This dissertation addresses the problem of African American K-12 miseducation and its institutional pathways in carceral and employment agency reduction. Merging cultural and public policy frameworks, it creates a novel theoretical paradigm altogether. Culturally, it anchors in three Diopan concepts: cultural unity, historical continuity and cradles theory. Through this cultural lens it reimagines the current gold standard in public policy analysis, the problem solving methodology. Pursuing expansive cultural-policy holism, the new framework establishes broad, systemic categories conjoining multiple values for who commits three hierarchical behaviors within an institutional triumvirate—all united historically in when, and culturally by why and how they miseducate African descended children. Using the mixed methods of qualitative, multi-institutional cultural observation and quantitative public policy empiricism, the author, thus, derives a series of novel joint categories and cultural-policy concepts within each category. Hierarchical racism, patriarchy and classism form one combined western cultural behavioral phenomenon. Institutional geographies of school, prison and work constitute the same analytical sequence. Cultural purpose, similarly, unifies western men, women and corporate actors. As importantly, these multi-actor, behavior and institution unities form cross-associations among each other. Ultimately, Afrocentric recentering necessitates African Womanist, Manist and community based Maatic cultural policy correctives. Key terms: K-12, miseducation, cultural unity, historical continuity, criminal injustice, economic injustice, institutional analysis, Afrocentricity, Diopism, Maat, location, racism, patriarchy, classism, public policy / Africology and African American Studies

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Contemporary K-12 education reform policies have focused heavily on the teaching profession through increased accountability measures and decreased job security. In the rhetoric of contemporary reform, teachers are often praised as heroes capable of overcoming any obstacles and at the same time blamed for the perceived failures of public schools. This dissertation examines the impact of such policies and corresponding representations on the lived experiences of K-12 teachers in North Carolina, specifically highlighting the strategies through which teachers gain rhetorical agency within the discursive space of reform. To do so, I apply an analytical frame of public sphere theory and employ a mixed-methods approach that combines archival methods and fieldwork (e.g. participant observation and interviews). This dissertation argues that teachers' discourses provide alternative narratives to the dominant view that modifying the teaching profession is a cure-all for educational problems. I first develop a history of contemporary education reform in North Carolina and argue that within these discourses, teachers are represented as heroes able to do more work with less pay under increased scrutiny. Then, analyzing images of protest signs collected at the May 16 teacher rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, I argue that teachers rhetorically perform their professional identities as student advocates, champions of public educators, and political dissenters. As such, they dismantle dominant representations of their profession and advance a notion of public education that values collaboration, equitability, and the public good. Last, I examine how teachers negotiate the tension between their goals and the constraints of policy, arguing that contemporary reform undermines teachers' expertise. At the same time, teachers devise strategies to work toward their visions of public education. Such strategies include building relationships, being persistent, de-prioritizing policy, and cultivating community. / Doctor of Philosophy / Contemporary K-12 education reform policies have focused heavily on the teaching profession through increased accountability measures and decreased job security. In the rhetoric of contemporary reform, teachers are often praised as heroes capable of overcoming any obstacles and at the same time blamed for the perceived failures of public schools. This dissertation examines the impact of such policies and corresponding representations on the lived experiences of K-12 teachers in North Carolina. To do so, I employ an approach that combines archival methods and fieldwork (e.g. participant observation and interviews), and rhetorical analysis. This dissertation argues that teachers’ discourses provide alternative narratives to the dominant view that modifying the teaching profession is a cure-all for educational problems. I first develop a history of contemporary education reform in North Carolina and argue that within these discourses, teachers are represented as heroes able to do more work with less pay under increased scrutiny. Then, analyzing images of protest signs collected at the May 16 teacher rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, I argue that teachers rhetorically perform their professional identities as student advocates, champions of public educators, and political dissenters. As such, they dismantle dominant representations of their profession and advance a notion of public education that values collaboration, equitability, and the public good. Last, I examine how teachers negotiate the tension between their goals and the constraints of policy, arguing that contemporary reform undermines teachers’ expertise. At the same time, teachers devise strategies to work toward their visions of public education. Such strategies include building relationships, being persistent, de-prioritizing policy, and cultivating community.

<p>This dissertation examines the interplay between school district assignment and reassignment policies and the elementary public school parents select for their children. The sample in all chapters includes the third and fourth grade students in a subset of growing North Carolina school districts from 2003/04 to 2010/11. The data are derived from historical, longitudinal secondary data sources containing student, school, and district records. All chapters employ quantitative longitudinal data analysis methods. Chapter 1 identifies the groups of students who do not comply with their school assignments. Chapter 2 identifies the groups of students who are reassigned to different schools, and to schools of varying quality, when school districts enact reassignment plans. Chapter 3 identifies the groups of students who do not comply with school reassignments. Together, the chapters demonstrate the interplay between residential decisions, school choices, and the resulting educational opportunities of observably different students. Consistent with existing bodies of literature, the findings demonstrate unexplored processes through which advantaged families maintain the most desirable educational opportunities for their children. Policy implications of these findings are also discussed.</p> / Dissertation

Rural America contributes greatly to the American Community, yet this population is often overlooked and underrepresented in most types of education literature. Choices about residence shape America’s public school system through the formation of school districts and schools associated with these local jurisdictions. Communities with different population densities may have different overall population composition and, therefore, may sort differently into schools. This paper examines the effect that population density, local jurisdictional sorting, homogeneity, peer characteristics, and community social capital may have on student achievement. The first part of this dissertation outlines the importance of rural research and the impact of rural education on all of America. These areas have different economies, opportunities, and peer composition than their non-rural counterparts. The statistically average person is different in rural and urban America. The second part discusses the theoretical implications of locale influence on educational attainment. This theory explains the possible causes of peer effect strength and provides a better predictive model of both rural and urban peer effects. I argue that some level of heterogeneity and high social capital foster strong peer effects, and there is a tradeoff between diverse student body composition and social capital. In the final portion of this dissertation, I explore student achievement using empirical analysis. Based on the analysis in Chapter 4, it appears that student achievement is impacted by peers with and without controlling for teacher effects and social capital (or type) of a locale without controlling for teacher effects. Chapter 5 examines peer effect differences by locale and finds differences in peer effect strength. Suburbs have significantly stronger classroom mean peer effects in elementary school than towns. Skewness influences appear to be the same across grades and locale, and social capital has a positive impact on student achievement in elementary school and a negative impact on student achievement in middle school. The analyses in Chapter 6 conclude that student achievement is impacted by both the average and the percentage of high and low achievers but not similarly by locale. The final chapter discusses the results and their implications for future research and for policy makers.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T20:31:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcia Aparecida Alferes.pdf: 3062095 bytes, checksum: 19301694f4af445188aeb6671eac1c5c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-03 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This thesis analysis the production of PNAIC (National Pact for Literacy in the Right Age, in its Portuguese acronym) in Federal Government scope (macro level) and how the actions of the Program were recontextualized by study supervisors and literacy teachers in continuous training (meso level), and inside the classroom by literacy teachers (micro level). It used concepts by Bernstein (1996, 2003) theory on structuration of pedadogical discourse and recontextualization process, as well contributions from the theory of policy enactment by Ball, Maguire and Braun (2016). The research had as base a qualitative study focused on the following aspects: a) study supervisors and literacy teachers continuous; and b) on literacy pedagogical practices developed with 1st, 2nd and 3rd years of Elementary School. It was developed in two schools of teaching municipal network of Ponta Grossa/PR. Data collection procedures were performed in the analysis of official and legal documents of PNAIC. In addition, the participant observation on the continuous training of study supervisors and literacy teachers in events carried out by the Municipal Secretary of Education and PNAIC Coordination of Ponta Grossa State University were consider for data collection. Participating observation on pedagogical practices in the literacy cycle (1st, 2nd and 3rd years on Elementary School) inside classrooms of two schools in Ponta Grossa town, state of Paraná were carried out for data collection. Interviews with PNAIC general coordinator; PNAIC local coordinator; PNAIC trainer; study supervisor; management and pedagogical team of two schools of municipal education network of Ponta Grossa, Paraná; and literacy teachers also composed the data collection. The thesis argued that PNAIC has elements of a mixed pedagogy based on the pedagogical models of competence and performance. Likewise, the study argued that PNAIC is recontextualized in meso and micro instances setting up different meanings and possibilities in the process of enactment. The results of the research indicate that, although comprehensive, necessary and relevant, the National Pact for Literacy at the Right Age (called PNAIC) presents potentialities, limits and challenges. Some of the potentialities are: PNAIC is a comprehensive program with well defined actions and strategies; it has specific materials for literacy classes; it takes advantage of school existing materials; it makes possible the participation of public universities in the elaboration of the material and education of teachers; it provides greater visibility of the areas of Geography, Art, History and Science, among others. As limitations, the main one is the discontinuity of PNAIC. In addition, there was no accountability for the investments made in the program; not all teachers who participated in the courses remained in the literacy cycle; the financial resources are not passed directly to the universities; and there is no democratic space to publicly debate PNAIC, with the teachers’ participation. The challenges are: the continuity of the program from a network education perspective; discussions about education and the role of the school; improvement in the material and working conditions of the teachers; pedagogical support for teachers at school, specially for beginners; constant monitoring of student learning; curriculum revision of teacher education courses / This thesis analysis the production of PNAIC (National Pact for Literacy in the Right Age, inits Portuguese acronym) in Federal Government scope (macro level) and how the actions of the Program were recontextualized by study supervisors and literacy teachers in continuous training (meso level), and inside the classroom by literacy teachers (micro level). It used concepts by Bernstein (1996, 2003) theory on structuration of pedadogical discourse and recontextualization process, as well contributions from the theory of policy enactment by Ball, Maguire and Braun (2016). The research had as base a qualitative study focused on the following aspects: a) study supervisors and literacy teachers continuous; and b) on literacy pedagogical practices developed with 1st, 2nd and 3rd years of Elementary School. It was developed in two schools of teaching municipal network of Ponta Grossa/PR. Data collection procedures were performed in the analysis of official and legal documents of PNAIC. In addition, the participant observation on the continuous training of study supervisors and literacy teachers in events carried out by the Municipal Secretary of Education and PNAIC Coordination of Ponta Grossa State University were consider for data collection. Participating observation on pedagogical practices in the literacy cycle (1st, 2nd and 3rd years on Elementary School) inside classrooms of two schools in Ponta Grossa town, state of Paraná were carried out for data collection. Interviews with PNAIC general coordinator; PNAIC local coordinator; PNAIC trainer; study supervisor; management and pedagogical team of two schools of municipal education network of Ponta Grossa, Paraná; and literacy teachers also composed the data collection. The thesis argued that PNAIC has elements of a mixed pedagogy based on the pedagogical models of competence and performance. Likewise, the study argued that PNAIC is recontextualized in meso and micro instances setting up different meanings and possibilities in the process of enactment. The results of the research indicate that, although comprehensive, necessary and relevant, the National Pact for Literacy at the Right Age (called PNAIC) presents potentialities, limits and challenges. Some of the potentialities are: PNAIC is a comprehensive program with well defined actions and strategies; it has specific materials for literacy classes; it takes advantage of school existing materials; it makes possible the participation of public universities in the elaboration of the material and education of teachers;it provides greater visibility of the areas of Geography, Art, History and Science, among others. As limitations, the main one is the discontinuity of PNAIC. In addition, there was no accountability for the investments made in the program; not all teachers who participated in the courses remained in the literacy cycle; the financial resources are not passed directly to the universities; and there is no democratic space to publicly debate PNAIC, with the teachers’ participation. The challenges are: the continuity of the program from a network education perspective; discussions about education and the role of the school; improvement in the material and working conditions of the teachers; pedagogical support for teachers at school,specially for beginners; constant monitoring of student learning; curriculum revision of teacher education courses

Pioneering legislation such as Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997, and the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 have increased attention to the needs of individuals with disabilities. These regulations require that public programs and services are accessible to people with disabilities (Griffin, 2004). This descriptive case study examines policy design to conform with Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 at a public research university through the lens of Bolman and Deal’s four frames of organizational analysis. These frames include: (a) the structural frame, (b) the human resource frame, (c) the political frame, and (d) the symbolic frame. Results of the study indicate that accessibility policies in postsecondary education that address access to web content and course materials should develop a systematic approach to establishing an action plan to identify barriers and develop solutions. This includes a strategic commitment to policy planning, development, implementation, monitoring, and assessment.