<p> This dissertation focuses on the literacy practices of three focal students who composed multimodal comic memoirs about the emotional struggles and obstacles they faced related to being labeled academically gifted and talented. As a qualitative action research study (Hewitt &amp; Little, 2005; Munn-Giddings, 2012), in which the teacher of the focal classroom was the primary researcher, a sociocultural framework (Dunsmore &amp; Fischer, 2010; Wertsch, 1991) was employed to investigate the three focal students&rsquo; uses of multimodal composition to address the research questions: RQ1, In what ways do gifted secondary students use the comics medium to produce multimodal memoirs? RQ2, What experiences do gifted secondary students represent when they design comic memoirs? and RQ3, What do gifted secondary students reveal about competing representations of race, gender, class, and giftedness as they depict themselves in comic memoirs? To address the research questions, the researcher used a qualitative case study design (Merriam, 1998; Yin, 2009), collecting data over five years (2013&ndash;2017) while teaching a literature-based comics class at a summer enrichment program for gifted secondary students. Based on a conceptual framework comprising the intersections of literacy practices related to multiliteracies (Sanders and Albers, 2010) and multimodalities (New London Group, 1996) in connection with visual literacy skills (Frey &amp; Fisher, 2008), data analysis included a variant of grounded theory (Glaser &amp; Strauss, 1967), Situational Analysis (Clarke, 2005), which takes a cartographic approach to the collection and analysis of data within the study&rsquo;s situation, including its environment, social spheres, and setting. Findings point to the focal students&rsquo; deep-seated emotional turmoil related to gender, racial, and gifted identities; reports of emotionally debilitating social and academic expectations connected to giftedness; and personal narratives of being silenced and socially alienated. Implications are discussed concerning how the unique visual literacy strategies available while making comic memoirs helped the focal students gain perspective on and insight into their struggles with identity and related social and cultural practices.</p><p>

<p> Contemporary educational theory and practice emphasizes interpersonal teacher&ndash;student relationships as a means of enhancing academic performance, promoting social development, and improving class management. Unfortunately, related policy, training, and professional standards have lagged. Into this void steps the principal, who as school leader falls the responsibility of guiding staff. </p><p> Twelve (12) principals from public secondary schools (grades 6&ndash;12) in central and coastal Virginia were interviewed, to gather their descriptions of how they perceived appropriate ethical teacher&ndash;student relationships, and their practice in promoting and maintaining them in their schools. A qualitative methodology grounded in social constructivism was employed, which included inductive coding of the transcripts, and content analysis to categorize results. Principals&rsquo; practice was then compared with theoretical approaches from literature, which included care theory (Noddings, 1984), professional development and practice theory (Shapiro and Stefkovich, 2016), and standards based professionalism (Barrett et al., 2012; Barrett et al., 2006). </p><p> The results indicated that principals envisioned positive teacher&ndash;student relationships as a critical enabler for class management and improved instructional outcomes. Foundations for the relationship were the teacher&rsquo;s caring and professional behavior, and placing a genuine priority on acting in the best interest of students. The boundaries for the relationship were behaviors that detracted from, or undermined that foundation, and potentially traumatized or harmed students. Principals described the development of friendship and personally intimate relationships between teachers and students as the gateway to potential ethical relationship boundary issues, and sought to reduce opportunities for this to occur. The key factors in principal practice for promoting and maintaining ethical teacher&ndash;student relationships were described in terms of modeling expected behaviors, training staff, promoting a positive school culture and climate, and monitoring behaviors. Leadership and the ability of the principal to cope with peripheral influences on the school were also recognized as important factors. Three models from literature attempted to enhance understanding of how principals promote and maintain ethical and productive teacher&ndash;student relationships. Principals described using elements from all of these approaches, attempting to promote and develop positive attributes and skills in their staff, while at the same time monitoring and supervising their behaviors in relation to standards. </p><p> Research findings implied that ethical teacher-student relationships and associated boundaries are clearly defined conceptually, vaguely defined in policy, and ambiguously defined in practice. The absence and vagueness of policy and standards places an onus on the principal to develop teacher attributes and skills, and for teachers to be able to act semi-independently as professionals. All as principals, teachers, and schools are under intensified public scrutiny, in the age of social media and electronic communications. Principals confronted the issue by drawing on their character, experience, skills, and leadership, which they tempered to meet the context and challenges of their respective schools. Student safety and trauma (physical and psychological) surfaced as growing concerns for school leadership, and something that needed to be factored more prominently into decision making.</p><p>

<p> Educators at a public high school in Southeastern United States depend on mentor teachers to minimize the attrition rate among beginning teachers, yet the strategies implemented by mentors lack definition and clarity. The purpose of this study was to explore mentor teachers&rsquo; perceptions of effective mentoring strategies and their needs when mentoring new teachers. Maslow&rsquo;s humanistic learning theory guided this bounded basic qualitative study. The research questions focused on the mentoring strategies mentor teachers perceived as effective and the needs of the mentors. Ten high school mentor teachers, who currently mentor new teachers, were purposefully selected to participate in individual and focus group interviews. Precoding, open and axial coding were used to inductively analyze the data. The results showed mentors promote school culture, are a source of information, build relationships, use data to drive discussion, provide opportunity for reflection, conduct observations, connect theory with practice, and model professional behavior as effective strategies. Mentor teachers indicated that effective communication is crucial when mentoring new teachers. Additionally, they need specific skills to help beginning teachers better understand the reality of teaching and address their unrealistic expectations of the profession. Based on the findings a 3-day professional development for mentor teachers was developed to address mentors&rsquo; needs. This endeavor may contribute to positive social change when district administration provides mentor teachers with professional development to enrich their mentoring strategies which in turn may address the challenges new teachers experience and reduce the attrition rate.</p><p>

Despite a wealth of research into improving questioning in mathematics, recent research has identified the need for more effective questioning strategies which are accessible to mathematics teachers. This thesis investigates the types of questions which encourage mathematical thinking and participation, with the aim of deepening and varying mathematical thinking for learners through working with my own tool to develop questioning in mathematics, the Intended Mathematical Processes and Cognitive Thought (IMPaCT) Taxonomy. Following a literature review of existing taxonomies which can be used for classifying questions, and framing the research around the establishment of sociomathematical norms in the classroom, this thesis develops a new taxonomy and presents the findings from the pilot study for this research followed by the empirical research to explore the effectiveness of the IMPaCT Taxonomy. Over the course of an academic year, 28 mathematics lessons, from four participant teachers and five classes of 14-16 year olds were observed, and the questioning in each lesson was analysed using the IMPaCT Taxonomy. After the first 15 of these observations, intervention was given to the participant teachers on using the IMPaCT Taxonomy before the remaining lesson observations were conducted. Proportions of question type and depth were analysed according to several factors: the participant teacher; the level of attainment of the class; the stage of the lesson; the Assessment for Learning techniques used; and the mathematical topic. The results show that although all these factors affect the questioning, the attainment of the class and the individual teacher have the biggest impact on the questioning employed. The empirical analysis shows that both the teachers’ understanding of how their questioning impacts on learners and the teachers’ variety and depth of questioning can be increased through working with the IMPaCT Taxonomy, although there are variations between teachers to the extent of the impact of the IMPaCT Taxonomy.

This study is an interpretive study of the perspectives of first-year head teachers in secondary education in Seoul, the Republic of Korea. Education in Korea has been highlighted in education scholarship because of its teaching quality and its high standing in the PISA tables. On the other hand, it has been criticised for low levels of student satisfaction and high levels of stress. Many countries are trying to use the Korean model, so gaining insight into headship is timely and useful for the research community. The research questions concern: the motivation to become a head teacher; preparation for the head teacher’s role; and the practice of being a new head teacher. To address these questions a largely qualitative study was undertaken using interviews (n=33) and shadowing (n=20) of new head teachers. Key findings include: First, both male and female head teachers’ main motivation was described as '‘to make their educational philosophy come true’. This was seen as a realistic aspiration as they saw the role as having a high status and as influential in their school. Second, it was found that head teachers felt well-prepared for their role and, with varying degrees of confidence, believed they could carry out the role of head successfully. This was because they had succeeded in getting through a competitive selection process, had gained relevant experiences in management team roles, and many had experienced working in the Office of Education as an officer and policy maker. They felt confident of understanding the Ministry of Education and the Office of Education policy goals, and felt they could influence education policy.

This research looked at how observers make judgements in the Observation of Teaching and Learning (OTL). Until recently, graded OTL has been the dominant model for assessing teaching quality across all sectors of education in the UK. From Ofsted inspection to routine in-service appraisal, teachers have become familiar, if not comfortable, with being watched and judged. Although the outcomes of these observations have high-stakes consequences for practitioners, and their institutions, the judgement process of the observer has been an under-developed area of research, and questions of which elements of theory, experience and practical knowledge they access in doing so, are areas yet to be fully explored. This research constituted a case study focussed on the process of OTL in a city-wide Adult Education service provider in England, attempting to understand and clarify the opaque process utilising methods including: interviews and questionnaires with 14 experienced classroom observers, analysis of data from 137 observation reports, and accreditation results and attendance rates pertaining to over 230 classes. Data were complemented by a rich background of ethnographic and auto-ethnographic reflection to provide context and to make the experience of OTL relatable for the reader. The findings suggested that the concept of Wisdom of Practice was at the heart of the OTL process and that observers appeared to reach their initial judgements holistically based on a largely intuitive and automatic access to a wealth of theory, experience and practical knowledge. Observers then appeared to make use of a range of elements to refine and justify their judgements: chiefly judgement-criteria arising from a range of sources, but also contextual factors including the observer’s relationship with the observee. The analysis and discussion of these findings has led to the proposal of a theoretical model of the OTL judgement process, which clearly demonstrates the complex strands of OTL decision-making. Ultimately, the findings support a claim for the continued usefulness of OTL with an increased emphasis on Continued Professional Development. There is an appreciation of the authenticity of the measure, once grading has been removed, based upon the Wisdom of Practice of the experienced observer.

This study seeks to investigate the problems of English language education in Thailand by exploring Thai EFL teachers’ and students’ perceptions at the upper secondary level. Nowadays, English language education is increasingly important in Thailand in a number of domains including professional advancement, expansion of the tourist industry, and high social status. Moreover, English is expected to be an official language among ASEAN countries. Therefore, the Thai government is trying to improve English language proficiency among Thai people. However, the problem is that, on national and international English language examinations, Thai learners have very low scores despite studying English for twelve years in primary and secondary schools. Through the literature review, the importance of exploring teachers and students’ perceptions was identified as crucial to an investigation of this phenomenon, together with an attempt to identify problems of English language education at various educational levels both in the global and Thai contexts. Most previous research utilised a top-down approach to explore context-specific problems and policymakers normally design top-down educational policies; however, the current research has expressly applied a bottom-up approach to investigate the problems of English language education at the upper secondary level in Thailand. This research took a case study approach, comprising in-depth interviews and focus group interviews. Sixteen Thai EFL teachers had in-depth interviews whereas focus group interviews were used with 10 groups of Thai EFL students. Furthermore, to broaden the data and to gain a more detailed perspective of the issues emerging from the first interview round, second interviews were also conducted with each of the 16 teachers and with 10 individual students, each of whom was randomly selected from each focus group. The data in this study were analysed using thematic analysis. Briefly, the findings suggested that the key problematic issues having influence on many other problems were mostly related to low teacher salaries, the ineffective nature of education curriculum and policy, and the prevalence of the English language examination. However, there were also some mismatches between teachers and students’ perceptions toward the problems of English language education in that teachers primarily focused on macro and micro problems whereas micro problems were mainly mentioned by students. Interestingly, apart from the expected problems which were similar to those from literature review, some problems were reported as emergent problems, which are unique in the Thai context.

<p> This study used the TIMSS 2011 International Database to investigate predictors of 8th-grade mathematics achievement across three countries that represent a wide range of cultures and levels of mathematics achievement: Chinese Taipei, Ghana, and the United States. A review of literature on predictors of mathematics achievement yielded variables in four major contexts of learning&mdash;a student&rsquo;s home, beliefs, school, and classroom. The variables of home that were investigated are home possessions for learning, parent education, and parents&rsquo; expectations and involvement in their children&rsquo;s education. The variables of student beliefs were self-confidence in mathematics and the value of mathematics. The variables of school were school climate, school resources, administrator leadership, and school socioeconomic status. Finally, the variables of the classroom are access and equity, curriculum, tools and technology, assessment, and teacher professionalism.</p><p> A 2-level hierarchical linear model was used to investigate relationships between the predictors for learning mathematics and 8th-grade mathematics achievement. Level 1 represented the relationships among the student-level variables, and Level 2 represented the school-level variables.</p><p> In Chinese Taipei, statistically significant predictors of mathematics achievement in the final model included variables from the domains of home resources, student beliefs, school climate, and school socioeconomic status. In Ghana, both student-beliefs variables had statistically significant relationships with mathematics achievement, and one school climate and one school socioeconomic status variable each was found statistically significant. The U.S. had statistically significant predictors in the domains of home resources, student beliefs, school socioeconomic status, classroom-level access and equity, classroom assessment, and teacher professionalism.</p><p> This study extends previous research in several ways. It includes a review of classic and recent literature regarding predictors of mathematics achievement; 17 scales using the Rasch partial credit model were developed to measure predictors of mathematics achievement; and the results of this study may be used to examine the relationships between the independent variables of this study and middle-grades mathematics achievement in countries similar to the 3 in this study to reinforce and support variables that contribute to student achievement.</p>

‘Dare to be different, dare to progress’ explores the educational experiences of a group of 14 – 16 year old students referred to a pupil referral unit (PRU) during the period 2009 – 2012 using both quantitative and qualitative data sources. The quantitative data gathered from school files, the Local Authority’s school performance data and police records enabled a statistical exploration of recorded information pertaining to issues of attainment and progress, attendance, exclusions, deprivation factors and contacts with police. The qualitative data enabled rich contextual information and was gathered from fieldwork involving the researcher’s observations, four group interviews involving four teachers and four teaching assistants and thirteen paired interviews with nine volunteer students. Willis (1977) showed how ‘the lads’ used their social class identities to forge social class relations acting out resistant behaviours in the process in preparation for and perpetuating a working-class lifestyle or culture. This study resonated with my work at the PRU and the impetus to take it further developed during a secondment to the local Youth Offending Service where I observed a high proportion of PRU students were also known to the police and other children’s services. Bourdieu’s (1984, 1990, 1992) works on habitus, capital and field were influential in shaping the theoretical and conceptual framework around ‘class’ and ‘culture’. Skeggs’ (1997, 2004) concepts of inscription and identity formation and Quinn’s (2010) concept of imagined social capital contributed to this too. The research is unique to a particular group of young people in a particular setting and combined statistics, field notes, photographs and dialogue thus indicating ethnographic case study methodology (Merriam 1988). The research found that ‘class’ remains the strongest indicator of educational achievement and cultural capital, but the cultural influences of youth and identity, and deprivation alongside low aspirations and expectations exacerbate the situation.

<p> Noticeably absent from prior research on the selection of high school principals is empirical evidence about the factors that teachers consider in recommending candidates for high school principalships. This study gave teachers a voice about factors that should be considered in selecting high school principals. A discrete choice experiment was conducted with 219 tenured (or previously tenured), public school teachers in Grades 9-12 in New York State. Teachers were asked to choose a single hypothetical candidate from 10 sets of 3, where each candidate was described by 6 candidate-specific characteristics: teaching experience, administrative experience, education level, instructional skills, managerial skills, and interpersonal skills. Case-specific variables (i.e., teacher-participant characteristics) in the analysis included teaching experience, education level, and school needs level. A single-class, alternative-specific conditional logistic regression (asclogit) found 4 statistically significant candidate-specific factors: previous administrative experience, instructional leadership, managerial experience, and interpersonal leadership ability. Teaching experience and holding a doctorate were not statistically significant factors in the asclogit model. The asclogit found 2 statistically significant case-specific factors (i.e., having an advanced certificate or doctorate, and being in a high-needs school), both of which affected teachers&rsquo; views about candidates&rsquo; instructional leadership. Latent class conditional logistic regression (lclogit) found that all 6 candidate-specific variables except holding a doctorate were statistically significant across 3 distinct latent classes and that holding a doctorate had a statistically significant negative effect only in Latent Class 3. No statistically significant case-specific factors were found by lclogit. The study concluded that greater attention needs to be given to the views of teachers in principal-selection processes.</p><p>