This study was designed to provide an in-depth examination of biliteracy development among students in a bilingual, second and third grade classroom over the course of one academic year. Biliteracy refers to children's literate competencies in two languages. This qualitative study focused on understanding biliteracy among children who were already bilingual in English and Spanish, and those who were monolingual in English. The three basic questions guiding this study are the following: (1) Can children become biliterate in this setting? (2) What kinds of classroom cultural practices foster biliteracy development? and (3) What are the theoretical and practical implications of these dual literacy practices for the development of a biliterate pedagogy? Three case studies of students provide insights into the processes of dual literacy learning. These case studies highlight significant aspects of each student's developing biliteracy, and are intended to demonstrate that there are multiple paths to and contexts for biliteracy development in English and Spanish. The results of this inquiry suggest that biliteracy development in classrooms is feasible, but that teachers and students must create "additive" conditions for learning that make both languages "unmarked" for classroom work. The study provides insights into the relationships between student characteristics and classroom dynamics, the specific contexts, processes, and content of English-Spanish biliteracy within the classroom. This study also raises issues for further research and pedagogy in this important but neglected area of study.

This case study investigates how one primary teacher of a multi-age classroom describes the knowledge she has of children and how they learn. The study presents the perspective that the research literature on teacher knowledge rarely includes knowledge of children. Recent investigations into teacher knowledge consider what the substance of teacher knowledge is; this study proposes that what teachers know about children must be included in future research. Researchers within the academic community have determined the direction of the research on teacher knowledge, but studies published in the 1990s suggest that teachers need to be more involved in these studies. Through my research, I learned that knowledge of children and how they learn structured one teacher's classroom. What she knew influenced her relationship with the children, and this knowledge also determined how she taught. Time and talk were the major factors which made this knowledge accessible. Attention to teachers' roles in generating descriptions of knowledge will provide a place for knowledge of children in teacher knowledge research literature, and it might also serve to bridge the gap between researchers and teachers.

This qualitative historical research study documents the life of early childhood educator Marie Morrison Hughes (1900-1981) and the evolution and fruition of her model of early childhood education. In-depth interviews with six women educators who worked directly with Dr. Hughes in the implementation of the Tucson Early Education Model (TEEM) provide data for the study. TEEM became a Follow Through Program Sponsor at twenty-two sites all across the United States and served communities from 1968 to 1995. Profiles of each woman educator written in the first-person constitute a large part of the work. A profile of Dr. Hughes gained from transcribed speeches and interviews is included with the Voices of the Women. The model of education founded by Dr. Hughes was based on the definition of teaching as interaction and collaboration. Opening the world to children was the educational goal of Dr. Hughes. Curriculum was built from the lives and experiences of the children in the classroom with an emphasis on 'learning to learn.' Dr. Hughes believed the most important element in the educative process was the relationship between the teacher and the child. An essential part of the model was termed professional response, the rapport between children and the teacher. Children learned from the teacher's flexibility to allow personal response to the ongoing experience and the response was the source of the teacher's constructive and significant influence on children. Dr. Hughes referred to her model as an education program for children in a democratic society. The model's commitment to the whole person and the uniqueness of each person along with the established caring rapport with each individual child exemplifies the ethics of caring and justice in education.

The purpose of this case study is to examine the nature and uses of multiple literacies in an Opera Project as experienced by school children who attended a bilingual first grade in a culturally and linguistically diverse urban school district in the American Southwest. Thirty-one young children created and produced an opera in collaboration with an artist-in-residence, university researcher, apprentice teacher, and their classroom teacher and parents. Significant to this research is a focus on the perspectives of the participants about this in-school multiple literacy experience as well as the sociocultural contexts that influenced their experience. In addition, this study provides evidence of the processes, types, and uses of multiple literacies in young children's opera. By working at the nexus of language arts/literacy and music/arts education, this research builds on the existing theories and practices in these disciplines and informs both. A review of the literature points to the gap between a reductionist, deficit-driven paradigm in schools and children's natural learning proclivities. Culturally and linguistically diverse children are considered as less capable and further marginalized by school practices that emphasize decontextualized and verbocentric forms of literacy. This study uses ethnographic techniques and an arts-based approach to educational research to examine 24 one hour sessions of an Opera Project. New understandings were rendered in an opera libretto, constructed in the vernacular of the participants with the personal signature of the researcher. This alternative genre contributes to changing the way we think about language arts. A reconceptualization of language arts/literacy that both includes and goes beyond a skills-with-print definition requires a transformation in the way educators think about meaning making and curriculum, intelligence and knowledge, perception and expression. It requires an unpacking of one's assumptions and perspectives about what it means to have an experience and to live a literate life. For this process to be sustained, a wider audience must have access to young children's opera as (1) semiotic apprenticeship, (2) inquiry, (3) synergy, (4) an awakening to multiple literacies, and (5) survival. In this way art as conscious life is literacy for life's sake. Many ways is the way.

The effects of a school-based cognitive-behavioral intervention approach on the depression scores of sixth grade students were examined in the study. Two hundred and one sixth grade students served as participants in one of four experimental groups: treatment group, attention-placebo group, delayed treatment group, and no treatment control group. All groups, except the control group, participated in the school-based program called "learned optimism." The learned optimism program is an eight-week curriculum-based program designed to assist adolescents in developing a more optimistic self-explanatory style that contributes to resiliency and positive mental health. All participants completed the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) on three occasions: before the learned optimism program began (pretest), immediately after the first eight-week program was terminated (posttest 1) and eight weeks later, after the second eight-week program was terminated (posttest 2/follow-up). The results were unexpected. They showed only a significant difference on CDI total scores between the treatment group and delayed treatment group immediately following both groups' participation in the learned optimism program. No significant differences on CDI total scores were found at any other time between or within any of the four groups. Some significant differences were found on CDI subscales between the treatment and delayed treatment groups, but not in the expected direction. Results from an informal questionnaire completed by participants showed that most liked the learned optimism program and it made them feel happier. Plausible explanations for the findings were discussed along with limitations of the study and recommendations for future research in this area.

The following study addresses the present theories on reflection in teaching, and attempts to locate this reflection in practice. Through analysis of "bumpy moments" in teaching, the study describes teacher reflection as it actually occurs in the classroom context. The following research questions were designed to examine practicing and preservice teachers' perceptions and reflections on "bumpy moments" in teaching and determine the similarities and differences between the two: (1) What do teachers and preservice teachers consider to be "bumpy moments" in their teaching or observation of teaching? (2) What do teachers and preservice teachers think about when faced with a "bumpy moment" in teaching? (3) What kinds of knowledge or beliefs do teachers and preservice teachers bring to the "bumpy moments," and where did they come from? (4) How does the teacher resolve the difficult task of making decisions instantaneously within the classroom context; and what did the preservice teacher observe the teacher doing? and (5) What are the implications of each "bumpy moment" on a teacher's or preservice teacher's thinking about future decisions and teaching practice? These research questions were addressed through the identification of "bumpy moments" during a specific period of teaching, and a comparison of the moments identified by both the practicing teacher and the preservice teacher. Interviews were conducted to gain insight into the factors, thoughts, understandings, knowledge, actions, and possible impact of each "bumpy moment" identified. Through an analysis of the "bumpy moments" identified by both the practicing and preservice teachers, several important findings emerged about the similarities and differences in the types of "bumpy moments" shared by the two groups of participants. Further, differences in the practicing and preservice teachers' thoughts, knowledge and beliefs brought to each moment give further insight into how teachers at varying stages of their development might experience these classroom events. Increased understanding of how preservice teachers interpret these moments may provide Teacher Educators with insights for developing programs that encourage teacher reflection.

The purpose of this study was to explore how children in a third grade classroom came to understand the processes that helped them revalue themselves as learners. In addition, they identified the types of support structures that helped them revalue themselves as learners in an inquiry based curriculum. Qualitative research was determined to be the most suitable methodology for this study, given the research questions and their relationship to the engagements and the learning experiences in this classroom. The curricular framework dictated that the research design needed to include data that reflected the ongoing nature of learning as a process of inquiry. Data analysis was based on open coding and a method of constant comparison. Multiple data sources included daily field notes with anecdotal notes on significant events; a teacher journal of reflections; collected student responses, Sketch to Stretches, picture reflections, portfolios, and journal entries. Children described, defined, and redefined themselves as learners through the continuous building of reciprocal relationships with their peers and teacher, encouraging them to find their voice through action and reflection. Children identified the roles of their class participants, the connection they made in and across the curriculum, their personal and social inquiries, and the expectation of change, as the multiple structures that supported them in their learning. My purpose was to contribute insights into how students and teachers might better address the issue of curriculum for the purpose of allowing learners to be more self-reflective learners. Findings suggest that reflective thinking is a tool for growth as a learner and needs to be a continuous part of the curriculum. Sign systems need to be tools for expanding learning potentials so classrooms can be critical thinking communities. Learning is enhanced when relationships are reciprocal. A curriculum that emphasizes a problem-posing approach motivates students and encourages both students and teachers to engage in curricular decisions making curriculum dynamic.

This narrative study focuses on the stories of two bilingual elementary teachers. The teachers participated in a series of in-depth phenomenological interviews examining the relationship between their stories of becoming bilingual teachers and their current bilingual teaching practices. The stories were analyzed and represented in two ways, first in terms of story structure and second for themal coherence. The analysis of story structure was based on the work of William Labov (1972, 1982) and revealed ways in which these story tellers crafted complex narratives using specific, general, and hypothetical stories, as well as embedding stories Within stories. In addition, the stories were analyzed for themes that created threads of themal coherence (Agar & Hobbs, 1982, 1985) woven through all three interviews. The analysis of themal coherence revealed that issues that emerge in teachers' life stories also appear in their narratives of classroom practice. In addition, the study underscores the complexity of narrative research in terms of issues such as ownership, authority and representation.

No description available.

School records of 421 third grade students from regular classrooms in six Tucson Unified School District elementary schools were examined. Two schools were selected to represent each of three populations: middle class, working class, and desegragated populations. Nine measures were obtained: (1) gender, (2) ethnicity, (3) number of parents living with the student, (4) parents, employment status, (5) number of siblings, (6) number school transfers, (7) distance between home and school, (8) students, grade awarded by teacher, and (9) number of school absences. School absences fell into three categories, based on reasons for the absences: health, personal, and unexcused. Structural equations analysis was used to model the causal relationships between the family and school variables and school absences. Two latent variables (factors) were proposed to explain the relationships between the family variables and the school characteristics. The family factor characterized the dichotomy between socially-advantaged and disadvantaged families. Socially-advantaged families were primarily white with two employed parents. Socially-disadvantaged families were overwhelmingly minorities headed by a single parent. The school factor also characterized social circumstances: advantaged schools were middle class, white, high-achieving, high parental involvement, and no social programs. As social class decreased, the schools became increasingly minority, low-achieving, low parental involvement, and had social programs. Socially-advantaged circumstances promoted better attendance. Students from socially-advantaged homes and school had fewer health and unexcused absences as compared to disadvantaged students. Advantaged family circumstances promoted advantaged school circumstances. However, middle class homes with single incomes promoted better school involvement by the parents. Students from segregated schools and single income families had more personal absences (family trips). These families appear to take more vacations during the school year. Finally, students with numerous health absences were likely to have more personal and unexcused absences. The results of this study suggested that different avenues need to be taken to promote the attendance of students from disadvantaged families and schools.