This interpretive qualitative study explores the lived experiences of seven hijabi youth and how they experience social activities offered in their secondary schools in Ottawa, Ontario. The main research questions are: (1) How do hijabi women in Ottawa secondary schools experience the social activities offered by their schools, and (2) In what ways are hijabi girls being included or excluded from social activities because of their religious obligations? A phenomenological tradition of inquiry has been used in order to understand the essence of the experience as perceived by each participant. Analysis has been conducted using Moustakas' (1994) modifications to the Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen Method of Phenomenological Data. The researcher has also shared her own story of interaction with social activities in high school. The findings and implications of this study have been categorized into themes in order to illustrate the essence of how hijabi youth experience social activities in Ottawa secondary schools. The themes identified are: (a) Us Versus Them; (b) Fighting Stereotypes; (c) Culture Differences; and (d) A Desire to Participate. The first emergent theme, Us Versus Them, explains the alienation hijabi students feel when partaking in social activities offered at their schools. The second emergent theme, Fighting Stereotypes, details the everyday questions, assumptions and judgements hijabi students face from peers both Muslim and non-Muslims that ultimately discourage them from partaking in activities. The third emergent theme, Culture Differences, explains how current social activities in schools compromise the religious values of hijabi girls. The fourth and final emergent theme, A Desire to Participate illustrates participants' willingness and in some instances, eagerness to participate in school social activities. The author aims to raise awareness of how hijabi girls experience social aspects of high school and with that, a message for academic authorities to examine how their students are being included or excluded with means towards creating in inclusive environment. The conclusion of this thesis raises implications for further study such as the role that self-esteem plays in the participation of hijabi girls in school social activities.

<p> This study examines reasons for participation and barriers or obstacles to participation in sustainability-based organizations at a mid-size publicly-funded state university in the Mid-West. Based on participant observations and qualitative interviews with students, faculty, staff, and administration, this project examines the intra- and interpersonal factors associated with identity formation related to participation: alternative forms of educational pedagogy in relation to sustainability or environmental curriculum: collective action and resource mobilization as a means of increasing student awareness and participation in sustainability-based initiatives and activities on campus and among the greater community surrounding the campus: and finally, the specific dialogue in which sustainability is discussed and the ways in which this impacts the overall perception of sustainability as a concept and a movement. Due to the lack of participation among students in sustainability-based organizations and initiatives, this study explores barriers to participation and possible alternatives for increased engagement within diverse areas of the students experience to enhance this area of personal and educational development.</p><p>

This dissertation consists of three essays on schools, crime, and punishment. The first essay — stemming from collaborative work with Christopher Jencks, Anthony Braga, and David Deming — uses longitudinal school and arrest records to examine the long-term effects of winning the lottery to attend one's first-choice high school on students' arrest outcomes in the Boston Public Schools. The second essay uses quasi-experimental regression and matching techniques to examine the effect of out-of-school suspension on serious delinquency using the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97). The third essay examines the increasing use of exclusionary school discipline and incarceration since the 1970s from a life course perspective. It advances the notion of a "disciplinary career," which captures disciplinary experiences across three domains: home, school, and the juvenile and criminal justice systems. In this essay, I use the NLSY97 to estimate the prevalence of various disciplinary experiences across the early life course and draw on qualitative data from the Boston Reentry Study to explore how individuals who experience high levels of harsh discipline perceive the interplay between offending and punishment over time. I close the dissertation by discussing these essays' implications for theory and policy. / Social Policy

In this two-paper dissertation, I examine U.S. Census data from the Current Population Survey Merged Outgoing Rotating Groups to understand how undocumented-student high-school-diploma, college-enrollment, associate’s-degree, and bachelor’s-degree attainment odds have been impacted by the Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), which restricted in-state-tuition subsidies to undocumented students, and by in-state-residency-tuition (ISRT) laws that states have passed beginning in 2001, to moderate the effect of IIRIRA. I use difference-in-difference estimation strategies to attempt to establish causal effects. Using Mexican foreign-born-non-citizen status as a proxy for undocumented status, and therefore the treatment group, I compare enrollment and degree-completion outcomes for college-aged likely undocumented persons before and after the laws’ effective dates, treating the laws as an exogenous shock, with similarly situated documented persons as a control group. I find that IIRIRA led to sharp declines in educational attainment among likely undocumented youth, and that ISRT has been helpful, but alone insufficient to cure the harms caused by IIRIRA. Using a blended framework that uses liminal legality to understand the college choices of undocumented youth, I conclude, after Abrego and Gonzales (2010) and others that undocumented residency status as administered by IIRIRA converges over time to be a master status that makes the cost of attending college prohibitive while nearly eliminating any benefits. My research has implications for the continuing debate over the proposed Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, the Obama administration’s Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the education of undocumented students and the legal treatment and incorporation of undocumented people into U.S. society.

Involved as it is with language, reading is an always-ambiguous endeavour. In this qualitative foray into the otherness of textual desire, I examine the human geography of reading through the articulations of a reading group in St. John's, Newfoundland. I also dwell in the collective dynamics of a pedagogy of place---moving through the landspaces of Newfoundland, poeticizing the relation between reading and subjectivity. As a borderline work, this study illustrates that reading in the meeting place of dialogic engagement creates a text of infinite possibility, through which readers write on and write from their social constructions of cultural meaning.

<p> Using Callahan's (1962) vulnerability thesis as a theoretical framework, this qualitative case studies research examines the occupational socialization of secondary, public school librarians. The study examines three novice librarians' autobiographical narratives and explores how participants perceived the influence of professional, critical events. The study addresses the challenges and successes that novice school librarians encounter or bring about during their early years in the profession. The study also examines how critical events create professional identities of school librarians, and how narratives of vulnerability (re)produce culture myths about teaching and librarianship. </p><p> In order to have a better understanding of the occupational socialization of the school librarian participants, I collected data from multiple sources for each of the cases. The procedures included direct observations, interviews, and document analysis. The research began while participants were student teaching, and data was collected until their second year of practice. </p><p> The results of the analysis indicate that participants' student teaching placements provided polarized experiences to model their practices after: either unrealistic or unacceptable. All participants express that they were unprepared for their service in public schools, and they were unsupported by their administrators in their first school librarian positions. In addition, they convey great discomfort with the "myths" of their clerical work that their administrators or job titles demanded. The study suggests that in spite of their perceived inadequate socialization, school librarian participants exhibit strength in the midst of great occupational challenges and role uncertainty. </p>

<p> Principals are increasingly responsible for ensuring an equitable learning environment in their schools. The development of a disposition to meet this responsibility is an under-researched area. This study was a qualitative narrative analysis of the stories of five white, female, elementary principals from the same suburban school district who were interviewed to understand where their disposition may originate and how their disposition manifests itself in their self-reported decisions and actions. The following question became the focus of the research: What do principals report are the factors that support or challenge their decision-making regarding students and families with diverse characteristics? A qualitative inquiry method with an emphasis on narrative analysis was used to identify themes. These themes were illuminated using the lens of Bourdieu's sociological theory of habitus and field. Principal narratives of equity fell into two broad thematic areas of capital and management. Principals who participated in this study build social capital, which is then used as a currency to create and support equity with the other habitus and structures on the field. According to the analysis of the data, the stances principals take to provide equity include a managerial orientation. The analyses of the narratives reveal that where principals stand for equity is evident through the stories they tell rather than their statements of what they believe and value. This study suggests that building upon the stories of personal experiences may be a good starting point for professional development around issues of equity. These opportunities could strengthen a principal's ability to both understand and articulate a concrete set of self-expectations for equity. Additionally, Bourdieu's theory of habitus and field presents a way to understand a principal's actions and intentions on their field of work. </p>

This study explores the way a group of chemistry teachers in Costa Rica construct themselves as professionals. This is a preliminary study on the issue of teachers' professionalism in Costa Rica from a perspective other than salary. The intention was to explore how a group of eight chemistry teachers set up situations to interact among themselves as well as with other teachers and professionals in the school system as the basis to generate collaboration and autonomy. Two chemistry teachers participated in an in-depth analysis of their life histories as professionals. The teachers set up situations for interaction with others. These include students, colleagues, parents and members of the community. Content programs and regulations for evaluation were explored as part of the aspects that influence teachers' actions in the school culture. / As an interpretive study, data were constructed from school setting observations, personal life histories as told by chemistry teachers, interviews with school system participants and documents from which teachers defined their roles in school. The findings of the study are categorized as they relate to the following: (1) chemistry teachers, (2) teacher unions, (3) policy mediators, (4) principals, (5) colleagues, (6) students, (7) teacher educators, and (8) content programs and evaluative regulations. / From this study it is inferred that the professional actions of teachers are not strongly supported in the school system. Thus, the construction of professional identity is a lifelong process for which teachers need to interact with others on a permanent basis. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2439. / Co-Major Professors: Kenneth Tobin; Alejandro J. Gallard. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Bilingual bicultural education continues to be a complex social issue in the U.S. well into the end of the 20th century. Supporters of bilingual bicultural education charge that the mass media usually pay little attention to the field, and when they do pay attention, they tend to print mostly negative articles. Educators consider newspaper editors to be particularly biased when they write about bilingual bicultural education. / Newspaper editorials offer a public forum where controversial issues can be debated. Professional standards in the field of communications, e.g., Hulteng and Nelson (1971), require editors to use argumentation where all sides of a social issue are exposed so that readers can make up their own minds about a controversial social issue like bilingual bicultural education. / The research questions for this study are to ask (a) whether there are any editorials that espouse bilingual bicultural education, and (b) whether editors are exposing their readers to the 12 points in the argument that favors bilingual bicultural education. These 12 supportive statements are gleaned from the writing of educational theorists. / Since 1970, Editorials on File has been collecting U.S. editorials on sundry topics. In that 23-year period, there are 3 years where the selected editorials are about bilingual bicultural education. A computer program called Qual-Pro has been used to cull editorial sentences supportive of bilingual bicultural education in the 68 editorials of that period. / The results of the study are that none of the editors comes out in full support of bilingual bicultural classes. Of such statements in these 3 years of editorials, only 23% give even token discussion to the 12 points in the positive argument. Only 4 of the possible 12 points are mentioned--only 2 frequently, the other 2 somewhat frequently--and the other 8 points are hardly mentioned at all. The 2 points mentioned most often are (a) bilingual education is a legal right of minority students, and (b) bilingual education includes teaching in more than one language. The 2 points mentioned less often are that (c) bilingual education includes teaching about more than one culture, and (d) bilingual education has been and is now as asset to the nation as a whole. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2492. / Major Professor: Frederick L. Jenks. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This interpretive study of teacher learning and curriculum change investigated the constructs teachers found useful as they initiated and carried out changes in their beliefs and in the mathematics curricula used in their upper level mathematics courses. Also, the study focused on the constructs of the school culture as perceived by the teachers, and how these constructs influenced mathematics instruction. The study settings were two high school mathematics classes, located in an urban area, servicing a population of predominately African American students. / The findings of the study may be summarized as follows: (1) the teachers found metaphors for their roles very useful constructs when reflecting on teaching and learning; (2) the teachers were profoundly influenced by the cultural myths of their school; (3) the myths of the culture often acted as referents for teacher action and curricular decisions; (4) the reframing and reflecting process was the foundation of personal learning and curricular change; and (5) the lack of administrative support and collegiality among the faculty constrained the reform efforts of the teachers. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2498. / Major Professor: Kenneth Tobin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.