Framed by insights from critical human geography, political economy, and educational studies, this dissertation offers a critique of the contemporary education reform movement in the United States (hereafter U.S.). The overarching argument made here is that the powerfully positioned individuals and groups at the head of this movement have been less motivated by a desire to actually pursue social justice than by the political expediency that comes with appearing to be doing so. The three papers that follow speak to the existing critical literature on public schooling in the U.S., which argues that the perpetual discussion about how to 'fix' the U.S.'s educational system should be seen as an attempt by its powerfully positioned interlocutors to collapse popular discontent with a variety of persistent social injustices into a focused dissatisfaction with the public schools. This literature has also argued that although the public education system in the U.S. is indeed quite inequitable as it presently exists, and thus an appropriate target for transformation, the education reform movement's efforts to that end have actually reproduced many of the social and pedagogical causes of educational inequity. This dissertation builds on the literature just summarized by demonstrating that the rhetoric of the individuals and groups associated with the education reform movement coalesces around a spatial discourse through which the causes of a variety of social ills are presented as endogenous to the spaces inhabited by the individuals and groups that suffer them with the greatest frequency and intensity. Further, the artificially discrete, enclosed spaces conjured in the name of education reform are enrolled as part of a broader project of legitimizing coercive, individualizing, and competitive-rather than supportive, dialogic, collaborative-forms of pedagogy, and governance more generally.

EXPLORING THE PERCEPTION OF SELF-EFFICACY AMONG TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS IN MEETING THE DEMANDS OF CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL REFORM INITIATIVES

Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / Current institutional and technological innovations are challenging face-to-face, college- and university-based teacher preparation programs as never before. Among those innovations are two emerging phenomena: New graduate schools of education (nGSEs) and fully online teacher preparation programs. nGSEs are new independent graduate schools that are not university-based but are state-authorized and approved as institutions of higher education to prepare teachers, endorse them for initial teacher certification, and grant master’s degrees (Cochran-Smith et al., 2019). Fully online teacher preparation programs are programs that relocate teacher preparation from the physical environments of the brick-and-mortar university to the digital environments of the internet and provide prospective teachers with flexible alternatives to face-to-face pathways. While both fully online teacher preparation programs and nGSEs have garnered enthusiastic media attention and critique, there is a very limited amount of in-depth knowledge about fully online teacher preparation programs and virtually no independent research on nGSEs. This dissertation helps to address those gaps in research. The central purpose of this dissertation was to examine the intersection of fully online teacher preparation and the phenomenon of teacher preparation at nGSEs by investigating teacher preparation at TEACH-NOW Graduate School of Education, a fully online, for-profit, nGSE headquartered in Washington, D.C. and rapidly expanding as a provider of initial teacher education. Intended to be descriptive and interpretive, this qualitative case study sought to understand the phenomenon of teacher preparation at TEACH-NOW from the perspectives of its participants. Based on qualitative analysis of multiple sources of evidence, the main argument of this dissertation is that TEACH-NOW operated at the nexus of a complex tension between the push to be innovative and the pull to be legitimate. Findings suggest that TEACH-NOW skillfully navigated that tension by establishing tight coherence around three key indicators of innovation (business model, technology, program structure) and by achieving major accepted markers of credibility within the larger teacher education organizational field. This dissertation also argues that TEACH-NOW’s approach to teacher preparation necessitated that teacher candidates self-manage their program experiences in accordance with their individual needs, circumstances, and preferences. The dissertation concludes with discussion of important themes and specific research, practice, and policy implications. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

This project examines the communicative structure of the contemporary rhetoric of crisis and reform narrative dominating public conversation about education, as a post-industrial body of discourse deeply embedded in historical ideals for a mass system of public education. In challenging the crisis-centered narrative, this work seeks to identify historical discourse strands that have shaped thinking and action in the construction of educational policy, legislation, administration and pedagogy. This work evaluates the misalignment in the assumptions which guide the perception that an academic relationship exists between higher education and secondary school which is in contrast to the original purpose for a mass system of public education. In part, this research is a response to discourse that applies responsibility to colleges and universities in the ongoing rhetoric of crisis and reform calls for greater accountability and assessments as a means by which the problems of education may be reversed. It is the position of this research that these systems are not aligned yet increasingly, public discussions about educational failures assume that secondary school is the preparatory ground for the transition to higher learning. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Communication and Rhetorical Studies / PhD / Dissertation

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between middle class and higher education through higher education policy. While the society gradually form the social class, each of them will try to obtain as much resource as they could. However, most of the resource is controlled by the upper class, which, due to the incapable of self-improvement, will eventually cause the conflict between different classes. In order to prevent the class struggle and conflict, and to maintain the social harmonious, the stable existence of Social Mobility is critical and important. And the easiest way for lower class to flow upward, is the education. After the declare end of the marshal law, the main purpose of education innovation in our country, is to expand the chance for people to receive higher education, raise the standard of knowledge, and increase the national competitiveness. However, while fixing all the old issue by the execution of the innovated policy, the upcoming problems have already risen. After the KMT re-achieve the presidency, the Exective Yuan shows the determination of restrain depression by the announcement of forming firm and solid middle class. If the indispensable way of social flow, education, is malfunctioning, the forming is incapable as well. It¡¦s obviously that the importance and requirement of education is raised, and the higher education is also widespread. However, does higher education in our country play it¡¦s role of promoting social flow? Does the consequence of successively education reform cause positive (or even negative) impact on the social mobility? These are the factors that this thesis wants to investigate.

This study describes the policymaking process and policy solutions enacted in the Kentucky Postsecondary Improvement Act of 1997 (or House Bill 1). The study employs both an historical recounting of the story of House Bill 1 and a narrative analysis of opinion-editorials and policymaker interviews to reveal and explain how political power comprised both the perennial problem of Kentuckys higher education policymaking and the tool with which conflicts over power distribution were resolved. The study uses three theoretical frameworks (the Multiple-Streams, Punctuated-Equilibrium, and Political Frame) to explore the rise of restructuring on Kentuckys policymaking agenda, its most contentious issue (separation of community college governance from the University of Kentucky), and how the conflict engendered by this issue was resolved. Use of rigorous investigative methods and theoretical frameworks resulted in understandings of not only what drove the policymaking effort but also the strategies that enabled the initiative to rise on Kentuckys policymaking agenda and to be enacted. The study concludes: (1) the presence of a policy entrepreneur increases the likelihood of a strong change effort (and to its success if that entrepreneur is the governor); (2) issue definition, or redefinition, is key to reform efforts; and (3) while prior higher education policy studies and K-12 reform may soften up and prepare the policy community for discussions of reform, they have not been shown to affect the proposal development or enactment phases of a higher education restructuring initiative. Additional insights emerged from looking at the Kentucky case, informed by those of Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) before it, and of similar initiatives in Ohio and Illinois. This review suggests: 1. The impetus and leadership for significant change to a higher education system will likely arise externally versus internally 2. Redefining the issues of higher education in a way that changes participants perspectives and positions is an important factor in building support and opposition to an initiative. 3. Restructuring efforts, either intentionally or unintentionally, will ultimately have to address perceived and/or real power imbalances among institutions and between institutions and state agencies. 4. Redistributing power within a higher education system constitutes a change, but not necessarily an improvement to the system. The study concludes that opportunity data, research, and rational arguments to inform policy development from academia to inform and influence elected officials occurs very early in the start of a reform initiative or even years prior. It also finds the opportunity for influence diminishes as debate over policy alternatives and enactment increases. This suggests reluctance on the part of academia to include elected officials in the issues of the campus may reduce opportunities for data, research and rational arguments to influence the opinions, policies, and decisions of elected leaders. The study recommends: (1) that academia should become more engaged, on a substantative and continuing level, with elected leaders, and (2) that researchers focus on how elected leaders form their ideas on higher education and how these influence and result in policy and political positions.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

Submitted by Elvis de Almeida Diana null (eaediana844@gmail.com) on 2016-09-15T16:27:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DIANA,Elvis de Almeida._DISSERTAÇÃO REVISADA.pdf: 1561142 bytes, checksum: d5bbac739c9886281839e3601c34a4d7 (MD5) / Rejected by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br), reason: Solicitamos que realize uma nova submissão seguindo as orientações abaixo: Inserir a data de defesa na folha de aprovação. Corrija estas informações e realize uma nova submissão contendo o arquivo correto. Agradecemos a compreensão. on 2016-09-20T19:37:39Z (GMT) / Submitted by Elvis de Almeida Diana null (eaediana844@gmail.com) on 2016-09-20T20:26:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DIANA,Elvis de Almeida._DISSERTAÇÃO REVISADA.pdf: 1561184 bytes, checksum: 04be31b6154fd4f91d6616c52a6d8f89 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-09-21T16:31:05Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 diana_ea_me_fran.pdf: 1561184 bytes, checksum: 04be31b6154fd4f91d6616c52a6d8f89 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-21T16:31:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 diana_ea_me_fran.pdf: 1561184 bytes, checksum: 04be31b6154fd4f91d6616c52a6d8f89 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-15 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Este trabalho tem por objetivo realizar uma discussão acerca do ideário de José Pedro Varela (1845-1879) e a sua proposta de uma reforma educacional no Uruguai caudilhista do século XIX, a partir de uma perspectiva situada no campo da História Intelectual. Neste sentido, propomos, por meio do conceito de “contextualismo lingüístico” de Quentin Skinner e John G. A. Pocock, relacionar as ideias políticas de Varela com os principais debates e publicações realizadas por esse intelectual no período trabalhado sobre a questão da educação pública no Uruguai. Partimos do pressuposto de que, por meio das propostas de educação estabelecidas por ele, existe uma intenção política mais ampla que visava a implementação da democracia e a consolidação das práticas republicanas no país. Além disso, acreditamos que, por meio das propostas de Varela, existe uma ideia de como deveria ser o Uruguai, em termos de estabilidade política e social. Para que “tal projeto de Uruguai” seja desvelado de seus escritos, utilizaremos escritos do autor em alguns periódicos e jornais da época, além das obras La Educación del Pueblo e La Legislación Escolar, também de sua autoria. Da mesma forma, por meio da análise dos espaços de sociabilidade e os “microclimas” – nos dizeres de Jean François Sirinelli - dos homens de letras no país, recorreremos eventualmente aos escritos de alguns de seus contemporâneos, como Carlos María Ramírez, Agustin de Vedia, Lucas Herrera y Obes, Juan Zorrilla de San Martin, entre outros, para que possamos ter uma maior compreensão acerca dos embates em torno da questão educacional e, conseqüentemente, do projeto republicano de nação uruguaia nela inserido. / The present work, situated in the field of Intellectual History, aims to focus a discussion towards José Pedro Varela‟s (1845 -1879) ideas for an educational reform in Uruguay on nineteenth century. Therefore, we propose, through Quentin Skinner e John G. A Pocock‟s “linguistic conceptualism”, a relation between Varela‟s ideas and the main debates and publications about public education issues in Uruguay. Our hypothesis that his educational propositions intend to accomplish a wider political project that aimed to implement democracy and the consolidation of republican practices. Besides that, we believe that Varela‟s propositions build a projection of how Uruguay should be in terms of social and political stability. To discover this “project of Uruguay” in his writings, we are going to utilize as historical sources some texts published in newspapers back in those days, beside his works La Educación del Pueblo and La Legislción Escolar. Yet, for the purposes of the analyzing the Uruguayan intellectual‟s sociability spaces and their “microweathers” – in Jean François Sirinelli‟s terms – we are going the recur eventually to the writings of Varela‟s contemporaries, such as Carlos MaríaRamírez, Agustin de Vedia, Lucas Herrera y Obes, Juan Zorrilla de San Martin, and others, in order to get a wider comprehension about the educational struggles e, by the consequence, Uruguayan republican project attached to it. / FAPESP: 2014-06151-3

This project explores the role of Black Baptist churches – both past and present – in educational reform. Transformative civility offers a practical theological leadership model that engages in phronēsis and conscientization for liberation. The study focuses on Northumberland County, Virginia, and draws upon Robert London Smith’s Black Existential Theological Hermeneutic (BETH) method. The BETH method uncovers practical and theological challenges and demonstrates how transformative civility can promote educational reform. In such reform, phronēsis (practical wisdom) and conscientization (critical consciousness) awaken and empower the church and community to take action and provide equal access and justice for all citizens regardless of race.

Mississippis low rate of literacy has been the focus of concern for educators and policy makers for many years. At the same time the National Reading Panel (National Institute of Health, 2000) was attempting to resolve the issue of which methods were most effective in teaching children to read by conducting a meta-analysis of reading research, Mississippi was developing a reform model, the Mississippi Reading Reform Model (MRRM), to raise the reading achievement of its students. In 2000 James Barksdale, founder of Netscape, donated one hundred million dollars to Mississippi and founded the Barksdale Reading Institute (BRI) in order to assist in the implementation of the MRRM and, ultimately, raise the literacy rates in Mississippi. In 2006 BRI initiated a reading reform model in the form of demonstration classrooms. Core reading instruction for kindergarten and first grade students at-risk for reading failure in the demonstration classrooms was provided by the Barksdale Literacy Teachers (BLTs). Reading interventions were provided for kindergarten through third grade students in the demonstration classrooms by the BLTs and an Intervention Specialist (IS). Reading methods and strategies promoted by the NRP formed the basis of instruction in the demonstration classrooms. The subject of this qualitative study is the experiences of 12 BLTs as they implemented demonstration classrooms across Mississippi. The researcher investigated the BLTs? personal experiences as they worked with students, predominantly African Americans and from low-socioeconomic communities. The Read Well program was used in the classrooms as a means of ensuring the use of NRP promoted methods. Research findings reveal the problems associated with teaching struggling readers who are also living with the effects of poverty. BLTs described their use of a scripted commercial program and problems the program posed for their students as speakers of African American Vernacular English.