<p> Undocumented students have fought for the ability to attend institutions of higher education, but research has often overlooked their experiences outside of the classroom. Weaving together Freirean critical pedagogy and photovoice to create a type of advocacy participatory action research, this project followed eight undocumented Latina/o undergraduates at a Research I institution over the course of one academic year. Using critical pedagogy, the participants and I co-created a class in which we explored the intersections of race, class, educational access, and citizenship. By using critical pedagogical methods the students in the project were able to dictate the direction of both the class and the research itself. During this time the participants also used photovoice to create photo diaries of their lives, exploring what it means to be undocumented college students. They determined that while research had been conducted concerning undocumented students in higher education, their particular experiences as undocumented persons had not been fully captured. As such, this project sheds valuable light on the ways in which being undocumented affected these students' personal relationships with family, friends, and lovers.</p>

<p> This qualitative study examines the critical methods and approaches brought fourth by late nineteenth-century African American women educators Anna Julia Cooper and Frances E. W. Harper in their task of imparting skills for the regeneration of the Black race. Too few people have explored the ways in which their work speaks to the importance of culturally relevant education. Fewer have argued on the relevance of their writings, philosophies, and approaches to present-day educational deficiencies in higher education settings. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore Cooper and Harper's written work and extract themes that may speak to the importance of culturally relevant education. Second, this study sought to offer a critical examination of the possible contributions that Cooper and Harper can make to the pedagogical model of teaching African American students.</p><p> The following published works written by Cooper and Harper were used in this study: "The Colored People in America" (Harper, 1854), "Duty to Dependent Races" (Harper, 1891), "The Intellectual Progress of the Colored Women in the United States since the Emancipation Proclamation: A Response to Fannie Barrier Williams" (Cooper, 1893), and "On Education" (Cooper, 1930s). A close analysis of each text was performed, and patterns and emerging themes were extracted. The data was then coded and reasonable conclusions were drawn about their written work.</p><p> Five key themes emerged from Cooper and Harper's written work: commitment to faith, commitment to freedom, commitment to sacrifice, commitment to resistance and struggle, and commitment to the future &ndash; all of which were characterized under the overarching concept of tradition. The written data demonstrated clear evidence of thought and practice grounded in African culture and tradition. The findings for this study reveal a number of significant ways that the pedagogies of Cooper and Harper can contribute to the pedagogical model of teaching African American student populations in their pursuit of academic success and achievement. </p>

<p> Although service-learning is considered to be a fairly new pedagogy in U.S. institutions of higher education, its origins can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century philosopher John Dewey and his "learn by doing" approach to education. Service-learning has gained popularity as a form of applied learning that helps increase student's academic learning, and assessment of service-learning on outcomes for students has been positive; however, some faculty resist applying this pedagogy in their planning. </p><p> This historical study explores the origins of this emerging field from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, with a focus on current faculty pioneers who have created and developed service-learning content in their respective academic disciplines.The researcher conducted oral histories with faculty members at ten diverse central Maryland universities and colleges to discover educators' perceptions of the benefits and challenges of implementing this pedagogy in coursework. </p><p> As a result of this study, the researcher recommends ways to improve student retention on campuses, to increase civic awareness, and to explore the new frontier of international service-learning for local and global impact. </p>

<p> This study explored the potential of classroom-based meditation practice as a tool to facilitate learning. Moreover, the impact of meditation on cognitive engagement, mindfulness and academic performance of undergraduate college students was investigated. Additionally, the relationships between mindfulness and cognitive engagement, and between these variables and students' academic performance were explored. Mindfulness was also examined for its potential as an indicator of engagement and meditation as a potential facilitator of engagement. </p><p> A quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design was employed with a sample of 189 undergraduate students at a public Research I institution in the Northeast, enrolled in classes in the Department of Learning and Instruction. All participants completed a survey instrument comprised of two self-report measures: the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and a Cognitive Engagement Scale administered at the beginning and end of the Fall 2012 semester. GPA was utilized as a measure of academic performance. Experimental group participants participated in a 6-minute meditation at the beginning of class throughout the 15-week semester. </p><p> Many significant relationships were found between mindfulness, cognitive engagement and academic performance. Specifically, mindfulness and cognitive engagement were related at both the scale and subscale levels, and GPA was related to two facets of mindfulness, acting with awareness and nonreactivity, and one facet of cognitive engagement, self-regulation. Furthermore, nonreactivity was the best predictor of academic performance in this student sample. Moreover, mindfulness was a better predictor of academic performance than was cognitive engagement. The results suggest that mindfulness may be important in the process of learning. Implications focus on student engagement theory, pedagogy, institutional policy and practices. Evidence provided from this research supports the use of methods that cultivate mindfulness as valid pedagogical tools, further substantiating the educational efficacy of classroom-based meditation practice. </p>

<p>Recognizing the importance of reflection about teaching as a fundamental activity to promote faculty development, the present research was conducted to: 1) explore the practices of instructional reflection of four undergraduate level professors at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), 2) understand how these practices influence their teaching and professional development, and 3) analyze their reflective practices based on traditional theories of reflection, namely Dewey's Reflective Theory, the Critical Thinking Movement, Schon's Reflective Practitioner Model, Critical Pedagogy, and Mezirow's Transformative Learning. A qualitative, multiple-case study was designed for this study, with interviews and observation of classes. Collected data were transcribed, categorized and coded; findings were presented in narrative form. Among the results stands out that professors critically examine their teaching practices through: 1) dialogue with colleagues and students, 2) reading of various types of materials, 3) writing about their teaching, 4) peer class observation, and 5) analyzing course evaluations and program assessment results. From their testimonies it also follows that reflection influences their teaching and professional development because they: 1) privilege questioning and critical dialogue as instructional strategies par excellence, 2) democratize their classrooms, 3) continuously update their courses, 4) experiment with new assessment strategies; 5) promote active learning and 6) create new courses. Classical theories of reflection converge in the professors' reflectivity. In addition, they integrate elements from other theoretical perspectives?e.g. feminism, Queer Theory, postmodernism, general education, and inter and transdisciplinarity? with which they enhance and reinvigorate their instructional reflection. Of potential interest for university academic leaders was the finding that, in general, participating professors understand that their reflective practices occur in spite of, and not supported by, the university administration, which they perceive as disconnected from the real needs of teachers and students.

<p>Abstract This dissertation examines the ways in which the incorporation of a multimodal social semiotic curriculum into a university composition class provided non-traditional options for learning that brought about agentive and empowering identity shifts in students who were labeled as academically underprepared for college level work. Building on a body of research that challenges the dominant discourse of deficit through a view of literacy and of learners as a complex and context-related social practice, this qualitative study employs ethnographic methods to track and document the self-affirming transformations in student's identities as manifested in their written, multimodal, and discoursal performances. The data collected from this study indicates that students' perceptions of self and of potential for academic success within the University were influenced by prior institutional labels and were exacerbated by feelings of marginalization brought on by placement into a University support program. In order to counter the sense of deficiency that usually accompanies such labeling practices, a transformative pedagogical approach designed to invoke change was practiced with the aim to create a learning environment which countered the rigidity of an autonomous view of literacy and instead, embraced a view of literacy that was sociocultural and ideological in nature. To this end, curricular choices were made in an effort to offer students alternative, non-traditional methods of demonstrating their individualized ways of meaning making. The data indicated that a multimodal infused pedagogy and interactions with multimodality served to reveal, track, capture, and document the ways in which identities shifted and changed with the resultant finding of an increased sense of academic achievement and agency in students as identity transformation took place. In addition, significant instances of students' acquisition of agency through self-generated writing and consequent successful repositioning were documented. In light of these findings, I encourage and endorse the assimilation of non- traditional transformative and multimodal practices into the 21st Century college composition class.

<p> As writing centers continue to petition for status, funding, and authority on university and college campuses, writing center research and assessment practices continue to evolve. Within the last 10 years, writing center administrators have turned to assessing the writing center based on student learning outcomes (SLOs). This research summarizes the assessment history of writing centers and then proposes a pilot study that uses portfolios and reflection as a way to assess student learning in a writing center on a metropolitan, four-year university campus. This research also discusses the pilot study in terms of future research and implications.</p>