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Graduation Term

2016

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Department of Educational Administration and Foundations: Educational Administration

Committee Chair

Beth Hatt

Abstract

Achieving academic success at the university level can be difficult for students, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. However, these hurdles can be even more challenging for minority students, and particularly for groups like Latinos, who are one of the fastest growing populations in the U.S. Given the rate of growth and increasing visibility of this population, it is necessary to consider the implementation of new ways to help these students to achieve their academic goals in college, specifically from the viewpoints of cultural sensitivity and language fluency.

This research explores teaching and the role of the instructor as it relates to the experiences of bilingual and ESL Latinos in higher education. Success in the areas of retention, engagement, and motivation as a result of culturally responsive teaching practices, pedagogy and curriculum are examined. The conceptual frameworks of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Theory of Validation are used to analyze data reported through written surveys and verbal interviews with a group of nontraditional Latino university students and four instructors who were identified as being the most culturally responsive in the classroom.

Data show a pronounced positive impact on Latino students who experience culturally responsive teaching and the overall success that could be achieved if these frameworks were more widely researched and implemented by institutions of higher education.

Access Type

Dissertation-ISU Access Only

DOI

http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2016.Mainou.M

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