This dissertation describes a qualitative case study which examined the process through which one Quaker elementary school, Brinton Friends School (BFS), is becoming a multicultural, anti-racist institution. The research was conducted over a four-month period in 1990 to explore how a school founded on spiritual principles integrates a multicultural change process. Through interviews, observations, and document analysis three aspects of the school's experience were investigated to provide a glimpse at an on-going change process. The first was a description of the concrete steps the school is taking to achieve its goals. These include participation in a multicultural self-assessment program created by the National Association of Independent Schools, racism awareness workshops for all staff, and an analysis of institutional policies and practices to ensure equity. Emphasis has been placed on creating a racially and culturally heterogeneous community. The second aspect explored in this research was the way staff, particularly White staff, feel about this process. Although some forms of resistance were observed, staff at the school are generally supportive of the multicultural change effort. The third area of research was an examination of the specific ways in which a multicultural, anti-racist focus is woven into the Quaker spiritual values of the school. Some tensions were reported between these values and the multicultural, anti-racist process. This research examined whether intrinsic conflicts exist between these two value systems. The key themes of community, conflict, and spirituality emerged during the research at BFS. These three themes form individual yet interrelated perspectives on the environment of the school and its change process. The feeling of community at BFS was cited as important to participants in this study. This sense of community has been nurtured in part by the Quaker spiritual principles at the heart of the school. Yet as in any community of people there are conflicts. At BFS these include how to solve problems, how to be inclusive, and how to define what spirituality means for the school. This research utilizes these themes to provide a picture of one Quaker school in the process of change.

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) can provide individualized instruction in problem-solving skills, a kind of instruction that until recently only humans could perform. While ITS have been an active area of research for nearly twenty-five years and researchers have convincingly demonstrated that ITS can instruct in various ways, few ITS are in actual use and their potential benefit to learners is unrealized. This research is predicated on the notion that ITS research has three closely related but distinct foci: artificial intelligence research in tutoring, instructional research in tutoring, and research on practical tutoring; and on the notion that investigation and evaluation in the latter two areas has been lacking. With respect to instructional research in tutoring, this work examines the extent to which conventional instructional design theory can usefully inform the design of intelligent tutors, the means of incorporating instructional methods into an intelligent tutor, and the range of instructional skills necessary in a practical intelligent tutor. It examines how ITSs push instructional design theory in the area of computational instructional design and presents a new instructional method: Focused Practice. Evaluation of tutoring skills focused on trainees' usage of the tutor and the resulting learning, and on measuring the extent to which the tutor was capable of individualizing instruction. With respect to research on practical tutoring, this work examines the extent to which it is feasible to simulate a work environment, represent the expertise of a non-formal domain, construct a large knowledge base, build a functional student model, supply a shell and authoring tools, incorporate a variety of instructional skills, instructional activities, and instructional materials into a cohesive tutoring package that integrates well into a training program; and gain support from the variety of stakeholders affected by the tutor. Evaluation of practicality focused on trainees' and instructors' affective responses toward the tutor, their perceptions of usability and instructional value; and on other stakeholders' (instructional designers, managers from research, production and training) perceptions of value.

With the knowledge that teachers are not formed entirely through training and theoretical study, and the hope that teachers do not compose their pedagogies entirely in isolation and solely from their own experiences, I ask the question: how do practicing teachers successfully construct pedagogies which are personally and experientially valid as well as theoretically informed? To explore this question I conducted a qualitative study of three women writing teachers which describes how these teachers have come to construct their own pedagogies. From feminist educational theorists and most particularly Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger and Tarule (Women's Ways of Knowing), I have developed a theory for understanding pedagogical development as a process of "integrating objective and subjective knowing" (134). It is on this epistemological conception that I base my own thesis on how teachers ideally "construct" their pedagogies: by integrating the knowledge they obtain from theory with their own beliefs, educational experiences, and the knowledge they gain from their pedagogical contexts--the communities of teachers and students with whom they work. My qualitative methodology consists of regular classroom observations, collection of student writing and teachers' written responses, extensive interviews with teachers as well as shorter interviews with students, and a system of working with teachers to identify issues and to share case study drafts with teachers for feedback. The core of the dissertation consists of the three case studies: in each, I first describe the courses observed, with an emphasis on detailing the role each teacher plays; and second, discuss the educational, experiential, theoretical and situational influences which teachers offered and/or I observed as significantly influencing their pedagogical decisions. I examine how these three teachers, within their particular contexts, negotiate and make decisions about their role in the classroom. In my analysis, I illuminate the connections--and mis-connections--between theory and practice, and suggest the implications of these findings for scholars of composition and pedagogical theory.

This study focused on preservice teachers at early childhood and elementary levels to identify prior beliefs they bring to their mathematics methods classes, how these beliefs affect their understandings about mathematics teaching and learning, and how these beliefs are reconstructed while engaged in a contructivist designed mathematics methods course. Data collected included in-depth student journal entries, personal histories of preservice teachers' prior mathematics experiences, and small group interviews. An interpretive analysis of the data identified emergent themes related to preservice teachers' beliefs about themselves as learners and teachers of mathematics and how these beliefs were reconstructed during the course. Five major themes were identified: preservice teachers prior beliefs and experiences; increased understandings about themselves as learners of mathematics; new learning about mathematical pedagogy; new or different ways of learning mathematics; and anger about their previous mathematics experiences.

This dissertation documents new curriculum and instructional strategies for teaching writing in a first and second grade classroom during the eight years of the Writing Box project. It is a first-person account of ongoing change as I, the teacher-researcher experienced and understood it. My descriptions of change and children's writing samples show how teaching practices and learning activities developed and evolved through incorporating writing at the core of student learning. My experiences demonstrate how substantive change can occur in elementary schools through the efforts of a teacher and students working together to create successful academic achievement. One hundred seventy-five first and second graders were given Writing Boxes to use at home and they were in a classroom that featured writing across the curriculum. Six conclusions are drawn from their experiences. First, choice of writing materials makes a difference in how willing children are to write. Interesting, open-ended materials are prerequisites for children to write all year. Second, teachers must create many writing times throughout the day. My students wrote during regularly scheduled writing times as well as before school began, during snack and "you-choose" time, and at recess and lunch. Third, how teachers talk with children about writing is crucial to children becoming active writers. I changed my vocabulary and approach to emphasize that children are writers right now with ideas and pictures in their heads to communicate to others through text. Fourth, process models for teaching writing based on the experiences of adult writers must be modified to create "a writing process fit for a child." This child-centered approach includes diverse ways of opening up writing, generating first drafts, revising and editing, and publishing. Fifth, writing can be integrated into the study of mathematics, science and social studies using "I Wonder" journals, fiction-nonfiction stories, and math comics. Finally, computers and other technologies promote writing. Having more than one computer in the classroom allowed me to do more small group instruction with writing. The machines provide different ways to write and to publish while supporting children's creativity and self-expression.

The focus of this dissertation is to identify, analyze, and critique what I take to be a fundamental contradiction between the ideal mission of the university to serve as the site for the pursuit of truth and the function of Traditionalist humanities curriculums. I argue that because nationalist education makes it nearly impossible for students to engage in the critique of ideology, nationalist education is antithetical to the university's mission. With anything less than the ability to engage in this critique of ideology, there is no way that students can participate meaningfully in the ideal of the university. In the opening chapter I argue first, that the development and preservation of national culture stands in a dialectical relation to the preservation and contestation of national identity; second, that post-secondary education in the arts and humanities is largely education in the national culture; and third, that nationalism mediates the dialectical relation between national culture and national identity. In the second chapter I critique nationalism on the grounds that underlying every nationalist movement (including curricular Traditionalism) is a universalist project which denies the reality of complex personal identity formation. In the third chapter I show that the Traditionalist position (articulated by Bloom, D'Souza, and Searle) seeks to support through curricular control nationalist versions of culture and identity. In the fourth chapter I critique Marx's and Mannheim's theories of ideology since they seek to devise methods for evaluating ideology through epistemic standpoints removed from the site of the production of ideology. And thus I conclude this chapter by asserting that in order to be a critic of ideology one must struggle with and acknowledge multiple and complex social identities. In the final chapter I defend the claim that nationalist education undermines the process of teaching students to be critics of ideology since such an education prevents students from engaging the complexity of the encounter between the knowing subject and the object of knowledge. Moreover, I argue that a decidedly non-nationalist multicultural education offers the possibility of developing heterogeneous group identity without the deleterious consequences invariably brought forth by nationalism.

Misbehavior is a research topic that most researchers investigate from teachers' points of view. This study, in contrast, was designed to explore misbehavior from the students' and the teacher's perspectives, using Doyle's ecological approach. A male teacher, Mr. Softball, and 14 seventh and eighth graders (ten males and four females) volunteered to participate during a two-week basketball unit. Data were collected through shadowing the teacher, critical incidents, student and teacher interviews, videotaped class sessions, and audiotaped stimulated recall sessions with the videotapes. Data from all sources were analyzed using constant comparison to identify common themes. Findings indicated that Mr. Softball's classes included overlapping instructional, managerial, and social task systems (Doyle, 1986; Siedentop, 1991) and his overall program of action could be classified as casual. Misbehavior was situation specific and occurred throughout these overlapping task systems. Students and the teacher noticed few misbehaviors during the actual classes and the misbehaviors recognized did not interrupt the flow of his teaching. When they noticed misbehavior incidents, either during class or when reviewing videotapes, they reacted differently from case to case based on who misbehaved, when it happened, and how it affected them or the class. Misbehaviors were common events in Mr. Softball's classes and most students admitted that they misbehaved. Misbehaviors could be classified as verbal, physical, or rules, routines, and expectations (RRE)-related. These students defined misbehavior as doing something that they were not supposed to do or not doing something that they were supposed to do. Mr. Softball's (a) weak RREs, (b) lack of effectiveness in organizing and delivering instructional tasks, and (c) loose accountability and the lack of intervention, allowed many opportunities for students to misbehave. Further, he created a class environment in which students engaged more often in social agendas at the expense of completing instructional and managerial tasks. Finally, the norm of this workplace did not support Mr. Softball in helping students learn or in maintaining order to insure that students were on-task and well-behaved. In summary, less effective teaching appeared to be the major issue that encourages students to misbehave.

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the critical reflective dialogue of a collaborative team composed of a cooperating teacher, a native language informant, and a researcher. The goal of this task-based team was to develop and implement a culture-based thematic unit on Puerto Rico for a second year Spanish class in an American public high school. The process of group deliberation is described as an interactional experience that involves tension as a normative behavior (McCutcheon 1995, Zacarian, 1996). This study examined the claim that groups comprised of members from diverse cultures and differing professional knowledge systems are more likely to experience tension (Deketelaere & Kelchtermans, 1996; McCutcheon, 1994; Zacarian, 1996). However, when members are willing to critically and collaboratively examine their tension, it can have positive effects on their communicative process, curricular task, and professional development by allowing members to benefit from the 'complementary competence' of the different collaborating professionals (Deketelaere & Kelchtermans, 1996; McCutcheon 1995, Zacarian, 1996). This study also examined the claim that the language used by speakers in groups reflects their ideologies, social relations, and identities that are continually co-constructed during their interactions (Schiffrin, 1994, p. 106). This study researched these claims by analyzing the critical reflective dialogue that emerged within the planning and implementation phases of a collaborative curriculum development team. The results of this research reveal that the critical reflective dialogue of the collaborative team members influenced a shift in their initial ideologies. The results also reveal that accompanying this shift in ideologies was a realignment of the social relations and identities of the group members. It was found that the NLI contributed to the collaborative curriculum process in significant ways and at multiple levels. Further, the findings suggest that including the NLI in the implementation phase provided communicative opportunities for all parties to engage in a critical reflective dialogue that moved beyond mere technical and practical curricular concerns. In this study it provided collaborative members with increased opportunities to gain a deeper understanding of the complex issues of stereotypes from multiple perspectives. Most significantly, it was seen that engagement in a critical reflective dialogue provided the CT with the opportunity to examine her own assumptions on her own innocence with regard to stereotypes about the culture and people of Puerto Rico.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how faculty make use of Internet resources and how students respond to use of these resources in a variety of undergraduate science and mathematics courses. Much more has been published on the use of Internet resources in traditional undergraduate curricula from the perspective of faculty as teachers and researchers than from the perspective of students as learners. This qualitative case study is a balanced approach that surveys mathematics and science professors and students at the same university. Both teacher and learner perspectives about on-line resource usage are scrutinized for the extent to which such resources augment content and delivery of traditional university undergraduate mathematics and science courses. Faculty and students were interviewed and asked about their perceptions of Internet as a tool for teaching and learning. Responses focused on the Internet as it affords information, communication, and collaboration. Students expressed distrust for Web publications, citing the information glut and sense of security with “approved” library resources. Personal and course Web pages were much more important to faculty than to students, who did not see themselves as producers but rather as consumers of information prepared by faculty and other experts in their fields. All students expressed the importance of the university's role in advising incoming students to take computing-related courses in their first year to prepare them for courses that have on-line components. When asked if they would consider delivering their courses asynchronously on-line, all of the faculty members interviewed declined. Consensus was that Internet/Web resources found their place in augmenting rather than replacing traditional courses. Most students interviewed responded that they would try an on-line course for the experience but that they would be inclined to take a general education course rather than a course in their major, not wanting to risk a low grade. Students and faculty alike continue to work with new applications for Internet groupware messaging such as asynchronous discussion groups and electronic bulletin boards that will be incorporated into traditional university courses.

Students with difficulties learning foreign languages typically come to the university with a history of foreign language failure and native language problems. Often, a foreign language requirement is difficult to complete and is the cause of great anxiety for the learner with linguistic difficulties. The Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the participating university established a one-credit modified add-on course that at-risk students could take to receive extra support in Spanish. Selection of participants was made according to Ganschow and Sparks' (1991) Foreign Language Screening Instrument. “At-risk” students were asked to participate in the study or were recommended for enrollment into a learning assistance paired course. In this class, students were exposed to a variety of techniques that attempted to accommodate a diversity of learner needs. Results from quantitative measures of change in perceptions of Spanish language tasks over time were inconclusive; on pre- and post-instruction similarities ratings, subjects weighted tasks in a uniform fashion along four interpretable dimensions. To further explore the effectiveness of a modified support course, additional qualitative data were collected on student satisfaction questionnaires and on learner reflection essays throughout the course. Final semester grades and grades on in-class performance measures in the foreign language were also examined to support the notion of inclusion in the foreign language classroom. Findings from this study revealed that such a course had positive effects on the learners, and that the learners benefited from adjustments to the foreign language pedagogy. However, it may not take an extra, learning assistance paired course to achieve these effects. Results from a survey of 27 instructors of Spanish and Portuguese revealed that the teachers are both willing and able to implement such teaching strategies so as to create an inclusive atmosphere that appeals to the needs of all learners. This study showed that incorporating such teaching strategies into the regular Spanish classroom as a part of the course design can effectively provide an alternative to the course waiver and substitution model of accommodation, and that triangulation in the research methodology provides a more complete portrait of the at-risk learner's foreign language learning experience.