Browsing by Author "Aragon, Antonette, committee member"
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Item Open Access A Burkean analysis of the Common Core State Standards: revealing motive by analyzing the agent-purpose ratio and critiquing the standards with a postcolonial lens(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Lemming, Megan C., author; Kiefer, Kathleen, advisor; Coke, Pamela, committee member; Aragon, Antonette, committee memberPublic schooling in the United States undergoes frequent, large-scale reforms based on current political, social, and economic conditions. Such conditions influence the demand for students to master particular literacies and discourses. The Common Core State Standards, a recent educational reform measure that has been adopted by forty-six states, indicate what students need to know and be able to do at the end of each grade level in certain content areas. Examining particular aspects of the Common Core State Standards, such as the agents involved and their purpose in creating and implementing the Standards, helps to reveal implicit motives driving the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. This thesis seeks to reveal such motives in order to illuminate which literacies, literacy practices, and discourses are privileged in public schooling today. My findings indicate that the Common Core reinforces a Western, hegemonic, patriarchal discourse, which has the potential to Other non-dominant discourses and alienate students belonging to marginalized populations. Space exists, however, for teachers to employ pedagogies and methods that challenge this discourse, which ultimately can increase student agency and promote the democratic ideals of public education.Item Open Access A guide to Kevin Poelking's By the hands that reach us(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Poelking, Kevin, author; Phillips, Rebecca L., advisor; David, James M., committee member; Kenney, Wes, committee member; Aragon, Antonette, committee memberThis thesis is written to accompany the full score of Kevin Poelking's By the Hands That Reach Us for wind symphony. The first chapter includes studies and expert opinions that attempt to define quality music. It begins with a brief synopsis of the recent (post World War II) increase of wind band repertoire and the difficulties that conductors encounter as a result. Quotations from conductors and composers throughout history are included in an attempt to shed light on the topic. The second chapter is a detailed biography of composer Kevin Poelking. It discusses personal, professional, and musical experiences that have shaped his compositional voice. There are also specific music examples given with explanations as to how they affected Poelking in his development as a composer. The final chapter is a detailed summary of Poelking's compositional process when writing By the Hands That Reach Us. The chapter includes original sketches, score excerpts, and specific compositional techniques that were used throughout the work.Item Open Access Academic writing retreats for graduate students: a qualitative case study(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Stewart, Cyndi, author; Gloeckner, Gene, advisor; Aragon, Antonette, committee member; Basile, Vincent, committee member; O’Donnell, Cindy, committee memberWriting retreats have proven to be a productive experience for faculty, if they are well-organized, focused on bulk writing and assist in reaching an individual's goals and connection to his or her writing. If writing retreats have shown productive for faculty, arguably there may be even greater opportunity for success considering students are seeking writing interventions to support completing their thesis or dissertation and graduating. This study examined the experiences of graduate students who participated in a writing retreat, if it was beneficial for them and understanding the aspects that led to productive writing. This qualitative case study on academic writing retreats was researched and examined to understand graduate writing retreats. The study provided retreat participants the opportunity to share their experiences at a CSU Writes graduate writing retreat, and the information gained can be used to inform other universities and academic professionals who are seeking interventions to support productive writing. The primary data source was collected from interviews with 30 participants who had attended a CSU Writes retreat during the research period. In addition to participants interviews, the data collection included an interview with the Director and facilitator of CSU Writes, a document review and evaluation of the participant evaluations and the researchers direct observations of the presentations, group discussion and the group writing environment of the retreats. The data analyzed and collected from this study provided an overview of the participants' perspectives on their experiences at an academic graduate writing retreat, their writing results and what occurred at the retreat to facilitate productive writing. In addition, this study provided an initial retreat design model from the review of the literature to support graduate writing and a proposed updated model after the research was collected and analyzed. The writing retreat could be suggested for students feeling stuck, procrastinating writing and in need of an intervention to move forward. The findings from this study expound that graduate students found retreats effective for writing productivity. This outcome, concluded from participants experiences was due to the fact that participants recognized the retreat provided an opportunity to complete a lot of writing over a period of two days, two and a half days or five days. The participants additionally stated they experienced productive writing by being part of a group where they felt an accountability to write, the retreat provided dedicated uninterrupted writing without distractions, they alternated between writing and editing depending on their personal productive times of the day, they set goals for the retreat or goals for each writing session and followed the retreat agenda of writing sessions with breaks versus binge writing. Although writing with others may be viewed as a distraction, the study discovered that writing with others resulted in positive feelings such as motivation to write, a commitment to writing and a focus and intensity towards writing. The conditions which supported productive writing were feeling part of a community of writers through writing together as a group, group discussions, learning many students experienced similar challenges to productive writing and identifying as writer as a direct result of completing a lot of writing. Out of the 30 participants interviews, 26 participants reported they either met or exceed their retreat writing goals. Based on the study's findings and results, writing retreats are a viable intervention for universities to consider for graduate students writing a thesis or dissertation and seeking productive writing. Also, a proposed retreat model to consider was provided and evaluated.Item Open Access Crossing the line: K-12 public school teacher negotiation of unsolicited requests for self-disclosure(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Moreland, Emily Susan, author; Griffin, Cindy, advisor; Sprain, Leah, advisor; Aragon, Antonette, committee memberIn the K-12 public school classroom, members of the public may interpret personal information shared by an instructor with his or her students as indoctrinating or persuasive. Using Petronio's (2002) theory of Communication Privacy Management, this thesis sought to expand self-disclosure research by applying it to the public school classroom. Building on Zhang's (2007) study of the uses of instructor self-disclosure in the K-12 public school classroom, this thesis was organized around the following research questions: RQ1: What communicative strategies are used by K-12 public school teachers to respond to unsolicited requests for self-disclosure by their students? RQ2: How does teacher preparation affect a K-12 public school teacher's decision to either share or keep private personal information in the classroom? RQ3: What do teachers perceive to be the benefits and drawbacks of using self-disclosure in the K-12 public school classroom? RQ4: What rules govern these moments of unsolicited requests for self-disclosure? Where do these rules originate? In order to address these questions, 46 public school teachers across the country were recruited to complete a five-part online survey that asked them reflect on their own experiences using self-disclosure in their classrooms. The data gathered from this study suggest that privacy rules are closely tied to public notions of appropriateness, which are impacted by normative beliefs about who teaches America's students and what the nature and purpose of teaching is in America. In addition to the broad findings of the study, specific communicative strategies used by teachers when dealing with unsolicited student requests for private information were identified, as well as topic avoidance strategies used when a teacher wished to avoid answering a student's question. The main communicative strategies utilized by teachers in this study were direct strategies including the use of short and simple responses, indirect strategies, or redirection strategies, such as turning the question into a teachable moment. Topic avoidance strategies included many of these same strategies, as well as the use of humor or sarcasm. The benefits of self-disclosure as perceived by teachers are also discussed in this thesis and include reciprocity, improved communication with students, and feelings of closeness with students. Teachers also frequently cited the benefit of "having my students see me as a real person" on the survey. Drawbacks included risks to security, stigma, face, and role. Consequently, many of the teachers surveyed practiced self-policing of their conversations with students. It is argued in this thesis that self-silencing can cause some teachers, particularly those whose beliefs and lifestyles exist outside of the mainstream, to miss out on positive personal and professional outcomes tied to self-disclosure. Therefore, suggestions for how teacher education programs can better prepare preservice teachers to effectively handle student requests for private information are discussed, as well as suggestions for further research.Item Open Access Crossroad of change(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Melendrez Valenzuela, Bianca, author; McConigley, Nina, advisor; Ginsberg, Ricki, committee member; Aragon, Antonette, committee memberCrossroads of Change is a collection of eight short stories. The collection is comprised of characters who are of Latinx/e ancestry and who are, for the most part bilingual in English and Spanish. My goal for this collection was to create something that spoke to me as a reader who grew up in America wishing to see more stories that had characters that lived in similar spaces as I did as a child. Each story represents its own unique setting that represents different aspects of the character's lives, some characters are traveling through the United States and Mexico, others live in the US and others live in Mexico by the US border. This collection represents a culmination of my creative writing effort across the three years I've spent in this program—most of that effort spent in this last year was fine-tuning the language used by these characters, and the different ways I could present these Latinx/e characters while staying true to the medium in which I am writing in. I wanted to see what the limits of translanguaging was when it came to creative writing and the different ways, I could incorporate the language barrier that some of my characters exist in and portraying that to my audience without taking my character's identities as Spanish speakers away. My influence for this was from reading excerpts from author Gloria E. Anzaldúa's Borderlands/La Frontera. She was a huge inspiration in deciding to write about my culture while also adding in my native Spanish language. Amongst the language aspect of my writing, I also played around with the narrating POVs. This collection hosts stories that range from first person narrator to second and third person narrators, in my attempts of telling a variety of stories with different perspectives, as I wanted these Latinx/e characters to be viewed in varies angles and perspectives that counters the one-sided narratives often portrayed in contemporary writing.Item Open Access Effects of writing to learn in pre-calculus mathematics on achievement and affective outcomes for students in a community college setting: a mixed methods approach(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Ray Parsons, Michelle, author; Gloeckner, Gene W., advisor; Kennedy, Paul A., advisor; Banning, James H., committee member; Aragon, Antonette, committee memberThe intent of this study was to explore an intervention, Writing to Learn, within a college level mathematics course and examine how Writing to Learn Mathematics as an assessment tool in Trigonometry relates to overall achievement and self-reflection with respect to learning mathematics. The purpose of this study was to provide empirical evidence and determine the effect such an intervention had on undergraduate students' academic achievement as well as their mathematic conceptual growth and metacognitive growth. This study employed a mixed method approach using a qualitative study design element with emphasis on template analysis and was supported with inferential statistics from a cross-over study design implemented in a concurrent and parallel format. The quantitative portion of the study examined differences in students' exam scores for the portion of the course where students experienced Writing to Learn Mathematics versus the portion of the course where students did not experienced Writing to Learn Mathematics to determine if writing had an effect on students' performance on exams. While the results from the quantitative portion of the study were not statistically significant, effect sizes indicated a small effect. Paralleling the quantitative phase, the qualitative portion of the study utilized an approach referred to as Template Analysis to reveal the nature of students' individual metacognitive functioning and changes that occurred during the course of this study as students utilized various writing activities which engaged students in individual reflective writing as part of the course. The initial, a priori, codes were modify, expanded, and revised to reveal three themes focused on metacognitive transformations: changes as a learner, reflections and writing, and value of writing. While there were inconsistencies between results due to different methodological approaches in data collection, information that may otherwise have been overlooked was available. The integration of results revealed many students made significant changes in approaches to learning and also made deep and meaningful conceptual connections as a result of Writing to Learn Mathematics. It also was apparent writing in mathematics and about mathematics encouraged students to reflect on what they were learning and facilitated meaningful connections about content and themselves as learners.Item Open Access Elementary teacher leaders: theory and methodology of development(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Medina, Andrew J., author; Timpson, William M., advisor; Aragon, Antonette, committee member; Bimper, Albert, committee member; Folkestad, James, committee memberEducation reform in K-12 public education continues to be a national priority. The call for improvement includes teachers to emerge as leaders to reform K-12 education where it matters most – at the classroom level. In the past decade, the discussion of teacher leadership is gaining legitimacy in education literature as well as in educational practice. The first section discusses topics in current educational reform that have led to the conclusion a new paradigm is needed in the teaching profession. The second part considers challenges of teacher leadership. The third part discusses what is known about teacher leadership. This review is an attempt to place teacher leadership in context of changing work force issues and improving student achievement in Jefferson County Schools K-6. The purposes of this study are to explain teacher leadership in Jefferson County K-6 public education and to identify the principles of effective teacher leadership and the barriers that inhibit teacher leader participation in public school reform efforts. This study presented eight principles from complexity theory. Complexity theory suggests K-6 public education be viewed as a complex organization calling for leadership that can transform education from past practices and to prepare public education for the twenty-first century. Identification of a set of guiding principles in teacher leadership practice could further empower classroom teachers in public school reform. The eight principles and implications for teacher leadership explain how educational and organizational theories apply to issues related to teacher leadership in elementary public education. Several factors were studied related to distributive leadership. Leadership types, roles and positions, influence, context, and expertise are factors. If factors are considered with regard to interactions of leaders, followers, and the situation, then practice can be placed centrally in a framework for leadership practice. The tenets used to frame the analysis were related to distributed leadership and pertaining to elementary public education. Sociocultural learning was a way to analyze how teachers were learning to be teacher leaders in public elementary education. A teacher (person) is learning in characteristic ways by engaging in social processes (activity) in a defined community of practice (world). Teacher leaders participate in various activities in the school system. Participation sets a teacher leader on a trajectory to becoming a member in the social world of elementary public education. Sociocultural learning theory provides a lens through which the social world and participation in activities that places the person as the focal point. This view suggests practice in social structures as a way of explaining the person as a learner. This perspective maintains an explicit focus on the whole person as inseparable from learning by membership in a learning community. From this view, learning to lead is an activity engaged in by classroom teachers in elementary education. Given this study of teacher leaders is a grounded theory from case studies, a theoretical framework explains the key constructs that were studied and presumed relationships among them. The three theoretical constructs for this study of teacher leaders are the guiding principles of complexity of their work, qualities of practices in the distribution of leadership, and sociocultural learning experience. The outcome of this study is a theory and a process of teacher leaders' development and practice.Item Open Access Engaging Latino audiences in informal science education(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Bonfield, Susan B., author; Bruyere, Brett, advisor; Aragon, Antonette, committee member; Reid, Robin, committee member; Sagás, Ernesto, committee memberTo view the abstract, please see the full text of the document.Item Open Access How do Latina patients experience integrated care?(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Rivera, Veronica, author; Davies, Timothy G., advisor; Anderson, Sharon, committee member; Haddock, Shelley, committee member; Aragon, Antonette, committee memberThe underutilization of mental health services by Latinos and Latinas in the US is often attributed to factors such as cultural beliefs and perceptions about mental health; lack of awareness of the available services; and socio-economic matters. In order to improve the access to mental health services for Latinos, it is necessary to learn about their experience of these services. The purpose of this study was to gain understanding of patients from Latin-America making meaning of their experience as recipients of mental health services at two community health clinics that offer integrated care services. This is a phenomenological study that aims to understand the factors influencing Latina patients' decision about whether or not to follow up on subsequent mental health care appointments. Eighteen Latina women who had attended mental/ behavioral health services at the family health clinic were interviewed about their experiences. The first main theme to arise was patients' symptoms and the referral process. This included services requested by the patient or offered by the clinic, trust in the referring personnel, and familiarity with mental health services. The second theme was the behavioral health specialist's attitude and clinical approach, including personal qualities, clinical skills and knowledge. The third theme was the outcomes; these included improvement of symptoms and behavior, improved level of functioning, and better understanding of the situation. The essence of the findings was the overall feeling about their experience at the clinic, and the benefit to see the psychotherapist in the same health clinic in which they received medical services. Keywords: Primary care, integrated care, Latino mental health, behavioral health, cultural competency, behavioral health consultant.Item Open Access Perceived positive and negative effects of participation in student construction management competitions: a qualitative priority mixed methods study(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Bigelow, Ben F., author; Gloeckner, Gene W., advisor; Glick, Scott A., advisor; Guggemos, Angela, committee member; Aragon, Antonette, committee memberIn the discipline of construction management (CM) student competitions are well thought of and have good construction industry support. Very little published research was found however addressing these competitions. This qualitative priority, mixed methods study collected qualitative data via interviews and quantitative data via surveys to learn what the perceived positive and negative effects of competition participation are, and what differences there might be between participants and non-participants in the competitions. The quantitative data from this study compared participants and non-participants in regard to starting salaries, GPA, and frequency of employment. However it did not produce statistically significant results in relation to any of these variables. Practical significance is however reported regarding the higher average starting salary of participants. Using a grounded theory research design, the study's qualitative data produced positive and negative effects of participation. The four negative effects that emerged in coding, are reported; expectations, resources, scoring methods, and time. Time was the most strongly supported of the negative effects and presents an interesting point in this study's findings because, time emerged as a negative effect and time management emerged as a positive effect of competition participation. This study was however, focused on the positive effects of competition participation. Eleven positive effects emerged; confidence, connecting all the dots, industry involvement leadership, motivation, presentation skills, problem solving, real world experience, teamwork, and time management. Following identification of these effects in open coding, construction industry involvement was identified as the central phenomenon connecting them in axial coding. The selective coding process then identified a cyclical pattern showing a connection between the positive effects, leadership and graduate key competencies, and construction industry involvement. The cycle tells the story of the phenomenon of student construction management competitions.Item Open Access Reading Ché Guevara’s "new man" through the praxis of misfitting: towards a revolution for "people like us"(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Putnam, Bryan Rodrigues, author; Cespedes, Karina, advisor; Souza, Caridad, committee member; Sagás, Ernesto, committee member; Velasco, Marcela, committee member; Aragon, Antonette, committee memberThis study incorporates reflections from five Cuban participants about the contemporary status of Ernesto Ché Guevara’s “new man” in Cuba. Grounded in the Marxist tradition of praxis as philosophy, the thesis integrates Pan American articulations on the theme of Latin American liberation alongside interview data. In light of research findings pertaining to the “new man,” I evoke Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s feminist materialist disability concepts of “fitting” and “misfitting” alongside Tobin Siebers’ assertion that by way of “misfitting” one produces critical knowledge revealing the “blueprints of power” that have constructed exclusionary reality for some and a contingent fit for others. I argue that the state imposed ideal of the “new man” failed to create the proper channels within which everyday misfit knowledge could be elevated to the level of social theory. However, the “new man” as a set of embodied values and mechanisms for social integration did succeed at various levels, which are explored throughout the chapters.Item Open Access Social media in the curriculum and co-curriculum: pre-service teachers and their collegiate peers(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Heiberger, Greg A., author; Folkestad, James, advisor; Junco, Reynol, committee member; Aragon, Antonette, committee member; Coke, Pamela, committee memberAlthough use of social media by students has been shown to be nearly ubiquitous, many K-12 school systems have banned its use on their campuses or use between their teachers and students. In contrast, many collegiate faculty have utilized social media in their teaching. Social media has been shown to assist faculty in engaging with students, helping students engage with content outside of class and sound implementation into the curriculum has been show to have positive educational impacts. Data from a sample of two thousand and fifty-six college students across two land-grant institutions is compared between pre-service teachers and their collegiate peers. Pre-service teachers reported using Twitter in the curriculum more, were more inspired by the use of social media use by their faculty, used social media more on their own for educational purposes and had a stronger belief that social media can be used for educationally relevant purposes than their collegiate peers.Item Open Access Supporting student engagement and learning through the dialogic-inquiry activity of written conversations in an elementary classroom: an ethnographic case study(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) LaFond, Kitty, author; Jennings, Louise, advisor; Aragon, Antonette, committee member; Stevenson, Cerissa, committee member; Reid, Louann, committee memberThis study describes a fourth-grade elementary, general-education classroom located in a city in Colorado. The participating teacher was also the researcher in this study. She spent 10 weeks in field observation and data collection. The study was informed by two pilot studies, was based in the theoretical framework of constructivism, and an ethnographic methodology was utilized to describe the classroom environment. Analyses of the data were completed using the five parts of an ethnographic case study: (a) data managing, (b) coding and developing themes, (c) describing, (d) interpreting, and (d) representing. The research question for this study focused on examining how the dialogical inquiry activity of written conversations supports or constrains student engagement and the learning process. The findings from the study present evidence that the dialogical inquiry activity of written conversations played a supportive role in the interconnection between relationship building and the emotional, behavioral, and cognitive (EBC) constructs of student engagement and the learning process. The study found that relationships were the integrated factor that tie the three EBC engagement constructs together. Findings illustrate how written conversations support building a classroom community, helping the teacher see students through a relational lens, and building student-to-student relationships and teacher-to-student relationships. Written conversations were also an effective pedagogical tool in supporting the learning process. iii Findings illustrate how written conversations provided opportunities for engaging in a wide array of literacy practices through authentic writing activity. Multiple examples of students' written conversations demonstrate how student literacy practices grew more proficient through the written conversations over time. The findings also illustrate how teacher-researcher-devised assessment tools made visible a broad range of literacy skills that students developed and demonstrated through the practice of written conversations, addressing many learning standards that are less prevalent in other areas of the curriculum. Although there is much evidence in this study of how written conversations support relationships, student engagement, and the learning process, one constraint should be noted. Written conversations are a tool that facilitates dialogue; but if the teacher attends to only what the writing looks like and not what the student voice is saying, the result could be a decrease in student engagement. Additional constraints to the effective implementation of written conversations that relate to culturally responsive teaching practices are addressed. In summary, written conversations supported student engagement and the learning process because written conversations played a key role in building relationships within a community of learners. Written conversations supported relationship building, relationship building supported student engagement, and student engagement supported the learning process.Item Open Access The body and the word: at the intersection of religion and rape culture within church as a site of education and social formation(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Lyter Bright, Laurie, author; Jennings, Louise, advisor; Souza, Caridad, committee member; Aragon, Antonette, committee member; Anderson, Sharon, committee memberThe work of this dissertation is to name and understand the intersection of religion and rape culture in the context of Christianity through understanding churches as sites of education and social formation. My positionality as researcher is shaped by my identity as a clergyperson and an activist in addressing gender-based violence. While those aspects of my identity frequently overlap, my roles as a clergy member and as an advocate for survivors of rape culture feel too often like living in parallel worlds. The overlap of these identities seemed readily apparent to me, yet I was not hearing rape culture discussed by other clergy, nor was the church providing space or meaningful support in the fight against gender-based violence. The perceived gap is where this research began. These two facets of my experience and identity cemented in me a desire to understand the intersection of faith and the lived realities of sexual violence. I interviewed scholars, preachers, and authors contributing to the discourse of the #metoo movement and who work to bridge the space between scripture, ritual, and community praxis. Participants are leaders in the focused and growing movement of addressing rape culture in theological scholarship and church teaching and preaching. Through semi-structured interviews, I sought understanding of three key lines of inquiry centering on the reasons and paths by which rape culture and church both intersect and interact. Through modified constructivist grounded theory analysis of these interviews, I determined that the church is indeed a contributor in the co-creation of rape culture. The duality of this conclusion is that the church already possesses the pedagogical pathways necessary to serve as a site of disruptive education in rape culture instead.Item Open Access The lived experiences of cisgender openly gay Latino males as mid-level administrators in higher education in the southwest region of the United States(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Valdez, Robert A., author; Kuk, Linda, advisor; Lynham, Susan A., committee member; Aragon, Antonette, committee member; DeMirjyn, Maricela, committee memberThe purpose of this narrative inquiry study was to explore the stories and experiences of openly gay Latino males who serve as mid-level administrators in higher education. This study focused on narrative stories of personal and historical context of the participants' intersecting identities that have implications for their daily interactions in an institutional environment. This study is significant in four ways. First, In the United States, gay Latinos have been subject to social oppression, invisibility, and misrepresentation throughout history. This lack of recognition and support stifles gay Latinos the ability to develop a sense of belonging. Narrative inquiry was used to increase awareness of the lived experiences of gay Latinos as administrators in higher education and gives them an opportunity to share their experiences. The key findings from the participants' narratives were the influences of family expectations, support systems, fear of discrimination or homophobia, and lack of representation in higher education. The struggles and achievements from these stories are valuable and can raise visibility for more inclusive leadership practices, mentorship, and equitable policies in higher education.Item Open Access The tension of writing across the curriculum, a subservient and subversive curricular movement(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Norwood-Klingstedt, Matthew, author; Doe, Sue R., advisor; Carter, Genesea M., committee member; Aragon, Antonette, committee memberA Writing Across the Curriculum Program (or proponent or article) that does not seek to transform the classroom into a locus of consciousness-raising and liberating education is not one that is in keeping with the original intentions of WAC because it, along with Writing Studies and Rhetoric and Composition, has traditionally worked towards a more socially just academy. Antiracism is of paramount importance to the field of Rhetoric and Composition and, specifically, WAC because engaging in discussions of racial and language diversity is central to the objectives of writing instruction and consistent with the social justice aims of the field of Rhetoric and Composition. The question of whose language is valued and accepted—and, therefore, who is promoted and valued—is at the heart of all these curricular movements. To fail to make strides towards the integration of antiracist pedagogy and theory with WAC is a failure to listen to students and to anticipate their needs. I found that two of the most well-known and regarded WAC-focused journals, The WAC Journal and Across the Disciplines, show a lack of focus on antiracist pedagogy and theory. It appears as though, at least when looking at articles written for these publications from 2015-2019, current scholarship does not create space for antiracist educational pedagogy and theory. Based on the silence surrounding the topic within WAC-focused publications, there seems to be a sort of willful naivety within WAC with regards to social justice. WAC is not considering how it might integrate antiracism within its main publications. To provide an example of a journal that does create space for antiracist educational pedagogy and theory and to ensure my methodological tool could be applied, I selected four articles from Research in the Teaching of English that lent themselves to comparative analysis. Because antiracism is a fundamental shift in how to teach, who to value, what to value, and the way to present ourselves, I make three recommendations for WAC scholars that immediately move to integrate antiracism.Item Open Access Trespassing barriers: researching the experiences of Latina immigrants in a community college bilingual early childhood program(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Volkers, Erica, author; Davies, Timothy, advisor; Aragon, Antonette, committee member; Banning, James, committee member; Valdez, Norberto, committee memberThere has been much debate on the politics and pedagogies of bilingual education in K-12 schools, but conspicuously absent in this debate are institutions of higher education. English-only ideologies are deeply embedded and rarely questioned in U.S. institutions of higher education, which predominantly require English language proficiency to access college-level coursework. Working within the intersections of critical race theory and participatory research, I engaged Latina immigrant students participating in a community college bilingual early childhood degree program as "research collaborators" in examining the influences of this program on their lives. Their stories, shared in a community narrative, reveal how this program opened the door to college access and empowered them as students, mothers, professionals, and advocates. In my discussion of our findings I highlight the capital Latina immigrant students bring to their academic journey, critique the English-only pathway to college, and underscore the importance of creating spaces for the voices of these students to be heard. Documenting our research journey, I also provide an analysis of the challenges and rewards of engaging students from a traditionally marginalized population as research collaborators.Item Open Access Understanding the body: learning how Puerto Rican women in New York City receive information on reproductive health(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Calderon Hooper, Emily Marie, author; Vernon, Irene, advisor; Souza, Caridad, committee member; Aragon, Antonette, committee memberThis qualitative study explores the experiences and stories of eleven self-identified second and third generation Puerto Rican women raised and living in New York City. Through semi-structured focus groups conducted in New York City, this study deconstructs how the women in this study learn and understand their bodies in the context of reproductive health. Furthermore, it aims to be liberatory in nature and to engage in practices that center the voices and experiences of the women participating. This study comprises decolonial and critical feminist frameworks and epistemologies and argues that second and third generation Puerto Rican women raised in New York City understand their bodies in relation to reproductive health in a multitude of ways. This study shows that reproductive health for Puerto Rican women in New York City should not be framed within a victim/agent dichotomy, because the experiences of these women are more nuanced and complicated. This thesis also reveals that transmission of reproductive healthcare resources from medical professionals to these women is severely limited and lacking. It is recommended that the experiences of Puerto Rican women in reproductive health be valued and incorporated into peer-to-peer workshops and promotora healthcare models to enhance how Puerto Rican women in New York City receive information on reproductive health.