Ways to Maintain ELLs’ Cultural Diversity in Education - Taking Three New York Elementary Schools as Examples

English as a second language (ESL) education refers to teaching non-native English speakers English as a second language. The number of English language learners (ELLs) is increasing in the United States in recent decades because of globalization, including immigrants, international students, merchants, refugees, etc. One of ELLs’ main characters is their various cultural backgrounds. Teaching and maintaining a diverse class within a safe learning environment can benefit students both now and in the future. In this case, understanding ELLs’ diverse cultures and knowing how to maintain ELLs’ cultural diversity is a significant consideration in American ESL education nowadays. This study reviews the cultural diversity in American ESL education by analyzing three New York elementary schools. The author summarizes some critical ways to maintain ELLs’ cultural diversity from four aspects: (1) the background of American ESL education and cultural diversity; (2) cultural diversity in school; (3) cultural diversity in family; (4) cultural diversity in communities. Finally, the study indicates the significance of connections among schools, families, and communities and identifies some difficulties when maintaining cultural diversity in education.

Household Possessions and Parental Support in Mexican Students with High Scientific Competencies in PISA 2015

<p style="text-align:justify">Traditionally secondary studies on achievement on Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) tests point to the significant impact of socioeconomic status and cultural backgrounds of families as well as the role of parental involvement, which in some cases has had a negative impact on achievement. For this article, a model of structural regression was tested, with structural modelling software. This model included the following factors: domestic and educational assets, parental support for students, parents’ perceptions about science, and science competencies among 214 high performing Mexican students on PISA tests in 2015. This resulted in a structural regression model with a goodness of fit, where science competencies were a positive significant variable, impacted by domestic and educational assets and parental involvement. An additional restricted model with four variables manifested as mediators, revealed that science competencies were predicted positively and significantly by domestic and educational assets, and by the manifest parental emotional support variable. Variables related to ownership of educational and cultural assets and resources, as well as parental support, particularly emotional parental support, have positive and significant impact on science competencies.</p>

Piety/Godliness in Early Christianity and the Roman World

By the beginning of the 1st century ce, piety/godliness (Greek: εὐσέβεια; Latin: pietas) came to entail the dutiful fulfilment of one’s obligations to one’s household, homeland, and gods. It could also describe one’s respectful attitude toward and treatment of the dead, guests, hosts, and supplicants as well as describe keeping an oath. Numerous studies on the use of piety in the New Testament have been concerned about identifying the cultural backgrounds that influenced the biblical authors’ deployment of the term and whether such use retains its Greek and Roman meanings, derives from Hellenistic Judaism, or reflects a “Christianization” of the term to encapsulate the complete Christian life, including both proper belief and practice. Outside of the field of biblical studies, philologists in classics have studied the evolution and use of the term εὐσέβεια and its cognates in ancient Greek literature, where the term had significant purchase in philosophical literature. The Latin virtue of pietas gains significant prominence in political discourse near the dusk of the Roman Republic and at the dawn of the Roman Empire with the publication of Virgil’s Aeneid and Augustus’s restoration of priesthoods and temples. Although the term εὐσέβεια and its cognates occur in Acts and 2 Peter, the majority of attention to the significance of this term in early Christian literature has centered around its meaning and function in the canonical Letters to Timothy and Titus, also known as the Pastoral Epistles. In particular, scholars have been concerned about whether the use of the term in the Pastorals reflects the respective author’s accommodation to Greek society (and thus a further development away from the earliest/more authentic/Pauline articulations of the Christian faith) or rather reflects enculturation within Hellenistic Jewish thought. Neither the historical Jesus nor Paul in his undisputed letters describe the ideal Christian life in terms of piety—thus it remains a fascinating topic to consider the social and political implications of early Christians utilizing this terminology which held significant cultural capital and prestige in its Greek and Roman cultural contexts.

Parental needs and nursing response following SUFE Surgery: An interpretive descriptive study

<p><b>The parental experience of caring for a child following the unexpected admission and surgery for a significant hip injury has largely been unexplored in the New Zealand (NZ) context. Slipped Upper Femoral Epiphysis (SUFE) is one of the most common orthopaedic hip disorders prevalent amongst children between the ages of nine to fifteen years. In New Zealand, Māori and Pacific children are the most vulnerable population at risk of this hip condition. Existing literature focuses on the demographic and epidemiological studies, including surgical treatment and management of SUFE; however, there is a dearth of research concerning SUFE that focuses on parents’ experiences in the postoperative, discharge and rehabilitative phases of care and the nurses’ experience of caring for these children and their families.</b></p> <p>This qualitative study was undertaken at a large public hospital in New Zealand and interpretive descriptive methodology was utilised to examine the experiences of parents and nurses in caring for a child following invasive SUFE repair. As Māori and Pacific Island populations are highly represented in the SUFE statistics, most of the parents used in this study are from these socio-cultural backgrounds. Through transcribed semi-structured interviews with parents of five children who underwent SUFE repair, and five paediatric nurses caring for children and their families in the hospital ward, this study offers two perspectives of the journey for these parents following such an injury, from the child’s hospitalisation to caring for these children once they are home. Following thematic analysis, these perspectives are presented and contrasted revealing, insights of the parents’ ongoing need for support, information and planning for care and nurses’ efforts to meet these needs. Implications of nursing practice and parental education include the need for improved information sharing and delivery to aid parents understanding of the SUFE condition and effective management of care during hospitalisation and at home following discharge. Recommendations are made to improve the parental experience to support their child’s recovery following SUFE surgery.</p> <p>Key Words:SUFE, Parents and caregivers, Māori and Pacific populations, Nurses</p>

Parental needs and nursing response following SUFE Surgery: An interpretive descriptive study

<p><b>The parental experience of caring for a child following the unexpected admission and surgery for a significant hip injury has largely been unexplored in the New Zealand (NZ) context. Slipped Upper Femoral Epiphysis (SUFE) is one of the most common orthopaedic hip disorders prevalent amongst children between the ages of nine to fifteen years. In New Zealand, Māori and Pacific children are the most vulnerable population at risk of this hip condition. Existing literature focuses on the demographic and epidemiological studies, including surgical treatment and management of SUFE; however, there is a dearth of research concerning SUFE that focuses on parents’ experiences in the postoperative, discharge and rehabilitative phases of care and the nurses’ experience of caring for these children and their families.</b></p> <p>This qualitative study was undertaken at a large public hospital in New Zealand and interpretive descriptive methodology was utilised to examine the experiences of parents and nurses in caring for a child following invasive SUFE repair. As Māori and Pacific Island populations are highly represented in the SUFE statistics, most of the parents used in this study are from these socio-cultural backgrounds. Through transcribed semi-structured interviews with parents of five children who underwent SUFE repair, and five paediatric nurses caring for children and their families in the hospital ward, this study offers two perspectives of the journey for these parents following such an injury, from the child’s hospitalisation to caring for these children once they are home. Following thematic analysis, these perspectives are presented and contrasted revealing, insights of the parents’ ongoing need for support, information and planning for care and nurses’ efforts to meet these needs. Implications of nursing practice and parental education include the need for improved information sharing and delivery to aid parents understanding of the SUFE condition and effective management of care during hospitalisation and at home following discharge. Recommendations are made to improve the parental experience to support their child’s recovery following SUFE surgery.</p> <p>Key Words:SUFE, Parents and caregivers, Māori and Pacific populations, Nurses</p>

Examining the Impact of Perceived Cultural Distance on the Pragmatic Choices of Saudi Customers in Service Encounters

This study examines service encounters in Saudi Arabia from a pragmatic perspective. Its aim is to investigate the possible impact of perceived cultural distance between customers and service providers on pragmatic choices. It specifically examines how Saudi customers construct their service encounters when talking to service providers of the same (versus different) cultural/ethnic background in terms of discourse structure; strategies of request and internal modifications, and stylistic strategies. Three cafés with service providers of three different ethnic/cultural backgrounds are chosen. One has Saudi service providers, the second café has Arab (non-Saudi) service providers, and the third café has non-Arab service providers. Forty socially minimal service encounter interactions that take place in each café are observed and manually recorded. The study uses the framework of ‘rapport management’ by Spencer-Oatey (2002) as its approach for data analysis. The findings indicate that there are differences among the three sets of data in terms of discourse structure, the realization of the speech act of request, and the stylistic aspect of interactions. According to the special nature of service encounters, customers’ pragmatic choices are explained in terms of expressing certain degrees of social distance rather than politeness. More specifically, the closer cultural distance between customers and service providers, the more pragmatic strategies functioning to achieve more closeness and solidarity are employed.

Intercultural Challenges of Teaching in Multilingual/Multicultural Classrooms

Language and culture are inseparable entities forming an interdependent relationship within the multilingual classroom, which is both a melting pot of languages as well as a myriad of cultural backgrounds. In learning a common language, known as “lingua franca,” in the multilingual classroom, culture plays a critical role since the lingua franca makes communication possible between language teachers and multilingual students. Cultural connections and effective communication enables these students to engage in social and interactive activities and allows them to become active participants of the multilingual classroom. This chapter addresses some of the major intercultural challenges that both teachers and students of multilingual classrooms currently face within the “cultural jungle” of New York City. These multilingual students are simultaneously learning English as the lingua franca and participating in an intercultural educational experience in order to become linguistically and interculturally competent global citizens.

Topic Modelling of Tourist Dining Experiences Based on the GLOBE Model

The needs of travellers vary across cultures. When it comes to culinary aspects, there is a strong connection between gastronomy and culture. To optimise service offerings, investigation of the essential aspects of dining experiences in relation to cultural backgrounds is of great importance. In the age of digitalisation, tourists share their dining experiences throughout their multiphasic travel journey via online platforms. By considering nine distinct cultural backgrounds, this research aims to investigate tourist experiences based on TripAdvisor restaurant reviews through topic modelling, using the city of Salzburg as its study context. Depending on one’s cultural circumstances, the findings demonstrate that the most important aspects include staff, food-menu items, value for money, restaurant physical appearance, food authenticity, overall service, menu offers, food quality, atmosphere, and recommendations. This study advances the state-of-the-art knowledge of societal culture as a variable in the target market analysis of restaurant customers. Findings allow restaurant owners, other tourism service providers, and destination management organisations to analyse and adapt their service offerings and strategies accordingly.

Using Technology to Support Culturally Responsive Practices in Post-Secondary Settings

Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is a research-based method of instruction that centers students' racial, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds in the curriculum and pedagogy to ensure equitable outcomes as well as promote critical consciousness related to social injustice. CRT is typically associated with P-12 educational settings; however, the principles and mindsets of culturally responsive education have been applied in post-secondary educational settings. The practices associated with CRT require intentional planning, preparation, and implementation. The abrupt shift to virtual and remote learning required quickly leveraging various technology tools to ensure CRT practices were incorporated into teaching and learning in order to create an equitable and culturally-responsive learning environment.

Human Rights Literacy (HRL) to Promote and Sustain Attitudes and Behaviours Supportive of Social Justice

This chapter explores what Human Rights Literacy (HRL) involves and how it establishes and develops improved rights of the citizens supportive to social justice in the society. People with different cultural backgrounds have the fundamental right to be literate members of society. However, due to various cultural influences, this right is somewhat restricted to certain individuals. For example, girls' education has become controversial in some lands. There are still instances in some cultures where people of all walks of life, such as LGBTI, Blacks, Indigenous people, migrants, etc., are helpless in the face of their rights. Thus, legal literacy and its unique component of human rights literacy are essential to ensure the protection of human rights. A theoretical framework is eventually drawn up by summarising the findings of the study.