Recently there has been a call to disrupt the continuous cycle of (re)production from within university-based programs through the development of transformative approaches rooted in the cultural norms of traditionally marginalized populations. This study aimed to explore how one such approach, critical hip-hop pedagogy (CHHP), manifests within the formal university-based teacher education setting. Focusing on one specific course in a prestigious, Northeastern university, this study explores how the course was conceptualized, enacted, experienced and interpreted by both the professor and twelve enrolled teachers in the Spring 2017 semester. Through qualitative case study methodology the purpose of this study was to: (1) document the ways that one CHHP teacher educator carves out space for his work amidst the politically charged teacher education space; (2) document and analyze the pedagogical moves embedded in the praxis of one teacher educator who teaches a university-based course designed to prepare teachers to utilize hip-hop cultural artifacts and aesthetics to critical educational ends; and (3) document and analyze the ways in which enrolled pre-service teachers experience, conceptualize, and interpret these practices. Four key findings are presented: (1) the professor conceptualized and enacted the course as a means of disrupting dominant narratives about acceptable and effective approaches to teaching and learning; (2) his enactments of CHHP embodied hip-hop cultural practices and aesthetics through his (re)conceptualization of teacher as MC; (3) the course’s structure through the aesthetics and rules of engagement of the hip-hop cypher provided a variety of ways for students to actively participate in the processes of knowledge production; (4) enrolled teachers reported new understandings of hip-hop as culture, resulting in shifts in perspectives on key issues impacting education and their visions for themselves as educators. Given these findings, this study suggests that the professor’s construction and enactment of the course resulted in an immersive experience in which he taught through a CHHP framework rather than about it, as is often seen in courses claiming similar critical multicultural and culturally relevant approaches, creating a dynamic immersive cultural experience for the enrolled teachers.

This dissertation is a qualitative case study exploring the understandings, beliefs, and practices of Youth Spoken Word Poetry (YSW) educators who work within the field of Hip Hop-Based Education (HHBE) and have grown from youth participants to adult professionals within an international YSW Network. This study examines how current YSW practitioners describe and understand their work, along with the multiple literacy practices they utilize related to spirituality and race. This study is framed by a sociocultural lens of education, includes a blend of qualitative research methods related to narrative approaches, and is inspired by literature grounded in Hip Hop-Based Education; Race and Education; and Spirituality and Education. It is a hope of this study that the findings lead to a more nuanced understanding of how HHBE functions within the landscape of education and impact how we approach HHBE moving forward. Major findings revealed that the participants describe themselves as racialized and spiritual beings in implicit and explicit ways. YSW participants in this study described the field of YSW as grounded in African American lineages and acknowledged that the field currently functions as pluralistic and multicultural. YSW participants describe spirituality as personal, collective, and transcendent experiences. Though participants defined spirituality differently, they described it as something that is present, naming it as an important factor to be considered when examining YSW practice. Core literacy practices participants engaged with and enacted within the YSW community related to race and spirituality included acknowledging their voice as something that was expressed individually, collectively, and universally and across time (past, present, and future). These findings highlight the value of communities that support: (1) Reflection, or honoring individual identities; (2) Refraction, or honoring Communities of Practice that shape our paths; and (3) Dispersion, or the use of stories to support dreaming, sharing, and revolutionizing the world as we know it.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Antioch University, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Apr. 10, 2007). Advisor: Jon F. Wergin. Keywords: transformative learning theory, deliberative curriculum theory, graduate professional education, theory building, higher education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 377-399).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Antioch University New England, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Apr. 12, 2007). Advisor: Heidi Watts. "A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy [in] Environmental Studies at Antioch New England Graduate School 2006"--The title page. Keywords: environmental advocacy, activist training, social movements, curriculum action research, master's curriculum, environmental studies, popular education, critical pedagogy, education for citizenship. Includes bibliographical references (p. 345-357).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-152).

As a culturally relevant alternative to traditional public school environments, Independent African Centered schools feature a particular type of culturally relevant pedagogy. This study explored the teachers’ and administrator’s perceptions and applications of African Centered pedagogy in an African Centered school. Interviews, observations and a document review served as the source of data for this study. This basic interpretive study utilized a qualitative research design to explore the perceptions and application of African Centeredness among the participants. An analysis of the data revealed categories and themes related to the school’s mission and the participants’ perceptions and performance of African-centered pedagogy. Three general conclusions were drawn from the findings. Implications for theory, study limitations and recommendations for future research are provided.

Empathy has been studied in composition since the 1960s, although it has not yet been adequately defined or theorized. Compositionists tend to employ the common definition of empathy as a feeling of identification with others using the familiar metaphor “walking in another’s shoes,” derived from the liberal-humanist therapeutic paradigm of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, which assumes a universal and transparent human experience. The purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical framework for empathy, answering the question: what is the function of empathy in the teaching of writing? Composition scholarship has shown three general orientations toward empathy: empathy embraced, empathy inferred, and empathy disdained. In response, I trace empathy’s development across disciplines as an aesthetic, ethical, physiological, and psychological construct using current research that shows empathy is a multifaceted, complex, cognitive process. In psychology and neuroscience, empathy is on the cutting edge of research, visible as brain activity in fMRI studies, theorized to have a vital role in evolution, and studied for its efficacy as a vehicle for altruistic action on behalf of stigmatized individuals and groups. Building on this multidisciplinary foundation, I offer an updated definition of empathy that invokes these scientific discoveries in order to account for empathy’s role in the teaching and study of writing and rhetoric. I theorize there are five empathies at work in composition—relational empathy, pedagogical empathy, critical empathy, rhetorical empathy, and discursive empathy. I describe these empathies using another metaphor, that of a watershed, to illustrate empathy as part of a natural process whereby the five empathies are separate like the tributaries in a river system yet as inseparable as the water that fills them. Empathy’s primary weaknesses, the familiarity and morality biases, are addressed; these are foundational to most criticisms of empathy. In the final chapter, I propose a sample course focusing on the study of rhetorical empathy, address the limitations of the study, provide many directions for further research, and argue that the study (and practice) of empathy itself and rhetorical empathy in particular are vital in today’s uncertain times. / Dissertation Chair: Dr. Bennett A. Rafoth Dissertation Committee Members: Dr. Gian S. Pagnucci and Dr. Michael M. Williamson

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-148).

This paper is a curriculum proposal for a mid to high beginner adult English as a Second Language class. It is hoped that this curriculum will prove to meet students’ academic needs, especially in terms of development of literacy, listening skills, and language learning strategies. In addition to this, the lessons include a critical orientation; that is, the class is structured to facilitate student engagement with social issues, namely racism and economic struggles. With these considerations in minds, two units comprising half the semester were developed and relevant extra materials are provided. / text

This purpose of this interpretive research study was to deepen our understanding of the meaning of culturally relevant physical education and health pedagogy (Ladson Billings, 1994; Halas, McRae & Carpenter, 2012) from the perspective of racialized minority women. Four female students from diverse backgrounds participated in a talking circle where they discussed their experiences in physical education and health (PEH) settings. Wilson’s (2008) idea of relational accountability, as described through Indigenous approaches to research, was used to help interrogate and interrupt systems of privilege, power and marginalization that characterize many PEH settings. The findings reveal the on-going need for culturally relevant pedagogical approaches that encourage, affirm and recognize the cultural landscapes of students. More research is needed to understand how students can be motivated to learn and grow in ways that develop their critical social consciousness regarding the social inequities that impact their PEH experiences. / October 2015