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<p> When researchers and policy makers look toward teacher issues, the focus is typically on novice teachers who are at considerable risk of leaving the profession prematurely. Without dismissing the importance of these teachers, a crucial population of educators is often overlooked: the experienced teacher. These teachers face many of the same challenges as beginning teachers, and must do so over a long and relatively flat career trajectory. As the state of California looks to recruit a new generation of teachers to meet the demands of a growing population, it would be wise to also look for ways to keep experienced teachers engaged, fresh, and motivated. Research has shown that mentoring and other professional development opportunities can help as a means of giving back to the teaching profession. Thus, policymakers and education leaders have an opportunity to utilize existing teacher training program infrastructure to address multiple challenges with singular programmatic solutions. </p><p> The purpose of this cross-sectional survey study was to examine the impact of mentoring and co-teaching within a specialized induction program on the motivation of experienced teachers who served as mentors to beginning teachers while also gaining a glimpse of their interest in participating in a program of this nature. A conceptual framework blending mentoring program assessment and motivation theories guided the development of a survey instrument designed to measure experienced teacher motivation as it relates to their perceptions of the quality of programmatic elements of the induction program. The sample population included 199 mentor-teachers within a large urban California school district, from whom 56 valid responses were recorded. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p>

<p> A majority of the nation&rsquo;s military-connected dependents attend civilian public schools, yet there are pervasive inconsistencies in support programs and policies across schools (De Pedro, Astor, Gilreath, Benbenishty, &amp; Esqueda, 2013). High mobility rates present several challenges to children of military Service members, such as learning gaps, social and emotional difficulties, and challenges forming relationships with peers and school personnel (Astor, Jacobson, &amp; Benbenishty, 2012). This study examined how military-connected adolescents bridged their multiple military and civilian worlds in the school context. The theoretical foundations of the study included the Bridging Multiple Worlds (BMW) (Cooper, 2014) model and Social Network theory. The BMW design investigated military-connected adolescents&rsquo; perceived challenges and strengths of belonging to a military cultural community along with how they accessed resources for overcoming those challenges. Social Capital and Social Network theory situated developmental processes in a socialized context highlighting how interpersonal relationships shape development (Bourdieu, 1986; Daly, Moolenaar, Bolivar, &amp; Burke, 2010). Focus groups revealed participants faced many of the typical challenges facing military-connected youth. They also perceived many of those challenges as having promoted positive developmental outcomes: social skills, resilience, and adaptability. Social networks, friendship networks and support networks, played an important role in overcoming the challenges of navigating their military and civilian worlds. Findings indicated differences in academic outcomes (GPA) between military and civilian participants, as well as between enlisted and officer participants. Findings also indicated different social network patterns between enlisted participants and officer participants. The rich history of military support within the local community and school environment may have influenced how military participants integrated into the whole eighth-grade friendship network. This study sought to fill the research gap by accurately representing the social and educational needs and circumstances of military-connected adolescents in a military-dense civilian middle school and to help educators create highly supportive environments for military-connected adolescents in civilian schools.</p>

<p> The inclusion of social and emotional learning (SEL) in schools is becoming a pertinent topic in the field of education. Teachers and administrators are recognizing a need to support students&rsquo; social and emotional growth alongside their academics. Young adolescents in grades 6 &ndash; 8 are in a developmental stage during which the acquisition of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills could be particularly beneficial and supportive to their ability to lead healthy lives. In this project-based thesis, the author based her research on the question; how are North Carolina (NC) public schools supporting the social and emotional development of their middle school students? This question was formulated in order to support the project of this thesis, the creation of a development plan for a public charter middle school in NC that focuses on social and emotional learning. The research method utilized in this study was grounded theory as developed by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss (1967). Data was collected through a survey sent to public middle schools across NC and through interviews conducted with school administrators. Constant comparative analysis was the process through which all of the data was analyzed. Results of this research found that 80% of the surveyed schools implement SEL programming and the majority of those schools believe SEL to positively affect many facets of their school including academic success of the students, physical and emotional safety, and the relationship between the students and teachers. Strategies the participating schools used to implement SEL programming were also discovered in this study. These consist of having distinct lessons on SEL topics and skills, integrating parts of SEL throughout the entire school, use of mentoring, inclusion of aspects of SEL in student discipline, having programming meet the unique needs of the school, and evaluating the students&rsquo; progression in SEL. Results of this study also indicated several design elements of SEL programming, which include having SEL be a united effort of all faculty and administration, providing teachers with support, sharing responsibility for the programming with the students, and allocating sufficient time to SEL programming. The findings of this study have been used by the author to inform the creation of the school development plan included in this thesis. By adding to the discussion of how to provide SEL to middle school students in NC, this study can be a resource to any educator in the process of developing SEL programming for their students.</p>

The primary objective of the study is to examine whether teachers view mentoring as an inherently contrived or collaborative enterprise. Drawing upon a micro-political framework, this study examines the relationships between contrived and collaborative collegial relationships (Hargreaves, 1991), utilizing data from a mentor teacher program in a large Southwestern district. Teacher collegiality has not been viewed within the context of shifting power relationships between teachers and administrators. Some researchers (Conley, Bas-Isaac, & Scull, in press; Hargreaves, 1991) have maintained that while some teacher collegiality mechanisms may be teacher-driven and reflect genuine teacher collaboration, others are contrived and aimed more toward promoting administrative efficiency and gaining greater control over teachers' work. The critical question is whether peer mentoring systems, such as a formalized mentoring component of a Career Ladder program, which are inherently contrived, are capable of generating teacher collaboration. The results suggest that collaborative and contrived collegiality may be complementary relationships, that is, teachers can meet their own needs and interests in what on the surface is a contrived setting.

The purpose of this study was to describe the views of peer evaluators within a career ladder system in one school district in the Southwestern United States. The methods and data analysis used 3 parts of a theoretical framework developed by Lortie (1975): goals sought in the workplace (perspectives on purpose), effective teaching (and the effects of endemic uncertainties of teaching to effectiveness), and preferences in job tasks (logic of sentiments). Eleven peer evaluators were interviewed. The data from the interviews were qualitatively analyzed and presented. Among the findings, peer evaluators' perspectives on purpose included goals to gain experience for leaving the classroom. Peer evaluators' endemic uncertainties included the assessment of teaching and the description of an effective teacher. Within peer evaluators' logic of sentiments, they preferred to observe students and work with teachers. Peer evaluators disliked determining the compensation of teachers. Within their logic of sentiments, peer evaluators viewed teachers as a well-qualified group willing to continue their own professional growth. Peer evaluators found their relationship with teachers constrained because of their roles of assisting teachers in their professional growth and summatively assessing teachers. Implications of this study include the need for further study to describe the views of teachers involved in differentiated staffing in career ladder programs. Additionally, further study is needed to determine the relationship of the views of teachers within a career ladder program to the success of the policies and activities of these programs.

<p> The purpose of this study was to compare the work ethic attitudes and behaviors of entering Ethos freshmen to students who were about to graduate. Data was collected by two means, first by using the Multidimensional Work Ethic Profile (MWEP) instrument and the second by analyzing existing work ethic grades issued by faculty. The dependent variables were the seven dimensions of work ethic in the MWEP and the five Ethos work ethic traits. The population for this study consisted of members of the freshman and graduating classes from the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years. A purposive sample was taken from work ethic surveys and the work ethic grades of the selected college students, comprising a sample believed to be representative of the total population. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the results and to determine whether there was a significant difference between the means of freshmen and graduates&rsquo; self-assessments. Similar methods were used to analyze and report any differences in the means of freshman and graduate work ethic grades awarded by faculty. </p><p> Results should be considered baseline information for Ethos College leadership to consider and to improve upon. Recommendations for future study include replicating this study for present and future classes, to look for trends in work ethic as curriculum develops and evolves. The overarching research question was, does the teaching and methodology at Ethos improve the work ethic of its students? Student survey data and the faculty-awarded work ethic grades were used to determine if there was value added from the training provided by Ethos leadership and faculty. The Ethos Board of Trustees, President, Office of Education, Academic Dean, and the Vice President of Education, the college&rsquo;s chief academic officer, were accountable for providing quality educational processes in all areas of education at the college. There were mixed results in the evidence that the college was successful in this important discipline impacting student-learning outcomes.</p>

This dissertation is a critical examination of education via what I have termed the 'educational enterprise' run by Anglican Christian missions in north India c.1880-1915. It will focus in particular on the Gangetic plain, parts of Bengal, the Punjab and Central Provinces. The example of the United Provinces will be used to give context to missionary- Government relations, but will engage with arguments in upper and eastern India (especially Bengal) which are relevant to this research. The network of schools, their aims, orientation, and the degrees to which they were dependent upon Indian agency will all be considered. The first chapter begins with a review of the literature on colonial knowledge and Christian missions, and gives a brief review of religious debate and discourse in pre-British India. It then establishes the Protestant Christian theological context of the early-mid nineteenth century and delineates its development from a pugnacious confrontational one into a positivist and universal theology towards the late nineteenth century. Chapter II establishes the moral and economic context of education in late nineteenth century UP, accounting for religious instruction, the economic rationale for subsidising mission schools, the relationship between the two. It will further define the relationship between missions and Government. Chapter III defines the means and ends of mission schools, considers the degree to which they were dependent upon Indian agency and the impact of religious dialogue upon 'representations' of India. The reception and contestation of both religious and secular knowledge are dealt with in Chapter IV. Indian contestations of Orientalist and Christocentric scholarship receive particular attention. The development of a secular and religiously-plural educational sphere, as a by-product of missionary education, will be investigated in Chapter V. It considers the devaluation of the curriculum, investigates student hostels, Indian nationalism and their contribution to constructive nationalism. The infrastructural shortcomings of education will be addressed in Chapter VI, and ascertain the degree to which the enterprise reproduced Indian, European, and Christian values. Chapter VII will conclude with a review and offer insights into the relationships between Orientalism, religion and colonial Indian society.

<p> Students who are relegated to highly stigmatized, remedial alternative education settings experience forces of school pushout and institutional neglect along their educational and life trajectories. This qualitative research study explores the ways in which former continuation high school students negotiated, made meaning of, and resisted processes of school pushout and broader experiences of institutional neglect. Through life history interviews with recent graduates of a California continuation high school, this study examines the impact of systemic injustice on students&rsquo; educational and life trajectories and highlights the ways in which these students exercise agency and engage in practices of resilient resistance along their path toward high school graduation. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of symbolic violence and Critical Race Theory constructs of student resistance, this study reveals how structures of oppression impact the lives of continuation high school students and illuminates the voices of marginalized students who are seldom heard in the existing body of research.</p>