published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Chinese Historical Studies / Master / Master of Arts

The purpose of this study was to compare the activities of four policy actors in Arizona with common recommendations of eight task force studies on K-12 public education in an effort to determine changes in policy priorities for education in Arizona from 1981 through 1984. The policy actors investigated were the Arizona State Board of Education, the Arizona Legislature, Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt, and the lobby efforts of the Arizona Education Association. Activities of these four policy actors were compared with common recommendations from The Paideia Proposal--An Educational Manifesto, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, Making the Grade, Action for Excellence--A Comprehensive Plan to Improve Our Nation's Schools, A Place Called School-Prospects for the Future (national reports), Education in Arizona: Popular Concerns Unpopular Choices, A Statewide Report Concerning Public Education, and A Call to Excellence--A Plan for the Renewal of Arizona Public Schools (state reports). A comparative documentary analysis was made of the quantitative and qualitative data gathered. It was found that 17 recommendations were common (consensus of four or more) among the five national and three state reports under consideration: (1) establishing a K-12 core curriculum; (2) upgrading textbooks; (3) increasing the amount of homework required; (4) lengthening the number of days in the school year; (5) providing extra programs for slow learners and gifted students; (6) lengthening the school day; (7) establishing codes of student conduct; (8) improving the use of school time; (9) increasing preschool and kindergarten programs; (10) removing tasks from teachers; (11) improving student attendance; (12) improving teacher preparation programs; (13) increasing teachers' salaries; (14) providing 11-12 month teacher contracts; (15) rewarding superior teachers; (16) evaluating teachers; and (17) defining the principal's role as instructional leader. Using the 17 common recommendations for education policy as a screening device, it was determined that the majority of new education policy in Arizona emanated from the State Legislature from 1981 through 1984. The Arizona State Board of Education seemed second in the amount of influence generated. Governor Bruce Babbitt and the Arizona Education Association played lesser roles as far as successful completion of their respective recommended policies were concerned.

Abstract not available

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 205-208).

In the last ten years, the inclusion of students with special needs in the regular classroom has become common practice in schools in many Canadian provinces (Bunch et al, 1997; Cummins, 2000). This is due to government legislation and policy (Special Education Implementation Review Committee, 2001; Valentine, 2001). The difference between policy and actual practice can be studied through analysis of implementation at the school level (Taylor et al, 1997; Duemer and Mendez-Morse, 2002). The issues of identity of teachers, principles, other staff, parents and students have been found to impact stakeholders' self-efficacy and decision making regarding inclusion (Cable, 2004; Chenoweth and Stehlik, 2004; Dyches et al, 2004; Avramidas et al, 2002). Power relationships between stakeholders develop in response to a change such as inclusive policy at the school level (Kugelmass, 2001; Pearson, 2000; Hargreaves, 1992; Blase and Anderson, 1995). / This study aimed to study the process of inclusion as it developed alongside identity and power relationships in a relatively new school with a strong cultural mandate. Students with special needs have been found to have additional difficulties due to cultural, linguistic, and economic challenges at the school level (Manyak, 2002; Hanson and Gutierrez, 1997; McCray and Garcia, 2002). The school in this study faced these challenges as well, due to their mandate to develop minority culture in a hegemonic English environment. / This study is an ethnographic case study of one school as it developed over the period of a year, in its early years of implementing an inclusion policy as set out by the provincial government. Through interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, data were gathered, and analysed continuously using the 'constant comparative method' of Glasser and Strauss (1967). This grounded theory approach led to a theory elaboration of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social organization (1996, 1992, 1986, 1982). Bourdieu's notions of habitus, capital, and field were applied to inclusion, and the results brought new insight into the relationship between individual and group experiences of school for all stakeholders involved in inclusion. / Thesis ([PhDEducation])--University of South Australia, 2005.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1986. / Bibliography: leaves 58-60.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1987. / Bibliography: leaves 96-99.

Thesis (Ph.D.(Education Management and Policy Studies))-University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.