Few qualitative studies have been done in Cambodia, a country held hostage by the murderous Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Still struggling to recover from these atrocities, Cambodia looks to education to aid in its redevelopment. This ethnographically-informed case study describes the professional literacy life of a female Cambodian primary school teacher in the post Pol Pot era. This study describes this womans professional and personal life as she strives to build literacy in a small village. Her work is considered in the context of her colleagues and village. Additionally, the research portrays forces that impact literacy development, ways in which literacy is exhibited in this village, juxtaposing one Cambodian teachers literacy practice with the community literacies that surround her. Using both Paulo Freires work and a feminist lens as suggested by Sara Lawrence- Lightfoot, field work was conducted in Cambodia using a variety of data sources: observations, interviews, a focus group, casual conversations, and document analysis. Analyzing these data using the Portraiture Approach resulted in a complex picture of this teachers professional life within the village and school and of ways literacy is shared in rural areas of the developing country. Findings from this case study reveal a rich foundation on which to build literacy within Cambodian while also addressing the needs voiced by this participant teacher and her fellow rural teachers. Based on this research, specific recommendations are suggested to Cambodian officials seeking to develop a literate nation and other recommendations are made for those United States agencies and nongovernmental organizations interested in assisting Cambodian teachers and schools.

The purpose of this explanatory study was to examine levels of spirituality self-reported by collegiate student-athletes participating in individual and team sports. Student-athletes levels of spirituality were measured using Astins (2004) College Students Beliefs and Values Survey (CSBV). Conceptually, this study was grounded in the works of Fowler (1981) and Parks (2000), leading researchers in measuring spiritual development. The sample of student-athletes was taken from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, a large, doctoral granting, high research activity, NCAA Division I institution. The data for this study was collected at the end of the spring semester on April 27, 2009 at a presentation on the balance between student and athlete with a particular focus on life after athletics in terms of career choices. The CSBV survey was administered prior to the speakers presentation. Of the 338 student-athletes who attended the presentation and were given a survey, 226 completed the CSBV survey and 200 were included in the study. Student affairs researchers have recently begun to focus on the roles of religion and faith as legitimate areas for analysis (Love & Talbot, 1999; Love, 2001; Chickering et al., 2006). With calls from UCLAs Higher Education Research Institute and Chickering et al. (2006) to research trends in contemporary college students spiritual development processes, the time was ripe to examine the self-reported levels of spirituality of student-athletes. While results of this study were not statistically significant in regard to finding differences between groups of student-athletes participating in team and individual sports, findings indicating student-athletes are developing spiritually in college were significant. Student-athletes in the current study reported higher mean scores in half of the subscales measured by the CSBV survey as compared to Astins (2007) original sample population of college students nationwide. This particular finding is critical to this study, in that it solidifies the fact that student-athletes are developing spiritually and reporting higher mean scores than the average student body. Implications resulting from this finding include a need for higher education administrators to provide opportunities for spiritual development to collegiate student-athletes and to monitor this developmental process throughout student-athletes collegiate careers.

Hip-hop music and its place in education has been thoroughly researched over the last two decades by many scholars and educators from all over the world. This research paper discusses hip-hops merit in the classroom, building upon prior research from books and journal articles, along with my own research that I conducted with students at a southern Louisiana high school. Educators in the field of language arts must find new methods when it comes to teaching our youth and leave behind many of the traditional ways that previous generations were accustomed to. The idea of hip-hop in education, in this paper, is that it is a genre of not only music, but also history and it is able to teach, promote discussion, and make connections to students lives in a realistic way. Hip-hop can also parallel classic literature and can serve as a model for discussing current and historic events. This research was conducted over a 4 month span, but in all actuality, the process of reviewing the literature to concluding results takes place over a years time. Hip-hop can be a discourse that teaches youth through not only lyrics, but also from a historic and pop cultural perspective. The intentions of this paper are to make its readers aware of the power of hip-hop and its ability to engage our youth and keep them interested school and promote encouragement and enlightenment.

This study explored reading strategy-based reading instruction using science expository text between grades 2-5. The exploration revealed that elementary teachers used a variety of reading strategies using expository text for science instruction in grades 2-5, and that time barriers exist for strategy-based instruction using informational text. Spradleys (1980) Developmental Reading Sequence, interviews, observations, and case studies of elementary science teachers in grades 2-5 were research techniques utilized for this study. This study centered on case studies of six elementary teachers and how they used reading strategies during science instruction. The findings of the study revealed that although the teachers use of expository text was limited during this study, the teachers utilized reading strategies that extended and elaborated the students oral discussions during science instruction. The classroom conversations about science topics extended the students background knowledge of the science concepts that related to science expository text materials in grades 2-5. This study revealed that the teachers in this study were concerned with the readability level of the science texts that are available in grades 2-5, and that time barriers that exist for science instruction during the school day. Implications for further research may include alignment of reading strategy instruction with science instruction using printed materials that are matched with the students instructional reading levels. Implications for further research include delving into why time is a barrier for science instruction related to expository text in the elementary grades. Further research may include how teachers can align the basal reader expository text selections with the science curriculum in elementary grades.

This study is primarily designed to address the relationships between teachers beliefs, attitudes, anxiety, perceptions and barriers with respect to their use of technology in promoting students learning. Unlike most previous studies of technology integration, this study is conducted at a gender specific, technology-rich, religious-based private school. In addition the study aims at identifying the various levels of technology adoption of teachers in this technology rich school environment and potentially suggesting why or why not the different levels are observed. Teachers in general nationwide have increased their technology integration and adoption over the past five years, although they still do not have access to technology they need to use technology fully in their instruction. However for the school currently under research, the technology integration trend goes as far back as a decade well before the enactment of the No Child Left behind (NCLB) act of 2001. While teachers in general nationwide continue to use traditional sources for their technology training, they also continue to perceive and experience moderate barriers that prevent their use of technology. Data collection for this study included surveys, interviews and document reviews for teachers and administrators. The results from this study indicate that the level of technology adoption by the teachers is inversely related to barriers experienced when using technology and anxiety towards the use of technology. The study also revealed that both school support and school environment positively make an impact on the level of technology adoption by the teachers into their instructions.

Teachers face increasing demands in the twenty-first century as they engage with students, administrators, coworkers, staff, and parents. High demands and stressors may generate feelings of emotional exhaustion in educators. If left ignored or untreated the emotional exhaustion may eventually lead to burnout and impairment. This prospectus highlights a study designed to explore a preventative option to mitigate the experience of stress felt by student teachers through a structured, guided mindfulness training practice: loving kindness meditation.

Sciences are critical in nursing education to aid the nurse in understanding health and disease processes. Accrediting bodies for nursing education have emphasized that educators teach in ways that encourage critical thinking and, therefore, produce safe-practicing, competent nurse graduates. Nursing care plans best reflect nursing educations central goals. Because of its longevity of use and familiarity, in this study, the nursing care plan was used as a proxy for nursing sciences learning objectives. This research was a study of the nursing care plan as an indicator for change in nursing science education in the United States to determine if change has occurred, using historical research methods supplemented with phenomenological data analysis. Because historical nursing care plan archives were non-existent, historical nursing textbooks were used to track the care plans evolution. Key findings included: (a) there is a disconnect between care plan instructional goals and their application in real-world nursing; (b) care plans open a new window for science education research on the state of nursing instruction; (c) nursing care plans were shown to have emphasized higher order thinking skills for over 80 years; and (d) the nursing care plan has been expanded from one concentrated patient study to three with a subsequent loss of student focus.

The present research was designed to address principals perceptions of meeting vision and collaboration standards in alternative schools. A multiple case study was used to accomplish the goals of this study. The objective and questions of this research pertains to school leaders behavior, knowledge, and performance within the context of a school leadership situation. Ecological theory framed this study as it refers to a students life within and outside of the school walls. The six research questions were formed and the basis of this exploration of two alternative school principals and contributes to an eventual portrait of the importance of school within a childs ecosystem. The leaders had a story to tell and this qualitative research study allows for the principals to divulge this story. Specifically, this qualitative research study was designed to contribute to the knowledge base of how Performance Standards and Indicators for Education Leaders (ISLLC) standard one, mission/vision, and standard four, parent/community relations, were being met by two Louisiana alternative school principals. One of the seven themes that emerged from this research provided a spotlight on the principals and school interaction with the childs ecosystem school structures/discipline. The school structure/discipline was a consistent result from the data and consisted of student discipline referral system, student movement throughout the day, orientation process, and other administrative driven procedures designed to focus strictly on behavior policies. In this study, discipline permeated school operation. These principals fell short with meeting the two ISLLC standards most associated with the childs ecosystem, and thus struggled with supporting the childs ecosystem. The findings from this study did not indicate a great connection between the actions of individuals in the school and to the standards. Specifically, ISLLC standard one, mission and vision, were discussed but did not guide the school.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the role of race in cross-race advising relationships between White faculty advisors and their Black doctoral student protégés. I examined the racial context of doctoral education experiences and relationships between doctoral students and faculty. Blacks with doctoral degrees comprise only 0.3% of those 18 years and older and only 3.5% of those with doctoral degrees (U.S. Census, 2000). Although there has been an increase in the number of Blacks enrolling in doctoral programs (Cook & Cordova, 2006), Nettles and Millett (2006) found that Blacks and Latin Americans have higher attrition rates compared to Asian American, international, and White doctoral students. The sample included Black doctoral students at one research extensive (McCormick, 2001) predominantly White institution (PWI) in the South and their White faculty advisors. The final sample resulted in seven White faculty members and seven Black doctoral students for a total of 14 matched participants or seven cross-race, matched pairs. Data were collected using an open-ended protocol and interviews lasted 60 to 90 minutes each. Participants were also allowed to email other thoughts and follow-up questions were sent to some participants for clarification. Related to race, both faculty and students employed applying racial caution or their reluctance to discuss racial and other polarized issues (e.g., politics). However, students dissertation topics on race allowed for open discussions on race between faculty and student. Another theme, critical lived experiences, emerged as the concept that those faculty members who were most reflective or whose student felt was highly, culturally competent had some previous experience where they were faced with racial realizations or a critical event or discussion related to race. One other significant finding was racial currency. While many of the students spoke to their race as a liability (e.g., perspectives of being undervalued), faculty saw the students race as both leverage (i.e., being sought after in the job market) and liability (i.e., being second-guessed after a job hire). While students reported that race was not a factor in advisor preference, same-race connections during the doctoral process were critical to their success.

This qualitative study sought to provide a general perception of admissions offices of secondary institutions have toward the Diploma Program through a grounded theory approach. The first goal of the study investigated the nature of credit awards for a students high school academic performance. Specific attention was paid to the processes institutions use for determining credit awards, policies associated with credit awards, and perceptions related credit awards. The second goal investigated admissions policies, processes, and perceptions associated with credit awards and the DP specifically. Finally, the third goal sought to illustrate the development and/or changes in the perceptions and actions admissions offices have in relation to the DP. Twenty institutions were randomly selected from US News & World Reports Top 50 American Colleges. Institutions first completed a guiding question instrument that was followed by a telephone/email interview further investigating emerging understandings. Data gathered from these avenues were continually cross-compared and then triangulated with information found on each institutions admissions websites, general catalogues, and other publicity type publications. Theoretical explanations for the phenomena of university perceptions and actions were generated through coded data, established categories, and memoing of relationships.