Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / In recent years, the theme of social justice in teacher education programs has been the subject of considerable controversy, as it has become at once more popular and more vulnerable to criticism. More and more teacher education programs claim to prepare teachers to teach for social justice. Yet we know little about the experience of teacher candidates learning to teach in programs with explicit social justice agendas, and we know little about the impact of this agenda on teachers, and in turn, on the students they teach. This dissertation aims to increase our understanding of what it means for teacher candidates/graduates to be prepared in a teacher education program with a stated commitment to social justice. By focusing in depth on two cases studies with very different outcomes, my study examines the impact of this agenda on teachers and the students they teach over a relatively long period of time. A qualitative case study design was employed to collect and analyze data for two master's level teacher candidates/graduates over three years. Data included extensive interviews and observations, teacher candidates' coursework, the assignments the teachers created, and their students work in response to these assignments. In addition, interviews were conducted with teacher education faculty, as well as with cooperating teachers, mentors, supervisors, and principals. Based on a sociocultural framework, and drawing on Bakhtin's theories of discourse and ideological becoming, this dissertation argues that learning to teach in a program with a stated social justice agenda was a complex process of negotiating several different and, at times, competing discourses of social justice. These discourses represented a range of ideas, interpretations, and practices that the teachers had to investigate and adapt as they developed their own authentic perspective. Furthermore, the development of an authentic perspective as teachers for social justice required embracing tensions within and among these discourses, and recognizing that these tensions were essential to their development as educators for social justice. Finally, this dissertation argues that the case study teachers' relative success or failure engaging in this ideological struggle was influenced by the contexts in which their learning took place, the support they had to negotiate the challenges and tensions associated with learning to teach for social justice, and their own personal capacity to handle the conflicts they encountered. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis advisor: Audrey Friedman / This dissertation investigates the discursive practices of elite high schools and the ways these practices create and preclude opportunities for social justice education. To conduct this critical discourse analysis I drew on the theoretical work of Khan (2011) and Howard (2008) to understand the role of language in the production and maintenance of power and privilege in elite private schools. Furthermore, the literature review on the discourse of social justice informed the selection of initial typologies, which shaped the primary reading of the data. Methodologically, I used Norman Fairclough and James Gee’s tools of critical discourse analyses for the data synthesis and analysis. One overarching questions was considered in this dissertation: As revealed through institutional documents, what are the discursive challenges and opportunities for enacting socially just education within elite high schools? A detailed Systemic Functional Linguistic analysis revealed three major findings. First, students are centered in the text samples and over time students become a larger focus of the discourse. Second, the discourse presents ethical values and knowledge as innate within students. Finally, the language among sample texts conforms over time, becoming less linguistically complex in both topic and construction and thus shifts from a traditionally academic tone to a more familiar tone. Using these findings as a focusing lens, a broader reading and analysis of the complete data set revealed that as discourse associated with discussions of diversity becomes more rigid, formalized, and prevalent in the text samples, institutional questioning and direct calls for social action become less frequent. Furthermore, over time, the discourse is less likely to engage in reflexive questioning and is more likely to engage in self-congratulation. Combined, the detailed linguistic analysis and the broader reading of the collected documents, suggest that the “discourse of social justice” is intertwined with counter discourses of privilege, entitlement, and individualism. Although institutions may currently talk more about issues of diversity and justice, this language functions as yet another measure of student privilege. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

High school marching bands have several performance options beyond the Friday night football game. These options range from non-competitive regional festivals to performance circuits that culminate in a final national contest. All of these extra-curricular events require resources such as funding, equipment, staffing, and parental involvement (Corral, 2001). The fundamental question was created to investigate opportunities available for participation in music regardless of socioeconomic status, geographic location, etc. Participation in music was explored from the vantage point of marching band – one of the most resource intensive programs in music. Marching band was used in this study because the activity often requires resources that go above and beyond what many administrators, parents, and some directors claim justifiable. The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to examine the effects that resources, financial and otherwise, have on directors’ decisions to participate in marching band competitions. High school marching bands from across the United States were compared to determine the amount of finances and resources invested by each program. The purpose was to find out if resources play a role in a band director’s decision to compete at various national or non-national events. Students who desire to participate in music should have the opportunity to participate in any extra-curricular event without regard to economic distinction. Even though marching arts are not offered at all high schools, those who do commit to investing extreme time and resources to the activity. The nature of marching band, coupled with the relatively small amount of scholarly research on marching bands and resources, made it a unique scenario worthy of further inquiry.

My dissertation is about the moral epistemology of a theory of injustice. The orthodox paradigm maintains that we require an ideal theory of a perfectly just society in order to justify the principles for dealing with injustice. In contrast, I show that a theory of injustice is not dependent on ideal theory and develop a pragmatic realist alternative by critically engaging with the work of Elizabeth Anderson. My approach is pragmatist in stressing the importance of testing our principles against actual experience of their practical consequences, but it is realist in holding that justification must take into account the unjust motivations and actions of other agents. Whether racial integration is an imperative of justice depends on the extent to which unjust opposition to it means that conflicting courses of action have a better chance of mitigating racial injustice.

This thesis is an exploration into the mechanism of Marxist materialism. It is an attempt, in the face of materialism, to regain a grasp on our intellectual lives. The promise, I will argue, is a nexus between the material and ideal realms; it largely determines the configurations of our thoughts along three poles: privacy/recognition, sovereignty/subjection, and individual/society. In this thesis, I will explore the history of the promise during the sixteenth-century development of the negotiable instrument- a form of the promise that could be bought and sold. This development, I will argue, led to a general transformation of language during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries such that the concept of the referent largely replaced the concept of the signifier. In the realm of mathematics, this transformation led to the creation of the symbolic variable; elsewhere, it led to the creation of what Mary Poovey has called the modern fact.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 201-206).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2005. / Title from title page screen, viewed on April 12, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Linda Lyman (chair), Patricia H. Klass, W. Paul Vogt, Carol Struck. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-168) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 180-185).

Through a case study of the experiences of eight undergraduate students participating in the St. Thomas More College/Intercordia Canada international community service-learning programme (2008), this thesis seeks to assess whether the participants learning has proved transformational through an analysis of the forms and processes of transformative learning as developed by Richard Kiely (2002, 2004, 2005). Content analysis of semi-structured student interviews (pre and post-participation), programme materials, student journals, academic reflections and essays reveal transformative shifts across the political, moral, intellectual, cultural, personal and spiritual learning domains. The study adds to the research on international community service-learning through an analysis of Kielys transformative learning theory in a new context, and explores how context affects learning processes. Findings indicate the dynamics of participant vulnerability and acceptance from host communities can provide for transformational relationships of solidarity across difference.

Through a case study of the experiences of eight undergraduate students participating in the St. Thomas More College/Intercordia Canada international community service-learning programme (2008), this thesis seeks to assess whether the participants learning has proved transformational through an analysis of the forms and processes of transformative learning as developed by Richard Kiely (2002, 2004, 2005). Content analysis of semi-structured student interviews (pre and post-participation), programme materials, student journals, academic reflections and essays reveal transformative shifts across the political, moral, intellectual, cultural, personal and spiritual learning domains. The study adds to the research on international community service-learning through an analysis of Kielys transformative learning theory in a new context, and explores how context affects learning processes. Findings indicate the dynamics of participant vulnerability and acceptance from host communities can provide for transformational relationships of solidarity across difference.