Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Instructional Systems and Technology and Religious Studies, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed July 12, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-10, Section: A, page: 3695. Adviser: Charles M. Reigeluth.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Education, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed July 12, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-10, Section: A, page: 3705. Adviser: David J. Flinders.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4077. Adviser: Walter Feinberg. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-194) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4078. Advisers: Liora Bresler; Daniel Walsh. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-186) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4079. Adviser: Mark Dressman. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-206) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Counseling and Educational Psychology, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1224. Adviser: Ginette Delandshere. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 7, 2007)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Language Education, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1257. Adviser: Jerome C. Harste. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 14, 2007)."

This exploratory study uses Westheimer and Kahne's (2004) conceptual model of the three planes of 'good' citizenship activity to consider the civic contribution of youth graffiti writers in the community of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Through seven qualitative case studies of youth and young adults, it examines young graffiti artists' perceptions of their participation in their communities and their views on graffiti writing and its place in their lives. The results show that contrary to public opinion, the youth interviewed who participate in graffiti writing in its most artistic form, "piecing", are not focused on vandalism but have carefully considered their relationships with their community and their art. The use of a Youth Research Assist ant in five of the interviews demonstrates that youth themselves, given specific roles in the research process, can add to the richness of data collected. Drawing on literature in graffiti, Hip-Hop cultural studies and community and youth engagement, this study adds to the growing body of research that focuses on youth 'assets' (the existing strengths that youth bring to their involvement in societal affairs) (Benson, 1997; Scales & Laffert, 1999; Ungar, 2005). The research and findings offer an alternate perspective on youth voice, civic identity, citizenship and rule breaking in Canadian democratic society.

Doctor of Philosophy / Secondary Education / Diane McGrath / As students are required to learn more and more and the world of technology evolves with access to information, how can schools use this knowledge to help students learn? This project focuses on the development of a prototype tool to assist students in building a vocabulary over time. The tool will allow students to capture definitions using research based graphic organizers. It also has a variety of ways students can represent the new words non-linguistically – graphically, audio, adding a variety of files. A prototype of this tool was developed and expert teachers reviewed the tool for functionality. Students were also asked to review the tool. After revisions were made students were asked to use the tool in class in a preliminary field test. Students were then asked their opinion on how they felt this tool would help them learn. This study involved four students and their experiences using the Knowledge Banks. The students overwhelmingly felt the tool would help them to organize their information, give them easier access to finding the information at a later date, and allow them ways to represent the new information non-linguistically. They enjoyed the ability to search for terms and find all the information that was connected to this term in any way. Having all of this information allowed them to make connections with their information they hadn’t done before. The implications of this study on education include; the need to provide ways for students to collect and build their knowledge, giving them access to tools for storage, allowing them to search their knowledge therefore making connections to new learning. This study showed that a tool can be developed that will help students learn new vocabulary and allow students to continue to learn this vocabulary by revisiting the terms over and over again year after year.

Over the last decade, the call for schools to leverage partnerships with community organizations as a means to provide services that will mitigate the effects of poverty in the pursuit of achieving ambitious academic outcomes has gained momentum. The Achievement Schools, a network of five neighborhood schools serving students in Memphis’ Frayser community, has prioritized the development of partnerships as a lever to turn around the academic performance of its schools by ensuring students’ nonacademic challenges are identified and met. In this Capstone, I describe my role in building a “Partnership Readiness Toolkit,” a framework and set of resources to guide schools in developing the capacity needed to better utilize partnerships with community organizations that provide critical nonacademic services and resources. Drawing upon research that focuses on the challenges facing school-community organization partnerships, examples of effective partnerships, and change management theory, I argue that for schools to fully utilize partnerships, they must first be ready for partnership by more tightly coupling certain aspects of their relationships with community organizations. This Capstone then describes the approaches I took to design, build support for, and apply the Partnership Readiness Toolkit to an important community partner. The analysis of my actions and results generates two key findings: 1) creating a vision and proof point that multiple constituencies find valuable, undergirded by strong relationships with the constituencies, yields the support necessary to successfully introduce and begin applying the Partnership Readiness Toolkit, and 2) a school operator with multiple priorities and an ambitious mission must focus relentlessly on readying its schools for partnership in order for partnerships to be successful. This Capstone will provide two instrumental contributions to the sector. First, this Capstone presents a case study of the successes and challenges of readying schools for partnership, which conveys a valuable set of insights for school operators, particularly those in “turnaround” situations serving low-income students. Second, the Capstone produces a Partnership Readiness Toolkit that will serve as a resource for current and aspiring school leaders seeking to utilize partners as a lever for school improvement and student success.