Global ETD Search

221	Education for Democracy: Mixed Methods Case Studies of Teachers' Critical Thinking Dispositions and Their Teaching Styles Behairy, Maram 06 November 2017 (has links) Democracy does not automatically maintain itself by prescribed constitutions and procedural codes (Dewey, 1939), but rather its citizens must have certain dispositions to protect and strengthen it (Biesta, 2006). According to John Stuart Mill (1859/1991), people can tyrannize one another within the structures of a democracy, a concept he phrased “tyranny of the majority” (p. 7). To safeguard against such tyranny and to maintain a democratic way of life conducive to progress, I contend that our schools must be tasked with developing critical thinking dispositions in our future adults. The literature on education for democracy was reviewed and aligned with the critical thinking dispositions defined in the present study. Critical thinking dispositions are taught through interactions that promote them, not only limited to methods of direct instruction, such that they are infused throughout all academic subjects at all grade levels (Facione, 1990). Therefore, the present study explored the relationship between teachers’ critical thinking dispositions and their teaching styles. The main research question was: How do critical thinking dispositions differentiate between teaching styles? To best answer this question 10 mixed methods case studies were conducted of the teachers at one private pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school. The data were collected through a quantitative questionnaire, the California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory (CCTDI), and through qualitative observations and interviews. Subsequently, each strand, qualitative and quantitative, was analyzed individually and sequentially. Finally, through cross-case analyses, 10 distinctions in teaching styles were found for teachers who scored high on the critical thinking dispositions: truth-seeking to teacher explorer, truth-seeking to student teaching, open-mindedness to student teaching, inquisitiveness to fallibility, analyticity to emotional adaptability, analyticity to fallibility, analyticity to observational listening, systematicity to nurturing, confidence in reasoning to curriculum expansion, and confidence in reasoning to self-actualization. Understanding these relationships is the start of possibly being able to use teachers’ CCTDI profiles to predict teaching styles and to guide teacher education. Implications for future research include more focused studies around the consistent relationships emerging from the present study and research about students’ development of critical thinking dispositions in relation to teaching styles. Critical Thinking Dispositions Critical Thinking Teaching Style Democracy Education for Democracy Mixed Methods Case Study Case Studies Cross-case analysis CCTDI Curriculum and Instruction Curriculum and Social Inquiry Educational Psychology Elementary Education and Teaching Humane Education
222	Decolonial Multiculturalism and Local-global Contexts: A Postcritical Feminist Bricolage for Developing New Praxes in Education Sprecher, Katharine Matthaei 01 August 2011 (has links) This dissertation presents a conceptual bricolage that explores complex, reflexive, and interrelated dimensions of educational praxes. My work is grounded in the assertion that the ever-changing, local-global nature of contemporary societies requires new approaches to curricula, pedagogies, policies, and practices in U.S. schools to meet the challenges and opportunities of a global era. Presenting my research and findings as four articles, I begin with a dialectical analysis of theoretical and pedagogical literatures to develop an adaptable framework for decolonial multicultural education. In Article 1, I demonstrate how this framework synergizes aspects of social reconstructionist and critical multicultural, global, and decolonial educations, while re-emphasizing possibilities for relational learning in local-global classrooms. In Article 2, I examine a unique local-global context: the matriculation of resettled refugee children into host country schools. This project integrates the decolonial multicultural framework with literatures on ecological interventions for refugee students to address grief, trauma, loss, poverty, acculturation, and host culture hostilities. The theoretical frameworks are infused with considerations concerning children’s lived experiences as complex beings rooted in multiple, fluid, and intersecting contexts. In Article 3, I present a pilot case study on students with refugee status who attended a public school in the South. I discuss qualitative data from participant observations and staff interviews. Using the framework I developed in Article 2 for ecological, decolonial multiculturalism, this study discusses the emergent themes of teacher training, ecological interventions, deficit and assimilationist approaches, and hostile school peer relations. Finally, in Article 4 I argue for a shift in the teacher professional role to include systemic support for ongoing teacher research as a way to address the complexity, multiplicity, and reflexivity of local-global classrooms. I propose postcritical ethnography and feminist praxis-based methodologies as tools to help teacher-researchers learn about and respond to their students. My dissertation thus entails four articles interconnected by the theme of decolonial multicultural education, and enriches framework considerations by exploring the local-global contexts of students with refugee status, specific refugee students in a U.S. school, and potential uses of postcritical and feminist qualitative methodologies for decolonial multicultural teacher-researchers. decolonial multicultural refugee education feminist bricolage Curriculum and Instruction Curriculum and Social Inquiry Educational Psychology Educational Sociology Elementary Education and Teaching Inequality and Stratification Other Social and Behavioral Sciences School Psychology Urban Education
223	Ecological Influences on Weight Status in Urban African-American Adolescent Females: A Structural Equation Analysis Stanford, Jevetta 01 January 2012 (has links) The present study employed a quantitative, non-experimental, multivariate correlational research design to test a hypothesized model examining associative paths of influence between ecological factors and weight status of urban, African-American adolescent females. Anthropometric and self-report survey data of 182 urban, African- American adolescent females were collected during after-school programs, health and physical education classes, and community events in an urban area in northeast Florida. Descriptive analyses were conducted to characterize the study participants based upon their age, study setting, and weight status. A scale reliability analysis was conducted to assess the internal consistency reliability of the sample data using selected measures within the context of the study’s specific population and subsequently guided the structural equation model (SEM) analyses. The SEM path analysis was used to develop two measurement models to control for observed error variance for variables demonstrating poor internal consistency reliability (diet behaviors and nutrition selfefficacy) and a final structural model to test the associative paths of influence between latent (diet behaviors and nutrition self-efficacy) and manifest variables (teacher social support and friend social support) on weight status. The results of the path analysis indicated that both teacher social support and friend social support demonstrated a positive, indirect influence on child weight status through nutrition self-efficacy and diet behaviors following two different and specific paths of influence. Diet behaviors, in turn, demonstrated a positive, direct effect on child weight status. These findings provide clear implications for educational leaders that call for the integration of health behavior change theory into traditional education and leadership practice and actively addressing the childhood obesity epidemic in the school environment by implementing health behavior change strategies at various ecological environmental levels. University of North Florida UNF Weight Status Thesis University of North Florida Obesity in adolescence African American teenage girls Adolescent psychology Nutrition Obesity -- prevention & control Food habits -- Social aspects Human behavior -- Nutritional aspects
224	THE AFRICAN AMERICAN AND THE CALIFORNIA BASIC SKILLS REQUIREMENT FOR TEACHING Thomas, Willie C., II 01 January 2022 (has links) This study examines why the passing rates of African Americans on the CBEST are the lowest in California at 60%. Madkins (2011) identified licensure testing as a significant reason why African Americans cannot enter the teaching progression. According to Darling-Hammond et al. (2016), California has an ongoing credentialed teacher shortage. An even more significant need is for teachers of color. According to the California Department of Education (2021), 60% of the state’s educator workforce is White, while the state student body, multicultural and multilingual, is only slightly more than 22% White. While licensure testing for teachers is required in all 50 states, it is well documented that it negates teacher diversity (Brown, 2005; Goldhaber & Hansen, 2010; Sleeter, 2016). The research confirms how it effectively curtails the number of African American educators (Behizadeh & Neely, 2018; Ingersoll et al., 2019; Petchauer, 2012). To clarify why the CBEST is so difficult for African Americans, I used a narrative inquiry with a counter-narrative framework. The inquiry describes the lived experiences of African American applicants in order to interrogate the CBEST’s impact on prospective and current African American teachers in California. Educational tests and measurements African American studies Education African Americans California Basic Skills Test CBEST Competency Testing Standardized Testing Testing Education Educational Leadership Inequality and Stratification Race and Ethnicity Social and Behavioral Sciences
225	Examining How Black Administrator Employment Decisions are Impacted by the Behaviors of Supervisors Whitaker, Annie Wilson 01 May 2022 (has links) The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand how Black, public school administrator employment decisions are impacted by the behaviors of supervisors in Virginia. Commonalities among the lived experiences of Black, public school administrators were examined in order to identify specific behaviors which impact employment decisions. Transcendental phenomenological qualitative research design was utilized. Participants were identified through gatekeeper introductions and then narrowed through snow-ball sampling. Data was collected through open-ended face-to-face interviews with 12 Black, public school administrators in Virginia via a secure online platform. The data was analyzed in order to identify emergent themes which represent the lived experiences of Black, public school administrators in Virginia and how the behaviors of their supervisors impacted their employment decisions. The findings could be utilized to develop supervisory practices that will increase the hiring and retention of Black educators in Virginia. retention expectations feedback networking mentoring racialized climate unsupportive professional development showcase talents Educational Leadership Urban Education
226	A Phenomenological Study of the International Student Experience at an American College Exposito, Julie Ann 01 January 2015 (has links) This applied dissertation was designed to explore and provide a better understanding of students of international background enrolled in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at a 4-year public American college in Southeast Florida. This study utilized a qualitative phenomenological design for data collection and analysis. The interview protocol was reviewed and verified by a panel of experts. The data collection took place in the fall of 2014; the researcher utilized an open-ended interview protocol with purposeful sampling of nine international students. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded. The participants checked the transcripts for accuracy of the recorded data. An analysis of the data revealed common themes of the international students’ educational experience in American institutions of higher education. The interviews of the participants allowed the researcher to better understand the international student’s lived experiences. The qualitative research created an awareness of the social and academic experiences of international students at an American college. The researcher concluded that the types of experiences are varied among the participants from the three different world regions, yet there was a high consistency of the themes: learning and studying, perception of faculty, expedited learning, online learning, language and communication issues, and a lack of social interaction with native students. There are ramifications for educators for strategic instructional practice and school leadership to seek and enhance student engagement and intercultural competencies. It will become necessary to increase cultural competencies through diversity initiatives both within the curriculum and throughout institutions by better understanding students’ perceptions and including those from various backgrounds, cultures, genders, and religions. To conclude, recommendations for future research are provided. Academic Experience Culture English Language Learners Higher Education International Students Social Experience English as a second language Higher Education Education First and Second Language Acquisition Higher Education International and Comparative Education Social and Behavioral Sciences
227	Transforming Land And Home Ownership: Emergent Strategy And Community Cultural Wealth In Developing Community Land Trusts Naguib, Ahmed 01 January 2024 (has links) (PDF) This dissertation investigates the transformative potential of Community Land Trusts (CLTs) in reimagining land and homeownership within the context of capitalist real estate markets. Utilizing a qualitative research framework that combines narrative inquiry with Emergent Strategy and Community Cultural Wealth theories, this study explores the intricacies of developing CLTs as a counter-narrative to traditional models of property ownership. Through extensive narrative analysis of four distinct CLTs in California, this research highlights the complex challenges and innovative strategies employed to scale CLTs in competitive urban markets. The findings reveal how CLTs leverage emergent strategy and community cultural wealth to navigate and mitigate barriers, fostering community engagement and emphasizing local context and social justice. This study contributes to the broader discourse on affordable housing and social equity by highlighting the critical role of community-centric approaches in transforming land and homeownership paradigms. By demonstrating the efficacy and transformative potential of CLTs, this dissertation underscores the importance of alternative models in addressing the global housing crisis, advocating for a shift towards community stewardship and collective empowerment in land ownership. Community Land Trusts Community Ownership Community Cultural Wealth Land Trusts Land Use Community Ownership Indigenous Landback Emergent Strategy Non-Profit Community Organizing Systems Change Transformation Narrative Inquiry Civic and Community Engagement Community-Based Learning Education Indigenous Education Inequality and Stratification Other Education Social and Behavioral Sciences Urban Studies and Planning
228	Close to the Pain: Alternative Education and the Unheard Voices of Young Adults’ Transformative Learning Experiences Lock, Vicki Lynn 01 January 2024 (has links) (PDF) This dissertation focuses on amplifying the voices of marginalized students in alternative education, with an emphasis on the positive impact of resilience on their outcomes. The study addresses the challenges these students face, particularly those from BIPOC communities, in navigating educational systems that have historically marginalized them. The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore the experiences of BIPOC students in a Central Valley alternative education program, highlighting how nurturing relationships, resilience, and the fulfillment of basic needs contribute to their academic success and personal growth. Utilizing a framework that incorporates theories of resilience, educational equity, and transformative leadership, the study situates the students' experiences within a broader context of systemic challenges and potential reform. Through in-depth interviews with five graduates from marginalized backgrounds, the research identified several key themes: (a) the power of resilience in overcoming adversity; (b) the significance of positive relationships with educators and peers; (c) the importance of addressing mental and emotional well-being; (d) the transformative potential of inclusive educational environments; and (e) the role of supportive communities in fostering success. The findings underscore the importance of resilience and relational strategies in helping marginalized students thrive in alternative educational settings. This study contributes to the ongoing conversation on educational equity by advocating for approaches that empower students to achieve their full potential, ensuring that their voices are heard, and their successes are celebrated. At-Risk Asian American and Pacific Islander Chicano Curriculum and Social Inquiry Disability and Equity in Education Educational Leadership Gender Equity in Education Prison Education and Reentry
229	Young, Urban, Professional, and Kenyan?: Conversations Surrounding Tribal Identity and Nationhood Achieng-Evensen, Charlotte 01 May 2016 (has links) By asking the question “How do young, urban, professional Kenyans make connections between tribal identity, colonialism, and the lived experience of nationhood?,” the researcher engages with eight participants in exploring their relationships with their tribal groups. From this juncture the researcher, through a co-constructed process with participants, interrogates the idea of nationhood by querying their interpretations of the concepts of power and resistance within their multi-ethnic societies. The utility of KuPiga Hadithi as a cultural responsive methodology for data collection along with poetic analysis as part of the qualitative tools of examination allowed the researcher to identify five emergent and iterative themes: (1) colonial wounds, (2) power inequities, (3) tensions, (4) intersection, and (5) hope. Participant discussion of these themes suggests an impenetrable link between tribal identity and nationhood. Schooling, as first a colonial and then national construct, works to mediate that link. Therefore, there is the need for a re-conceptualization of the term ‘nation’ in the post-Independence era. decolonization indigeneity researcher positionality nationhood colonial wounds indigenous knowing indigeneity researcher positionality KuPiga Hadithi Sage Philosophy Kenya Anticolonial theory Decolonization nationhood poetic analysis culturally responsive methodologies African Languages and Societies African Studies Community-Based Learning Community-Based Research Educational Sociology Ethnic Studies Inequality and Stratification International and Comparative Education Other Education Other Sociology Place and Environment Politics and Social Change Race and Ethnicity Regional Sociology Social and Cultural Anthropology Social Psychology and Interaction Sociology of Culture Theory, Knowledge and Science
230	FOOD LANDSCAPES: A CASE STUDY OF A COOKING AND ART- FOCUSED PROGRAM FOR TEENS LIVING IN A FOOD DESERT Norris, Jessica R 01 January 2014 (has links) This study constructs themes and propositions about the experiences of youth participants in the fall 2013 Food Landscapes program at the Neighborhood Resource Center in Richmond, Virginia. During the program, youth participated in cooking-based volunteerism with adults with disabilities and created short videos about their experiences. In this study, I analyzed pre- and post-program participant interviews, twice-weekly program observations, and facilitator reflections to understand how Food Landscapes affected youths’ conception of community engagement and communication strategies. This case study offers insight into how youth experience after-school programming of this design. Based on my findings, youth develop and rely upon a sense of togetherness in out-of-school programs. Togetherness as a bridge to commitment strengthens participation. Individually, youth need to form personal connections to and/or empathy with the content areas of the program in order to derive meaning, critically reflect, and problem solve. Furthermore, the youth articulated their perceptions of the community and the program by developing, organizing, and voicing their ideas of cooking/food, volunteering, and art making. By sharing research about the experiences of youth in after-school programming, organizations and educators can better construct, facilitate, and sustain youth participation and engagement. art education social work food insecurity youth development after school programming social practice community inclusion Art Education Art Practice Civic and Community Engagement Community-Based Learning Community-Based Research Curriculum and Instruction Curriculum and Social Inquiry Disability and Equity in Education Educational Methods Inequality and Stratification Photography Place and Environment Politics and Social Change Race and Ethnicity Regional Sociology Service Learning Social Work Sociology Special Education and Teaching

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