Thesis advisor: Ina V. S. Mullis / Because results from TIMSS 2007 showed a gap in mathematics and science achievement between students in the United States and those in the top-performing countries, TIMSS 2007 data were used to investigate how school effectiveness factors known to be strongly associated with higher STEM achievement operated in the United States compared to Chinese Taipei, the Czech Republic, Singapore, and Slovenia. In each of the five countries, multilevel modeling was used to examine STEM achievement in relation to 11 school effectiveness factors associated with school resources, fidelity of curriculum implementation, and school climate, controlling for student home resources. A secondary purpose of this dissertation research was to help the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center prepare for multilevel modeling planned for the TIMSS and PIRLS 2011 data. Findings from this research showed that across the five countries, there were differences in how important school effectiveness factors operated. Teacher preparation, teaching the curriculum, and using instructional strategies involving reasoning and inquiry all were important school characteristics related to STEM achievement in some countries. A school environment conducive to learning emerged as being strongly associated with high STEM achievement in three of the countries, including the United States. Both absence of discipline and attendance problems as well as a school climate supportive of academic success were important predictors of student STEM achievement. This dissertation research also showed the potential of using TIMSS data as a basis for conducting school effectiveness analyses across different country contexts. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.

This thesis explores perspectives of 30 women hosting international students in a rural, coastal town in Costa Rica through an International Studies lens - interdisciplinary, critical, and bridging theory and practice. Analysis of 30 semi-structured interview sessions, which included 2 questionnaires, conducted over 10 weeks living with 3 host mothers contributes to understanding the impact of study abroad on host families. Hosting is discussed as a preferred form of paid care work in that it is flexible and enjoyable. Women host for the income as well as for the joy of mothering students. Host perspectives are shared regarding benefits and challenges of and lessons learned from hosting. Recommendations are made for homestay program administrators and international educators, including recommendations for addressing power dynamics to ensure reciprocal exchanges.

This inquiry was prompted by a desire to understand ‘partnership working’ (DfE, 2012, p.3) with the diverse parental body of a British International School Pre-Nursery based in Bangkok. It was hypothesised that this necessitated the co-construction of a shared understanding between home and school about a child’s learning. Nonetheless, the manner in which this could be achieved was unclear. Consequently, an explorative case study was instigated to gain a greater understanding of home-school interactions within this context. Influenced by Early Years policy and literature, as well as concepts of dialogue and interculturalism, it was hypothesised that involving parents within the redevelopment of a reporting and assessment tool may support the co-construction of a shared understanding about the child as a learner. Accordingly, a series of parental meetings were organised to elicit parental views. The parental meetings were illuminating and prompted the adaptation of a range of tools and artefacts to scaffold parents into a greater understanding of Pre-Nursery pedagogy and to engage them in a learning dialogue with school. At the completion of the study, evidence indicated that the development of a shared understanding between home and school had been achieved. This suggested that integrating conceptions of scaffolding and co-construction within home-school communication enhanced the potential for partnership working. Nonetheless, the complexities of engaging with the diverse parental body found within international education were also highlighted. In addition, the inquiry highlighted the difficulties of sustaining and extending practice innovations. It was concluded that further research may be necessary to fully understand partnership working within this context and to develop the consistent whole school approach deemed necessary to support its implementation.

Scholars have linked multiple background characteristics to academic achievement; among these are student SES and race/ethnicity. A largely understudied student characteristic in relation to academic achievement is student immigrant status. I contextualize this relationship by considering a macro social setting: country-level foreign-born population. To do this, I examine mathematics achievement from the 2015 PISA assessment in 41 high-income countries. Using mixed-effects modeling, I examine student- and country-level factors and their effects on mathematics achievement. I use within- and cross-level interactions to examine the relationship between 1) immigrant status and student SES and between 2) immigrant status and foreign-born population. To examine the relationship between student immigrant status and student SES and between immigrant status and foreign-born-population, I use within- and cross-level interactions. My findings indicate that immigrant students perform similarly to native-born students when considering other contextual factors at the student-, school-, and country- levels. Furthermore, SES moderates the effect of immigrant status, with second-generation immigrants exhibiting a smaller achievement gain with increased SES. Additionally, everyone – immigrants and non-immigrants alike – benefits from higher foreign-born population rates, suggesting that immigration is advantageous for all students.

<p>Som pedagog är det viktigt att välja läromedel som uppfyller det åtagande som gäller enligt Skolverkets styrdokument. Detta för att det förstås inte bara är pedagogerna som påverkar elevernas värderingar utan även innehållet i de läromedel som används påverkar eleverna i stor utsträckning. Det kanske t.o.m. är så att det är den enda litteratur som eleverna kommer i kontakt med. Därför är det viktigt att innehållet uppfyller kraven som ställs på goda läroböcker.</p><p>Är det då så att det finns ett interkulturellt perspektiv i alla läroböcker? Detta är angeläget att ta reda på eftersom de flesta pedagoger med stor sannolikhet antar att även läromedlen utgår ifrån ett interkulturellt perspektiv.</p> / <p>The purpose of this study is to show in which way the intercultural conception is presented in schoolbooks for the Swedish senior high school used in the teaching of Swedish. My definition of the intercultural conception includes ethnicity, sexuality, class and gender. This is important to find out as the Swedish school has an important democratic commission to fulfill.</p><p>The method I used for this is a qualitative text analysis. The study covers two basic schoolbooks used in the teaching of Swedish.</p><p>The result of the study shows that the writers have good intention, for example to include people with other sexuality than heterosexuality and people with other ethnicity than Swedish. But even with the good intention there are still stereotype patterns present. The study also finds that the examined schoolbooks for the Swedish senior high school completely exclude some people from the books.</p>

<p><strong>Problem:        </strong>To be able to be successful in attracting international students it is necessary to understand why students choose to study abroad. Students engage in international education because they are looking for certain benefits, but which are these benefits? Does different students want different things and how well does Sweden deliver the sought after benefits? Does the introduction of a tuition fee influence the students’ decision?</p><p> </p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong>        The study, both theoretically and empirically, investigates what lays behind the decision to take part in an international education with focus on what benefits associated with an international education that are important for students.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Methodolgy:</strong>  A prestudy was conducted to create an understanding of the topic. The theoretical conclusions are tested with the help of questionnaires distributed at Hangzhou Dianzi University in China.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong>  A conclusive summary is set up which lists the most important benefits with international education. The empirical study shows that improved English, culture experience, the university’s reputation and that the country offers a safe environment are key benefits influencing Chinese students to study abroad.</p>

Problem:        To be able to be successful in attracting international students it is necessary to understand why students choose to study abroad. Students engage in international education because they are looking for certain benefits, but which are these benefits? Does different students want different things and how well does Sweden deliver the sought after benefits? Does the introduction of a tuition fee influence the students’ decision?   Purpose:        The study, both theoretically and empirically, investigates what lays behind the decision to take part in an international education with focus on what benefits associated with an international education that are important for students.   Methodolgy:  A prestudy was conducted to create an understanding of the topic. The theoretical conclusions are tested with the help of questionnaires distributed at Hangzhou Dianzi University in China.   Conclusions:  A conclusive summary is set up which lists the most important benefits with international education. The empirical study shows that improved English, culture experience, the university’s reputation and that the country offers a safe environment are key benefits influencing Chinese students to study abroad.

Each year the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU), operating under the auspices of UNESCO, hosts a peace education training-of-trainer’s program for teacher-educators from across the Asia-Pacific. In this thesis, I examine through a qualitative case study approach the programmatic design and evaluation of the APCEIU training program, seeking to monitor its medium-term impact on educators. The research is framed within a larger study of peace education programs around the world. Frameworks of peace education conceptualized by Betty Reardon and Swee-hin Toh, and critical approaches to peace and development as animated by Paulo Freire and Johan Galtung, provide the theoretical foundations for the study. Research findings are based on consultation records, documentary analysis, observations, and questionnaire responses from evaluations of the 2009 program. In the medium-term impact assessment report, 14 educators offered data pertaining to their post-program implementation of peace education concepts and practices in their work.

Each year the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU), operating under the auspices of UNESCO, hosts a peace education training-of-trainer’s program for teacher-educators from across the Asia-Pacific. In this thesis, I examine through a qualitative case study approach the programmatic design and evaluation of the APCEIU training program, seeking to monitor its medium-term impact on educators. The research is framed within a larger study of peace education programs around the world. Frameworks of peace education conceptualized by Betty Reardon and Swee-hin Toh, and critical approaches to peace and development as animated by Paulo Freire and Johan Galtung, provide the theoretical foundations for the study. Research findings are based on consultation records, documentary analysis, observations, and questionnaire responses from evaluations of the 2009 program. In the medium-term impact assessment report, 14 educators offered data pertaining to their post-program implementation of peace education concepts and practices in their work.

Recent years have seen a growing interest in the relationship between second language (L2) writing development and the ways we can help growing populations of L2 writers successfully integrate within academic communities. Much of this interest stems from increasingly diverse local populations and the continued internationalization of higher education. This dissertation explored the implications for curriculum resulting from this growing presence of L2 writers in academic content areas. To achieve this goal, this research reports on an eight-month longitudinal ethnographic case study of five international Japanese undergraduate students at a large Canadian university. Focusing on the central role of writing in university courses as the dominant mode of knowledge construction and dissemination, as well as student assessment, the study documents focal students’ and focal instructors’ perspectives of the various factors affecting their writing in ‘regular’ content courses, with particular attention paid to the impact of feedback practices and their role in both the short-term and long-term development of students’ skills and their investments in different types of writing. Drawing on a language socialization framework, data analysis focused on expectations and practices with respect to feedback, and explored the impact of these practices on conveying both explicit and implicit norms linked to students’ access to, and successful participation in, their chosen content areas. Drawing on both students’ and instructors’ perspectives of this literacy event and discourse analysis of relevant documents, findings offer unique insights into the role of feedback practices not only for students’ writing development but also in indexing complex negotiations of positions, identities, and institutional forces. The dissertation concludes by highlighting the need to play closer attention to the multidimensional functions of feedback practices in order to understand their power to shape the socialization trajectories of L2 writers and universities’ responses to multilingual students who no longer fit traditional profiles.