Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Charles E. Heerman / Employers want to hire students with the appropriate skill set for the job. These skills include communication, problem-solving, and teamwork skills (Billing, 2003; Shivpuri & Kim, 2004). The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether students perceive themselves to be transferring employability skills learned in the Fort Hays State University (FHSU) Leadership Studies Certificate Program to the workplace. The Leadership Studies Certificate Program consists of three academic leadership courses; Introduction to Leadership to Leadership Concepts, Introduction to Leadership Behaviors, and Fieldwork in Leadership Studies. Three groups were created for the purpose of the study. Group one served as a control group and consisted of participants who had not taken a leadership course at FHSU. Group two consisted of a sample of students who had completed one or two courses out of the Leadership Studies Certificate Program. Participants who had completed the entire Leadership Studies Certificate made up group three. The study sought to evaluate the participants’ perceptions with regard to the level of importance of identified employability skills, as well as their level of competence in performing each of the employability skills. The study also sought the supervisors’ perceptions of the study participants in each of the three groups. Employability skills studied were problem-solving skills, communication skills, teamwork skills, change and innovation behaviors, ability to manage self, and being civic-minded. Study participants and their supervisors both perceived the ability to manage self as the most important skill in the workplace. Findings showed no differences between participant groups with respect to the perceived importance and competence levels on each of the six employability skill constructs. Supervisors of Leadership Studies Certificate recipients deemed communication skills as more important to their employee’s job than supervisors who employed students who had never taken an FHSU leadership course. No differences were found between supervisor groups with respect to perceived importance and competence on the remainder of the employability skills. Further research should be conducted on the Leadership Studies Certificate Program to understand its impact on students’ development of employability skills. Upon conclusion of this analysis, possible curriculum modifications should be considered.

Master of Science / Curriculum & Instruction / F. Todd Goodson / This study analyzes the power of literacy and language in adolescent negotiation of identity, particularly in a classroom setting. The theoretical notion of discourse communities provides the framework for this qualitative, narrative case study of one high school junior and her literacy and language experiences from the perspective of her own video diaries. The study applies Critical Discourse Analysis and sociocultural theory to literacy in order to better understand the identity choices students make as they navigate different spaces in their lives. In addition, this study offers several implications for the education profession in regard to the English language arts curricula and new teaching standards. Four emergent themes resulted from analyzing the case study’s video diaries and interviews: 1) Anna uses social languages to enact different identities; 2) Anna’s agency is affected by her assigned identities; 3) language acts as a means of moving between contexts; and 4) language is more than just words. This project sought to understand how Anna’s literacy and language practices are embedded in her sociocultural experiences, and how these experiences and practices shape identity and reconfigure moments of agency and power in the process of negotiating identities across discourse communities. The results of the study indicate that classroom spaces do not always adjust their context to meet the needs of the student, and for Anna, making identity choices to move between contexts did not always mediate success. In essence, language influences opportunities to learn, and our social and cultural position in society, to some extent, determines our success.

This research aims to identify core elements of leadership development in children and adolescents. Initial focus groups with student leaders in elementary and high schools suggested key differences in students’ implicit theories of leadership and their identities as leaders. A follow-up survey was constructed to measure these differences. Findings suggest age-based distinctions in students’ implicit understanding of leadership, what constitutes leadership behaviour, who has the capacity to lead, and what kinds of leadership they would like to take on. These distinctions form the basis for a conceptual model illustrating four phases or “stories” of leadership identified by children and adolescents: the task-oriented “helper,” the responsibility-oriented “deputy,” the role-oriented “agent” and the identity-oriented “ambassador.”

This study examines the ethical challenges and dilemmas that teachers experience in their work with students who have special needs in inclusive classrooms. Moreover, it investigates the ways in which teachers cope with or resolve such difficulties, the supports currently available to assist them in managing ethical issues, and their recommendations for potential supports. Accounts of ethical challenges reported by 12 teacher participants working at the elementary and secondary level were interpreted from two stages of interviews. Data were analyzed qualitatively using a constant comparison method, with data analysis occurring during and after each stage. Emergent themes were coded and categorized to elicit major and sub-themes. The ethical challenges reported by the participants primarily dealt with issues of care, equity, and fairness, where participants felt that the best interests of students were not being met. Difficulties occurred in the context of accommodations and modifications, assessment and evaluation, discipline, distribution of time and resources, and the rights of the individual student versus the group. In the accounts provided, participants consistently raised concerns about ethical dilemmas they experienced as a result of colleagues. In all of the situations that dealt with colleagues, teachers were unwilling to confront the unethical behaviors of co-workers despite their potential to harm the student. All of the teachers faced ethical challenges in the context of inclusion. While most support the practice of inclusion, concerns were raised about existing inequities, specifically in regard to the degree of inclusivity and access to learning opportunities. Shortages in supports, resources, and training were the primary reasons attributed to the teachers’ struggles. The participants’ recommendations for supports consisted of collaborative professional development opportunities, specifically in special and inclusive education. This study contributes to the growing body of literature in the ethics of inclusive and special education. It has significant implications for policy makers, certifying bodies, teacher education programs, and teachers’ professional lives as it provides insights into the ethical challenges faced by teachers in inclusive classrooms. The results of the study have the potential to influence the development of policies and practices to support both teachers and students.

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, renowned for its academic rigor, is also committed to forwarding the larger organization’s mission of creating “a better and more peaceful world” through education. This qualitative case study explores the conceptions of peace education held by three IB Diploma English A1 teachers, the factors that shaped those conceptions, and possible obstacles to teaching for peace in an international school. A framework of peace education as distilled from an extensive literature review and Johan Galtung’s definitions of peace provide the study’s theoretical foundation. Using observations, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews, this study examines teachers’ concepts of peace, pedagogical practices, and approaches to peace education within the context of an A1 classroom and an IB World School. The findings conclude that teachers’ conceptions of peace education are shaped by personal factors such as prior experiences and pedagogical content knowledge, and not by official IB documents.

This qualitative study looks at the learning that takes place during activism. Throughout this work, learning is conceptualized as the ongoing formation of critical consciousness rather than the acuqisition of skills for the purpose of securing menial employment. Furthermore, critical consciousness is seen to develop through the nonlinear interplay of thoughts and actions. This investigation uses the life history method to explore the learning of five Iranian women throughout decades of struggle against repressive social structures. It focuses on questions of motivation for activism, formation of critical consciousness, and activism in diaspora. At the theoretical level, this study criticizes current learning theories while its educational implications place critical consciousness as the goal of radical adult education. On a practical level, this investigation records successful political study groups and suggests such groups as models for sites of radical adult education.

This paper is a partial replication study of research to investigate an aspect of English articles: the acquisition of 4 nongeneric uses of the definite article in English. Analysis of article use in these four categories (i.e. cultural, situational, structural, and textual) was investigated by Liu and Gleason (2002), and a hierarchy of difficulty and acquisition was proposed based upon the initial results. This partial replication used the same testing instrument as Liu and Gleason (2002) with additional items included to further investigate the category, cultural use of the article. The participants, 17 low-intermediate, 20 high-intermediate, and 34 advanced ESL learners completed a 100 item test with sentences containing deleted obligatory uses of the as well as distractor items. The results partially supported Liu and Gleason‟s original study, and raised many concerns with the test instrument.

Because of its ambiguous function and usage, silence is a major source of intercultural miscommunication, which frequently leads to negative judgments, and breeds stereotypes. Grounded in a cross-cultural and interactive framework, I conducted a five-month descriptive qualitative study, which explored silence perceptions among Chinese, Korean, Russian, Colombian and Iranian ESL speakers, and Canadian native-speakers of English (NS). Multiple perspectives were investigated using stimulated recall, in a context of intercultural mentoring sessions and interviews. Eight ESL 'silence producer' participants were asked to explain their silence use, and their interpretations were compared with the functions attributed to these silences by other participants, one from the same cultural background as the 'silence producer', and a NS. Participants' silence perceptions were described, and most negatively-interpreted silences were identified. Analysis revealed intra-cultural acrimony, that high language proficiency perceptions increase negative silence attributions, cross-cultural differences in attitudes towards fillers, and the systematic silencing of ESL speakers.

This qualitative study looks at the learning that takes place during activism. Throughout this work, learning is conceptualized as the ongoing formation of critical consciousness rather than the acuqisition of skills for the purpose of securing menial employment. Furthermore, critical consciousness is seen to develop through the nonlinear interplay of thoughts and actions. This investigation uses the life history method to explore the learning of five Iranian women throughout decades of struggle against repressive social structures. It focuses on questions of motivation for activism, formation of critical consciousness, and activism in diaspora. At the theoretical level, this study criticizes current learning theories while its educational implications place critical consciousness as the goal of radical adult education. On a practical level, this investigation records successful political study groups and suggests such groups as models for sites of radical adult education.

This paper is a partial replication study of research to investigate an aspect of English articles: the acquisition of 4 nongeneric uses of the definite article in English. Analysis of article use in these four categories (i.e. cultural, situational, structural, and textual) was investigated by Liu and Gleason (2002), and a hierarchy of difficulty and acquisition was proposed based upon the initial results. This partial replication used the same testing instrument as Liu and Gleason (2002) with additional items included to further investigate the category, cultural use of the article. The participants, 17 low-intermediate, 20 high-intermediate, and 34 advanced ESL learners completed a 100 item test with sentences containing deleted obligatory uses of the as well as distractor items. The results partially supported Liu and Gleason‟s original study, and raised many concerns with the test instrument.