Secondary and Higher Education Graduate Theses

 

Recent Submissions

  • Now You SEA Us: A Look at APIDA College Mentorship Programs in Shaping Sense of Belonging for Southeast Asian Students
    Tran, Vu; Lim, Cherry; Moreira, Dyanna; Pen, Erika (2026-05-01)
    With a limited amount of research dedicated to Southeast Asian college students in higher education institutions, the purpose of this study is to explore how Asian Pacific Islander Desi American mentorship programs foster a sense of belonging among Southeast Asian college students. Through a semi-structured interview design, 15 participants shared their stories and experiences in participating in the APIDA mentorship program. Their stories illustrate the impact of APIDA mentorship programs, and the findings highlight how the four components of sense of belonging: identification with the university, social match, social acceptance, and cultural capital in higher education, were met. Participants shared how they were able to further connect with their cultural identity, learn more about the resources at their institution, and find their place on campus.

  • Multi-Lingual and Multi-Identity: Writing in School as a 7th Grade Intermediate English Learner
    González, Melanie; Boun, Sovicheth; Wan, Pauline (2024-05-01)
    This article discusses a qualitative study centering the writing practices of seventh grade multilingual students in a small, urban city in Massachusetts. Analysis of participants' narrative and nonfiction writing reveal that emergent multilingual students inherently express multiple, sometimes contradictory identities due to their development as language learners and adolescents. Students achieved this by weaving through various languages (including different Englishes) and drawing on their lived experiences and observations. In doing so, multilingual young people disrupt unequal voices and language hierarchies by transgressing standard ideologies in academic writing. To affirm and promote the validity of translingual, heteroglossic writing, educators should consider multilingual texts as legitimate exemplars and develop heteroglossic literacy practices that support students to refine their pre-existing language use in service of their authorial intentions.