Issues of Education and Immigration
Issues of education and immigration
Joan Clifford, Visiting Assistant Professor
Romance Studies
Project Description
In Fall 2006, students in Spanish 106C explored issues of cultural assimilation, literacy, and access to educational opportunities for the growing Latino community in the United States. They used iPods with microphone attachments to record observations from their service learning experiences. Students in this course were asked to listen to archived interviews with Spanish-speakers in the community, which facilitated listening comprehension practice, provided exposure to authentic speech patterns and accents, and also allowed the instructor to disseminate content to the students outside of class.
The project involved Duke students interviewing Latino/a students and parents at Jordan High School about their experiences within Durham Public Schools. These testimonials provided additional information to further the insights gained last year with a written survey. The video and audio components of the iPods were used in the production and editing of the interviews. Duke students also continued to use their iPods to record their own audio journals reflecting on their service at the high school.
Project start date: August 1, 2006