abstract: This research shares findings from a qualitative case study featuring pre-service teachers enrolled in an undergraduate English methods course at a large public university. The participants engaged in a semester long course focused on different critical pedagogies, such as culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2014), funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992), and multicultural education (hooks, 1992). The purpose of the study was to determine what effect the study of critical pedagogies would have on the pre-service teachers’ design of a civic action unit for a secondary English language arts context. In terms of which critical pedagogies influenced the design of the civic action units, how the critical pedagogies were adapted for specific contexts, and how the critical pedagogies are negotiated with other systemic educational forces. The data collection occurred over the final six weeks of the course and in a follow-up interview a month later. Data were drawn from the following sources: (1) participant’s weekly reflections, (2) audio recorded class discussions, (3) researcher field notes, (4) participant’s civic action units, and (5) follow-up interviews. The participant reflections, civic action units, and interviews went through three rounds of coding and were categorized to identify salient findings. The audio recordings and field notes were referenced to provide contextual details. These findings show that when pre-service teachers engage in an ongoing dialogue about critical pedagogies, they design civic action units that apply a variety of critical pedagogies for a unique context while accounting for different systemic forces including educational standards, colleagues, and parents and policies. For the course, the participants were able to pick their unit’s focus and were responsible for the unit’s design. The participants designed units that engaged students in consciousness-raising experiences, and created opportunities for students to critically reflect on their world and take action to improve it. As a result, the participants in this study all reported that they planned on using their civic action unit in their future classrooms. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2020

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / There is general recognition regarding the importance of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses in assisting students acquire academic discourses appropriate to specific disciplines of study. However, undergraduate students in multilingual contexts, where English is a second or foreign language face challenges in managing the transition from secondary school into the university, where they are expected to appropriate as well as acclimate to new discourses of communication deemed to be essential for their survival in the academic world. Although studies show the importance of agency in language learning success, institutional demands have sometimes led to the adoption of teaching and assessment practices that ignore the learners’ English language learning history, background, experiences and needs, which impact on their sense of agency and voice in the EAP classroom and eventually their learning success.

Black women are disproportionately burdened by type-2 diabetes (Bancks et al., 2017) and their experience of health inequities is negatively shaped by institutionalized racism in the US (Feagin & Bennefield, 2014). Previous research has demonstrated the impact of type-2 diabetes on the Black community, yet fails to adequately capture the complexity of Black women’s experiences navigating the disease (Hurt et al., 2017). This two-phase qualitative dissertation study addresses this gap in the literature. Drawing from critical race theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012), feminist theory (Collins, 2002) and popular education (Freire, 1970), photovoice and interview methods were employed to examine how one group of Black women residing in Boston experience type-2 diabetes. Phase I included a photovoice project with 11 Black women between the ages of 36 and 69 recruited from an area diabetes clinic and community agencies. Phase II included one focus group (N=4) with interdisciplinary diabetes providers from an area diabetes clinic and 13 individual interviews with interdisciplinary diabetes providers including: physicians, nurse practitioners, clinical pharmacists, dieticians and social workers from three Boston medical institutions. The researcher explored provider perceptions of the photovoice findings and their implications for provider education and training. The researcher used inductive thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) to further contextualize the photovoice findings in phase I and to analyze providers’ reactions to the photovoice analysis in phase II. Photovoice participants and providers interpreted the photovoice findings differently. The photovoice participants’ analysis reflected a hopeful, aspirational message despite the complexity of navigating type-2 diabetes and the competing messages about health and wellness many Black women internalize. In contrast, provider reflections were more deficit driven and focused on medical management. Further, providers shared some biased assumptions about Black women’s experiences with type-2 diabetes such as inferring substance use as a concern from one of the photos. This research highlights the transformative power of photovoice methods (Wang & Burris, 1997) to engage Black women to make meaning of their experiences with type-2 diabetes and communicate their health priorities. These findings have important implications for interdisciplinary teaching models and future social work research and practice with Black women and other marginalized groups coping with chronic disease. / 2023-05-07T00:00:00Z

Despite legal advancements recognizing the rights of individuals with disabilities, societal barriers are still arising from the medical model of disability. These obstacles have resulted in marginalizing and isolating practices, in turn leading to the underrepresentation of individuals with disabilities in the workforce and, by extension, in leadership positions. Grounded in the frameworks of critical pedagogy and critical disability studies, this autoethnographic study examines, using my personal experiences as contextual evidence, the determining factors underlying the struggle for equity and leadership, within the hegemonic society that people with disabilities must navigate. The study further explores the issue of empowerment and raised consciousness among people with disabilities, as afforded by blending the tenets of critical pedagogy with a critical social model of disability. Based on the autoethnographic analysis, the study proposes future research and makes recommendations for inclusion of individuals with disabilities, educators working with people with disabilities, and institutions committed to inclusiveness of leaders with disabilities.

Inom utbildningsväsendet återkommer att stipulera, reglera, föra in klausuler och skapa ramverk för hur lärare kan anamma skolverkets riktlinjer inom de skolämnen som eleverna ämnar studera. Allt som oftast fylls kurser inom såväl universitet som grundläggande utbildningar till en bredd som inte tillåter ämnesöverskridande arbete. Förlusterna när närvaron av ämnesöverskridande arbete uteblir kan mätas såväl höga som låga, inom området demokrati och samhälleligt engagemang tillskrivs förlusten högre på skalan. Ambitionen att undervisa studenter i politiskt engagemang möter hinder i lärares rädsla för det politiska samtalet, Habermas erbjuder den rationella utopin i det deliberativa samtalet, Dewey i egenskap av pedagog betonar vikten av ständigt engagemang för att bibehålla demokratins goda krafter. Behovet av att inkorporera fler aktörer i arbetet mot att skapa mer delaktiga medborgare ur skolelever emanera från brist på samarbete mellan ämnen, lärare men även i relationen mellan  föräldrar, politiker och utbildningsväsendet. Studier belyser hur elever söker efter mer politisk kunskap samtidigt som även studenter vid universitet vill erhålla mer praktiska råd och verktyg för att påverka sitt samhälle. Vikten av att utbildning stödjer eleverna i deras behov efter autonomi och engagemang överskrider enligt flertalet forskare neoliberalismens mål att ge rätt verktyg för bättre jobbmöjligheter. Studier visar att utvecklingen ifrån engagemang för sitt samhälle och mot individualistiska strävan leder till försämrade förutsättningar för elever att agera demokratiskt. Sammanfattningsvis visar studier i området undervisning för att forma aktiva medborgare att mer fokus måste riktas mot hur lärare, resten av samhället och slutligen eleverna bör samarbeta inom utbildningsväsendet för att främja politiskt engagemang. / Within the field of education, rules and maintaining a system where the educators are following a set of rules, is a common recurring structure. These structures often refrain from exchanging information between subjects and are more prone too single-subject focus. Not engaging in cross-subject education gains loses as well as victories, although within the realm of democracy and political engagement the losses are often more prominent. The fear of educating students is a fault with educators which forms an obstacle when ambition strives for more political engagement within education. Jurgen Habermas offers his theory of the deliberative conversation, that emphasizes rationality within discussion and the utopian belief that everyone can converse with one another. The pedagogy John Dewey emphasizes the need for constant development when addressing democracy within education too always keep evil at bay and aspire for good. Autonomy is essential to keep students aspirations for participation within politics, more and more students are in demand for more” hands-on” education. More is needed when one addresses how to make active citizens, studies show that more students lack in democratic values because rest of society is either not addressing political issues or are less interested in politics than obtaining a high-income employment.

Traditionally, the teacher body is disregarded in the educational field. This is because of traditional Western ideologies within which hierarchical dichotomies such as mind/body, matter/discourse, and theory/practice are maintained. In this study, I investigate discourse in four Swedish teacher’s manuals on norm-critical pedagogy. Proceeding from postconstructionist and feminist corpomaterialist perspectives, I research how the manuals maintain and/or challenge the traditional ways of knowledge production concerning the teacher. More specifically, I analyse how the manuals address the teacher body and how they challenge and/or reproduce the idea of ‘a bodiless teacher’. Proceeding from Critical Discourse Analysis by Norman Fairclough, postconstructionism, feminist corpomaterialism, and Guattarian and Deleuzian philosophy of affects, I look at the linguistic, discursive, and social practices of the manuals. In addition, I contribute to the discussion from my experiences as a teacher educator and educational material creator in questions related to equality and inclusion.  I argue that the manuals mainly maintain the traditional ways of knowledge production concerning the teacher by depicting the teacher as ‘bodiless’. This is done by disregarding the teacher body and addressing it as static. Nevertheless, the manuals challenge the idea of ‘a bodiless teacher’ in part. This is done by addressing the teacher body as being in composition with time, space, matter, and power (i.e., created in affective forces). Overall, the idea of ‘a bodiless teacher’ is maintained to a larger extent than it is challenged. As I understand discourse as both constituted and constituting, I claim that the manuals take part in the current discourse around the teacher, and adhere to the idea that there is no room for the teacher body and its inevitable parts (such as emotions, feelings, passion) in an educational context.

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