No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Women continue to be underrepresented in superintendent roles in public schools. The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to explore the lived experiences and perceptions of women superintendents regarding the professional and personal factors that impacted their ability to be promoted to the position of superintendent in Texas public school districts. I applied role congruity theory (RCT) to participants' shared stories to ascertain how their promotion to the superintendency was affected by gender-related role stereotypes. Based on that lens, my findings revealed that every woman believed both formal and informal mentorship and networking opportunities were critical factors in being promoted to the superintendency and their continued success in that role; they perceived they had control over deciding how to balance family and work-life, they agreed they needed to have a supportive family; they perceived that hard work was directly correlated to promotion to or success in the superintendency, more so than gender. While each of the women may have experienced gender-related issues in their career, none perceived that gender-related issues impacted their ability to be promoted. Most of my participants said the career path they followed was a factor, and suggested that other women should be strategic about which superintendent position they should accept. As a result of my findings, I make recommendations that should be offered to women who want to pursue the superintendency and for future research.

Proportional reasoning instruction is prevalent in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary schooling. The concept of proportional reasoning is used in a variety of contexts for solving real-world problems. One of these contexts is the solving of dosage calculation proportional problems in the healthcare field. On the job, nurses perform drug dosage calculations which carry fatal consequences. As a result, nursing students are required to meet minimum competencies in solving proportion problems. The goal of this research is to describe the lived experiences of nurses in connection to their use of proportional reasoning in order to impact instruction of the procedures used to solve these problems. The research begins by clarifying and defining the conceptual field of proportional reasoning. Utilizing Vergnaud*s theory of conceptual fields and synthesizing the differing organizational frameworks used in the literature on proportional reasoning, the concept is organized and explicated into three components: concepts, procedures, and situations. Through the lens of this organizational structure, data from 44 registered nurses who completed a dosage calculation proportion survey were analyzed and connected to the framework of the conceptual field of proportional reasoning. Four nurses were chosen as a focus of in-depth study based upon their procedural strategies and ability to vividly describe their experiences. These qualitative results are synthesized to describe the lived experiences of nurses related to their education and use of proportional reasoning. Procedural strategies that are supported by textbooks, instruction, and practice are developed and defined. Descriptive statistics show the distribution of procedures used by nurses on a five question dosage calculation survey. The most common procedures used are the nursing formula, cross products, and dimensional analysis. These procedures correspond to the predominate procedures found in nursing dosage calculation texts. Instructional implications focus on the transition between elementary and secondary multiplicative structures, the confusion between equality and proportionality, and the difficulty that like quantities present in dealing with proportions.

The 2021 Census reported that immigrants with a Chinese ethnic background take up 4.7% of the Canadian population. Although Chinese immigrants represent a significant part of the Canadian population, how they understand their relationship with Canada has not been studied directly in educational research. In response, this manuscript-based thesis examines the lived experiences of six adult (aged 18 and above) Chinese immigrants who have arrived in Canada and obtained their permanent residency or Canadian citizenship after 2010. Adopting Connelly and Clandinin's narrative inquiry, this study presents stories of participants with the hope to shed light on the process of Chinese immigrants becoming Canadian. Through these presentations, this study attends to the complex relationships participants have gone through in the process of negotiating their acceptance in Canada. Data gathered from two rounds of semi-structured interviews with six recent adult Chinese immigrants living in Ontario and Quebec were interpreted and discussed using Berry's acculturation framework, a critical multiculturalism framework and a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework in three individual research articles. Findings reveal that Chinese immigrants actively participate in social, cultural, political and economic affairs in Canada. Their participation in Canadian society exhibits their acceptance of Canadian cultures and values while living in Canada. Based on these understandings, they offer their suggestions to make Canada a more democratic, just and livable place. Racism, discriminations and stereotypes received from some members of the host society have created tangible damage to their relationship with Canada. Nonetheless, Chinese immigrants express their desire to be included and integrated into Canadian society. These narratives from recent adult Chinese immigrants supplement literature in citizenship education. Policy makers, scholars, educators and the general public should listen to their stories and find more ways to include Chinese immigrants in the building of democracy and multiculturalism in Canada.

Retaining quality teachers is critical to the success of America's schools. How to retain quality teachers, especially in high needs schools, is a question of fervent debate among educational researchers, policy makers, administrators, parents, and students. This study examines the issue of teacher retention from an emic perspective, focused on understanding the perspective of those closest to the retention decision, teachers in hard-to-staff schools. This study examines the lived experiences of four teachers at a hard-to-staff, urban, secondary school as these experiences impact their decisions to remain in teaching and at their current campus. Research methods adopted an existential phenomenological perspective and focused on understanding deeply the perspective of participants and how participants make meaning of their lived experiences as they relate to the retention decision. Three hour-long interviews were conducted with each of the four participants utilizing methodology laid out by Seidman (1991). Data were analyzed using NVIVO 10 to apply a series of coding and recoding procedures to interview transcripts. Conclusions suggest four factors motivated these teachers to teach and remain in their current hard-to-staff, urban, secondary school. These factors include: belief in the power of education, relationships with students, mentoring and professional partnering, and remaining professionally challenged. Findings suggest factors that drive teachers out of teaching and out of hard-to-staff schools include: inconsistent administrative support, low student motivation, and lack of resources.

No description available.

No description available.