Kathy Bussert-Webb | University of Texas at Brownsville (original) (raw)
Papers by Kathy Bussert-Webb
This case study explores community service learning, disciplinary literacy, and social justice. P... more This case study explores community service learning, disciplinary literacy, and social justice. Participants were seven Mexican American preservice secondary teachers in science, math, and language arts who tutored and gardened with children in a South Texas after-school tutorial agency as part of an ESL literacy methods course. Data gathering tools consisted of participant observations, written reflections, learning logs, visual metaphors, and a focus group discussion. Social justice themes were: respondents’ realizations of structural inequalities and their actions to counteract hegemonic inequalities. Disciplinary literacy themes were: participants’ learning more about their disciplines and disciplinary literacy, increased motivation and efficacy to teach their subjects, and the importance of the colonia, or unincorporated neighborhood, as an intersection between social justice and disciplinary literacy.
This case study examines new literacy opportunities and practices of 28 Latino/a children from gr... more This case study examines new literacy opportunities and practices of 28 Latino/a children from grades one to seven in a South Texas colonia, or unincorporated area. Data sources were 24-hour literacy logs, two rounds of interviews, and participant observations. The children reported limited school work related to digital literacies; the technology they accessed outside of school focused on entertainment, communication with friends, and mostly non-challenging video games. We discuss participants " ingenious ways of circumventing any lack of access, their underlying social practices of community sharing, and Thirdspace possibilities of the tutorial center that respondents attended.
This qualitative study and descriptive analysis explores the impact of a walking path installed a... more This qualitative study and descriptive analysis explores the impact of a walking path installed as a community service learning (CSL) project. Findings from participant observations and two survey rounds (one year apart) demonstrate the impact the walking path on the 52 adult Latinas' well-being, access, and relationships. This study is significant because few people have documented CSL impact on Latino communities or on Latino health, a significant topic because Latinos, the fastest-growing U.S. group, have a disproportionate rate of diabetes-related health problems.
This qualitative study examines the literacy and language beliefs and practices of 28 Latino/a ch... more This qualitative study examines the literacy and language beliefs and practices of 28 Latino/a children from Grades 1–7 in a South Texas colonia, or unincorporated area. Instruments included staff surveys and participating children’s 24-hour reading logs, interviews, and participant observations. The children had limited access to books, mostly during the summer, and most reported having negative attitudes toward reading. They also showed a preference to read in English rather than in Spanish. Implications of access to printed literacy and the language shift of colonia children to English are also discussed.
This case study examines language opportunities and practices vis-à-vis digital literacies. Parti... more This case study examines language opportunities and practices vis-à-vis digital literacies. Participants were 29 native Spanish speakers from grades one to seven in a South Texas colonia, or unincorporated settlement. Data sources were literacy logs and three sets of interviews. Using grounded theory for data analysis, we found participants did not have school instruction and assignments focused on Spanish or technology. Most had negative views about digital writing in Spanish and lacked confidence in L1 writing. We discuss digital literacy opportunities and practices in and out of school, dialogue and third space possibilities in code-switching, and heteroglossia, or socio-ideological, conflicting digital languages and literacies. Last, we coin the term L1.4Word to signify revaluing and reappropriating one’s mother tongue literacy through digital tools to move the language forward.
The purposes of this study were to provide a replicable model of community engagement involving l... more The purposes of this study were to provide a replicable model of community engagement involving local health issues and to examine the effectiveness of a community-based play for audience members' attitudes toward diabetes. The research question was, can a community-based, culturally responsive play positively influence participants' attitudes toward understanding diabetes? Diabetes knows no borders or boundaries. Latinos across the Americas are experiencing an increase in diabetes based on poor nutrition and a changing lifestyle in this new millennium. Communities on the United States–Mexico border are representative of this nutrition-related problem in both countries. The play Dulce and the Good Life was written with and for the border community. The protagonist, a Mexican American youth with type 2 diabetes, struggles with her diagnosis and food choices. Audience members of the two evening performances (N = 70) and one daytime performance (N = 119) completed a valid and reliable nutrition attitude survey; data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and SPSS to determine significance levels. Participating audience members made statistically significant nutrition attitude changes. This study, based on community engagement and semiotic frameworks, adds to the literature concerning the importance of culturally relevant health interventions with maximum community involvement.
This study underlines how a community perceives and aspires for its future, despite the degrading... more This study underlines how a community perceives and aspires for its future, despite the degrading ways that the media and some outsiders characterize it. This community is a colonia, or unincorporated Southwestern settlement, located in South Texas, U.S.A., and lacking basic services. Participants were 32 children, 14 preservice teachers who tutored the children, eight parents of the children, and two staff members, all Latinos/as. Data sources were reflections and logs, surveys , interviews, photos, TV news articles, Census data, a focus group discussion, and participant observation. I analyzed the data using the constant comparative method and poetic inquiry vis-à-vis socio-semiotic and social justice frameworks. Emerging themes were: the colonia's marginalization, participants' parrying and their slantwise practices, and children's career and college aspirations juxtaposed with Census data. This study demonstrates that outsiders' discrimination is detrimental to colonia residents' academic achievement over time. Communities must demonstrate their strengths in public forums, and educators and families must recognize negative portrayals and embrace hybrid and slantwise practices to resist normalization.
This mixed methods study explores digital literacy opportunities and online reading skills of Lat... more This mixed methods study explores digital literacy opportunities and online reading skills of Latino/a children, grades three to eight, in a South Texas school district along the U.S.-Mexico border. New Literacy Studies constituted the overarching framework, with cognition and social
justice as supporting theories. Participants were 310 children and five staff members from the Futuro school district. Data sources included a two-part digital literacy survey, interviews, field notes, learning logs, and public domain data from Futuro. Although most participating children
enjoyed access to working computers and high-speed Internet at home, the majority demonstrated low computer and online reading skills. Most reported limited school work related to the development of digital literacies, especially the new literacies of online research and
comprehension. Implications relate to a more complex definition of the digital divide that includes computer access and use, critical digital literacy, and online reading skill development.
Through random sampling, we surveyed 2,568 high school students throughout Texas to determine the... more Through random sampling, we surveyed 2,568 high school students throughout Texas to determine their reading attitudes vis-`a-vis individual and school background variables. Sources were the Rhody reading attitude scale and public domain campus summary data; the lenses of attitude theory and social justice informed this study. Significant differences appeared in overall reading attitude and gender, as well as these school characteristics: public and private, rural and urban, low and high poverty, low and high diversity, and small versus large student-teacher ratios. From the results, an avid reader from a public school would be in small classes in an urban school serving mostly students of color and poverty. These findings challenge educators, researchers, and policy-makers to rethink common misperceptions of the reading attitudes of youths in diverse, high-poverty urban schools.
Que Hago? Latino/a Children Describe Their Activities in an “Exemplary” School
Journal of Latinos and Education, 2009
This article focuses on how 47 Latinos/as (Grades 2–5) described their day in a state-rated exemp... more This article focuses on how 47 Latinos/as (Grades 2–5) described their day in a state-rated exemplary public school. They attended Tarea, a pseudonym for a test-focused South Texas school. Interviews took place during an after-school cultural arts program I taught at Tarea for enrichment purposes. The most common interview themes were lack of curriculum integration, escape from the classroom, testing,
Qué Hago? Latino/a Children Describe Their Activities in an “Exemplary” School
Journal of Latinos and Education, 2008
This article focuses on how 47 Latinos/as (Grades 2–5) described their day in a state-rated exemp... more This article focuses on how 47 Latinos/as (Grades 2–5) described their day in a state-rated exemplary public school. They attended Tarea, a pseudonym for a test-focused South Texas school. Interviews took place during an after-school cultural arts program I taught at Tarea for enrichment purposes. The most common interview themes were lack of curriculum integration, escape from the classroom, testing,
This article focuses on reflections written by 14 participating pre-service teachers during a ser... more This article focuses on reflections written by 14 participating pre-service teachers during a service-learning project in our nation's poorest neighborhood for its size. Participants engaged in one-on-one tutoring, a garden project, and an education class for three weeks from 3:30 to 9 p.m. The university class, Literacy and the English Language Learner, was at an after-school tutoring agency close to the Mexican border. The six themes emerging from a qualitative analysis of my students' essays were: caring support, social justice, prejudice reduction, hope, impact on teaching, and joy. The lenses used to analyze the data were social constructivism and reconstructivism.
Books by Kathy Bussert-Webb
This case study explores community service learning, disciplinary literacy, and social justice. P... more This case study explores community service learning, disciplinary literacy, and social justice. Participants were seven Mexican American preservice secondary teachers in science, math, and language arts who tutored and gardened with children in a South Texas after-school tutorial agency as part of an ESL literacy methods course. Data gathering tools consisted of participant observations, written reflections, learning logs, visual metaphors, and a focus group discussion. Social justice themes were: respondents’ realizations of structural inequalities and their actions to counteract hegemonic inequalities. Disciplinary literacy themes were: participants’ learning more about their disciplines and disciplinary literacy, increased motivation and efficacy to teach their subjects, and the importance of the colonia, or unincorporated neighborhood, as an intersection between social justice and disciplinary literacy.
This case study examines new literacy opportunities and practices of 28 Latino/a children from gr... more This case study examines new literacy opportunities and practices of 28 Latino/a children from grades one to seven in a South Texas colonia, or unincorporated area. Data sources were 24-hour literacy logs, two rounds of interviews, and participant observations. The children reported limited school work related to digital literacies; the technology they accessed outside of school focused on entertainment, communication with friends, and mostly non-challenging video games. We discuss participants " ingenious ways of circumventing any lack of access, their underlying social practices of community sharing, and Thirdspace possibilities of the tutorial center that respondents attended.
This qualitative study and descriptive analysis explores the impact of a walking path installed a... more This qualitative study and descriptive analysis explores the impact of a walking path installed as a community service learning (CSL) project. Findings from participant observations and two survey rounds (one year apart) demonstrate the impact the walking path on the 52 adult Latinas' well-being, access, and relationships. This study is significant because few people have documented CSL impact on Latino communities or on Latino health, a significant topic because Latinos, the fastest-growing U.S. group, have a disproportionate rate of diabetes-related health problems.
This qualitative study examines the literacy and language beliefs and practices of 28 Latino/a ch... more This qualitative study examines the literacy and language beliefs and practices of 28 Latino/a children from Grades 1–7 in a South Texas colonia, or unincorporated area. Instruments included staff surveys and participating children’s 24-hour reading logs, interviews, and participant observations. The children had limited access to books, mostly during the summer, and most reported having negative attitudes toward reading. They also showed a preference to read in English rather than in Spanish. Implications of access to printed literacy and the language shift of colonia children to English are also discussed.
This case study examines language opportunities and practices vis-à-vis digital literacies. Parti... more This case study examines language opportunities and practices vis-à-vis digital literacies. Participants were 29 native Spanish speakers from grades one to seven in a South Texas colonia, or unincorporated settlement. Data sources were literacy logs and three sets of interviews. Using grounded theory for data analysis, we found participants did not have school instruction and assignments focused on Spanish or technology. Most had negative views about digital writing in Spanish and lacked confidence in L1 writing. We discuss digital literacy opportunities and practices in and out of school, dialogue and third space possibilities in code-switching, and heteroglossia, or socio-ideological, conflicting digital languages and literacies. Last, we coin the term L1.4Word to signify revaluing and reappropriating one’s mother tongue literacy through digital tools to move the language forward.
The purposes of this study were to provide a replicable model of community engagement involving l... more The purposes of this study were to provide a replicable model of community engagement involving local health issues and to examine the effectiveness of a community-based play for audience members' attitudes toward diabetes. The research question was, can a community-based, culturally responsive play positively influence participants' attitudes toward understanding diabetes? Diabetes knows no borders or boundaries. Latinos across the Americas are experiencing an increase in diabetes based on poor nutrition and a changing lifestyle in this new millennium. Communities on the United States–Mexico border are representative of this nutrition-related problem in both countries. The play Dulce and the Good Life was written with and for the border community. The protagonist, a Mexican American youth with type 2 diabetes, struggles with her diagnosis and food choices. Audience members of the two evening performances (N = 70) and one daytime performance (N = 119) completed a valid and reliable nutrition attitude survey; data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and SPSS to determine significance levels. Participating audience members made statistically significant nutrition attitude changes. This study, based on community engagement and semiotic frameworks, adds to the literature concerning the importance of culturally relevant health interventions with maximum community involvement.
This study underlines how a community perceives and aspires for its future, despite the degrading... more This study underlines how a community perceives and aspires for its future, despite the degrading ways that the media and some outsiders characterize it. This community is a colonia, or unincorporated Southwestern settlement, located in South Texas, U.S.A., and lacking basic services. Participants were 32 children, 14 preservice teachers who tutored the children, eight parents of the children, and two staff members, all Latinos/as. Data sources were reflections and logs, surveys , interviews, photos, TV news articles, Census data, a focus group discussion, and participant observation. I analyzed the data using the constant comparative method and poetic inquiry vis-à-vis socio-semiotic and social justice frameworks. Emerging themes were: the colonia's marginalization, participants' parrying and their slantwise practices, and children's career and college aspirations juxtaposed with Census data. This study demonstrates that outsiders' discrimination is detrimental to colonia residents' academic achievement over time. Communities must demonstrate their strengths in public forums, and educators and families must recognize negative portrayals and embrace hybrid and slantwise practices to resist normalization.
This mixed methods study explores digital literacy opportunities and online reading skills of Lat... more This mixed methods study explores digital literacy opportunities and online reading skills of Latino/a children, grades three to eight, in a South Texas school district along the U.S.-Mexico border. New Literacy Studies constituted the overarching framework, with cognition and social
justice as supporting theories. Participants were 310 children and five staff members from the Futuro school district. Data sources included a two-part digital literacy survey, interviews, field notes, learning logs, and public domain data from Futuro. Although most participating children
enjoyed access to working computers and high-speed Internet at home, the majority demonstrated low computer and online reading skills. Most reported limited school work related to the development of digital literacies, especially the new literacies of online research and
comprehension. Implications relate to a more complex definition of the digital divide that includes computer access and use, critical digital literacy, and online reading skill development.
Through random sampling, we surveyed 2,568 high school students throughout Texas to determine the... more Through random sampling, we surveyed 2,568 high school students throughout Texas to determine their reading attitudes vis-`a-vis individual and school background variables. Sources were the Rhody reading attitude scale and public domain campus summary data; the lenses of attitude theory and social justice informed this study. Significant differences appeared in overall reading attitude and gender, as well as these school characteristics: public and private, rural and urban, low and high poverty, low and high diversity, and small versus large student-teacher ratios. From the results, an avid reader from a public school would be in small classes in an urban school serving mostly students of color and poverty. These findings challenge educators, researchers, and policy-makers to rethink common misperceptions of the reading attitudes of youths in diverse, high-poverty urban schools.
Que Hago? Latino/a Children Describe Their Activities in an “Exemplary” School
Journal of Latinos and Education, 2009
This article focuses on how 47 Latinos/as (Grades 2–5) described their day in a state-rated exemp... more This article focuses on how 47 Latinos/as (Grades 2–5) described their day in a state-rated exemplary public school. They attended Tarea, a pseudonym for a test-focused South Texas school. Interviews took place during an after-school cultural arts program I taught at Tarea for enrichment purposes. The most common interview themes were lack of curriculum integration, escape from the classroom, testing,
Qué Hago? Latino/a Children Describe Their Activities in an “Exemplary” School
Journal of Latinos and Education, 2008
This article focuses on how 47 Latinos/as (Grades 2–5) described their day in a state-rated exemp... more This article focuses on how 47 Latinos/as (Grades 2–5) described their day in a state-rated exemplary public school. They attended Tarea, a pseudonym for a test-focused South Texas school. Interviews took place during an after-school cultural arts program I taught at Tarea for enrichment purposes. The most common interview themes were lack of curriculum integration, escape from the classroom, testing,
This article focuses on reflections written by 14 participating pre-service teachers during a ser... more This article focuses on reflections written by 14 participating pre-service teachers during a service-learning project in our nation's poorest neighborhood for its size. Participants engaged in one-on-one tutoring, a garden project, and an education class for three weeks from 3:30 to 9 p.m. The university class, Literacy and the English Language Learner, was at an after-school tutoring agency close to the Mexican border. The six themes emerging from a qualitative analysis of my students' essays were: caring support, social justice, prejudice reduction, hope, impact on teaching, and joy. The lenses used to analyze the data were social constructivism and reconstructivism.