This dissertation is a study of a phenomenon, namely the existence of individuals who have actively committed their lives to social change. The study was designed to explore two aspects of social activism: (a) how these individuals were able to follow careers in social change work; and, (b) that aspect of consciousness through which these individuals come to know the world in a certain way. This way of knowing involves a commitment to ending oppression, an understanding that oppression is a constructed phenomena that can be changed, and a commitment to change that is based on concepts of participation and volition. The most salient theme to emerge in regard to the career paths of these individuals was its gradual, unplanned nature. Within that theme, there were a number of commonalities or patterns that acted as catalysts for their career paths. These patterns were: (a) A sense of being different; (b) experiences of cognitive dissonance; (c) being "noticed" by others; and, (d) intellectual aptitude. As to the development of consciousness, the theme that illuminated all of the choices made by these individuals was their commitment to a set of values rooted in concepts of freedom and equality. Patterns or commonalities within this theme were: (a) The sense that these values had always been with them; and, (b) these values had led them to act outside of, or beyond, their socialization experience. Finally, the researcher focuses on her own meaning making which, while rooted in the themes and patterns that emerged, is neither a clear synthesis nor a prescriptive analysis. Instead, the meaning making moves the findings into new theoretical perspectives and brings to the foreground new phenomenological issues that deal with the acausal and multi-causal nature of the themes and patterns. Those relationships included the acausal phenomena of synchronicity, and the interactive and multi-causal nature of the other themes and patterns. She then suggests that neither socialization nor educational experience can fully explain either aspect of the phenomenon. Beyond socialization and beyond educational experiences, there seem to be some transactional connections between consciousness and a specific set of values.

Today, increasingly attention has turned to the impact that school experiences have on gay youth. However, research to date has focused disproportionately on crisis intervention strategies or on meeting individually based needs rather than on the school setting. This study contributes an organization-wide examination of one public school district's efforts to address the needs of gay youth at the high school level. This study examines the role of this public school district Safe Schools Committee and their participation in the Massachusetts Department of Education Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian Youth and assesses the impact these efforts have had on the overall school setting in relation to gay youth issues. Two social justice change models provide the theoretical foundation for this study: multicultural education and multicultural organization development. The data for this study were gathered and analyzed using traditional qualitative research methods. Students, educators, parents, administrators, community members, and consultants at the statewide level were asked to describe their perceptions of change in the high school. The four recommendations of the Massachusetts Department of Education Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian Students, the Stages of Multicultural Awareness model, and the Continuum of School Change Strategies provided useful perspectives in understanding how change initiatives impacted this school setting. Factors important to the success of this school district's change initiatives were identified. The importance of prior experiences in creating a state of organizational readiness for change, the role of the Safe Schools Committee as a subsystem for change in the organization, and the importance of collaborative relationships across the organization, with community stakeholders, and with statewide resources and experts emerged as significant. Conclusions drawn from this study indicate that a systemic perspective can be critical in supporting school-based change efforts to meet the needs of gay youth and that addressing the needs of gay youth in school settings can make important contributions to increased multicultural awareness and organization development. Organization factors and behaviors of members of the Safe Schools Committee identified as particularly important to the success of these efforts are also presented.

Full participation and equal opportunity in sport in America historically has not been available to a variety of identity groups based on race, gender and disability. Many studies have described the fate of African-Americans and women in sport, but very few have examined a similar relationship with respect to athletes with disabilities. Furthermore, there has been limited examination of issues of vertical integration of these identity groups within the management or executive levels of sport organizations. This work proposes a new theoretical framework (i.e., Critical Change Factors Model - CCFM) based on critical, distributive justice, and open systems theories. Two longitudinal case studies were presented that examine the degrees of integration and inclusion achieved by African-American males in Major League Baseball and women in intercollegiate sport. Basic descriptive statistics and qualitative data analysis techniques were used to present each case. An organizational continuum of workplace diversity and a three-tiered social stratification model were incorporated to help illustrate the historical progression of integration of each group. The conceptual model was designed to allow for the comparative analysis and generalizability of recommendations across identity groups. The model provided key insights and findings in the complexities of organizational change related to identity group integration. A strategic management process approach was used to apply the findings from this comparison to athletes with disabilities as a third identity group, thereby creating a new equity paradigm incorporating disability. This focused on the potential for systems change as an organizational function within the context of both internal and external environments. Recommendations directed at organizations to become more accepting and tolerant institutions focused on strategies that sport managers can employ to improve conditions at each stratification level. Recommendations for removing or diminishing resistance to greater diversity within sport organizations included the identification, development and distribution limited resources in a more equitable manner to newcomer groups. Recommendations also centered on the broader application of the theoretical and practical concepts presented in this study to any particular identity group as it might be related to any organization, regardless of its purpose and enterprise.

This eleven-month ethnographic study puts critical discourse analysis in dialogue with postmodern conceptualizations of space and place to explore how eight educators talk about space and in the process, produce racialized spaces in Roche Bois, Mauritius. The macro-historical context of racialization of this urban marginalized community informs the discursive analysis of educators' talk at school. Drawing on theories of race that call for the non-deterministic exploration of race relations as they occur in different contexts and times (Hall, 2000; Pandian & Kosek, 2003; Essed & Goldberg, 2000), I explore the spatial racialization of children in Roche Bois as a process specific to this township and its history. Engaging with Lefebvre's three-dimensional theorization of space (Lefebre, 1991) as well as the Discourse Historical Approach developed by Wodak and colleagues (Wodak & Reisgl, 1999), I draw on the micro-macro concept of identity construction "strategy" to study 1) how meanings of race play out as an amalgam of various thematic dimensions of schooling, culture, bodies, and work that are spatialized; 2) how meanings of place perpetuate or transform long-standing historical constructions of Creole identity in Roche Bois. The findings show that repeated patterns of educators' spatial racialization produce and reproduce conceived spaces (Lefebvre, 1991) and yet my research also highlights that banal moments of lived space (Lefebvre, 1991) also exist, as ordinary disruptions of the spatial order produced by patterns of conceived space. While educator discourse for the most part negatively emplaces and racializes the children, one educator's representations of place and race both assimilates and differentiates marginal identities, encourages unity and essentialism at the same time as promotes hybridity. The analysis therefore shows that discourses of place are not totalizing and that moments of interruption can be the basis for thinking of teacher education and practice as a politics of "decolonization" and "reinhabitation" (Gruenewald, 2003). Specifically, the findings indicate the importance of reinvesting critical historical meanings into pedagogies of the local.

The international Development field has long been critiqued on ideological grounds. This study complements more recent critical analyses which cast Development as discourse, as a system of logic disseminated through power-knowledge strategies which represent “the real” according to its own dictates. The interface between Education and Development, however, has received little scholarly or critical attention to date. Informed by the work of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, this study employs poststructuralist and deconstructive strategies to investigate the performativity of the discursive formation, (Education for) Development. The author builds an analytics which posits a “problematic” or epistemological framework, comprised of three “regimes of representation”—History, Geography and Governmentality—and two guiding modes of rationality, the “economistic” and “developmentalist,” which underwrite Development's power to constitute “the real.” Analyses of three recent influential texts, the Declaration of the World Conference on Education for All (1990); USAID Technical Paper No. 12 “Education Policy Formation in Africa” (1994); and World Bank (1995) Policies and Strategies for Education destabilize the apparent naturalness and inevitability of (Education for) Development's own account of itself. Problematizing the discourse's claims to objectivity and disinterested technical knowledge, the analyses subvert the logic which makes possible Development's constitution of problems crying out for solutions emanating from its own epistemological universe. The analyses expose the discourse's power to interpellate its subjects (“girls,” “women,” “government,” “the State”) within the limits of its own discursive regimes. Limits to representation proscribe the “girl's” subjectivity, for example, within the confines of childbearing and domestic labor. The discursive formations “Girls' Education” and “Population Education” are shown to perform in the service of Development's normalizing and self-sustaining strategies.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of college experiences on Asian American college students' civic development at two public institutions in comparison with those of White students by utilizing longitudinal data from the Diverse Democracy Project. Students' democratic orientation was measured by six related scales including social justice orientation, acceptance of conflict in democracy, acceptance of multiple perspectives, self-efficacy for social change, social leadership abilities, and pluralistic orientation. The study first compared the level of democratic orientation between Asian American students and White students using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) prior to college (Summer/Fall 2000) and at the end of their sophomore year (Fall 2002) to determine whether there was any difference between the two groups at each point. In order to assess how each group of students changed over the two years in their democratic orientation, the repeated measures MANOVA was conducted. The results of the MANOVA indicated that White students were likely to exhibit a greater level of civic outcomes overall than Asian Americans at each time of measurement. The repeated measures MANOVA suggested that (1) both groups of students fared higher in their acceptance of multiple perspectives at the end of their second year, and (2) while White students increased their social justice orientation, Asian American students did not change in this orientation. Second, two types of hierarchical regression analyses were performed to investigate the influence of college experiences on students' civic development and to determine how students' entry characteristics, high school experiences, and college experience each accounted for the variance that predicted the outcome variables at the end of the sophomore year separately for Asian American and White students. The first model used the democratic orientation measured at the end of sophomore year as the dependent variable to understand the influence of college experiences on where students stood. The second model used the change between the pre-measurement and post-measurement of the democratic orientation as the dependent variable to determine the magnitude of college experiences on how much students changed. The results of regression analysis indicated that while college experiences were positively associated with White students' six civic outcomes, they had influence only on two of the outcome variable for Asian American students. The dissertation aimed to contribute to the body of literature in the field by supplying empirical evidence as well as by proposing policy implications.

This study examined the various ways in which Ashkenazi Jewish undergraduate anti-racism peer educators understood and used their Jewish identity in their work with non-Jewish people of color and white Christians. Ashkenazi Jews, who are Jews of Central European heritage, often find themselves questioning the racial space they occupy. The ways in which students of Ashkenazi Jewish identification compare or contrast their historical and current social position with that of communities of color can either facilitate or disrupt their efforts to be effective anti-racist educators. Fifteen Ashkenazi Jews who are peer facilitators in a nationally-recognized social justice program at a university in the Midwest were interviewed. Three data gathering techniques were utilized: demographic intake form, individual interview, and focus group interview. Participants articulated a complex understanding of the position of Ashkenazi Jews in U.S.-based systems of ethnicity, religion, race and class. Based on these systems, the students claimed that Jews are both insiders and outsiders in American society, targeted and privileged simultaneously in their ethno-religious and class identities. Findings reveal that being Jewish is salient and a distinct identity for this generation of college students; the history of Jewish oppression continues to inform Jewish identity; Jewish students continues to describe a connection with Blacks; and distinctive processes of ethnic and ethno-religious identity development take place for Jewish undergraduates. Findings suggest the need for a new social identity model that addresses the unique racial, ethnic and ethno-religious positionality of Ashkenazi Jewish undergraduates. The author presents a Jewish ethno-religious target development model, along with implications for anti-racism and social justice education and suggestions for further research.

In this dissertation, I explore a different concept in program evaluation. There is little literature on using evaluation research as a tool for social justice. The Oppression Evaluation Approach I am introducing is about an alternative method in conducting program evaluation under dominant political conditions, simply dealing with the ethical question: whose side are the evaluators on? The study is based on the experiences of environmental activists in Sudan who have worked under oppressive environments for decades, and how this reflected on the microenvironment of projects run by authoritative managements. The purpose of this study was: (1) To critically review the concept of educational evaluation, with a focus on areas that are not usually tackled, e.g., evaluation abuse. I introduce a number of illegitimate purposes for doing program evaluations in addition to the ones cited in the U.S.A evaluation literature. I also highlight major contemporary models and approaches, which have emerged during the past three decades. (2) To introduce a new approach or model, tentatively called Oppression Evaluation, to develop its theoretical framework based on my experience with evaluation projects in the Third World. I accomplished this and introduced the distinct characteristics of this approach (pre-starting conditions, evaluators' role, covert agenda, power relationships, type of data, risk factors, etc.). This was a major achievement of this research. (3) To explore similarities and differences of this approach in two environmental social justice projects in Sudan and Massachusetts, using a comparative case study design. The key findings were similar methods used in both cases, even with different political environments, due to the shared environmental vision by the two organizations. The adopted methodology in this research was qualitative, focusing on detailed descriptions of the two case studies. I relied on my role in the Sudanese case on reviewing its literature and documents, and introducing a distinguished data gathering technique that is used among left movement in Sudan, and called “Zameel Network.” In the second case, I gathered data via email, media documentation, in-depth interviews, direct and participant-observation, and photography.

The purposes of this study were to provide an historical overview of the development of post-secondary technical education in Puerto Rico within the framework of the expansion of higher education; and to examine the implications and consequences of the development of technical education as it relates to social stratification, social division of labor, and social class conflict. During the 1940s, Puerto Rico began, for it, an unprecedented economic development program with the objective of industrializing the Island. This industrialization process brought about a rapid transformation of the occupational structure of the labor force on the Island. This process also influenced changes in the structure, orientation, and curriculum of public post-secondary education. In the 1960s, the University of Puerto Rico underwent a rapid and remarkable transformation. An important part of this process was the establishment and development of a system of regional colleges that became responsible for the development of two-year technical programs. The apparent shortage of technical personnel necessary to sustain the process of industrial development, and the high unemployment rate among four-year college graduates were two of the most influential arguments that sparked the establishment and development of these programs. The findings show an imbalance in the social demographic composition between regional college students and those in the more prestigious campuses. Students from the higher social class are over-represented at the main institutions, while the lower social class is better represented throughout the regional college system. Data used in this study do not support the claim of a technical personnel shortage nor the allegation that technical education yields economic success, facilitates upward social mobility, and helps to alleviate unemployment among four-year college graduates. Finally, the data do not support the existence of a social-class tracking system within the regional college institutions.

The educational system in Puerto Rico has been characterized by the lack of gender equity. The projects conducted in this centralized system have proposed alternatives to overcome sexism but have not considered teachers' perspectives on the problem. Recent legislation on educational reform recognized the need to involve teachers in curriculum change. The Puerto Rican Commission for Women's Affairs developed the Project on Gender Educational Equity aimed towards integrating gender equity into the curriculum through teachers' involvement in curriculum change. This study was undertaken to explore and document the experiences of the eleven female teachers who participated in the Project. Using a phenomenological approach three interviews were conducted with each participant. The background, the actual experience and the meaning of the experience for them were explored. These elementary school teachers have had experiences in which the child-rearing and schooling processes, career selection, courtship and marital relationships have contributed to the acquisition of the female roles and the construction of a view of the self as gendered persons. They struggled with the attributed roles of woman, mother, and teacher. They confronted several conflicts: rejection of feminism, need to be subtle, lack of time and resources, power of the prescribed curriculum, and subversion of the established schemes. They made a conscious effort to scrutinize the explicit and the implicit curriculum. They also developed strategies to overcome sexism. They felt a need to include men in the whole picture of equity and struggled with the concept of special efforts towards one gender. The definition of equity as equality helped to reconcile their understanding of gender oppression and the need to incorporate men in the same picture. They established a connection between the personal and the professional and felt that they are doing their work more consciously. An understanding that they need to work for equity and that they have been doing reform in their classrooms was part of their meanings. They felt that it is the responsibility of the Department of Education to work for an equitable curriculum. This study has a focus on critical issues that have implications for initiatives that involve teachers in curriculum change, research and action on gender equity, and teacher education.