Date of Graduation

Spring 5-16-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

College/School

School of Education

Department/Program

Teaching English as a Second Language

First Advisor

Luz Navarrette García

Abstract

This youth participatory action research investigates the barriers to attendance that recently immigrated Latine/Indigenous-identifying emergent multilingual high school students aged 18- 21 face. This action research aims to restore power to this population by providing the opportunity to participate as co-researchers, sharing their perspectives, opinions, and solutions to the issues that directly affect them. A group of six students from a small continuation school participated as co-researchers in a single session student-led focus group designed to elicit student perspectives, including their attitudes towards school attendance policies, experiences with attendance, and ideas for improvement. The first chapter explains the problem, demonstrating how this population faces economic instability, cultural dissonance, and social disenfranchisement. This creates the highest risk of persistent nonattendance, school disengagement, and dropout of high school. The second chapter explores the existing literature on the topic, *showing that current school policies cannot support the resources necessary for the academic success of recently immigrated emergent multilingual students. The second chapter also explains the results from this focus group that was grouped into significant themes, respectively consisting of intrinsic motivation and mental health, financial instability, and instructional attitudes. Subsequently, the third chapter discusses the rationale and guiding principles behind the implementation of YPAR in this case. Finally, the fourth chapter reports on and reflects upon the process of executing the youth participatory action research.

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