Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Fazal Rizvi. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-174) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Marilyn Johnston-Parsons. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-186) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Violet Harris. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 298-319) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Richard C. Anderson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-91) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Wanda S. Pillow. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 244-257) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

My purpose for this qualitative study was to investigate teachers' participation in a collaborative staff development program designed to facilitate reflections about literacy related beliefs and practices. It involved three teachers and a researcher in a four-month Reflective Staff Development Program (RSDP). The RSDP inquiry illustrates the shifts that occur in teachers' reflective language and practice. Three case studies were developed, requiring sorting through the teacher participants' literacy-related beliefs and practices in three research phases: (1) Asking the question: What are the teacher-participants' beliefs and practices in relation to their literacy instruction before, during, and after the RSDP? (2) Conducting the fieldwork using a constant comparative analysis within the RSDP. (3) Analyzing and interpreting the data to find answers to the question. During the RSDP, the teacher-participants revealed literacy-related beliefs and practices within four activities: autobiographies, interviews, group reflective sessions, and literacy lessons. These activities are the data sources, which were analyzed and resulted in the creation of a matrix for each teacher. The matrices showed that, throughout the RSDP, the teachers expressed language or behaviors with new perspectives, termed as "moments of realization." The horizontal matrix dimension is a picture of two extreme perspectives in the teacher-participants' beliefs and practices, the skills, and constructivist models. The perpendicular dimension depicts the teachers' discourse as questioning or not questioning. The plots illustrate their shifts in beliefs and practices. Further analysis of the teachers' interactive discourse demonstrated that their group discussions exhibited common characteristics, which contributed to their shifts: (1) The teacher-participants demonstrated moments of realization that included four types of verbal interactions: discussion of a literacy-related belief and/or practice, discomfort about the belief and/or practice, the moment of realization, and discussions justifying the changed perspective. (2) The teacher-participants' RSDP process demonstrated three periods: "introductory," "breakthrough," and "empowerment." (3) The teacher-participants' shifts moved in a non-linear direction after observing the videotaped literacy lessons. The findings suggest that this inquiry contributed to the teacher-participants' consideration of alternative perspectives and implementation of revised reading instructional practices. These results support the idea that school leaders should implement in-services, such as the RSDP, to improve communication to enhance instructional practice.

International students attending colleges and universities in the United States are eligible for temporary professional employment to complement their academic training. However, most of these students, who are culturally different, have not had the exposure to career development concepts that would prepare them for the job search and American workplace. Most educational institutions do not have available the specialized career counseling and job placement information needed to prepare this unique population for their cross-cultural vocations. A handbook with a cross-cultural perspective was developed to aid the international student in identifying career resources available in this country, interpret the immigration regulations governing practical training and prepare him or her for reentry into a career in the home country.

This micro-ethnographic classroom-based case study explores analytic and experiential teaching strategies that lead to engaged student participation and increased learning opportunities in German and French first grade language arts and math classes. The data were collected from two successful public elementary immersion schools in Milwaukee where English-speaking children learn the school curriculum through a second language (German or French) starting from kindergarten. The data in this study were collected in a seven-month time period by using data collection methods such as field notes, audiotaping, videotaping, and interviews. The constant comparative method, based on grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), and enumerative techniques were used for data analysis. The data have shown that the first grade immersion teachers used analytic and experiential teaching strategies in learning contexts in order to promote oral second language use and content learning in language arts and math classes. Analytic teaching strategies focus on specific features of the target language, such as syntactic structures, pronunciation, and vocabulary, whereas, experiential teaching strategies focused on the use of the target language in a meaningful and contextualized way. This study also suggests that teachers' learning and teaching philosophies are reflected in their actions and behaviors, and analytic and experiential teaching strategies are the reflections of the teachers' belief systems and their instructional practices. The knowledge gained from this study may form a solid background for pre-service and in-service teacher education programs by demonstrating the needs of immersion teachers, and also recognizing the challenges of immersion education.

The purpose of this research was to explore the motives, values and expectations of Israeli Russian immigrant students and their parents who emigrated from Russia in the 1990s. Instruments administered to the students included the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)--a projective measure for assessing motives (Murray, 1938). The Thematic Apperception Test required the students to create imaginative stories in response to a series of four pictures. In addition, the students were asked to answer a Student questionnaire. The instrument administered to the parents included a Parent questionnaire. The questionnaires were used to evaluate values, expectations and opinions. The study took place in an afternoon school called the "Impulse School". All the teachers and students attending this school are Russian, and the lessons are all in Russian. Ninety-nine students participated in this study. The majority of students were ages 10-11. This group included both genders. One hundred and four parents took part in this study. Fifty-nine parents have a child who participated in the study. Every one of the parents has children attending the "Impulse School". The data from the Parent and Student questionnaires shows a lack of relationship between parent-student pairs. The adults and students have different perceptions of the academic expectations and evaluations of the students' functioning. The students perceive their parents to have higher expectations and they evaluate their schoolwork higher than their parents. The only similarity between parents and students was in both groups' definitions of success. The majority of students and parents defined success in achievement terms. This study reveals the parents' perception of the Israeli educational system as being academically weaker than the Russian one. The results agree with McClelland's (1987) assertion that correlation between the two types of measures---the projective and unconscious TAT, and the direct and conscious questionnaires, is quite low. The majority of TAT stories expose negative feelings associated with achievement motivation. By contrast, the questionnaires show that the students value good grades and express academic self-confidence. Many of the stories did not focus on achievement motivation but on the affiliation motive, despite the fact that three out of four pictures were supposed to arouse achievement themes.

This dissertation is a qualitative case study based in teacher research that focuses on the understandings of student and parent participants about school safety in relationship to emergency crises issues. Fourteen seventh-grade Eastern Magnet Middle School students and fourteen of their parents participated in the research. The purpose of the study was to develop findings that would enhance the safety and crisis management techniques of a school in which I taught named Eastern Magnet, based on the understandings of the children and adults in the study. Additional goals of the investigation were to develop findings that could enhance crisis management at additional schools and workplaces, and to carry out a project that would expand the school safety literature base and the field of qualitative case study teacher research. Data were generated from August of 2002 to January of 2003 through interviews, interview notes, surveys, and school and district documents addressing crisis-related issues. The data were primarily analyzed through the constant comparative method. Analytic notes, participant profiles, and data tables and figures were also elements of the analytical process. The findings of this study point to the need for schools to establish procedures to effectively manage crises to maximize the safety of all children and adults within educational institutions. The research highlights aspects of Eastern Magnet's crisis management that were effective and areas that needed improvement, and it demonstrates that all individuals expect schools to promote and ensure safety. Implications are presented for students, parents/guardians, teachers, school administrators, educational policy makers, school safety theorists, and educational researchers. The investigation reveals the significance of children and adults making concerted efforts to uphold safety and to manage crises.