Teacher attrition, particularly of beginning teachers, is concerning. Extensive research has been conducted on teacher attrition and teacher characteristics; however, less research exists on teacher retention and related teacher belief systems. This study examined the beliefs of a particular subset of teachers - teachers who have stayed in the profession in their first 3-5 years (N = 67). It explored if and how initial and current beliefs about students buffer the challenges teachers face in their entry years in the profession, if these beliefs change across time, and if these beliefs vary across grade level and school-level socioeconomic setting (SES). This study also examined a subset of teachers (n = 21) to explore how preservice teacher and classroom observation data can inform teachers’ beliefs about student learning in their first years of teaching. Results indicated that teachers’ beliefs about students become more integrated across time and demonstrate growth in expertise in teachers’ beliefs about students. Also, teachers held more positive perceptions of students over time in addition to a greater emphasis on the importance of preparation, completion, trying another way when you struggle, finishing strong, and having a plan when you are done. Grade level differences in beliefs existed in the first year, but disappeared across time. Further, no significant differences in beliefs about students across school-level SES were present as teachers entered the classroom and did not change as they adapted to these settings. The positive and more coherent beliefs that teachers held in their third, fourth, and fifth year of teaching (as compared to their first) suggest that these beliefs help them cope in their first five years in the profession.

Culture has been recognized to play an important role in the formation of parental beliefs, but the question still remains of whether beliefs are maintained or revised over time, and how. The present study examined how proximal influences impacted parental beliefs in an immigrant sample of parents, the thesis being that distal influences have more to do with the formation of parental beliefs while proximal influences have more to do with maintaining or revising them. Effects of the proximal influences of education, occupation status, information networks, and parental agreement about childrearing, on parental beliefs of Mexican-origin fathers and mothers around cultural values of familism/respeto, simpatía, and individualism were tested longitudinally. The research questions were two-fold in nature, looking at within-time effects of the proximal influences on parental beliefs; as well as over-time effects of proximal influences on change in parental beliefs. The within-time questions were answered using hierarchical regression analyses while the over-time questions were answered using repeated measures MANCOVAs. Overall, the beliefs of parents in this study were seen to not change significantly over the course of the three years that they were assessed, and so the study did not yield the results expected in terms of the effects of proximal influences on parental beliefs. However, information networks and fathers' occupation status did emerge as promising proximal influences on parental beliefs, and the results also revealed maternal beliefs to be more responsive to the proximal influences of education, fathers' occupation status, information networks, and parental agreement about childrearing, than paternal beliefs.

The importance of using the target language (TL) in the FL classroom is ingrained in the minds of most language teachers e.g., the Direct Method, Audiolingualism, and the Communicative Method. However, few studies have examined how TL and first language (L1) are being used in the FL classroom (Duff & Polio, 1990, 1994; Macaro, 2001; Levine, 2003). Even less research has been done regarding the purpose(s) for which the L1 and TL are being used in the classroom and the types of discourse for which the L1 and TL are being employed by teachers and students. There is, however, a growing number of researchers who have begun to question the exclusion of the L1 from the classroom (Guthrie, 1984; Cook, 2001; Macaro, 2001; Turnbull, 2001).This study was carried out at the University of Arizona. Sixteen first- and second-year Spanish classes were video- and audio-recorded over the course of three observations. Additionally, over 500 students participated in a pre- and post-listening test as well as a survey regarding perceptions of L1 and TL use in the classroom and beliefs about language use. This study also investigated in what types of discourse the L1 and TL are being employed and some of the motivations behind this usage. Also, explored are the differences between native and non-native instructors of the TL.The results showed that while there was a strong positive correlation between the instructors' use of the L1 and the students' use of the L1, this did not adversely affect the listening gains in the classroom. Also, it was found that both the students and the instructors were able with a high degree of accuracy to predict the L1 and TL of the instructors in the classroom. Finally, there were no significant differences between the classes with native speaking instructors of the TL and those who were non-native speaking instructors of the TL. This study contributes to a better understanding of actual classroom language usage, the motivations behind L1 and TL use, and the students' and teachers' perceptions of the role of the L1 and TL in the classroom.

This dissertation examines the interactions of mathematicians, mathematics educators, and teachers with a set of 12 algebra problems. The data are from two Making Connections workshops (2006 and 2008) which included members of these three professional groups; each workshop was comprised of 13 participants. The primary analytical focus was a task in which each professional group separately discussed and categorized the 12 algebra problems; interviews were conducted with the participants from the 2008 workshop. The methods and analysis of this study were framed by research on the teaching and learning of algebra, on curriculum use as a participatory relationship, and on the dispositions and beliefs of members of the three professional groups.The study indicated that teachers, as compared to the other two groups, drew more heavily upon their knowledge of students as they made sense of the algebra problems. Teachers were at times concerned with the wording of questions as an obstacle for students. The mathematicians and mathematics educators put a greater focus on algebraic structure as they discussed the problems whereas the teachers put a greater focus on graphing. I connect these findings to the workshop participants' views of algebra.

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In spite of a multi-decade mandate to enact inquiry in science, research reports that a large gap continues to exist in Ontario between the vision of science education presented in curriculum documents and what is enacted in the classroom. A three-staged, mixed methods design was chosen to examine teachers’ beliefs and practices that contribute to an understanding of this longstanding gap in teaching practice related to inquiry. The participants in this study were secondary school science teachers currently employed by one medium-sized, urban & rural district public school board. Quantitative data was first collected through a self-reporting survey designed to explore teachers’ beliefs related to teaching and learning in inquiry. Completed questionnaires were submitted by 80 % (n = 83) of the population of science teachers. Qualitative data, collected through semi-structured interviews (n = 17), were used to confirm and expand the quantitative findings. Quantitative analysis resulted in the development of an empirical framework to illustrate the dimensionality of teachers’ beliefs and practices related to inquiry. Four types of science teachers were identified during qualitative analysis, each associated with a preferred type of inquiry and each identifiable by a cluster of beliefs. A stance was determined for each of these types of teachers representing their generalized view of teaching and learning related to inquiry including: utilitarian science, content-based science, authentic contextual science, and citizenship science. Additionally, each group of teachers could be associated with one of the four quadrants in my framework. Lastly, a beliefs profile was produced to represent each quadrant in this framework based on integration of the quantitative and qualitative findings. Challenges to enactment and types of program support to foster enactment of open-ended inquiry were identified by science teachers associated with each stance. A few of these challenges and types of program support represent newer areas for research that can inform educational leaders and teacher-educators and support decision-making so as to meet the diverse needs of both pre-service and in-service science teachers, thereby, fostering the enactment of open-ended inquiry as practical science.

In spite of a multi-decade mandate to enact inquiry in science, research reports that a large gap continues to exist in Ontario between the vision of science education presented in curriculum documents and what is enacted in the classroom. A three-staged, mixed methods design was chosen to examine teachers’ beliefs and practices that contribute to an understanding of this longstanding gap in teaching practice related to inquiry. The participants in this study were secondary school science teachers currently employed by one medium-sized, urban & rural district public school board. Quantitative data was first collected through a self-reporting survey designed to explore teachers’ beliefs related to teaching and learning in inquiry. Completed questionnaires were submitted by 80 % (n = 83) of the population of science teachers. Qualitative data, collected through semi-structured interviews (n = 17), were used to confirm and expand the quantitative findings. Quantitative analysis resulted in the development of an empirical framework to illustrate the dimensionality of teachers’ beliefs and practices related to inquiry. Four types of science teachers were identified during qualitative analysis, each associated with a preferred type of inquiry and each identifiable by a cluster of beliefs. A stance was determined for each of these types of teachers representing their generalized view of teaching and learning related to inquiry including: utilitarian science, content-based science, authentic contextual science, and citizenship science. Additionally, each group of teachers could be associated with one of the four quadrants in my framework. Lastly, a beliefs profile was produced to represent each quadrant in this framework based on integration of the quantitative and qualitative findings. Challenges to enactment and types of program support to foster enactment of open-ended inquiry were identified by science teachers associated with each stance. A few of these challenges and types of program support represent newer areas for research that can inform educational leaders and teacher-educators and support decision-making so as to meet the diverse needs of both pre-service and in-service science teachers, thereby, fostering the enactment of open-ended inquiry as practical science.

Using a single case study methodology, the purpose of this research was to investigate how school culture, induction programs, and a beginning teacher’s prior beliefs and experiences influenced a beginning teacher’s understanding of parent engagement. Literature was reviewed pertaining to teacher induction, teacher interactions with parents, the effects of culture on beliefs, and the importance of an individual’s prior beliefs on future beliefs. The data for this study was obtained from three semi-structured interviews with a beginning teacher, single semi-structured interviews with the school’s principal, vice principal, and an experienced teacher, reflections from cultures walks performed by the experienced teacher and the researcher, and document scans of division and school records. It was found that the most important experiences that influenced the beginning teacher’s thinking about parents were her involvement in an undergraduate class focused on community and parent engagement, and her own experiences growing up with her parents. Other findings revealed that the beginning teacher needed further assistance in creating meaningful relationships with parents, the school culture had a limiting effect on the beginning teacher’s growth, and that the weakest influences on the beginning teacher’s understanding of parent engagement could be attributed to her inductions program. Implications include recommendations that beginning teachers have experience with parents off the school landscape, have access to professionals who successfully create parent-teacher relationships, and have taken a course focused on parent engagement during their undergraduate work. As well, a recommendation that school-based administrators receive parent engagement training is proposed. It is suggested that further research be done to understand the interplay between a beginning teacher’s prior beliefs about parent engagement and different school cultures and induction programs.

The study was prompted by the lack of existing research with regard to what people locally think and believe about dreams. The study aimed to uncover, explore, and describe current, local dream related beliefs, discourses, and practices (in the Vaal-Triangle area of South-Africa), using a postmodern, social constructivist, as well as a generally sociological approach. In support of this aim, a literature review of various religious, cultural, and psychological dream related discourses was executed. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with twenty respondents who were purposively selected from the administrative database of a Vaal-Triangle University on the basis of culture and gender. The interviews were recorded and the edited transcriptions thus derived served as basis for a thematic qualitative analysis of the respondents' dream related beliefs and practices. The findings were also examined with regard to cultural and gender related patterns, as well as in relation to existing dream discourses. Findings included that dreams were accorded differing degrees of importance by the respondents, that dreams were believed to originate both from internal factors such as an individual's mental and emotional state and neurological processes, as well as from external factors such as daily events and experiences, deceased relatives, and God. Furthermore, dreams were believed to serve several different functions such as mental processing, releasing pent-up emotions, expressing fears or desires, predicting the future, or providing warnings and solutions to problems. Dreams also often served as basis for decisions and actions, most often in order to avoid a negative outcome, or actualize a positive scenario shown by a dream. Several types of unusual dream experiences were reported, including precognitive dreams, dreams that provided contact with a deceased relative or ancestor, spiritual experiences in dreams, as well as sleep paralysis. The most significant sociological findings included that dreams often influence the nature and content of social interaction between individuals, frequently serving as a source of humour and entertainment; that the mother often serves as the "keeper" of knowledge about dreams, and that local dream discourses and practices might in part be transmitted matrilineally. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Sociology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005