Multicultural Connections: A Study of Intertextual Linkages and Overlaps in a Culturally Diverse Classroom

The primary purpose of this study is to address the pervasive inscription of conceptual boundaries with respect to culture by identifying and documenting process related to the inscription of overlaps. Intertextual connections among cultures have been overlooked, unrecorded and often silenced in educational literature as well as in the larger public domain. These connections remain invisible as both mainstream and oppositional cultural frameworks abide in conceptions which emphasize the boundedness and distance between cultures. This study employed the Blues Idiom as a theoretical framework as a means of systematically identifying and documenting processes related to overlap. Using Denzin's conception of text, classroom observations during literacy instruction were juxtaposed to related prior and concurrent texts external to the classroom. These texts consisted of parent and teacher interviews, observed community cultural events, running collections of local and national periodicals, documents and other forms of text. Analysis involved bringing these texts together with the classroom observations to highlight and externalize overlaps and connections which are usually concealed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Meacham, Shuaib James

Contributors dc:contributor

• Violet Harris

• Education, Language and Literature

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9737197

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/80181