Taking on the New Challenge of Newcomers
Research Colloquium to Discuss a Study of One School’s Work to Develop Education for Non-English Proficient Students
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Barbara Korth, Clinical Associate Professor in Curriculum and Instruction, presents “There was a cry for help from Unityville,” as part of the Research Colloquium series presented by the Center for Research and P—16 Collaboration at the Indiana University School of Education. The presentation is February 28 at 3:00, in room 2140 of the Wright Education Building.Korth will speak about her study of an Indiana school, called “Unityville” in the study, which struggled with a huge influx of students from other countries. An increase in the number of transnational students attending Unityville schools led to vexed educators, marginalized youth, and a unique research opportunity.
Korth initiated a long-term critical ethnography, conducted throughout the District of Unityville, to examine the educational experiences, challenges, and promises of newcomer, non-English proficient students from the perspectives of teachers, administrators, parents, and students. No ordinary project, this research involved a complicated mix of tenuous visions with shifting goals, unimagined possibilities with multilayered limitations, emotional challenges, and daily difficulties. This presentation will report on some of the ways in which inquiry provided an open space through which transformation, dialogue, and understanding were forged.
