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Right or wrong, my song is strong: a practitioner inquiry study of elementary school students' experiences in a songwriting class centered in critical pedagogy
(2026) Sarch, Yaron; Abrahams, Frank
As a songwriter and elementary general music teacher, I have observed the potential of songwriting to foster critical thinking among young people. Therefore, in this study, I examine the teaching of songwriting to fifth-grade students through the lens of critical pedagogy. I argue for the inclusion of songwriting in the elementary school curriculum and explain its alignment with critical pedagogy as a theoretical lens. Using a practitioner inquiry design, I investigated how a songwriting class rooted in critical pedagogy might enhance learners’ critical literacy and foster conscientization; help learners identify real-world issues, engage in problem posing, problem solving, and reflective practices; and foster learners’ commitment to cultural relevance, social activism, and advocacy for social justice. Rather than acting as a neutral observer, I assumed the role of teacher-researcher and engaged alongside students as a facilitator and co-learner. While the entirety of the fifth grade received songwriting instruction over 15 one-hour classes, I selected 13 students as the participants for this study. I collected data from their exit slips, occasional assignments and quizzes, and the students’ original songs, and I supplemented these with my reflective journals and observations. I used the data to compare outcomes with the characteristics of young composers described by Kaschub and Smith (2016), and to address my research questions. My findings indicated that students relied heavily on predictable structures and created compositions strongly connected to their lives. Although they engaged with the functional aspects of songwriting, the students showed limited progress in mastering lesson content and in developing critical literacy, conscientization, or engagement with real-world issues. The goals of fostering a commitment to cultural relevance, social activism, and advocacy in the students were only partially realized. I conclude that future iterations of the curriculum should include more explicit scaffolding for advocacy and social critique to help students challenge injustice within their communities.
Social sensitivity: a study of habit and experience
(Boston University, 1988) Ostrow, James M
This dissertation argues that the way in which social conditions and relationships situate human behavior and consciousness- is grounded in the prereflective sense of experience. By generally ignoring the problem of immediate experience, sociological theory fails to elucidate the fundamental sociality of human existence.
Puerto Rican women: sociocultural factors in depression
(Boston University, 1988) Ortiz-Montijo, Ana C
It has been widely established that depression is one of the most used mental health diagnosis in our time. According to The President's Commission on Mental Health (1978), symptoms of depression occur more frequently in women, nonwhites, the separated, the divorced, the poor and the less educated. The traumatic experience of relocating to another country where the language and culture are different is also a factor that may result in depressive symptomatology.
The Puerto Rican woman who migrates to the United States faces a series of stressful situations resulting from cultural differences, the language barrier, lack of education and employment skills, and discrimination. She often faces these difficulties without the social support network of extended family members which she relied on in Puerto Rico.
This study explored the relationship between depression and social support networks in the lives of 50 Puerto Rican women living in the Boston area. It looked at the participant's level of support satisfaction, perceived availability, and the negative or conflicting aspects of her social support network, and compared the differences in network orientation between depressed and non-depressed Puerto Rican women.
The participants were selected from various community agencies that offered social services to the Latino community in Boston and Cambridge during a six month period. The demographic characteristics of these women as well as the description of their migration patterns and the characteristics of their SSN were described.
Eight measures were used, including the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) Scale, a Background Information Questionnaire, the Latino Bicultural Assessment Questionnaire (LBAQ), a Stress Scale, a Network Orientation Scale, (NOS), a Cultural Beliefs Questionnaire, the Arizona Social Support Interview Scale (ASSIS), and five questions developed by the author to gage ability to ask for help, availability and satisfaction with the help they receive from others. Each interview lasted approximately two hours.
It was proposed that satisfaction, ava~lability of social support and network orientation would inversely correlate with depression, while conflict with SSN would directly correlate with depression. The findings corroborated the direct relationship between conflict, SSN and depression. The other three hypotheses of satisfaction, availability and positive orientation to SSN although not corroborated were in the predicted direction. Study limitations as well as clinical issues regarding treatment of depressed Puerto Rican women and their SSN were discussed.
Contextual correlates of religious leadership: structure, climate and leader attitudes
(Boston University, 1988) Nygren, David J
Leadership research has previously studied the interaction between the leader and followers by examining traits, behaviors, and situational contingency factors. Interpersonal interactions between leaders and followers comprise the realm of microleadership by emphasizing levels of interaction without specific reference to the organizational ends to which they might be directed.
Older women and breast cancer detection practices
(Boston University, 1988) Normandeau, Jeanne G
This non-experimental descriptive correlational study investigated preventive health behaviors related to breast cancer detection (breast self-examination and mammography). The target sample consisted of less-educated, low to middle income older women living in rural communities.
Dysfunction of vestibular processing: a possible predictor of increase in magnitude of curvature in idiopathic scoliosis
(Boston University, 1988) Nkosi, Lizzie F
Visual and vestibular processing was studied by ENG measurement of the vestibule-ocular reflex in thirty subjects, aged 9-16 years, with confirmed idiopathic scoliosis. Different aspects of vestibular nystagmus (elicited during and after constant velocity whole body rotation) were compared to the magnitude of curvature. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that the durations of per and postrotary nystagmus were the most significant predictors of curvature, and the time constant was the second most significant predictor. Both time constant and duration of nystagmus were found to be inversely related to curvature. A re-test of eleven subjects six months later revealed no significant changes in vestibular processing, inspite of an increase in the magnitude of curvature. It is possible that in these subjects, dysfunction in vestibular processing preceeded the occurrance of the scoliotic curve.
Psychosocial adjustment and mood disturbance in the exceptional cancer patient
(Boston University, 1988) Mindnich, Deborah S
The purpose of this project was to survey the members of the Exceptional Cancer Patients, Inc. (ECaP) groups in New Haven, Connecticut for adjustment to illnesss and mood disturbance. Each participant completed three questionnaires. The Profile of Mood States (POMS) was used to evaluate the level of mood disturbance, the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness (PAIS-SR) to determine the level of adjustment to the illness, and an instrument designed by the researcher to record medical and demographic information.
The data was analyzed using frequency distributions and then correlated to participation in ECaP, psychosocial adjustment to illness, and mood disturbance. In general the results did not support the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the ECaP group and positive psychosocial adjustment and low mood disturbance. The correlations were quite low and scattered. However, as a group the POMS showed low levels of psychological distress. The PAIS-SR revealed some disturbance in adjustment to illness, except in sexual relationships and social environment.
The demographic findings reveal a small sample (N = 15) predominantly female and married with a median age of 49.4 years. Almost half were employed full time. Treatment variables show an overwhelming majority of breast cancer diagnosed one to five years prior to the study. Surgery and chemotherapy were the main forms of treatment and almost half had been treated within the month prior to the study. Group participation variables depict the majority of respondents as ECaP members for greater than one year and actively participating in the group process about 75%.
The effect of technology on the teaching of writing in the middle school and its impact on achievement in reading and language arts
(Boston University, 1988) McCarthy, Irene D
This study investigates the effect of technology on the teaching of writing in the Middle School and its impact on achievement in Reading and Language Arts.
Pre-tests, consisting of the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT6) Reading Comprehension subtest, the Stanford Achievement Test (Form E and Form F), Reading Comprehension subtest, and a writing sample were administered to the sample population prior to treatment. Both groups were instructed in writing using the process approach. Teacher participants used the John Collins Cumulative Writing Folder system for record keeping and for focus correction. Difference in treatment consisted of the tool each group used for writing. The experimental group used the word processor for writing; the control group used traditional tools, pencil and paper. At the end of the study, a different form of each pre-test was administered to the entire population.
The data were analyzed for mean score, standard deviation and analysis of variance. Results indicated that there was a significant difference at the .05 level of confidence in the reading achievement of the sample population in favor of the experimental group. The experimental group showed greater gains from pre/post test than the control group in writing. An analysis of covariance was performed to determine if there was an interaction between treatment and place of birth. Results demonstrated that native born subjects showed greater gains in reading and writing than foreign born regardless of treatment. Statistically there was no significant difference. The performance of sex-designated groups within the study was analyzed with a two-way analysis of covariance. Results indicate that both boys and girls showed significant achievement from pre/post test in both reading and writing. Statistically, there was no significant interaction.
It can be concluded that although technology has a positive effect on the achievement of students in reading and language arts, the teacher and the methodologies he/she employs have greater Unpact on performance of students than the tools used for instruction. This is evidenced by the gains made by all subjects in the study from pre/post test.
The effect of pattern arrangement on neglect in right brain-damaged adults
(Boston University, 1988) Maser, Valerie
This investigation examined whether a regular arrangement of stimulus elements in a cancellation task would reduce neglect in right brain-damaged subjects. Two types of stimulus elements, global and local, were compared to random patterns. The global design was a single pattern which included the left and right hemispace. The local design consisted of four separate, identical patterns. The random patterns consisted of loosely distributed designs without apparent pattern. The nine stimulus patterns, three of each type were administered to ten right brain-damaged subjects with neglect and ten controls. Two sessions were administered to subjects; the first session was three weeks post onset of stroke and the second session was nine weeks post onset. Results indicated that right brain-damaged subjects demonstrated reduced neglect on regularly arranged patterns as compared to random patterns and that neglect was less with global patterns than with local patterns. Analys is of the differences among the global and local patterns indicated that complexity of the design , closeness of the patterns and the suggestion of closure in a pattern design may affect the benefits of pattern arrangement in reducing neglect. Results suggested that there is a decrease in neglect overtime. These results suggest that structuring the stimulus materials may be important in attenuating the effects of neglect.
Phenomenology of ethnic identity and migration among Puerto Rican migrants
(Boston University, 1988) Martinez, Cristina
The purpose of this study is to describe the relationship between ethnic identity and migration as two interconnected processes of social action. A heuristic model has been devised, in the frame of a phenomenological approach supported by statistical information, in order to accomplish this purpose. Firstly, the model describes the differences or similarities between the ethnic identity of Puerto Rican migrants who, after ten consecutive years of living in the United States, decided to go back to the Island (returnees) and those who decided to remain in the United States (stayers). Secondly, it describes the process of social insertion the migrants are undergoing.
Migrants are conceptualized as active social actors who create and recreate their outer world, and while in this process, they create and recreate their inner world, their ethnic identity and their particular worldview. Migration as a process of social insertion is, in turn, conceptualized as a polymorphic and conflicting process which may take different forms of social interaction ranging from the extreme of hostility, segregation and rebellion, to the other extreme of cooperation, integration and subjugation.
A profile of returnees and stayers is constructed on the basis of data collected through participant observation,in-depth interviews and a questionnaire applied to 120 returnees in Puerto Rico and 50 stayers in the Boston area. A typology of ACCEPT/REJECT Puerto Rico's culture and institutions versus the United States' guided both the gathering and the analysis of information in terms of four possible alternatives: 1) integrarion, accept Puerto Rico reject the United States; 2) segregation, reject Puerto Rico accept the United States; 3) pluralism, accept both Puerto Rico and the United States ; 4) neo-ethnicity, reject both Puerto Rico and the United States.
This study arrives at the hypotheses that returnees exhibit characteristics of a new ethnic identity-to-be which is neither Puerto Rican nor American but Neorican. Consequently, they are undergoing a process of social insertion which falls in the typology of neo-ethnicity. The stayer, on the contrary, portrays a strong Puerto Rican ethnic identity which is tantamount to a process of social insertion that corresponds to the typology of segregation.