Diversity Fellows Study the Points where Ethnicity, Education, and Perception Meet
In an extremely competitive year—with twice the usual number of grant proposals submitted—TC’s Committee for Community and Diversity (CCD) selected five students to receive The President’s Grant for Student Research in Diversity. The grant provides support for outstanding student research projects related to diversity.
In an extremely competitive year-with twice the usual number of grant
proposals submitted-TC's Committee for Community and Diversity (CCD)
selected five students to receive The President's Grant for Student
Research in Diversity. The grant provides support for outstanding
student research projects related to diversity. Hui Soo Chae and John
David Connor were selected to each receive a $3,000 award to help
support their work; Kryssi Staikidis, Sarah A. Strauss and Terri S.
Wilson received honorable mention awards of $1,000.Chae's study
looks at the social and educational experiences of five working class
or poor Korean-American secondary school students. "Using Critical
Asian Theory to Deconstruct Master Narratives of Korean American
Students in Secondary School and Empower Korean American Youth toward
Social Action/Justice," was done in collaboration with faculty sponsor
Michelle Knight. In the study, Chae examines the relationships between
Korean-American students' multiple identities, their various social
worlds, and their educational experiences. He interviewed the five
youths and provided them with disposable cameras with which to create
narratives of their lives. Chae hopes the narratives will help
educators rethink dominant assumptions about Asian-American youth, and
start addressing the educational needs of working class and poor
Korean-American students. Connor studied urban, minority
students labeled "learning disabled" in his study, "‘Learning
Disabled': Life In and Out of School for Black and/or Latino(a) Working
Class Urban Youth." When Connor began teaching 16 years ago, he
noticed that children categorized as learning disabled (LD) were often
segregated-many racially-from the other students. His study focuses on
how issues of separateness tend to limit the educational experiences of
"LD" black and Latino urban youth, and it examines the ways they come
to understand themselves as learning disabled through their lived
experience. Connor's faculty sponsor Kim Reid said of the study, "This
work is the first of its kind in the sense that it examines the
experiential impact of the intersectionality of race/ethnicity, social
class, and learning disability in a field where such factors are
typically randomized away rather than studied or even highlighted." Honorable MentionKryssi Staikidis "Looking Toward Tz'utuhil Ways of Knowing-Painting, Pedagogy and Mentorship: A Collaboration Between Artists"Graeme Sullivan, faculty sponsorSarah A. Strauss "Same-Sex Sexual Attraction, Suicidality, and the School Environment: Extending Hirschi's Theory of Social Control"Aaron Pallas, faculty sponsorTerri S. Wilson
"The Jane Addams School for Democracy: A Case Study of How Teachers and
Immigrant Parents Conceptualize their Work to Build School-Community
Partnerships"David Hansen, faculty sponsor
Published Saturday, Apr. 2, 2005
