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Students with intellectual disabilities have at times been overlooked and denied effective reading instruction. Teachers tasked with instructing such students are often limited in the training, resources, and support necessary to effectively instruct these students in reading. These problems are further compounded by the fact that students with intellectual disabilities have historically been misperceived, often by the very educators tasked with instructing them, as either being unable to learn to read or that the prospect of teaching them to read is simply too daunting and complicated to be of sufficient worth (Aldridge, 2014; Kluth & Chandler-Olcott, 2008). Such misperception may lead to insufficient and/or misguided instruction of these students limiting their potential learning and growth (Kliewer, Biklen, & Kasa-Hendrickson, 2006). This qualitative case study explored the perceptions and lived experiences of eight special education teachers from five different school districts, who both worked with students with intellectual disabilities and mentored preservice teachers who worked with students with intellectual disabilities in the area of reading. This study focused on the perceptions of these special education teacher/ mentors before, during and after receiving training in the Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI) program, based on five areas of reading: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Vocabulary. Data suggested a universal lack of support and training in reading for these special education teacher/mentors. Changes of perceptions and teaching practices of the special education teacher/mentors relative to explicit reading instruction for students with intellectual abilities are explored. Implications for practice are included.

<p>This dissertation is premised on using an asset-based framework to investigate how engineering educators provide culturally relevant engineering education to Nigerian students at the undergraduate level. Its research questions are as follows: <i>How do engineering educators provide culturally relevant teaching to Nigerian students? What can we learn about culturally relevant teaching in engineering education from a comparative study of institutions and educators in the Nigerian context? What are the affordances, challenges, and recommendations</i><i>?</i> This dissertation leverages the socio-psychological teacher conceptions of “knowledge,” “social relations,” and the “self” and “others” described by Gloria Ladson Billings’ culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) framework. Schools located in all six of Nigeria’s geopolitical zones and participants fluent in her three major spoken languages are represented in the study. The analyzed data for this study include surveys, in-person and virtual classroom observations, teacher reflection journals, classroom artifacts, school policy documents, and semi-structured interviews with 37 engineering faculty members, 2 provosts, 5 engineering college deans, and 2 students. The findings reveal a strong penchant for <b>analogies and proverbs as analogical bridges</b> that engineering instructors in this context used when traditional experiments, classroom demonstrations, or available educational resources failed. Nuances of culturally-relevant teacher conceptions include: <u>using proverbs to build cognitive reasoning in Nigerian engineering classrooms; visual and auditory cues as a type of formative feedback; analogies as a pedagogical form; advocating for active and authentic learning through tutorials; leveraging the communal nature of the culture in the classroom; colonial antecedents responsible for certain school policies; manifestations of Ladson-Billings’ conceptions in this context; and peculiarities of the three CRP criteria in this context.</u> The dissertation concludes with implications of the study for culturally relevant engineering education and useful recommendations for instructors looking for culturally relevant ways of supporting students of Nigerian origins in their engineering classrooms.</p>

Orwell is painfully aware of almost all the difficulties under which the present day writer labors. These range from the squalid reality of poverty (espeoially true in his own case) to a serious uncertainty over the nature and purpose of literature. However, four problems seem to stick in his mind and he returns to them continually- They are (1) the difficulty of maintaining one's intellectual and artistiointegrity in a world whioh increasingly threatens personal freedom; (2) the neoessity of finding a balance between the claims of art and those of propaganda in literary works; (3) the steady deterioration of the English language under political and social pressures; and finally (4) the hardships which the writer is oompelled to suffer if he tries to support himself solely by his writing.

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Service learning has been proposed as a way to create a meaningful environment for the language acquisition process (Weldon & Trautmann, 2003). As a pedagogical tool for second language acquisition the greatest benefit of utilizing service learning activities is that it creates connections to the target language community and provides authentic experiences for target language use (Long, 2003; Morris, 2001). However, there is no detailed record of how service learning actually impacts language and culture acquisition (Bloom, 2008). This multiple case study describes the ways in which four advanced Spanish learners engaged with service learning and the influence of this activity on their ability to communicate in the target language. Each case provides triangulated descriptions of what actually occurred when students went onsite to engage in service learning activities, what their personal reflections were on the experience, and how they carried this experience back into their classroom and academic work. Qualitative analysis of onsite and in-class observations, face-to-face interviews, electronic journal entries, and reflective written reports revealed the importance of the nature of interactions and language use in service learning for second-language acquisition. Where the service was more academically aligned and offered repeated interactions in the target language, students were more likely to advance their language skills. However, though the service may provide an important community contribution, all service learning did not prove equal in its ability to instruct and align with desired educational outcomes.

The purpose of this case study is to investigate Waldorf pedagogy. In particular, it investigates how assessment of productive language skills, speaking and writing, is carried out at a Waldorf School. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted at a compulsory school. One in-depth teacher interview was held and one group interview with four students. Participants were observed in their natural classroom setting on a few occasions. The results indicate that how assessment is carried out depends on the class, situation and the task performed by students. There is a tendency to assess speaking on an individual level or in smaller groups. Findings indicate that personal texts written by students are somewhat more assessed and that communicative ability in general is more valued than accuracy. This study demonstrates that decisions are made when assessing different skills, where the teacher decides on what as well as how to assess. Focus on form/grammar has a role in assessment since distinctions are made between mistakes. Students have an informal yet clear understanding of how they are being assessed. In this Waldorf School we see that different educational techniques were employed by the teacher. For instance, different types of assessment were used. Discrimination of minor errors and those that interfere with communication were part of assessment sometimes. This study also shows that different parts of language were assessed and that the process of learning was given priority and therefore part of assessment.

This dissertation examines backsourcing of corporate IS activities, and why IS outsourcing clients decide to backsource. Information Systems (IS) backsourcing is a business practice in which a company takes back in-house assets, activities, and skills that are part of its IS operations and were previously outsourced to one or more outside information service suppliers. Focusing on economic, strategic and relationship motives, a number of theoretical backsourcing factors is derived from transaction cost theory, agency theory, core competency perspective, IOR theory and marketing channels literature. To identify factors salient in IS backsourcing and to examine the process of backsourcing this dissertation employs exploratory case study methodology. Six outsourcing contracts within three client companies are analyzed. The evidence is collected using semi-structured interviews, archival records and company documents. Results of individual cases are reported and then triangulated to single out the primary backsourcing antecedents. Qualitative comparative analysis is employed to augment the findings. The findings indicate that service quality of the outsourcing arrangement, cost benefit of backsourcing, change in the role of IS, loss of control over the outsourcing arrangement, changes in the management and power of decision makers and other organizations impact backsourcing decisions. Strategic considerations, change in the role of IS and loss of control, dominate backsourcing decision even if costs or service quality suggest otherwise. The executives exert power through their structural position within organization and have a major influence on decisions. Executives' beliefs, prior experience and values impact their perception of backsourcing and play a role in backsourcing decisions. Additionally, the power of other organizations involved in the interorganizational relationships with the client company is important. These organizations use political maneuvering to impose their goals on the client company. While service quality and cost considerations are important deliverables in the outsourcing contract, these factors by itself do not justify the decision to backsource.