abstract: Students may be situated within complex systems that are nested within each other. This complexity may also envelope institutional structures that lead to the socio-economic reification of student post-secondary opportunities by obscuring positive goals. This may be confounded by community misunderstandings about the changed world that students are entering. These changes include social and economic factors that impact personal and economic freedoms, our ability to live at peace, and the continuing trend of students graduating high school underprepared. Building on previous cycles of action research, this multi-strand mixed-methods study examined the effects of the innovation of the I am College and Career Ready Student Support Program (iCCR). The innovation was collaboratively developed and implemented over a 16-week period using a participatory action research approach. The situated context of this study was a new high school in the urban center of San Diego, California. The innovation included a student program administered during an advisory period and a parent education program. Qualitative research used a critical ethnographic design that analyzed data from artifacts, journals, notes, and the interviews of students (*n* = 8), parents (*n* = 6), and teachers (*n* = 5). Quantitative research included the analysis of data from surveys administered to inform the development of the innovation (*n* = 112), to measure learning of parent workshop participants (*n =* 10), and to measure learning, hope, and attitudinal disposition of student participants (*n* = 49). Triangulation was used to answer the studies’ four research questions. Triangulated findings were subjected to the method of crystallization to search for hidden meanings and multiple truths. Findings included the importance of parent involvement, the influence of positive goals, relational implications of goal setting and pathway knowledge on agentic thinking, and that teacher implementation of the innovation may have influenced student hope levels. This study argued for a grounded theory situated within a theoretical framework based upon Snyder’s Hope Theory and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory. This argument asserted that influence on pathway and agency occurred at levels of high proximal process with the influence of goal setting occurring at levels of lower proximal process. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2018

The overarching theme of this thesis concerns the possibility of balancing the values of unity and pluralism in education in developed nation states characterized by an increasing pluralism when it comes to the beliefs and values of its citizens. The author suggests that democracy has a normative basis in the principle of reciprocity which can be supported in an overlapping consensus by reasonable persons who differ in their moral, religious and philosophical beliefs. It is argued that this basis mandates a deliberative kind of democracy and that certain implications follow for how to understand the relation between democracy and individual rights, between democracy and religious belief and speech, and between rationality and deliberation, among other things. The author proceeds to discuss three educational issues in relation to the principle of reciprocity and its implications: 1. The legitimacy and content of a mandatory citizenship education, 2. Children’s rights to develop personal autonomy, 3. The opportunity for parents and children to choose which school children attend. These issues are important in relation to the question of how to balance unity and pluralism in education in that they concern the promotion of certain common beliefs, values and dispositions among citizens or the creation of a system of choice between schools with different profiles. The purpose of the discussion is to construct a theoretical position which balances the values of unity and pluralism in education, by giving diversity its due (contra communitarianism) while upholding a measure of unity (contra libertarianism and radical multiculturalism) which is located in the democratic and autonomy- promoting purposes of education rather than (exclusively) in its economic/vocational purposes (contra neo-liberalism). The discussions make use of political philosophy, educational philosophy and empirical research carried out by other researchers.

Abstract The practice of teaching links long-standing philosophical questions about the building blocks of a good life to daily judgments in the classroom; in the journey to becoming a person who teaches, we must seek different ways of understanding what “good” means in the context of different social practices and communities. This doctoral thesis examines the educational innovation known as Philosophy for Children (PFC) as a platform for teachers and students to address such questions within a community of philosophical inquiry (CPI). Advocates of PFC seek to promote radical change in our understanding of growth, teaching and the relationships formed in educational contexts. In addressing these issues, this thesis contributes to the ongoing conversation about the teacher’s role within the PFC movement. The thesis comprises four interrelated studies that examine the possibilities and limits of PFC ideas by considering them in the light of general educational theorising about pedagogical action. In addition to the PFC literature, the study’s main sources are 1) the Continental tradition of European educational discourse, especially in German-speaking regions, and 2) the writings of the contemporary educational thinker Gert Biesta. The former offers an opposing view to the idea of a symmetrical, communal emergent system that seems to inform second-generation understandings of philosophical dialogue in an educational context. Gert Biesta’s ideas, especially in relation to the purpose and aims of education, help in envisioning CPI as a structuring element in teaching as a whole and all aspects of classroom life. The four studies focus on pedagogical action, the nature and role of authority in CPI and teacher agency. The thesis contends that teaching and, in particular, building a community of classroom inquiry, requires a vision of teaching as a reflective practice, informed by subject-specific and educational judgments as key dimensions of teacher reflection and wisdom. / Tiivistelmä Opettajan ammatissa filosofiset kysymykset hyvästä elämästä ja sen etsimisestä yhdistyvät opettajan päivittäisiin ratkaisuihin luokkahuoneessa. Tämä väitöskirja käsittelee kasvatuksellisia edellytyksiä ja mahdollisuuksia Filosofiaa lapsille -ohjelmassa, joka on pyrkinyt luomaan alustaa kysymyksille hyvästä elämästä osana lasten kasvua ja kasvatusta. Väitöskirja keskittyy tarkastelemaan tämän ohjelman piirissä käytyä keskustelua kasvusta, opetuksesta ja kouluopetuksessa muodostuvista kasvatussuhteista. Erityisesti väitöskirja tarkastelee edellä mainittuja käsitteitä hahmotellakseen filosofisen pedagogiikan erityispiirteitä kasvatuksellisena käytäntönä. Samalla väitöskirja kiinnittyy myös yleisemmin kasvatuksen ja opetuksen luonnetta ja tavoitteita koskevaan keskusteluun. Väitöskirja sisältää neljä toisiinsa liittyvää tutkimusta, jotka tarkastelevat pedagogisen filosofian mahdollisuuksia ja ongelmakohtia yleisen kasvatustieteen piirissä tehtyjen teoreettisten hahmottelujen valossa. Filosofiaa lapsille -liikkeen edustajien lisäksi päälähteinä toimivat 1) mannermainen pedagogisen toiminnan teorian traditio (erityisesti saksan kielialueella käyty keskustelu) ja 2) Gert Biestan viimeaikaiset kirjoitukset. Ensimmäinen tarjoaa vastakkaisen näkemyksen symmetriselle, itseään luovalle systeemille, joka vaikuttaa olevan varsinkin liikkeen toisen sukupolven edustajien filosofisen pedagogiikan kehittelyiden ytimessä. Gert Biestan ajatukset, erityisesti hänen ideansa kasvatuksen päämääristä ja tavoitteista, antavat eväitä muodostaa filosofisesta pedagogiikasta opetusta strukturoiva kokonaisuus, joka toimii oppiainerajat ylittävänä, luokan elämää ohjaavana periaatteena. Väitöskirja keskittyy erityisesti pedagogisen toiminnan, auktoriteetin luonteen ja roolin sekä opettajan toimijuuden käsitteisiin. Väitöstutkimuksen keskeinen tulos on, että filosofisesti orientoituneen kasvatuksellisen käytännön muodostuminen luokkaan vaatii opettajalta moniulotteista omien pedagogisten ratkaisujen reflektointia, ja suuntaa häntä kohti kasvatuksellista viisautta.

abstract: This study enters on the heels of a trend of public school closures across the United States. Using qualitative methods, the study concerns the curriculum experiences of six African American students attending a majority-white high school in a white, middle-class community in the Midwest, one year after the closure of their predominantly Black high school in their hometown. The study draws from Michel Foucault’s philosophy on care of the self as an analytical tool to look at students’ care of the ‘racialized’ self, or more specifically, how African American students are forming a ‘self’ in a majority-white school in relation to the ways they are being racialized. Background of the schools and a description of the conditions under which the school change occurred are provided for context. Data collection involved conducting life history interviews with students, observing students in their classes, and shadowing students throughout their school day. Findings show that African American student-participants are contending with what they describe as a “them”/“us” racial, cultural, and class divide that is operationalized through the curriculum. Students are in a struggle to negotiate how they are perceived and categorized as ‘racialized’ bodies through the curriculum, and, their own perceptions of these racializations. In this struggle, students enact self-practices to make maneuvers within curriculum spaces. A student can accept how the curriculum attempts to constitute her/him as a subject, resist this subjectification, or perform any combination of both accepting and resisting. In this way, a curriculum, with its distinctive and potentially polarizing boundaries, becomes a negotiated and contested space. And, because this curricular space is internally contradictory, a student, in relation to it, may practice versions of a ‘self’ (multiple ‘selves’) that are contradictory. Findings illuminate that in this complex process of self-making, African American students are producing a curriculum of self-formation that teaches others how they want to be perceived. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Curriculum and Instruction 2016

abstract: American Indian youth are experiencing a mental health crisis fueled by the lingering ramifications of experiencing a near cultural genocide. Scholarly literature indicates that American Indians have used their cultural values to survive the atrocities associated with colonization. The purpose of this Indigenous based mixed-methods action research project was to examine how Blackfoot elders perceive the transfer of values through ceremonies, cultural activities and traditional stories; and to what degree a Blackfoot way of knowing paradigm informs cultural connectedness, and school connectedness for students attending school on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The study was conducted through a Blackfoot way of knowing paradigm and consisted of two distinct but related data collection efforts. The first sample consisted of formal and informal interviews with 26 American Indian elders as well as observation notes from attending and participating in American Indian ceremonies in order to discover the traditional values believed transferred during ceremonies, cultural activities, and traditional stories. The elder interviews resulted in identifying ten traditional values encasing spirituality displayed in the Hoop of Traditional Blackfoot Values. The second sample consisted of 41 American Indian youth attending school on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The youth learned the values identified in the Blackfeet Education Standards “Hoops of Values” through a Blackfoot way of knowing paradigm and completed measures to assess cultural connectedness and school connectedness. In addition, all students were interviewed to develop a more robust understanding of the role culture plays in cultural connectedness and school connectedness and to lend a Blackfoot youth perspective to a Blackfoot way of knowing. Quantitative data analysis showed that a Blackfoot way of knowing paradigm significantly influences cultural connectedness but does not significantly influence school connectedness. In addition, analysis of the student interviews provided a Blackfeet youth perspective on cultural connectedness and school connectedness. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2020

abstract: This research investigates teachers' understanding of and feelings about transdisciplinary education and the International Baccalaureate's Primary Years Programme (PYP) as utilized by two remote schools in the province of Papua, Indonesia on the island of New Guinea. A goal of transdisciplinary education is to make learning through inquiry authentic, broad, student-centered, and relevant to the real world. In this study I examine educators’ perspectives of how transdisciplinary education is manifested in the two different and yet related elementary schools. Both schools are supported by a multinational mining company. One school is for expatriate students and the language of instruction is English. The second school, which is for Indonesian students, follows the Indonesian National Curriculum of 2013, with instruction delivered in the Indonesian language by Indonesian teachers. A single expatriate superintendent oversees both schools. Teacher experience, teacher PYP experience, implications of the PYP framework, cultural implications of the location, and demographics of the school stakeholders were considerations of this research. To acquire data, homeroom teachers, specialist teachers (music, art, physical education, and language), administrators, and PYP coordinators completed a survey and were interviewed. Additional data were collected through document examination and observation. A broad range of experience with transdisciplinary education existed in both schools, contributing to some confusion about how to implement the PYP framework and varying conceptions of what constitutes transdisciplinary education. Principles of the PYP were evident in curriculum documents and planning and discussed by the teachers in both schools. Educators at the expatriate school identified with the international-mindedness and approaches to learning in the PYP. Educators at the national school valued to character education elements of the PYP, which they viewed as consistent with Indonesian principles of pancasila. The mission and vision statements of the schools in this study aligned with the PYP in different ways. Challenges faced by educators in these schools are acquisition of professional development, experienced teachers and teaching materials due to the remote location of the schools. While transdisciplinary education was described, it was not necessarily implemented. The findings of this study suggest that transdisciplinary education is a mindset that takes time, experience, and commitment to implement. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music Education 2019

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This dissertation documents the attempt to address one of the major problems in nursing education i.e. the existing gap between the educational philosophy of nursing and nursing education practices, by means of an action research project during the period 1991-1996. The research in this dissertation is recorded in three phases. Phase One elaborates on the biographical and professional background of the researcher and the reasons why action research was selected for the purpose of this particular project Since action research provides opportunities for teachers to change and transform their own teaching practices, it was obviously the best choice for the research. The emphasis was on collaboration and participation and the researcher was morally bound to consider and observe all internal and external factors which influence and limit her own teaching practice, in order to initiate change and transformation in teaching. In order to define and contextualize the problem and to describe the situation in which this particular problem has been identified, the role of the statutory body, the South African Nursing Council which governs the profession and basic professional nursing education were explored. The problem is formulated as the existing gap between the educational philosophy on which existing nursing and nursing education practices are theoretically grounded and the way in which both nursing and nursing education practices appear in reality. Phase One also deals with the historical and philosophical foundations and development of nursing and nursing education. In an attempt to describe the researchers's teaching practice appropriately, as a social practice, it was essential to consider not only the professional and social boundaries of nursing education, but also the current situation regarding national education, the existing health system and all factors related to education and health. The dissertation then draws the attention to the essential features and historical context of a progressive and critical pedagogy, as a foundation for action research. In this regard it was especially the contributions of Dewey, Habermas, Freire, Giroux and McLaren, which guided the research to approach nursing education from a critical perspective. Phase Two deals with the research methodology. For this particular research project John Elliotts's Action Research Framework for Self-Evaluation in Schools was used. Within this framework of Elliott the dissertation then describes the research methodology of this particular project: Ideal and Reality in Nursing Education and Nursing Practices in South Africa: An Action Research Approach. The rationale and the development of the project is first described, whereafter action research is discussed as a process which enables nursing .practitioners and tutors to become empowered and to initiate change and establish transformation within their own practices. A major part of the dissertation is dedicated to the project in action with two groups of participants during two action research cycles. Finally Phase Three of this dissertation draws the attention to the conclusions based on the outcomes of the project. with the emphasis on the urgent need for change and transformation within the nursing profession in order to lessen the extensive gap between nursing theory and nursing practices. The existing gap between the philosophy on which nursing practices are based and how existing nursing practices appear in reality, seems to be the major cause of the prevailing discontent in the nursing profession.

No description available.

The primary purposes of this study were to identify motivational typologies of growth and stability and identify people who have crossed a boundary in terms of levels of hope and time perspective. This study draws upon two fields, philosophy and psychology. The philosophical framework traces its roots back to American pragmatism and Alfred North Whitehead’s Process Philosophy. The second set of theories proposed for investigation came from the relatively recent empirical endeavor known as positive psychology. Specifically, I tested the construct validity and predictive utility of hope and time perspective as predictors of academic time management and academic outcomes in a Japanese sample. The participants were 467 students attending one of the largest private universities in Japan. Several instruments were used to measure the relationship between hope and time perspective as independent variables and self-reported academic outcomes. The instruments were the Hope Disposition Survey, the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, self-reported TOEIC and GPA scores, and the Vocabulary Size Test. The research design was a quantitative and qualitative mixed-methods research plan. Two relatively recent constructs from the area of positive psychology research known as hope theory (a goal-oriented construct) and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory were utilized for empirical investigation. The use of a mixed-method research design allowed this study to add to our knowledge of the roles of hope and time management in goal directed behavior. The analytical tools included the Rasch model, confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), structural equation modeling (SEM), and latent growth curve modeling (LGM). The qualitative analysis was a phenomenological investigation (similar to a case study) into the relationship between affect, cognition, and motivation utilizing a Process Philosophy framework. Results of the Rasch and CFA indicated that hope and time perspective were viable constructs for this sample. The hope SEM results indicated that hope had a positive relationship with academic outcomes as hypothesized. The time perspective SEM indicated that future time perspective had a positive relationship and that present-hedonism had a negative relationship with academic behavior as hypothesized. LGM results indicated that study time management had a non-linear relationship with the academic calendar. Both sets of results must be considered with caution due to a design flaw in the data collection instruments and high levels of attrition for the LGMs. Finally, the interview results indicated that students in the sample were extrinsically motivated by situational variables such as professor signals of how to, how much, when to, and what to study and that transitions from secondary to tertiary level studies were difficult for students with low levels of hope. The results were interpreted to suggest that levels of student engagement in the sample were at a less than desirable level when compared to OECD or North American university expectations. However, results were considered to be generally supportive of hope and time perspective theory. / Applied Linguistics

Esta es una investigación de Filosofía de la Educación. Expone los "núcleos fundamentales" o "ejes de sentido" que constituyen la identidad del educador, que se agrupan en cuatro partes: 1) el profesor como mediador moral en el proceso de enseñanza; 2) el problema antropológico y axiológico del proceso de enseñanza; 3) la cuestión de la profesionalidad del educador; y 4) educador y sociedad (la función social del educador). Analiza los "núcleos fundamentales" de la educación en las "fuentes" del pensamiento educativo, en concreto: Platón, Plutarco, Clemente de Alejandría, San Agustín, Montaigne, Luis Vives, Locke, Rousseau y Giner de los Ríos, y contrasta las conclusiones con las teorías educativas que influyen en nuestro sistema educativo. El propósito fundamental de esta investigación es clarificar los fines de la educación y reconstruir la identidad de la educación, intentando superar las tres perspectivas -psicología, economía o política- que más influencia tienen hoy en día. / This is research on the Philosophy of Education. It shows the "basic keystones" or "core meanings" of the teacher´s identity. The author develops the idea along these four lines: 1) teacher as moral mediator in the teaching process; 2) the problem of the anthropological and axiological of the teaching process; 3) the problem of teacher´s professionalism; 4) teacher and society (teacher´s social concern). This study develops these core meanings in the sources of educational thought, specifically: Plato, Plutarch, Clement of Alexandria, Augustin, Joan Lluis Vives, Montaigne, Locke, Rousseau, Giner de los Ríos, and compare their conclusions with educational views which influence on our education established order. The fundamental purpose of this research is brings to light the education aims and reconstruct teacher´s identity. And it pretends to go beyond the three most frequently held views in pedagogical discourse today: psychology, economy and policy.