This study explores the development of early algebraic reasoning in mathematical communities of inquiry. Under consideration is the different pathways teachers take as they develop their own understanding of early algebra and then enact changes in their classroom to facilitate algebraic reasoning opportunities. Teachers participated in a professional development intervention which focused on understanding of early algebraic concepts, task development, modification, and enactment, and classroom and mathematical practices. Design research was employed to investigate both teaching and learning in the naturalistic setting of the schools and classrooms. The design approach supported the development of a model of professional development and the framework of teacher actions to facilitate algebraic reasoning. Data collection over the school year included participant observations, video recorded observations, documents, teacher interviews, and photo elicitation interviews with students. Retrospective data analysis drew the results together to be presented as cases of two teachers, their classrooms, and students. The findings show that the integration of algebraic reasoning into classroom mathematical activity is a gradual process. It requires teachers to develop their own understanding of algebraic concepts which includes understanding of student reasoning, progression, and potential misconceptions. Task implementation and design, shifts in pedagogical actions, and the facilitation of new classroom and mathematical practices were also key elements of change. The important role which students have in the development of classrooms where algebraic reasoning is a focus was also highlighted. These findings have significant implications for how teachers can be supported to develop their understanding of early algebra and use this understanding in their own classrooms to facilitate early algebraic reasoning.

<p>This thesis introduces the idea of an interactive web-based visualization tool to support inquiry-based science learning. The problem that occurs when the teachers and students are discussing the collected data is that they are lacking a tool to display such large quantities of data. It is often hard to fully understand such data. This education tool makes use of different visualization approaches in order to support students while getting insights from their collected data. In this thesis I proposed and implemented an interactive web-based visualization tool that was used at a prototype level during the educational activities. The requirements and user needs led the development of this prototype. Requirement elicitations have been done as a part of the research project conducted by CeLeKT.</p><p> </p><p>For the development of this tool, it was necessary for the input of the teachers and students in order to get an understanding of the requirements. The initial inquiry of the teachers and students show the necessity and usefulness of an interactive web-based visualization tool to support learning practices.</p>

<p>During twelve weeks of practice experience at the company Sydved AB, I received the mission to develop a structure for the company’s internal communication. A part of this mission was to find out what the company’s employees thought of Sydveds internal communication and the most important; Sydveds intranet called “Outlook”. Due to Sydveds plans of developing the intranet I designed and accomplished an inquiry-study to find out about the employee’s opinions on the company´s internal communication and in particular their intranet.</p><p>The answers I want from this study are if I shaped the inquiry-study correctly the first time. Could I have done it in another, better way? What do scientists say about how to accomplish a qualitative inquiry-study?</p><p>For this purpose I have decided to apply a theory based study on my first inquiry-study, based on three different methods; literature study, analytic induction and theory probation.</p><p>The outcomes of the three different studies have developed my method. This new method describes how a qualitative inquiry-study through scientifically basis should be accomplished.</p> / <p>Under mina tolv veckors praktik på företaget Sydved AB fick jag i uppdrag att kartlägga en struktur för företagets interna informationsflöde. En del av uppdraget var att ta reda på vad Sydveds medarbetare ansåg om företagets interna kommunikation och framförallt dess intranät, ”Outlook”. Enligt Sydveds planer att utveckla och förbättra intranätet, utformade och genomförde jag en enkätundersökning för att få reda på medarbetarnas åsikter om företagets interna kommunikation och intranät.</p><p>Med hjälp av denna studie vill jag få svar på om jag utformade enkätundersökningen korrekt under min praktik på Sydved. Kunde jag gjort på ett annorlunda sätt? Vad säger forskningen om hur en kvalitativ enkätundersökning bör utformas?</p><p>För att få svar på dessa frågor har jag tillämpat en metodutveckling av min enkätundersökning utifrån tre olika studier; litteraturstudie, analytisk induktion samt teoriprövning.</p><p>Resultaten från dessa tre studier har lett till min metodutveckling. Denna nya metod beskriver hur en liknande enkätundersökning med vetenskaplig bas bör utformas.</p>

This study investigated whether participation in the Partnership for Research and Education in Plants (PREP), a long-term authentic plant research project, in conjunction with explicit verses implicit instruction can change high school students' conceptions of the nature of science (NOS). The participants included a total of 134 students comprised of three groups from 10 total classes over the course of two academic years. Participants in four classes (two each year) participated in PREP and received explicit instruction on NOS. Participants in four other classes (two each year) participated in PREP and received implicit only instruction on NOS. Additionally, two classes (one each year) of high-achieving freshmen participated in PREP and received explicit instruction on NOS. This third group was used as a comparative group to the other two groups, due to their high achievement in middle school math and science. The treatment for all three groups spanned 8 weeks and included participation in an authentic plant research project. An open-ended questionnaire (modified Views of Nature of Science - VNOS), in conjunction with semi-structured interviews, was used to assess students' conceptions before and after the intervention. Results showed that all three groups improved their conceptions of NOS equally. The high-achieving group began with significantly higher-scoring views prior to the completion of the intervention, and improved to the same degree as the other two groups. A comparison of the explicit group to the implicit only group showed that there was no significant difference in their improvement, as both groups improved equally. Implications for the teaching and learning of NOS are discussed.

Cross-border programs are often cited as having transformative effects on educators, claiming increased cultural awareness, intercultural understanding and culturally responsive practices. However, these shifts are most commonly evaluated in the days and weeks after teachers return to the U.S. and rarely allow for a long-term, in-depth understanding of the impacts. This dissertation outlines findings from a collaborative action research study that attempted to document the experiences of a small group of K-12 teachers before, during and after their participation in a cross-border experience in Mexico. My overarching questions examined the U.S. school contexts to which four White teachers returned as the under-theorized "next step" to their cross-border experience, specifically seeking to make sense of how new understandings of Mexico influenced their perceptions of, and engagement with Mexican immigrant families. Ongoing inquiry groups were implemented as part of this study; over the course of eighteen months, teachers used this space to critically reflect on their experiences abroad and to plan how they would incorporate new knowledge and understandings into their teaching contexts. Through this process, teachers conceptualized, planned and engaged in three dialogues with Mexican immigrant parents in which they purposefully created a new, "third space" for cross-border narratives, or the mutual sharing of life stories, as they related to their own educational experiences in Mexico and/or the U.S. Utilizing an ethnographic approach, data was collected via field notes and digital recordings of interviews, inquiry group meetings and parent-teacher dialogues. Narrative methods were also used as a principal tool for inquiry and analysis. My findings suggest that the transformative effects of cross-border programs are not solely a result of time spent abroad, but an ongoing process of inquiry, reflection and action once teachers return to the U.S. It was through the transaction of the cross-border experiences, inquiry group meetings, and the powerful narratives that emerged during the parent-teacher dialogues that teachers were able to acknowledge, revisit and rewrite scripts of deficit pertaining to Mexican families at their school site.

Background: Gender Variance (GV) is an experience that the gender assigned at birth is different to one’s preferred gender identity. It includes the possibility of a preferred gender identity being different to either male or female. It is reported that around 4000 people per year access care from the NHS in relation to GV (Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES), 2009) and both the physical and psychological elements of these experiences is well documented. However, little research specifically explores how Gender Variant (GVt) people make sense of their experiences and construct meaningful expression of their preferred identity. The aim of this study is to further the understanding of GV with a view to considering the implications for service provision to this population. Methodology: The study employed a qualitative method that explored the narratives of the participants. A purposive sample of seven participants self identified as GVt was recruited for a single interview. The interviews used a topic guide to elicit the narratives that these people tell about their experiences. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using a narrative approach to explore what the participants said and the way they said it. This was then situated within the local and broader social contexts within which the narratives exist. Analysis and findings: The findings are presented through a global impression of each of the individual narratives and then through discussion of the similarities and differences in relation to the collective storylines. Particular attention is paid to the identity construction and the emotional experiences that take place during the interviews. These two elements are told within and through each of the storylines. The local and wider narratives available to the participants are used to contextualise the analysis and findings, and so are reported within the analysis. The analysis offers the following findings: i) their first experiences of understanding GV was important, leading them to find others who felt the same to gain a sense of hope of a normal life ii) sharing their experiences with others was an anxiety provoking time and was part of a decision making process about treatment and establishing an acceptable gender expression iii) relationships with family, friends, peers and members of their social context influence sense making and identity constructions of GVt people and typify the challenges faced within their GVt experiences. Some of these challenges were reported as ongoing and illustrated throughout the stories of the day to day lives of the participants iv) for these participants distressing emotional challenges were often situated in the past and participants spoke of ‘overcoming’ challenges. This offered a counter to the more dominant isolation and loneliness narratives within the literature on GVt experiences The findings of the study are discussed in relation to its clinical implications, the strengths and limitations of the methodology, and directions for future research.

The lived experiences of the family of a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) survivor is an under represented, yet growing field of qualitative psychological research. This thesis used a case study approach with a family in which one member sustained TBI thirteen years previously. Using conversational unstructured interview techniques, I participated with the family in eliciting public narratives around their experiences since the accident. These public stories were also thickened by individual interviews, which both supported and contradicted the public narratives. In the analysis I found two major narrative lines, the first of which was the baby-narrative which held that the injured person must not be injured any further in word or deed and must be protected at all time. The second dominant narrative was the fighting-narrative, which was characterised by language and actions around fighting/battling on behalf of the injured person against uncaring ‘others’. Several important suppressed or counter narratives emerged during the individual interviews, which could not be spoken about publically. I conclude that the power of the two dominant narratives is fuelled by constant rehearsal and enactment, which actually freezes the family and does not allow it to move forward. Suppressed stories are discussed as a possible avenue for therapeutic growth and for the evolution of the family story as they age.

Max Horkheimer’s mature works on theology and Schopenhauerian metaphysics have been portrayed by subsequent critical theorists as an illicit regression from his earlier social theory in a two-fold sense. First, his concern to reflect on empirical experience is replaced with speculation regarding intelligible concepts, i.e. concepts that do not arise from observation on the basis of sense-intuition but are rather products of “pure” reason (God) or the imagination (Schopenhauer’s will). Second, his advocacy of the Enlightenment as an emancipatory political project is replaced by its skeptical critique. I argue that this consensus radically misunderstands the concerns animating the late Horkheimer insofar as his reflections on intelligible concepts are both intimately related to a continuing concern with empirical inquiry, as well as an outworking of his commitment to the realization of the Enlightenment. The argument is presented in three related movements. In the first, I interpret Horkheimer’s oeuvre in terms of his pervasive interest in developing a materialist logic. I begin by outlining his early understanding of thought as a form of inquiry for embodied social subjects (chapter 1), before noting how, in his mature theorizing, this account serves as a basis for a presentation of the relationship between various kinds of inquiry and the practice of social critique (chapter 2). In the second, I contend that Horkheimer’s critique of instrumental reason is best understood as congruent with this materialist logic, not as a speculative departure from an earlier concern with empirical inquiry. I begin by examining Horkheimer’s empirical analysis of how historical changes in the basic institutions defining political economy in modern life affect the reasoning habits of subjects (chapter 3). I then turn to his diagnosis of the way such changes affect the selfunderstanding of modern subjects, leading to a pervasive form of alienation (chapter 4). In the final movement, I present Horkheimer’s turn to theological concepts of the intelligible as a therapeutic response to this alienation. First, I examine his understanding of the content of theological concepts as well as how such concepts may be preserved in a form appropriate to modern life (chapter 5), and conclude by illustrating his own attempt at such a retrieval in his late reflections on the Jewish liturgy (chapter 6). In the conclusion, I note that this interpretation offers a constructive challenge to philosophers concerned with the tradition of critical theory. On the one hand, Horkheimer articulates what would be required for the fulfillment of the Enlightenment project in terms critical theorists will recognize as their own, by offering an account of the social practices that are necessary for the self-determination of the subject. Yet his presentation contests a fundamental axiom of such theorists regarding the role intelligible concepts ought to play in seeking this goal. Horkheimer defends an account of the significance of the liturgy for practices of reasoning that is quiet foreign to such theorists. Instead of setting liturgical reasoning over against a militantly “secular” Enlightenment, he demonstrates that such reasoning is integral to its fulfillment.

This thesis identifies the shared pool of narrative resources, which constitute the public discourses and cultural meanings of the sport of boxing, in order to examine how individual boxers engage with them when performing their narrative identities. It is argued that the shared pool of narrative resources for boxing contain myths and legends that are taken for granted and yet heavily invested in by boxers and academics alike. This project explores how individual boxers engage with these resources in order to make sense of their own experiences and to formulate their narrative identity. The thesis asks how a thorough investigation of the shared narrative resources, and their use by boxers, provides new insights into what the sport of boxing means to boxers, and how shared resources are engaged with in order to perform idiosyncratic ontological narratives. This project makes a unique contribution, as it is the first project of its kind to fully consider the relationship between the individual accounts provided by boxers and the narrative resources available to them. It pays particular focus to the narrative resources as they relate to amateur and professional boxers alike. Through a performance ethnography, and qualitative inquiry approach, research data was collected and co- constructed over a period of three years. This data informed the reading of boxing texts in order to ascertain what the shared pool of narrative resources were for boxers, and how individuals used and engaged with them. This project found that the narrative resources of boxing were powerful, persuasive, and provided vocabularies of motives for individual boxers. The shared pool of resources, whilst constitutive of the cultural 2 meanings of boxing, were engaged with by individual boxers to tell stories about the desire for transformation, communion, respect and generativity.

This study analyzed student test scores to determine if teacher participation in an inquiry-based professional development was able to make a statistically significant difference in student achievement levels. Test scores for objectives that assessed the critical thinking skills and problem-solving strategies modeled in a science inquiry institute were studied. Inquiry-based experiences are the cornerstones for meeting the science standards for scientific literacy. State mandated assessment tests measure the levels of student achievement and are reported as meeting minimum expectations or showing mastery for specific learning objectives. Students test scores from the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills Test (TAAS) for 8th grade science and the Biology End Of Course (EOC) exams were analyzed using ANCOVA, Chi Square, and Logistic Regression, with the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) 7th Grade Science Subtest as covariate. It was hypothesized that the students of Inquiry Institute teachers would have higher scale scores and better rates of mastery on the critical thinking objectives than the students of non-Institute teachers. It was also hypothesized that it would be possible to predict student mastery on the objectives that assessed critical thinking and problem solving based on Institute participation. This quasi-experimental study did not show a statistically significant difference between the two groups. The effects of inquiry-based professional development may not be determined by analyzing the results of the standardized tests currently being used in Texas. Inquiry training may make a difference, but because of factors such as the ceiling effect, insufficient time to implement the program, and test items that are intended to but do not address critical thinking skills, the TAAS and EOC tests may not accurately assess effects of the Inquiry Institute. The results of this study did indicate the best predictor of student mastery for the 8th grade science TAAS and Biology EOC may possibly be prior knowledge acquired in elementary school and as demonstrated on the 7th grade ITBS science subtest.