<p> Following the 1994 uprising of the Zapatistas, an indigenous army in southern Mexico, a small community arts and education center was developed in East Los Angeles that believed another world was possible. This research seeks to examine the alternative nature and learning of the EastSide Caf&eacute;. Guided by Zapatismo, Chicana Feminism, and decolonial theory, seven EastSide Caf&eacute; members were asked to offer the details of <i>how</i> the EastSide Caf&eacute; promotes alternative learning. The findings present a simple culture of horizontality, but more importantly, a praxis of a liberated learning zone that shifts the consciousness of participants by showing that another world, another way, is possible.</p>

<p> This qualitative dissertation study explores the various roles and practices that classroom teachers can enact in their work to increase the college going rates of working-class Latina/o youth. Utilizing Stanton-Salazar's (2011) <i> empowerment social capital</i> theoretical framework, this study examined the role and identity development, practices, and challenges of 14 classroom teachers whose college-focused work aimed to increase their students' <i> social capital</i>, resources, and opportunities for higher education. In addition, it also examined those cases when educators extended their work to actively counter the inequitable schooling conditions and structures facing working-class Latina/o youth (i.e., <i>empowerment agents</i>). Utilizing interviews, document collection, and journal responses, some of the emerging themes included: the role that teachers' personal identities play in their practices for college access and social justice, the lack of funding and resources for students' college planning prompting educators' efforts, and the various challenging schooling structures and policies testing teacher sustainability. Policy and practice recommendations aim to increase the development of resource-generating and empowering relationships between working-class Latina/o youth and their teachers, as well as to develop structures and environments required for teacher sustainability. Recommendations for further research are also provided.</p>

<p> Faith-based school-family-community partnerships have been a federal mandate over the past decade, yet little has been written about the outcomes of these faith-based partnerships. A need exists to understand if the potential in these faith-based partnerships is indeed realized in positive outcomes for students and schools. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a faith-based school-family-community partnership, Just Love. Just Love is a faith-based school-family-community partnership between a large suburban church and a Title 1, urban elementary school, Charisma Elementary School (Charisma ES), implemented in what is considered a "failing school". Just Love's purpose was to have the volunteers from the church provide love, care, supportive adult relationships and service to the teachers, students, and parents of Charisma ES through a comprehensive, systemic program: <b>Just Mentor</b> (i.e., a school-based mentoring program), <b>Just Connect</b> (i.e., a classroom adoption program), and <b>Just Rewards</b> (i.e., a school wide student incentives/rewards and parent involvement program). The Bryan and Henry (2012) School-Family-Community Partnership Process Model was used in developing Just Love.</p><p> The Model for Collaborative Evaluations (MCE) was used in this evaluation to actively engage stakeholders during the evaluation process and to answer the evaluation questions. A mixed methods research design was used. Differences in student outcomes (i.e. academic, behavior and attendance) were examined between Charisma ES and another matching school without a faith-based school-family-community partnership were analyzed with descriptive statistics, paired T-tests, and mixed ANOVAs. Student outcomes were also investigated relevant to different aspects of the Just Love programs including adopted classrooms compared to non-adopted classrooms and mentored students compared to non-mentored students. </p><p> In addition, this study gave 20 children (i.e., mentees) who had experienced all aspects of the Just Love programs an opportunity to share their perceived satisfactions, experiences, challenges and recommendations regarding Just Love through the method of photo elicitation including picture selection and interviews. The transcribed data from the interviews and the pictures used in the photo-elicitation process were analyzed using thematic analysis with a focus on capturing the voices of the students.</p><p> Student outcome data were collected for three years from 2010-2013, with 2009 as a baseline year. The findings from the quantitative aspect of this study revealed that students in Charisma ES made significantly greater gains in reading than students in Joseph ES following the implementation of the partnership. Further, number of disciplinary referrals decreased dramatically at Charisma ES in contrast to Joseph ES whose disciplinary referrals increased. Attendance rates differed significantly between the two schools with students in Joseph Elementary School having higher attendance rates than students in Charisma Elementary School.</p><p> On average, both adopted and non-adopted classes made gains in reading in each of the three years although adopted classes appeared to have higher reading scores in 2011-2012 than non-adopted classes. The average number of disciplinary referrals per class was lower for adopted classes than for non-adopted classes in 2011-2012, one academic year after the Just Love partnership program was implemented. Concerning attendance, there were no significant differences in attendance rates between students in adopted and non-adopted classes at Charisma ES.</p><p> Mentored students at Charisma made significant improvements in reading. They also had a dramatically lower average number of disciplinary referrals than non-mentored students in 2012-2013, just two years after the Just Love partnership was implemented. When compared to non-mentored students, mentored students had significantly higher attendance than non-mentored students in 2011-2012, just one year after the Just Love partnership began. Further, attendance appeared to have a positive relation to the number of years students were mentored.</p><p> Findings from the qualitative aspect of this study were captured using thematic analysis of the children's perceived satisfactions, experiences, challenges and recommendations concerning Just Love. The six categories that emerged from the data were (a) perceptions of Just Love, (b) positive feelings, (c) positive relationships and connectedness, (d) classroom and school climate, (e) experiences, and (f) support and resources. Each of these categories comprised a number of themes that aligned with identified protective factors and developmental assets necessary for the resiliency of and successful outcomes for children. </p><p> Taken together, the findings reveal that Just Love, a faith-based school-family-community partnership contributed to improved student outcomes in reading achievement, behavior and attendance and provided important protective factors and developmental assets for the children in Charisma ES. The Just Love partnership program presents a viable model for schools, school districts, and faith-based and community organizations that have a desire to foster resilience in children at-risk, generate positive academic, behavior, and attendance outcomes for children and decrease the chances of children growing up and developing risky behaviors. Implications for practice, training, evaluation, policy, and future research are discussed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

<p> International assessments such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) have exhibited United States students specifically in the fourth and eighth grades, are not performing well when compared to their international peers. Educational stakeholders including parents, teachers, politicians, and the business community are putting more pressure on schools to improve their student&rsquo;s academic performance. The stakeholders want improved performance on not only American assessments but also on international tests. The purpose of the current qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions of educators in the United States to investigate the possible use of alternative educational innovations as a means for bridging the achievement gap between learners. The qualitative research study involved investigating the perceptions of 52 educational professionals through an online web-based survey and analyzing the data using the three steps outlined by Merriam. Two themes emerged from the data and two subthemes were revealed. The themes were finances and training and professional development. The subthemes were funding allocation and teacher compensation.</p>

<p> Nationwide, teacher attrition is a steady and costly phenomenon. Teachers have left the field of education or have left urban schools for better teaching assignments. Although many studies delineated some factors for teacher attrition, namely urban teacher attrition, little has been done to reverse the cycle of teachers leaving prior to realizing their full potential as an educator. A gap in knowledge exists because researchers have not addressed if administrators of teacher preparation programs have included sufficient experiences and supports in the program to prepare teachers for the urban classroom. The implications for urban teacher attrition are far reaching. Urban attrition can force urban students to have an unsteady influx of beginning teachers with limited experience and skills who leave the schools after a few years. To assist with closing the achievement gap and making sure urban students are ready for the competitive job market, urban students need teachers with increased experience and skills. Teachers enter the teaching profession academically prepared but unprepared for the challenges and demands of the urban classroom. The findings from this phenomenological study produced five themes and one subtheme that teachers believe are important preparation experiences to for urban teacher preparation and reducing attrition. The themes were (a) comprehensive preparation, (b) subtheme support, (c) classroom management, (d) field experience, (e) necessary skills, and (f) multicultural preparation. The recommendations invite future studies that can include input from educational leaders, policy makers, and stakeholders to take a proactive role in reducing urban teacher attrition. </p>

<p> This exploratory study examined the relationship between communities of practice and professional identity. The purpose of the study was to quantitatively examine the extent to which there were relationships between Wenger's dimensions of community of practice (domain, community, and practice) and professional identity among veterinarians. This was accomplished by conducting a survey study using correlation analysis. The research question was as follows: To what extent are there relationships between Wenger's dimensions of community of practice (domain, community, and practice) and professional identity among veterinarians? </p><p> A combined survey consisting of items from the Community of Practice Measure and the Professional Identity Survey was used to collect data. Snowball sampling techniques were used to recruit 125 veterinarians to participate in the study. To explore the research question, three sets of null and alternative hypotheses were developed and tested. Overall, the results showed that the dimensions of communities of practice had positive statistically significant relationships with the professional identity. Domain, community and practice all had moderate to low positive relationships with professional identity. </p><p> The significance of this study is that it expanded Brown's (1997; 2007) conceptual framework of professional identity development. It also contributed to the body of knowledge on social science research conducted on veterinarians. Finally, it offered quantitative findings to the existing literature on communities of practice and professional identity&mdash;that is, as domain, community, and practice are enhanced, so is professional identity.</p>

<p> The present study was designed to measure differences in elementary school teachers' attitudes toward willingness to teach students with ADHD in their classrooms in Riyadh City in Saudi Arabia through a descriptive non-experimental quantitative research instrument. The study examined relationships among many variables through teachers' level of education, years of teaching experience in the education area, grade level of teaching, class size, previous teaching experience with any kind of disabilities, teachers' positions in schools, special education courses taken in college, teachers' in-service training, and teachers' gender. The last variable examined teachers' overall attitudes toward their willingness to teach students with ADHD in their classrooms. </p><p> The participants in the study, a total of 300 elementary school teachers including 150 males and 150 females, completed the survey. Overall the results found that elementary school teachers have neutral attitudes toward willingness to teach students with ADHD in their classrooms. Moreover, the findings of the study revealed the significance of the relationship between teachers' willingness to teach students with ADHD in their classrooms and their level of education, grade level of teaching, class size, previous teaching experience with any kind of disabilities, positions in schools, special education courses taken in college, and in-service training. Finally, the study found there was no relationship among years of teaching experience in the education area or gender and teachers' attitudes toward willingness to teach students with ADHD in their classrooms.</p>

<p> Academic performance of collegiate student-athletes compared to non-athletes has been studied extensively. Results of these studies have been mixed in their findings of student-athletes academic performance in comparison to the nonstudent-athlete population. These conflicting results may be due to differences in level of competition or demographic characteristics of the subpopulations examined. This indicates that there is more to the relationship between athletic participation and academic performance than participation in sport alone. Based on achievement goal theories' assertion that goal oriented behaviors remain relatively consistent between the sport context and the classroom, looking at how an athlete is involved in sport rather than just if they are involved in sport may provide further insight into this relationship. Being a team leader, rather than just a team member may be one of the delimitating variables involved in this relationship. This quantitative study examined the relationships between NAIA collegiate student-athlete's leadership role in the athletic setting and their level of academic success, their task goal orientation, and their use of organizational planning and time management skills. Participants included student-athletes participating on interactive sport teams at a private liberal arts university that competes in the NAIA Midwest Collegiate Conference. Results revealed no statistically significant relationship between leadership role and GPA, <i>p</i> = 0.27 or in the relationship between leadership role and organizational planning and time management skills <i>p</i> = 0.20. There was a statistically significant relationship found between leadership role and task goal orientation <i> p</i> = 0.02. Although the results of this research found no significant relationship between GPA and leadership role, the findings from this study provide insight into other variables that may affect a student-athlete's academic performance. The finding that task goal orientation is significantly related to leadership role in the athletic setting may provide an important link in academic performance of student-athletes in other school settings. Future research is recommended to replicate this study at other colleges and universities where the student-athletes might have different demographics to provide further insight into these relationships.</p>

<p> This qualitative study identified the challenges, supports, and services that a diverse sample of veterans with disabilities utilized as undergraduate students at universities across the United States. The study sample consisted of ten veterans with disabilities who were currently enrolled in, or had graduated within five years from, a four-year postsecondary institution. The participants attended ten different universities and were a diverse sample in terms of disabilities, branch of service, combat exposure, area of study, and gender. The veterans participated in semi-structured interviews that examined their transition, academic, and social experiences in college. </p><p> Generally, the participants struggled during the transition to school and received a limited number of supports from their postsecondary institutions. The majority also faced a number of academic challenges, although they did not seek formal assistance. There was a severe lapse in Disability Support Services (DSS) as none of the participants registered with the DSS office and more than half were unaware that these supports were available to them. The veterans had limited social experiences on campus and none of them opted to join student veterans' organizations and other social groups, though they felt most comfortable around other veterans. These findings suggest the need for additional research on veterans with disabilities, specifically between those who are receiving DSS and those who are not. There is also a clear need for improved transition services, including methods of identifying veterans with disabilities, and academic supports at four-year institutions. Furthermore, these results indicate that it is may be more effective to connect veterans to each other through channels outside of traditional on-campus veterans' organizations.</p>

This thesis provides a sociological analysis of the in-service training (INSET) of teachers in England between 1988 and 1992, to explore issues concerning the professionalism and autonomy of teachers. Sociologists of education have produced numerous explanations of educational phenomena, and evaluation studies reveal much about INSET. Yet there remains the task of developing sociological explanations in this field. As an especially dynamic phase, the period designated merits detailed study. Teachers' professional development is conceptualized in three ways: in relation to change in the education system, to the place of teaching as a profession, and in terms of professional learning. National INSET schemes implicitly threatened teacher autonomy, yet professionalism could be redefined at the micro- level, and this study therefore addresses macro- and micro-sociological issues. The empirical research concentrates with increasing intensity on school-focused INSET experiences, through data from documentary sources, in-depth interviews, and participant observation. Chapter 1 explains the rationale for the investigation and demarcates the field of study. Chapter 2 outlines the background to the Local Education Authority Training Grant Scheme and similar initiatives. Chapter 3 sets out the sociological basis for the analysis of INSET phenomena. Methodological issues are addressed in Chapter 4, including the choice of case studies, the challenges of re-analyzing data and the criteria for selecting cases. The analysis presents a macro-sociological perspective in Chapter 5, then examines how national and LEA priorities are implemented in schools in Chapter 6. Micro-level case studies explore specific aspects of INSET: across different phases in Chapter 7 and on using information technology in Chapter 8. Chapter 9 investigates INSET for art. Chapter 10 summarizes the ways this thesis contributes to knowledge about the professionalism and autonomy of teachers through the study of INSET during a critical period. It reviews the application of the theoretical approach and points to areas for further research.