ABSTRACT THE REVOLUTION BEGINS AT 3PM: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF A STATEWIDE 21ST CENTURY COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS PROGRAM by Corrie L. Davis The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how teachers and staff members demonstrated caring toward their students within a statewide 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) afterschool program. The participants in the study included 17 program directors, 22 site coordinators, 16 teachers, 3 paraprofessionals, 11 parents, 11 principals, and 18 other stakeholders associated with the program. This multi-site case study utilized the naturalistic paradigm of qualitative research. The data collection process included 98 semi-structured interviews, 22 participant observations, 112 photographs, and document analyses with materials from the 20 grantees selected in the sample. The qualitative software program, Atlas.ti: The Knowledge Workbench (2003) assisted with the management and analysis of data during the coding, categorizing, and interpretation process. Findings from the study revealed 3 central themes: (a) staff members that care about the whole child educate the whole child, (b) using culture as an asset increases students’ desire to learn and (c) building character promotes positive change. By incorporating these attributes, the program’s staff demonstrated their commitment to the academic and democratic advancement of the students in their care. This study will help inform policy makers, afterschool advocates, and 21st CCLC stakeholders about the importance of incorporating caring, culturally relevant pedagogy, and character education within local and national afterschool programs.

African descent students often are subjected to pedagogical practices and curricula that do not validate their home cultures or their individual and collective histories. In response to this problem, many teachers implement culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) and curricula to address the needs of this population. Focusing on two African descent teachers in an African-centered school, the purpose of this qualitative African-centered inquiry was to 1) examine how the ancient Kemetic philosophy, Ma’at, manifests in their epistemologies, worldviews, and pedagogical practices, 2) explore how their epistemologies and worldviews inform their pedagogical practices, and 3) understand how their life experiences shaped their epistemologies and worldviews. A holistic theoretical framework comprised of Afrocentric and womanist theories and a CRP theoretical approach informed the “retooled” life history methodology employed in this study. The culturally sensitive data collection methods included dialogue, storytelling, participatory witnessing, and Afrocentric group conversation. Thematic and dialogic/performance narrative analysis techniques were used to analyze the data. The significance of this study is fourfold. First, this study adds to the paucity of existing literature on exemplary African descent teachers by bringing to the fore how the epistemologies and worldviews of teachers shape their pedagogical practices in an African-centered school. Second, this study explored the intended liberatory effects of African descent teachers’ implementation of CRP for themselves and for their students, ultimately affecting how both position themselves in the broader society. Third, use of the cardinal virtues of Ma’at (truth, justice, righteousness, order, harmony, balance, and reciprocity) as the philosophical foundation for this study presents an ontological alternative to privileging western philosophical frameworks typically used in educational research. Finally, as the ancient Kemetic philosophy employed in this study and as this study’s philosophical foundation, Ma'at specifically encourages policy makers, researchers, and practitioners to reexamine their notions of contemporary education in terms of its purpose, methods, and conceptions of the whole child. The findings illuminate ways that Ma’at undergirds the participants’ epistemologies, worldviews, and culturally relevant pedagogical practices enabling them to facilitate critical thinking, critical consciousness, and identity development with their students.

A major challenge facing parent educators and professionals who provide prevention and early intervention programs/services for people of colour, specifically Black families in Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), is the lack of culturally relevant programs. An Afrocentric approach that incorporates concepts from the Empowerment and Ecological Systems theories will bridge this gap because it provides a framework for examining the impact of culture and race on Black family life and parenting. Reflecting on the African proverb, "it takes a village to raise a child", the study emphasizes the role of Black communities in supporting families for enhancing the healthy development of their children. The study examines Black parents' beliefs and goals about using racial socialization as a parenting strategy to address issues of race and discrimination that impact Black parenting. Findings indicate that parents in HRM are currently practicing some form of racial socialization, and are receptive to this model.

Schools are sites of great power and influence where the “obesity” discourse is often taken uncritically as truth and reproduced, to the detriment of young people. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how theories of fatness can inform theories of culturally relevant pedagogy with the goal of helping teachers create spaces where increased size acceptance is possible for secondary students. Literature from both these areas of study was reviewed and applied to the Ontario secondary curriculum documents for science and physical education. This analysis demonstrated a body acceptance orientation in teaching these disciplines, and that doing so can mitigate many of the negative effects of living in a fat hating world.

Schools are sites of great power and influence where the “obesity” discourse is often taken uncritically as truth and reproduced, to the detriment of young people. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how theories of fatness can inform theories of culturally relevant pedagogy with the goal of helping teachers create spaces where increased size acceptance is possible for secondary students. Literature from both these areas of study was reviewed and applied to the Ontario secondary curriculum documents for science and physical education. This analysis demonstrated a body acceptance orientation in teaching these disciplines, and that doing so can mitigate many of the negative effects of living in a fat hating world.

Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-86).

This research examines the failure of AB 101 (Alejo) a bill that would have created a statewide ethnic studies curriculum in California. Through a qualitative analysis consisting primarily of interviews, the analysis challenges the validity of the main oppositional arguments against the bill. Then argues that misunderstandings regarding the implications of ethnic studies curriculum, leading to an unwillingness to fund such programs, has served as the main barrier in enacting a statewide curriculum. Lastly, the work identifies the social and political conditions needed to overcome such barriers. In conclusion, the research suggests that, through time, as local ethnic studies programs become more prominent, and research on the impact of ethnic studies becomes more robust, California will be in a place to be one of the first states to pass a statewide ethnic studies curriculum.

Despite firm knowledge of the instructional actions taken by skillful teachers, the evidence of persistently low levels of literacy achievement among urban secondary students underscores the complexity of achieving meaningful change in routine teaching practices. This study was motivated by the need to improve teaching practices and improve literacy achievement among Black and Latino youth. In this mixed-methods study, I researched the extent to which the understandings about effective instruction guided the instruction of two highly-regarded secondary English language arts classroom teachers. The data for this study included initial teacher interviews, videos of classroom observations, teacher and researcher reflections of practice, and teacher retrospective interviews. The analyses included identifying, analyzing, and classifying: (1) the occurrence of explicit instruction of reading strategies, development of requisite background knowledge, culturally responsive pedagogy, and disciplinary literacy in English language arts secondary classrooms, (2) the types of decisions teachers make related to these factors when enacting a standards-based curriculum, and (3) how these decisions affect student achievement. The analyses led to two major findings: (1) both teachers modified the new standards-based language arts curriculum, but in varied ways and for substantially different reasons; and (2) the students whose instruction included the use of research-based strategies to access and build requisite background knowledge along with disciplinary literacy strategies made significant gains in reading achievement. The overall results of this study confirm and expand the existing literature in several ways: (1) by calling attention to how curricular modifications related to the development of requisite background knowledge and instruction in disciplinary literacy strategies serve to facilitate students’ access to complex texts; (2) by identifying some of the reasons for and obstacles to curricular modification for particular teachers in particular contexts; and (3) by providing preliminary evidence of positive reading outcomes for Black and Latino students who read complex texts in classrooms in which teachers emphasize disciplinary literacy practices, development of requisite background knowledge, and explicit instruction in comprehension strategies.

Global competence--a necessary attribute in an increasingly interconnected world--describes having the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to act creatively and collaboratively on important global issues. In urban settings comprised of racial, ethnic, and/or linguistic-minority students, especially, a logical but seemingly underutilized facilitator of global competence would be instruction that draws from students’ funds of knowledge--the home-based practices central to a household’s functioning and well-being. In response to a need for deepened insight into how these concepts may interact in practice, the goal of this qualitative study was to better understand the experience of urban teachers as global competence educators, specifically, the extent to which they consider and utilize their students’ funds of knowledge in developing global competence. In this study, 30 Boston area teachers were interviewed using a semi-structured protocol to draw out their understandings of students’ funds of knowledge and their awareness of how these funds of knowledge might be used to further the development of global competence. Data produced in this study were analyzed through a multi-phase thematic coding process. A conceptual framework built upon existing definitions of global competence and funds of knowledge was developed to inform the design and methodology of this study, and was used as a guide for viewing and understanding the produced data. The two major findings of this study were that: (1) teachers, while seemingly able and willing to talk about global competence and funds of knowledge in relation to their students, did not seem to synthesize (or speak about their synthesis of) these concepts in practice, and, (2) in teacher interviews, potential global competence-supporting funds of knowledge were most often recognized in immigrant and/or economically privileged White students. The potential global competence-supporting funds of knowledge possessed by non-immigrant, minority, and presumably, low-income students were not routinely recognized or accessed.

Educational and public narratives on the achievement outcomes of Black boys in mathematics are too often negative. Contrary to these negative narratives, however, research affirms positive outcomes for students, including Black boys, when engaged in caring teacher–student relationships (see, e.g., Bartell, 2011; Roberts, 2009; Steele, 1992). Considering the growing importance of mathematics both nationally and globally, an investigation into the benefits of such caring relationship is important. But literature specific to caring teacher−student relationships, African American male students, and mathematics teaching and learning is all but nonexistent. For this reason, I sought to uncover the definition that African American male students had of teacher care, and how, if at all, an African American male teacher might influence their perceptions of teacher care. Additionally, I was intrigued with and wished to uncover any influence an African American male teacher might have on African American male students’ attitudes toward mathematics. The purpose of this qualitative study, therefore, was to explore the influence a “successful” African American male teacher had on three African American male students’ perceptions of teacher care and their attitudes toward mathematics. This critical ethnography was guided by an intersection of an eclectic array of theoretical traditions (Stinson, 2009), including care theory (e.g., Gilligan, 1982; Noddings, 1992), critical race theory (e.g., Ladson-Billings, 1998), and culturally relevant pedagogy (e.g., Ladson-Billings, 1992). This eclectic array aligned with both the philosophical foundations of the project and the methodological procedures employed. The project used ethnographic methods—specifically, participant observations and semi-structured interviews—during data collection. Data analysis identified six overarching themes that the participants used to describe teacher care: (a) motivation, (b) culture, (c) confidence, (d) discipline, (e) concern for futures, and (f) environment. The findings of this study suggest that teachers should reconsider the ways they care for African American male students, specifically, in the mathematics classroom, and that a caring teacher–student relationship has a positive influence on African American male students’ attitudes toward mathematics as well as their descriptions and perceptions of teacher care.