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This thesis is a unique and original application of grammatical reading, Véronique Pin-Fat's applied interpretation of Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy of language, to the relief and reconstruction field. Countries emerging from conflict have become international priorities, with increased interest in 'failed states' following the terrorist attacks of 11th September 2001. Non-governmental organisations have been central to this process, providing interventions with legitimacy. However, these interventions have failed to deliver international security and have received much criticism for the Western 'liberal peace' agenda that they pursue. There is a growing appreciation of the need to interrogate not just practices of relief and reconstruction but the assumptions which underlie them. This thesis suggests an approach which takes language as the unit of analysis can help us to bring assumptions to the fore. Grammatical reading explores the relationship between language and reality through the metaphor of language games, where meaning is controlled though grammar. Grammar controls possibility in language games by determining what it is possible to say and do and remain intelligible. This allows us to think differently about how possibility is shaped through our language use, in particular, by allowing us to interrogate the linguistic construction reality. Looking in detail at the example of Oxfam's practices of relief and reconstruction in South Sudan by examining the grammatical constitution of three sets of 'pictures' - subjectivity, space and security - grammatical reading enables explore how the organisation has drawn lines it its language between possibility and impossibility which have material and political consequences. The thesis will argue that each of Oxfam's pictures was an example of grammatical failure. Oxfam's picture of subjectivity, produced by a grammar of capacity/incapacity, led it to a paternalistic relationship, in which it was instructing a deficient South Sudan, whilst indefinite international aid was deemed essential. Oxfam's pictures of space were produced through a grammar of promise/danger and prevented the organisation from envisaging a South Sudan not beleaguered by crisis. This was functional for Oxfam, as the organisation saw crises as moments of opportunity for change and expansion of its activities in the country. Finally, in Oxfam's picture of security, the organisation's grammar of security/vulnerability meant that the organisation elided development and security. This was problematic as each was seen as a condition of possibility for the other to occur, making both grammatically (im)possible. Furthermore, the organisation's elision of security and development meant that it found itself implicated in the very security discourses it sought to criticise. The thesis concludes by arguing that this failure reminds us of the need to engage with the political. In the space that failure provides we can question how particular ideas about possibility have been constructed, how they have achieved the status of knowledge and what the effects of this are for practices of relief and reconstruction.

The literature concerning what medical students learn from midwives during specialist obstetric rotations is scarce. In the UK, despite a long tradition of providing midwifery attachments for medical students, it is almost non-existent. Working with midwives is arguably the only opportunity medical students have to experience holistic or social models of maternity care, focusing on normality rather than on the medical concept of risk. This study sought to discover how medical students constructed their knowledge about childbirth during a six week specialist rotation in obstetrics in a Northern English teaching hospital (NETH), with particular emphasis on whether participants assimilated any concepts from midwifery knowledge (MK). A Delphi Study, done as the first phase of the research, focused on MK, utilizing an international sample of experienced midwives. Resulting themes were used to develop the data collection tool for the second phase of the research. The research employed a qualitative case study method with students from a single year cohort comprising the case. Data were collected using a tool consisting of three problem based learning (PBL) scenarios. These were presented to the students in consecutive interviews at the beginning, the middle and the end of their obstetric rotation. Following analysis, five main themes were identified which illuminated the medical students' construction of knowledge about maternity care. These were explored and discussed. The thesis concludes with recommendations for increasing opportunities for IPE in the medical and midwifery curricula.

This study was undertaken to serve two purposes. At a theoretical level, it was undertaken to review the concept of interaction in open and distance learning (ODL).The decision to conduct this review grew out of a concern that the current dominant approach to the study of teaching and learning in ODL was focusing on social interaction. This was regarded as a restricted interpretation of the concept, hence the decision to review and revise. At a subsidiary level, the study was aimed at examining teaching and learning in the current teacher education programmes of the University of the West Indies This aspect of the study was undertaken in light of the university's proposed expansion of these offerings in the distance mode. The concept of interaction was seen as the appropriate context for undertaking this examination. Based on a review of the literature, a revised concept of interaction was developed,embodying three separate, yet interrelated types, namely social interaction, leamer media interaction and learner-knowledge interaction. In developing this concept,attention was also paid to the part played by power relations and knowledge from external sources in the functioning of the concept's component parts. It is this reformulated concept that provided the theoretical framework for the examination of the teacher education programmes mentioned above. A research programme comprising two sub-studies was designed and implemented. The first sub-study was an exploratory survey based on selected attributes of social interaction and designed to examine student teachers' perception of their experience as learners. The second was an observation study based on the principles of leamer knowledge interaction and aimed at investigating student-teachers' knowledge-building processes as these revealed themselves within the interpersonal interaction of teachers and learners in an audio-conferencing environment. A key feature of the observation study was the design and implementation of an interpretive framework to guide data analysis. The framework was developed out of the data themselves and comprised two sets of interrelated categories, the one classifying knowledge-building activities and the other, control management functions. Extended data analysis drew on selected aspects of discourse analysis and specifically on the work of Fairclough (1989, 1992) and Potter and Wetherell (1987). The findings derived from the two sub-studies underscored the essential thesis of this study that interaction in distance education is best viewed as a multifaceted phenomenon, and that there is a functional interrelationship among the constituent parts of the concept. The research programme also confirmed the constructivist thesis that people construct rather than acquire knowledge. At the same time, the findings seem to indicate that the imbalance in the power relations between teachers and learners can hinder learners' capability to derive meaning from their learning. The findings also suggest that student-teachers are ambivalent about their roles as learners and that this ambivalence seems, at times, to be reflected in the attempts they make to gain control of the teaching learning situation and to direct their knowledge-building activities. The study proposes specific areas of further research, including a follow-up study to test and refine the interpretive framework used in the observation study, and another to assess the validity of the three-part concept of interaction formulated in this work.

This qualitative research study explored levels of social presence in Second Life (virtual world) associated with phases of knowledge construction. The study explored images and data collected from users at two discussion-based activities. The findings revealed the three levels of social presence, according to the Interactional Process Model of Social Presence developed by Schultze and Brooks. Social presence established a sense of mutual monitoring of users that increased users’ sense of presence. This made their virtual interactions more real. Various phases of knowledge construction were observed as specified in the Interaction Analysis Model developed by Gunawardena, Lowe and Anderson. Knowledge construction indicated users shared information and negotiated meaning together. The findings showed Second Life can support users’ experiences of higher levels of social presence and knowledge construction. This association provides insights for designing curriculum in virtual worlds, implying that collaborative activities with perceived availability for social interaction may lead to higher levels of knowledge construction.

Background: The focus of this paper is on Dalton-Puffer’s construct of the Cognitive Discourse Function (CDF) (2013), which offers CLIL teachers a practical framework through which they can more easily understand the complex idea of integrating the content, cognition, and language required for their subject. These functions have mainly been addressed from classroom observations or task prompts, and little is known about their teachability and effectiveness on students’ content knowledge. Purpose: This paper explores whether the CDF of ‘comparing’ (a subcategory of ‘classify’) can be taught to Spanish seventh-grade CLIL biology students (N = 37) and examines the effect of teaching it explicitly on their written performance. Method: An operational framework was developed to define this CDF and an exploratory study was performed in which students were asked to hand in written comparisons. Quantitative and qualitative pre-and post-tests were applied. Results: Significant results were obtained for the experimental groups, which improved in both content and language learning, scoring higher on inclusion of content points, justification of their scientific claims, concept formation and use of lexico-grammatical forms. Conclusion: These findings add to our understanding of the importance of integrating cognition and language in teaching and learning natural sciences, within which CDFs can be a useful starting point.

Discussion board forums have become commonplace within online learning environments (OLEs). With student enrollment in online classes continuing to rise and the emergence of COVID-19, more students will be utilizing discussion forums within OLEs than ever before. Positive pedagogical support for the use of discussion forums abounds, but studies on the efficacy of discussions in online forums show mixed results. This study seeks to compare two types of discussion forums. One type, instructor-led scaffolding, was designed with pedagogy such as feedback, discussion prompts, and scaffolding implemented by the instructor. The second type, technology-enhanced scaffolding, was designed to foster autonomous motivation in students, while some feedback and scaffolding were implemented automatically by the technology-enhanced platform and offloaded onto discussion TAs provided for instructors by the platform. The study used the Interaction Analysis Model (IAM) to measure student knowledge construction levels and interpreted results to determine the impact of pedagogical design implementation on student knowledge construction in undergraduate online learning environments.

This dissertation entitled, Exploring Design Thinking for Instructional Practice, is situated in the cognitive rigor of design thinking instructional practice and engineering design-based capstone courses. The content of the instructional practice connects with educators employing a wide range of intellectual activities or cognitive tasks in formulating their curriculum. Key attributes of design thinking were identified through a focused literature review with an emphasis on theoretical propositions applicable to instructional practice. This dissertation contains two manuscripts: (a) an exploration of the theoretical literature related to design thinking explicating implications for instructional practice, and (b) a case study involving a small, purposive, sample of undergraduate faculty members teaching engineering design-based courses with findings broadly applicable to design processes in college curricula. The faculty participants in the case study were educators at a large, public, research-intensive university in the southeastern region of the United States. The data analyses involved triangulation of semi-structured interviews conducted with faculty participants and their design-based course materials, including syllabi and lesson plan materials. The study's thematic findings were not tied to engineering but rather course design, design process, and course management. The findings show the utility of artifact creation for learning with understanding for everyone, not just engineers and other traditional designers. Overall, the dissertation contributes to pedagogy that promotes student-centered engagement for learning with understanding. It recommends design thinking instructional practice for inclusion in designing and making artifacts of constructed knowledge for learning with understanding engagements across the academy.

Native peoples have survived and continue to survive genocide. They experience disproportionately high rates of violence (Bachman et al., 2008; Department of Justice, 2012; Gallego, 2019), and they cope with the effects of multigenerational trauma (Evans-Campbell, 2008; Bombay et al., 2009), forced deportations (Treuer, 2019), forced sterilizations (Robyn, 2018), and kidnapping of their children (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 2018; Treuer, 2019). But is the systemic oppression of Indigenous peoples framed as genocide by the general American population? To investigate this question, I use a mixed-methods approach comprising a survey, observation sessions, and semi-structured interviews. I test the following three hypotheses: (1) Non-Natives tend to explain mostly negative perceptions of Natives using a frame that fails to incorporate genocide, multigenerational abuse/trauma, and/or structural violence/racism; (2) Non-Natives tend to accurately perceive crime rates in Native communities as higher than those in other communities; and (3) Perceptions of Natives are formed from anecdotes/stories rather than personal experience. Quantitative survey data reveal that participants accurately perceive victimization to be higher in Native peoples than in non-Native people, higher in women than in men, and highest in Native women. Qualitative observation and interview data show that while many of the perceptions – which tended to be negative – were formed from anecdotal evidence, many were also based on interactions with Natives and experiences in Indian Country. Participants explained these perceptions of Native peoples using frames that incorporated multigenerational abuse/trauma and structural violence/racism but not genocide. I argue that adding genocide to the frame may facilitate creation of a collective action frame (Benford and Snow, 2000). These findings demonstrate that White individuals must continually seek knowledge about racial issues and our own roles as racial actors. In other words, we should not seek to be “woke”; rather, our goal should be a constant state of reawakening.

This study described how the English language arts (ELA) teacher mediates the literacy learning of the 6th grade students at Bright Star Islamic school whose language and cultural background is diverse. Three specific research questions guided this study, including (1) what approach does the teacher use to develop literacy skills of the students? (2) what texts are available for the students? and (3) what is the student response to the teacher-led discussion and teacher-created assignments? Drawing upon the ecological framework to literacy (Barton, 1994), this study shed lights on the Islamic school’s literacy that is intertwined with religious values in addition to knowledge construction mediated through multiple use of languages and texts.Narrative case study was carried out to unpack and understand the classroom interaction. The participants included one teacher and 20 students in her ELA class. 30 literacy lessons were observed and audio-recorded which comprised of a total of 40 hours. In addition to that, field notes, semi-structure interviews of the teacher and the student, as well as documentation were used to enrich and confirm the data. The observation and interview data were transcribed verbatim. Grounded theory was employed for data analysis which consisted of analyzing data through coding them into categories for the purpose of comparison. The categories contained labels that resembled conceptualization of key findings of the data and represented the cases being studied. The analysis stopped when a core category emerged in which I can integrate the analysis and develop a `story’ encapsulating the main themes of the study.Results from the analysis showed that regarding the research question #1, the teacher situated the classroom literacy events as social practices deriving from her interpretation of the State’ learning standards, the school’s ELA curriculum (i.e. Wit & Wisdom), conception of reading instruction, and teacher’ roles in the classroom, as well as her effort to integrate Islamic knowledge and values. Findings on research question #2 indicated that the students’ learning the new culture and the larger U.S. socio-historical context were mediated through both secular and sacred texts. Finally, answers to research question #3 showed that the student response to teacher-led discussion, particularly in discussing textual information was short and limited in which the pattern of interaction followed I-R-E routine. The student response was longer with better argumentation in discussing extratextual information, language features of literary texts, and Islamic knowledge and values in which the pattern of interaction was more dialogic.Pedagogically speaking, this study suggests that ELA teachers need carefully interpret the State learning standards, school curriculum, and school principle into specific learning objectives and classroom practices. Although explicit teaching on specific skills of literacy is crucial (e.g. vocabulary, comprehension, fluency), integrated teaching that orchestrates literacy skills together is more promising that is by conducting classroom discussion in which teachers have less control over the discourse to extend greater student participation.

In this project, I conceptualize the interdisciplinary field of intercultural relations through the global lens of women. This study is a two-phased, mixed-methods study situated in feminism and feminist research. I use a broad definition of intercultural relations that transcends multiple disciplinary areas including, among others: education, communication, psychology, and business. In Phase One (survey study) I address the questions: Who are the women? What are their contributions to the field of intercultural relations? Survey results name 420 women and their associated work/ideas, representing multiple countries and cultures worldwide. Findings indicate widespread global influence by women and their work in intercultural relations. Women are working across disciplinary lines and across geographical and regional areas. They have been (and continue) to influence the field through their roles in academia, consultancy, leadership, and organizational management. In Phase Two (interview study) I address the questions: How have women engaged with and come to know the interdisciplinary field of intercultural relations? How do women envision an intercultural relations history that includes everyone? In this phase, I conduct 27 face-to-face interviews with women from across the globe using a mapping exercise to facilitate rich data collection. Results from the interview study demonstrate that feminism and social justice issues have influenced (and continue to influence) how women engage with, and have come to know, the intercultural field. Further, participant stories exemplify different facets of intercultural relations work, including: the role of bridging; the topic of cultural marginality; refugee and immigrant issues; and expatriate and sojourner experiences. Finally, several stories illustrate the role of professional associations, education, and leadership in developing professional applications. Overall, this study argues the need to consider more carefully that, a) intercultural knowledge continues to be constructed through multiple ways of knowing and being in the world; and that, b) globally, women are participating in intercultural knowledge production; and that, c) by adding women's knowledge and perceptions to the historical context, implications and research considerations for the intercultural relations field are ostensibly endless.

How Black artists—othered and positioned at the margins of “civilization” in the United States—construct knowledge, context, and historical memory is informative to urban education research and policy. The exploration of this reflects the wisdom of an African proverb that others will tell the story of the struggle should it not first be told by those who live it. To create reciprocity between participants and the researcher, this study employed participatory methods and critical analysis of data from interview sessions, observation, works of art, journal reflections, and information from existing studies and artist documentaries. The study uncovers an approach to the creative process—a form of visual stenography fusing art, inquiry, and activism while considering the historical, social, and ideological context. Findings suggest art may be employed as a method, an indigenous paradigm countering the threat of being scripted into history and disrupting unequal research hierarchies and social relations.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a group of Chinese students made meaning of their collaborative learning experiences as they engaged in creating a supportive dialogical environment in an Intensive English Reading class. The class utilized dialogue as inquiry along with activities that facilitated communication to approach the learning process. These activities included: pre-class writing, in-class presentations, after-class reflections, and small group online discussions. Students and teacher engaged one another in questioning and responding that implemented a process of reflective dialogue about texts and knowledge of language. Thirty sophomore English major students participated in this study, ten of whom were randomly selected for final participation. Data sources consisted of transcriptions from phenomenological interviews, student weekly and final written reflections, and researcher’s field notes. Analysis of these data yielded four themes: relationship, confidence, engagement, and change. That the four themes overlap suggests that they mutually reinforce one another to make students’ learning experiences collaborative. Results indicate that creating a socially, affectively, and pedagogically-supported dialogical environment promotes students’ communication with others as well as creative and reflective doing and thinking. The results have implications for foreign language teachers, educators, and researchers interested in performing action research in their practice.

Abstract: The Porcupine caribou herd is the focus of multiple stakeholder groups, all of which have different ways of understanding and valuing caribou. This thesis focuses on the knowledge and perspectives that the Teetł’it Gwich’in of Teetł’it Zheh (Fort McPherson, NWT) bring to Porcupine caribou co-management. This paper-based thesis has two major aims: first, to explore how the Teetł’it Gwich’in construct knowledge about caribou; and second, to explore Teetł’it Gwich’in rules-in-use with respect to caribou hunting. A comparison is made between Gwich’in methods of knowledge construction and rules-in-use with those of the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT), and the Porcupine Caribou Management Board (PCMB), with the intent of understanding difficulties in co-management. The thesis offers the concept of the Gwich’in Knowledge Complex, a knowledge complex created from multiple sources of information about caribou, including scientific information (mainly from the PCMB and the GNWT) as well as Traditional Knowledge.

This focused ethnography of Appalachian Trail (AT) long-distance hikers explored the situated and informal nature of individual knowledge construction as mediated through a community of practice. Unlike place-based or cyber-bound communities, the ever-changing membership and location dynamics of AT hikers offered a unique and researchable community for study. The complex and understudied sensemaking trajectories of individuals moving through this mobile community were investigated over three years through in-depth interviews and participant observations. Inductive analysis of expert and novice stories illuminated experiential patterns and collective traditions that comprise the AT learning culture. In contrast to traditional approaches to knowledge and skill acquisition, this study found socio-reflective exchanges, nested in hiking pods, to be critical sites for cognitive modeling and informal scaffolding between experts and novices. The situated encounters and developmental support of these nomadic pods were found to facilitate individuals' construction of community-based knowledge.

This study describes the framework that artists use to create works of art that foster emancipatory responses in viewers. Then it relates that framework to adult educators creating emancipatory learning experiences for their students. It uses phenomenological methods, involving participants as co-researchers in in-depth interviews, prolonged engagement and frequent member checks, to explore the artists' direct experience with the phenomenon. The conceptual framework for this study is found in John Dewey's (1934) Art and Experience with his definition of experience as the interaction of the self and the world, and Herbert Marcuse's (1978) Aesthetic Dimension and his concept of rebellious subjectivity. The theoretical framework rests on critical adult education theory, specifically, critical pragmatism. The study analyzes the philosophical framework, practice, and process of six artists whose paintings promoted an emancipatory response in the researcher. Three themes emerged as significant: 1) thinking and painting; 2) knowing yourself; and 3) trusting the process. "Thinking and painting" describes the complexity of artistic thinking. It involves the dynamics of feeling, seeing beyond the surface and thinking in a way that is open-ended, open to possibilities rather than being pre-planned. "Knowing yourself" is where emancipation happens. It involves knowing why we feel the way we do, the need to keep evolving and growing, being true to the heart and desire to be original, to create something new. "Trusting the process" explores imaginative power. It involves having intentions but not outlining outcomes, problem-solving in context of the whole, and staying spontaneous, allowing things to happen. The study relates the artists' themes to adult educators in an analysis of the connections between art and emancipation, consideration of emancipatory values, learning how to act from what we feel, and how to use the artists' process in our own experiences. It adds to an understanding in the discourse of why and how art is emancipatory and lays a foundation for further research in educators' self reflection, applications to emancipatory practice, methodology, curriculum, evaluation and the development of new ways of teaching and learning.

Reality TV is the most popular genre of television programming today. The number of reality television shows has grown exponentially over the last fifteen years since the premier of The Real World in 1992. Although reality TV uses styles similar to those used in documentary film, the “reality” of the shows is questioned by critics and viewers alike. The current study focuses on the “reality” that is presented to viewers and how that “reality” is created and may differ from what the participants of the shows experience. I appeared on two reality shows, Faking It and That's Clever, and learned a great deal as a participant observer. Within the study, I outline my experience and demonstrate how editing changed the reality I experienced into what was presented to the viewers. O'Connor's (1996) representation context web serves as a model for the realities created through reality television. People derive various benefits from watching reality TV. Besides the obvious entertainment value of reality TV, viewers also gather information via this type of programming. Viewers want to see real people on television reacting to unusual circumstances without the use of scripts. By surveying reality TV show viewers and participants, this study gives insight into how real the viewers believe the shows are and how authentic they actually are. If these shows are presented as reality, viewers are probably taking what they see as historical fact. The results of the study indicate more must be done so that the “reality” of reality TV does not misinform viewers.

Current educational operation for informal science institutions tend to be based on the staff's experience and intuition rather than on educational theories or research findings. This status study sought research evidence to develop an educational scheme for informal science institutions. Evidence for this scheme came from surveys to determine specific circumstances of educational operations and visitor behaviors, observational research in museums, and from the literature of informal science education. The Provus discrepancy model, seeking gaps between the actual and desired states, guided this investigation of how informal science education institution staff view the nature and status of educational operations. Another investigation sought visitors' views of the effectiveness of viewing the main idea for exhibit understanding, effective labels, expectations toward on-site lessons, and possibilities for assessments of museum operations. Institutional data were collected via a web portal, with a separate site created for administrators, exhibit developers, and program planners. The survey asked about actual and desired states in terms of goals and roles of staff, contents of exhibits and programs, assessment, and professional development. Four additional visitor surveys were administered individually at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. The institutional survey found that most institutions focus on attitudinal reinforcement rather than visitor learning, do not overtly value research or long-term assessment, and value partnerships with K-12 schools more than other groups. At the same time, the staff do not have a clear vision of the nature or function of an operations manuals. Large gaps were found between the actual and desired states in terms of assessment (administrators, exhibit developers, and program planners), professional development (exhibit developers and program planners), and partnerships (program planners), indicating that their current visions and attempts are not consistent and may need improvement. The survey of effective labels did not find a preference for any one particular type of label, and, although visitors prefer concise labels, they perceive 'being concise' in a variety of ways. Student visitor expectations toward on-site lessons closely matched that of their teachers, which is for science learning beyond the classroom. Assessment of daily operation indicated that a tailored design for long-term assessments could overcome perceived drawbacks of feasibility (for the staff to interpret the results and for the visitors to fill in the survey) and measurement of visitor learning. No statistically significant difference was found between respondents who were provided the main exhibit ideas those who were not. Four notions were generated from these five surveys: (1) Assessment instruments must include evaluation of visitor learning as well as their state of mind of them; (2) Staff professional development sessions must include acquisition of assessment skills and general knowledge in science and science education; (3) K-12 partnerships can be an initial step in bridging between institutions and their visitors; and (4) An operations manual could help direct an informal science institutions to more effective educational operations. The importance of a fair and systematic assessment system would help achieve all these notions.

Past research has shown that interpretive tour visitors at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge do no better than other visitors on knowledge and value questions about federal wilderness areas and national wildlife refuges. Tours into the Okefenokee Swamp Wilderness are conducted by a National Wildlife Refuge concessionaire. Interpretive tour guides participated in a training session on the purposes and values of wilderness and wildlife refuges. Visitors who took guided interpretive tours in the spring of 2001 with trained and untrained guides completed knowledge surveys immediately after taking the boat tour. Results indicate that there were no differences in visitor knowledge scores with trained versus untrained guides. A small sample of interpretive tour visitors was also interviewed in an effort to understand the meanings they ascribe to wilderness. Visitors were able to describe and articulate their views of wilderness with considerable clarity. Recommendations for future research include monitoring the guides' interpretive messages, conducting more in-depth interviews with visitors and guides, assessing visitors' and guides' prior knowledge of wilderness and wildlife refuge purposes and values, and developing guide training based on the principles of persuasive communication.

The purposes of this study were ( a) to provide documented accounts of cooperative education students' experiences when interacting with diverse groups and (b) to obtain cooperative education students' and work-site supervisors' perceptions of the knowledge and attitudes needed by cooperative education students to interact effectively with diverse groups. The outcomes of the study provided information related to the multicultural theory of knowledge being positional and relating to the knower's values and experiences. Focus groups (group interviews) that were designed to uncover participants' points of view and perceptions were used to collect the data. Four groups of six cooperative education students and two groups of six cooperative education work-site supervisors participated in the study. Relevant topics, issues, and concepts relating to cultural and ethnic diversity derived from a review of the literature were summarized and incorporated in the discussion guides used with the student and work-site supervisor groups. All participants completed demographic data sheets. Each session was tape recorded, and the researcher took field notes. The tapes of each group were transcribed. Transcripts were analyzed using ethnographic summaries and content analysis. Also field notes and data sheets were compiled. Recurring themes were identified and marked under the categories of: school experiences; work experiences; personal experiences; school, home and personal experiences combined; student perceptions of knowledge and attitudes needed; and work-site supervisor perceptions of knowledge and attitudes needed. Five major themes that evolved from the study were: understanding, self-esteem, acceptance, principles, and interactions. Self-esteem was the dominant theme for all three questions followed by acceptance, interactions, understanding, and principles. The study revealed that productive interaction with diverse groups took place more often when students felt good about themselves. Giving value to themselves allowed them to also give value to others. Their self-confidence was reflected in their appearance, lifestyle, behavior, professional accomplishments, and relationships. Study results also revealed that effective interaction with diverse groups was often inhibited by students’ preconceived perceptions derived from a lack of knowledge. Information about culturally and ethnically diverse groups' beliefs, customs, languages, family backgrounds, ethnicities, communication styles, and/or perspectives were crucial to clarifying such perceptions. Both work-site supervisors and cooperative education students responded that communication was also essential to effective interaction. Structured group settings that allow for student socialization with diverse groups were recommended.