All school systems throughout the country serve students referred to as at risk. Research documents that these students are at a greater risk of dropping out of school due to characteristics that contribute to school disengagement. By exploring the perspectives of male inmates aged 18-30 regarding their educational experiences, this study's data illuminated how school personnel and the schooling process may theoretically contribute to negative outcomes such as incarceration. The focus of the study was to identify commonalities and phenomena in relation to educational experiences, school engagement levels, deviant behavior, and school staff-student interactions as related to the at-risk student population. Interviews of a sample group of prisoners were utilized to gather rich data from their experiences. A qualitative/phenomenological research method was employed. This study introduced a revised and expanded term to replace the at-risk term when describing students who are at risk of school failure. This new term is COPE (Children Of Promise in Education). The acronym COPEr will be used when referring to the individual student who is at promise for academic success. COPErs will be used when referring to multiple students of promise for academic success. Six themes emerged from the data analysis. The six themes were as follows: characteristics of the respondents as k-12 students, student-staff interaction, engagement, disengagement, negative outcomes, and reflection and advice. An analysis of the themes is represented by quotes from the study's participants. This analysis allowed for the emergence of data that substantively contributes to the gap in the literature pertaining to a continued need for qualitative research examining the schooling experiences of at-risk youth, juvenile delinquents, high school dropouts, and, as in this study, inmates. Few studies have examined the perspectives of inmates regarding their schooling experiences. Most research regarding inmates has examined correctional education within the prison system. After the findings of the study are revealed, the implications of the study are presented. Implications for school staff and student development through communication and positive interaction are addressed. Suggestions for future research related to positive academic and social development of COPErs in the educational system are suggested.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore Dakota Aboriginal caregivers' involvement in their children's education. The needs of Aboriginal parents, who may share different perspectives regarding the purposes of education, have been ignored historically because of North American assimilation policies. Thus, listening respectfully to the voices of the Wahpeton Dakota caregivers and understanding their involvement in their children's education has been the intent of this research. Qualitative research techniques were used to elicit narratives through semi-structured interviews. The participants in this research were able to reflect back to their childhood educational experiences- traditional and formal- and accept the sometimes troubled experiences that their education provided. Resilience prevailed, as the Aboriginal parents and care givers in this study envisioned a positive future for their own children.<p> The participants' narratives reflected similar, yet different expectations for "formal" education. In mainstream research literature, when educators define parent/care giver involvement, the ideal parent has been described as somehow directly involved in the school setting. This thesis challenges that perception and creates a different understanding of education for Wahpeton caregivers and its relevance to their children's lives. The Wahpeton parents and caregivers saw education as much more than academics. This viewpoint has the potential to provide a much more balanced, inclusive education process for our Aboriginal children.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore Dakota Aboriginal caregivers' involvement in their children's education. The needs of Aboriginal parents, who may share different perspectives regarding the purposes of education, have been ignored historically because of North American assimilation policies. Thus, listening respectfully to the voices of the Wahpeton Dakota caregivers and understanding their involvement in their children's education has been the intent of this research. Qualitative research techniques were used to elicit narratives through semi-structured interviews. The participants in this research were able to reflect back to their childhood educational experiences- traditional and formal- and accept the sometimes troubled experiences that their education provided. Resilience prevailed, as the Aboriginal parents and care givers in this study envisioned a positive future for their own children.<p> The participants' narratives reflected similar, yet different expectations for "formal" education. In mainstream research literature, when educators define parent/care giver involvement, the ideal parent has been described as somehow directly involved in the school setting. This thesis challenges that perception and creates a different understanding of education for Wahpeton caregivers and its relevance to their children's lives. The Wahpeton parents and caregivers saw education as much more than academics. This viewpoint has the potential to provide a much more balanced, inclusive education process for our Aboriginal children.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo acompanhar, através do método da cartografia, a infância e as experiências educacionais de uma criança surda através de imagens produzidas e escolhidas por ela em uma escola de surdos, uma escola infantil comum e no contexto onde vive com sua família. Articulo o método da cartografia a noções do campo dos Estudos Culturais e dos Estudos Surdos para problematizar a infância e a produção de identidades e da diferença surda. A cartografia é um estudo das relações de forças que compõem um campo específico de experiências, não dependendo de um plano a executar, de um conjunto de competências a adquirir ou de uma lista de habilidades a aplicar em determinado campo pelo pesquisador. A cartografia tem a primazia do encontro, de fazer “falar aquilo que ainda não se encontrava na esfera do já sabido, acessar a experiência de cada um, fazer conexões, descobrir a leitura, a brincadeira, os elos e tudo que vive no cruzamento e nas franjas desses territórios existenciais.” (BARROS e KASTRUP, 2010, p.61). A cartografia é, portanto, uma prática que acompanha um processo. Durante o meu processo investigativo, busquei aproximações com os campos da filosofia e da infância para pensar sobre o pensar, para que possamos olhar de diferentes formas e lugares a infância e a surdez, para talvez reescrever o que já foi pensado e dito na e sobre a educação das crianças surdas. A partir da análise do material empírico, foi possível perceber que a criança surda, para ser criança, subverte a ordem do que é “melhor para a criança surda” a partir da necessidade de ir à escola, onde tem suas refeições garantidas, sua higiene, o cuidado e o educar, estes tão intrínsecos, específicos da educação infantil. Acredito que a educação da infância surda deve acontecer com pares surdos, em uma escola de surdos, mas para isso é preciso fazer alguns deslocamentos, como olhar para a infância, tanto quanto se olha para a surdez, e que a criança não participe dessa escola apenas para ter atendimento educacional especializado para aprender a língua de sinais durante algumas poucas horas na semana. Poderíamos pensá-la primando pela educação do fazer pensar e do conhecimento, onde se tem potência de ser criança e potência para viver a identidade surda, porque o que somos é resultado não somente do que fazemos, mas também do que nos passa e do que experimentamos. Estamos todos, o tempo todo, em processo, em obra na produção de outras formas de existência. / This dissertation aims to follow the childhood and educational experiences of deaf children through the images produced and chosen by them in a deaf school, a regular nursery school and where they live with their family based on the method of cartography. This method is articulated with the concepts of Cultural and Deaf Studies to discuss the childhood and the production of identities and of the deaf diversity. Cartography is a study of power relations that makes up a particular field of experience, not depending on a plan to carry out, a set of skills to acquire or of a list of skills to apply in a particular field by the researcher. It emphasizes the gathering, the allowance to "speak what was not yet in the sphere of the already known, to access the experience of each individual, making connections, discovering reading, playing, the links and everything that lies at the intersection and on the fringes of these existential territories. " (BARROS e KASTRUP, 2010, p.61). Cartography is therefore a practice that goes hand in hand with a process. During this research process, the approximations with the fields of philosophy and childhood were sought to reflect about thinking, so that one can look from different perspectives and places at childhood and deafness, perhaps to rewrite what was already thought and said in and about the education of deaf children. The analysis of the empirical data shows that deaf children, to be children, subvert the order of what is "best for the deaf child" starting from the need to go to school, that provides their meals, hygiene the care and education, which are such intrinsic, specific aspects of child education. It is our belief that the education of deaf children should happen among deaf children in a deaf school, but for that it is necessary to make some displacements, such as looking at childhood as much as at deafness, and that the child will not attend this school just to have special classes to learn sign language for a couple of hours a week. It is possible to think of striving for an education that stimulates thinking and learning, in which one has the power to be a child and the power to live deaf identity because what we are is not only a result of what we do, but also what and how we experience it. We are all in constant process, working in the production of other existence forms.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo acompanhar, através do método da cartografia, a infância e as experiências educacionais de uma criança surda através de imagens produzidas e escolhidas por ela em uma escola de surdos, uma escola infantil comum e no contexto onde vive com sua família. Articulo o método da cartografia a noções do campo dos Estudos Culturais e dos Estudos Surdos para problematizar a infância e a produção de identidades e da diferença surda. A cartografia é um estudo das relações de forças que compõem um campo específico de experiências, não dependendo de um plano a executar, de um conjunto de competências a adquirir ou de uma lista de habilidades a aplicar em determinado campo pelo pesquisador. A cartografia tem a primazia do encontro, de fazer “falar aquilo que ainda não se encontrava na esfera do já sabido, acessar a experiência de cada um, fazer conexões, descobrir a leitura, a brincadeira, os elos e tudo que vive no cruzamento e nas franjas desses territórios existenciais.” (BARROS e KASTRUP, 2010, p.61). A cartografia é, portanto, uma prática que acompanha um processo. Durante o meu processo investigativo, busquei aproximações com os campos da filosofia e da infância para pensar sobre o pensar, para que possamos olhar de diferentes formas e lugares a infância e a surdez, para talvez reescrever o que já foi pensado e dito na e sobre a educação das crianças surdas. A partir da análise do material empírico, foi possível perceber que a criança surda, para ser criança, subverte a ordem do que é “melhor para a criança surda” a partir da necessidade de ir à escola, onde tem suas refeições garantidas, sua higiene, o cuidado e o educar, estes tão intrínsecos, específicos da educação infantil. Acredito que a educação da infância surda deve acontecer com pares surdos, em uma escola de surdos, mas para isso é preciso fazer alguns deslocamentos, como olhar para a infância, tanto quanto se olha para a surdez, e que a criança não participe dessa escola apenas para ter atendimento educacional especializado para aprender a língua de sinais durante algumas poucas horas na semana. Poderíamos pensá-la primando pela educação do fazer pensar e do conhecimento, onde se tem potência de ser criança e potência para viver a identidade surda, porque o que somos é resultado não somente do que fazemos, mas também do que nos passa e do que experimentamos. Estamos todos, o tempo todo, em processo, em obra na produção de outras formas de existência. / This dissertation aims to follow the childhood and educational experiences of deaf children through the images produced and chosen by them in a deaf school, a regular nursery school and where they live with their family based on the method of cartography. This method is articulated with the concepts of Cultural and Deaf Studies to discuss the childhood and the production of identities and of the deaf diversity. Cartography is a study of power relations that makes up a particular field of experience, not depending on a plan to carry out, a set of skills to acquire or of a list of skills to apply in a particular field by the researcher. It emphasizes the gathering, the allowance to "speak what was not yet in the sphere of the already known, to access the experience of each individual, making connections, discovering reading, playing, the links and everything that lies at the intersection and on the fringes of these existential territories. " (BARROS e KASTRUP, 2010, p.61). Cartography is therefore a practice that goes hand in hand with a process. During this research process, the approximations with the fields of philosophy and childhood were sought to reflect about thinking, so that one can look from different perspectives and places at childhood and deafness, perhaps to rewrite what was already thought and said in and about the education of deaf children. The analysis of the empirical data shows that deaf children, to be children, subvert the order of what is "best for the deaf child" starting from the need to go to school, that provides their meals, hygiene the care and education, which are such intrinsic, specific aspects of child education. It is our belief that the education of deaf children should happen among deaf children in a deaf school, but for that it is necessary to make some displacements, such as looking at childhood as much as at deafness, and that the child will not attend this school just to have special classes to learn sign language for a couple of hours a week. It is possible to think of striving for an education that stimulates thinking and learning, in which one has the power to be a child and the power to live deaf identity because what we are is not only a result of what we do, but also what and how we experience it. We are all in constant process, working in the production of other existence forms.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo acompanhar, através do método da cartografia, a infância e as experiências educacionais de uma criança surda através de imagens produzidas e escolhidas por ela em uma escola de surdos, uma escola infantil comum e no contexto onde vive com sua família. Articulo o método da cartografia a noções do campo dos Estudos Culturais e dos Estudos Surdos para problematizar a infância e a produção de identidades e da diferença surda. A cartografia é um estudo das relações de forças que compõem um campo específico de experiências, não dependendo de um plano a executar, de um conjunto de competências a adquirir ou de uma lista de habilidades a aplicar em determinado campo pelo pesquisador. A cartografia tem a primazia do encontro, de fazer “falar aquilo que ainda não se encontrava na esfera do já sabido, acessar a experiência de cada um, fazer conexões, descobrir a leitura, a brincadeira, os elos e tudo que vive no cruzamento e nas franjas desses territórios existenciais.” (BARROS e KASTRUP, 2010, p.61). A cartografia é, portanto, uma prática que acompanha um processo. Durante o meu processo investigativo, busquei aproximações com os campos da filosofia e da infância para pensar sobre o pensar, para que possamos olhar de diferentes formas e lugares a infância e a surdez, para talvez reescrever o que já foi pensado e dito na e sobre a educação das crianças surdas. A partir da análise do material empírico, foi possível perceber que a criança surda, para ser criança, subverte a ordem do que é “melhor para a criança surda” a partir da necessidade de ir à escola, onde tem suas refeições garantidas, sua higiene, o cuidado e o educar, estes tão intrínsecos, específicos da educação infantil. Acredito que a educação da infância surda deve acontecer com pares surdos, em uma escola de surdos, mas para isso é preciso fazer alguns deslocamentos, como olhar para a infância, tanto quanto se olha para a surdez, e que a criança não participe dessa escola apenas para ter atendimento educacional especializado para aprender a língua de sinais durante algumas poucas horas na semana. Poderíamos pensá-la primando pela educação do fazer pensar e do conhecimento, onde se tem potência de ser criança e potência para viver a identidade surda, porque o que somos é resultado não somente do que fazemos, mas também do que nos passa e do que experimentamos. Estamos todos, o tempo todo, em processo, em obra na produção de outras formas de existência. / This dissertation aims to follow the childhood and educational experiences of deaf children through the images produced and chosen by them in a deaf school, a regular nursery school and where they live with their family based on the method of cartography. This method is articulated with the concepts of Cultural and Deaf Studies to discuss the childhood and the production of identities and of the deaf diversity. Cartography is a study of power relations that makes up a particular field of experience, not depending on a plan to carry out, a set of skills to acquire or of a list of skills to apply in a particular field by the researcher. It emphasizes the gathering, the allowance to "speak what was not yet in the sphere of the already known, to access the experience of each individual, making connections, discovering reading, playing, the links and everything that lies at the intersection and on the fringes of these existential territories. " (BARROS e KASTRUP, 2010, p.61). Cartography is therefore a practice that goes hand in hand with a process. During this research process, the approximations with the fields of philosophy and childhood were sought to reflect about thinking, so that one can look from different perspectives and places at childhood and deafness, perhaps to rewrite what was already thought and said in and about the education of deaf children. The analysis of the empirical data shows that deaf children, to be children, subvert the order of what is "best for the deaf child" starting from the need to go to school, that provides their meals, hygiene the care and education, which are such intrinsic, specific aspects of child education. It is our belief that the education of deaf children should happen among deaf children in a deaf school, but for that it is necessary to make some displacements, such as looking at childhood as much as at deafness, and that the child will not attend this school just to have special classes to learn sign language for a couple of hours a week. It is possible to think of striving for an education that stimulates thinking and learning, in which one has the power to be a child and the power to live deaf identity because what we are is not only a result of what we do, but also what and how we experience it. We are all in constant process, working in the production of other existence forms.

No description available.

The current study explored the relationship between parents perceptions of their childs middle school and parents perceptions of their own school experiences. Additionally, it was important to research how these relationships differed among variables. The variables explored were (1) race, (2) parents own educational backgrounds (level of education), and (3) socio-economic status. Based on scales commonly used in the study of parent involvement, a survey (i.e., Parent Perceptions of Schooling) was developed. The survey consisted of two parts (i.e., Part I, How I Feel About My Childs School and Part II: Parents Own School Experiences Questionnaire) and a demographic section (i.e., Part III: Demographic Information). The first two parts were divided into factors or subscales (i.e., Part I: Information, Participation, and Welcome; Part II: Teachers, Parents, Self, and School), all of which were found to have high internal consistency and reliability. The survey was administered to parents of middle school children at a middle school in Pasco County, Florida. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that none of the predictor variables significantly predicted the dependant variables. However, significant correlations emerged between (1) Information and Race-Other; (2) Information and Level of Education; (3) Participation and Level of Education; (4) Teachers and Race-Hispanic; (5) Teachers and SES; (6) Self and Level of Education; (7) School and Level of Education; and (8) School and SES. Additionally seven significant correlations were found when taking into consideration interaction affects of predictor, dependant, and moderator variables. Limitations to this study and survey research in general are discussed, as well as future directions.

Adolescent survivors of childhood cancer are a growing population with unique needs as they face a combination of challenges associated with normal development and returning to life after treatment completion (Wakefield et al., 2010). One specific need identified in the research literature includes the effective delivery of transitional care and planning (Hewitt, Greenfield, & Stovall, 2005). It has been suggested that the provision of transition care and planning can help facilitate the shift from one phase of care to another and promote positive transition experiences (National Cancer Institute, 2008). The shift from off-treatment to post-treatment and school reintegration have been identified in the literature as significant transitions for adolescent survivors of childhood cancer (Cabat & Shafer, 2002; MacLean, Foley, Ruccione, & Sklar, 1996). However, limited research has been conducted to explore these transitions from the perspectives of adolescent survivors of childhood cancer. An exploratory, qualitative study was conducted with eight adolescent survivors of childhood cancer between the ages of 14 and 17. A multiple case study research design was used to explore adolescent cancer survivors' perceptions of these transition processes, challenges associated with these transitions, and their beliefs about what supports/services were or would be beneficial during these transitions. Data collected for analysis included questionnaires, transcribed interviews and follow-up meetings, direct observation, documents, and parent feedback. These data were analyzed using a combination of a template organizing style, immersion/crystallization (I/C) approach, and multiple case study strategies (Borkan, 1999; Crabtree & Miller, 1999, Stake, 2005; Yin, 2008). Results indicated that adolescents perceived that change was occurring on some level during the shift from off-treatment to post-treatment and school reintegration but did not necessarily define this time as a "transition." They defined these times in personalized terms that reflected more subtle changes in their lives. The focus was placed on returning to a sense of "normalcy" and capitalizing on opportunities to regain some control over one's life. The improvement and/or absence of treatment residuals along with re-engagement in activities and roles served as signs, or indicators, that life was returning back to "normal" and provided feedback to the adolescent on their transition progress. Conversely, the presence of these signs continued to impact their lives as they restricted participation in desired activities and served as reminders that the effects of cancer and treatment extended beyond treatment completion. In addition to the presence of treatment residuals, fear of relapse also was a concern associated with the transition from off to post-treatment. However, adolescents tended not to let this be the focus of their lives. School reintegration challenges included disruption of school life and routines as well as academic and social concerns. Academic challenges included falling behind/catching up with work, maintaining motivation to do work, and readjusting to school demands and routines. Social challenges included answering peer questions, adjusting to peer awkwardness/discomfort, and managing peer reactions to their physical side effects. These challenges were not perceived by adolescents as sources of significant distress and, often times, they adapted and employed coping strategies to address these concerns in the school setting. Adolescents also varied in their perceived need for transitional care and support during these transitions. Support received during the shift from off-treatment to post-treatment included advice from health care team members as well as relationships with peer cancer survivors across school, community, hospital, and camp settings. They received a variety of academic and social support during school reintegration. Teachers, family members, and peers provided academic support across home, hospital, and school settings. Teachers were a particularly important source of academic assistance. Accommodations and modifications also were provided to these adolescents at school. Peers, teachers, and other school staff provided social support. Based on the findings of the study, suggestions for future research and practical implications are offered.

No description available.