ABSTRACT “SURVIVAL IS NOT AN ACADEMIC SKILL”: EXPLORING HOW AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMALE GRADUATES OF A PRIVATE BOARDING SCHOOL CRAFT AN IDENTITY by Tiffany Simpkins Russell This qualitative study explores the private boarding school experiences of eight African American female graduates, the forms of identity they crafted and the survival skills they developed while navigating this unique terrain. A life history methodology grounded in the womanist tradition was used to develop a portrait of the women’s experiences using their personal narratives as well as integrating my own. Data collection methods included archival research of historical documents related to the private school, Personal History Interview of the primary researcher, Individual Life History interviews of each of the women, and a Group Conversation with the participants. Narrative analysis (Labov, 1997) and Brown and Gilligan’s Listener’s Guide (1992) were used to analyze the women’s narratives and revealed a set of four significant “creative essences.” A “creative essence” is defined as “a proactive, unique, and individual path to inner fulfillment” (Davis, 1998, p. 493). These essences elucidate the survival skills the women employed at various times in their academic careers to cope with sexism, racism, marginalization and invisibility in an injurious environment. The emergent “creative essences” are: 1) Asserting Blackness; 2) Creating Safe Spaces; 3) Finding Voice and Embracing Loudness; 4) Relying on Sistafriends. These “creative essences” are explored in detail using examples from the female respondents’ narratives, the scholarship on African American women’s strength and resilience and African American literature. Implications for educational practice and future research endeavors are discussed.

Education in the United States is transforming to accommodate children in general education with a diverse range of needs and learning profiles. Occupational therapists are equipped to provide these students with the skills, strategies, and tools to fully participate in their education. Independent schools have a unique ability to provide differentiation, but often do not have an occupational therapist on staff. Without differentiation, students may not be able to perform to their full potential. Factors contributing to this include inadequate preservice training for teachers, a lack of knowledge of the role and scope of occupational therapy, and the absence of a federal mandate to accommodate students with varying learning profiles. AccessED is a service delivery program that was created to address this gap. Teacher education, a multi-tiered system of support, and collaborative consultation with an occupational therapist are incorporated into the program. The instructional content is based on the identified needs of the school. Structured teacher education sessions utilize case studies, skill-building, group problem solving, and reflection. The intended functional outcome for AccessED is implementation of differentiation in the classroom for increased student outcomes.

In recent years there have been a number of pieces of research published which suggest that the phenomenon of self-harm in adolescence is increasing (Hall & Place, 2010, Beauchaine et al.,2014, Garcıa-Nieto et al., 2015). Heath et al., (2006) found that a majority of school teachers shared this view. In their study, 74% of teachers reported a first-hand encounter with self-injury. The subject of self-harm is also receiving more media coverage in mainstream newspapers and magazines (Dutta, 2015 & Money-Coutts, 2015), suggesting a rise in public consciousness about mental health issues such as self-harm. The extent of mental health problems amongst adolescents has also been publicly acknowledged by the Department of Health, who state that “Over half of mental health problems in adult life (excluding dementia) start by the age of 14 and seventy-five per cent by age 18” (2015:9). Research into adolescent self-harm has suggested that the most likely age for adolescents to commence self-harm is within the 10-15 years age bracket (Garcıa-Nieto et al., 2015 & Hanania et al., 2015) demonstrating that many adolescents are self-harming at an age where they are expected to be in school for the majority of their time. However, in studies of teachers, a ‘patchy' awareness of self-harm has been demonstrated (Best, 2005a; 2005b), and a lack of ability to know how best to deal with the situation, should it present itself, has been acknowledged by teachers in a number of research articles (Hall & Place 2010; Heath et al. 2006 and Kidger et al., 2010). This issue was discussed further in my Critical Analytical Study (Margrett, 2014). This study is guided by two main questions; firstly, “what are the experiences of independent school staff of pupil disclosures of self-harm?” and secondly, “how well equipped do independent school staff feel to deal with pupil disclosures of self-harm?” Interviews with four subject teachers, two housemistresses, and a school matron were conducted as a participant researcher within one girls' independent boarding school. The interviews were analysed through the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers and Larkin, 2013) and findings were synthesised with some of the key concepts found in the work of Foucault (1982; 1977/1991) concerning discourses of power, knowledge and truth. Five main superordinate themes emerged from the analysis of the data: knowledge and awareness of self-harm; reasons why pupils have self-harmed; the hidden nature of self-harm; personal responses to self-harm disclosure by staff; lack of training and support; and reasons for participating. The study finds that within the small sample interviewed, the participants demonstrated a lack of confidence in their own understanding of the term ‘self-harm', but a wide experience of pupil self-harm disclosures. It suggests the need for the training of all staff, not just key pastoral staff, in dealing with pupil disclosures of self-harm; and the requirement for schools to develop a self-harm policy (Robinson et al., 2008) and clear guidelines for referral and follow-up of disclosures of self-harm. It also supports the concept of supervision style meetings for school staff to have the ability to discuss their own anxieties and concerns about pupil behaviour (Best, 2005a & 2005b). Finally, the study examines how staff and parental avoidance of self-harm can lead to the development of concentric circles of complicit secrecy surrounding the pupil who is self-harming. It considers how ‘over-parenting' and ‘spoon-feeding' of educational concepts may be damaging pupils' ability to manage their fear of failure and suggests that this may lead to a lack of resilience and a lack of an ability to deal with problems effectively (Lahey, 2015) particularly when pupils feel that they do not conform to the accepted norms of society (Foucault, 1977/ 1991).

Scientists almost unanimously claim that the efficiency of music learning of students is mostly determined by the active methods of music teaching, educational means of impact and factors. This research paper is dedicated to the analysis of more active employment of music learning possibilities among the seventh and eighth form students in a private secondary school. The first part of the paper discusses the concept of pedagogical activity and its peculiarities. It also provides the description of global private schools’ practice. In the second part, the didactic principles, methods which predicate the active musical education, educational means of impact and factors which enable a student to participate actively are discussed. The peculiarities of more active music learning during the adolescence period and basic peculiarities of a private secondary school students’ activeness are described. In the third part of the MA paper the results of the empirical survey are reported. The aim of the survey was to examine the activity of music learning among seventh and eighth form students and to identify its causes in both state and private secondary schools. The findings have shown that students from private schools have more responsible attitudes towards the lessons of music, they participate more actively in music classes, a teacher adopts the active methods of music teaching more frequently, the relation between the teacher and students is more friendly, the atmosphere is... [to full text]

This dissertation is a compilation of three studies related to public school choice issues. Chapter 2 examines whether access to public schools of choice influences a household’s decision to choose private school for their child. I employ a multistate, individual-level data-set on students and their families — for which I have been granted access to restricted geo-code information. I supplement these data by matching students with their respective school districts using geographic information systems (GIS); I then examine whether relative measures of public school choice (PSC) in a school district influence the household’s public-private school decision. I find slight evidence that households respond to general measures of choice, though the implied effects appear to be trivial. Conditional on the presence of either PSC type of school in a district, I find more consistently significant crowd-out effects for competition measures from magnet schools, while charter school measures elicit stronger private-sector crowd-out effects, roughly three times those of the respective magnet school measures. Chapter 3 examines the statewide educational policies and student, household, and school district-level attributes that influence the demand for interdistrict and intra-district public schools of choice. In the context of a multinomial probit model, I also estimate the demand for private school as a third alternative to attending an assigned school. I find evidence to suggest that households substitute between intra-district and interdistrict schools of choice.. I also find that mobility patterns may significantly increase the probability a household opts out of district. Chapter 4 is an exploratory analysis that examines the qualities that distinguish school districts as net-losers, net-keepers, or net- gainers of students in their public schools. In particular, I examine how public schools of choice affect the net flow of students across the public sector. I find that charter schools appear to locate in districts that are net-losers of students, where students are opting into private school. I also find evidence to suggest that net-loser districts may signal better quality school districts with more diverse options available to facilitate positive student-school matches.

In this thesis, I argue that a nationalized private school – publicly financed voucher system (PRS / PFV system) of education provides a solution to the current problems plaguing the American public education system. Although previous arguments focus on a privatized system being more efficient than the current public system, I will not focus on this issue in my discussion. Despite criticism of privatized education systems by multiple empirical analyses, I do not fully engage the empirical literature here. As there has never been a nationalized private school – publicly funded voucher system like the one supported here, there is no direct empirical evidence that provides reason not to support such a system. Rather, my discussion is purely theoretical and will only briefly address some of the prospective theoretical concerns that are raised by the empirical research.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 237-244).

Emotional awareness refers to a person's ability to identify and describe one's emotions and the emotions of others. It assists people to manage and control their emotions and is an important skill underlying effective psychosocial functioning. Emotional awareness is a core component of emotional intelligence. For children, the capacity for emotional intelligence and emotional awareness can hold advantages such as enhancing their interpersonal and communication skills, academic performance, coping skills and self-esteem. Emotional awareness can thus assist children with their adjustment to and academic performance in school. Emotional awareness is regarded as a skill that can be taught to children. The goal of this study was thus to evaluate an emotional awareness programme that was developed for children in middle childhood within the educational setting (Knoetze, 2012). The study was based on a quantitative research approach. A quasi-experimental comparison group pre-test post-test research design was followed, according to which the effect of the programme could be determined by comparing pre-test and post-test data of an experimental and a comparison group. The respondents were children in middle childhood attending a private school for learners with learning disabilities. A standardised measuring instrument, the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale for Children (LEAS-C) was used to collect data. / Mini Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Social Work and Criminology / MSW / Unrestricted

In this essay we discuss how the decentralisation of the Swedish school system affects the concept of “equal opportunity school”. We investigate the development from both a historical and contemporary perspective, in order to identify changes over time. The central question of the essay is how the decentralisation of the school system affects the teacher’s perspective and experiences of the government’s framework about “equal opportunity school”? The analysis is based on four qualitative, semi structured, direct interviews with respondents both active in municipal schools situated in the Malmö council and with more than thirty years of experience in their profession.Our analysis of the interviews show that both respondents experience the overall situation in the schools has deteriorated from an equal opportunity aspect since the decentralisation of the school system. We discuss the individual pupil’s situation from Bourdieu’s concept, habitus and how it affects the pupil’s experiences and behaviour in school and also how the school contributes to shape the pupil’s habitus. Furthermore we argue that the new form of evaluation has affected the quality of the school system and that it has increased the public tension regarding public schools. The final result of the essay is that the Swedish school system does not provide an “equal opportunity school” and that it has become more segregated after the decentralisation process. According to the results of the essay the school system may once again be reformed from a municipal towards a private system. The rift between the municipal schools and the private schools appear to widen and since it hitherto has been harder to evaluate the private schools it is not unlikely that the standard of an “equal opportunity school” disappears in the future and that the school policy framework has to be revised.

The purpose of this study was to learn how men and women who do not have an initial career goal of becoming a college or university president end up in such a position.The study was to gather information on the internal and external influences on that career path, and how each participant fits within presidential career patterns presented by Wessel (1991).A qualitative case study method was used for this study. The participants were chosen based on their institutions' membership in the Virginia Foundation forIndependent Colleges (VFIC), thus all participants were from private institutions in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Twelve of the 15 VFIC presidents were interviewed; two declined participation; and one institution had an interim president at the time of the study.Each president submitted a copy of his/her curriculum vitae for review and analysis, and each president was then placed into one of the variations of the Academic or the Administrative Career Patterns presented by Wessel (1991). Additional data was collected through personal in-depth interviews with each participant, and an interview guide approach was used in each of the interviews.The results indicate that there is no single career path that leads to a presidency.Presidents experienced both external and internal influences on their career paths and these varied in strength of influence based on the individual. Several other factors were also explored including: role of the family, preparations for a presidency and institutional search process.There are several implications for future research based on the findings of this study. The first of these is continued research into the debate of preparation either through the academic model or the administrative model. The second need for expanded research is the role of the family in the career path of college and university presidents. Finally the issue of the need for a Ph.D. is a point for further investigation.