Public school students across the United States have been criminalized for minor youth behavior issues such as truancy, defiance, and minor fighting incidents. The presence of law enforcement is expanding in school spaces, increasing the likelihood of young students facing court systems for minor offenses. Criminalization of students is counterproductive considering schools are designed to promote student growth and development. Little is known about how students and parents experience school criminalization. The purpose of this multi-case study, based on Freire's conceptual framework of critical consciousness, was to investigate how a small group of families experienced school criminalization. Three families of youths who had been criminalized for minor school offences were recruited using community partners as referral sources. Interviews were conducted with parents using a semi-structured protocol, and data were also obtained from school and court records provided by parents. Data were triangulated, summarized as case descriptions, member checked, and then cross-theme analyzed based on Gibbs and Taylor's approach for emergent themes. Study results demonstrated that these families felt trapped between two institutions and experienced fear and frustration trying to deal with both systems. Participants also recommended ways parents and schools might improve discipline for minor offences. This study will influence social change by informing school and juvenile justice discipline policy reform about working with two systems in managing student behavior concerns. In addition, the interview protocol can be used by human services professionals to help improve understanding of clients faced with school criminalization issues.

The growing number of language minority students graduating from a U.S. high school and entering college has motivated many studies. These students are often referred to as Generation 1.5, a term that loosely indicates they arrived in this country at an early age and had most of their education in U.S. K-12 settings. The studies that have focused on this population often group refugees with other immigrants. Although refugees may not have arrived in this country at an early age, those coming from war torn countries as teenagers have often had their formal education interrupted in their home countries with the result that schooling in the U.S. comprises most, if not all, of their education. The purpose of the current study was to investigate how refugee students experience academic literacy practices in their first year of college, the challenges they face in this process, and the resources and strategies they use to cope with postsecondary reading and writing demands. In order to carry out this investigation, a qualitative year-long multiple-case study (Duff, 2008) was conducted. Participants were seven refugee students attending a small liberal arts college. Data collection involved interviews with the focal participants and faculty, class observations, and written documents. Findings revealed that all seven participants were successful completing their first year in college, passing all the classes they registered for. At the same time, the day-to-day struggle to keep up and cope with reading and writing assignments presented these students with several challenges resulting from their still developing English language proficiency, lack of background knowledge, and unfamiliarity with academic genres, to name a few sources of difficulty. These challenges were offset by the motivation showed by the seven participants and their ability in developing coping strategies and drawing upon the resources made available to them. Repeated use of resources and uncritical acceptance of support, however, sometimes yielded undesirable results. The findings indicate that many of the strategies used by the participants involved peers, tutors, and professors who, within the supportive college environment, offered these students the assistance they needed.

Fatherlessness seems to have instigated a growing political and social debate in recent years (Daniels, 1998). At the core of this debate lies the questions of whether fatherlessness today is more widespread than it has been historically, and whether the necessity and efficacy of fathers is important in the changing landscape of family paradigms (Daniels, 1998). In the last thirty years, research has defined fatherlessness in terms of parental marital status, father abandonment, and father death (Daniels, 1998; Gallagher, 1998; Popenoe, 1996). Some psychoanalysts extended the definition to include the emotional absence (Blundell, 2002), or emotional unavailability of the father (Lamb & Tamis-LeMonda, 2004). Research suggests that children raised by both biological parents have greater socio-economic success (McLanahan & Teitler, 1999), seem to have an intellectual advantage (Research Center for Minority Data, 2009), and are less prone to encounter emotional problems than single-parented children (Cockett and Tripp, 1994). These factors reflect the deficit model of fatherlessness that dominated child development research prior to the 1970s (Hawkins and Dollahite, 1997). More current research focused on the benefits of father involvement and purported that fathers who are more involved in the lives of their children (Day & Lamb, 2004; Pleck & Masciadrelli, 2004), and make themselves more emotionally available tend to raise children with fewer emotional problems and better overall mental health (Lum & Phares, 2005). With society producing what some refer to as a fatherless generation (Hydrate Studios, 2006), and a number of researchers attesting that fatherlessness is a devastating modern, social trend (Blackenhorn, 1995; Popenoe, 1996), current qualitative research was warranted in order to explore factors that lead fatherless individuals to assume a fatherless identity. In this exploratory case study, semi-structured interviews were conducted to better understand fatherlessness as experienced by adult male case study participants. The study focused on the experiences of men in order to manage the scope of research, and defer to the male experiences that prompted the research. Four men self-identified as fatherless with no imposed research definition by responding to the recruitment question Are You Fatherless? Results indicated that historical ways of defining fatherless were merely factors that intensify the experience; they do not define a person as fatherless. Findings suggested that the father role, family dynamics, emotionality, socio-economic and intellectual factors, disparate ideal and perceived father images, negative emotional connections with fathers, and a sons sense of masculinity all play a part in men assuming a fatherless identity.

<p>Recent research has indicated a significant increase in the crystal methamphetamine abuse in the Western Cape. The study aimed to provide an understanding of the interaction of the social and historical contexts in relation to the life experiences and perceptions of a young person residing in the Cape Flats. Primarily the study aimed to explore the factors that influenced the participant to use crystal methamphetamine. It adopted a social constructionist epistemological perspective and employed Bronfenbrenner&rsquo / s ecological systems theory as the theoretical framework. The subsystems of the ecological systems theory include the individual who is influenced by the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem and the chronosystem. This was a qualitative research study that&nbsp / employed an intensive case study. Data was obtained through series intensive semi-structured interviews that were approximately 40 - 70 minutes in duration. The participant is a coloured female, aged 28 years from a high-risk community in the Cape Flats. Prior to the interview process, relevant permission was obtained from the participant, which allowed the interviews to be conducted and recorded. The data was then analysed using a narrative analysis. The themes that emerged from the research findings include: childhood trauma / sexual abuse during childhood / social milieu and norms / adolescent delinquency / the cycle of abuse / understanding crystal methamphetamine use and the consequences of crystal methamphetamine use. Findings with regard to the individual factors included psychological well-being, depression and negative affectivity, feelings of hopelessness, suicidal ideations, loneliness, past abuse of legal substances, adolescence, delinquency and childhood sexual abuse. The influential factors that emerged within the microsystem were lack of family support, dysfunctional family dynamics, childhood abandonment, uninvolved parents, several custodial parents, childhood disequilibrium, parental modelling and family drug use. Further findings within the microsystem included peer influence viz. direct persuasion of drug use, peer exposure of drugs, experimentation, delinquent behaviour, gang-related involvement and peer group acceptance. The mesosystemic findings included, lack of emotional support or attachments, social support, lack of structure as well as relocating to numerous schools and homes. Findings located in the exosystem were the availability and accessibility of drugs in all the communities in which the participant lived. Findings in the macrosystem included the social environment of the individual, including the social norms of the community and the home setting as well as the norm of violence, crime and gangsterism. The information and knowledge accumulated would optimistically contribute to addressing the paucity of qualitative literature and present knowledge to&nbsp / improve intervention and prevention strategies.</p>

Fatherlessness seems to have instigated a growing political and social debate in recent years (Daniels, 1998). At the core of this debate lies the questions of whether fatherlessness today is more widespread than it has been historically, and whether the necessity and efficacy of fathers is important in the changing landscape of family paradigms (Daniels, 1998). In the last thirty years, research has defined fatherlessness in terms of parental marital status, father abandonment, and father death (Daniels, 1998; Gallagher, 1998; Popenoe, 1996). Some psychoanalysts extended the definition to include the emotional absence (Blundell, 2002), or emotional unavailability of the father (Lamb & Tamis-LeMonda, 2004). Research suggests that children raised by both biological parents have greater socio-economic success (McLanahan & Teitler, 1999), seem to have an intellectual advantage (Research Center for Minority Data, 2009), and are less prone to encounter emotional problems than single-parented children (Cockett and Tripp, 1994). These factors reflect the deficit model of fatherlessness that dominated child development research prior to the 1970s (Hawkins and Dollahite, 1997). More current research focused on the benefits of father involvement and purported that fathers who are more involved in the lives of their children (Day & Lamb, 2004; Pleck & Masciadrelli, 2004), and make themselves more emotionally available tend to raise children with fewer emotional problems and better overall mental health (Lum & Phares, 2005). With society producing what some refer to as a fatherless generation (Hydrate Studios, 2006), and a number of researchers attesting that fatherlessness is a devastating modern, social trend (Blackenhorn, 1995; Popenoe, 1996), current qualitative research was warranted in order to explore factors that lead fatherless individuals to assume a fatherless identity. In this exploratory case study, semi-structured interviews were conducted to better understand fatherlessness as experienced by adult male case study participants. The study focused on the experiences of men in order to manage the scope of research, and defer to the male experiences that prompted the research. Four men self-identified as fatherless with no imposed research definition by responding to the recruitment question Are You Fatherless? Results indicated that historical ways of defining fatherless were merely factors that intensify the experience; they do not define a person as fatherless. Findings suggested that the father role, family dynamics, emotionality, socio-economic and intellectual factors, disparate ideal and perceived father images, negative emotional connections with fathers, and a sons sense of masculinity all play a part in men assuming a fatherless identity.

This qualitative case study seeks to explore and understand how managers work with and perceive the sustainability engagement of a large multinational corporation. The analytical framework used was based on the techniques and procedures of grounded theory as described by Corbin and Strauss (2008), following the key concepts of theoretical sampling and constant comparison of findings. The findings of this study show that engaging in sustainability is a complex process where clear targets and communication is perceived to be crucial for the sustainability performance of the corporation. However, if sustainability is driven by business and becomes a natural part of the everyday work of managers it is perceived as profitability work and a ticket to play. By describing the work, stories, and perceptions of managers working in a corporation, the findings of this study can contribute to contemporary research on sustainability that is often normative in its nature, only telling corporations what to do, but not how this can be done and how it can be perceived. This study also helps inform practitioners, managers as other stakeholders, of how a sustainability engagement affects everyday work.

<p>Recent research has indicated a significant increase in the crystal methamphetamine abuse in the Western Cape. The study aimed to provide an understanding of the interaction of the social and historical contexts in relation to the life experiences and perceptions of a young person residing in the Cape Flats. Primarily the study aimed to explore the factors that influenced the participant to use crystal methamphetamine. It adopted a social constructionist epistemological perspective and employed Bronfenbrenner&rsquo / s ecological systems theory as the theoretical framework. The subsystems of the ecological systems theory include the individual who is influenced by the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem and the chronosystem. This was a qualitative research study that&nbsp / employed an intensive case study. Data was obtained through series intensive semi-structured interviews that were approximately 40 - 70 minutes in duration. The participant is a coloured female, aged 28 years from a high-risk community in the Cape Flats. Prior to the interview process, relevant permission was obtained from the participant, which allowed the interviews to be conducted and recorded. The data was then analysed using a narrative analysis. The themes that emerged from the research findings include: childhood trauma / sexual abuse during childhood / social milieu and norms / adolescent delinquency / the cycle of abuse / understanding crystal methamphetamine use and the consequences of crystal methamphetamine use. Findings with regard to the individual factors included psychological well-being, depression and negative affectivity, feelings of hopelessness, suicidal ideations, loneliness, past abuse of legal substances, adolescence, delinquency and childhood sexual abuse. The influential factors that emerged within the microsystem were lack of family support, dysfunctional family dynamics, childhood abandonment, uninvolved parents, several custodial parents, childhood disequilibrium, parental modelling and family drug use. Further findings within the microsystem included peer influence viz. direct persuasion of drug use, peer exposure of drugs, experimentation, delinquent behaviour, gang-related involvement and peer group acceptance. The mesosystemic findings included, lack of emotional support or attachments, social support, lack of structure as well as relocating to numerous schools and homes. Findings located in the exosystem were the availability and accessibility of drugs in all the communities in which the participant lived. Findings in the macrosystem included the social environment of the individual, including the social norms of the community and the home setting as well as the norm of violence, crime and gangsterism. The information and knowledge accumulated would optimistically contribute to addressing the paucity of qualitative literature and present knowledge to&nbsp / improve intervention and prevention strategies.</p>

This study explored, through naturalistic observations and interviews, the teasing experiences of three dyads of preschool age siblings. The purpose of the study was to gain an understanding of the nature, form, intent, and responses of young children to experiences of teasing within their sibling relationship. Participants in this study included two brother dyads and one male-female twin dyad. The mothers from all three families also participated in the study. During the 50 hours of observation, 54 incidences of teasing were recorded between the siblings. The sibling dyads tended to utilize teasing in a distinctive manner, with teasing having both a role in playful interactions and creating an invitation for play while also being a source of hurtful and mean behaviour. The form of sibling teasing noted throughout this study included components not identified in previous research. The sibling teasing behaviours observed were also distinct from teasing more typical of peers. Taunting and more physical forms of teasing were more prevalent than verbal teasing. Results of the interviews of adults indicate that parents perceive a social and cognitive function for sibling teasing, and that schooling and early childhood programs both facilitate and address teasing and teasing prevention within their programs. Results of the interviews with the children indicate that siblings perceive teasing to have both a playful component as well as hurtful elements. The results of this study hold implications for the understanding of child development. Teasing may function to limit or enhance social skill development as children balance and negotiate aspects of pretense, non-literal communication, and facets of the social context in order to tease and formulate responses to teasing. The results of the study might also hold several implications for educators, parents, and training programs. The parents of this study often felt ill prepared or over-burdened in addressing their children’s conflicts, teasing, and aggression. This finding highlights the need for intervention and education on teasing that targets the home environment, early childhood programs, and schooling. Additionally, resources on the subject of teasing and young children need to be developed.

abstract: This qualitative study explores the learning experiences of two first-grade teachers in a progressive public elementary school in the southwestern U.S. Participants inquired into their literacy instruction practices within their reading-workshops. Weekly inquiry group conversations between teachers and researcher informed a perspective of learning as participation. During the semester-long study, two key questions guided design and implementation: 1) What is the nature of teachers' learning experiences related to their literacy instruction practices, contextualized within an inquiry group? 2) How do those learning experiences reflect and/or refract the community, interpersonal, and individual planes of analysis? An ethnographic perspective informed data collection and analysis; data were collected through weekly inquiry-group conversations, bi-weekly classroom observations, and in-depth interviews. A learning framework of community, interpersonal, and individual planes of analysis served as an analytic tool used in conjunction with a modified analytic induction. Teachers' case studies offer unique accounts of their learning, contextualized within their specific classrooms. Findings are discussed through narrative-based vignettes, which illustrate teachers' learning trajectories. On the community plane, apprenticeship relationships were evident in teachers' interactions with students' parents and with one another. Interpersonal interactions between teachers demonstrated patterns of participation wherein each tried to teach the other as they negotiated their professional identities. Analysis of the individual plane revealed that teachers' past experiences and personal identities contributed to ways of participation for both teachers that were highly personal and unique to each. Affective considerations in learning were a significant finding within this study, adding dimensionality to this particular sociocultural theory of learning. The ways teachers felt about themselves, their students, their community, and their work constituted a significant influence on what they said and did, as demonstrated on all three planes of analysis. Implications for practice include the significance of professional development efforts that begin at the site of teachers' questions, and attention to teachers' individual learning trajectories as a means to supporting educators to teach in more confident and connected ways. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2011

abstract: This dissertation explored how a teacher learned to teach with and about unfamiliar (to her) media texts in her high school English classroom. This study also examined my role as the researcher/mentor in the teacher’s learning and development process. Through situated learning theories (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and discourse through identities (Gee, 2001; 2014a) theoretical frameworks, this study explored the ways the teacher accepted, resisted, and enacted her figured worlds and identities as an English teacher. Historically, texts in the English classroom consist of novels, poems, plays, and the occasional nonfiction book or essay, and English teacher education and development often keeps these texts at the center of English teachers’ content knowledge. However, research exploring students’ use of multiliteracies in out-of-classroom contexts advocates for a multiliteracies perspective within classrooms. Still, there is a lack of professional development opportunities for teachers to support multiliteracies practices in their classrooms. Further, teachers’ professional development is often provided in stand-alone experiences where teachers learn outside of their classroom teaching contexts. Taking place over a six-month time frame, this study is situated as one-on-one professional development mentoring and included researcher and teacher collaboration in multiple contexts including planning, teaching, and reflection. This qualitative case study (Merriam, 1998) sought to address a gap in the literature in how the collaboration of teachers and researchers impacted teacher learning. Using interpretive analysis (Erickson, 1986) and discourse analysis (Gee, 2014a; 2014b) I developed two assertions: (1) The process the teacher underwent from finding resources to teaching and reflection was complex and filled with many phases and challenges, and (2) I, as the researcher/mentor, served as a sounding board and resource for the teacher/learner throughout her process of learning about, teaching with, and reflecting on unfamiliar texts. Findings of this study indicate the teacher’s identities and figured worlds impacted both how she learned about and taught with unfamiliar texts, and how I approached my role as a researcher/mentor in the study. Further, findings also indicate collaborative, practice-based research models (Hinchman & Appleman, 2017) offer opportunities to provide teachers meaningful and impactful professional development experiences situated in classroom contexts. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Curriculum and Instruction 2017