<p> In light of the paradigm shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered instruction occurring globally, the need for committed teachers is critical. Due to the influx of foreign nationals securing positions in the U.S. educational system, the teacher workforce has become more diverse. This diversity manifests a broad range of beliefs and values in regard to the teaching and learning process that are culturally inherited by an individual. Hence, "cultural incongruence" between the teacher and school organization is more likely to occur. A lack of understanding of how the cultural and educational aspects of normative commitment influences teachers' implementation of learner-centered instructional practices can lead to school systems experiencing organizational conflict. </p><p> Six multicultural English-as-a-second language teachers, three males and three females, representing six countries were purposely selected to participate in the study. The normative commitment survey from Meyer and Allen (2009) Three Component Model of Organizational Commitment, professional performance documents and a semi structured interview served as the data collection methods. The interview data was analyzed using Laughlin et al. (2006) to the start coding process. The information gathered from the surveys and professional review documents was triangulated with the interview data to evaluate consistencies or inconsistencies amongst the sources. The data yielded six reoccurring themes throughout the study. (1) Cultural Congruence, (2) Cultural Incongruence, (3) Paradigm Shifts in Teacher Training, (4) Pedagogical Identity Manifestation, and (5) Societal Obligation. Further, the findings of this study can contribute to the development of cultural educational training with a focus on instructional methodology for school districts with high English-as-a-second language populations. These findings can also be used in the hiring process in order to evaluate potential organizational congruence.</p>

The purpose of this dissertation is critically to illustrate discursive recontextualization between sociocultural production and reproduction, with respect to both relations within and relations to music education in Swedish upper-secondary school. The starting point for the study is the Swedish upper-secondary school reform, Gy 2011, which has involved a marked reformulation of the agenda for music education in upper-secondary school. The general Artistic Activities disappeared, at the same time as the significance of a specialising education in the field was strengthened. This dissertation is driven by the desire to understand the results of the upper-secondary school reform by explaining the processes and principles involved. But, in a wider perspective, the dissertation deals not only with a single reform, but encompasses a search for the underlying principles that have had, and are having, a regulating effect on the design and positioning of music in publicly regulated education. The results show that structuring of the subject of music takes place primarily through the classification and framing of social relationships in general, and of interactional relationships in particular. The focus of these relationships has shifted from time to time, and varies from context to context, but has always been in relation to something that has been regarded as sacred. In recent times, the framing within music-oriented knowledge practices has become weaker. At the same time, such knowledge practices have shown an increasing need for the drawing of boundaries in relation to other knowledge practices. The latter also has a value in explaining why general music content was removed from the upper-secondary school curriculum, whereas a special and specialising educational programme was able to gain legitimacy.

This thesis focuses on changes in the value of educational capital over time. Taking as a point of departure Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of a multidimensional social space, the thesis examines how this value is affected when educational assets—through the democratization of education—are becoming more widespread across this space (i.e. the population). The studies are based on datasets from Statistics Sweden, comprising the complete censuses of 1960 to 1990, LISA-registers, and registers of wealth and income. Different approaches are employed: the use of the Gini-coefficient to catch changes in the distribution of education; comparative models to investigate cohorts at different points in time; and specific multiple correspondence analysis to study the distribution of several assets simultaneously.  Three aspects are explored: the distributions, returns, and uses of education. Firstly, while there is a steady increase in the average number of years of schooling, there is a different pattern in the development of the distribution of education. Three phases were distinguished: one of increasing levels of inequality, one of decreasing inequality, and one in which the inequality levelled out. Secondly, the returns of education have diminished as far as economic gains are concerned, causing a fracture between different social generations, at the same time as the returns in a wider social sense have remained relatively stable. However, the relative stability hides crucial discrepancies. Groups with the lowest level of education are further marginalized and distances between ‘economic’ and ‘cultural’ groups are growing. Thirdly, in their modes of using the educational system, there are glaring differences between the economic elite and the cultural elite, although both utilize prestigious educational institutions as sites of social reproduction. The fundamental difference consists in that exclusive educational strategies are not as necessary to the dominant fraction of the economic elite. Their children are able to choose more freely among the offers of higher education.  The paradoxical development of the value of education is that while the absolute value of educational capital has decreased in general, the differences in relative value persist.

<p> Ample data exists indicating that immigrant-origin students are underperforming in education at all levels. In particular, immigrant-origin students are disproportionally the least prepared for higher education. As a result, a majority of these students begin their academic careers at community colleges where they enroll in remedial courses at rates far higher than those for other student populations. Such is the common pathway for immigrant-origin students entering an Urban Public University system (UPU). Research tells us that students who enter college academically underprepared and who struggle in introductory courses are more likely to drop out or withdraw, thus lowering their chances of earning a degree. This dissertation examines the intermediate variables associated with retention and academic achievement during a critical juncture in the college experience: remedial English.</p><p> This case study will focus on the institutional context in which the student experience takes place juxtaposed with the student perspective of remedial English. Thus, the overarching research question is: How do English remediation policies and practices (with regard to admissions, placement, testing and remediation classroom experiences) at a large public institution shape the student experience and how does the experience contribute to academic achievement?</p><p> In hopes of capturing a comprehensive understanding of the intermediate factor of remedial English, I designed my research with the entirety of the UPU system in mind. To gain the greatest insights into how enrollment in remedial English can influence the academic achievement of immigrant students at UPU, I asked the following research questions: Q1. What are the perceptions of faculty and administrators about remedial English policies and practices and their role in structuring the experiences, opportunities and impediments for immigrant-origin students in community college? Q2. What are students' perceptions of remedial English policies and practices and their role in structuring experiences, opportunities and impediments in community college? Q3. How do faculty, administrators, and students perspectives converge and diverge regarding the experiences, opportunities and impediments for immigrant-origin students in remedial English? By increasing our focus on immigrant-origin students in developmental writing courses, we may contribute positively to student retention and academic achievement overall. Additionally, this study may serve a national purpose by providing critical insights to advance the "completion agenda" endorsed by the federal government as well as numerous private foundations and advocacy groups that share the goal of drastically improving college graduation rates particularly in community colleges by 2020.</p>

<p> Low graduation rates are a significant issue for colleges. The majority of higher education institutions in the United States offer learning communities (LCs), which have been found to be effective for improving course success and persisting to the next semester. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding the effectiveness of LCs with different types of populations and different types of LCs. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to identify the most effective types of LCs. Research questions addressed the effects of different types of LCs on different student success outcomes for community colleges. The study was based on Tinto's interactionist model of student departure and Astin's model of student involvement. Studies examining the relationship between student success and participation in college LCs provided the data for the meta-analysis. A random effects model was used to generate the average effect size for 39 studies and 50 individual effect sizes. The results showed that LCs are most effective with community college students when they include additional support strategies, counseling is available to students, one of the linked courses is an academic skills course, at least one of the linked course is developmental, and the focus is on increasing course success or student engagement. The implications for positive social change suggest that LC programs implement two linked courses, include an academic skills course, focus on developmental courses, and provide access to a counselor and additional student support strategies. In addition, LC programs are most effective when the goals of the program are student engagement and course success.</p>

This study investigates the complex nature of how Tongan mothers in New Zealand contribute to their young children's ako (learning, and general education) in their homes, in the early childhood centre and primary school settings, and in church and the community. It argues that the mothers' contribution to their children's ako is based mainly on their cultural background, educational experience in Tonga, and their Christian faith, plus new knowledge they have picked up in New Zealand. Through the use of talanoa (conversation, questions and discussion) in Tongan and English languages, data were gathered from a small community in a town in the North Island, New Zealand and were coded, analysed, and presented. The participants draw on skills and knowledge of child-rearing strategies and educational practices experienced in Tonga before their migration to this country. However, when implemented in New Zealand, some aspects prove contradictory to the current practice in Aotearoa. The mothers find these emerging tensions frustrating, yet ongoing, but new learning in this country and their Christian faith help enhance their practice. The findings show that the mothers' use of Tongan language, cultural values, beliefs, and practices, with the lived experience of their Christian faith, is effective in teaching the children social and moral education, while contributing to their academic learning and still be preserving their Tongan culture, language, and identity. The mothers' shared use of Tongan language, cultural values and Christian faith enable them to create and maintain good relationships with teachers and other mothers for making worthwhile contributions to their children's ako in the selected contexts. Most of the mothers are involved in most activities, and nearly all participate where Tongan language is used and Tongan culture and Christianity are practised. It is acknowledged that some contributions create dilemmas and mismatches of expectations between the women and mainstream educational institutions. The women's efforts, accessing information in Tongan, and operating in education using faka-Tonga ways, and creating warm relationships among the mothers, teachers, and children who contribute to one another's learning reveal the complex nature of mothers' contributions to their children's education. They shuttle from one context to another, using their faka-Tonga ways, views and practices to fulfill their obligations and responsibilities, while going through transformation in their participation. Based on these findings, implications for mothers, teachers/educators, researchers, and policymakers are considered, and suggestions for future research directions are made that may benefit the growing Tongan population since it is they who have the main responsibility for young Tongan children's ako in Aotearoa-New Zealand.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Flinders University, School of Education. / Typescript bound. Includes bibliographical references: (leaves 217-224) Also available online.

abstract: Michael Apple's scholarship on curriculum, educational ideology, and official knowledge continues to be influential to the study of schooling. Drawing on the sociological insights of Pierre Bourdieu and the cultural studies approaches of Raymond Williams, Apple articulates a theory of schooling that pays particular attention to how official knowledge is incorporated into the processes of schooling, including textbooks. In an effort to contribute to Apple's scholarship on textbooks, this study analyzed high school American history textbooks from the 1960s through the 2000s with specific attention to the urban riots of the late-1960s, sixties counterculture, and the women's movement utilizing Julia Kristeva's psychoanalytic concept of abjection to augment Apple's theory of knowledge incorporation. This combination reveals not only how select knowledge is incorporated as official knowledge, but also how knowledge is treated as abject, as unfit for the curricular body of official knowledge and the selective tradition of American history. To bridge the theoretical frameworks of incorporation and abjection Raymond Williams' theory of structures of feeling and Slavoj iek's theory of ideological quilting are employed to show how feelings and emotional investments maintain ideologies. The theoretical framework developed and the interpretive analyses undertaken demonstrate how textbook depictions of these historical events structure students' present educational experiences with race, class, and gender. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2011

abstract: The dissertation is based on 15 months of ethnographically-informed qualitative research at a liberal arts college in the Himalayan nation of Bhutan. It seeks to provide a sense of daily life and experience of schooling in general and for female students in particular. Access to literacy and the opportunities that formal education can provide are comparatively recent for most Bhutanese women. This dissertation will look at how state-sponsored schooling has shaped gender relations and experiences in Bhutan where non-monastic, co-educational institutions were unknown before the 1960s. While Bhutanese women continue to be under-represented in politics, upper level government positions and public life in general, it is frequently claimed at a variety of different levels (for instance in local media and government reports), that Bhutan, unlike it South Asian neighbors, has a high degree of gender equity. It is argued that any under-representation does not reflect access or opportunity but is instead the result of women's decision not to "come up" and participate. However this dissertation will dispute the claim that female students could choose to be more visible, vocal and mobile in classrooms and on campus without being challenged or discouraged. I will show that school is a gendered context, in which female students are consistently reminded of their "limitations" and their "appropriate place" through the use of familiar social practices such as teasing, gossip, and harassment. Schooling, particularly in developing nations like Bhutan, is usually implicitly and uncritically understood to be a neutral resource, often evaluated in relation to development aims such as creating a more educated and skilled workforce. While Bhutanese schools do seem to promote new kind of opportunity and new understandings of success, they also continue to recognize, maintain and reproduce conventional values around hierarchy, knowledge transmission, cooperation (or group identity) and gender norms. This dissertation will also show how emergent disparities in wealth and opportunity in the nation at large are beginning to be reflected and reproduced in both the experience of schooling and the job market in ways that Bhutanese development policy is not yet able to adequately address. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Anthropology 2012

[pt] Este trabalho examina a expansão recente do ensino superior no Brasil com foco num eventual processo de democratização, vale dizer: onde se possa perceber um recrutamento de alunos mais independente de sua origem social e com qualidade acadêmica. Problematiza especialmente o caráter desigual da sociedade brasileira, traduzida neste caso por uma forte correlação entre a carreira escolhida pelos estudantes e sua origem social, no quadro de uma quase impermeável hierarquia de carreiras e de prestígio das instituições. O estudo é realizado através dos Microdados do Exame Nacional de Cursos (Provão) para os anos de 2000, 2001, 2002 e 2003, sobre seis cursos superiores no Estado do Rio de Janeiro: Biologia, Direito, Letras, Engenharia, Matemática e Medicina. Identifica o perfil socioeconômico dos alunos destes cursos e averigua os resultados obtidos no Exame Nacional de Cursos, verificando se houve inclusão de novos perfis e o desempenho acadêmico dos mesmos no período. Analisa os resultados de forma geral e segundo a categoria administrativa, a organização acadêmica e a localização dos cursos. Estabelece também, a partir desta análise, um diálogo com pesquisas empíricas realizadas sobre a temática. Finalmente, propõe uma hipótese de construção de um indicador de democratização do ensino superior com vistas a contribuir para o balizamento da política educacional na continuidade da expansão que, segundo os achados, deve ser acompanhada de perto para que não se esgote no aumento do contingente de estudantes no ensino superior, frustrando a meta democrática. / [en] This work examines the recent expansion of higher education in Brazil with a focus in a potential process of democratization, that is, where one can note the recruitment of students regardless of their socioeconomic background and high academic standards. In particular, it brings to light the inequalities of Brazilian society, demonstrated in this case by a strong correlation between the careers chosen by students and their socioeconomic background, in the framework of a nearly impermeable hierarchy of careers and institutional prestige. The study was conducted based on the Microdata from the Provão (assessment tests) for the years 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003, for six higher education courses in the State of Rio de Janeiro: Biology, Law, Languages & Literature, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine. The socioeconomic profiles of the students in each course are identified and the results obtained in the Courses` National Examinations are studied to see whether new profiles were included and to assess the academic performance in the period. The results are examined on a general level and according to the administrative category, academic organization and location of each course. After this analysis has been made, a dialogue is established with empirical research conducted on the topic. Finally, the author proposes the hypothesis of creating a democratization indicator for higher education with the goal of contributing towards the gauging of educational policies as the expansion continues. According to the findings, this expansion should be closely monitored in order to keep up the increase in the contingency of students in higher education and thereby attain the democratic goal.