The aim of this research was to examine the teacher’s facilitative role to engage students in Values Education (Curriculum Council, 1998) based on a cooperative and collaborative learning pedagogy. The study was conducted in a primary school classroom with thirty-one year 4/5 students aged 9-10 years of age. During the research process the core shared values underpinning the Western Australian Curriculum Framework (Curriculum Council, 1998) provided the foundation to negotiate agreements for behaviour based on The Tribes process (Gibbs, 2001), which included mutual respect, in order to foster a safe, supportive and democratic classroom culture. The Tribes process was used to operationalise the teaching of values, social skills, cooperation and collaboration. Hart’s (1992) collaborative framework informed the organisation of the classroom to create the conditions that supported collaboration amongst peers and the teacher. An action research approach was used to reflect on the classroom context and provide a focus for a range of qualitative research methods. Multiple data sources such as teacher observations, interviews, student and teacher reflection logs and sociograms were used to triangulate findings from parents, students and teachers. A sociocultural perspective (Vygotsky, 1978) provided the conceptual framework for this study as the underlying assumption is that students learn from each other, mediated by the teacher or more capable peers. The focus on the action within the social context during the development of interpersonal relationships is a key feature of peer mediated learning, which complemented the processes chosen by the teacher researcher to elucidate how a safe, supportive and democratic classroom was created. Class meetings, group work and reflective practices were used to scaffold students’ understandings of interpersonal relationships to promote a culture that was consistent with Australia’s democratic traditions. Reflective practices in the classroom provided opportunities for new perspectives to be developed, as new knowledge and experiences were integrated with existing personal practical knowledge. The major findings reflected the foci of student and teacher conversations about students’ interpersonal skills and their ability to get along with each other. In the first phase of the study establishing positive ‘relationships’ based on trust, through teambuilding activities provided the impetus for the next phase of the study about ‘leadership’. This phase continued for most of the study, and provided authentic opportunities for students to develop leadership skills, which permeated the last phase of the study about ‘friendships’. Students established mutually beneficial relationships that broadened their views about discriminatory behaviours, friendship and leadership. The major conclusions drawn from the study is that teachers play a significant role in mediating positive relationships amongst peers. Further, it was evident that the explicit teaching of core shared values (Curriculum Council, 1998) provided the foundations of productive and active citizenship during the process of creating the conditions for a safe, supportive and democratic classroom.

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Latina survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) experience IPV at similar rates as other ethnic groups. However, the intersection of multiple cultural factors, including acculturation, can greatly influence a woman’s experience of IPV. For example, research suggests that Latinas experience unique forms of control and unique barriers to service in addition to positive coping. Nevertheless, a scarcity of culturally relevant interventions plagues the IPV field. Moreover, evaluations of such programs are remarkably scarce in the research literature. The current study evaluates an innovative peer leadership intervention, the Líderes program, which is grounded in a self-empowerment framework. The Líderes program is a peer education leadership initiative that taps into the natural leadership skills of Latinas. Although the effectiveness of similar peer leadership models addressing public and occupational health concerns, education outcomes, and nursing leadership can be found in the literature, this is the first documented attempt to include survivors of IPV as participants in such a program. The study used a mixed methods design. The quantitative component included a multiple baseline research design including nine participants. The survey measured variables related to leadership development and a facilitator rating was utilized to measure behavioral change. The qualitative component included analysis of journals written by the participants documenting their experience of the program. Results revealed that the Líderes curriculum was effective in influencing the self-empowerment of participants across the intrapersonal, interactional, and behavioral domains of leadership. The qualitative results supported this finding and provided evidence for the important role of a supportive environment for this change to occur. The Líderes training program is the first training program for Latina community leaders who are also survivors of IPV. This study highlights the advantages of a peer-intervention training program as a way to develop existing strengths among Latina survivors of IPV.

Drug use and misuse among young people in Australia has caused concern throughout the community and has prompted nationwide action to address the problem. One component of intervention strategies with young people is drug education. Drug education in Australia represents an international philosophy of prevention and takes a harm minimisation approach to intervention. One strategy that has had international success in the area of drug education with young people, and that has been used effectively in health education in Australia since the 1970s, is peer education. Peer drug education involves young people conducting drug education sessions with their peers. An example of peer drug education in Australia is the Teenagers Teaching Teenagers' (Triple T) program, conducted in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Evaluations and descriptions of peer drug education programs tend to focus more on outcomes pertaining to program recipients and fail to explore in detail the specific experience of peer leaders. Existing research on the experience of peer leadership does not explore in detail the personal experience of leaders, that being the effect of peer leadership training and duties on leaders' personal perceptions of drugs, their behaviour with drugs and their own feelings and skills. This thesis explores the personal experience of a group of peer leaders who participated in the Triple T program in 1994. It considers their perceptions of the program at the time of training and then goes on to explore the impact of this experience on their formulation of ideas about drugs to the present day. The thesis is a qualitative project which utilises in-depth interviewing and focus groups to gather data and then presents a thematic analysis of participant response. The thesis asks two research questions, 1. What do young men and women involved in the Triple T program take from the experience of peer leadership training and duties? 2. In what way does the Triple T' experience appear to contribute to the development of drug related ideas of these young people in the two years following involvement in the program? The findings suggest that the participants gained information, skills and personal development from the training and generally found it to be a positive experience. However, participants distanced themselves personally from a substantial amount of the training content and did not personally reflect on the training content to any great extent at the time of training. Training processes and some aspects of leadership duties more personally affected them, although again there was personal distancing from this part of the program. In exploring the findings there was difficulty determining the influence of the training experience due to participant reluctance to attribute influence to any one source on the formulation of ideas. Instead, participants describe a complex interaction of influences on the formulation of ideas about drugs and a process which involves maintaining control, upholding the notion of informed choice and incorporating ideas about drugs into the formation of an adult identity. Influences on these ideas include the training, actual experiences with drugs and observations of others. The thesis exploration suggests that being involved in peer drug education does impact on peer leaders but this experience was not personalised to any great degree at the time of training. However, in the following two years, participants called on the training information as well as other influences as they formed their ideas about drugs. The thesis raises some issues of how to maximise leaders' personal connection to the peer drug education process, if this is in fact a desired outcome of peer education. It also suggests the need for further research into the experience of peer leaders who seem to have remained the least considered party in the peer education movement.

Although the concept of culturally responsive practices (CRP) began in the 1990’s, intentional study and professional development varies across schools and districts with limited impact on sustained pedagogical efficacy and shift, which is particularly concerning during the current socio-political climate. This phenomenological case study examined the impact on participants studying culturally responsive practices in peer led professional learning communities as a blueprint to feasibly address adult skill gaps. The study centers on four core questions on the impact of the initiative in general, the ability of participants to address implicit bias, the use of peer facilitation, and additional unforeseen factors related to this method of learning. Each participant ultimately indicated significant growth by moving from a technical approach to adaptive and cognitive shifts within the 6-month study, increased emphasis on reflective practice and elevated urgency to address culturally non-responsive practices. Finally, core conditions for successful implementation of peer-led professional learning communities studying culturally responsive practices are discussed. Schools and districts who recognize the need for staff to improve in cultural proficiency have few excuses pertaining to their ability to engage in this critical work, provided they have the courage and will to address implicit bias and culturally non-responsive pedagogy which negatively impacts BIPOC students across the nation and world.

The following dissertation is comprised of three manuscripts presenting a theory-to-practice design for studying the nature of knowledge change. Knowledge change—as defined for this dissertation—is an exploration of the quantitative and qualitative change in how knowledge is used over a period of time. Knowledge change is derived from the broader scholarship on conceptual change; that is, how people develop, organize, and then re-organize knowledge (Vosniadou, 2013). Conceptual change has been widely used to describe the cognitive process behind how a novice acquires and organizes knowledge in order to become an expert (Carey, 1985), particularly in the hard sciences (e.g. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, or 'STEM' subjects) (Vosniadou, 2008, 2013). However, more recent research has been dedicated to establishing the need to explore conceptual change in the social sciences (Murphy and Alexander, 2008). The present research was designed to explore knowledge change as one specific component of the conceptual change process. The research is presented in three manuscripts. The first manuscript details how the researcher blended conceptual change learning with the disciplinary domain of the present study, leadership studies. The second manuscript chronicles the design of a continuous case study, the primary tool for data collection used in the present study, as well as the methodology used. The third and final manuscript offers an overview of the first study undertaken using the collected data; that is, an exploration of the nature of knowledge change within an undergraduate peer leadership course. / Ph. D.

Chronic conditions are public health threats. The Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) is an evidence-based disease management program that addresses personal self-management of chronic conditions. The CDSMP involves peer trainers who instruct and assist with chronic disease preventive measures. Although disease management demonstrates promise to improving patient self-maintenance, previous researchers have not evaluated how the program affects program leaders. The purpose of this study was to discover how self-help leaders feel about the CDSM program. The overarching research question asked about perspectives that self-help leaders had toward the program. Through a narrative qualitative approach, the perceptions of peer leaders were examined to determine if the program was personally beneficial. Guided by the social cognitive theory, a purposeful convenience sample of 20 participants completed the study. The participants were practicing peer trainers in the CDSMP program. Data analysis included hand coding using open and axial coding and content analysis. Study findings included themes surrounding how the CDSMP program benefits health in general as well as the management of facilitators' own chronic diseases, health behaviors, and increased quality of life. The ability for chronic disease management leaders to experience positive effects of the program they administer may result in positive social change. This awareness can positively affect social change by enhancing an already established evidence-based community health program with stronger and better-equipped leaders.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship of participation and involvement in an undergraduate student success program to academic success and persistence among students in three programs sponsored by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB): the G-Force Collegiate Work-Study Mentorship Program, the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) for Higher Education (AHE) program, and the THECB work-study program. The sample was identified using data from the THECB during the 2009-2013 academic years. Compared to THECB work-study students, significantly more AHE and G-Force students persisted toward graduation while engaged in the program (p < .001). ANOVA indicated that AHE students had a higher average GPA compared to G-Force and THECB work-study students, controlled for gender, race/ethnicity, pre-program GPA, and length of time in the position. Regression analyses found no statistically significant relationship between program associations and persistence towards graduation or GPA. Results suggest that although participation in a peer leadership programs such as AHE and G-Force encourage greater academic achievement and persistence, there is no direct relation to the achievement of these outcome variables. Implications of the study suggest the need for a deeper analysis into elements of peer leadership programs that contribute to student success, an expanded analysis of outcomes across a wider range of demographic variables, and an exploration of peer leadership programs across campuses for comparison of persistence and GPA outcomes.

No description available.