Curriculum and Teaching Scholarly Workshttps://hdl.handle.net/1808/169032024-03-29T14:30:21Z2024-03-29T14:30:21ZA Narrative Study of Cultural Identity Construction of African Refugee College Students in the MidwestHabtemariam, Samuel Dermashttps://hdl.handle.net/1808/349612024-03-05T07:07:22Z2021-04-10T00:00:00ZA Narrative Study of Cultural Identity Construction of African Refugee College Students in the Midwest
Habtemariam, Samuel Dermas
There 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.
This presentation was given at the 2021 AERA Virtual Annual Meeting held online April 8-12, 2021.
2021-04-10T00:00:00ZThe Cultural Responsiveness of the Communicative and Task-Based Instructional Approaches to African English Language Learners in a College ESL Classroom: A Qualitative Case StudyHabtemariam, Samuel Dermashttps://hdl.handle.net/1808/349002024-01-18T07:06:34Z2023-11-01T00:00:00ZThe Cultural Responsiveness of the Communicative and Task-Based Instructional Approaches to African English Language Learners in a College ESL Classroom: A Qualitative Case Study
Habtemariam, Samuel Dermas
In 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.
This presentation was given at the Innovation in Language Learning International Conference in Florence, Italy on November 9-10, 2023.
2023-11-01T00:00:00ZDialogue as Black Contemplative PracticeThomas, M'Baliahttps://hdl.handle.net/1808/341992023-05-23T06:06:28Z2022-04-19T00:00:00ZDialogue as Black Contemplative Practice
Thomas, M'Balia
Across 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.
2022-04-19T00:00:00ZCon Artist: Non-Cosplay Participation at Popular Culture Conventions as an Arts-Based Method of Inquiring Into Resistance and the Undoing of RulesThomas, M’Baliahttps://hdl.handle.net/1808/341982023-05-23T06:05:37Z2023-05-18T00:00:00ZCon Artist: Non-Cosplay Participation at Popular Culture Conventions as an Arts-Based Method of Inquiring Into Resistance and the Undoing of Rules
Thomas, M’Balia
I 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.
This article has been accepted for publication in Qualitative Inquiry.
2023-05-18T00:00:00Z