The adoption of Free Primary Education in 2003 has expanded access to millions of children in Kenya. However, large numbers of children are still out of school. The majority of the out-of-school children belong to ethnic minority groups and the rural and urban poor, who live in abject poverty. This situation is disturbing given that free primary education was intended to universalize access to primary education, particularly for the poor. In Kenya, where gender parity has been achieved in primary education, gender disparities become obvious when analyses include geographical region and high levels of poverty. The degree to which gender parity is met varies from region to region and across ethnic groups. However this experience is not unique to Kenya. Recent global assessments of education reveal that out-of-school girls are disproportionately represented in excluded groups. But what helps explain this disproportionate representation of poor marginalized girls among those who are out of school? Understanding and addressing discrepant rates of participation requires close examination of factors underlying poor educational participation among those at the margins of society. However, such investigation must take into account the unique ways in which culture, poverty, ethnicity, and gender interact to affect educational processes. This study adopts a feminist theory of intersectionality to argue, based on the experiences of urban poor and rural girls in Nyanza Province of Kenya, that the educational marginalization of poor girls can be understood as an outcome of intersecting, socio-political and economic processes that emerge from their social locations within sexism, poverty, ethnic chauvinism, classism, and the simultaneity of oppression related to multiple discrimination. Based on the perspectives of the poor girls themselves, the study argues that greater acknowledgment be given to the intersectional framework within which educational exclusion occurs, paying particular attention to the interactions of culture, economy, home, and school as domains of intervention.

abstract: I conduct a series of analyses aimed at assessing equity in selective American colleges over a 20+ year time frame. My main measures of equity are enrollment and completion in selective colleges, which I disaggregate by race/ethnicity. After creating an institutional-level panel data set with variables on college revenues and expenses, tuition, institutional control, and affirmative action case law decisions, I estimate a Generalized Least Squares (GLS) model with institutional level random fixed effects to identify factors associated with enrollment and degree completion for white and non-white students at selective United States colleges. My results suggest that affirmative action case law is associated with changes in enrollment and degree completion rates of white and non-white student alike. Increasing equity for non-white students does not compromise equity for white students. There was a statistically significant relationship between federal spending, enrollment, and degree completion for non-white students. When selective colleges increased tuition, instructional costs, academic support services expenditures, and student support services, Asian American/Pacific Islander students were likely to see enrollment and degree completion declines. Degree completion and enrollment differences were observed for Asian American/Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and white students at public, private and for-profit colleges. In the years after the Adams and Hopwood court decisions, equity for non-white students declined at selective colleges. Enrollment and degree completion for non-white students increased following Grutter, Gratz, Coalition, and Fisher decisions. Enrollment of white students increased following Fordice and Hopwood. Degree completion for white students increased post Coalition and decreased post Fisher. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2020

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / This study concerns John Passmore (1914-2004) and the applicability of his philosophic work to American education policy and practice. Passmore, an Australian educator and philosopher, is rarely cited by scholars of American education and his possible influence on public policy governing education in America are yet to be articulated. This study applies the methodology of analytical educational philosophy, with which he is often associated. The Massachusetts English Language Arts Curriculum Framework (MELACF) is used to illustrate the practical value of Passmore's work to education today. This dissertation examines the life and published scholarship of John Passmore to investigate the relevance and significance of his work as a guide to the paths American educators might follow or avoid in forming policy and directing practice. His nine education constructs, found in The Philosophy ofTeaching (1980), are a primary source of this analysis. The study is mindful of the evolution of American culture from its earliest days through the present. It considers the influence of the politico-social environment, philosophical trends and religious forces upon the establishment of public and private education. Perennialism, essentialism, romanticism and reconstructionism are reviewed comparatively. The impact of Nation at Risk and No Child Left Behind in light of current national educational policy trends is also considered. The utility of Passmore's work is tested by an in depth analysis of Massachusetts English education policy. The period of interest dates from the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 to the present implementation of MELACF, and its guiding principles, strands and standards. Modifications that could effectively be made are noted. Criteria for a just and democratic society set forth by the analytical political philosopher, John Rawls, informs education policies and practices consistent with those necessary to promote the free, just and democratic society. It concludes with questions aimed to inform the limits and duties of the federal, state and local governments in secure the health, safety and rights of their citizens. An integral part of those limits and duties must be directed toward preserving democracy through thoughtfully conceived public education.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study explored the Namibian Inclusive Education policy‟s responses to gender nonconforming learners in Namibian schools. Gender nonconformity within the scope of this study refers to nonconforming to societal gender expectations through behaviour, presentation, sexual identity or any other means construed as normal by societies. Thus the study was guided by the research question: How does the Namibian IE Policy respond to gender nonconforming learners in Namibian schools? Even though there is growing evidence on mistreatment of gender nonconforming learners in schools worldwide, there is minimal evidence on the support for gender nonconforming learners within the Namibian schools. Additionally, there is paucity of literature on gender nonconformity in the Namibian education context.

This study seeks to understand how policy and practice enables or disables women's aspirations for secondary school leadership. The study focuses on women deputy principals and woman principal who have applied for principalship and details their accounts of the resonances and dissonances of policy and practice. This qualitative study uses a narrative design. The data collected from three female deputy principals, one of whom was acting as a principal and one a newly appointed principal at the time of the interviews. The main form of data collection was a series of interviews with each participant. The findings confirm that the policy environment is favourable for women, but in its implementation, there are factors that constrain the aspirations of women for secondary school leadership. Gender stereotypical perceptions of women by the school governing bodies and a patriarchal social context are seen as significant constraints for women seeking leadership positions. It was also evident that prevailing school leadership frequently works with school governing bodies to undermine and thwart the ambitions of female deputy principals and those unions rarely play a supportive role to potential women leaders. Data is analysed using the Capabilities Approach. In this study, the Capabilities Approach suggests that environmental and social conversion factors seem to be obstacles affecting women's agency to achieve the desired outcome of becoming a principal. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

No description available.

Policies delegating control of educational policy to the local level are widespread, yet there has been little examination of the effects of such distributed decision making in the area of advanced education programming. We used propensity score matching to examine the effectiveness of locally developed policies for identifying intellectually gifted children identifying themselves as Black or from low-socioeconomic backgrounds across one large U.S. state (Florida) that has a state-level gifted education mandate. Ongoing underrepresentation of traditionally marginalized groups in gifted education was evident, even among districts with policies specifically designed to ameliorate disproportional representation. However, the presence of such a policy reduced the degree of underrepresentation.

No description available.

The level of diversity among colleges and universities is at its greatest level. This level of diversity has proven to be beneficial in several key areas for all students. With this increase in diversity, there have been other consequences as well. One form of bullying, cyberbullying, has been on the rise due to greater use of technology, increase of social media platforms, accessibility of smartphones and a shift from in-person instruction to virtual instruction. Although copious amounts of research can be conducted on cyberbullying on adolescents, there is a deficiency of information on whether cyberbullying exists within higher education as well as the impact it may have on students. This was a mixed methods study which included a survey of the undergraduate population within a university on the east coast of the United States. There were a total of 148 survey respondents and four interviews conducted. The findings indicate that that cyberbullying does, in fact, exist within colleges and universities at the undergraduate level. In addition, different groups of people experience cyberbullying at different levels and frequencies. Also, it has been noted that cyberbullying impacts these different groups in a variety of different ways. Some groups were not impacted at all, while others were impacted a great deal. The implications from this study demonstrate that there is the need for improvement in a couple of key areas pertaining to policy and practice. Those areas are the training for faculty staff and administration, support services and additional programming available for students. / Educational Leadership

Roughly 40% of first-time freshman enter college at two-year institutions (Ginder, et al., 2015) and between roughly 70 to 80% of students enrolled at two-year institutions report the intent to continue their education to earn a bachelor’s degree (Jenkins & Fink, 2016; U.S. Department of Education, 2001). However, less than half of the percentage of community college students who intend to transfer formally transfer to a four-year institution (Shapiro et al., 2017), and even fewer complete their degrees in a timely manner once enrolled at the receiving institution (Chen, et al., 2019; Berkner, Horn, & Clune, 2000; Bradburn, Hurst, & Peng, 2001). Previous research has found that students who successfully transfer from a two-year to a four-year institution often outright lose credits or discover that degree program equivalent credit does not apply to the selected major during the transfer process (Keith, 1996; Ignash & Townsend, 2000; Simone, 2014; Hodara, Martinez-Wenzl, Stevens, & Mazzeo, 2016). The loss of credits towards a student’s declared field of study has major implications, including limited financial aid eligibility, additional tuition costs due to repeated course work, additional time to degree, and inevitably, delayed opportunities for competitive employment (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2017). The study focused on Florida and used three states with varying degrees of statewide transfer policies as comparison states (Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania). The study is based on the quantitative analyses of three databases, two of which were federally collected databases and one which was constructed from data collected in this research project. The federal data sets were the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG). The other project data set, referred to as Florida College and University Surveys (FCUS), was constructed from survey responses from two- and four-year public Florida institutions. The graduation rates of transfer students were higher than those of first-time-in-college students (FTIC). Most students who earned a bachelor’s degree was a transfer student who also reported the earning of an associate’s degree. On a percentage basis, FTIC students earned slightly more bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering fields than transfer students. Transfer students were found to earn a higher percentage of bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering related fields, and non-science and engineering related fields compared to their FTIC counterparts. FTIC students were more likely to earn advanced degrees beyond the bachelor’s degree than transfer students. Based on common transfer metrics commonly used by public two- and four-year state institutions, Florida had the most comprehensive statewide transfer and articulation policies, and New York had the least comprehensive. Quantitative results indicated a strong relationship between the six-year transfer graduation rates and the states and revealed Florida had the lowest graduation rates of transfer students, while Pennsylvania had the highest. Additionally, there was a strong relationship between the six-year transfer graduation rates of Pell Grant eligible transfer students and the states, nonetheless, the graduation rates of Pell Grant eligible transfer students were measurably lower than the overall population of transfer students. Quantitative results indicated Florida and Arizona transfer graduation rates differed significantly at the .05 level. It was found that transfer-in rate and percent of full-time enrollment negatively impacted transfer students’ graduation rates. These findings provide insight to the completion rates of transfer students in states with varying levels of statewide transfer and articulation policies. Further research should examine the extent to which individual transfer policies have on student outcomes, such as locally established major/program-based institution-to-institution agreements. Additionally, to gain a deeper understanding of the variables that have a relationship with transfer student outcomes, further research should investigate the differences in the interpretation and implementation of transfer and articulation policies between the states. / Policy, Organizational and Leadership Studies