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The aim of this thesis is to find out how the role of the teacher can affect positively or negatively the issue of gender equality in classroom and more specifically how this question can be applied to the Greek educational system which, for years, has been following a program that suggests ways for the elimination of gender stereotyping. The reason that this thesis focuses mainly on the role of the teacher, besides the fact that teaching is my occupation, lies in the fact that the implementation of every policy presupposes the willingness of the teacher to carry out those implementations. The implementation of policies on gender issues requires a constant education and training on gender issues and rights, expanding the attitude and beliefs on the issue. So far the policies tend to aim to equality and elimination of discrimination. We will see at which level we currently are and which are the visions regarding this matter.

This thesis identifies the nature of the values that students hold about business and whether they are acquired through education; the uniformity of the transmission/communication process is addressed. The study traces the views of policy makers and teachers in the policy chain, interviews students and observes classroom interactions in a longitudinal study. The research has been conducted at a time of increasing student numbers on Business Studies courses and during an ongoing debate about the sources of values students hold about business. A distinction is drawn between the values intrinsic to AngloAmerican capitalism and the values that students espouse enabling insight as to whether students are taught and hold AngloAmerican capitalist values or not. Other sources of values such as gender and students’ parttime jobs are considered. Seven policy makers (individuals influencing the creation of the ‘hidden’ or ‘overt’ curriculum) and four groups comprising ‘A’ level and GNVQ Advanced in Business Studies students and their respective teachers participated in the research. The study draws the following conclusions: students, typically, see profit as the primary business objective and this view is framed by the values intrinsic to AngloAmerican capitalism, with other values such as customer service seen as ‘instrumental’ in the pursuit of profitability. Values intrinsic to AngloAmerican capitalism were not directly being transmitted down the policy chain; however, work socialisation values were. The students were able to distinguish between their own personal values and those of business organisations; their personal values often conflicted with those of business. Factors extraneous to education, for example, students’ parttime jobs appear to have a greater influence over their knowledge of business values than that of their teachers. The students often expressed scepticism at business activities, despite no clear evidence that teachers ‘transmit’ antibusiness sentiments. Gender had some influence on the values that students held.

The purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of the patterns of science achievement for 154 ninth-grade girls and boys on multiple-choice and short-answer constructed-response items. The study was guided by a model, developed from an extensive review of the literature, incorporating the dimensions of generalised self-efficacy, item- specific self-efficacy and worry. These variables were operationalised through selected or specifically developed quantitative and/or qualitative research methods, and a series of equivalent multiple-choice and short-answer constructed-response achievement items was constructed for two different unit tests. The participants in the study rated their item-specific self-efficacies on 5-point Likert-type scales immediately before answering each of the achievement items, and they completed a series of worry items from Spielberger's Test Anxiety Inventory halfway through each test. Qualitative data were collected by surveying all the students and by interviewing selected students. The quasi-experimental analyses revealed the absence of any practically important gender-related differences in achievement for the multiple-choice and the constructed-response achievement items. However, the boys reported more item-specific self-efficacy and less worry than the girls for each of these item-response formats, and each of these gender-related differences was judged to be practically significant. The qualitative data provided additional evidence that the girls' self-perceptions of their efficacy for answering multiple-choice and short-answer constructed-response items was lower than that of the boys. It also provided support for the model underpinning the study. Overall, there was no evidence of any practically important interactions between gender and item-response formats, for either item-specific self-efficacy, worry or achievement, ++ / indicating that neither of the item-response formats used in the study, with this group of students, advantaged one sex over the other. Additionally, the findings from this study suggested that sufficient time should be allowed during testing so that all students can complete tests to the levels of their capabilities and that, during tests, the influence of students' self-efficacies is mediated through the quality of their engagement with test items.

<p> An essential aspect of discerning how men can become effective partners in reaching gender equity in the U.S., is to understand how men perceive their own masculinity. In consensus with Wanger (2011), I believe that promoting men's' healthy masculinity development is a feminist act and an act of social justice. Within the scope of social science research it is of extreme significance to study men as men as they were often "everybody" and effectually "nobody" (Kimmel &amp; Davis, 2011). This study adds to and highlights importance of research on men and masculinities. Selecting an often privileged and significant subculture of men, this case study surveyed 27 White evangelical college-aged men (WECM) of whom five participated in an in-depth semi-structure phenomenological-based interview at a single faith-based university. Based on the Subjective Masculine Experiences model (Wong et al., 2011) the researcher focused on how these men made "sense of their masculinity by connecting their life experiences [to dimensions] of masculine norms and ideology" (Wong et al., 2011, p. 238). The participants were asked to attribute levels of psychological stress to each dimension. Data gathered clustered into seven salient dimensions for this population: Responsibility, Family, Family- Provider, Faith and Religion, Emotional Toughness, Physical Body and Resistance. Analysis revealed that stress was associated with all of the dimensions, especially with Family-Provider. This paper provides the context for this study, its philosophical framework, and discussions on its limitations and implications for practice and future action.</p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> masculinity; White evangelical, college-aged, men (WECM); phenomenology; critical social constructivism; mindful inquiry </p>

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The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires public schools to be highly accountable for dollars spent on education and for the achievement of students. To support this mandate, the law expanded local control and allowed schools to explore innovative ways to enhance student learning (U.S.D.E., 2004). Given the opportunity, some public schools have experimented with single-gender classes as an avenue for improving the way students are taught. Studies have indicated that separating students according to gender has a positive impact on learning (e.g., Haag, 2000; Maslen, 2001; and Sommers, 2001). Single-gender settings have also been reported to have a positive affect on the attitudes of students (NASSPE, 2004b; Colley et al., 1994, James & Richards, 2003; and Rowe, 2000). Because single-gender classes were not an option in the public school sector in recent years, most current studies of single-gender education involve private and parochial schools. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the initial impact of implementing gender-based instruction in a suburban public elementary school in central Mississippi. The impact was analyzed in terms of the overall perceptions of the administrator, teachers, students, and parents who participated in the pilot program. The impact was also measured by the students' performance in the areas of academic achievement, school attendance, and classroom behavior during the pilot year of fifth-grade, single-gender classes. The results of the study indicated the overall perceptions of the participants were favorable toward single-gender classes. The students maintained approximately the same level of academic achievement in fifth-grade, single-gender classes as in fourth-grade coeducational classes. They produced an average of 2.6 years (grade equivalent) growth in Accelerated Math during the year of single-gender classes. The average daily attendance was consistent with previous attendance patterns and exceeded the district average. An analysis of discipline records revealed a positive difference in the reported conduct of students in the single-gender classes as compared to the students in coed classes throughout the district. The conclusions drawn from this study suggest continuing the single-gender classes. It is recommended that the administration and staff continue to explore gender-based teaching and classroom management.

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This dissertation explores women’s participation and engagement in literacy courses from an identity perspective within the broader context of women’s life stories and the socio-cultural, economic and institutional contexts within which the courses take place. The approach I develop rests on a combination of literacy, discourse and identity theories. It draws on the social theory of literacy to show how women’s valuations of literacy and education contributed to the construction of the subject positions they attempted to enter through their participation in literacy courses. Drawing on Norman Fairclough’s understanding of discourse, I focus on the link between identity processes and the discourses and socio-political structures which are understood to be in a dialectical relationship with each other. I draw on feminist theories of self and subjectivity to understand how women attempted to change aspects of their selves created by the interplay of their social and material circumstances, their agency, and specific life trajectories. In Turkey, the majority of the participants in the literacy courses are women. The state-funded People’s Education Centres (PEC), with their extended network, attract the majority of the participants. Adult literacy programmes are organised as Level 1 and Level 2 by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) and these two levels of adult literacy and basic education courses in Turkey are offered under the monitoring and inspection of said Ministry. I chose for the sites of my research two PEC literacy courses in disadvantaged areas of Istanbul where the occasional shanty house coexists with haphazardly-built apartment buildings. Methodologically, my study has an ethnographic approach to feminist discourse analysis. I observed one Level 2 literacy course at each centre over the course of four months. I had repeated interviews and conversations with seven women participants at Akasya PEC and four women participants at Lale PEC. Fieldnotes and interview transcriptions of more structured interviews constituted the major body of my data. The study shows that women’s accounts of their participation in the courses were underlined by discourses of formal education and literacy. These discourses have a prominent role in the official policy documents. However, the dissertation argues that the significance of the discourses of formal education and literacy was equally rooted in women’s attempts to redress, through their participation in the courses, some of the structural and institutional injustices they experienced as girl-children. These injustices made it difficult for my participants to access most of the prestigious literacy practices, knowledge and associated identities. The study highlights the meanings of the subject position of the schooled person which women attempted to take on through their participation. It also brings to the fore ways in which the discourses of formal education and literacy and the subject position of the schooled person were underpinned by socio-political structures such as gender, social class, ethnicity, rural-urban migration and the extent of poverty individual women lived in. It reveals women’s persistent attempts to access and continue the courses within the constraints of bureaucratic hurdles and socio-economic hardship and responsibilities. The study demonstrates how women “took hold” of the dominant literacy practices and power relations they found in the literacy classrooms. It shows the ways in which women aligned themselves with the schooled literacy practices and at times challenged the dominant literacy practices and power relations they found in the classroom. The study shows that women’s understanding of the value they found in education changed as a result of their educational experiences. It shows that women found joy in learning things they found both challenging and important. These findings contribute to discussions on the symbolic value of education and school literacy practices for literacy learners by exploring the roots of this symbolic importance in women’s life stories. The study demonstrates the importance of both schooled literacy practices and the broader value of education and the emerging specific uses of literacy in everyday life. The findings challenge the portrayal of literacy learners in policy documents and most of the literature in Turkey which assume that their most important literacy need is access to school literacy practices. The findings also challenge the deficit view of literacy learners in policy documents which undermines their social and economic capabilities. Thus the study extends understanding of what is considered as literacy that has the potential to improve one’s material and social conditions by exploring the perspectives of different women who lived in differing levels of poverty and socio-economic obligations. It also contributes to arguments on the reasons of finding value in education by showing the ways in which women found joy in learning in formal literacy classrooms as a result of their educational experiences.