Journal articles on the topic 'Language arts (Elementary) – Research – United States'

Aim/Purpose: In this study, the authors examine how an online word processing tool can be used to encourage participation among students of different language back-grounds, including English Language Learners. To be exact, the paper discusses whether student participation in anonymous collaborative writing via Google Docs can lead to more successful products in a linguistically diverse eighth-grade English Language Arts classroom. Background: English Language Learners (ELLs) make up a considerable portion of elementary and secondary public school students, as language and ethnic diversity has become the norm in the United States. The research literature finds that ELLs are statistically behind their monolingual peers on such key language and academic development indicators as writing. Educators and researchers then turn to collaborative writing with the assistance of online technology. Although it is shown in literature to be a worthwhile endeavor for students of all ages and ability levels, no studies have investigated the differences it makes, namely, in comparison to traditional face-to-face collaboration in the classroom, and to anonymous online collaboration in the virtual space. Methodology: Through face-to-face, online, and anonymous writing activities, a rubric, and a survey, this quantitative study asks if anonymous collaborative writing, com-pared to other modalities, equalizes participation among students of varying language fluencies, and if anonymous collaborative writing, compared to other modalities, affect student comfort levels. Contribution: This builds on research of online collaborative writing tools and suggests that using such tools (Google Docs in particular) is beneficial, especially for students who are building their language abilities. The study further reveals varied degree of success and student comfort level in participating writing tasks in three modalities. Findings: We ascertain that students of varying language fluencies participated more equally when they were able to remain anonymous. Face-to-face writing exhibited the highest overall scores, and students enjoyed working on Google Docs. Recommendations for Practitioners: Future and current teachers are encouraged to be open to new technologies and be creative in the use of technology to facilitate student learning. They should have the opportunity to participate in the discussion on how, not if, integrating technology impacts the cognitive, social, and cultural dimensions of teaching. Recommendation for Researchers: After this initial quantitative study on students’ reactions to various modalities of technology-supported writing formats, the next questions to ask may be how students were engaging in dialogues during face-to-face sessions or chat features of Google Docs trials, and what types of edits students are making. Researchers should turn their focus on secondary school classrooms where there is an increasing impact of technology-assisted collaborative writing on student learning and teaching pedagogy. Impact on Society: As online technology has become an integral part of daily life, it is beneficial to educators, policy makers, and classroom teachers to understand how technology can be integrated in writing programs and to what extent the integration can help boost student motivation and participation. Future Research: More longitudinal research on online assisted collaborative writing and addi-tional quantitative data are needed to further understand the complexities of the writing process in-group online writing and the nature of collaboration.


 
 
 Language skills are essential for early childhood, being able to speak clearly and process speech sounds, understand others, express ideas, and interact with others are the building blocks for a child's development. Therefore, this study will examine the effect of the Inside Outside Circle (IOC) instructional strategies with media images on children's language skills. This research is a quasi-experimental design with a posttest only and using a control group. The sample in this study were children in two kindergartens in the village of Banjar Tegal. Data analysis in this study was carried out by quantitative descriptive methods using t-test analysis techniques. The results of this study in kindergarten students in Banjar Tegal Village show that there is an influence of the IOC learning model with picture media on children's language skills (tcount = 6.28> ttable = 2.00). This shows that language skills achieved by groups of children participating in learning with the IOC model with drawing media are better than groups of children who attend learning without the IOC model. The implication is that further research is expected to develop other aspects of child devel- opment through the IOC model.
 Keywords: Children Language skills, Image media, Inside-Outside Circle Instructional Strategies
 Reference:
 
 
 
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We replicate prior research into the determinants of English language proficiency among immigrants using a dataset that controls for potential biases stemming from selective emigration, omitted variables, and the mismeasurement of key constructs. In general, we reproduce the results of earlier work, leading us to conclude that despite inherent methodological problems, research based on cross-sectional censuses and surveys yields fundamentally accurate conclusions. In particular, we find unambiguous evidence that English proficiency rises with exposure to U.S. society, and we reaffirm earlier work showing a clear pattern of language assimilation among Mexican migrants to the United States.

Public schools in the United States (US) have become more linguistically diverse. With the rise of English as a global language, English Language Learners (ELLs) experience “transnationalism”, which requires them to gain a critical and reflective knowledge of diverse cultures and the valuing of a new language and culture. Many teachers do not recognize the importance of language as a tool for teaching academic subjects. Teachers struggle to shape and guide conversations using language to help ELLs further their development. The purpose of this study was to explore elementary physical education (PE) teachers’ experiences with teaching ELLs. Based on positioning theory, this study employed an interpretive case study research design. Six PE teachers volunteered to participate in the study. Data were collected from a survey questionnaire, face-to-face interviews and follow-up e-mails. Three major interrelated and complex themes emerged from the data analysis. These recurrent themes were (a) race and cultural-based stereotype, (b) social inclusion and communication challenges, and (c) PE teachers’ learning experiences. Although each of the PE teachers expressed the view that there were challenges in working with ELLs, they believed that they should implement effective pedagogical methods (inclusive pedagogy), address social justice and diversity issues of ELLs, and develop a positive learning atmosphere for all students.

In this book, Slavin and Calderón demonstrate that school-age Hispanic students in the United States can realize their academic expectations and in the process become capable members of society when they are trained in quality educational programs. The authors' educational research expertise presents readers with a selection of recent studies of elementary and secondary instructional programs targeting Latino students. The book's 10 chapters advance a commanding body of performance data that illustrate how Latino students, like any other students, can be successfully educated and empowered and can even excel in an antagonistic American educational culture. The programs researched include numerous educational models specific to Hispanic students as well as adaptations of other national programs.

Mexican American students constitute the largest group of Latina/os in the United States and have been subjected to a number of educational and social injustices, particularly with relation to how their cultural and linguistic assets are viewed within public schools. This qualitative case study considers culturally responsive leadership in a Mexican American immigrant community and examines two primary research questions: (a) What principal actions support creating a culturally responsive school partly through dual language education; and (b) What leadership challenges arise in the development of a more culturally responsive school?

This study explores preliminary results from a pedagogical intervention designed to improve instruction for all students, particularly emergent bilinguals in the United States (or English language learners). The study is part of a larger efficacy randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the Instructional Conversation (IC) pedagogy for improving the school achievement of upper elementary grade students. Standardized achievement student data were gathered from ( N = 74) randomized teachers’ classrooms. Preliminary ordinary least squares analyses of the intervention appear promising for English language arts in general. Limitations in baseline equivalency for students after teacher randomization are discussed along with strategies to overcome them and implications concerned with the education of all students, notably those whose parents speak languages other than English at home.

<p class="Normal1">As children of Mexican immigrant families enter schools in the United States of America, they face differences between their prior schooling experiences and the expectations in the new schools. Research on immigrant children has examined language and academic adaptation variables, yet little consideration has been given to the perspectives of children and their families and teachers. Utilizing principles of interactional ethnography, we examined elementary school student and their family and teacher perspectives about the differences between the children’s prior schooling in Mexico and their current experiences in an elementary school located in Ollin, a town in Texas, near the Mexico border.</p><p class="Normal1">Over the course of one academic year, we interviewed ten children, eight parents, and six teachers, conducted observations in schools on both sides of the border, and collected relevant documents to examine the larger social and educational contexts participants referenced in the interviews. Using an ethnographic perspective, discourse and contrastive analyses, and triangulation of sources and types of data, we focused on children’s perspectives to uncover the challenges they faced and the ways they overcame the challenges in their new, post-migration, school in Texas. </p>Children foregrounded two primary challenges: language and play time. However, we discovered that the children, their parents and teachers did not let the challenges stop their educational opportunities. Instead, despite the challenges, children, with support of peers, teachers, and parents, actively transformed the challenges and constructed new opportunities for learning and adapting to their post-immigration school. This paper demonstrates how focusing on children’s perspectives makes visible that children and immigrant families become active agents of change, transforming challenges into learning opportunities. In the ongoing deficit models of education and negative rhetoric about immigrants, the paper shows how the people themselves take ownership of their schooling and create social and educational welfare for themselves and others. Understanding immigrants’ active participation in their schooling has a potential to impact the ways other families, educators, and policy makers view and describe their own and others’ experiences of learning, schooling, and international migration.


 
 
 Students of Mexican backgrounds have experienced oppressive schooling practices and classroom pedagogies that create academic achievement gaps. This article presents the work of the author, who taught for six years in a Title I elementary school near the United States and Mexico border. Based on an autoethnographic study that investigated the impact of critical pedagogy in the classroom, the author explores the extent to which the pedagogical approach mediated students’ critical consciousness development, resulting in a trajectory of academic success. The study analyzes six years of student work, self-reflection, and the daily routines of the classroom. The findings suggest that the students’ development of critical consciousness catalyzed their critical thinking skills, which they in turn applied to a wide array of academic content, including mathematics, science, and English language arts.
 
 

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how and why teachers use historical fiction in their classroom (e.g. selection and instruction) through the lenses of their pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1986) and pedagogical tools (Grossman et al., 1999). Design/methodology/approach The authors explored the following questions: In what ways do elementary school teachers, more specifically fifth grade teachers responsible for early US history as part of their social studies curriculum, use historical fiction in their classrooms? and What factors do elementary school teachers consider when they select historical fiction to use in their classrooms? In order to explore these questions, the authors interviewed eight fifth grade teachers. The authors describe the ways in which these teachers use historical fiction as part of their social studies instruction by employing collective case study (Stake, 1994). Findings This study has reified this notion that historical fiction is widely used by fifth grade teachers. The authors identified that these teachers are choosing texts that allow them to integrate their language arts and social studies instruction in effective and engaging ways. Many participants described choosing the texts purposefully to address social studies standards during their language arts time. Despite many of these teachers using prescribed curricula for language arts instruction and following state standards for social studies, the teachers in this study felt free to make curricular decisions related to integration. Most importantly, when given this freedom, they chose to integrate purposefully with quality texts. Research limitations/implications The primary limitation of this research study is the small sample size (n=8). However among the eight teacher participants, there are two states are represented, varied teaching contexts (e.g. departmentalized, self-contained classrooms), and many years of classroom social studies teaching experience. Originality/value The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (CCSS) (Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association, 2010) have prompted teachers to present both informational text and literature in equal balance in upper elementary grades. Little research has been done in the last decade about the ways in which historical fiction addresses these standards.

This article offers an analysis of how refugee youths from Africa used and shifted languages and discourses in the United States. Drawing on sociocultural theories of language and utilizing ethnographic discourse and classroom observation data, the author illustrates the varied ways in which three high school–aged refugee youths used languages to make sense of who and where they are; respond to social, religious, and linguistic marginalization in the United States; and challenge narrow perceptions of African Muslims. This article brings to fore a group that, although facing a unique set of challenges in the United States, is rarely included in research on youth language practices and im/migration. Attention to their multilingual practices and the multilayered nature of their identity is central to understanding how refugee youths experience school in their new land, and how they see themselves and others. This understanding can guide school personnel, educational researchers, and community-based youth workers in their respective work with refugee students.

News items on science and technology in English-language newspapers published in different parts of India during January-December 1996 were analyzed. Results indicate that the greatest proportion of newspaper space was devoted to nuclear science and technology, followed by defense, space research, and astronomy. The Pioneer, The Hindu, and The Times of India were the newspapers that together devoted about 23 percent of the total space to items on science and technology. The sources for most of the articles (97 percent) on policy issues originated from within India, while for other stories foreign sources, including those from the United States and the United Kingdom, also contributed. Many of the items were supported by illustrations such as photographs and diagrams. The study indicates that, on average, Indian newspapers devoted far less than one percent of the total printed space to articles and stories related to science and technology.


 [full article in English] 
 When teaching, many educators must respond to unruly and disruptive students. While most scholarship on student disruption focuses on classroom management strategies and tactics, few studies consider the nature of the disruption, its ideological significance and the social consequences that follows. Via ethnographic methods and microethnographic discourse analysis, this paper examines the complexity and contradictions of macro- and microstructures as they manifest during a student’s disruption of a classroom discussion of a novel in an 11th and 12th grade English Language Arts class in the United States. Using Bakhtin’s notion of carnival as a theoretical framework, this paper examines the pattern of disruption in the classroom that evoked multiple and contradictory ideologies and both maintained and subverted power structures in the context. Contrary to the belief that classroom disruptions are always challenges to power, they sometimes reinforced power relations on a broader cultural level. This paper urges that research and scholarship embrace complexity and contradiction as inherent in the interactions of people in schools and seeks to rethink how educators view and respond to classroom disruption. It concludes by advocating that embracing complexity and contradiction will better allow teachers and researchers to think through systems of education as a way to effectively and ethically intervene when these structures prove problematic.

This study presents an empirical, qualitative investigation into the practices of Venezuelan journalists in South Florida. The Venezuelan population in the United States has more than doubled in the past decade, making it the fastest growing sub-population of Latinos in the country, and a majority of these new arrivals have settled in South Florida. Given the rapid changes this community has undergone in the previous 10 years, the results of this investigation provide a more complete picture of global journalism and transnational migration in the digital media era through the recognition of the complexities inherent in the work of immigrant journalists, offering new contributions to conceptualizations of immigrant assimilation as non-linear and providing an updated framework for understanding the production of Spanish-language, immigrant media in the United States. Three models of immigrant journalism are presented and discussed as a final result of the research.

This article examines social science research into the socioeconomic and cultural factors associated with immigrants who naturalize. Few of the studies in this review use statistical methodologies and many of the findings are highly impressionistic. Yet, several of the studies find common factors to explain the decision to naturalize. These include: length of residence in the United States, varied potentials for acculturation among different national origin groups, motivation for immigration and formal education and language skills. However, no single study is found that examines all of the variables influencing the naturalization decision.

The Teacher of the Year (TOY) program is the longest-standing teacher recognition program in the United States. The purpose of this study is to describe the characteristics of state and national TOY awardees and the schools in which they teach. To accomplish this aim, we develop a new data set including the characteristics of all TOY awardees and their schools from 1988 to 2019. Using descriptive and regression analysis, we find that TOY awardees are most likely to teach at the high school level, while the most common subjects taught were elementary education, English language arts, natural sciences, and, for National TOY awardees, social studies. They also have a greater probability of being selected from schools with a smaller fraction of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and higher student enrollments. We discuss how these differences may impede the TOY program’s efforts to amplify teachers’ voice in education policymaking.

Sacred site law within the United States often fails to meaningfully protect indigenous cultural landscapes. One reason for this failure is ambiguous language within legislation which courts interpret in accordance with hegemonic understandings of land, thus marginalizing indigenous ontologies. Drawing on research involving ski resort expansion on the San Francisco Peaks, I demonstrate instances in which sacred site law was construed so narrowly as to a priori preclude indigenous ways of knowing, particularly in regards to the nature of land, use of sacred objects, and pollution. These examples highlight how ontological bias significantly limits the possibilities for sacred land protection.

Purpose In a national survey, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) were asked about service delivery and interventions they use with children ages 3–6 who have speech sound disorder (SSD). Method The survey was e-mailed to 2,084 SLPs who worked in pre-elementary settings across the United States. Of these, 24% completed part or all of the survey, with 18% completing the entire survey. Results SLPs reported that they provided children ages 3–6 who had SSD with 30 or 60 min of treatment time weekly, regardless of group or individual setting. More SLPs indicated that they used traditional intervention than other types of intervention. However, many SLPs also reported using aspects of phonological interventions and providing phonological awareness training. Fewer SLPs indicated that they used nonspeech oral motor exercises than in a previous survey (Lof & Watson, 2008). Recently graduated SLPs were no more familiar with recent advances in phonological intervention than were their more experienced colleagues. Discussion This study confirms previous findings (Mullen & Schooling, 2010) about the amount of service provided to children ages 3–6 who have SSD. Issues related to the use of traditional and phonological intervention with children who have phonological disorder are discussed, along with concerns related to evidence-based practice and research needs.

Researchers interested in second language attrition have studied a wide variety of bilingual speakers, ranging from foreign language students who learned a language through classroom study to those who have developed high proficiency during life abroad. What these studies have in common is their investigation of questions related to bilingual speakers' loss of L2 knowledge or proficiency. Hansen's collection of papers presents research on a range of bilingual speakers who have the Japanese language in common, whether that language is their L1 or L2. The book is divided into two major sections. The first section, consisting of three papers, presents studies of Japanese children of elementary school age who learned English while living abroad but who have returned to Japan. This section will be of interest to EFL teachers of children as well as to L2 researchers. The four papers in the second section of the book examine the attrition of Japanese by adults. Most of these adults became subjects while residing in the United States after working or studying in Japan. The adults studied in these chapters had a variety of different combinations of exposure and formal study and also a broad range of years away from Japan, from 9 months to 30+ years. Additionally, the subjects of one study never lived in Japan at all but learned Japanese during Japan's occupation of Micronesia.

This research examines the specialized knowledge of reading comprehension articulated by 12 middle school English language arts teachers sampled from three different regions of the United States and representing various levels of teaching experience. Using detailed interviews, concept mapping, and think aloud methods, we identified salient touchstones that characterize the teachers’ understandings of how and why readers interact with texts to construct meanings and change as readers. In this article, we present examples that illustrate the many ways that these understandings of comprehension were mobilized and transformed in their explanations of instructional practices.

This article shows how the concept of cultural intimacy can help scholars better analyze ethnoracial identity politics in the United States. It draws on ethnographic research with Yiddish language activists, or “Yiddishists.” Yiddishists define their engagement with the language through a discourse of “seriousness”—marked by hard work and intensive study. Seriousness, as a kind of affective orientation and cultural aspiration, offers Yiddishists a powerful, if subtle, resource to contest power relations in the American Jewish community. Through everyday discourses and performances of seriousness, Yiddishists set themselves apart from an American Jewish “mainstream,” or “establishment,” while simultaneously critiquing the grounds on which mainstream American Jewish institutions and individuals claim to speak on behalf of the community. Seriousness does this, I contend, by resignifying dominant American Jewish language ideologies about Yiddish as signs of American Jewish cultural intimacy—specifically, communal embarrassment over perceived deficits in knowledge about Jewishness.

In this paper, methodological and organizational aspects of applying CLIL methodology in teaching computer science for students of universities are analyzed. It is shown that European countries, as well as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Canada, where part of the curriculum has been taught in a foreign language for several decades, are most actively introducing content and language integration and promoting an interdisciplinary approach to education. CLIL methodology features and benefits are identified, namely, a comprehensive focus, stimulating learning environment, authenticity, active learning, gradual learning and collaboration. The peculiarity of CLIL methodology is that its use requires a stable elementary skill in the grammar of a foreign language, as well as knowledge of subject-specific language. In accordance with various conditions, CLIL model can be presented in various forms: it can be a full course of a foreign language discipline, a module from a specific topic area, a part of any course, a project, a laboratory workshop, and a research, too. The paper presents a plan for computer science lectures and labs in a foreign language, which contains seven stages, each of which is performed in English. Integration of computer science and teaching in English at the Kremenchuk Mykhailo Ostrohradskyi National University is implemented using developed bilingual course program “Computer for beginners”. The course content includes a study of the material necessary for obtaining skills in using modern ICT and a personal computer using English glossary. Conclusions are drawn regarding conditions and principles of teaching computer science in a foreign language. The scientific novelty of the work is that for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the expediency of using CLIL methodology was carried out at the Kremenchuk Mykhailo Ostrohradskyi National University. The practical significance of the work is that its results can be used for further implementation of content and language integration in Ukraine universities. The development of new content and language integrated courses with CLIL methodology for teaching courses in a foreign language is considered promising.

I moved to Hong Kong about fourteen months ago to teach in a liberal arts university located in the new territories, on the border between Hong Kong and mainland China, about half an hour away by bus. Before coming to Hong Kong, I had taught for a few years in several American institutions, ranging from a community college to a research university. The courses I taught were mostly in Asian American literature, postcolonial literature, and Chinese literature in translation. Immersed as a graduate student and a teacher in American multiculturalism, postcolonialism, and ethnic studies, I have found a great deal of difference between the situation in Hong Kong and the social contexts of the United States and former colonial nations in South Asia, in which most ethnic, multicultural, and postcolonial theories are situated.

Patent-Bot is an artificial intelligence (AI) software program that learns language from the patent database to write original patents for submission to the United States Patent Office (USPTO). The program creates thousands of new patent summaries per second. Patent-Bot is itself a piece of intellectual property, which in turn exists to generate more intellectual property. Patent-Bot also invents new words in relation to its future concepts, which appear to test the current linguistic limits of innovation and communication. Patent-Bot was debuted as an interactive art installation in the Omnibus Filing exhibition at the Visual Arts Center, University of Texas at Austin. Omnibus Filing showcased artworks, inventions, prototypes and cross-disciplinary research projects undertaken by teams of scientists, artists and engineers. Patent-Bot has since exhibited at Piksel 17: A festival for Elektronisk Kunst og fri Teknologi, in Lydgalleriet, Bergen, Norway. The project is an ongoing collaboration between the authors spanning a variety of exhibition formats and modes of display.

Historians of science have amply demonstrated the transnational character of science; however, they have not sufficiently attended to how several scientific projects were coordinated as part of global initiatives. Our research – based on the unpublished, written correspondence between Christian Ludwig Gerling in Germany and James M. Gilliss in the United States, from 1847 to 1856 – examines the issues that were being discussed in the search for an observation point in Chile that could be linked to the various astronomical research projects happening in the global north. This article shows that the building of this network had to navigate communicational and language barriers, financial uncertainty, lack of adequate scientific instruments, and the influence of intermediaries. In fact, the intermediaries involved affected the formulation of questions and objectives, as well as the choice of methods and instruments to be used (such as Alexander von Humboldt and Friedrich Gauss), and directly impacted on how these things were brought to bear (for example, instrument manufacturers, diplomats, and translators).

As complex institutions extend into and govern greater spheres of social life, ethnographers contend with policy in an ever-widening range of fieldsites. This review examines anthropology of policy as an emerging subfield of political anthropology, focusing on policy making as central to contemporary governance in English-language ethnographies. Broadening the analytical field in the study of policy to include the targets of policy and their allies is one of the central contributions of an anthropological approach to policy making. Anthropological studies of policy production, implementation, and effects face significant methodological and ethical challenges. Scholarly debates in the United States and Europe continue to erupt over the production of scholarship intended to inform policy making, including the co-option of ethnography. While turning the anthropological gaze on powerful political actors could contribute to decolonization efforts within the discipline, ethically adopting ethnographic research into policy making requires complex alliances with communities targeted by policy.

Since 2011 half of Syria’s population has been forced to flee its homes. Much research has focused on the macro-level challenges and post-conflict reconstruction plans. In this article, I focus on the micro-level by examining the dialectic of “humiliation” and “dignity” as a dynamic that shapes and transforms Syrian refugees’ identities through sustained interaction, and sometimes through struggle, with others, who can be pro-regime or pro-opposition Syrians, or pro-refugees or anti-refugees in hosting countries. Methodologically, I use an interpretive approach which focuses on context-specific meanings and their relation to power, seeking multifaceted understandings of refugees’ lived-experience. This research is based on ethnographic fieldwork and ordinary language interviews conducted in the United States, and semi-structured, open-ended interviews with Syrians in Germany and Turkey. I show that researching participants’ meaning-making in their own settings reveals the dynamics of humiliation and dignity as dialectically interwoven in specific situational contexts and shaped by refugees’ lived-experience in both the country of origin (in the past) and the hosting country (in the present).

Abstract This article analyzes the audio diaries of a Tibetan physician, originally from Amdo (Qinghai Province, China), now living in New York City. Dr. Kunchog Tseten describes his experiences during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, in spring and summer 2020, when Queens, New York—the location where he lives and works—was the “epicenter of the epicenter” of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the United States. The collaborative research project of which this diary is a part combines innovative methodological approaches to qualitative, ethnographic study during this era of social distancing with an attunement to the relationship between language, culture, and health care. Dr. Kunchog’s diary and our analysis of its contents illustrate the ways that Tibetan medicine and Tibetan cultural practices, including those emergent from Buddhism, have helped members of the Himalayan and Tibetan communities in New York City navigate this unprecedented moment with care and compassion.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Attention Deficit//Hyperactivity Disorder is a childhood disorder on the increase in the United States, and parents are searching for additional ways to help alleviate the symptoms associated with this disorder. One of the ways parents are looking to help with ADHD is through exercise programs, including the martial arts. As more of our students are diagnosed with ADHD, it is imperative we, as martial artists and teachers, understand the nature of this disorder. Therefore, this article is intended to educate those in the martial arts about ADHD. First, an introduction about ADHD, what it is and what it is not, is offered to demystify the disorder and to insure instructors are using appropriate language and terminology. Second, current research regarding the use of the martial arts as an intervention for ADHD will be discussed. Third, the issue of confidentiality related to psychological disorders will be discussed and suggestions offered to decrease the chances of instructors breaching confidentiality. Finally, some strategies for working with children with ADHD will be offered.</span></span></span></p>

Purpose The purpose of this study was to assess the diversity-related professional development needs of pre-service teachers in our college. According to a report released in 2017 by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), minorities accounted for 20 per cent of all public elementary and secondary school teachers in the United States during the 2015-2016 school year. The same report noted that 51 per cent of all public elementary and secondary school students in the USA were nonwhite during the same school year. Schools will continue to become increasingly more diverse as it relates to the student population. Students of color are expected to make up 56 per cent of the student population by 2024 (Digest of Education Statistics, 2013). With the changing demographics of US schools, pre-service teachers must be prepared to teach, interact and support students and families whose cultures, beliefs and lifestyles may differ from their own. Cultural competence is having an awareness of one’s own cultural identity perceptions and views about difference, and the ability to learn and build on the varying cultural and community norms of students and their families (Muñoz and Graybill, 2015). The mere presence of diverse communities on college campuses is not sufficient in promoting positive educational outcomes related to diversity (Museus, 2008). Design/methodology/approach Qualitative survey research was used to assess diversity related professional development needs of pre-service teachers. Students were asked an open-ended question: ‘Please list topics of diversity training that should be offered to students in the college’ After the question, a text box was provided to allow respondents to provide a unique answer. This approach, as opposed to providing a list of predetermined responses to select from gave respondents the freedom to say exactly what they felt should be offered. Findings After analyzing the 163 open-ended responses provided by students six themes emerged. The themes were offering diversity-related professional development in the areas of disability/mental illness, cultural competence/awareness, LGBTQAI+/gender, facilitating conversations about diversity, discrimination and race/ethnicity. Research limitations/implications The sample came from one university; therefore, the results may not be generalizable to other predominantly white universities. Future research should collect data at other universities or the schools within the university system to determine the needs for other campuses. The results of such a study will always be limited in scope but they do describe the needs at the targeted University. The response rate was low, 24 per cent. The reasons for the low response rate are unclear. Other survey techniques, such as mail surveys or face-to-face meetings, may be more successful in obtaining a higher response rate. Practical implications Teacher preparation programs should assess students’ perceptions, knowledge and experiences as it relates to diversity, and survey pre-service teachers to determine gaps in the diversity training currently being offered. Diversity training must be intentional to prepare pre-service teachers to meet the demands of the diverse classroom. Social implications Future research should aim to assess pre-service teachers’ beliefs about diversity throughout the entirety of teacher preparation programs by assessing pre-service teachers in multiple classes and participants who attend independent diversity training opportunities. To address the rapid increase in cultural and ethnic diversity in education worldwide, pre-service programs should target and challenge pre-service teachers’ beliefs to assure equitable education to diverse students. Originality/value The paper that has been submitted is an original research that was conducted by the first author. The first and second authors used manual coding for data analysis.

Maya Blue is an unusual blue pigment used on pottery, sculpture, and murals from the Preclassic to the Colonial period. Until the late 1960s, its composition was unknown, but chemists working in Spain, Belgium, Mexico, and the United States identified Maya Blue as a combination of indigo and the unusual clay mineral palygorskite (also called attapulgite). A source of palygorskite in the Maya area was unknown for years; then ethnoarchaeological research in the mid-1960s demonstrated that the contemporary Maya recognized the unique physical properties of palygorskite and used it as an additive for pottery temper and for curing certain types of illnesses. Because of its importance in Maya Blue, pre-Hispanic sources of the mineral were then suggested based on ethnoarchaeological data. One of these sources was the cenote in the town of Sacalum, Yucatan. This paper briefly reviews the history of the Maya Blue research from an anthropological perspective and presents evidence of a second possible pre-Hispanic mining site for palygorskite at Yo' Sah Kab near Ticul, Yucatan. Archaeological and technological approaches have demonstrated the use, distribution, composition, and characteristics of Maya Blue, but ethnoarchaeology has related it to Maya language and culture and to possible pre-Hispanic sources of one of its constituents, palygorskite.

Philosophy as an academic discipline was introduced to Korea at the end of the 19th century. Philosophical education and professional research did not begin, however, until the 1920s. The first institution in which Koreans could study philosophy as a major at college level was Keijō Imperial University, which was founded by the Japanese in 1924 in Seoul, Korea. The first graduates from this school produced their research in Korean and contributed to the settlement of philosophy on the Korean peninsula. They were joined by Koreans who had returned from study in Austria, Germany, France, and the United States. I call these the “first Korean philosophers.” In order for an individual to belong to this group, three conditions had to be met: first, he or she should have studied philosophy as a major at college level; second, he or she should have read Western philosophical texts in original or in translation; third: he or she should have written a treatise in the contemporary Korean language. Against this background, I am going to deal with three questions. The first question concerns their attitude towards philosophy. The second question concerns their conception of philosophy. The third question concerns the method of doing philosophy. Through this study, I have shown that the first Korean philosophers foreshadowed the struggle between the Marxist and liberal understandings of the world and of humanity, even though they lived in the time of Japanese occupation.

Background: Test frequency, stakes associated with educational tests, and feedback from test results have been identified in the research literature as relevant factors in student achievement. Objectives: Summarize the separate and joint contribution to student achievement of these three treatments and their interactions via multivariable meta-analytic techniques using a database of English-language studies spanning a century (1910–2010), comprising 149 studies and 509 effect size estimates. Research design: Analysis employed robust variance estimation. Considered as potential moderators were hundreds of study features comprising various test designs and test administration, demographic, and source document characteristics. Subjects: Subjects were students at all levels, from early childhood to adult, mostly from the United States but also eight other countries. Results: We find a summary effect size of 0.84 for the three treatments collectively. Further analysis suggests benefits accrue to the incremental addition of combinations of testing and feedback or stakes and feedback. Moderator analysis shows higher effect sizes associated with the following study characteristics: more recent year of publication, summative (rather than formative) testing, constructed (rather than selected) item response formats, alignment of subject matter between pre- and posttests, and recognition/recall (rather than core subjects, art, or physical education). Conversely, lower effect sizes are associated with postsecondary students (rather than early childhood–upper secondary), special education population, larger study population, random assignment (rather than another sampling method), use of shadow test as outcome measure, designation of individuals (rather than groups) as units of analysis, and academic (rather than corporate or government) research.

Schools in America may provide opportunities for upward mobility while also perpetuating social inequality. The inequities found in the US public school system probably result in such a highly stratified society. Conditions found in many schools and classrooms are often a microcosm of the same conditions and factors present in the broader American society. Scholars and education reform activists often use the term school-to-prison pipeline to describe what they view as a widespread pattern in the United States of pushing students, especially those who are already at a disadvantage, out of school, and into the criminal justice system. This research explored whether mentorship in the lives of these very students can affect the trajectory that these students take in life by moving toward a pedagogy of liberation that challenges the inequities and contradictions in the institution of education. Building from a model similar to CDF Freedom Schools, but targeting academic enrichment, Farrah and her colleague Hope developed the Sankofa Project at Yin Elementary School (YES). Embracing both the social-emotional and pedagogical aspects of CDF Freedom Schools, the Sankofa Project moved from a mission that sought to instill a love for reading to actually teaching children to read. This aspect was pivotally important to Farrah and Hope as they sought to dismantle the “cradle to prison pipeline,” the concept of funneling masses of people into marginalized lives, imprisonment, and often premature death. Farrah believed that all her predecessors had done “was spot on, but academic enrichment was a key to steering children away from the pipeline.” With the rebirth of a caste-like system in America, black and brown bodies are disproportionately locked behind bars, relegated permanent second-class status if declared a felon and an increasingly common trend toward annihilation at the hands of those of who are designated to serve and protect them.

The theories and methodologies feature of this issue of PMLA contains a cluster of essays devoted to the subject of reading. At a time when many states in the United States are in the throes of a major public-education reform designed to prepare better-educated, more literate citizens for tomorrow's world, we collected these essays in the belief that scholars belonging to the MLA might be interested in reflecting on this effort in the light of their research. Hence our title, “Learning to Read,” and our appeal to our contributors to consider what they, with their scholarly expertise and pedagogical experience, might contribute to the charged debates about the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI)— debates that remind us of the high stakes involved in training good readers. We hope that PMLA readers will agree with us that the question of how the architects of the Common Core have defined the uses and measures of literacy education affects much of the MLA membership—professors, adjuncts, and graduate instructors alike.For some years now, test results have indicated that American schoolchildren read more poorly than many of their peers abroad (Heitin). A distinctive feature of the Common Core (the shorthand title for an extraordinary effort to align educational requirements and standards nationwide) lies in its effort to devise a graduated progression in the standards for the English language arts (ELA) that is anchored in the skills of close reading. Given that the changes in teaching objectives defined and prescribed by the standards might transform the way children in America learn to make sense of the written word, it is only natural that our professional body would respond. The decisive, and some might say aggressive, manner in which the architects of the Common Core have recast the fundamentals of the ELA has provoked strong reactions, not only among K-12 teachers but also in higher education. Concerns were voiced early on in sessions at MLA conventions starting in 2013, and those conversations have continued on MLA Commons (e.g., Ferguson).

Au cours des dernières décennies, un travail considérable a été accompli par les chercheurs canadiens dans l’exhumation et la réhabilitation des textes des femmes de lettres de la Renaissance française. En raison de leur positionnement géographique à l’intersection des États-Unis et de l’Europe, ces chercheurs participent à la fois des avancées de la recherche française en matière d’érudition et des percées théoriques de la réflexion nord-américaine, enrichie par les gender studies et les études culturelles. Cela explique en partie le caractère original de leur contribution à ce champ de recherche, tant par le choix de leur objet d’étude et l’exploration de corpus marginaux que par l’approche critique et le positionnement théorique qu’ils ont adoptés. Le présent article vise à cerner la spécificité des activités de recherche menées en langue française au Canada dans les domaines bibliographique, éditorial et critique, en portant une attention particulière aux enjeux théoriques et idéologiques des choix effectués par les chercheurs.
 Over the past few decades, significant work has been accomplished by Canadian researchers unearthing and recovering texts by the women writers of the French Renaissance. Because of their geographical location—at the intersection of the United States and Europe—these researchers share simultaneously in the advances of French research in the discipline of scholarship and in the theoretical breakthroughs of North American thought informed by gender and cultural studies. This explains, in part, the unique character of their contribution to this field of research — as much for their chosen object of study and exploration of a marginal corpus of work as by their adoption of a certain critical approach and theoretical position. This article seeks to outline the specific features of research activities undertaken in the French language in Canada in the areas of bibliography, editing, and criticism, highlighting in particular the theoretical and ideological issues at stake in the choices made by the researchers.

Purpose. Historical trauma has been widely applied to American Indian/Alaska Native and other Indigenous populations and includes dimensions of language, sociocultural, and land losses and associated physical and mental disorders, as well as economic hardships. Insufficient evidence remains on the experiences of historical trauma due to waves of colonization for mixed-race Mexican people with indigenous ancestry (el pueblo mestizo). Research Question. Drawing from our critical lenses and epistemic advantages as indigenous feminist scholars, we ask, “How can historical trauma be understood through present-day discourse of two mestizo communities? What are public health practice and policy implications for healing historical trauma among mestizo populations?” Methodology and Approach. We analyzed the discourse from two community projects: focus groups and ethnographic field notes from a study in the U.S.–Mexico border region (2012–2014) and field notes and digital stories from a service-learning course in northern New Mexico (2016–2018). Findings. Our analysis describes the social and historical experiences of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, Chicanas/os, and Nuevo Mexicano peoples in the southwestern border region of the United States. We found four salient themes as manifestations of “soul-wound”: (1) violence/fear, (2) discrimination/shame, (3) loss, and (4) deep sorrow. Themes mitigating the trauma were community resiliency rooted in “querencia” (deep connection to land/home/people) and “conscientizacion” (critical consciousness). Conclusion. Historical trauma experienced by mestizo Latinx communities is rooted in local cultural and intergenerational narratives that link traumatic events in the historic past to contemporary local experiences. Future public health interventions should draw on culturally centered strength-based resilience approaches for healing trauma and advancing health equity.

EN Gender equality in language learning has received considerable attention in research on classroom policy and materials. Within studies of materials like language learning texts, most research focuses on content analyses of character roles and images, with sometimes purposeful exclusion of non-human characters. However, non-humans in children’s picture books comprise almost 60% of the characters children read. Therefore, their representations of gender, including biases, overt sexism, and covert sexism should be examined. In this study, I examine gendering of non-human characters using corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis. Additionally, I use critical image analysis to discuss pictorial gendering of non-human characters within 12 textbooks in two of the United States’ most widely used textbook series for language learning in elementary schools. Results indicate a strong preference for aggressive and adventurous male characters, male supremacist ideologies, and the suppression of female agency. Key words: CORPUS LINGUISTICS, CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS, TEXTBOOK ANALYSIS, GENDER AND LANGUAGE, ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL), CRITICAL IMAGE ANALYSIS ES La igualdad de género en el aprendizaje de idiomas ha recibido una atención considerable en la investigación sobre la política y los materiales en el aula. Dentro de los estudios sobre materiales como los textos para el aprendizaje de idiomas, la mayoría de las investigaciones se centran en el análisis del contenido de los roles y las imágenes de los personajes, con una exclusión de los personajes no humanos. Sin embargo, los personajes no humanos de los libros ilustrados para niños representan casi el 60% de los personajes que leen los niños. Por lo tanto, deben examinarse sus representaciones de género, incluyendo los prejuicios, el sexismo manifiesto y el sexismo encubierto. En este estudio, examino la representación de género de los personajes no humanos utilizando la lingüística de corpus y el análisis crítico del discurso. Además, utilizo el análisis crítico de la imagen para analizar el género pictórico de los personajes no humanos en 12 libros de texto de dos de las series de libros de texto más utilizados en Estados Unidos para el aprendizaje de idiomas en las escuelas primarias. Los resultados indican una fuerte preferencia por personajes masculinos agresivos y aventureros, ideologías de supremacía masculina y la supresión de la agencia femenina. Palabras clave: LINGÜÍSTICA DE CORPUS, ANÁLISIS CRÍTICO DEL DISCURSO, ANÁLISIS DE LIBROS DE TEXTO, GÉNERO E LINGUAJE, INGLÉS COMO SEGUNDA LENGUA (ESL), ANÁLISIS CRÍTICO DE LA IMAGEN IT L’uguaglianza di genere nell'apprendimento delle lingue ha ricevuto una notevole attenzione nella ricerca sulle norme di comportamento nelle classi così come nei materiali didattici. All'interno degli studi su materiali didattici come i testi per l'apprendimento delle lingue, la maggior parte della ricerca si concentra sull'analisi del contenuto dei ruoli e delle immagini dei personaggi con l'esclusione, a volte intenzionale, di personaggi non umani. Tuttavia, i non umani nei libri illustrati per bambini costituiscono quasi il 60% dei personaggi. Pertanto, dovrebbero essere esaminate le loro rappresentazioni di genere, inclusi pregiudizi, sessismo palese e sessismo nascosto. In questo studio si esamina la sessuazione di personaggi non umani usando la linguistica dei corpora e l’analisi critica del discorso. Inoltre, viene utilizzata l'analisi critica delle immagini per discutere la sessuazione di personaggi non umani all'interno di 12 libri in due delle serie di libri di testo più utilizzate negli Stati Uniti per l'apprendimento delle lingue nelle scuole elementari. I risultati indicano una forte preferenza per personaggi maschili aggressivi e avventurosi, ideologie suprematiste maschili e soppressione dell'agire femminile. Parole chiave: LINGUISTICA DEI CORPORA, ANALISI CRITICA DEL DISCORSO, ANALISI DEI LIBRI DI TESTO, GENERE E LINGUAGGIO, INGLESE COME SECONDA LINGUA, ANALISI CRITICA DELLE IMMAGINI

Contemporary research on teaching indicates that teachers are powerful contributors to students’ academic achievement, though the set and interrelationships of characteristics that make for high-quality and effective teaching have yet to be satisfactorily determined. Nevertheless, on the basis of the extant research and a vision of exemplary teaching, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards stipulated a definition of a superior teacher. The Board did this without empirical evidence to support their claim that teachers’ who meet the standards set by the Board were superior in promoting academic achievement to those who did not meet those standards. In the 17 years since the founding of the National Board, only a few empirical studies have addressed this important issue. In this study we compare the academic performance of students in the elementary classrooms of 35 National Board Certified teachers and their non-certified peers, in 14 Arizona school districts. Board Certified teachers and their principals provide additional information about these teachers and their schools. Four years of results from the Stanford Achievement Tests in reading, mathematics and language arts, in grades three through six, were analyzed. In the 48 comparisons (four grades, four years of data, three measures of academic performance), using gain scores adjusted for students’ entering ability, the students in the classes of National Board Certified Teachers surpassed students in the classrooms of non-Board certified teachers in almost threequarters of the comparisons. Almost one-third of these differences were statistically significant. In the cases where the students of non-Board certified teachers gained more in an academic year, none of the differences found were statistically significant. Effect size, translated into grade equivalents, informs us that the gains made by students of Board Certified teachers were over one month greater than the gains made by the students of non-Board certified peer teachers. Teachers identified through the assessments of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards are, on average, more effective teachers in terms of academic achievement, one of the many outcomes of education for which teachers are responsible. This study does not address whether other, cheaper, or better alternatives to the National Boards exist, as some critics suggest. On the other hand, the results of this study provide support for the policies in many states that honor and provide extra remuneration for National Board Certified Teachers.

This article presents the results of the first implementation of map literacy learning model in middle school classes - this is the preliminary test. The implementation of this learning model will gain optimal results when it is conducted by following all the component of the model such as the syntax, theoretical framework, social system, teachers' roles, and support system. After the model implementation has been completed, the results showed that there was significantly different in students' spatial thinking skills before and after the treatment. However, the implementation also revealed that the model has some technical issues and thus to be improved. In a social system revision, the teacher has to be flexibly provide scaffolding every time he/she sees that the students need it. Teacher's book is significantly important to help a teacher lead the learning process. After improvement of the model has been completed, then it is ready to be implemented in the main field testing stage.
 Keywords: map literacy, social studies learning, spatial thinking
 
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Abstract
 
 Objective – To investigate and compare the nature of e-mail reference services in academic and public libraries outside the United States.
 
 Design – Longitudinal comparative study.
 
 Setting – A total of 23 academic and public libraries in ten countries: Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. 
 
 Subjects – The authors collected reference questions that were e-mailed to the 23 libraries for the weeks of April 3, 2006 and April 7, 2008. Questions were sent from the libraries’ websites to QuestionPoint, a collaborative, online reference service that was used to answer the questions received.
 
 Methods – The authors randomly selected 25 questions for each library for the weeks under investigation. If a library did not receive 25 email reference questions that week, then they collected transactions from subsequent weeks until the quota was met or until the end of the month. The authors examined transactions from a total of 919 questions – 515 questions in 2006 and 476 in 2008. All identifying information about the user was stripped from each transaction collected. Each transaction was labeled according to the following categories:
 
 • Type of institution, i.e., whether the question was sent to an academic or public library
 • Language of the question
 • Question type, i.e., whether the question was about library policy or access to electronic resources (labeled “access” questions), about library holdings (labeled “bibliographic” questions), or about finding specific information on a topic (labeled “subject” questions)
 • Answer type, i.e., whether the response consisted of: a confirmation, clarification, fact, instructions, referral to a pathfinder/bibliography, referral to another library/person/place, or no answer. 
 • User status, i.e., whether the person asking the question was an undergrad, a graduate student, or a staff/faculty member
 • Subject classification of the questions using the Dewey Decimal Classification system
 • Response time
 
 Main Results – The e-mail transactions that were examined revealed a wide range of end-user and librarian behaviors. English, followed by Dutch, German, and French, were the languages most frequently used by library users. Countries also varied in terms of the types of questions received. For example, more than 75% of the email queries in Belgium (which only had academic libraries participate in this study) were “access” questions, while Mexico (which also consisted of all academic libraries) only received 6% “access” questions, France (all public libraries) had relatively few access questions, and Sweden (also all public libraries) had none. Public libraries received the most “subject” questions (75%) compared to academic libraries (28%). Public libraries answered “subject” questions with facts over a third of the time, while academic libraries responded with instructions close to half of the time. 
 
 Among the academic libraries, graduate students asked slightly more “access” questions than undergraduates (62% versus 56%), and undergraduates asked more “subject” questions than graduate students (26% versus 13%). The “subject” questions submitted to academic libraries were divided almost equally among topics in the humanities (36%), the sciences (32%), and the social sciences (32%). This differed from public libraries; the latter received mostly questions about humanities topics (65%). 
 
 The time taken to respond to users’ reference questions ranged from a few minutes to a few weeks between libraries. Some libraries set the response times on their websites. Those libraries that indicated longer response times on their sites met the users’ expectations more often, up to a maximum of 100 percent of the time. 
 
 Most of the characteristics of email reference services that are listed above remained consistent from 2006 to 2008. The two areas that changed over two years were the libraries’ response time and the types of questions asked by university students. “Access questions increased (by 14 percent among graduates and by 4 percent among undergraduates), and bibliographic and subject questions decreased in both groups” (p. 364). Response time improved overall from 2006 to 2008. 
 
 Conclusion – The authors’ analysis of the 919 transactions of e-mail reference questions revealed unique patterns about end-user information seeking behavior and librarians’ responses in academic and public libraries outside the United States and Canada. One of these patterns is that the public libraries participating in the study received the highest percentage of “subject” questions. The authors state that “the pattern of a much higher percentage of subject-related questions in public libraries contrasts with the general virtual reference trend in academic libraries, which shows a much higher percentage of access questions. Since many of the access questions concerned connection problems or logging on to databases, the relatively fewer number may indicate that the arts and humanities disciplines require less database searching and that the users need specific answers instead” (p. 367). 
 
 The data also revealed significant differences between the types of questions asked by undergraduates versus graduate students. Undergraduates asked two thirds of the subject questions submitted to academic libraries and graduate students asked just over a fourth. The authors assume that this finding indicates that graduate students do more of their own research than undergraduates.
 
 The authors were concerned by the increase in the number of access questions posed by undergrads and graduate students from 2006 to 2008. They suggested that websites, databases, and other resources might have become more difficult to use over the years. They also noted that questions in technology almost doubled from 2006 to 2008. 
 
 One of the patterns that were revealed contradicted the authors’ assumption that libraries with slow response times in 2006 would improve in 2008 as they became more proficient in providing virtual reference services. The majority of libraries in the study improved their turnaround time from 2006 to 2008, but the two slowest libraries took even longer to respond to their users.

This volume of Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad offers a wide variety of approaches and topics in international education research. First, readers will note the geographic diversity that the articles represent; they examine study abroad topics in Africa, Argentina, Costa Rica, France, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. Second, the articles cover a wide-range of issues, including language acquisition, risk management, recruitment of minority students for study abroad, evaluation of cultural integration, and financial inequities in study abroad. Third, this volume contains articles by a variety of authors, including U.S.-based study abroad administrators, faculty members, and on-site resident directors. Finally, the modes of inquiry are as varied as the topics and authors. Research approaches in this volume include survey instruments, interviews, participant observation, case studies, literature review, as well as analytical essays.
 This diversity of geography, issues, authors, and modes of inquiry has from the beginning characterized the content of Frontiers and been one of its chief strengths. When the first volume of Frontiers appeared in 1995, one was hard pressed to find many research-based and analytical studies in the field, let alone the diversity of such work that this volume represents. In this regard, Frontiers has matured along with the field of international education, and today, almost ten years later, this volume reflects the growing importance being placed on research on the critical aspects of our work.
 The opening article by Lilli Engle and John Engle, “Study Abroad Levels: Toward a Classification of Program Types,” offers a revolutionary perspective by which international educators may categorize and judge study abroad programs. Their proposed typology makes qualitative distinctions between study abroad program models based on their view of a spectrum of cultural immersion. Frontiers readers will find their analysis provocative, stimulating study abroad professionals to examine programming in useful ways.
 In “Women and Cultural Learning in Costa Rica: Reading the Contexts,” Adele Anderson reviews research on Costa Rica’s cultural context, student adjustment and tourism theory, relating them to American student experiences, and she includes data from ethnographic observations and interviews collected during three years as a resident director of short-term programs. Anderson introduces a tool that may be used by resident directors to guide student cultural adjustment more systematically.
 Mark Ritchie, an on-site resident director in Thailand, provides a very useful analysis of study abroad risk management in his article, “Risk Management in Study Abroad: Lessons from the Wilderness.” Ritchie draws upon the principles of wilderness education, especially as it is conducted in developing countries, in offering recommendations for study abroad risk management. Readers will appreciate his suggestions for reducing risk by applying the experiential techniques of wilderness education.
 J. Scott Van Der Meid’s study, “Asian Americans: Factors Influencing the Decision to Study Abroad,” examines the factors that influence Asian American students’ decision to study abroad, and provides useful suggestions for considering ways to increase study abroad participation among this population. As the field of study abroad continues to seek ways to increase minority participation in study abroad, Van Der Meid’s study offers a model for examining this question among all ethnic groups.
 In their analysis of an innovative Vietnam study abroad program, “History Lived and Learned: Students and Vietnam Veterans in an Integrative Study Abroad Course,” Raymond Scurfield, Leslie Root, and Andrew Wiest et al, analyze the collaborative learning experience of students and Vietnam veterans in a program that combined the teaching of Vietnam culture and military history with an exploration of the mental health aspects of combat and post-war recovery of the veterans. This article discusses the lessons learned from the experience of designing and implementing a study abroad program that integrates history education with therapeutic objectives. Jennifer Coffman and Kevin Brennan analyze the economic imbalance of African educational exchange with the United States in their article, “African Studies Abroad: Meaning and Impact of America’s Burgeoning Export Industry.” Coffman and Brennan recommend developing more equitable models of reciprocity by examining the economics of U.S. – African exchanges, and by reconsidering the ways in which African study abroad programs are conceived and implemented in light of their social and intellectual impact.
 “Development of Oral Communication Skills Abroad” by Christina Isabelli-Garcia examines the impact of a semester study abroad program in Argentina on the second language acquisition of three American university Spanish learners. Isabelli-Garcia’s study measures the development of two aspects of communications skills: first, fluency and performance in the oral functions of narration, and, second, description and supporting an opinion. Her study provides insight into the conditions of a study abroad program that best promote the acquisition of improved oral communication skills in a target language.
 In “Studying Abroad in Nepal: Assessing Impact,” Patricia Farrell and Murari Suvedi present the perceived impact of studying in Nepal on students’ academic program, personal development, and intellectual development. Using a survey instrument as well as interviews and case studies, the authors link the reported outcomes to the objectives of the study abroad program.
 We are pleased to include in this volume of Frontiers an essay by Patti McGill Peterson, “New Directions for the Global Century.” McGill Peterson’s analysis of the changing and challenging context for global education inspires us to meet the demands of the 21st century with determination, creativity, and enhanced global collaboration.
 This volume of Frontiers concludes with reviews of books of interest to international educators, each relating to diverse intellectual foundations of the field: Jean-Philippe Mathy’s Extrême-Occident: French Intellectuals and America, Louis Menand’s The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America, and First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power by Warren Zimmermann. We encourage our readers to continue to suggest books of interest, and to submit reviews for consideration.
 The update on the Forum on Education Abroad that appears at the back of this volume reflects the continuing fruitful collaboration between Frontiers and the Forum. Together with the Forum, Frontiers will continue to encourage and support research studies on study abroad topics, and to disseminate this research as widely as possible.
 The next volume of Frontiers, due to be published in November, 2004, will be our tenth anniversary volume. It is appropriate that this anniversary volume will be a Special Issue that focuses on the assessment of the learning outcomes of study abroad, a topic that reflects the maturation of a field that is now beginning to document the results of its activity. Other Special Issues that are in the planning stages include: curriculum integration and study abroad, the arts and study abroad, and student development and study abroad.
 Finally, I want to thank the new sponsors of Frontiers who, together with our existing sponsors, make the publication of this journal possible. The sponsors of Frontiers are institutions with a strong commitment to international education, and we are proud to be supported by them. The editorial board takes seriously its responsibility to provide the very best writing about and research on study abroad to our readers, and the support of our sponsors makes this mission possible.
 Brian J. Whalen
 Editor

Education in Oceania continues to reflect the embedded implicit and explicit colonial practices and processes from the past. This paper conceptualises a cultural approach to education and leadership appropriate and relevant to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. As elementary school leaders, we highlight Kanne Lobal, a traditional Marshallese navigation practice based on indigenous language, values and practices. We conceptualise and develop Kanne Lobal in this paper as a framework for understanding the usefulness of our indigenous knowledge in leadership and educational practices within formal education. Through bwebwenato, a method of talk story, our key learnings and reflexivities were captured. We argue that realising the value of Marshallese indigenous knowledge and practices for school leaders requires purposeful training of the ways in which our knowledge can be made useful in our professional educational responsibilities. Drawing from our Marshallese knowledge is an intentional effort to inspire, empower and express what education and leadership partnership means for Marshallese people, as articulated by Marshallese themselves. 
 
 
 
 Introduction
 As noted in the call for papers within the Waikato Journal of Education (WJE) for this special issue, bodies of knowledge and histories in Oceania have long sustained generations across geographic boundaries to ensure cultural survival. For Marshallese people, we cannot really know ourselves “until we know how we came to be where we are today” (Walsh, Heine, Bigler & Stege, 2012). Jitdam Kapeel is a popular Marshallese concept and ideal associated with inquiring into relationships within the family and community. In a similar way, the practice of relating is about connecting the present and future to the past. Education and leadership partnerships are linked and we look back to the past, our history, to make sense and feel inspired to transform practices that will benefit our people. In this paper and in light of our next generation, we reconnect with our navigation stories to inspire and empower education and leadership. Kanne lobal is part of our navigation stories, a conceptual framework centred on cultural practices, values, and concepts that embrace collective partnerships. Our link to this talanoa vā with others in the special issue is to attempt to make sense of connections given the global COVID-19 context by providing a Marshallese approach to address the physical and relational “distance” between education and leadership partnerships in Oceania. 
 
 Like the majority of developing small island nations in Oceania, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) has had its share of educational challenges through colonial legacies of the past which continues to drive education systems in the region (Heine, 2002). The historical administration and education in the RMI is one of colonisation. Successive administrations by the Spanish, German, Japanese, and now the US, has resulted in education and learning that privileges western knowledge and forms of learning. This paper foregrounds understandings of education and learning as told by the voices of elementary school leaders from the RMI. The move to re-think education and leadership from Marshallese perspectives is an act of shifting the focus of bwebwenato or conversations that centres on Marshallese language and worldviews. 
 
 The concept of jelalokjen was conceptualised as traditional education framed mainly within the community context. In the past, jelalokjen was practiced and transmitted to the younger generation for cultural continuity. During the arrival of colonial administrations into the RMI, jelalokjen was likened to the western notions of education and schooling (Kupferman, 2004). Today, the primary function of jelalokjen, as traditional and formal education, it is for “survival in a hostile [and challenging] environment” (Kupferman, 2004, p. 43).
 
 Because western approaches to learning in the RMI have not always resulted in positive outcomes for those engaged within the education system, as school leaders who value our cultural knowledge and practices, and aspire to maintain our language with the next generation, we turn to Kanne Lobal, a practice embedded in our navigation stories, collective aspirations, and leadership. The significance in the development of Kanne Lobal, as an appropriate framework for education and leadership, resulted in us coming together and working together. Not only were we able to share our leadership concerns, however, the engagement strengthened our connections with each other as school leaders, our communities, and the Public Schooling System (PSS). Prior to that, many of us were in competition for resources.
 
 Educational Leadership: IQBE and GCSL
 Leadership is a valued practice in the RMI. Before the IQBE programme started in 2018, the majority of the school leaders on the main island of Majuro had not engaged in collaborative partnerships with each other before. Our main educational purpose was to achieve accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), an accreditation commission for schools in the United States. The WASC accreditation dictated our work and relationships and many school leaders on Majuro felt the pressure of competition against each other. We, the authors in this paper, share our collective bwebwenato, highlighting our school leadership experiences and how we gained strength from our own ancestral knowledge to empower “us”, to collaborate with each other, our teachers, communities, as well as with PSS; a collaborative partnership we had not realised in the past. The paucity of literature that captures Kajin Majol (Marshallese language) and education in general in the RMI is what we intend to fill by sharing our reflections and experiences. To move our educational practices forward we highlight Kanne Lobal, a cultural approach that focuses on our strengths, collective social responsibilities and wellbeing.
 
 For a long time, there was no formal training in place for elementary school leaders. School principals and vice principals were appointed primarily on their academic merit through having an undergraduate qualification. As part of the first cohort of fifteen school leaders, we engaged in the professional training programme, the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership (GCSL), refitted to our context after its initial development in the Solomon Islands. GCSL was coordinated by the Institute of Education (IOE) at the University of the South Pacific (USP). GCSL was seen as a relevant and appropriate training programme for school leaders in the RMI as part of an Asia Development Bank (ADB) funded programme which aimed at “Improving Quality Basic Education” (IQBE) in parts of the northern Pacific. GCSL was managed on Majuro, RMI’s main island, by the director at the time Dr Irene Taafaki, coordinator Yolanda McKay, and administrators at the University of the South Pacific’s (USP) RMI campus.
 
 Through the provision of GCSL, as school leaders we were encouraged to re-think and draw-from our own cultural repository and connect to our ancestral knowledge that have always provided strength for us. This kind of thinking and practice was encouraged by our educational leaders (Heine, 2002). We argue that a culturally-affirming and culturally-contextual framework that reflects the lived experiences of Marshallese people is much needed and enables the disruption of inherent colonial processes left behind by Western and Eastern administrations which have influenced our education system in the RMI (Heine, 2002). Kanne Lobal, an approach utilising a traditional navigation has warranted its need to provide solutions for today’s educational challenges for us in the RMI.
 Education in the Pacific
 Education in the Pacific cannot be understood without contextualising it in its history and culture. It is the same for us in the RMI (Heine, 2002; Walsh et al., 2012). The RMI is located in the Pacific Ocean and is part of Micronesia. It was named after a British captain, John Marshall in the 1700s. The atolls in the RMI were explored by the Spanish in the 16th century. Germany unsuccessfully attempted to colonize the islands in 1885. Japan took control in 1914, but after several battles during World War II, the US seized the RMI from them. In 1947, the United Nations made the island group, along with the Mariana and Caroline archipelagos, a U.S. trust territory (Walsh et al, 2012). Education in the RMI reflects the colonial administrations of Germany, Japan, and now the US. 
 
 Before the turn of the century, formal education in the Pacific reflected western values, practices, and standards. Prior to that, education was informal and not binded to formal learning institutions (Thaman, 1997) and oral traditions was used as the medium for transmitting learning about customs and practices living with parents, grandparents, great grandparents. As alluded to by Jiba B. Kabua (2004), any “discussion about education is necessarily a discussion of culture, and any policy on education is also a policy of culture” (p. 181). It is impossible to promote one without the other, and it is not logical to understand one without the other. Re-thinking how education should look like, the pedagogical strategies that are relevant in our classrooms, the ways to engage with our parents and communities - such re-thinking sits within our cultural approaches and frameworks. Our collective attempts to provide a cultural framework that is relevant and appropriate for education in our context, sits within the political endeavour to decolonize. This means that what we are providing will not only be useful, but it can be used as a tool to question and identify whether things in place restrict and prevent our culture or whether they promote and foreground cultural ideas and concepts, a significant discussion of culture linked to education (Kabua, 2004). 
 
 Donor funded development aid programmes were provided to support the challenges within education systems. Concerned with the persistent low educational outcomes of Pacific students, despite the prevalence of aid programmes in the region, in 2000 Pacific educators and leaders with support from New Zealand Aid (NZ Aid) decided to intervene (Heine, 2002; Taufe’ulungaki, 2014). In April 2001, a group of Pacific educators and leaders across the region were invited to a colloquium funded by the New Zealand Overseas Development Agency held in Suva Fiji at the University of the South Pacific. The main purpose of the colloquium was to enable “Pacific educators to re-think the values, assumptions and beliefs underlying [formal] schooling in Oceania” (Benson, 2002). 
 
 Leadership, in general, is a valued practice in the RMI (Heine, 2002). Despite education leadership being identified as a significant factor in school improvement (Sanga & Chu, 2009), the limited formal training opportunities of school principals in the region was a persistent concern. As part of an Asia Development Bank (ADB) funded project, the Improve Quality Basic Education (IQBE) intervention was developed and implemented in the RMI in 2017. Mentoring is a process associated with the continuity and sustainability of leadership knowledge and practices (Sanga & Chu, 2009). It is a key aspect of building capacity and capabilities within human resources in education (ibid).
 Indigenous knowledges and education research
 According to Hilda Heine, the relationship between education and leadership is about understanding Marshallese history and culture (cited in Walsh et al., 2012). It is about sharing indigenous knowledge and histories that “details for future generations a story of survival and resilience and the pride we possess as a people” (Heine, cited in Walsh et al., 2012, p. v). This paper is fuelled by postcolonial aspirations yet is grounded in Pacific indigenous research. This means that our intentions are driven by postcolonial pursuits and discourses linked to challenging the colonial systems and schooling in the Pacific region that privileges western knowledge and learning and marginalises the education practices and processes of local people (Thiong’o, 1986). A point of difference and orientation from postcolonialism is a desire to foreground indigenous Pacific language, specifically Majin Majol, through Marshallese concepts. Our collective bwebwenato and conversation honours and values kautiej (respect), jouj eo mour eo (reciprocity), and jouj (kindness) (Taafaki & Fowler, 2019). 
 
 Pacific leaders developed the Rethinking Pacific Education Initiative for and by Pacific People (RPEIPP) in 2002 to take control of the ways in which education research was conducted by donor funded organisations (Taufe’ulungaki, 2014). Our former president, Dr Hilda Heine was part of the group of leaders who sought to counter the ways in which our educational and leadership stories were controlled and told by non-Marshallese (Heine, 2002). As a former minister of education in the RMI, Hilda Heine continues to inspire and encourage the next generation of educators, school leaders, and researchers to re-think and de-construct the way learning and education is conceptualised for Marshallese people. The conceptualisation of Kanne Lobal acknowledges its origin, grounded in Marshallese navigation knowledge and practice. Our decision to unpack and deconstruct Kanne Lobal within the context of formal education and leadership responds to the need to not only draw from indigenous Marshallese ideas and practice but to consider that the next generation will continue to be educated using western processes and initiatives particularly from the US where we get a lot of our funding from. 
 
 According to indigenous researchers Dawn Bessarab and Bridget Ng’andu (2010), doing research that considers “culturally appropriate processes to engage with indigenous groups and individuals is particularly pertinent in today’s research environment” (p. 37). Pacific indigenous educators and researchers have turned to their own ancestral knowledge and practices for inspiration and empowerment. Within western research contexts, the often stringent ideals and processes are not always encouraging of indigenous methods and practices. However, many were able to ground and articulate their use of indigenous methods as being relevant and appropriate to capturing the realities of their communities (Nabobo-Baba, 2008; Sualii-Sauni & Fulu-Aiolupotea, 2014; Thaman, 1997). At the same time, utilising Pacific indigenous methods and approaches enabled research engagement with their communities that honoured and respected them and their communities. For example, Tongan, Samoan, and Fijian researchers used the talanoa method as a way to capture the stories, lived realities, and worldviews of their communities within education in the diaspora (Fa’avae, Jones, & Manu’atu, 2016; Nabobo-Baba, 2008; Sualii-Sauni & Aiolupotea, 2014; Vaioleti, 2005). Tok stori was used by Solomon Islander educators and school leaders to highlight the unique circles of conversational practice and storytelling that leads to more positive engagement with their community members, capturing rich and meaningful narratives as a result (Sanga & Houma, 2004). 
 
 The Indigenous Aborigine in Australia utilise yarning as a “relaxed discussion through which both the researcher and participant journey together visiting places and topics of interest relevant” (Bessarab & Ng’andu, 2010, p. 38). Despite the diverse forms of discussions and storytelling by indigenous peoples, of significance are the cultural protocols, ethics, and language for conducting and guiding the engagement (Bessarab & Ng’andu, 2010; Nabobo-Baba, 2008; Sualii-Sauni & Aiolupotea, 2014). Through the ethics, values, protocols, and language, these are what makes indigenous methods or frameworks unique compared to western methods like in-depth interviews or semi-structured interviews. This is why it is important for us as Marshallese educators to frame, ground, and articulate how our own methods and frameworks of learning could be realised in western education (Heine, 2002; Jetnil-Kijiner, 2014). In this paper, we utilise bwebwenato as an appropriate method linked to “talk story”, capturing our collective stories and experiences during GCSL and how we sought to build partnerships and collaboration with each other, our communities, and the PSS. 
 Bwebwenato and drawing from Kajin Majel
 
 Legends and stories that reflect Marshallese society and its cultural values have survived through our oral traditions. The practice of weaving also holds knowledge about our “valuable and earliest sources of knowledge” (Taafaki & Fowler, 2019, p. 2). The skilful navigation of Marshallese wayfarers on the walap (large canoes) in the ocean is testament of their leadership and the value they place on ensuring the survival and continuity of Marshallese people (Taafaki & Fowler, 2019; Walsh et al., 2012). During her graduate study in 2014, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner conceptualised bwebwenato as being the most “well-known form of Marshallese orality” (p. 38). The Marshallese-English dictionary defined bwebwenato as talk, conversation, story, history, article, episode, lore, myth, or tale (cited in Jetnil Kijiner, 2014). Three years later in 2017, bwebwenato was utilised in a doctoral project by Natalie Nimmer as a research method to gather “talk stories” about the experiences of 10 Marshallese experts in knowledge and skills ranging from sewing to linguistics, canoe-making and business. 
 
 Our collective bwebwenato in this paper centres on Marshallese ideas and language. The philosophy of Marshallese knowledge is rooted in our “Kajin Majel”, or Marshallese language and is shared and transmitted through our oral traditions. For instance, through our historical stories and myths. Marshallese philosophy, that is, the knowledge systems inherent in our beliefs, values, customs, and practices are shared. They are inherently relational, meaning that knowledge systems and philosophies within our world are connected, in mind, body, and spirit (Jetnil-Kijiner, 2014; Nimmer, 2017). Although some Marshallese believe that our knowledge is disappearing as more and more elders pass away, it is therefore important work together, and learn from each other about the knowledges shared not only by the living but through their lamentations and stories of those who are no longer with us (Jetnil-Kijiner, 2014).
 
 As a Marshallese practice, weaving has been passed-down from generation to generation. Although the art of weaving is no longer as common as it used to be, the artefacts such as the “jaki-ed” (clothing mats) continue to embody significant Marshallese values and traditions. For our weavers, the jouj (check spelling) is the centre of the mat and it is where the weaving starts. When the jouj is correct and weaved well, the remainder and every other part of the mat will be right. The jouj is symbolic of the “heart” and if the heart is prepared well, trained well, then life or all other parts of the body will be well (Taafaki & Fowler, 2019). In that light, we have applied the same to this paper. Conceptualising and drawing from cultural practices that are close and dear to our hearts embodies a significant ontological attempt to prioritize our own knowledge and language, a sense of endearment to who we are and what we believe education to be like for us and the next generation.
 
 The application of the phrase “Majolizing '' was used by the Ministry of Education when Hilda Heine was minister, to weave cultural ideas and language into the way that teachers understand the curriculum, develop lesson plans and execute them in the classroom. Despite this, there were still concerns with the embedded colonized practices where teachers defaulted to eurocentric methods of doing things, like the strategies provided in the textbooks given to us. In some ways, our education was slow to adjust to the “Majolizing '' intention by our former minister. In this paper, we provide Kanne Lobal as a way to contribute to the “Majolizing intention” and perhaps speed up yet still be collectively responsible to all involved in education. 
 Kajin Wa and Kanne Lobal 
 
 “Wa” is the Marshallese concept for canoe. Kajin wa, as in canoe language, has a lot of symbolic meaning linked to deeply-held Marshallese values and practices. The canoe was the foundational practice that supported the livelihood of harsh atoll island living which reflects the Marshallese social world. The experts of Kajin wa often refer to “wa” as being the vessel of life, a means and source of sustaining life (Kelen, 2009, cited in Miller, 2010). “Jouj” means kindness and is the lower part of the main hull of the canoe. It is often referred to by some canoe builders in the RMI as the heart of the canoe and is linked to love. The jouj is one of the first parts of the canoe that is built and is “used to do all other measurements, and then the rest of the canoe is built on top of it” (Miller, 2010, p. 67). The significance of the jouj is that when the canoe is in the water, the jouj is the part of the hull that is underwater and ensures that all the cargo and passengers are safe. For Marshallese, jouj or kindness is what living is about and is associated with selflessly carrying the responsibility of keeping the family and community safe. 
 
 The parts of the canoe reflect Marshallese culture, legend, family, lineage, and kinship. They embody social responsibilities that guide, direct, and sustain Marshallese families’ wellbeing, from atoll to atoll. For example, the rojak (boom), rojak maan (upper boom), rojak kōrā (lower boom), and they support the edges of the ujelā/ujele (sail) (see figure 1). The literal meaning of rojak maan is male boom and rojak kōrā means female boom which together strengthens the sail and ensures the canoe propels forward in a strong yet safe way. Figuratively, the rojak maan and rojak kōrā symbolise the mother and father relationship which when strong, through the jouj (kindness and love), it can strengthen families and sustain them into the future. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Figure 1. Parts of the canoe
 
 Source: https://www.canoesmarshallislands.com/2014/09/names-of-canoe-parts/ 
 
 From a socio-cultural, communal, and leadership view, the canoe (wa) provides understanding of the relationships required to inspire and sustain Marshallese peoples’ education and learning. We draw from Kajin wa because they provide cultural ideas and practices that enable understanding of education and leadership necessary for sustaining Marshallese people and realities in Oceania. When building a canoe, the women are tasked with the weaving of the ujelā/ujele (sail) and to ensure that it is strong enough to withstand long journeys and the fierce winds and waters of the ocean. The Kanne Lobal relates to the front part of the ujelā/ujele (sail) where the rojak maan and rojak kōrā meet and connect (see the red lines in figure 1). Kanne Lobal is linked to the strategic use of the ujelā/ujele by navigators, when there is no wind north wind to propel them forward, to find ways to capture the winds so that their journey can continue. As a proverbial saying, Kanne Lobal is used to ignite thinking and inspire and transform practice particularly when the journey is rough and tough. In this paper we draw from Kanne Lobal to ignite, inspire, and transform our educational and leadership practices, a move to explore what has always been meaningful to Marshallese people when we are faced with challenges. The Kanne Lobal utilises our language, and cultural practices and values by sourcing from the concepts of jouj (kindness, love), kautiej (respect), and jouj eo mour eo (reciprocity). 
 
 A key Marshallese proverb, “Enra bwe jen lale rara”, is the cultural practice where families enact compassion through the sharing of food in all occurrences. The term “enra” is a small basket weaved from the coconut leaves, and often used by Marshallese as a plate to share and distribute food amongst each other. Bwe-jen-lale-rara is about noticing and providing for the needs of others, and “enra” the basket will help support and provide for all that are in need. “Enra-bwe-jen-lale-rara” is symbolic of cultural exchange and reciprocity and the cultural values associated with building and maintaining relationships, and constantly honouring each other. As a Marshallese practice, in this article we share our understanding and knowledge about the challenges as well as possible solutions for education concerns in our nation.
 
 In addition, we highlight another proverb, “wa kuk wa jimor”, which relates to having one canoe, and despite its capacity to feed and provide for the individual, but within the canoe all people can benefit from what it can provide. In the same way, we provide in this paper a cultural framework that will enable all educators to benefit from. It is a framework that is far-reaching and relevant to the lived realities of Marshallese people today. Kumit relates to people united to build strength, all co-operating and working together, living in peace, harmony, and good health. 
 
 Kanne Lobal: conceptual framework for education and leadership
 An education framework is a conceptual structure that can be used to capture ideas and thinking related to aspects of learning. Kanne Lobal is conceptualised and framed in this paper as an educational framework. Kanne Lobal highlights the significance of education as a collective partnership whereby leadership is an important aspect. Kanne Lobal draws-from indigenous Marshallese concepts like kautiej (respect), jouj eo mour eo (reciprocity), and jouj (kindness, heart). The role of a leader, including an education leader, is to prioritise collective learning and partnerships that benefits Marshallese people and the continuity and survival of the next generation (Heine, 2002; Thaman, 1995). 
 
 As described by Ejnar Aerōk, an expert canoe builder in the RMI, he stated: “jerbal ippān doon bwe en maron maan wa e” (cited in Miller, 2010, p. 69). His description emphasises the significance of partnerships and working together when navigating and journeying together in order to move the canoe forward. The kubaak, the outrigger of the wa (canoe) is about “partnerships”. For us as elementary school leaders on Majuro, kubaak encourages us to value collaborative partnerships with each other as well as our communities, PSS, and other stakeholders. Partnerships is an important part of the Kanne Lobal education and leadership framework. It requires ongoing bwebwenato – the inspiring as well as confronting and challenging conversations that should be mediated and negotiated if we and our education stakeholders are to journey together to ensure that the educational services we provide benefits our next generation of young people in the RMI. Navigating ahead the partnerships, mediation, and negotiation are the core values of jouj (kindness, love), kautiej (respect), and jouj eo mour eo (reciprocity).
 
 As an organic conceptual framework grounded in indigenous values, inspired through our lived experiences, Kanne Lobal provides ideas and concepts for re-thinking education and leadership practices that are conducive to learning and teaching in the schooling context in the RMI. By no means does it provide the solution to the education ills in our nation. However, we argue that Kanne Lobal is a more relevant approach which is much needed for the negatively stigmatised system as a consequence of the various colonial administrations that have and continue to shape and reframe our ideas about what education should be like for us in the RMI. Moreover, Kannel Lobal is our attempt to decolonize the framing of education and leadership, moving our bwebwenato to re-framing conversations of teaching and learning so that our cultural knowledge and values are foregrounded, appreciated, and realised within our education system.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bwebwenato: sharing our stories
 In this section, we use bwebwenato as a method of gathering and capturing our stories as data. Below we capture our stories and ongoing conversations about the richness in Marshallese cultural knowledge in the outer islands and on Majuro and the potentialities in Kanne Lobal.
 
 Danny Jim
 When I was in third grade (9-10 years of age), during my grandfather’s speech in Arno, an atoll near Majuro, during a time when a wa (canoe) was being blessed and ready to put the canoe into the ocean. My grandfather told me the canoe was a blessing for the family. “Without a canoe, a family cannot provide for them”, he said. The canoe allows for travelling between places to gather food and other sources to provide for the family. My grandfather’s stories about people’s roles within the canoe reminded me that everyone within the family has a responsibility to each other. Our women, mothers and daughters too have a significant responsibility in the journey, in fact, they hold us, care for us, and given strength to their husbands, brothers, and sons. The wise man or elder sits in the middle of the canoe, directing the young man who help to steer. The young man, he does all the work, directed by the older man. They take advice and seek the wisdom of the elder. In front of the canoe, a young boy is placed there and because of his strong and youthful vision, he is able to help the elder as well as the young man on the canoe. The story can be linked to the roles that school leaders, teachers, and students have in schooling. Without each person knowing intricately their role and responsibility, the sight and vision ahead for the collective aspirations of the school and the community is difficult to comprehend. For me, the canoe is symbolic of our educational journey within our education system. As the school leader, a central, trusted, and respected figure in the school, they provide support for teachers who are at the helm, pedagogically striving to provide for their students. For without strong direction from the school leaders and teachers at the helm, the students, like the young boy, cannot foresee their futures, or envisage how education can benefit them. This is why Kanne Lobal is a significant framework for us in the Marshall Islands because within the practice we are able to take heed and empower each other so that all benefit from the process. Kanne Lobal is linked to our culture, an essential part of who we are. We must rely on our own local approaches, rather than relying on others that are not relevant to what we know and how we live in today’s society. 
 
 One of the things I can tell is that in Majuro, compared to the outer islands, it’s different. In the outer islands, parents bring children together and tell them legends and stories. The elders tell them about the legends and stories – the bwebwenato. Children from outer islands know a lot more about Marshallese legends compared to children from the Majuro atoll. They usually stay close to their parents, observe how to prepare food and all types of Marshallese skills. 
 
 Loretta Joseph Case
 There is little Western influence in the outer islands. They grow up learning their own culture with their parents, not having tv. They are closely knit, making their own food, learning to weave. They use fire for cooking food. They are more connected because there are few of them, doing their own culture. For example, if they’re building a house, the ladies will come together and make food to take to the males that are building the house, encouraging them to keep on working - “jemjem maal” (sharpening tools i.e. axe, like encouraging workers to empower them). It’s when they bring food and entertainment.
 
 Rubon Rubon
 Togetherness, work together, sharing of food, these are important practices as a school leader. Jemjem maal – the whole village works together, men working and the women encourage them with food and entertainment. All the young children are involved in all of the cultural practices, cultural transmission is consistently part of their everyday life. These are stronger in the outer islands. Kanne Lobal has the potential to provide solutions using our own knowledge and practices. 
 
 Connie Joel
 When new teachers become a teacher, they learn more about their culture in teaching. Teaching raises the question, who are we? A popular saying amongst our people, “Aelon kein ad ej aelon in manit”, means that “Our islands are cultural islands”. Therefore, when we are teaching, and managing the school, we must do this culturally. When we live and breathe, we must do this culturally. There is more socialising with family and extended family. Respect the elderly. When they’re doing things the ladies all get together, in groups and do it. Cut the breadfruit, and preserve the breadfruit and pandanus. They come together and do it. Same as fishing, building houses, building canoes. They use and speak the language often spoken by the older people. There are words that people in the outer islands use and understand language regularly applied by the elderly. Respect elderly and leaders more i.e., chiefs (iroj), commoners (alap), and the workers on the land (ri-jerbal) (social layer under the commoners). All the kids, they gather with their families, and go and visit the chiefs and alap, and take gifts from their land, first produce/food from the plantation (eojōk).
 
 Tommy Almet
 The people are more connected to the culture in the outer islands because they help one another. They don’t have to always buy things by themselves, everyone contributes to the occasion. For instance, for birthdays, boys go fishing, others contribute and all share with everyone. Kanne Lobal is a practice that can bring people together – leaders, teachers, stakeholders. We want our colleagues to keep strong and work together to fix problems like students and teachers’ absenteeism which is a big problem for us in schools. 
 
 Demetria Malachi
 The culture in the outer islands are more accessible and exposed to children. In Majuro, there is a mixedness of cultures and knowledges, influenced by Western thinking and practices. Kanne Lobal is an idea that can enhance quality educational purposes for the RMI. We, the school leaders who did GCSL, we want to merge and use this idea because it will help benefit students’ learning and teachers’ teaching. Kanne Lobal will help students to learn and teachers to teach though traditional skills and knowledge. We want to revitalize our ways of life through teaching because it is slowly fading away. Also, we want to have our own Marshallese learning process because it is in our own language making it easier to use and understand. Essentially, we want to proudly use our own ways of teaching from our ancestors showing the appreciation and blessings given to us. 
 Way Forward
 To think of ways forward is about reflecting on the past and current learnings. Instead of a traditional discussion within a research publication, we have opted to continue our bwebwenato by sharing what we have learnt through the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership (GCSL) programme. Our bwebwenato does not end in this article and this opportunity to collaborate and partner together in this piece of writing has been a meaningful experience to conceptualise and unpack the Kanne Lobal framework. 
 Our collaborative bwebwenato has enabled us to dig deep into our own wise knowledges for guidance through mediating and negotiating the challenges in education and leadership (Sanga & Houma, 2004). For example, bwe-jen-lale-rara reminds us to inquire, pay attention, and focus on supporting the needs of others. Through enra-bwe-jen-lale-rara, it reminds us to value cultural exchange and reciprocity which will strengthen the development and maintaining of relationships based on ways we continue to honour each other (Nimmer, 2017). We not only continue to support each other, but also help mentor the next generation of school leaders within our education system (Heine, 2002). 
 
 Education and leadership are all about collaborative partnerships (Sanga & Chu, 2009; Thaman, 1997). Developing partnerships through the GCSL was useful learning for us. It encouraged us to work together, share knowledge, respect each other, and be kind. The values of jouj (kindness, love), kautiej (respect), and jouj eo mour eo (reciprocity) are meaningful in being and becoming and educational leader in the RMI (Jetnil-Kijiner, 2014; Miller, 2010; Nimmer, 2017). These values are meaningful for us practice particularly given the drive by PSS for schools to become accredited. 
 
 The workshops and meetings delivered during the GCSL in the RMI from 2018 to 2019 about Kanne Lobal has given us strength to share our stories and experiences from the meeting with the stakeholders. But before we met with the stakeholders, we were encouraged to share and speak in our language within our courses: EDP05 (Professional Development and Learning), EDP06 (School Leadership), EDP07 (School Management), EDP08 (Teaching and Learning), and EDP09 (Community Partnerships). In groups, we shared our presentations with our peers, the 15 school leaders in the GCSL programme. We also invited USP RMI staff. They liked the way we presented Kannel Lobal. They provided us with feedback, for example: how the use of the sail on the canoe, the parts and their functions can be conceptualised in education and how they are related to the way that we teach our own young people.
 
 Engaging stakeholders in the conceptualisation and design stages of Kanne Lobal strengthened our understanding of leadership and collaborative partnerships. Based on various meetings with the RMI Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) team, PSS general assembly, teachers from the outer islands, and the PSS executive committee, we were able to share and receive feedback on the Kanne Lobal framework. The coordinators of the PREL programme in the RMI were excited by the possibilities around using Kanne Lobal, as a way to teach culture in an inspirational way to Marshallese students. Our Marshallese knowledge, particularly through the proverbial meaning of Kanne Lobal provided so much inspiration and insight for the groups during the presentation which gave us hope and confidence to develop the framework. Kanne Lobal is an organic and indigenous approach, grounded in Marshallese ways of doing things (Heine, 2002; Taafaki & Fowler, 2019). Given the persistent presence of colonial processes within the education system and the constant reference to practices and initiatives from the US, Kanne Lobal for us provides a refreshing yet fulfilling experience and makes us feel warm inside because it is something that belongs to all Marshallese people.
 
 
 Conclusion
 Marshallese indigenous knowledge and practices provide meaningful educational and leadership understanding and learnings. They ignite, inspire, and transform thinking and practice. The Kanne Lobal conceptual framework emphasises key concepts and values necessary for collaborative partnerships within education and leadership practices in the RMI. The bwebwenato or talk stories have been insightful and have highlighted the strengths and benefits that our Marshallese ideas and practices possess when looking for appropriate and relevant ways to understand education and leadership.
 
 Acknowledgements
 We want to acknowledge our GCSL cohort of school leaders who have supported us in the development of Kanne Lobal as a conceptual framework. A huge kommol tata to our friends: Joana, Rosana, Loretta, Jellan, Alvin, Ellice, Rolando, Stephen, and Alan.
 
 
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The Covid-19 pandemic had a dangerous impact on early-childhood education, lost learning in almost all aspects of child development. The house-to-house learning, with the name Moving Home Learning Program (MHLP), is an attractive offer as an emergency remote teaching solution. This study aims to describe the application of MHLP designed by early-childhood education institutions during the learning process at home. This study used a qualitative approach with data collection using interviews, observation, and documentation. The respondents involved in the interview were a kindergarten principal and four teachers. The research data were analyzed using the data content analysis. The Findings show that the MHLP has proven to be sufficiently in line with the learning needs of early childhood during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although, the application of the MHLP learning model has limitations such as the distance from the house that is far away, the number of meetings that are only once a week, the number of food and toy sellers passing by, disturbing children's concentration, and the risk of damage to goods at home. The implication of this research can be the basis for evaluating MHLP as an adaptive strategy that requires the attention of related parties, including policy makers, school principals, and teachers for the development of new, more effective online learning models.
 Keywords: Moving Home Learning Program (MHLP), Children Remote Teaching
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Abstract Despite the rapid development of virtual exchange in foreign language education, its use in the field of Chinese language education is still rather nascent. Adopting a mixed-methods research approach, this study focuses on examining the pedagogical benefits of a Chinese-American virtual exchange as mediated by students’ self-reported data. Two Chinese language classes (i.e. one at the elementary level and one at the intermediate level) at a small liberal arts college in the United States and a group of Chinese-speaking English majors at a Chinese university in Shanghai participated in the exchange. Analyses of four sources of qualitative data (i.e. WeChat group cultural discussion transcripts, Skype conversations, reflection journals, and end-of-program interviews) gave rise to four benefits of the exchange: promotion of cultural learning, improvement of Chinese language skills, enhancement of learning motivation, and establishment of a language learning community. Quantitative analyses of the end-of-semester questionnaire items show that the benefit regarding cultural learning, on average, received the highest rating, followed by community building and motivation enhancement, with improvement of Chinese skills being rated the lowest. Moreover, intermediate-level students evaluated all four benefits with higher ratings than elementary-level students. In particular, the two groups’ quantitative evaluations in terms of Chinese skills and motivation differed significantly. However, both groups enthusiastically endorsed the benefits of cultural learning and community building. The pedagogical implications of these results are also discussed.

Despite well documented benefits of dual language (DL) programs which deliver educational content in two languages, there are still few DL programs in the United States. As such, there is a need to understand how to effectively persuade more states/districts to adopt the programs. In addition, more critical research is needed that focuses on how the programs are represented visually, as well as how this visual representation reflects wider discourses about DL education that could impede the programs from reaching those who need them most. In this article, the author explores ideologies behind DL program discourse by looking at photojournalism (or in some cases, stock photos) from 34 local online news reports. She employed multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), including a thematic analysis of images. Findings reveal that many of the discourses (e.g. neoliberalism) seen in analyses of written text were repeated visually but, in some cases, visual data communicated different discourses that were advanced in nuanced ways. The author concludes by urging more critical work in visual communication that focuses on educational issues.

Drawing from data generated during the 2016-2017 academic year, this study centred on U.S. children’s design of two critical literacies compositions—a letter to Congress and a persuasive multimodal text. Situated within an integrated unit focused on (im)migrants, children asked legislators to act on the GOP Administration’s proposed border wall and the #MuslimBan. Simultaneously, their teacher took steps to engage students in critical literacies conversations about access in/to the United States. Using a case study design, I investigated the following: How might traditional perceptions of ‘expert’ shift as children engage in critical literacies using varied materials and technologies? Specifically, I highlight how, by engaging an expansive skill set of communicative practices, children designed texts and enacted identities related to civic agency. Through multimodal composing, one nine-year-old white boy exemplified how children highlight knowledge beyond what is captured in a written text. His multimodal response illuminated his deep understanding of the obstacles faced by (im)migrants as they traverse boundaries. To alleviate such challenges, he “invented” both a transportable water filter cup and a fishing tool and engaged in critical making. When provided with opportunities to compose multimodally, the child—a white boy marked as “behind” in literacy—demonstrated rich content knowledge not readily visible in his written responses. His compositions disrupted understandings of expert with regard to elementary writing and critical literacies.