Writing gives children a chance to practice self-expression and creativity (Dobson, 2015b; Millard, 2005) as they learn needed literacy skills (Calkins, 2003). When children write, they appropriate semiotic materials from popular culture, literature, and the world around them (Dyson, 1997, 2003, 2013). Although the National Commission on Writing (2003) recommended that writing instruction be "placed squarely in the center of the elementary curriculum," attention to writing continues to lag behind other subjects (Coker et al., 2016; Cutler and Graham, 2008; Korth et al., 2016; Simmerman et al., 2012). Vygotsky's sociocultural (1978) and creativity (1971) theories, together with Freire's critical pedagogy theory (1970), form the basis of the theoretical framework used for this research. Various literature on the importance of writing (e.g., Dyson, 1993, 2008), creativity (e.g., Csikszsentmihalyi, 1996), and place (e.g., Gruenewald, 2003) were also influential in its framing. This study sought to illuminate the possibilities that emerge when rural students in the intermediate elementary grades engage in narrative fiction writing. Qualitative content analysis (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005) was used to analyze 237 stories written as the culminating project of the semester-length Fiction unit of Promoting PLACE (Azano et al., 2017a), a place-based language arts curriculum for fourth graders attending rural schools. The researcher first typed the stories, making low-level inferences to correct spelling and grammar mistakes so comparisons could be made across stories about macrostructure elements (Koustofas, 2018), or the overall structure, organization, and cohesion of the piece. The data were described and catalogued according to codes that emerged from a deep dive into the stories. Thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) was used to inductively identify thematic understandings across the stories. Specifically, the researcher searched for expressions of identity, connections to place, and mastery of age-appropriate language arts standards. Findings revealed that students can exert agency and express their identities through creative writing and that many students demonstrated mastery of needed language arts skills through the narrative fiction writing task. The study illuminated the value of sharing place-based literature as "mentor texts" for rural students, the importance of providing choice in writing assignments, and the need to foster the writing talent of rural students as a matter of social justice. / Doctor of Philosophy / Writing gives children a chance to practice self-expression and creativity (Dobson, 2015b; Millard, 2005) as they learn needed literacy skills (Calkins, 2003), yet attention to writing lags behind other subjects (Coker et al., 2016; Cutler and Graham, 2008; Korth et al., 2016; Simmerman et al., 2012). Using Vygotsky's sociocultural (1978) and creativity (1971) theories, together with Freire's critical pedagogy theory (1970), as the theoretical framework, this study sought to illuminate the possibilities that emerge when rural students in the intermediate elementary grades engage in narrative fiction writing. Qualitative content analysis (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005) was used to analyze 237 stories written as the culminating project of the semester-length Fiction unit of Promoting PLACE (Azano et al., 2017a), a place-based language arts curriculum for fourth graders attending rural schools. Thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) was used to inductively identify thematic understandings across the stories, and findings revealed that students exerted agency and expressed their identities through creative writing while demonstrating mastery of needed language arts skills. The study illuminated the value of sharing place-based literature as "mentor texts" for rural students, the importance of providing choice in writing assignments, and the need to foster the writing talent of rural students as a matter of social justice.

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.

Youth of color are routinely dehumanized and treated as objects both in schools and in society. The “banking method” approach to teaching and stringent zero tolerance policies that are prevalent in low-income schools predominantly populated by youth of color serve to push youth out of school and pull them into the school-to-prison pipeline. When students do not meet their school’s standards, the institutional gaze is fixed disapprovingly on the child and the family. The history of segregation and institutionalized oppression that led to a legacy of inadequate and culturally irrelevant schooling and a poor quality of life for communities of color is erased. For the children who grow up in such environments, a historical silence makes it difficult if not impossible to make sense of their present-day conditions and the changes they are witnessing in their communities. People Organized in the Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER) is an organization that focuses on issues of environmental, economic, and social justice, and strives to facilitate youth empowerment through their Young Scholars for Justice (YSJ) summer program. The youth of color in the program are positioned as knowledgeable researchers and historical actors in their community. The Chicana feminist epistemology of PODER’s staff members creates a nurturing and family-like environment for the youth, which has a significant impact on the females, and enables youth to utilize personal experiences to develop a structural analysis of oppression. As youth acquire a historical conocimiento of East Austin, they also learn about organized resistance to oppression vis-à-vis environmental justice campaigns. In doing so, a spiritual activism blossoms in the youth that is born from their wounds of oppression and rooted in a cultural and historical awareness of their community. The youth engage in a cycle of praxis as their spiritual activism mobilizes them against injustices and ushers in their transformation into subjects. Through participant observation and interviews, I weave together a critical case study of the YSJ program that is informed by the metamorphosis I experienced after participating in the program. / text

The purpose of this study was to analyze teacher-selected children's literature for its potential use with critical pedagogy in the elementary classroom. This multi-analytical study uses tenets from critical multicultural analysis (CMA) and components from visual analysis (VA) to guide a critical content analysis of teacher-selected children's literature. Since it is the only nationally-recognized book list solely selected by educators, the texts for this study were selected from the Teachers' Choices Reading List titles. Although prior research on teacher-selected literature for the potential use of critical pedagogy in the elementary classroom does not exist, the results of this study show many opportunities for such within the last three years of the Teachers' Choices Reading List. A discussion on these results is presented through Paulo Freire's concept of critical pedagogy, as described in three stages: critique, hope, and action. Implications for practice and research are suggested based on the results of the study.

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To explore the reported knowledge and skills held by secondary campus-based administrators pertaining to the instructional and programmatic needs of students with disabilities, a mixed-methods nationwide study of administrators was conducted. Data were collected through an internet survey delivered via email, yielding a total of 159 secondary campus-based administrators. The theoretical framework of Critical Pedagogy served as an analytical tool for investigating whether the lack of knowledge and skills of special education policy and procedures on the part of participating secondary campus-based administrators may contribute to the use of oppressive practices when serving the needs of students with disabilities. Additionally, using the lens of Critical Pedagogy, three national sets of leadership standards (CEC, 2008; ISLLC, 2008; and ELCC, 2011) for general and special education administrators were compared. The analysis of national leadership standards revealed a gradual yet limited progression toward a moral imperative (Burrello, Wayne-Sailor, & Kleinhammer-Tramill, 2012) to include more stakeholders in the education process and development of individual education programs at the secondary level for students with disabilities. Quantitative data obtained from the internet-based survey were analyzed using a frequency distribution. Using naturalistic inquiry without a predetermined focus or preordinate categories of analysis (Patton, 2002), qualitative responses to open-ended survey questions were investigated to discover and identify emergent themes. Findings indicate a breakdown in communication between administrators and students with disabilities and their families has occurred. Secondary campus-based administrators need and want more training in all areas of special education policy and procedures. Specifically they would like more coursework and professional development concerning special education law, information concerning specific disabilities, accommodations or modifications appropriate for said disabilities, RTI and Identification, discipline, understanding the IEP/BIP process, and how to work with teachers concerning special education requirements. Critical Pedagogy is advanced as a useful tool to be used by program directors for leadership preparation and professional development to assist them in determining the most appropriate and beneficial type(s) of leadership preparation, mentoring, and follow-up training to facilitate the transformation of secondary campus-based administrators' leadership practices on behalf of students with disabilities and their families. / text

In 2003 school geography was in a state of crisis: enrolment in GCSE geography courses had fallen by a third over the previous eight years. In response, a radical new ‘pilot’ geography GCSE course was designed and implemented in England. The GCSE was an attempt to rejuvenate a school subject that had become out of date, with little change to its content since the inauguration of the National Curriculum in 1988. With student-centred learning at its heart the GCSE aimed to make the subject much more exciting and relevant to young people. The following thesis examines alternative pedagogical approaches to teaching school geography that draw on young people’s experiences as citizens and consumers to make geography more relevant and interesting to them. Written as an unfolding story this multi-sited ethnography began by exploring the networks behind the pilot. This involved not only several different actors/groups of actors (including geography educators, academic geographers, geography teachers and school pupils) but also several different spaces (including schools, classrooms, organisation headquarters, working group meetings and publications). It moves on to examine how the GCSE’s approaches to teaching, learning and assessing were being played out in practice and to what extent its aims, claims and intentions were being realised in the classroom. Through exploring the pilot’s approach to the pedagogy of school geography my research became action-oriented in approach, and I became involved in co-creating critical, connective curriculum materials for the GCSE. The development of these new materials and teaching and learning strategies are situated within debates in human geography about critical pedagogy, young people’s geographies and public geographies and the thesis forges links between these different theoretical strands. I conclude by asking what lessons can be learnt from the pilot GCSE and its implications for the role of geography within a wider educational context. Written autoethnographically to reflect the collaborative and iterative nature of my research my intention has been to critically engage with multiple publics who are involved in this area.

In 1968, Dr. Margaret Walker Alexander, professor of English at Jackson State College, founded a Black Studies Institute in Jackson, Mississippi. This study is an intellectual, institutional and social movement history that utilizes archival research and textual analysis of Alexander’s writings, poetry, and work as teacher and director of the Institute in the context of the Black Campus Movement (BCM) and Black Freedom Struggle. It pushes the boundaries of historiographical scholarship on BCM that overshadows the epistemological and aesthetic politics of women faculty-activists who ushered forth racialized and gendered analysis as well as developed the foundations of Black Studies.

There is a growing movement of indignation around the world that is calling out injustice and developing creative strategies to stand up to power and change the world. These are sparks that have flared up in the Arab spring, the occupy movement, idle no more, massive strikes in South Africa, environmental protests and many more. A growing body of literature suggests that movements such as these are not isolated instances but a growing global movement, despite what the mainstream media suggests (e.g. Brecher, Costello and Smith 2002; Hall, Clover, Crowther and Scandrett, 2012). This participatory action research tells the story of one grassroots environmental protest campaign. The protest campaign is ongoing and organized by non-native environmental kayaktivists in Coast Salish territory. It culminates each year in a five-day human powered flotilla of 100 people through the Salish Sea to connect communities and protest increased tanker traffic and a fossil fuel based economy. The research was both suggested and guided by the organizer activists. Their voices are openly represented in the research in order to reflect and appreciate their expertise and role in the research. The story this research tells demonstrates the role and value of protest campaigns in challenging root inequalities and presents practical strategies for building capacity for a global movement of social and environmental change that connects and addresses intersectional oppression globally. It also problematizes activist settler and First Nations relations. The research situates these campaigns as important sites of public learning and presents practical strategies for teaching and learning as if the world mattered. The organic and experiential approaches to learning revealed are applicable to informal, non-formal and formal learning practices. The research challenges the incestuous, white male, Eurocentric, hierarchical control of knowledge and knowledge making that has been used for centuries to justify and hide oppression and exploitation of imperialism, colonisation and war. This research emphasizes the need for creative solutions to the planetary crisis at hand, which require a reflection on the world and our position in it from diverse cultural perspectives. This means listening and learning from the wisdom of those who have been silenced. It requires a new type of learning that values wisdom over cleverness and places peaceful co existence at the centre of the curriculum. Learning in grassroots protest campaigns, such as the one represented in this case study, offer possible strategies for carrying out such learning. / Graduate / 0516, 0768, 0700 / capelton15@gmail.com

Orientador: Newton Duarte / Banca: Dermeval Saviani / Banca: Ana Maria Lombardi Daibem / Banca: Juliana Campregher Pasqualini / Banca: Lígia Márcia Martins / Banca: Nadia Mara Edit / Resumo: O Estado de São Paulo é o principal centro mercantil, corporativo e financeiro brasileiro. A Secretaria de Estado da Educação de São Paulo (SEE) administra mais de 200 mil professores, quatro milhões de alunos e cinco mil escolas. Diante desses números, verifica-se a importância de se desvelar a política educacional na rede estadual de ensino de São Paulo. Nossa tese central é que o construtivismo, implantado pela Secretaria de Estado da Educação de São Paulo em 1983, é elemento estratégico de sua política educacional e tem implicações decisivas para a baixa qualidade da educação destinada aos estudantes da rede de ensino paulista. O objeto da pesquisa é, portanto, a concepção pedagógica construtivista e sua tradução nos documentos oficiais da Secretaria de Estado da Educação de São Paulo. O objetivo deste trabalho é examinar, à luz da pedagogia histórico-crítica, a relação entre o construtivismo como referencial pedagógico e a política educacional do Estado de São Paulo dos governos de André Franco Montoro, Orestes Quércia, Luiz Antônio Fleury Filho, Mário Covas Júnior, Geraldo José Rodrigues Alckmin Filho e José Serra, situando o contexto de produção e implantação dos programas e documentos da SEE, em especial aqueles publicados pela Coordenadoria de Estudos e Normas Pedagógicas (CENP) e Fundação para o Desenvolvimento da Educação (FDE), relativos ao Ciclo I do ensino fundamental no período de 1983 a 2008. O método de coleta e análise dos dados desse trabalho é o método materialista histórico-dialético, que se fundamenta nos pilares da contraditoriedade, totalidade e historicidade. Nossas conclusões remetem à constatação de que o construtivismo, como filiado ao neoliberalismo e ao pós-modernismo, tem sido adotado hegemonicamente por se adequar aos interesses da classe dominante em ofuscar uma verdadeira formação... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The state of São Paulo is the main trading, corporate and financial center of Brazil. The Ministry of Education of São Paulo (SEE) manages more than 200 000 teachers, four million students and five thousand schools. Given these numbers, it appears to reveal the importance of political education in state schools of São Paulo. Our central thesis is that constructivism, implemented by the Ministry of Education of São Paulo in 1983, is a strategical element of its educational policy and has decisive implications for the low quality of education for students of São Paulo. The object of this research is therefore the constructivist pedagogical concept and its conversion in the official documents of the Ministry of Education of São Paulo. The aim of this work is to examine, in the light of historical-critical pedagogy, the relation between constructivism as a pedagogical framework and the educational policy of the state governments of Sao Paulo namely André Franco Montoro, Orestes Quercia, Luiz Antonio Fleury Filho, Mário Covas Júnior Geraldo Jose Rodrigues Alckmin Filho and Jose Serra, setting in the context of production and implementation of programs and documents from the SEE, especially those published by the Department of Studies and Pedagogical Standards (CENP) and Foundation for the Development of Education (FDE) for the first cycle of basic education in the period 1983 to 2008. The method of data collection and analysis of this work is the historical dialectical materialism method, which relies on the concepts of contradiction, totality and historicity. Our conclusions refer to the fact that constructivism as affiliated to neoliberalism and postmodernism has been adopted for the adjustment to the hegemonic interests of the dominant class obscuring true emancipator education by highlighting assumptions which undermine the possibilities of schooling as an actual contributor to overcome the capitalist society / Doutor