Researchware

Group and individual interview transcripts as well as 8 hours of video footage served as the source materials, analyzed using HyperRESEARCH's rich multimedia capabilities, for Beth A. Wassell, Maria Fernández Hawrylak and Sarah-Kate LaVan's article "Examining the Structures That Impact English Language Learners' Agency in Urban High Schools: Resources and Roadblocks in the Classroom."

Appearing in the July 2010 issue of Education and Urban Society (vol. 42, no. 5, pp 599-619), the qualitative study supporting this paper "focused on the classroom experiences of 14 English Language Learners (ELL) students in urban high schools. The authors argue that specific structures within classrooms and schools affect ELL students’ agency, or their ability to access and appropriate resources to meet their learning and social needs. Using a narrative inquiry methodological framework, the authors found that these structures included resources, such as space, and time, and a schema of caring, which were created by teachers’ practices. They also included roadblocks, such as poor instructional practices, a lack of empathy of students’ experiences, and diminished access to the curriculum."

The paper can be viewed online here.