Four elementary teachers were interviewed in a qualitative study to determine how gender was reflected in their thinking. All four teachers, three female and one male, had been at their job for 20 to 25 years and were designated by their colleagues as sensitive to issues of gender in the classroom. They grew up in the 1950's when gender roles were rigidly defined and were young adults when the women's movement began to challenge the traditional roles of women and men in society. During the past decade these teachers worked in an area in which gender equity training and resources were readily available. Although there were no references made by the teachers to the cultural changes that occurred during their earlier years or to the current emphasis on gender equity in education, the data did indicate three ways that gender was reflected in the teachers' conversations. Sometimes it was implied. At other times, although gender issues were explicitly described, they were not identified as relating to gender. There were also instances in their interviews where the teachers directly described bow gender issues affected them or their students.

This study compares children's friendship quality in after-school programs and regular school day classrooms. Participants were drawn from ten after-school program sites and a control group from ten elementary school classrooms. Three hundred and thirty six children in grades three, four and five were asked to describe their friendship experiences by identifying their friends using a program or class roster and completing a questionnaire about the quality of their very best friendship. Friendship quality information was compared in six areas: companionship and recreation, validation and caring, help and guidance, intimate disclosure, conflict resolution, and conflict and betrayal. Findings showed a significance difference in the quality of friendships based on student age, gender, friendship level and whether the student attended an after-school program. Results supported the hypothesis that students in high-quality after-school programs have higher quality friendships than children in low quality programs. Findings did not support the hypothesis that children in after-school programs have higher quality friendships than children who do not participate in after-school programs. Preliminary evidence suggests that after-school programs have both a higher number of children with challenging behaviors and a higher number of children who receive special education services as compared to school day classrooms. This difference in population may account for the friendship quality difference between the after-school program group and the control group.

In this dissertation, I explore a different concept in program evaluation. There is little literature on using evaluation research as a tool for social justice. The Oppression Evaluation Approach I am introducing is about an alternative method in conducting program evaluation under dominant political conditions, simply dealing with the ethical question: whose side are the evaluators on? The study is based on the experiences of environmental activists in Sudan who have worked under oppressive environments for decades, and how this reflected on the microenvironment of projects run by authoritative managements. The purpose of this study was: (1) To critically review the concept of educational evaluation, with a focus on areas that are not usually tackled, e.g., evaluation abuse. I introduce a number of illegitimate purposes for doing program evaluations in addition to the ones cited in the U.S.A evaluation literature. I also highlight major contemporary models and approaches, which have emerged during the past three decades. (2) To introduce a new approach or model, tentatively called Oppression Evaluation, to develop its theoretical framework based on my experience with evaluation projects in the Third World. I accomplished this and introduced the distinct characteristics of this approach (pre-starting conditions, evaluators' role, covert agenda, power relationships, type of data, risk factors, etc.). This was a major achievement of this research. (3) To explore similarities and differences of this approach in two environmental social justice projects in Sudan and Massachusetts, using a comparative case study design. The key findings were similar methods used in both cases, even with different political environments, due to the shared environmental vision by the two organizations. The adopted methodology in this research was qualitative, focusing on detailed descriptions of the two case studies. I relied on my role in the Sudanese case on reviewing its literature and documents, and introducing a distinguished data gathering technique that is used among left movement in Sudan, and called “Zameel Network.” In the second case, I gathered data via email, media documentation, in-depth interviews, direct and participant-observation, and photography.

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Career and technical education (CTE) has been a contested area with mixed study results and conflicting theories. Adding to the controversy is the fact that various types of CTE programs are implemented in diverse ways, which creates challenges for researchers to conduct empirical studies and program evaluations about CTE policies and programs on a large scale. In order to contribute to the current understanding of CTE, this study focuses on students’ participation in career education in one of the largest school districts in Florida. It examines the quantity and the types of CTE courses that students take. It also explores potential factors that can possibly influence students’ CTE course-taking pattern and their concentration on career clusters with different expected economic returns. Results from descriptive statistics and regression analysis indicate that students take increasingly smaller proportion of high school credits in CTE courses, but more and more students take significant amount of CTE credits from one career cluster as CTE concentrators. Disadvantaged students are less likely to be CTE concentrators, but if they do, they all tend to concentrate on occupations with better payment than their counterparts. More studies are needed that track students into labor market and examine how different CTE course-taking can potentially lead to different employment opportunities and incomes. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / 2019 / November 12, 2019. / Career and Technical Education, Career Clusters, CTE Course-taking / Includes bibliographical references. / Patrice Iatarola, Professor Directing Dissertation; Anastasia Semykina, University Representative; Jeffrey Milligan, Committee Member; Stacey Rutledge, Committee Member.

The male to female gender gap in higher education continues to average around 40% to 60%. This is a significant societal statistic that will continue to define generations to come and influence the demographics of the workforce and social roles. This Conflict Resolution study strove to find an answer to what are the societal influences impacting male enrollment in a community college in southwest Florida and to explore the role of conflict in prospective male students’ decision-making related to higher education. This question was broken down into sub-areas involving gender roles and society. The study was conducted using a grounded theory approach with an intensive interviewing style. From a larger group of potential interviewees, 17 volunteer participants were selected. The selected participants were enrolled at a southwest Florida community college. As with a grounded theory study, initial coding was used to study fragments of data. This was followed by the second phase of focused coding. During the focused coding phase, the most significant and/or frequent codes were used to sift through and analyze large amounts of data. Memo writing was used to help informally track and chart the important records and data findings thus far in the research process. This study will help high school and college administrators better understand how young males can be better prepared to make a decision to go to college or how to skillfully identify another path to a meaningful life after high school without the conflict of societal views.

It was the investigator's concern to discover 1) to what extent the selected sixteen Iranian middle-class social and moral values were present in the content of the elementary reading textbooks currently used in Iran, 2) with what frequency and level of intensity the values were presented, and 3) was there a time-ordered developmental sequence of the identified social and moral values from lower to upper grade levels? The purpose of the study was to collect data from the seven elementary reading textbooks which have been published by the Ministry of Education of the Government of Iran and are used by all children attending school.

The student affairs profession places considerable emphasis on the values of diversity, inclusiveness, and social justice as part of its mission to foster the holistic development of college students. Many vocal conservative critics point to these values as evidence of the liberal worldview that they claim dominates the higher education landscape. This critical, phenomenological study was designed around the premise that higher education, and, specifically, student affairs, is characterized by a liberal ideology that privileges those in the profession who identify as liberal. The study explored the perceptions and experiences of 12 self-identified conservative student affairs professionals in order to better understand the nature and impact of the hegemony that operates within the field. The findings then served as the basis for a deconstruction of the lived ideology of the profession. The premise of the study was affirmed by the experiences of many of the participants. Intent aside, majority status alone appears to confer certain privileges on liberals, allowing them to speak or act in ways that leave some conservatives feeling devalued and marginalized. The study identifies specific manifestations of liberal privilege, as well as a variety of strategies used by participants to respond and/or cope. The study findings reveal that participants differed considerably in how, and to what degree, they experienced student affairs as a hegemonic culture. Possible reasons for this are discussed, along with recommendations and avenues for further inquiry.

Researchers have identified the transition from middle to high school as a critical point in teenagers' educational development. Despite sweeping educational reforms, many students are leaving high school without graduating. Local school districts are struggling to redesign high schools to provide the educational programs necessary for at-risk students' success. Creating smaller learning communities and developing transition programs have shown success in addressing these problems. Sustained research shows promise in minimizing the effects of the transition process and adds to the body of knowledge. A case study approach using archival data was used to explore the differences in three Bearcat "PRIDE" treatment groups and their 8th (pre-treatment) and 9th (post-treatment) grade measures. Results of this study suggested students who participated in the Bearcat "PRIDE" program showed greater success in academic performance, reduced disciplinary actions, increased school attendance, and participation in extra-curricular activities of their 8th (pre-treatment) and 9th (post-treatment) grade measures.