their transition to school practices such as

schedule alterations resulting from examinations.

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After starting daily classes with the EQ and school-wide announcements, Mrs.

Smith’s teaching practice followed what she called a “workshop model,” which included

a pattern of a teacher-led bridge and mini-lessons. Teacher-led lessons consisted of

whole class and individual work. After students copied the EQ, they waited for Mrs.

Smith to start the whole-group bridge activity, which consisted of her own morning

message and a related task to be performed by students. Every day, she wrote her

morning message on the SMART Board and read it aloud with the students, as in this

example:

Good morning! Today is Friday, December third, 2010. It’s a B day. We have

English and science classes today. Are you ready for the weekend? (Video-

recording transcription, 12/3/10)

Here as Mrs. Smith read the morning message she checked for students’ content

comprehension by asking, “What is a weekend?” Mark responded, “Saturday and

Sunday.” As in this example, in some cases Mrs. Smith’s morning message clarified

announcements and repeated information that students would need to know. At other

times it allowed students to engage in a brief conversation, integrating disciplinary

knowledge such as science and mathematics. For instance, at the beginning of the year,

Mrs. Smith introduced students to weather vocabulary, how to estimate temperature and

make predictions about the temperature for the next day, which helped students become

familiar with science vocabulary and the weather in their new region. For example:

Good morning! Today is Friday, October first, 2010. How are you? It’s an A

day. Today we have English and Social studies classes. Let’s estimate the

temperature outside. (Field notes, 10/1/10)

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After reading the message chorally, students estimated the temperature, then shared their

estimation with the whole class, as these field notes capture:

Mohamed: “I think it’s forty-five.”

Ray: “Forty-two.”

Saleh: “Forty-eight.”

Sunita “Fifty-two.”

Mrs. Smith wrote students’ estimates on the SMART board. She then opened the

Internet site weather.com on the SMART board and checked the temperature in

both Celsius and Fahrenheit scales to familiarize students with measurements. She

helped the students to convert between these scales, thereby involving

mathematics skills. (Field notes, 10/1/2010).

Having students estimate the temperature using Fahrenheit measurements gave them a

sense of pride when they were correct, and practice in using English in all cases. After

estimating the temperature, students wrote it in the weather chart Mrs. Smith created for

every day of the week. After making their temperature estimations, students wrote the

temperature that Mrs. Smith reported to them from the weather.com website on their

charts, as (displayed in Figure 1).

After students filled out their charts, Mrs. Smith asked them:

Please tell your friends your prediction of temperature for tomorrow.

(Field notes, 10/1/2010)

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Figure 6.1 Sunita’s Student weather chart

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Students exchanged their predictions with their peers and wrote their predictions

on their weather charts. Mrs. Smith’s morning message also included an interaction

component where students shared something about themselves with another student and

then with the whole class. For instance, one morning she asked:

What is your favorite kind of ice cream? (Field notes, 10/1/2010)

Students then conversed in groups, asking each other about their favorite kind of

ice cream, and then reported to the whole group about their friends’ favorite ice cream.

In September and October, Mrs. Smith asked students simple conversational questions

like the above to be discussed with each other and reported back to the class such as

“What sports do you like? (9/21/10), “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” (9/22/10);

“What time do you get up in the morning?” (9/28/10); “When did you come to the U.S.?”

(10/5/10). These conversational activities allowed students and the teacher to get to

know each other and build community while using English.

After the bridge activity, as discussed above, Mrs. Smith led a mini-lesson,

usually related to the language objectives of the lesson which included language features

such as capitalization, punctuation, prepositions, and verb tenses. For example:

Mrs. Smith asked students to correct the capitalization errors of these sentences

displayed on the SMART board:

Mrs. Smith and mohamed were talking.

Saen is from thailand.

Saleh speaks arabic, but not french.

moeh and Moew go to georgetown high school. (Field notes, 1/18/11)

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Mrs. Smith asked students to volunteer to correct the capitalization on the SMART board.

Her use of students’ names and related information from their cultures in these sentences

helped engage students in the lesson, while teaching others. For example, on one

occasion, I documented that “Mohamed, who is usually very quiet, raised his hand to go

up to correct the sentence on the board” (Field notes, 1/18/11). Mohamed, a 17-year-old

student from Yemen, started the school year speaking no English and was a reserved

student, who did not interact much with others. The interactive nature of the language

activities using the SMART board and personal references to students helped make

students comfortable in contributing to the lesson. Therefore, Mohamed and other

students who were often quiet, started to participate more in the classroom as the year

progressed, attesting to their low-anxiety and comfort in the classroom.

After the bridge and mini-lessons, students engaged in 20-minute independent or

collaborative activities in three rotations. Below I discuss the activities in these centers

in more detail. Here it is important to understand that knowledge of these classroom

routines allowed the students to become familiar with instructional activities and aware of

what Mrs. Smith and the school expected of them. Groups of six students rotated through

working in an independent reading/writing center, a teacher-guided group, and the

computer center. Early in the year Mrs. Smith had designated groups according to

students’ academic and linguistic proficiencies. The independent reading, listening, and

writing centers set up in different parts of the room and the computer center involved

students in working in these groups but without the immediate guidance of the teacher

(see the classroom set-up depicted in Figure 2).

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Figure 6.2 Classroom Set-up

The student desks are grouped in fours and students are heterogeneously distributed,

while the reading center table is circular providing collaborative interaction. The

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teacher’s desk is on the side of the room not at the forefront of the classroom, therefore

allowing Mrs. Smith to serve as a facilitator in the classroom. Ramsden (1999)

recommends that the classroom set up in clusters with heterogeneous grouping is the

ideal setting to promote collaborative classroom activities. The set-up of the classroom

allowed students to sit in heterogeneous groupings and interact with each other on a

regular basis. Engaging in safe peer to peer interactions is critical in meeting the

affective and social needs of ELLs in general, especially those of refugee SIFE. One way

to address this need is through instructional practices that are implemented in interactive,

flexible, and cooperative groups. Participating in smaller groups makes it easier for

newcomer immigrant and refugee students to engage in language exchange (Townsend &

Fu, 2001). In addition, students can support each other when they are working in small

groups. As Slavin (1985) proposes, cooperative learning helps meet the social and

emotional needs of language learners through developing self-esteem and motivation.

Cooperative grouping and interaction is part of good teaching for all students but

particularly critical for refugee students whose needs for social-emotional support of

peers may be greater than those of other students (Davies, 2008).

At the teacher guided reading center, Mrs. Smith had sets of simple books at

students’ levels and engaged students in taking turns reading, discussing, and answering

comprehension questions about the books read. In early October, Mrs. Smith gradually

introduced students to doing more independent reading. As students adjusted to reading

independently, Mrs. Smith then added an independent writing center, listening center

(where students listened to audio-books), and partner reading into the rotations. Every

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day, students engaged in independent or partner reading, writing, guided groups, and

computer centers, thus experiencing a range of literacy practices in a consistent manner.

The majority of the center rotations focused on reading, writing, and computer

activities, taking an approach to language development that focused on the holistic

development of language practices through their application in multiple contexts. For

example, the students read and wrote summaries of books; they wrote about topics of

their choice; completed charts and diagrams about lesson topics; or listened to audio-

books and discussed them with each other. Mrs. Smith’s classroom routines were

designed to support students in learning literacy. In the next section I discuss the literacy

activities that students engaged in during the ELA block.

Reading and Writing Rotations

Mrs. Smith believed that “reading and writing are essential to success in all of the

academic content areas” (Field notes, 10/5/10). As discussed above, students spent the

ELA class in three rotations engaged in reading/writing independently, in guided groups

with Mrs. Smith, or working on the computer.

The classroom library consisted of picture books with minimal print. Mrs. Smith

created a library of mostly picture books to allow the students to generate texts about the

pictures that were relevant to their experiences. Learner-generated texts are

recommended as a good practice of balanced literacy, which is a philosophy for reading

instruction that includes systematic phonics and whole language instruction at the same

time (Pressley, 2002) and it is necessary for the emergent literacy of refugee students,

which is "is characterized by the early development of understanding that abstract

symbols have meaning and that people use these symbols for the communication of

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ideas" (Geva & Zadeh, 2006; Koenig, 1992, p. 279). Croydan (2005) gives examples of

learner generated texts including: journals, picture book responses, response journal to a

picture, and picture stories. As Mrs. Smith’s students read, they completed a simple book

report scaffolded by the Reading Report template Mrs. Smith created, as shown in Figure

6.3

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Figure 6.3: Reading Report

Name______________ Date_______________

Reading Report

The title of my book is ____________

The author of the book is ___________

This book was (easy, OK, hard) for me to read.

How was the book? Did you like it? L 0-1-2-3-4-5 ☺

Draw a picture of the book.

Write a sentence about the book.

_______________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

______________________.

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At the beginning of the year, students wrote basic sentences about the books they had

read; as the year progressed, they were able to write longer passages. For example, in

October, after reading a simple book, Down the Street, Than’s description of the book in

his Reading Report included one sentence, as shown in Artifact 1:

I see the bells, snakes, and drum. (Student artifact 1, 11/9/10)

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Artifact 1. Than’s Reading Report 11/9/10

As Than progressed through the year, the length of his writing increased to three

sentences using more advanced vocabulary, as seen in Artifact 2.

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Artifact 2. Than’s Reading Report 3/31/11

As documented in the above reading reports completed by Than, he has shown

measurable progress in reading and writing as the year progressed.

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In parallel with reading activities, Mrs. Smith gradually introduced students to

additional writing tasks, moving from writing sentences to writing one paragraph essays

to three-paragraph essays. To support students in writing sentences, Mrs. Smith created a

writing report format, shown in Artifact 3, where students drew a picture and then

practiced describing key ideas about different topics. Students began by writing a few

sentences. For example, Saen wrote four basic sentences as seen in Artifact 3. At the

beginning of the year Mrs. Smith used a book titled “Draw, Write, Now”

handwriting/drawing book, to engage students in mirroring accurate sentences and

develop handwriting/motor skills. Students often drew pictures from the book and wrote

sentences below.

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Artifact 3. Saen’s Writing Report 12/6/10

As students progressed to writing more complex sentences, in March Mrs. Smith

introduced paragraph writing. She created checklists and graphic organizers that helped

students work independently on their writing. Figure 6.4 shows a graphic organizer Mrs.

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Smith gave to students for identifying main ideas and supporting details in writing

paragraphs. She created this artifact for students.

Figure 6.4 Main Idea and Supporting Details Graphic Organizer

When using such graphic organizers, Mrs. Smith would model, for example, how

to write main ideas and details; then students used the graphic organizer to write

paragraphs. Artifact 4 shows Saen’s graphic organizer for writing a three-paragraph

essay about what she wanted to change in school.

Main idea sentence

Supporting

Detail

Supporting

Detail

Supporting

Detail

Supporting

Detail

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Artifact 4. Saen’s Graphic Organizer

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120

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As seen in Artifact 4, by providing students with clear guidelines, Mrs. Smith facilitated

their learning of essay writing. Through the use of graphic organizer, Mrs. Smith

scaffolded students’ writing instruction (Herrell & Jordan, 2011). In order to make

content comprehensible for ELLs, it is imperative to use visual and clear scaffolds that

are slightly above the students’ level (i+1) (Krashen, 1985). Here Mrs. Smith’s scaffold

was above Saen’s level because the prewriting and outlining were concepts that are

difficult to understand for beginning level ELLs. Further, to support students in more

complex writing assignments, Mrs. Smith provided a checklist to use before submitting

their assignments, as shown in Figure 6.5.

Figure 6.5 Mrs. Smith’s Writing Checklist

Does my paragraph have an introduction (a beginning) that tells about

what the paragraph is about?

Does my paragraph have three or more body sentences (the middle) that

tell about my ideas?

Does my paragraph have a conclusion (an end) that tells a little more

about the introduction?

Do my sentences have capital letters at the beginning of sentences? Do I

have capitals for names and other important words (ABC)?

Do I use periods (.), exclamation points (!), and question marks (?) ?

Did I check my spelling?

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Did I draw a picture to tell about my paragraph?

Did I read my paragraph to see if it sounds right?

By March of the year, students also used the writing checklist during the process

of peer-reviewing each other’s writing. Mrs. Smith asked students to read their essays to

a peer in the classroom to make sure it sounded right. While one student read his/her

own essay, the other student listened, then provided feedback, as trained by Mrs. Smith.

By May or June, most of the students were able to write three paragraph essays such as

that in Artifact 5 below, where Saen articulated more complex ideas in her essay.

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Artifact 5. Saen’s essay

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In the above essay Saen has shown a great amount of growth in many ways. While at the

beginning of the year, she did not have an understanding of paragraph writing and only

wrote in bullet form. In the above essay she wrote in complete paragraphs and

indentation to start her paragraph. She also used punctuation and sentence breaks

correctly. She also used correct tenses consistently in her writing. Through the use of

these literacy scaffolds, Mrs. Smith enabled students to engage with reading challenging

texts and creating their own texts based on choice of topics that they can choose from.

Mrs. Smith encouraged students to be creative in their writing, and write about a variety

of topics they were interested in. She created a list of writing prompts for students to use

in writing time as suggestions, as shown in Figure 6.6.

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Figure 6.6 List of writing topics

What can I write about today?

The best thing to happen to me this week. The worst thing to happen to me this week Something funny that happened to me this week What I really hate! What I really like! My favorite thing A place I want to have a lot of money because… The beach The lake Something I remember My best friend My teacher A problem I have My favorite TV show My favorite music My sister My brother My grandmother/grandfather Something that is hard to do What is your favorite time of the day? Explain why? I’d like to see… My apartment I’m proud of myself because…

Tell about one thing you do really well. My adventure would be______ I am afraid to______ because What is your favorite room in you home? Why? Describe your best day ever? A nice dream A scary dream A bulding I wish I could fly because…. When I am 25 years old I want to… The best girlfriend for me/The best boyfriend for me Something that is hard for me Something that is easy for me I wish I could____ I want to ____ I want to change the school uniform because… A food in my country that is very delicious is… A great job is… A hard job is… A fun job is… I want to learn____ A new name The biggest thing I ever saw… Where I live

As seen from the different topics of choice provided, Mrs. Smith guided students to write

about topics relevant to their lives which also allowed her to get to know more about

students’ thoughts so she could engage them in critical thinking, which is in part tied to

the notion of critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970). By May and June students wrote essays

that asked them to think critically about issues in their lives. For example, Artifact 6

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shows Sunny’s essay about the poor conditions at his house and what he wanted to

change.

Artifact 6. Sunny’s Essay

Today I want to talk about my house. I want to change my windows, my

bathroom, and my kitchen. In my house there are many windows with glass that

is broken. I call the landlord but they do not come to my house. I want to change

my bathroom because it’s too small, we need a bigger bathroom. I also want to

change my kitchen because it’s too small. We need a bigger kitchen to make

things. There is also a leak on my water tap. If I can change these things, it

would be great!

From Mrs. Smith’s choice of topics Sunny decided to write about the conditions of his

house that he wanted to change. The scaffolding of the writing encouraged students to

easily write about topics that were relevant to them and encouraged them to develop

advocacy and critical perspectives. After receiving peer and teacher feedback on their

drafts, students were trained by Mrs. Smith next to edit and finalize their essays.

Students then shared their essays during presentation time in class. After Sunny’s

presentation, Mrs. Smith encouraged him to call his landlord about the housing

conditions he described in the essay, and offered to help him.

Finally, each class session ended with a five-minute sharing time in which

students shared examples of their work that illustrated the mini-lesson’s focus and

answered the Essential Question.

Overall, Mrs. Smith’s instructional practices in the ELA classroom supported

SIFE in learning the English language through the literacy activities described in this

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section. Having consistent routines and rotations in the classroom helped students to

engage in the classroom and reduce their anxieties about what they should be doing

(Krashen, 1982). Because the students knew what to expect from classroom instruction

on a daily basis, they were able to focus on learning and contributing to the classroom. In

addition, meaningful instruction supported students’ development. For example, by

giving students the opportunity to write critically about real-life issues, Mrs. Smith

enabled students to take initiative about real-life problems.

Conclusion

Refugee and immigrant students present unique challenges to the schools that

they are enrolled in. Specifically, refugees are in great need of psychological support as

they may still carry the emotional scars from the past trauma experienced as a result of

wars and unrest in refugee camps. Although many of them face acculturative stress as

they adjust to life in the United States, many refugee students also take on household

responsibilities outside of school. Nonetheless, many of the refugee and immigrant

students in the study had high aspirations for their future despite limited knowledge of the

U.S. school system and its requirements. In this study the teacher, Mrs. Smith, played a

large role in refugee students’ adaptation to the school by creating a classroom

environment with predictable routine. By providing routines and allowing students to get

used to them, even with low English proficiency, Mrs. Smith enabled students to know

what to expect, participate, and gain control over their learning. Having predictable

routines therefore can be a powerful tool in creating an emotionally safe and inviting

place for refugee students (Herrell & Jordan, 2011).

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As discussed in this chapter, Mrs. Smith involved students in a range of learning

experiences in the classroom. I suggest that her approach demonstrated what Noddings

(1995) calls an “ethics of care” and simultaneously integrated various tenets of culturally

responsive and relevant pedagogy (Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995). I discuss both of

these approaches in the next chapter where I elaborate on Mrs. Smith’s instructional

support for students and their responses to her teaching.

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CHAPTER 7

SUPPORTING LEARNING FOR SIFE: ETHICS OF CARE AND CULTURALLY

RESPONSIVE/RELEVANT PEDAGOGY

In Chapter 6 I reported on the experiences and challenges of students in adapting

to the school in the United States and the instructional practices that supported their

adjustment that were practiced in Mrs. Smith’s classroom. In this chapter, I report key

findings on how Mrs. Smith created a culture in the classroom that demonstrated an

ethics of care (Noddings, 1995) and culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy (Gay, 2000;

Ladson-Billings, 1995), which in combination enabled students to start building the

social and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1977) they needed to transition into U.S. schools. I

start this chapter with a summary of the notions of ethics of care and present my findings

related to this theoretical framework. Next I provide an overview of culturally

responsive/relevant pedagogy (CRP) and present findings about how CRP was enacted in

the classroom. I then discuss the overlap between how these two frameworks were

exemplified and the areas in which they do or do not account for the needs of

immigrant/refugee students. I conclude with a discussion of how the classroom culture

supported students’ learning.

The Ethics of Care

According to Noddings (1984), caring should be at the core of the education.

Noddings’s basic assumption of caring in educational contexts is that it consists of a

reciprocal relationship between teachers and students. In order for ethical care to occur,

teachers need to see themselves as “responsible for empowering their students” (Owens

& Ennis, 2005, p. 418). This means that teachers must take it upon themselves to do

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things for students, such as create appropriate curriculum despite limited resources. In the

case of refugee students in U.S. schools, an ethics of care means creating a welcoming

classroom to help students adjust to their new life and schooling in the United States. As

many refugee students have experiences of past trauma, as discussed in previous

chapters, it is essential to provide them with a positive classroom environment that

supports their adaptation to the school. Noddings (1992) identifies four means of caring:

modeling (teachers modeling behavior they expect from students and what it means to

care); dialogue (engaging in a dialogue about what teacherscannot model); practice

(providing opportunities to practice caring relationships); and confirmation (encouraging

the best in students and praising them for the good in them). In my study findings, a

range of means to care were prevalant. Four themes emerged that are representative of an

ethics of care in Mrs. Smith’s classroom: 1) patience/flexibility and empathy for students;

2) implementing appropriate ESOL pedagogical practices; 3) building students’ self-

confidence; and 4) advocacy for students. In what follows, I discuss each of these themes

in turn.

Theme 1: Patience/Flexibility and Empathy for Students

Mrs. Smith’s patience was based on her understanding of students’ backgrounds

and appreciation of the challenges that came with their experiences. She demonstrated

patience by adapting various strategies based on her students’ needs and clearly modeling

her social and academic expectations for students. In order for students to practice what

they learned regularly, Mrs. Smith assigned homework, which she collected and graded

every day. When students resisted completing homework, as happened with Phan, a 15

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year old student from Thailand, at the beginning of the year Mrs. Smith offered students’

additional support, as this exchange with Phan demonstrates:

Mrs. Smith: “Phan, this homework is very easy and I am sure you can do it easily.

Why have you not been doing your homework?

Phan: I forget.

Mrs. Smith: If you can’t remember, I can call you to remind you about your

homework at 7 p.m.

Phan: [chuckles] OK, that’s good. Thank you. (Field notes, 9/23/10).

As the above shows, Mrs. Smith was patient with Phan while clearly communicating her

expectations that he complete his homework. After this exchange, Phan started bringing

in his homework.

In many ways, Mrs. Smith slowly and patiently modeled polite, respectful, and

attentive behavior that she expected students to enact. As at the beginning of the year

many students were not familiar with behaviors considered acceptable in U.S. schools,

Mrs. Smith modeled hallway, lunch room, and classroom behaviors. Although this kind

of care began as aesthetic care, as noted in Chapter 3, which teachers typically should

demonstrate to fulfill the expectations of their position, Mrs. Smith moved beyond

aesthetic care to authentic care, which is a mutually caring relationship with the students.

For example, she made conflict resolution a focus of classroom discussions, as in this

data extract that shows Mrs. Smith’s classroom talk as well as the text she has put on the

SmartBoard:

Teacher Talk SmartBoard Text

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Mrs. Smith: “Today I want you to

learn a new word. What is a conflict?”

Mrs. Smith: “Do you have conflicts

at home? Maybe you can’t get along with

your brother and you mom says stop, right.

Little conflicts, problems, if we don’t fix

them, solve them, it gets bigger, bigger,

and bigger and then people are punching

each other.”

“Here are some rules for keeping

little conflicts from turning into a fight.”

“Let’s talk about what can you do

to make your conflict better? You have to

tell your classmates what’s wrong? Right.

If Dani is angry at me, but he doesn’t say

anything I don’t know, right. Tell the other

person. But if Dani says, Mrs. Smith, I’m

angry at something, because something is

wrong. You have to tell people what’s

wrong, they don’t know. They can’t read

your minds. You have the angry face; I

don’t know what’s wrong. Please tell your

friends what’s wrong. Let’s read the next

What is conflict? We all have

conflicts. But we can’t let little conflicts to

turn into big fights.

1. Tell the other person what’s

bothering you- but do it nicely.

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rule.

2) Listen to the other person. 3) Try

to understand how the other person is

feeling. 4) No name-calling or bad

language. 5) No hitting. 6) Don’t yell or

raise your voice. 7) look for something you

both agree about. 8) And, if things get bad,

ask a teacher to help!

(Field Notes, 2/16/11)

As presented in this exchange, Mrs. Smith explicitly taught caring behavior and expected

students to follow it. When students did not get along in the classroom or made fun of

each other, Mrs. Smith also responded respectfully and modeled caring. For example,

Mrs. Smith addressed students laughing at a student’s mistake in English:

When Moeh makes a mistake and some students laugh at her, Mrs. Smith says,

“Are you all learning English? Do we laugh when someone makes a mistake?”

After students say, “no,” Mrs. Smith nods her head and says “Noooooo.” (Field

notes, 10/14/10)

In this vignette, Mrs. Smith’s clear message to students thereafter put an end to students

making fun of each other, at least in my observations. Mrs. Smith’s attitude toward the

negative behavior contributed to the construction of a caring classroom culture that

allowed students to participate confidently. After this incident, Moeh began to participate

more in the classroom, demonstrating her increasing confidence.

Mrs. Smith’s flexibility was further evident in her instructional practices. She

allowed students to move around the room as they worked on academic tasks. She was

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aware that some students had difficulty with attention and accommodated them

accordingly. For example, Ray was uneasy and frustrated many times, so Mrs. Smith

allowed him to go to speak with the counselor or she would take him in the hallway and

to find out how she could help him.

Her philosophy of student centered teaching that entailed cooperation created

opportunities for students to learn about and care for each other. To simplify challenging

tasks and to reduce students' anxiety, Mrs. Smith often asked students to work in groups

and provided differentiated assignments for students of different levels of English

proficiency to choose from. For example, as students were learning about various

continents and countries, Mrs. Smith created reading and comprehension worksheets for

them. As shown in Artifact 7, the comprehension questions included two levels so that

students could complete appropriate level tasks.

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Artifact 7. Social studies reading comprehension questions

Recognizing students' varying levels of English proficiency and content knowledge, Mrs.

Smith invited students to complete whatever they could of these differentiated tasks,

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emphasizing that students should do the best that they can. She provided flexibility in

completion of the assignments and did not penalize students who were not able to keep

up with the pace in the classroom. If students needed additional time to finish tests, for

example, Mrs. Smith gave them accommodations to finish tests in a separate location or

return to her classroom during lunch or after school.

In addition to patience, flexibility and caring for students, Mrs. Smith

communicated her empathy to students. She often shared her own experiences of living

in a foreign country and learning an additional language. For example, although every

day the students stood up to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, many of them did not know

what it meant. To demonstrate empathy with students who may have felt badly about this

lack of understanding, Mrs. Smith recounted sitting in a classroom in Japan:

Mrs. Smith: This is a little story. You know I used to live in Japan right. I didn’t

speak any Japanese for a long time and they say a pledge at school too, but I

couldn’t understand it. Every day, it was a long Japanese da dadadada…and then

at the end they would say please be seated in Japanese, which is chakuseki. So

every day was like blah blahblahblah and then chakuseki, every day in Japanese.

I only understood please be seated in Japanese for about two years, and then one

day I understood more. (Video-recording transcription, 2/16/11)

By sharing her experiences of learning a new language and culture, Mrs. Smith assured

students that this early stage of their learning was to be expected. At the same time, she

gave students the message that everyone is a learner, including her. Noddings (1995)

proposes that one way for a teacher to enact an ethics of care is by putting herself in the

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role of a student. Mrs. Smith’s message about her understanding and care of language

learning process allowed students to connect to their teacher as someone they can trust.

In a reciprocal relationship, Mrs. Smith's students also shared a mutual respect

and empathy for her. As students engaged in cooperative group work, they took on roles

of the one-caring and cared-for. For example, in one class Mrs. Smith asked students to

work in groups to write ways of respecting and disrespecting themselves:

Mrs. Smith: "What is respect? What is disrespect? How can you respect yourself

and your body every day? In your group, write some: Ways you can respect

yourself: Ways you can disrespect yourself.”

After Mrs. Smith gave examples of respectful and disrespectful behavior, students

worked in groups to write their responses. For respecting yourself, students wrote: “swim

in the pool, exercise, go to school, eat good food, don’t smoke, read a book.” For

disrespecting yourself, they wrote “playing in English class every day, drinking alcohol,

smoke, no exercise” (Field notes, 3/23/11). As students identified respectful and

disrespectful behaviors, they came up with the idea that it would be disrespectful to play

during Mrs. Smith’s class. The students responded to the caring teacher by establishing

care and respect for her and their peers illustrates the success of Mrs. Smith's ethos of

care. In addition, Mrs. Smith was always well prepared as a teacher, which I discuss

next.

Theme 2: Appropriate ESOL Pedagogy for SIFE

Mrs. Smith also demonstrated an ethics of care through her preparedness and

application of different pedagogical practices to help ELL SIFE acquire English language

and content. Although most of the pedagogical practices were good for all ELLs specific

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ones were employed to meet the needs of SIFE in the classroom. The different

pedagogical practices were: the use of routines, integration of literacy, cooperative

learning, and use of technology.

Mrs. Smith’s dedication led her to establish a positive learning environment for her

students. As described in Chapter 6, Mrs. Smith established predictable routines that

helped students to adapt to the classroom. Because of students’ interrupted education and

past trauma that they may have experienced, the use of routines allowed them to have a

predictable schooling without being confused. Through consistent and predictable

routines, the classroom became a safe and supportive environment for the students. Once

the routines were established, Mrs. Smith’s integration of consistent literacy practices

into the classroom helped students in the classroom.

Developing English literacy is necessary for SIFE in order for them to become

successful in schools in the United States. While reading and writing are important oral

language proficiency is also critical in aiding the development of reading and writing

(August & Shanahan, 2006). The components of literacy development that have been

found supportive for ELL SIFE were discussed in Chapter 2 and some of the components

that Mrs. Smith employed were: phonemic awareness, oral language development,

vocabulary and building background, and comprehension.

In September, Mrs. Smith started the year with activities that emphasized phonemic

awareness and introducing students to letter sounds and writing. Along with phonemic

awareness, she used a holistic approach and used multiple approaches to teach language

including grammar, vocabulary, reading, and writing. The following agenda for the ELA

class on September 14 demonstrates the multiple components that Mrs. Smith applied:

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AGENDA [posted on the SMART board]:

The EQ: How do we make the negative

form of “be”?

Bridge 1: Listen and write (phonics)

Hot Seat Game

Write the sentences

Mini lesson: Brainpop! Negative “Be”

Work Time: Write a skit

Act it Out!

Summary: Write a negative “to be”

sentence

Closure: Say the opposite of what I say!

(Field notes, 9/14/10)

During this particular day, Mrs. Smith started with the routine of reviewing the EQ

with the students, then reading of the morning message. After the opening, during the

bridge lesson, the students engaged in reviewing the phonics.

Mrs. Smith: “Today we’re going to listen to the sound at the end of the word.

Write the sound that you hear at the end of the word. Try to write the whole

word with your group.”

Mrs. Smith then models the “g” ending sound as in the word “dog” and draws

a picture of a dog on the SMART board. After students write each word as

much as they knew on the phonics handout that they had, Mrs. Smith starts the

‘hot seat game’. (Field notes, 9/14/10)

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As Mrs. Smith facilitated the hot seat game, students became engaged in learning the

phonics through active engagement with the game. Students listened to word sounds,

wrote, and spoke the language that allowed them to be exposed to different components

of the language simultaneously. At the end of the game, students were asked:

Mrs. Smith: I’m going to give you words and you will write 10 sentences with

your group. (Field notes, 9/14/10)

The multiple literacy practices in the form of reading, writing, listening, and

speaking helped SIFE to develop phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and oral language

development. Explicit instruction that includes phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and

comprehension has been found to be beneficial in literacy development of adolescent

ELLs specifically SIFE (August & Shanahan, 2006).

In addition to reading, Mrs. Smith has also integrated writing into the literacy

practices in the classroom. As described in Chapter 6 and modeled through students’

progress, students began writing at a sentence level and eventually moved to write

paragraphs. Through the integration of explicit phonics, reading, and grammar, the

students’ writing was enhanced. It is recommended that for SIFE who have not had

extensive language and literacy experience, there be a “positive role for supplemental

grammar instruction in L2 writing instruction, which can work in tandem with error

correction to facilitate increased accuracy over time” (Ferris & Hedgcock, 2005, p. 272).

By learning to follow predictable routines that involved reading and writing through a

workshop model, the students knew what to do on a given day and follow routines, which

made it easier for them to focus on learning.

Theme 3: Advocacy

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Advocacy for students can be accomplished in variety of ways. Especially for

SIFE, who are often not familiar with U.S. schools, ESOL teachers often play a key role

in advocating for students (Harklau, 1994). One of the ways that Mrs. Smith

demonstrated her advocacy for students’ education was by finding a classroom sponsor to

donate funds to support extra-curricular activities, materials, and books. Mrs. Smith

posted a message on Adopt-A-Classroom.org, a website whose mission is to “increase

opportunity for student success by empowering teachers with community partners and

funds to purchase resources for the classroom” (Adopt-A-Classroom, n.d.). Mrs. Smith’s

message was:

My English as a Second Language students are newcomers to America. Most are

refugees, and many are categorized as Students with Interrupted Formal

Education, or SIFE. For some students, our program may be their first formal

educational experience. Many are coming out of refugee camps. ESL students in

my classroom have come from Iraq, Yemen, Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos,

Nepal, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda and Congo, as well as Puerto Rico and

the Dominican Republic. As teachers in my school are given only a few dollars to

spend on classroom supplies, funding from Adopt A Classroom allows me to

make sure that students have the basic materials they need to do their schoolwork.

Thank you, Adopt A Classroom! (Artifact 8, September, 2010)

Mrs. Smith’s classroom was adopted by a sponsor who sent Mrs. Smith $100 per month

to purchase classroom supplies and books. Thus despite scarce resources at the school,

Mrs. Smith worked to ensure that her students had supplies and books. In addition, she

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requested that some of the funding be used to pay the $22 per student cost to attend the

end of year field trip to a local theme park.

In appreciation, Mrs. Smith sent the sponsor pictures of students and their

classwork and enabled the sponsor to keep in touch with the students. Mrs. Smith also

made her students aware that there was someone helping their classroom. At the end of

the year, Mrs. Smith asked students to make thank you cards for the sponsor, which

allowed students to show their appreciation of the resources they received from the

sponsor, a demonstration of Mrs. Smith’s ethical care.

Furthermore, Mrs. Smith’s advocacy extended beyond the school year in time. In

the year after the study, Mrs. Smith kept in touch with the students who had moved on.

For example, when she learned that Ray was resisting going to the new school to which

he was assigned, she visited his house and convinced him to start school. Mrs. Smith

contacted Ray’s new ESOL teacher and gave her extensive background information

about Ray’s academic and social needs. She also advocated for modification of the

schedules of Ray, Than, and Mark in their new schools, to support their academic needs.

Theme 4: Building students’ self-confidence through confirmation

According to Noddings (1995), confirmation is a part of caring where the “teacher

encourages and shapes the student by assisting in the construction of his or her self-ideal”

(p. 223). However, confirmation is seen as a mutual exchange that needs to be accepted

by both the one-caring and the cared-for. Mrs. Smith was attentive to students’ anxieties

as they adjusted to a new life in the United States. In the classroom I would often hear

Mrs. Smith use phrases such as “good job,” “excellent,” “you have really worked hard on

that.” Especially for students who needed a boost of self-confidence, such as Ray and

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Saleh, Mrs. Smith often expressed her appreciation of their efforts in school. Ray and

Saleh usually took on the responsibility to pass papers out to the class, during which time

Mrs. Smith reminded the other students to show their appreciation for this service, as in

this extract:

Please say “thank you” and “you’re welcome” when you get your papers. (Field

notes, 10/12/10)

In addition, by giving students the opportunity to take on responsibilities in the

classroom, Mrs. Smith demonstrated her trust, which encouraged them to do better. In

addition, students were given the responsibility to assess each other’s academic work as

they collaborated. For example, before Mrs. Smith started students on a partner reading

task, she reviewed the rubric that students were to use to assess each other on how well

they read together. The rubric guided the students to assign grades of A, B, or C for the

following areas:

A- Good listeners, reading together, take turns, inside voices.

B- Read together, not a good listener all of the time, inside voices.

C- Not reading together, Warning from Mrs. Smith. (Artifact 9, 3/18/11)

To make sure that the students understood what each item on the rubric meant,

Mrs. Smith extensively role modeled the task with students and explained it clearly.

With Mrs. Smith’s trust to grade each other on reading, students assumed the role of

carers and treated each other with respect.

In addition to fostering trust and cooperation, Mrs. Smith responded to students

without judgment. In one class, Mrs. Smith was trying to identify students’ learning

styles, or preferred ways of learning (Mulalic, Shah, & Ahmad, 2009):

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Mrs. Smith: Good. Everybody understands the word learn. Raise your hand if

you like to learn new things?

Mrs. Smith: Kurung, you don’t like to learn? Kurung: No. Mrs. Smith: It’s OK; some people don’t like to learn. I like to learn new things.

(Video-recording transcription, 3/9/11)

Even though Kurung responded negatively, here Mrs. Smith did not judge him and

continued the lesson. Through her non-judgmental attitude, Mrs. Smith supported

students’ self-confidence and encouraged honest exchanges in classroom interactions.

Thus the themes prevelant in the ways Mrs. Smith enacted an ethics of care

included her patience/flexibility and empathy toward students, being well-prepared as a

teacher, building on students’ self-confidence; and advocating for her students. Although

an ethics of care is a helpful framework in demonstrating the different kinds of behaviors

and attitudes that can help teachers to build strong relationships and trust between their

students, it does not discuss many components of useful pedagogical practices.

Complementing this framework is culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy, which

focuses on pedagogical practices for students from non-dominant cultures and

backgrounds. In line with Nodding's ethic of care, Gay (2000) asserts that caring about

students as people is a key characteristic of a culturally responsive teacher. In many

ways, through her caring Mrs. Smith enacted key features of culturally

responsive/relevant pedagogy. Through her practices of authentic care, Mrs. Smith

created a classroom culture that supported practices of culturally responsive/relevant

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pedagogy. In the next section, I discuss the patterns in Mrs. Smith's pedagogical practices

that I identified as culturally responsive to the needs of SIFE.

Culturally Responsive/Relevant Pedagogy

According to Gay (2000), culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) relies on “using

the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of

ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for

them” (p. 29). She identifies five characteristics of culturally responsive teaching

practices:1) taking into account the cultures of students; 2) making home-school

connections; 3) using a variety of instructional practices that teach to learning styles of

students; 4) validating students; and 5) making interdisciplinary connections. In fact,

caring is an essential component of effective instruction and a main "pillar of culturally

responsive pedagogy" (Gay, 2010, p. 75). Therefore, the theories of an ethics of care and

culturally responsive pedagogy frameworks complement each other well. In the

following sections I describe the characteristics of CRP that I identified in Mrs. Smith’s

classroom according to Gay's model above. There were five themes that demonstrated

manifestations of CRP in Mrs. Smith's classroom: 1) Cultural comparisons; 2) Home-

school connection; 3) Multilingual experiences; 4) Teacher-student and peer-peer

interaction that is inclusive and cooperative; 5) Validation of students' backgrounds.

These themes are discussed in the sections that follow.

Theme 1: Cultural Comparisons

In the classroom, Mrs. Smith and her students regularly identified and shared each

other’s cultural similarities and differences. They were engaged in exchanging each

other’s languages and cultural practices comfortably and openly. Mrs. Smith established

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a classroom climate where students felt comfortable discussing their differences and

similarities. During the weekly Wednesday meetings, Mrs. Smith asked students to

present music videos in their language or videos of their countries to the whole class. A

good example of how Mrs. Smith acknowledged students’ cultural similarities and

differences was in a social studies lesson on landforms:

Mrs. Smith introduces the word “landform” and projects pictures of landforms on

the SMART Board: island, cave, cliff, glacier, iceberg, lake, mountain, peak

(summit), river, valley, volcano, waterfall, and beach. As Mrs. Smith goes over

each landform she shares the following: “Nepal has lots of mountains, and Yemen

also has a lot of mountains too. Thailand has many beautiful waterfalls. There

are also beautiful beaches in Yemen, Thailand, and Nepal.”

As Mrs. Smith shares different information students are attentively listening.

(Field notes, 9/23/10)

Many students in the class came from Nepal, Yemen, and Thailand; therefore, making

connections to their countries was an important pedagogical strategy. The students

responded to Mrs. Smith’s efforts at making relevant connections to students’ cultures by

becoming engaged in the lesson. Mrs. Smith regularly used similar opportunities to bring

students’ cultures and backgrounds into the classroom. This important component of

CRP showed students that their cultural and linguistic backgrounds were validated by the

teacher and other students, giving them a sense of comfort to participate in cultural

exchanges.

Theme 2: Home-School Connections

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Another characteristic of CRP was illustrated in Mrs. Smith’s efforts to integrate

her own and students’ family backgrounds and cultural practices into learning

experiences. Ladson-Billings (1995) suggests that teachers regard families as vital and

reliable resources for their pedagogical practices. The belief that households contain

cognitive and cultural resources that teachers can draw on for classroom instruction and

development is known as the theory of funds of knowledge (Moll & Greenberg, 1990).

Teachers who implement funds of knowledge approach explore their students’ lives,

cultures, household knowledge, and languages (Whitmore & Norton-Meier, 2008). The

classroom observation data show that Mrs. Smith regarded students’ families as reliable

resources and regularly used them as resources. For example, before the school year

started, Mrs. Smith spent time to find out as much as she could about her students. Mrs.

Smith conducted home visits to her students’ households to meet with their parents or

guardians. She learned about the students’ past experiences before arriving in the United

States and their current experiences in adapting to life in the United States. Through her

home visits Mrs. Smith built upon students’ cultural funds of knowledge in her pedagogy.

Mrs. Smith kept a running record of students’ progress similar to the funds of knowledge

chart presented in Ginsberg (2007), which shows detailed student information that she

later put in the students’ files for their future teachers. This running record included

students’ backgrounds, how they were doing in school, special needs, including social

and emotional needs, and anything to be considered to help reach the student. Mrs. Smith

emphasized the importance of keeping a record so that the student’s next teacher would

not have to start from the beginning. An understanding of students’ cultural and

academic backgrounds and needs can enable teachers to design and implement

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instruction to best meet the needs of individual students and integrate their strengths into

the classroom practices (Richards, Brown, & Forde, 2006).

Mrs. Smith’s knowledge about her students’ cultural background, families, and

home environments gave her a detailed picture of her students’ lives outside of the

classroom. She illustrated this knowledge when discussing her students with me. For

example:

Ray came from Thailand in 2009. He is one of the four children in the family.

He came to the U.S. with his mother and his three siblings. His father was killed

by the soldiers. He lives with his mother who is not well. Ray walks to school.

He spends a lot of time watching TV and playing on the computer at home. He

cooks and does his own laundry. He basically takes care of himself on his own.

He does really well with one-on-one attention and he needs routines and structure.

When unexpected things happen, he doesn’t respond well. (Field notes, 12/09/10)

Mrs. Smith’s knowledge of her students helped her to cater instruction based on their

needs. Mrs. Smith included appropriate information about students’ personal lives and

cultures in the classroom as much as possible. The following announcement

demonstrates how she included students’ celebrations in the classroom:

Mrs. Smith: Saturday will be Karen New Year celebration and I will be there to

see everyone. (Audio-recording transcript, 1/7/11)

After the announcement, when I went to the church for the Karen New Year celebration,

Mrs. Smith was there with her baby to celebrate. Mrs. Smith also shared changes in

students’ family situations with students. As she took attendance one day, she

mentioned:

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Perry and Sunny’s grandmother died. Sunny was here but he will be going home.

They will be fasting for two days so they will go home. It’s very sad.” (Field

notes, 3/17/11)

In this exchange, Mrs. Smith shared a religious tradition that Sunny’s family followed

after the death of a family member, thus making students aware of each other’s life

events and cultures. On another day, as Than’s grandmother was arriving from Thailand,

Mrs. Smith told the class:

Than’s grandmother is coming to America today so he will be very busy. Please

ask him tomorrow how his grandmother is.” (Video-recording transcription,

4/28/11)

Here Mrs. Smith not only draws on her knowledge of what was happening in students’

lives to support them but also instills in other students practices of care such as inquiring

about how student feels during changes in their lives.

In addition, Mrs. Smith also shared information about her own background. For

example, Mrs. Smith was reading a book, Families, with one of the guided groups. As

she read the book and paused to discuss and clarify it, the following exchange took place:

Mrs. Smith reads from the book: “People in families love and care!”

Ray: What’s care?

Mrs. Smith: When you care, you love; you pay attention, take care. Like caring

for a baby. For example, I care about you guys so I come to school every day.

[Reads from book.] Families get together and spend time with each other. What

do you like to do when you get together with your families?

Kurung: Eat together, play.

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Mrs. Smith reads from book: “Families also celebrate together. Celebrate means

to have fun, have a party together. [Reads from book.] Some people have uncles,

aunts, and cousins and they come together. Some people live with their mothers,

fathers, brothers, and sisters. Some people live with their grandparents. I don’t

have any aunts, uncles, and cousins, because my mother and my father don’t have

any brothers or sisters. But then my husband has a lot of aunts and uncles. Do

you have lots of cousins?”

Kurung: “Yes!”

Moeh: “Yes! I like my cousins!”

Mrs. Smith: “Lucky you!” (Audio-recording transcript, 12/9/10)

By sharing information about her life and asking students about their family practices,

Mrs. Smith helped create a classroom community by involving home practices as well as

academic content in her pedagogy.

In the next section I discuss that multilingualism another arena in which this

practice was followed. Here I demonstrate that Mrs. Smith’s use of home-school

connections also drew on the multilingualism present not only among her students but

also in her family. Thus, while defining the word ‘niece’, Mrs. Smith shared this personal

information:

Mrs. Smith: “My niece also speaks Arabic, English, and French.”

Saleh: “Why Arabic?”

Mrs. Smith: “Her father is from Morocco, that’s why she speaks Arabic”

Saleh: “Wow! Your sister speak Arabic too?”

Mrs. Smith: “My sister learned too, yes!”

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Saleh: “Good.” (Field notes, 12/17/10)

In this excerpt, by sharing information about her family Mrs. Smith made connections to

students, creating a mutually respectful relationship. Mrs. Smith's sharing of information

about Arabic language interested Saleh to find more about Mrs. Smith's sister and family,

which created a connection through Arabic, a language Saleh spoke. In addition to

sharing her own and her family's linguistic background, Mrs. Smith often allowed for

multilingual practices to take place in the classroom, which I discuss next.

Theme 3: Multilingual Experiences

One of the characteristics of CRP is acknowledging and affirming students’ home

cultures and languages (Ladson-Billings, 1995). Multilingual experiences were regular

instances in the classroom, exposing students to diverse linguistic exchanges. Multiple

languages were spoken in the classroom, including Thai, Burmese, Karen, Arabic, and

Nepali. Language was used as a tool for both academic and cultural learning a. During

lessons, Mrs. Smith often acknowledged students’ native languages as a way of

confirming their understanding, assuring students’ understanding of material presented.

For example, in a lesson during a Wednesday meeting time, Mrs. Smith was asking

students about their learning styles:

Mrs. Smith: Mohamed, what’s the word learn mean in your language?

Mohamed: ملعت [Arabic]

Mrs. Smith: MG, how do you say the word learn in your language?

MG: �������� [Burmese]

Mrs. Smith: Dani, how do you say the word learn in Nepali?

Dani: `````[Nepali] (Video Recording Transcription, 3/9/11)

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By asking students to translate into their languages, Mrs. Smith acknowledged students’

backgrounds and confirmed their understanding of material introduced. Students who

shared a same home language frequently conferred with each other before they responded

to these questions. Dani especially enjoyed the acknowledgement of his language and

answered Mrs. Smith proudly and smiling.

In addition, Mrs. Smith encouraged the regular use of students’ home languages

in the classroom. As students were at different levels of academic and language

proficiency, allowing students to work with each other using shared first languages

helped them to develop cognitively by interacting with more knowledgeable peer

(Darling-Hammond, 1997). The use of home language in ESOL classrooms is advised in

general, as it “provides access to the assumptions, needs, scope of schooling,

and life experiences of these students” (New York State Education Department, 2011). It

is essential for refugee SIFE because of varying differences in schooling levels, involving

more knowledgeable peers in supporting lower level students allows for socially their

mediated learning (Vygotsky, 1978). One of the main tenets of CRP is to “encourage

students to use their home language while they acquire the secondary discourse of

’standard’ English” (Ladson-Billings, 1995, p. 161). Mrs. Smith’s students were

encouraged to code-switch between their native language and English on a daily basis.

For example, after asking students to respond to a question about their personal goals,

Mrs. Smith encouraged students to speak their first languages with each other and

collaborate to write a response using their native language in their notebooks (Field notes,

3/2/11). In another example, following exchange occurred:

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Mrs. Smith: “In your notebook, I want you to write what you’re going to do and

how you’re going to do it.”

Hasan gets out of his seat and goes to Mohamed’s desk to work with him. After a

few seconds, Saleh looks puzzled. Mrs. Smith asks, “Saleh, do you understand?

You can work with Mohamed, please take your notebook.” Saleh then goes to

work with Hasan and Mohamed. They start speaking in Arabic and work together

to complete the task. (Field notes, 3/2/11)

This data extract illustrates an important tenet of multilingual classroom interactions (

Ladson-Billings, 1995), that they can express themselves openly and freely. In the case of

ELLs, expressing themselves openly entails the use of both native languages and English.

By allowing students to express themselves in their home languages “teachers

acknowledge and validate students’ home language without using it to limit students’

potential” (Delpit, 1993, p. 293), which supports the learning of the additional language,

in this case, English. Opportunities to build on students’ first languages allow both

languages “become mutually supportive and serve to promote the acquisition of first

and second language literacy” (NYSED, 2011, p. 1).

The next section describes the theme of inclusive and cooperative teacher-student

and peer-to-peer interaction, another characteristic of CRP.

Theme 4: Teacher-student and peer-to-peer interaction that is inclusive and

cooperative

The nature of teacher-student interaction plays an important role in shaping

learning opportunities in the classroom (Gibbons, 1998; Hall &Verplaetse, 2000). Mrs.

Smith was an advocate of cooperative learning through small group work. Her belief that

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cooperative learning can create meaningful opportunities to produce and practice

language led her to involve the children frequently in pair or small group work. Mrs.

Smith often told students, “Work together,” “Ask your partner,” and “Work with your

partners.” Through verbal interaction, students were given ample opportunities for

purposeful use and practice of language; therefore, the cooperative activities aided the

language learning process. For example:

Mrs. Smith is teaching the phrasal verb take after. She first shared pictures of her

mother and her aunt taken in the 1990s.

Mrs. Smith: “This picture is very old, maybe some of you weren’t in this world

then. Who do I take after?”

Students: “Your mother.”

Mrs. Smith: “Yes, I take after my mother and if you see my sister she looks like

my father, she is blonde, bigger than me, but I take after my mother. I want you to

think about who you take after in your family? Somebody in your family that you

look like, look the same. Stand up and ask three people, who do you take after?

Walk around and ask three people. Let’s go.”

Haoh approaches Ehan “Who do you take after?”

Ehan: “I take after my mother.”

Haoh then approaches Sunita: “Sunita, who do you take after?”

Sunita: “I take after my aunt. Who do you take after?”

Haoh: “I take after my father.” (Video-recording transcript, 3/18/11).

The above extract exemplifies the interactive cooperative activity that allowed students to

make meaning and practice the verb they were learning.

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In this study, the students actively interacted with the teacher and each other

across instructional formats (e.g., whole class instruction, small group work, individual

work). This interaction allowed students to engage in active dialogue and meaning

making. Mrs. Smith used various strategies to encourage students and facilitate their

language use. For example:

Mrs. Smith: “Let’s read the EQ together.”

Students reading chorally: “What hobby do you want to try?”

Pictures of various hobbies are projected on the SMART board. Mrs. Smith goes over

the different pictures and introduces each one by asking students if they are familiar with

them.

Mrs. Smith: “On your desks you will find [Oxford Picture] dictionaries for each

group. On page 162, please look at page 162, you need to share, there are some

hobbies on there. I want you to find something that you think would be a fun

hobby.”

Students gather in groups and start looking at the pictures in the dictionary.

Sunita [sitting next to Ehan and pointing to a picture in the dictionary]: “I’d like

to try this one.”

Mohamed [speaking to his group Sunita, Ehan, and Haoh]: “I like to try

computers.”

Five minutes passes.

Mrs. Smith: “I want you to write in your notebook, ‘A hobby I want to try

is___________. What’s a hobby that you want to try? Write it down.”

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Mrs. Smith: “We are going to make our dyadic belt, you will need your

notebooks. We need two lines. Come on, quick, quick, quick, stand up. Say

‘Hello, partner!’

Ehan goes up to Mark and says “Helloooo, partner!” (Video-recording

transcription, 3/20/11).

The dyadic belt is a physical configuration where students stand opposite each other in

two lines (line 1 and line 2). Each student has two or three questions to ask the opposite

student. After each student engages in a dialogue, they move up and speak with the next

student until everyone has a chance to interact with each other. Through engaging in

dialogue, dyadic belt facilitates conversation that allows for practice of specific language

practice. Dialogue is a useful strategy in developing fluency in language learning (Wood,

2002). The use of the dyadic belt was helpful in creating a culturally responsive/relevant

learning in the classroom, where students shared their insights. Gay (2010) considers

dialogue and engagement as “central to the acquisition and demonstration of learning” (p.

46). Collaborative engagement is especially important for ELL SIFE because it

facilitates their language production (Ohta, 2000).

In addition to dyadic exchanges, students also often engaged in writing and

performing dialogues, as illustrated in the following dialogue:

Mrs. Smith: “We’re going to write a little dialogue with Ben and Nicki [two

animated characters from Brain POP6 In your notebook we are going to write

Ben, Nicki, Ben, Nicki. You need to work with a partner, one person is Ben, one 6 BrainPOP is an online resource for language learning for ELLs that requires a

subscription.

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person is Nicki. I want you to think that you’re Ben and Nicki. And it’s Nicki’s

birthday. Ben says Happy Birthday, Nicki, I made you a cake, or you can say, I

made you a cheese sandwich or whatever you want to make. Then Nicki says, I

don’t like cheese sandwich, I don’t like cake. And then you will need two more

sentences. Work with your partner to write this dialogue and then you will come

up and do it for your class. (Video-recording transcription, 1/20/11)

The above excerpt is an illustration of one type of cooperative activity students were

asked to complete. One of the benefits of cooperative learning relates to the increased

opportunities for language use and practice. Through the use of scripting (Herrell &

Jordan, 2012), Mrs. Smith employed a strategy of language teaching and fostered the

need for students to use English for communication.

In the following example of using multimodality in the classroom, Mrs. Smith

allowing students to create meaning not only through language but action, speech,

movement, writing, and gaze and the interplay of modes (Jewitt & Kress, 2003).

Especially for students with low English proficiency, it is essential for them to construct

meaning in English through the use of different modalities through interaction. Mrs.

Smith begins by previewing the project and explaining the process of the making of the

mural (shown in Figure 7.3).

Mrs. Smith: “In the morning, we’re going to be making a mural. A mural is a big

piece of art. Ok. We have a big piece of paper, we’re going to put it down on the

floor here and everybody here is going to have draw something and together

we’re going to make one real big picture, together, OK? Who wants to read the

question for me?”

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Moeh: “What will you be doing in 10 years? What will you look like?”

Mrs. Smith: “So, Dani how old are you now? Fourteen or fifteen? Fifteen right?

So when Dani is 25 years old, what will he look like? What will he be doing?

What kind of job will he have, if he will have a moustache? Right? So, what

you’re going to do is, you’re going to have a long piece of paper for our whole

class to draw a picture. Dani, what kind of job do you want to have?”

Dani: “Engineer.”

Mrs. Smith: “Engineer, great. Then Dani will draw a picture of himself being an

engineer. Then Libby will draw a picture of herself on the other side being a

teacher right? And maybe on the other side somebody else will draw something

else. All the way around everybody will put down what they will be doing in ten

years, right? In ten years Mohamed, you’ll be twenty-seven, right? It’s hard to

know but you’re going to guess.” (Video-recording transcription, 6/17/2011)

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Figure 7.1 Figure 7.2

Figure 7.3 Completed Mural

In this project, students worked together to create a mural that represented the classroom

community. Although at first students were not sure what they wanted to create, as they

progressed students collaborated and co-constructed a mural that portrayed their

perceptions of what they imagined themselves in ten years. Through “inductive,

interactive, and communal task performance” (Gay, 2010, p. 108), students had a chance

to create a “big-picture” (p. 108) collaboratively. This is an example of the culturally

responsive teaching that is recommended for problem solving and task engagement.

Theme 5: Validating Students’ Backgrounds

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Another important aspect of CRP is the maintenance of students’ cultural integrity

(Ladson-Billings, 1995). Within this framework, students learn from each other and the

various cultures around them. Cultural competence in Mrs. Smith’s classroom was

promoted through exposing students to different worldviews. Throughout the year Mrs.

Smith taught students about various continents, countries, cultures and practices,

particularly during the social studies period. Before Mrs. Smith introduced such

information about geography and cultures, she introduced vocabulary words and had

students introduce related terms from their cultures and countries. Once they were

familiar with the different continents and countries, Mrs. Smith introduced each in depth.

She started the year by introducing the North American continent. Mrs. Smith usually

spent a week teaching students details about each country and engaged them in learning

about different cultures and languages. The first lesson was a visual presentation of facts

and pictures, followed by a simple passage that the students read in groups, answered

questions about, and completed projects about. For example, Artifact 10, which Mrs.

Smith created, shows sets of questions about the reading passage at two levels of

difficulty in terms of content and language:

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Artifact 10: Leveled Questions

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Using the handout above, students worked in groups to complete the information. As is

visible, there were two levels within the same worksheet, which allowed for low levels of

students to complete the first part and higher level of students additionally to complete

the Venn diagram.

Mark and Than were working together. Mark helped Than to highlight the

important information in the reading handout and pointed out that he needed to

look for the bold printed words to fill in the blanks on the worksheet. As they

worked together, they code switched between English and their native language.

(Field notes, 12/2/2010)

Mark, having had more formal education, was able to use his reading comprehension

knowledge to help Than learn to look for information while reading. Working

cooperatively, students co-constructed both linguistic and academic knowledge in a

positive atmosphere. The literacy learning of both students was supported through the

interactions between them (Stille, 2011).

In another social studies lesson, students were learning about China. After Mrs.

Smith presented visuals and students read about China and completed comprehension

activities, she asked students to create a poster about ancient Chinese inventions. She

provided students with guiding questions to help develop their posters, as displayed in

Artifacts 11 and 12:

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Artifact 11:Assignment-Chinese Inventions Artifact 12-Chinese Inventions Rubric

Artifact 13: Student posters on Chinese inventions

Samples of student work are provided in Artifact 13. Mrs. Smith’s rubric indicated the

disciplinary content (four inventions and their contemporary uses) as well as the

linguistic format (complete sentences) she wanted students to provide. Students’

language and content learning were thus supported through their artistic and written

expression in the poster. Other global cultures from each continent were also covered in

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the social studies class, including Mexico, the United States, England, Germany, France,

Italy, Russia, Spain, Australia, and Egypt. Thus students were engaged in developing

understandings of various cultures, promoting cultural competence for diverse learners.

Through cooperative practices within the classroom, understanding and interchange

among the cultures represented in the classroom, and the studying of other cultures,

students’ own identities and cultures were maintained and validated. For example, in

Artifact 14 from the study of Mexico, students used a Venn diagram to compare Mexican

culture with their home culture:

Artifact 14: Student work-Venn diagram

Thus as students learned about Mexico’s languages, geography, education system,

transportation and other aspects of social studies, they engaged in cross-cultural

understanding while reinforcing their knowledge of their own cultures.

Overall, in the various aspects of her teaching Mrs. Smith enacted an ethics of

care through the patience/flexibility, and empathy she demonstrated for students; being

well-prepared to teach high quality lessons; advocacy for students; and building students’

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confidence. Although little research exists on caring in the ESOL context, my findings

confirm Garrott's (2002) study that showed a positive relationship between teacher caring

and students' second language learning. As Kozol (2007) writes, “Establishing a

chemistry of trust between students and ourselves (teachers) is a great deal of important

than to charge into the next three chapters of the text” (p. 15). Without the establishment

of a safe environment where students feel valued and cared for, meaningful learning

would be more difficult to foster. In addition, Mrs. Smith’s teaching manifested the

components of culturally responsive/ relevant pedagogy: cultural comparisons, home-

school connection, multilingual experiences, inclusive and cooperative teacher-student

and peer-to-peer interactions, and validating students’ backgrounds. In Mrs. Smith’s

classroom, the intersection of CRP and an ethics of care allowed students to build

linguistic and academic knowledge. By enacting these frameworks in her teaching, Mrs.

Smith created a classroom culture that was built on mutual trust and respect and allowed

students to identify with their new schooling environment, supporting their adjustment to

U.S. schools. As Au (2006) suggests, “The idea of culturally responsive instruction is not

to recreate the home culture in the classroom. Rather, we want to allow teachers and

students to construct new, hybrid classroom cultures that build on long lasting cultural

values while fostering academic achievement” (p. 10). Within the structural and physical

challenges of being in a school with limited resources, Mrs. Smith created a classroom

culture that honored students’ cultures, validated their backgrounds, and supported their

academic and linguistic development through care and culturally responsive/relevant

pedagogy.

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Because the theory of culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy was developed

primarily to serve African American students, it is useful to consider how useful this

framework is in addressing the needs of SIFE. My findings show that the principles of

CRP most relevant to the needs of SIFE were cultural comparisons, home-school

connections, multilingual experiences, inclusive and cooperative teacher-student and

peer-to-peer interaction, and validation of students’ backgrounds. Belgarde, Mitchell,

and Arquero (2002) describe culturally relevant curriculum as one that “generally

validates the cultures and language of students and allows them to become co-

constructors of knowledge in the school setting” (p. 430). The CRP theory, initially

designed to support African American students, calls for discussion of critical issues in

society and making students aware of societal inequalities; however, the instructional

practices it proposes are generally based on traditional didactic practices of teacher

centered classrooms. In contrast, for English language learners, a pedagogical shift is

needed that would enable students to co-construct their learning with teacher facilitation.

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CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This dissertation study has examined the experiences of refugee students with

interrupted formal education (SIFE) in a newcomer program at an urban secondary

school, who face multiple challenges as they adapt to a new environment in the United

States. After the year-long collection of classroom observation data, teacher and student

interviews, and artifacts, my analyses explored the how refugee SIFE adapted both

academically and socially in the newcomer classroom. I have used critical theory

(Apple, 1996, 2004; Gee, 1996; Giroux, 2003; McLaren, 1994, 2003), the theories of

ethics of care (Noddings, 1995) and culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy (Gay, 2000;

Ladson-Billings, 1995) as lenses through which to examine students’ social and academic

experiences in the newcomer classroom. In this chapter, I will begin by providing a

summary of the dissertation. Next, I will draw on summary of research findings and

pedagogical and administrative implications from the findings. Finally, I will discuss the

limitations of the study and provide suggestions for future research.

Summary of the Dissertation

As Chapter 1 detailed, immigration trends in the United States estimates that 40%

of the elementary and secondary school students in the United States will be composed of

English language learners (ELLs) by the year 2030 (Thomas & Collier, 2001). Although

in these statistics ELLs have not been broken down into separate categories as

immigrants and refugees in the statistics, there is a rising population of refugee students

with interrupted formal education (SIFE). While many immigrant students may have had

preparation in the form of formal education, other immigrant and refugee students may

not have had the experience of formal schooling, therefore making it more difficult for

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them to be successful in schools in the United States (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco,

2001). Previous educational background and experiences is a critical component of the

refugee and immigrant students’ academic success in schools in the U.S. (Curry, 2007).

The increase in refugee students brings with it an increasing need to understand the

experiences of refugee adolescent students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) in

U.S. public schools so that teachers, counselors, and administrators may better serve them

in adapting to their new environments. Chapter 2 examined the research literature on

ELL SIFE and contextualizes adolescent refugee SIFE’s experiences in secondary

schools in the U.S. This included the review of literature on the psychosocial and

physical factors that contribute to the experience of the SIFE, the types of programs that

they are enrolled to, and the general overview of best practices to help support them in

secondary schools. The third chapter reviewed the theoretical frameworks that the

dissertation study draws on: critical theory, an ethics of care, culturally responsive

pedagogy. Critical theory was used as an overarching framework. Critical theory is

concerned with how social inequalities are reproduced, and allows us to look at the power

relations in and out of the newcomer classroom and how knowledge was produced

(Giroux, 1995). Through critical theory, the inclusion and exclusion of the refugee SIFE

in the curriculum was analyzed. Ethics of care (Noddings, 1995) and culturally

responsive/relevant pedagogy allowed us to look at the classroom practices of the teacher

and how it addressed the different needs of SIFE in the classroom.

Chapter 4 described the classroom ethnographic methodology used for the study

as well as the grounded theory approach used for data analysis. The fifth chapter

provided a thick description of the research site and the participants. The sixth chapter

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reported findings on the initial experiences of the students in the SIFE classroom and

examined the ways that the teacher addressed students’ needs through her instructional

practices. The seventh chapter reported findings on the classroom culture that was

created through ethics of care and culturally responsive pedagogy, which created a

comfort zone in which students could learn the ways of schooling in the United States.

Overall this dissertation has described the multiple components of refugee SIFEs’

experience in the newcomer classroom and how the teacher addressed their academic and

social needs. It also aimed to provide some understanding of forces that were in play

beyond the classroom teacher—the institutional neglect of the newcomer program—and

how these forces affected the social and academic adaptation of the refugee SIFE.

Summary of Research Findings and Implications from findings

The findings of this research documents the challenges refugee and immigrant

students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) face as they resettle into their new

communities and schools. Having often experienced poverty and struggle, many

immigrants and refugees live in poor neighborhoods and attend schools in bad physical

condition that are marked by failure (McDonnell & Hill, 1993). Despite these

conditions, many immigrant and refugee students are appreciative of the available

opportunities in the United States based on their past experiences with the absence or

interruption of schooling.

As they adjust to school in the United States, refugee students may experience

acculturative stress, migration stress, and stress of learning a new language (Birman,

Trickett, & Buchanan, 2005). Specifically, refugees who have experienced past trauma

as a result of wars and conflict are in dire need of psychological support in order to

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overcome their scars from the past (Berry et al., 1987). While there is awareness of

refugee SIFE’s need for psychological support, sufficient support is often not available in

schools such as the one investigated in this research study. As the participating students

adjusted to Georgetown High School, many expressed the need for psychological

support. Despite its lack, however, many refugees SIFE were resilient and took on many

responsibilities outside of the school, while holding high aspirations for their futures.

Teachers play an essential role in providing support to help immigrant and refugee

students adjust. Mrs. Smith helped students adapt to the school by creating a classroom

environment with predictable routines. Such routines enabled students, even those with

very low English proficiency, to know what to expect in the classroom and the school, to

participate in classroom activities, and feel some ownership of their learning. Predictable

routines can therefore provide a powerful tool for creating an emotionally safe and

inviting place for refugee students (Herrell & Jordan, 2011).

In addition, Mrs. Smith involved students in a range of learning experiences that

were what I called manifestations of Noddings’ (1995) notion of an “ethics of care.” It

simultaneously integrated some of the key tenets of culturally responsive and relevant

pedagogy (Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995). Overall, in her teaching Mrs. Smith

enacted an ethics of care through the patience, flexibility, and empathy she demonstrated

for students; being well-prepared to teach; advocacy for students; and building students’

confidence. Although little research exists on caring in the ESOL context, my findings

confirm Garrott's (2002) study showing a positive relationship between teacher caring

and students' second language learning. In addition, Mrs. Smith’s teaching manifested

the components of culturally responsive/ relevant pedagogy: cultural comparisons, home-

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school connection, multilingual experiences, inclusive and cooperative teacher-student

and peer-to-peer interactions, and validating students’ backgrounds. In Mrs. Smith’s

classroom, the intersection of CRP and an ethics of care allowed students to build

linguistic and academic knowledge. The strategies that Mrs. Smith employed that were

helpful to the ELL SIFE were providing literacy centers in the classroom, modeling and

demonstrating the desired work, making learning explicit through the use of rubrics,

integrating group work, and creating a classroom community of readers and writers.

Nonetheless, marginalization in the high school and the newcomer program hindered

students’ ability to gain access to appropriate curriculum and instruction. With the

growing number of refugee ELL SIFE in U.S. schools, it is imperative that teachers

become aware of students’ needs so they can prepare responsive classroom environments

(Szente, Hoot & Taylor, 2006). From my findings, the implications are two-fold,

theoretical and practical implications, which are discussed in the next paragraphs.

Theoretical implications of this study focus on the various frameworks focusing

on second language acquisition (SLA) and how they can be strengthened with the use of

ethics of care and culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy. Scaffolding, as suggested by

Peregoy and Boyle (2005), was successfully employed by the teacher in this study in the

ways that she provided predictable routines and literacy rotations that remained similar

throughout the year. This allowed ELL SIFE to make steady progress in the areas of

reading and writing. Through the use of graphic organizers and visual scaffolds, students

were able to support students’ English and academic language learning.

Another finding of importance is that cooperative peer to peer and teacher to

student interaction that was employed in the classroom provided support for students.

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Through the ethics of care in the form of patience, flexibility and empathy, the teacher

was able to provide a comfortable classroom community where students were expected to

respectfully interact with each other regularly. According to Krashen (1982), by

lowering students’ anxiety in the classroom, the teacher was able to provide

comprehensible input, therefore increasing their self-confidence to use English. The

teacher allowed students to use different strategies that were helpful in making the

content comprehensible to them. These included writing and drawing, code-switching

with peers, use of technology and SMART Board regularly. The use of various strategies

that were identified as ethics of care and culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy

contribute to the field of second language acquisition (SLA) in supporting learning for all

ELLs particularly SIFE.

This study provides further understanding of how to better serve the needs of the

refugee ELL SIFE in secondary classrooms, specifically in the newcomer classrooms.

With the increasing numbers of SIFE in secondary schools, there is a significant need to

be able to understand the specific needs of students and using effective strategies that

would be step toward meeting their needs. As suggested by Thomas and Collier (1999),

ELL students’ learning can be supported by valuing students’ cultural and linguistic

backgrounds and providing a safe and welcoming classroom environment for them. In

this study, by making cultural comparisons, allowing for multilingual and cooperative

interaction that validated students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds, Mrs. Smith

provided a positive learning experience for the SIFE.

Another implication of this dissertation study of ELL SIFE is that teachers need to

get to know students and their pasts in order to adequately respond to their needs (See

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also Curry, 2003). Each student brings considerable and unpredictable experience, as

documented in the literature and in this dissertation. Students may display certain

behaviors that may be explained by their past histories as well as have experiences that

can be drawn on for pedagogical and social purposes. In designing newcomer

programs, offering mental health services to those students who may be still be struggling

with the trauma they experienced in the past would be an important component of helping

the students adapt to their new settings.

The findings of this study indicated that Mrs. Smith, the ESOL teacher, was

highly effective in meeting the social and academic needs of the ELL SIFE in the

classroom. However because of the lack of support from administrators, she was limited

in her efforts of providing the best education for the ELL SIFE in the newcomer program.

She tried to create curricular and instructional materials for the students through using

various instructional resources but did not have a curriculum that was on appropriate

grade level. The use of ethics of care and culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy should

be given consideration in training staff to better serve the refugee ELL SIFE in secondary

schools. This can be done by instilling the importance of how ethical care can be

demonstrated by teachers in the form of patience, flexibility, and empathy, as well as

planning lessons that make connections to students cultures and homes, allowing and

valuing multilingualism within the classroom setting through inclusive and cooperative

activities, building students’ confidence through validating their backgrounds and

advocating for students through different means. These can be done by using various

scaffolds to make content comprehensible for SIFE: using visual scaffolds such as

graphic organizers, providing explicit instructions and predictable routines. Mrs. Smith

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utilized cooperative learning groups and encouraged peer collaboration, which helped

ELL SIFE to acquire basic interpersonal communication skills while they also developed

understanding of the content.

A good starting point would be to provide professional development for

administrators on the needs of refugee ELL SIFE so they can make informed decisions

about meeting students’ needs (Walker, Shafer & Liams, 2004). It is critical that

administrators advocate for refugee ELL SIFE (Lucas, Henze, Donato, 1990) based on an

understanding of their previous experiences and current needs. As refugee and

immigrant ELL SIFE arrive to schools in the United States, in an era of high stakes

testing they are expected to be able very quickly to demonstrate, through standardized

tests, achievement at the same level as students in the mainstream. Although research

shows that it takes five to seven years for immigrant students to acquire sufficient oral

and academic language, it takes seven to ten years for SIFE to reach that level

(DelliCarpini, 2007). Therefore, given the nature of their situation, SIFE are at a greater

risk of dropping out of high school than even other ELLs (Walsh, 1999). Programs

designed for SIFE therefore must take into account the histories and challenges of these

students. Although individual teachers may work hard to provide the best learning

environment possible in the newcomer classrooms, school leaders must become active in

designing and supporting programs that address the social, emotional, and academic

needs of refugee and immigrant SIFE.

Because SIFE often need to learn disciplinary content at the same time as English,

administrators need to establish a means for ESOL teachers and content teachers to

collaborate (Roberts & Pruitt, 2009), so that all students can access the curriculum.

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Providing access to the necessary resources for co-teaching must begin with identifying

the needs of the programs and offering support for teachers to collaborate. School

leaders and teachers must work together to understand how the students’ past experiences

impact their adaptation to American school system and support the aspirations of refugee

ELL SIFE.

Another critical implication would be to create curriculum for literacy and content

area subjects that would help ELL SIFE to access appropriate academic content

knowledge while developing their English language proficiency. With the ongoing

demands of the NCLB (2001, 2010) and mandated tests that these students are expected

to fulfill, it is not realistic for them to acquire English in such a short period of one year

and be able to successfully transition into the mainstream education. In order to better

serve the SIFE, they need to be given extra time to acquire the language and academic

content, therefore be able to meet the demands required for high school graduation.

Finally, ELL SIFE need to be explicitly informed about the requirements of high school

graduation and college entrance, so that students can make realistic decisions about their

futures. As students enroll in programs, they should be notified of their current standing

in the program, what they can possibly accomplish given the resources available within

the school, and different options that are available to them such as vocational training

programs and adult education programs. For students who are arriving after middle

school, without extra time in meeting the requirements of high school graduation and

necessary academic and social supports available, it is not realistic that they would be

able to fulfill the credit requirements and be able to pass the required state exams for

graduation.

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Another implication is for teachers and administrators to establish strong home-

school communication and connection in order to disseminate information about school

to families of refugee ELL SIFE, who may not have a clear understanding of schooling in

the United States. As strong relationships are built with families, families can be

empowered to make decisions about their children’s education.

The implications based on the findings of this study include both theoretical and

practical implications. The theoretical implications include the use of ethics of care and

culturally responsive/relevant pedagogy in order to address the needs of the refugee ELL

SIFE in secondary schools. The practical implications include different strategies that

can be employed by teachers and administrators as a step toward understanding and

meeting the social and academic needs of the refugee ELL SIFE in secondary schools.

Limitations

This study was limited to data collection in only one newcomer classroom and

based on observations during the ELA and social studies classes. The small number of

participants and the setting of one classroom may not be representative of all programs;

however, the study provides an in-depth understanding of the experiences of the refugee

ELL SIFE that can be applied to different contexts in a similar setting that may add to

further understanding. More information from parents, students, other teachers, and

administrators should also be gathered in order to have a better understanding of all

parties involved.

Additionally, because I did not speak the multiple languages present in the

classroom, I may have missed some of the students’ interactions as they used their native

languages. I may also have missed some of their interactions that were not captured on

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the audio or video recordings as I also participated in the classroom activities. However,

as a researcher I realize the richness of these interactions and hope to address these

further in my future studies. The next section describes implications for future research.

Future Research

Conducting a follow-up study looking at the experiences of the students

participating in this research at the schools they moved to after GHS would be useful to

find out how their experiences evolved when they left the Newcomer Program. It would

be important to learn if what Mrs. Smith and other teachers provided them with in terms

of social and academic learning served them as they transitioned into the mainstream

education and what kind of support they are receiving after the newcomer program.

Ideally, following students through the remainder of their high school and post-secondary

academic careers would enable us to see how many would graduate or drop out, and what

circumstances contributed to such outcomes.

It would also be beneficial to compare the experiences of certain ethnic groups to

see if there are similarities or differences as they transition into the mainstream. In

addition to exploring their overall experiences, a study looking at students’ funds of

knowledge (Moll, 1991) through home visits and observations and how these can be

adapted in school settings would be valuable in understanding literacy, social, and

cultural practices of the refugee ELL SIFE.

Additional research should also be conducted on all disciplinary classrooms in

which ELL SIFE are students, including mathematics and science, to get a broader

picture of their academic experiences in different academic subjects.

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References

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APPENDIX A

STUDENT INTERVIEW PROTOCOL 1

Date_______________________________ Student ID_______________ Pseudonym____________________________ Introduction ` Researcher introduces self ` Discuss the purpose of the study ` Provide structure of the interview (audio recording, taking notes, and use of pseudonym) ` Ask if students have any questions ` Test audio recording equipment ` SMILE-make the participant feel comfortable.

1. Could you tell me when and how you came to the United States?

2. Why did your family leave your country?

3. Have you had an experience with war in your country?

4. Could you tell me about your schooling experiences before coming to the United

States?

5. When did you start to learn English?

6. Tell me about your schooling experiences here in the United States?

7. If you have experienced difficulties in your life that people might describe as

stressful, how did you deal with these events?

8. What do you like best of the current program you are enrolled in?

9. What don’t you like about the current program you are enrolled in?

10. If you had a say in your school and program, what would you do

differently/same?

11. Tell me about your home/family life.

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12. What kinds of activities do you do at home with your family? [or, tell me about a

typical day in your family. Tell me about a typical weekend day in your family]

13. How has your family helped you to cope with difficulties in your life?

14. What do you see yourself doing after this progam/ HS?

15. How do you feel your schooling and family experiences will help prepare you for

the future?

16. Would you like to add anything else?

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APPENDIX B

STUDENT INTERVIEW PROTOCOL 2

Date_______________________________ Student ID_______________ Pseudonym____________________________ Introduction ` Researcher introduces self ` Discuss the purpose of the study ` Provide structure of the interview (audio recording, taking notes, and use of pseudonym) ` Ask if students have any questions ` Test audio recording equipment ` SMILE-make the participant feel comfortable.

1. What school will you be attending next year?

2. How many years of schooling have you had in your country? (if not asked

previously)

3. What is your future education plan? How you will achieve your goal?

4. Do you get any support from your community for your education?

5. How satisfied are you with how well you are doing at school?

6. Who supports you to do well at school and how important is this to you?

7. Which subjects do you feel you did well in? Why?

8. Which subjects do you feel you did not do so well in? Why?

9. How many hours did you spend studying each subject throughout the week?

10. Which are your favorite subjects? Which subjects do you not like? Why?

11. Do you have a good time at school?

12. Do you feel bad if you do not understand or have difficulty your school work?

13. What would help you to do better achieve at school?

14. What are some of your good experiences of being at school in the U.S.?

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15. What are some of the bad experiences of being at school in the U.S.?

16. What would you like to change at your school?

17. How did you like working on System 44? What part of System 44 was the most

helpful? Least helpful?

18. What do you think helped you the most in Mrs. Wolff’s class?

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APPENDIX C

TEACHER INTERVIEW PROTOCOL 1

Date_______________________________ Teacher ID_______________ Pseudonym____________________________ Introduction ` Introduce yourself ` Discuss the purpose of the study ` Provide structure of the interview (audio recording, taking notes, and use of pseudonym) ` Ask if teacher has any questions ` Test audio recording equipment ` SMILE-make the participant feel comfortable

1. How long have you been teaching?

2. How long have you been teaching in this program?

3. How did you come to work with adolescent SIFE?

4. What kinds of experiences have you had with adolescent SIFE?

5. What are SIFE strengths?

6. What are SIFE weaknesses?

7. What works best for the instruction of SIFE?

8. Do you think there is anything missing?

9. Tell me about a challenging time when teaching adolescent SIFE.

10. Tell me about a rewarding time when teaching adolescent SIFE.

11. Do you communicate with parents of SIFE?

a. Please give me an example of how you communicate with parents of

SIFE?

12. What kind of support is there from administrators to you (teachers) and SIFE?

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13. What are some things that you would like to see put in place to support SIFE

better?

14. Would you like to add anything else?

215

APPENDIX D

TEACHER INTERVIEW PROTOCOL 2

Date_______________________________ Teacher ID_______________ Pseudonym____________________________ Introduction ` Introduce yourself ` Discuss the purpose of the study ` Provide structure of the interview (audio recording, taking notes, and use of pseudonym) ` Ask if teacher has any questions ` Test audio recording equipment ` SMILE-make the participant feel comfortable

1. Can you reflect on the academic year and how it went?

2. What were some things that worked well and others that didn’t? What would you

change next time?

3. What was most challenging teaching in the program?

4. What kinds of professional development opportunities have you had this year?

5. Were there any opportunities for the parents to attend school events other than the

parent-teacher conferences?

6. What would you like to see happen for the SIFE students? What would be ideal?

7. How did the implementation of System 44 effect your classroom dynamics? Do

you think it helped? How different it would have been if you didn’t have System

44 in place? Do you think the students would have learned differently?

8. What is your biggest accomplishment this year?

9. Besides the newcomer program and its systems in place, what support systems are

available for refugee students?

216

10. If you could design a perfect school for newly arrived SIFE what would it look

like?

11. What do you think about the high aspirations of students like wanting to go to

college even though it’s not realistic for many of them who are older? Do you

think they need to be made aware of the systematic restrictions? Why/Why not?

Study Title: The Experiences of Adolescent Students with Interrupted Formal

Education

Principal Investigator:

Co-Principal Investigator

Introduction:

This letter describes a research study that you are being asked to participate in about the experiences of adolescent refugee students in secondary schools. Rabia Hos, doctoral student at the University and Human Development, is conducting this study under the supervision of her advisor, Dr. Mary Jane Curry.

You are being asked to participate in this study because you are enrolled in the Jumpstart Program and/or newcomer program at the Jefferson High School during the 2010-2011 academic year. Please read this letter carefully and ask the person who presents it any further questions you may have before you decide whether or not to be in the study.

Description of Study Procedures

The duration of this study is eleven months, from August 2010 through June 2011. In this study, you will be asked to participate asked questions about your experiences in the newcomer program. Each of these interviews will last between 30 and 60 minutes long and will be conducted at a time that is convenient at school. These interviews will be recand audio recorder so that the researchers can view, listen to, and transcribe what is said as data for the study.

Some teachers and parents will be asked to participate in individual interviews too.

Other study activities will be conducted during the school year. For example, the researchers will be observing the school, taking notes on a laptop computer, and videorecording classroom activities. Also, documentation, such as curriculum materials, class records, and student work will be collected.

APPENDIX E

STUDENT INFORMATION LETTER

The Experiences of Adolescent Students with Interrupted Formal

Principal Investigator: Rabia Hos, Doctoral Student

Investigator: Mary Jane Curry, Ph.D.

This letter describes a research study that you are being asked to participate in about the experiences of adolescent refugee students in secondary schools. Rabia Hos, doctoral student at the University of Rochester’s Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, is conducting this study under the supervision of her advisor,

You are being asked to participate in this study because you are enrolled in the Jumpstart Program and/or newcomer program at the Jefferson High School during the

2011 academic year. Please read this letter carefully and ask the person who any further questions you may have before you decide whether or not to be in

Description of Study Procedures

The duration of this study is eleven months, from August 2010 through June 2011. In this study, you will be asked to participate in interviews in which you will be asked questions about your experiences in the newcomer program. Each of these interviews will last between 30 and 60 minutes long and will be conducted at a time that is convenient at school. These interviews will be recorded with a digital video recorder and audio recorder so that the researchers can view, listen to, and transcribe what is said

Some teachers and parents will be asked to participate in individual interviews

ities will be conducted during the school year. For example, the researchers will be observing the school, taking notes on a laptop computer, and videorecording classroom activities. Also, documentation, such as curriculum materials, class

udent work will be collected.

217

The Experiences of Adolescent Students with Interrupted Formal

This letter describes a research study that you are being asked to participate in about the experiences of adolescent refugee students in secondary schools. Rabia Hos,

of Rochester’s Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, is conducting this study under the supervision of her advisor,

You are being asked to participate in this study because you are enrolled in the Jumpstart Program and/or newcomer program at the Jefferson High School during the

2011 academic year. Please read this letter carefully and ask the person who any further questions you may have before you decide whether or not to be in

The duration of this study is eleven months, from August 2010 through June in interviews in which you will be

asked questions about your experiences in the newcomer program. Each of these interviews will last between 30 and 60 minutes long and will be conducted at a time that

orded with a digital video recorder and audio recorder so that the researchers can view, listen to, and transcribe what is said

Some teachers and parents will be asked to participate in individual interviews

ities will be conducted during the school year. For example, the researchers will be observing the school, taking notes on a laptop computer, and video-recording classroom activities. Also, documentation, such as curriculum materials, class

218

Number of Participants All the enrolled in the International Jumpstart Program secondary classroom and

the Newcomer Classroom at Thomas Jefferson High School during the 2010-2011 academic year as well as their teachers and 6 parents will be asked to be part of the study. We estimate that approximately 35 students will take part in this study.

Risks of Participation

This research presents minimal risk to participants. There is a small chance that some of the questions may make you feel uncomfortable. You don’t have to answer those questions if you don’t want to.

Benefits of Participation

You may or may not benefit from participation in this study. This study may expand your understanding of educational opportunities for students in the United States.

Confidentiality of Data

While every effort to maintain confidentiality will be made, it cannot be absolutely guaranteed. Any references to your name from all classroom documents, field notes, and transcripts from video and audio recordings will be removed and a pseudonym will be used instead. However, data that identify you (i.e., video and audio recordings) may be inspected by a regulatory agency and/or the University of Rochester. The video images will not be presented at meetings. The results of this research study may be presented at meetings or in publications. However, your name will be kept private

Voluntary Participation

Participation in this study is voluntary. You are free not to participate or to withdraw at any time, for any reason without consequences. If you decide not to participate, your name will not be included in any data collection procedures. If you do withdraw from this study, the information already gathered will be kept in a confidential manner. Choosing not to participate or withdrawing from the study will not jeopardize your enrollment in the newcomer program. You don’t have to take part in this study, even if your parent/guardian wants you to.

Contact Persons

For more information about this research please contact: Rabia Hos, at (585) 259-0972 or rabia.hos@warner.rochester.edu or Dr. Curry at (585) 283-5934 or mjcurry@warner.rochester.edu.

If you have any questions about your rights as a research subject, or any concerns or complaints, you may contact the Human Participants Protection Specialist at the University of Rochester Research Participants Review Board, Box 315, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14642-8315, Telephone (585) 276-0005, for long-distance you

219

may call toll-free, (877) 449-4441. You may also call this number if you cannot reach the research staff or wish to talk to someone else.

Study Title: The Experiences of Adolescent Students with Interrupted Formal

Education

Principal Investigator:

Co-Principal Investigator

Introduction:

This letter describes a research study that you are being asked to participate in about the experiences of adolescent refugee students in doctoral student at the University of Rochester’s Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, is conducting this study under the supervision of her advisor, Dr. Mary Jane Curry.

You are being asked to participaJumpstart Program and/or newcomer program at the Jefferson High School during the 2010-2011 academic year. Please read this assent form carefully and ask the person who presents it any further questions you the study.

Description of Study Procedures

The duration of this study is eleven months, from August 2010 through June 2011. In this study, you will be asked to participate in interviews in which you will be asked questions about your experiences in the newcomer program. Each of these interviews will last between 30 and 60 minutes long and will be conducted at a time that is convenient at school. These interviews will be recorded with a digital video recorder and audio recorder so that the researchers can view, listen to, and transcribe what is saas data for the study.

Some teachers and parents will be asked to participate in individual interviews too.

Other study activities will be conducted during the school year. For example, the researchers will be observing the school, taking notes on a recording classroom activities. Also, documentation, such as curriculum materials, class records, and student work will be collected.

APPENDIX F

STUDENT ASSENT FORM

The Experiences of Adolescent Students with Interrupted Formal

Principal Investigator: Rabia Hos, Doctoral Student

Principal Investigator: Mary Jane Curry, Ph.D.

This letter describes a research study that you are being asked to participate in about the experiences of adolescent refugee students in secondary schools. Rabia Hos, doctoral student at the University of Rochester’s Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, is conducting this study under the supervision of her advisor,

You are being asked to participate in this study because you are enrolled in the Jumpstart Program and/or newcomer program at the Jefferson High School during the

2011 academic year. Please read this assent form carefully and ask the person who presents it any further questions you may have before you decide whether or not to be in

Description of Study Procedures

The duration of this study is eleven months, from August 2010 through June 2011. In this study, you will be asked to participate in interviews in which you will be asked questions about your experiences in the newcomer program. Each of these

will last between 30 and 60 minutes long and will be conducted at a time that is convenient at school. These interviews will be recorded with a digital video recorder and audio recorder so that the researchers can view, listen to, and transcribe what is sa

Some teachers and parents will be asked to participate in individual interviews

Other study activities will be conducted during the school year. For example, the researchers will be observing the school, taking notes on a laptop computer, and videorecording classroom activities. Also, documentation, such as curriculum materials, class records, and student work will be collected.

220

The Experiences of Adolescent Students with Interrupted Formal

This letter describes a research study that you are being asked to participate in secondary schools. Rabia Hos,

doctoral student at the University of Rochester’s Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, is conducting this study under the supervision of her advisor,

te in this study because you are enrolled in the Jumpstart Program and/or newcomer program at the Jefferson High School during the

2011 academic year. Please read this assent form carefully and ask the person who may have before you decide whether or not to be in

The duration of this study is eleven months, from August 2010 through June 2011. In this study, you will be asked to participate in interviews in which you will be asked questions about your experiences in the newcomer program. Each of these

will last between 30 and 60 minutes long and will be conducted at a time that is convenient at school. These interviews will be recorded with a digital video recorder and audio recorder so that the researchers can view, listen to, and transcribe what is said

Some teachers and parents will be asked to participate in individual interviews

Other study activities will be conducted during the school year. For example, the laptop computer, and video-

recording classroom activities. Also, documentation, such as curriculum materials, class

221

Number of Participants

All the students enrolled in the International Jumpstart Program secondary classroom and the Newcomer Classroom at Thomas Jefferson High School during the 2010-2011 academic year as well as the teacher, and parents will be asked to be part of the study. We estimate that approximately 35 students will take part in this study.

Risks of Participation

This research presents minimal risk to participants. You may be concerned about privacy and that your words will be made public. In order to protect your privacy, any references to your name from all classroom documents, field notes, and transcripts from video and audio recordings will be removed. The video tapes will be processed to remove the possibility of recognizing any subjects. Furthermore, pseudonyms will be used for places and people in all presentations and publications. You may also be uncomfortable being observed, recorded, or interviewed. You may also be distracted by cameras, digital voice recorders, or microphones. These types of discomfort and distractions usually pass quickly.

Benefits of Participation

You may or may not benefit from participation in this study. This study may expand your understanding of educational opportunities for students in the United States.

Confidentiality of Data

While every effort to maintain confidentiality will be made, it cannot be absolutely guaranteed. Any references to your name from all classroom documents, field notes, and transcripts from video and audio recordings will be removed and a pseudonym will be used instead. However, data that identify you (i.e., video and audio recordings) may be inspected by a regulatory agency and/or the University of Rochester. The video images will not be presented at meetings. The results of this research study may be presented at meetings or in publications. However, your name will be kept private

Voluntary Participation

Participation in this study is voluntary. You are free not to participate or to withdraw at any time, for any reason without consequences. If you decide not to participate, your name will not be included in any data collection procedures. If you do withdraw from this study, the information already gathered will be kept in a confidential manner. Choosing not to participate or withdrawing from the study will not jeopardize your enrollment in the newcomer program. You don’t have to take part in this study, even if your parent/guardian wants you to.

Contact Persons

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For more information about this research please contact: Rabia Hos, at (585) 259-0972 or rabia.hos@warner.rochester.edu or Dr. Curry at (585) 283-5934 or mjcurry@warner.rochester.edu.

If you have any questions about your rights as a research subject, or any concerns or complaints, you may contact the Human Participants Protection Specialist at the University of Rochester Research Participants Review Board, Box 315, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14642-8315, Telephone (585) 276-0005, for long-distance you may call toll-free, (877) 449-4441. You may also call this number if you cannot reach the research staff or wish to talk to someone else.

I have read this form (or had it read to me). If I had questions, they were answered. I agree to be in this study. I have received (or will receive) a signed copy of this form for my records and future reference.

Print Name:___________________ Date:______________________

Signature: _______________________________

I have read this form to the participant and/or the participant has read this assent form. An explanation of the research was given and questions from the participant were solicited and answered to the participant’s satisfaction. In my judgment, the participant has demonstrated comprehension of the information. I have provided (or will provide) the participant with a signed copy of this form.

Print Name:___________________________ Date:______________________

Signature: ____________________________

PARENTAL/GUARDIAN CONSENT/PERMISSON FORM

Study Title: The Experiences of Adolescent Students with Interrupted Formal

Education

Principal Investigator:

Co-Principal Investigator

Introduction

This letter describes a research study that you are being asked to participate in and to have your child participate in about the experiences of adosecondary schools. Rabia Hos, doctoral student at the University of Rochester’s Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, is conducting this study under the supervision of her advisor, Dr. Mary Jane Curry.

You are being asked to participate in this study because your child is enrolled in the Jumpstart Program and/or newcomer program at the Jefferson High School during the 2010-2011 academic year. Please read this letter carefully and ask the person who presents it any further questions you may have before you decide whether or not to be in the study.

Purpose of Study

The purpose of this research study is to explore the experiences of adolescent refugee students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) in a Rochschool. This study examines adolescent refugee SIFE in the International Jumpstart Program secondary school and the newcomer program in a school

Description of Study Procedures

The PI will be observing in your child’s classroom and taking notes as necessary. In addition, a video-recording of the class activities during the Newcomer Program classroom will be conducted. Your child may be asked to participate in individual interviews as well.

The duration of this study is eleven months, from August 2010 through June 2011. In this study, your child will be asked to participate in up to three interviews and

APPENDIX G

PARENTAL/GUARDIAN CONSENT/PERMISSON FORM

The Experiences of Adolescent Students with Interrupted Formal

Investigator: Rabia Hos, Doctoral Student

Principal Investigator: Mary Jane Curry, Ph.D.

This letter describes a research study that you are being asked to participate in and to have your child participate in about the experiences of adolescent refugee students in secondary schools. Rabia Hos, doctoral student at the University of Rochester’s Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, is conducting this study under the supervision of her advisor, Dr. Mary Jane Curry.

are being asked to participate in this study because your child is enrolled in the Jumpstart Program and/or newcomer program at the Jefferson High School during the

2011 academic year. Please read this letter carefully and ask the person who it any further questions you may have before you decide whether or not to be in

Purpose of Study

The purpose of this research study is to explore the experiences of adolescent refugee students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) in a Rochester secondary school. This study examines adolescent refugee SIFE in the International Jumpstart Program secondary school and the newcomer program in a school-based setting.

Description of Study Procedures

The PI will be observing in your child’s classroom and taking notes as necessary. recording of the class activities during the Newcomer Program

classroom will be conducted. Your child may be asked to participate in individual

The duration of this study is eleven months, from August 2010 through June 2011. In this study, your child will be asked to participate in up to three interviews and

223

PARENTAL/GUARDIAN CONSENT/PERMISSON FORM

The Experiences of Adolescent Students with Interrupted Formal

This letter describes a research study that you are being asked to participate in and lescent refugee students in

secondary schools. Rabia Hos, doctoral student at the University of Rochester’s Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, is conducting this study under

are being asked to participate in this study because your child is enrolled in the Jumpstart Program and/or newcomer program at the Jefferson High School during the

2011 academic year. Please read this letter carefully and ask the person who it any further questions you may have before you decide whether or not to be in

The purpose of this research study is to explore the experiences of adolescent ester secondary

school. This study examines adolescent refugee SIFE in the International Jumpstart based setting.

The PI will be observing in your child’s classroom and taking notes as necessary. recording of the class activities during the Newcomer Program

classroom will be conducted. Your child may be asked to participate in individual

The duration of this study is eleven months, from August 2010 through June 2011. In this study, your child will be asked to participate in up to three interviews and

224

you will be asked to participate in 2 interviews in which I will ask you/your child questions about your experiences before and after coming to the U.S. Each of these interviews will last between 30 and 60 minutes long and will be conducted at a time that is convenient. These interviews will be recorded with a digital video recorder and audio recorder so that the sessions can be viewed, listened to, and transcribed as data for the study.

Number of Participants

All students who are enrolled in the International Jumpstart Program secondary classroom and Newcomer Classroom at Thomas Jefferson High School during the 2010-2011 academic year, 6 parents, as well as two teachers will be asked to be part of the study. We estimate a total of 45 participants.

Risks of Participation

This research presents minimal risk to participants. You /your child may be uncomfortable being observed, recorded, or interviewed. In order to ensure confidentiality, you/your child’s names on all classroom documents, field notes, and transcripts from video and audio recordings will be removed. The video tapes will be processed by the PI to remove the possibility of recognizing any participants. Furthermore, pseudonyms for places and people will be used in all presentations and publications. You/your child may also be distracted by cameras, digital voice recorders, or microphones. These types of discomfort and distraction usually pass quickly.

Benefits of Participation

You/your child may not benefit from this study however you/your child may learn more about the school settings and provide insights of your/your child’s own experiences that will allow for better programs in the future.

Confidentiality of Data

While every effort to maintain confidentiality will be made, it cannot be absolutely guaranteed. Any references to your/your child’s name from all classroom documents, field notes, and transcripts from video and audio recordings will be removed and a pseudonym will be used instead. However, data that identify you/your child (i.e., video and audio recordings) may be inspected by a regulatory agency and/or the University of Rochester. The video images will not be presented at meetings. The results of this research study may be presented at meetings or in publications. However, your/your child’s name will be kept private

Voluntary Participation

Participation in this study is voluntary. You/your child are free not to participate or to withdraw at any time, for any reason without consequences. If you/your child decide not to participate, your/your child’s name will not be included in any data collection procedures. If you/your child do withdraw from this study, the information

225

already gathered will be kept in a confidential manner. Choosing not to participate or withdrawing from the study will not jeopardize your child’s enrollment in the newcomer program.

Contact Persons

For more information about this research please contact: Rabia Hos, at (585) 259-0972 or rabia.hos@warner.rochester.edu or Dr. Curry at (585) 283-5934 or mjcurry@warner.rochester.edu.

If you/your child have any questions about your rights as a research subject, or any concerns or complaints, you/your child may contact the Human Participants Protection Specialist at the University of Rochester Research Participants Review Board, Box 315, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14642-8315, Telephone (585) 276-0005, for long-distance you/your child may call toll-free, (877) 449-4441. You/your child may also call this number if you cannot reach the research staff or wish to talk to someone else.

Parent Permission

I have read (or have had read to me) the contents of this consent/permission form and have been encouraged to ask questions. I have received answers to my questions. I agree to allow my child to participate in this study. I have received (or will receive) a copy of this form for my records and future reference.

Research Subject (Child’s Name): ________________________________Print Name

Parent’s Name: _______________________________________________Print Name

Parent’s Signature ________________________________ Date _____________

I have read (or have had read to me) the contents of this consent/permission form and have been encouraged to ask questions. I have received answers to my questions. I agree to participate in this study. I have received (or will receive) a signed copy of this form for my records and future reference.

Research Subject (Parent): ____________________________ Print Name

Research Subject: ____________________________ Signature _____________Date

Person Obtaining Consent

I have read this form to the participant’s parent/guardian and/or the participant’s parent/guardian has read this consent form. An explanation of the research was given and questions from the participant’s parent/guardian were solicited and answered to the participant’s parent/guardian’s satisfaction. In my judgment, the participant’s

226

parent/guardian has demonstrated comprehension of the information. I have provided (or will provide) the participant’s parent/guardian with a signed copy of this form.

Print Name:__________________________Signature/Date:_______________________

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APPENDIX H ARABIC PARENT CONSENT LETTER

قحلملا ج

ةرامتسا ةقفاوم يلو رمالا وا لوؤسملا نع بلاطلا ناونع ةساردلا :ةبرجت نيق�ارملا عم ميلعتلا يساسألأ ريغ مظتنملا

ثحابلا يساسالا :ةيبار سو� /ةبلاط �اروتكد ثحابلا ايوناثل:ةروتكدلا يرام نيج يريك

ةمدقم: يف مسق تاساردلا ايلعلا يف ةيلك تيرغرام رنراو ةيبرتلل ريوطتو دراوملا

انا ةبلاط �اروتكد رتسشور,انا ذفنا ةسارد ةيثحب يف ةسردم كنبا/ ا كتنب تحت فارشا ةذاتسالا

ةيرشبلا يف ةعماج ةروتكدلا يرام نيج يريك . دوأ نا بلطا كتقفاوم ىلع كارتشا كنبا/ ا كتنب

ةفرشملا ىلع يتحورطا مت رايتخا كنبا/ ا كتنب ةكراشملل يف �ذ� ةساردلا �نوك كرتشم يف جمانرب

يف �ذ� ةساردلا.دقل او جمانرب نومداقلاددجلا يف ةيوناث نوسرفيج ماعلل يساردلا ٢٠١٠ـ٢٠١١.

زفقا ادباو ةقدب لأساو يا لاؤس كيدل ,اذا تررق حامسلا كنبال/ كتنبا ةكراشملاب يجري نا

ر*(ءٍ ارقأ �ذ� ةرامتسألا عقوت �ذ� ةرامتسألا.

ضرغلا نم ةساردلا: ةسارد ةبرجت بالطلا نيئجالا نمم م� يف نس ةق�ارملا عم ميلعتلا يساسألأ ريغ

ضرغلا نم ةساردلا ةسردم ةساردلل ةطسوتملا يف رتسشور.�ذ� ةساردلا صحفت بالط نيئجال يف نس

مظتنملا يف نومداقلا ددجلا بالطو نيطرخنم يف ةساردلا ىلع رادم ةنسلا.ىلع ساسا عيماجم

ةق�ارملا يف جمانرب ةيسارد.

فصو ةقيرط ةساردلا 123اً ةدملل نم ب/ ٢٠١٠ ةياغلو ناريزح ٢٠١١ يف �ذ� ةساردلا فوس كرتشت يف

ةدم ةساردلا دحا رشع ا�لالخ نع كتبرجت عم جمانرب نومداقلا ددجلا.,لك ةلباقم قرغتست ٣٠ ىلا ٦٠

تالباقم كلأسأس مئالملا الكل نيفرطلا,متيس ليجست �ذ� تالباقملا مادختسأب لجسم يتوص

ةقيقد متتو يف تقولا

228

نم ةد�اشم,عامتسالاو ىلا, نيودتو ام ليق تانايبك ةساردلل.ضعب ةذتاسألا ءايلوأو يمقر ىتح نكمتا

رومألا ضرعيس م�يلعكارتشالا يف �ذ� تالباقملا. ةيثحب ىرخا لثم: نودأس تاظحالم نع تاطاشنلا ةيفصلا ىلع يبوساح لومحملا

موقأس تاطاشنب يويدفلا تاطاشنلل ةيفصلا كلذك عمجاس ضعب قئاثولا لثم ج�انملا ةيساردلا

موقاسو ريوصتلاب لجس روضح بالطلا تابجاولاو ةيسردملا بالطلل لالخ ةبقارملا يف كفص.

عمج تامولعملا ةسارد ةبرجت بالطلا نيئجالا نمم م� يف نس ةق�ارملا عم ميلعتلا ضرغلا نم ةيلمع

يساسألأ

ددع نيكرتشملا بالطلا نيكرتشملا يف جمانرب زفقا ادباو فصلا طسوتملا بالطو فص جمانرب

لم/ يف كارشأ لك ساموثنوسرفيجو ماعلل يساردلا ٢٠١٠ـ٢٠١١.م�تذتاساو ءاضعأو نم ةئي�لا

نومداقلا ددجلا يف ةيوناث ةيرادألا و نم ءابألا.

رطاخملا ةعقوتملا نم كارتشألا لقا ىوتسم نكمم نم رطاخملا,دق ال رعشت ةحارلاب امدنع ملعت كنا بقارم وا متي

اذ� ثحبلا يدؤي ىلا وا متت كتلباقم ,امبر أ67ً( جعزنت نم ةطقاللا ةيتوصلا وا اريماكلا ةيروصلا وا

ليجست ام لوقت ,�ذ� عاونالا نم تاقياضملا ةداع يفتخت ةعرسب لذبأسو ىراصق يد�ج بلغتلل

لجسملا يتوصلا ا�يلع

دئاوفلا ةعقوتملا نم كارتشألا 7>ّ;89 نم قيمعت كباعيتسا ةبرجتل بالطلا نيئجالا نمم م� يف نس ةق�ارملا

ككارتشأ يف ةساردلا كحاجن يف لاجملا يساردلا.كلذكو Aُ@<=1 كل سيردت يصوصخ دعب ةيا�ن مويلا

يذلاو نكمم نا يوقي يساردلا وا لالخ ةلطع ةيا�ن عوبسالا نا تنك ةجاحب كلذل.

ةيرس تانايبلا ىراصق يد�ج ةظفاحملل ىلع ةيرس تامولعملا,نأف �ذ� ةيرسلا ال نكمي ا�نامض.

ىلع مغرلا نم يننأ لذبأس ةراشأ ىلا كمسأ نم لجس روظحلا,نم تامولعملا يتلا مت ا�عيمجت,قئاثو تاجردلا,نمو

لمعأس ىلع فذح يأ وا يروص متيسو لامعتسا ءامسأ ةيم�و ,عم كلذ نأف ضعب تامولعملا يتلا نكمم نا

يأ ليجست يتوص

229

ةيتوصلا وا ةيروصلا) متيس ا�صحف نم لبق ضعب رئاودلا ةيباقرلا يفو ددحت كتيو�( تاليجستلا

ةبقارملا, جئاتن �ذ� ةساردلا نكمم نأ رشنت يف تاعامتجالا وا تاروشنملا نكلو ةعماج رتسشور ضرغل

كمسا ىقبيس ريغ نلعم متيسو لامعتسا ءامسأ ةيم�و ةراشألل كيلا.

صخشلا يذلا نكمي لاصتألا �ب تامولعملا نع ثحبلا كنكمي لاصتألا ب ةيبار سو� ىلع مقرلا (٥٨٥٢٥٩٠٩٧٢) وا

ديزمل نمrabia.hos@warner.rochester.edu

وا ةروتكدلا يرام نيج يريك ىلع مقرلا(٥٨٥٢٨٣٥٩٣٤) وا mjcurry@warner.rochester.edu

نع كقوقح رصنعك ثحب, وا يأ مامت�أ وا فواخم , كنكمي لاصتألا ب زكرم اذا ناك كيدل راسفتسأ

ةيامح قوقح دراوملا ةيرشبلا يف ةعماج رتسشور ىلعUniversity of Rochester Research Participants Review Board, Box 315, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY

لاصتألل نم جراخ دلبلا كنكمي لاصتألا ىلع مقرلا يناجملا(٨٧٧٤٤٩٤٤٤١) وا ىلع مقرلا(٥٨٥٢٧٦٠٠٠٥)

كنكمي لاصتألا ىلع اذ� مقرلا اذا رثعت كلاصتأ رصانعلاب ةذفنملا ثحبلل

ةكراشملا ةيعوط ةيعوط,كل قح رايتخألا نأب ال كرتشت وا نا بحسنت يف يا تقو.اذا تررق مدع

ةكراشملا يف �ذ� ةساردلا كتامولعم لالخ ةيلمع ييعمجت تانايبلل اذا تررق نا بحسنت نأف تامولعملا

كارتشالا نل موقأ نيمضتب ةيرسب .كرايتخأ مدع ةكراشملا وا باحسنألا نل ضرعي ككارتشا جمانرب نومداقلا

ةصاخلا كب ظفحتس ددجلا رطخلل .

عيقوتلا/ خيراتلا ةقفاوم يلو رمألا وا لوؤسملا نع كراشملا

نذألا ةكراشملا وا مت ا�تأرق يل دقو مت يعيجشت ىلع �يجوت يتلئسا دقو مت

دقل تأرق ةرامتسا بلط ةباجألا ا�يلع. قفاوا ىلع حامسلا ينبال/ يتنبا نا كرتشي يف �ذ� ةساردلا.

اُزود ةخسنب ةعقوم نم �ذ� ةرامتسألا ظافتحالل ا�ب يف يلجس صاخلا ضارغاللو و دقل زُوِدت وا فوس

ةيلبقتسملا مسالا عيقوتلا/ خيراتلا

ةكراشملا �ذ� ىلع يلو رما كراشملا وا لوؤسملا �نع , وا دق ماق و� ا�تأرقب,دقو مت

دقل تأرق ةرامتسا

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حيضوت ضارغا ةساردلا �ل دقو مت حيضوت ةباجاو �تلئسأ. نأف يلو رما كراشملا وا لوؤسملا �نع بعوتسا فاد�ا ةساردلا ةروصب ةلماك

.بسح يريدقت دقل تدوز,وا فوس دوزا,كراشملا ةخسنب ةعقوم نم �ذ� ةرامتسألا

عيقوتلا/ خيراتلا مسالا

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APPENDIX I BURMESE PARENT CONSENT FORM

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APPENDIX J SOMALI PARENT CONSENT FORM

Study Title: The Experiences of Adolescent Students with Interrupted Formal

Education

Principal Investigator:

Co-Principal Investigator

Introduction:

This letter describes a research study and what you may expect if you decide to participate. Please read this letter carefully and have before making your decision whether or not to participate.

Rabia Hos, doctoral School of Education and Human Development, is conducting this study under the supervision of her advisor,

You are being asked to participate in this study because you will be teaching in the International Jumpstart Program and/orHigh School during the 2010

Purpose of Study

The purpose of this refugee students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) in a school. This study examines International Jumpstart Program in the summer and school-based setting and their household experiences outside of school that relate teducational experiences.

Description of Study Procedures

The duration of this study is el2011. In this study, you will be asked will ask you questions about the students’ experiences in the newcomer program and about your role as the teacher. Each of these interviews will minutes long and will be conductedinterviews will be recorded with a digital audio recorder so that listened to and transcribed

APPENDIX K TEACHER INFORMATION LETTER

The Experiences of Adolescent Students with Interrupted Formal

Principal Investigator: Rabia Hos, Doctoral Student

Principal Investigator: Mary Jane Curry, Ph.D.

This letter describes a research study and what you may expect if you decide to participate. Please read this letter carefully and ask any further questions have before making your decision whether or not to participate.

Rabia Hos, doctoral student at the University of Rochester’s Warner Graduate Education and Human Development, is conducting this study under the

dvisor, Dr. Mary Jane Curry.

You are being asked to participate in this study because you will be teaching in International Jumpstart Program and/or Newcomer Program at Thomas Jefferson

High School during the 2010-2011 academic school year.

Purpose of Study

The purpose of this research study is to explore the experiences of adolescent refugee students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) in a Rochester school. This study examines the experiences of adolescent refugee SIFE in theInternational Jumpstart Program in the summer and newcomer and full-year

and their household experiences outside of school that relate t

Description of Study Procedures

The duration of this study is eleven months, from August 2010 through2011. In this study, you will be asked to participate in up to three interviews in which I

about the students’ experiences in the newcomer program and about your role as the teacher. Each of these interviews will last between 30 and

utes long and will be conducted at a time that is mutually agreeable at schoolinterviews will be recorded with a digital audio recorder so that the data for this study

d.

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The Experiences of Adolescent Students with Interrupted Formal

This letter describes a research study and what you may expect if you decide to y further questions that you may

at the University of Rochester’s Warner Graduate Education and Human Development, is conducting this study under the

You are being asked to participate in this study because you will be teaching in Thomas Jefferson

is to explore the experiences of adolescent Rochester secondary

adolescent refugee SIFE in the year program in a

and their household experiences outside of school that relate to their

even months, from August 2010 through June interviews in which I

about the students’ experiences in the newcomer program and last between 30 and 60

at school. These the data for this study can

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In addition, notes about classroom activities and interactions will be observed by the PI and documented on a laptop computer. Classroom activities will be video-record curriculum materials, class records and student work will be collected.

Number of Participants

You are being asked because you are one of the two teachers that will be teaching in the International Jumpstart Program and the Newcomer Program classroom. Your students in these classrooms and their parents will also be invited to participate in this research. We estimate that the number of student participants to be 35 and the number of adult participants to be 10, with a total of 45 participants.

Risks of Participation

This research presents minimal risk to participants. There are no other expected risks to participation in this study.

Benefits of Participation

You may not benefit from this study however you may learn more about adolescent refugee SIFE experiences, which may strengthen your instructional practice.

Confidentiality of Data

While every effort to maintain confidentiality will be made, it cannot be absolutely guaranteed. Any references to your name from all classroom documents, fieldnotes, and transcripts from video and audio recordings will be removed and a pseudonym will be used instead. However, data that identify you (i.e., video and audio recordings) may be inspected by a regulatory agency and/or the University of Rochester. The video images will not be presented at meetings. The results of this research study may be presented at meetings or in publications. However, your name will be kept private

Voluntary Participation

Participation in this study is voluntary. You are free not to participate or to withdraw at any time, for whatever reason without penalty or loss of benefit to which you are otherwise entitled. Choosing not to participate or withdrawing from the study will not affect your employment with your school or your medical care at the University of Rochester.

Contact Persons

For more information about this research please contact: Rabia Hos, at (585) 259-0972 or rabia.hos@warner.rochester.edu or Dr. Curry at (585) 283-5934 or mjcurry@warner.rochester.edu.

If you have any questions about your rights as a research subject, or any concerns or complaints, you may contact the Human Participants Protection Specialist at the

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University of Rochester Research Participants Review Board, Box 315, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14642-8315, Telephone (585) 276-0005, for long-distance you may call toll-free, (877) 449-4441. You may also call this number if you cannot reach the research staff or wish to talk to someone else.

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APPENDIX L DREAMS SCHOOL DAILY SCHEDULE

Mon/Tues/Thu/Fri. Wednesday

BLOCK 1 8:30-9:59 CLASS MEETING 8:30-9:04

BLOCK 2 10:02-11:25 BLOCK 1 9:07-10:11

LUNCH B 11:28-12:03 BLOCK 2 10:14-11:18

BLOCK 3 12:06-1:29 LUNCH B 11:21-11:56

BLOCK 4 1:32-3:00 BLOCK 3 11:59-1:03

BLOCK 4 1:06-2:15