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Publication A Narrative Study of Cultural Identity Construction of African Refugee College Students in the Midwest(American Educational Research Association (AERA), 2021-04-10) Habtemariam, Samuel DermasThere are few African refugee college students in the United States and little is known regarding how they construct their cultural identities. This study sought to examine the cultural identity of four African refugee college students in the Midwest. Using narrative interviews, data were gathered to answer the question: How do African refugee college students negotiate their cultural identities in the post-resettlement period? Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and interpreted with critical race theory. The findings show that African refugee students (1) preserve their African identity by keeping their values, (2) face identity confusion and (3) negotiate their cultural identity by engaging African cultural practices at home but American ones outside. Based on the findings, suggestions are discussed.Publication The Cultural Responsiveness of the Communicative and Task-Based Instructional Approaches to African English Language Learners in a College ESL Classroom: A Qualitative Case Study(2023-11) Habtemariam, Samuel DermasIn the United States school education system, there are students who are identified as English Language Learners (ELLs). ELLs are multilingual students who speak any other language apart from English at home. While majority of the ELLs are born in the United States, a few of them are immigrants from different parts of the world who later joined the US school system (Zong and Batalova, 2015), and this study focuses on the latter student populations at a college level. Various second language teaching approaches are often utilized by language teachers to make their classroom instructions effective. Lightbown & Spada (2013) state communicative, task-based and content-based instructions, which appear to be commonly used when compared to the grammar translation and audiolingual approaches. The former instructions provide a ground for students to interact, converse, and communicate using the target language, and the students are expected to actively engage in the class discussions and interactions while the teacher facilitates them (Lightbown & Spada, 2013). However, little is known how culturally responsive the communicative and task-based instructions are to African ELLs in a college English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom in the Midwest. In order to address this gab, five African ELLs were selected based on convenience sampling and data were gathered through semi-structured interview and focus-group discussion. After analyzing the data through Miles and Huberman’s (1994) qualitative data analysis procedures, the following findings were reported. The cultural identity of the African ELLs did not seem to align with the principles of communicative and task-based instructional approaches, as the ELLs were raised to speak less but to listen more, avoid eye contact, and keep their head down when conversing as a sign of respect to the teachers. These elements of African cultural identity appeared to inhibit the ELLs from participating freely and actively in the English conversations, interactions, and group works in a college ESL classroom in the Midwest, United States. The study concludes that the communicative and task-based instructions should be culturally responsive to meet the unique needs of the African ELLs in a college ESL classroom.Publication Dialogue as Black Contemplative Practice(The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, 2022-04-19) Thomas, M'BaliaAcross space, time, and texts, I have engaged in contemplative dialogue with the writings of four writers—Black feminist poet Audre Lorde; Chicana poet Gloria Anzaldúa; artist, activist, and community healer Tricia Hersey; and novelist Andrea Lee. In doing so, I have participated in a contemplative practice that is culturally attuned to me as an African American woman as their writings—in different ways—are in dialogue with Black feminist thought, womanism, and Afrofuturism. Through these authors and their works, I have found the wisdom, comfort, othermothering, and language I have needed to make sense of my journey as an early career scholar on the tenure track and to become a more authentic, compassionate, and whole teacher-scholar.Publication Con Artist: Non-Cosplay Participation at Popular Culture Conventions as an Arts-Based Method of Inquiring Into Resistance and the Undoing of Rules(SAGE Publications, 2023-05-18) Thomas, M’BaliaI conduct an inquiry into my participation as an African American woman at two popular culture conventions, the 2017 Dragon Con (Atlanta) and the 2018 annual general meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America (Kansas City). Through a methodological approach to Con-ing—attending a popular culture convention—as arts-based inquiry and utilizing techniques of autoethnography, I inquire into my participation in spaces that, while intended to be havens of adult play, reproduce and reinforce discourses and material practices that can limit the play and participation of marginalized Others.Publication Virtual Teaching in the Time of COVID-19: Rethinking Our WEIRD Pedagogical Commitments to Teacher Education(Frontiers Media, 2020-12-03) Thoma, M’BaliaTeacher Educators confront a professional future in which online instruction will play an increased role in student learning. As instructional activities are delivered online, a critical challenge for teacher educators will be to continue supporting those ideals key to the missions of many Schools and Colleges of Education—the creation of an instructional environment that is culturally responsive, committed to equity and inclusion, and able to support a diverse and “well” student body.Publication Mathematics Student Teachers’ Views and Choices about Teaching and Textbooks in Middle and High School Classrooms(2020) Gay, A. Susan; Barry, Arlene L.; Rothrock, Katrina S.; Pelkey, Melissa M.A survey of 80 United States middle and high school mathematics student teachers gathered data on availability and use of textbooks and traditional and technology-supported instructional strategies. Findings about textbooks include (1) most classrooms had one or more textbook formats (print, digital or e-textbook) available but did not necessarily expect students to use the textbook; (2) some differences were noted when comparisons were made based on school location, size, and grade level; and (3) student teachers preferred the digital textbook format but there was also support for the print format. Analysis of student teachers’ self-reported use of instructional strategies, including a principal component analysis, revealed use of traditional teaching strategies and student-centered teaching. Student teachers’ views about how best to teach mathematics centered on themes of active learning and ways to meet students’ needs.Publication Survey data of foreign language learners' enjoyment and anxiety in the U.S.(Elsevier, 2020-01-31) Weng, Tsung-hanThe data derive from a survey collected from 182 bilingual and multilingual speakers who are foreign language speakers from six language groups, including Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, French, and Russian. They registered in beginning, immediate, and advanced levels of foreign language classes in a public four-year university in the Midwestern U.S. The survey was developed with an aim of exploring foreign language learners' enjoyment and anxiety in learning foreign languages. The survey was distributed by utilizing an online questionnaire, which is composed of four sections: 1) demographic information (9 items), 2) the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale (FLES) (12 items), 3) the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (8 items), and 4) open-ended questions (2 items). Both FLES and FLCAS took the form of a 5-point Likert scale. The entire dataset is stored in an Excel file (.xls). The entire questionnaire is included as a supplementary file.Publication The Use of Viber in Enhancing the Vocabulary Skills of Ethiopian Undergraduate Students: The Case of St. Mary’s University(2017) Habtemariam, Samuel DermasIn this era of technology, it is believed that English language learning has been made more accessible and easier for those who are interested to learn it. Part of utilizing today’s technology includes using a smart phone, not only for social communication purposes but also for learning. One of the applications used for learning in this regard is Viber which can be installed on cell phones for people to communicate not only individually but in group. This may be considered as an important tool for language learning, as a cell phone opens a gate for downloading, uploading and storing learning materials and information files. This study attempts to explore the use of Viber in developing vocabulary skills during group chat among university learners at St. Mary’s University in Ethiopia. Twenty undergraduate students taking ‘Sophomore English Course’ at the University were selected using simple random sampling. Interview and focus group discussion were used to find out if Viber helped them to enhance their vocabulary skills. The findings show that the use of Viber can enable students to develop their vocabulary skills through a lifelong and informal activity, though some words may be spelt incorrectly and the communication could be full of abbreviations and acronyms. The study revealed that university teachers can use this application, in a controlled manner, to help their students improve their vocabulary skills.Publication The Quest for Refugee Higher Education in Ethiopia: The Case of Self-financing Eritreans(Open University, 2019-05) Tamrat, Wondwosen; Habtemariam, Samuel DermasThis study examines the challenges of Eritrean refugees attending their tertiary education in selected private medical colleges in Ethiopia, and the support schemes available to help them cope with their problems. The research involves a sample of 40 randomly selected refugee students and uses focus group discussion and interview as principal methods of data collection. The findings reveal that Eritrean refugee students in Ethiopia face a variety of challenges identified as academic, linguistic, emotional/psychological and sociocultural. Although there are some forms of support offered at governmental level, the institutional level of support is found to be deficient in many respects. Hence, further improvements in facilitating refugee higher education in Ethiopia are posited.Publication The Effect of Socioscientific Topics on Discourse within an Online Game Designed to Engage Middle School Students in Scientific Argumentation(DergiPark, 2017) Craig-Hare, Jana; Ault, Marilyn; Rowland, AmberThe purpose of this study was to investigate the types of argumentation discourse displayed by students when they engaged in chat as part of an online multiplayer game about both socioscientific and scientific topics. Specifically, this study analyzed discourse episodes created by middle school students as they discussed scientific and socioscientific topics within an online, multiplayer game. Using a Discourse Analysis Scoring Guide, student discussions were coded based on the type of interaction or statements made. Analysis included a comparison between the types of topics (scientific vs. socioscientific) and the student author’s justification for their decision to accept, reject or withhold judgement about the claim; teammate comments related to the author’s justification; an overall rating of the discourse episode interaction; and frequency of argumentation vocabulary use throughout the discourse episode. Results indicated that socioscientific topics produced collaborative discourse episodes that were positive, supportive, and civil within an argumentation framework.Publication Trauma, Harry Potter, and the Demented World of Academia(University of Calgary, 2018) Thomas, M'BaliaThe following text presents my personal experience of psychological trauma as part of regular and ongoing processes of institutional (re)socialization into academe as a pre-tenure faculty member of color. In giving voice to this experience of trauma, the paper adopts a testimonio narrative function to highlight the shared nature of this experience even while foregrounding the uniqueness of my situation as a member of a marginalized and gendered body living in a specific geographical context and socio-political time. Though testimonio provides structure to my narrative, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels—a series about individual and collective trauma at the mortifying hands of resocializing institutions—provide an incidental, but integral, narrative lens through which I make meaning and offer advice on surviving traumatic experiences in institutional spaces. En cours de titularisation professorale de la faculté et en tant que personne de couleur, c’est de mon expérience personnelle dont je parle et du choc émotionnel qui fait partie du processus normal et permanent des relations sociales dans les établissements du milieu universitaire. A travers cette expérience traumatique, le testimonio se présente sous forme de narration afin de mettre en lumière le vécu courant de cette situation même si mon cas spécial, puisque je fais partie d’un groupe marginalisé qui tient compte du sexe vivant dans un contexte géographique et une période sociopolitique particuliers, est mis en premier plan. Bien que le testimonio charpente mon récit, Harry Potter de J. K. Rowling, série sur le traumatisme personnel et de groupe causé par l’humiliation des relations sociales dans les institutions, apporte une perspective secondaire mais complète, à laquelle je donne un sens et offre des conseils pour survivre des circonstances traumatisantes dans des lieux institutionnels.Publication The problematization of racial/ethnic minority student participation in U.S. study abroad(De Gruyter, 2013-10) Thomas, M'BaliaWithin U.S. higher education, there has been concern expressed about the underrepresentation of racial/ethnic minority students in U.S. study abroad programs. Though as a whole these students participate in study abroad at lower rates than their Caucasian counterparts, the fact that study abroad participation is even problematized by race/ethnicity (rather than other social categories such as gender, socioeconomic status or field of study) and the manner by which this is done warrant critical investigation. Drawing upon Foucault's concept of problematization (1984, 1988), this paper examines the discourses and practices (both discursive and nondiscursive) that mark current study abroad literature in which participation by U.S. undergraduates is tracked, categorized and ranked by race and ethnicity. It further problematizes the taken-for-granted assumptions that masquerade as truths and inhabit the methodological and analytical practices that govern research on racial and ethnic minority students, and in the process, uncovers an overarching code of thought that permeates the literature. Ultimately, this paper seeks to challenge the “truths” and counter the assumptions upon which this code of thought is based by highlighting those voices only marginally recognized in study abroad participation literature. These voices provide a local and contextualized perspective on the factors contributing to the lower rates of participation among one racial/ethnic minority category: African Americans. Although the paper does not take up the topic of language learning in study abroad contexts, it does present the real world challenge of language-in-use. It addresses the material and subject effects that a problematization of study abroad participation by race/ethnicity has on students, research practices, institutional and governmental policies, and the allocation of resources related to language study and the promotion and support of study abroad.Publication Dialogic Ground: The Use of 'Teaching Dilemmas' with Prospective Teachers(Buffalo State University, 2017) Hallman, Heidi L.; Deufel, ThompsonThis article describes a method of storytelling that can assist novice teachers in moving toward “re-seeing” their stories of teaching not just as narratives of experience, but as sites for work to be done. The assignment novice teachers undertook as part of a methods class in the teaching of English language arts has the potential to be a catalyst for problem solving and decision making as teachers. We argue that telling one’s teaching stories in such a fashion helps novice teachers discover the layered and context-specific nature of schools and classrooms, as well as assists them in moving toward envisioning multiple possible solutions to the challenges they face in the classroom. Also, through this assignment, novice teachers were able to forge new understandings or build on ones already held by interacting with their peers about the dilemmas they faced as teachers.Publication How English Language Arts Teachers Are Prepared for Twenty-First-Century Classrooms: Results of a National Study(National Council of Teachers of English, 2017-04) Caughlan, Samantha; Pasternak, Donna L.; Hallman, Heidi L.; Renzi, Laura; Rush, Leslie S.; Frisby, MichaelA national study of English teacher preparation in U.S. colleges and universities revealed that faculty address changes in content and context salient to English education, particu- larly curricular, demographic, political, and technological changes, through initiatives at both the program and methods course levels. Programs require many hours of field placements and high numbers of credit hours in the subject area and in subject-specific methods, and also distribute the responsibility for addressing institutional and pedagogi- cal change across courses. Methods courses raise awareness of focal issues and allow opportunities for preservice teachers to discuss these issues. However, opportunities are scarcer for applying knowledge by putting it into practice. This article discusses tensions in English education as they relate to conceptual coherence at the program and course levels, as well as tensions between what we call awareness versus application.Publication Even Cinderella Is White: (Re)Centering Black Girls’ Voices as Literacies of Resistance(National Council of Teachers of English, 2018-07) Young, Jemimah L.; Foster, Marquita D.; Hines, Dorothy E.The authors describe using counter fairy tales to (re)center the voices of Black girls as literacies of resistance in English education.Publication "The Girl Who Lived": Exploring the Liminal Spaces of Self-Study Research with Textual Critical Partners.(2018) Thomas, M'Balia; Garbett, Dawn; Ovens, AlanPublication Review of the Book The Unspeakable: Narratives of Trauma, M. Stroinska, V. Cecchetto, K. Szymanski(The Linguist LIst, 2015-08-26) Thomas, M'BaliaThe Unspeakable: Narratives of Trauma (henceforth, Unspeakable) is an edited collection of 14 papers drawn from and inspired by “Exploring the Edge of Trauma” (Kingston University, London, UK, May 2010) -- an international conference organized by Lieve Spaas and Fran Lloyd on trauma and the representation of trauma through art and other visual means. As a collection, the chapters address three themes related to the study of trauma and traumatic events: 1) the effect of traumatic experiences on the trauma survivor’s relationship to self and others, 2) the processes by which voice and meaning are given to traumatic experiences, and 3) the manner in which individuals and societies do (Posttraumatic Growth) or do not (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder – PTSD) move on from these experiences. Individually, the texts differently interrogate trauma as it is understood (from more medically-oriented definitions as determined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders versus more psychologically-oriented ones associated with the APA), experienced (as a result of war, displacement, rape), documented (through letters, diaries, novels) and analyzed (as discourse, archival texts, newspaper coverage, visual art). Following a brief introduction by the volume’s editors, the papers that comprise Unspeakable are presented through four “contexts” of trauma: 1) Historical, 2) Socio-political, 3) “Singular Events”, and 4) Theoretical. Additionally, each text is preceded by a quotation reflecting a major theme within the paper. For example, the quote by Abraham Lincoln, “With the fearful strain that is on me day and night, if I did not laugh, I should die”, introduces Jakub Kazecki’s “The Functions of Humor and Laughter in Narrating Trauma in German Literature of the First World War”. A short summary of each work follows, presented under its respective context, and with the first and last names of the authors provided in parenthesis.Publication Girl Talk: A Dialogic Approach to Oral Narrative Storytelling Analysis in English As a Foreign Language Research(The University of Arizona, 2014) Thomas, M'Balia; Waugh, Linda; Warner, Chantelle; Fielder, GraceResearch in the fields of Applied Linguistics (AL) and Second Language Studies (SLS) has begun addressing the ways in which second and foreign language (L2) use is a “material” struggle to understand, acquire and author L2 words for one’s own creative purposes – particularly in the face of ideologies about language learning and language use (Squires 2008; Suni 2014). This struggle has implications for the subjectivity, agency and ultimate acquisition and use of the target language by L2 users. This dissertation seeks to augment scholarship in this area by demonstrating how material struggle can surface in the process of data collection (a research interview). It presents an analysis of a recorded narrative of an English as a foreign language (EFL) user, who was a second year graduate student enrolled in a university in the southwest US. She was invited by the author -- a native speaker of English -- to tell an oral narrative story in English to a group with whom she met regularly. However, in positioning the EFL subject as “non-native” in the recruitment process, the author as a native speaker failed to anticipate the manner in which her request was interpellative (Althusser 1971[2001]), thus reproducing and subjecting the “non-native” to the ideology and discourses associated with that category and setting into motion a creative authoring of response to this interpellative call. In approaching the analysis from this perspective, this dissertation adopts an approach to oral narrative story analysis that is based on the Bakhtinian-inspired notion of dialogism (Bakhtin 1981, 1986). Dialogism underscores the resultant narrative as a collection of utterances poised to respond to the request to “tell a story,” while simultaneously addressing the ideology and discourses associated with this request. Additionally, the analysis explores the dialogic nature of the narrative from the standpoint of “tellability” (Norrick 2005; Ochs and Capps 2001), thus highlighting aspects of the narrative that render this tale of friendship, an extramarital affair and a friend “in hatred” meaningful in the context of its telling. Guided by an interest in Bakhtinian dialogism and driven by a concern for narrative tellability, three differing, yet complimentary, analyses of the narrative are explored: 1) ‐ 9 ‐ genre, register and vague (“vaguely gendered”) language, 2) face work, framing and cooperation and 3) gossip, stance and the representation of speech and voice. These analyses likewise uncover three themes that underlie the narrative context of the tale. These themes are: the backgrounding of nativeness and foregrounding of gender, the simultaneous and ambiguous struggle for solidarity and power, and the display of personal style through moral stance in the presentation of a continuous self over time and place. The implication of this work for future research and assessment in AL and SLS is addressed.Publication A Dialogic Approach to Supervisions in the Practicum(Association of Teacher Educators - Kansas, 2016) Thomas, M'BaliaThe term “dialogue” in research on classroom talk between student(s)teacher is frequently referenced in teaching and teacher education. Yet, there is considerable difference in how the concept is understood. Moreover, scholarship within this area rarely addresses classroom talk between another student-teacher dyad – that of practicum student and a supervising instructor (Waite 1995 is a notable exception). This paper seeks to explore the notion of dialogue as it applies to this dyadic relationship, considering the ways in which incorporating a specifically Bakhtinian approach to dialogue highlights unique aspects of talk and interaction within practicum supervision. Keywords: Dialogism, Bakhtin, Practicum Supervision, ObservationPublication Words As Weapons: The Metaphorical Attack of Michelle Obama in US Print Headlines(The University of Texas at Austin, 2009) Thomas, M'BaliaIt has been suggested that media coverage of Michelle Obama during the months leading up to the November 2008 US Presidential election in which her husband Barack Obama was a candidate, was at times unfair and biased, occasionally negative and in bad taste, and a few times arguably racist, stereotypic, and attacking in nature (The Capital Times, June 21, 2008). Those who express these ideas often cite systemic American racism and racial ideology as the cause of such press, citing as examples the July 21, 2008 cover of The New Yorker (in which Michelle and Barack Obama are featured in stereotypically charged images) and Fox News Channel’s use of the racially-loaded phrase “Baby Mama” to refer to Ms. Obama (June 11, 2008). Others suggest Michelle Obama herself is the cause of such negative press, referring to her February 2008 Wisconsin stump speech (a speech which raised questions about her “pride” in America), her active participation in her husband’s campaign, and her off-the-cuff remarks in interviews describing her husband’s personal habits. Still others posit that when wives of political candidates take an active role in their husbands’ campaigns, they are “fair game” for negative critique and scrutiny (USA Today, May 20, 2008). Perhaps all three factors played a role in the media’s attempt to shape, construct and engage the national discourse around Michelle Obama and the possibility of her becoming First Lady of the United States of America. This paper sets out to examine some of the discourse in US newspapers during the last 10 months of the 2008 US Presidential election to determine whether coverage was indeed biased, negative and attacking, as some have suggested.