<p> This thesis explores the role of town-and-gown violence as a constructive force during the rise of three universities in medieval France: the university in Paris in the thirteenth century and the universities in Orl&eacute;ans and Toulouse in the fourteenth century. These universities became established fixtures in the social and political spaces of their respective cities partly as a result of violence between scholars and townspeople and the protracted arbitration and litigation that succeeded a violent incident. More specifically, various instances of town-and-gown violence created the circumstances through which the scholars and the townspeople in each city could negotiate new terms of coexistence, often through royal and papal mediation. In Paris, Orl&eacute;ans, and Toulouse, the involvement of the French monarchy in these conflicts became one of the major points of contention. Violence and conflict served as mechanisms by which the scholars and the townspeople sought to debate the way royal power was weighted. In each city, violent encounters and subsequent resolutions of conflict allowed the scholars to establish themselves as members of an enduring structure, defining their roles within the social and political networks of the city.</p><p>

<p> Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were established with the main objective of identifying and empowering people of African descent. Over the years, these institutions have grown, enrolling 16% of Black high school graduates and during graduation, almost 20% of African-American graduates. Using a qualitative study design, the main goal of this study was to identify the effectiveness of HBCUs&rsquo; ability to serve the interests and needs of African-American students who chose to attend and graduate from HBCUs as undergraduate students then attend and graduate from graduate schools at predominantly White institutions (PWIs.) This study inquired about focusing on the factors influencing how undergraduate students make decisions on which college to attend, what factors influence their career selection, and the impact the university experience has on future careers and overall college experience. Data was gathered from African-American HBCU graduates who then attended and graduated from PWIs in California. Interviews and online surveys were conducted with participants to collect in-depth responses regarding their experiences, views, beliefs, and motivations. The sample comprised 100 respondents out of an original 200 who were selected. The study showed that many participants attended their chosen colleges because they preferred to associate with people who shared origins like their own. Family and friends were found to be influential in college selection and educational background influenced the types of careers study participants pursued after graduation from college. Implications for future research are discussed.</p><p>

<p> The ultimate goal of teaching history to young people is to create effective, responsible citizens (Fallace, 2009). Despite such ambitious goals, the traditional teacher-centered method of instruction has not proven to have engaged students. As a result, students often rank history as their least-liked subject, particularly at the secondary level. One instructional strategy that may ameliorate this problem is the incorporation of primary sources. Identifying the inhibitors and inducers of primary sources, the researcher in this study explored and described the elements of successful primary source use in the secondary American and world history classrooms of three teacher participants in a qualitative, semester-long case study. Student and teacher perspectives of the impact of primary sources were also considered. In contrast to some of the existing literature, primary sources can be employed successfully and consistently in the secondary history classroom as demonstrated by the three teacher participants in this semester-long study in a large suburban Atlanta, Georgia, school district.</p>

Why do schools teach mathematics, and why do they teach the mathematics that they do? In this three-part dissertation, I argue that the justifications offered by national education systems are not convincing, and that students are tested on content whose purpose neither they nor their teachers clearly understand. In the first part of the dissertation, I propose a theoretical framework for understanding the content and pedagogy of school mathematics as a set of practices reflecting socio-political values, particularly in relation to labor and citizenship. Beginning with a critical study of history, I trace the origins of modern mathematics education, in the process unearthing common, unexamined assumptions regarding the place and form of mathematics education in contemporary society. In the second part of the dissertation I use the above theoretical framework to re-examine the literature on mathematical word problems. Word problems have interested research because they operate at the intersection between mathematics, education, and labor. I argue that scholarly discussions of word problems have so far adopted unexamined assumptions regarding the role of history, the structure of everyday life, and the relationship between mathematics and other disciplines. Through the lens of political economy I examine these assumptions and offer new categories and explanation for understanding word problems. In the final part of the dissertation, I apply my theoretical framework to practice. Using a dialogical approach, I present a group of undergraduate students and pre-service teachers with artifacts and problems that embody some of the defining tensions of mathematics education. Through twelve weeks of in-depth discussion, fieldwork and exploration, students eventually arrive at a more critical understanding of the social purpose of mathematics and the impact of this purpose on its teaching and learning in various contexts. The results for the students include an expanded vision of the possibilities of mathematics, a radical critique of its place in society, and reports of reduced math anxiety as well as increased curiosity toward mathematics. / Culture, Communities, and Education

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This thesis is a study of the circulation and reproductive impact of public representations of the Burnage Report, a document which loomed large in the public debates in Britain on the issue of antiracism policies in schools in the late 1980s. Emanating from an inquiry into a student's murder at Manchester's Burnage High School, the Report was held up in much of the British press as having concluded that antiracism policies were a blameworthy factor in the murder. Such conclusions were contested by the authors of the Report, who maintained that racism, not antiracism, was the primary factor in the murder. Making use of methodologies and analyses derived from the fields of Cultural Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis, this thesis examines the apparent disjuncture between the Report and its representations, comparing a "preferred reading" of the Report with press readings, and analyzing the discursive sources of press representations of antiracism. Also examined are the representations of the Report in the subsequent academic production on antiracism, in order to ascertain the impact of press representations on understandings of the Report's significance.

This thesis examines the professional status of women kindergartners in Ontario in the late nineteenth- early twentieth century, by exploring the origins of the Kindergarten and the transformations that occurred to this system as it integrated into the provincially-controlled public education system. The masculine nature of the professions in nineteenth century, together with the gendered ideology that made the care of young children women's work, is critical to understanding what happened to the kindergartners as they moved from women-run private institutions to male run institutions of education in Ontario. This thesis examines the position, training, and inspection, of kindergartners in the provincial education system of nineteenth-century Ontario, while at the same time analyzing the meaning that "profession" had, together with its gendered and class connotations, and how this influenced the status of the kindergartners. I argue that kindergartening was a specialized profession when it was first introduced to Ontario in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and that the entry into the already existing teaching hierarchy, with its gendered social relations, began a process of de-professionalization, as control over the training of the new kindergarten teachers, as well as the support provided thereafter, moved from the hands of expert, professional women kindergartners into the hands of male government officials at the Ministry of Education.