Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisor: Cindy I Carlson. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, November, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Not available / text

The meaning of relations in school is often given great significance in research and can also be considered as the base for Swedish school policy documents. In spite of this the understanding of students often tends to orient towards the individuals inability to learn. The aim of this study is to describe students’ experience of relations in school and what meaning they give to these relations. In the process of interpreting a life world approach was used to reach the students perspective on relations in school. The method is semi-structured interviews with six pupils on two schools in year 6-9. The result is presented in four themes related to the meaning of relations. The most important result is that relations are of great significance for learning and that it is mainly connected to the teachers’ ability to develop mutual trust together with the students. The teacher gives time and attention to the student and shows by changing the teaching that learning is a collective action. The trust between student and teacher is also a ground for the teachers’ authority which gives a space for the teacher to add new knowledge and help the student to exceed itself. An important finding is that learning, in the students’ point of view, does not contain separate but interlaced processes of new knowledge and personal experience and can be understood as taking different acting positions. Meeting students is therefore a result of the teachers’ ability to shift between different acting positions and being well prepared for this as a part of the daily work in school. The result of the study can be seen as a contribution considering relations in school as a foundation for the learning process. The pedagogical implications can be described in terms of a need for developing a practice of the teachers reflecting over practice in school.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Instructional Systems, Leadership and Workforce Development. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

The problem of this study was to ascertain the role and status of the specialist in human relations in the desegregation of selected public schools in Texas. Its purpose was to review human relations literature in order to compile a list of representative criteria for human relations programs in industry and to describe the human relations programs and roles of the directors in selected schools. An analysis of available information indicated that industrial organizations have given more attention to human relations programs than have the educational institutions of this country, although their problems have been similar. It was in the workshops of the factories, rather than in the classrooms of America, that social scientists developed human relations skills and techniques. The social issue of desegregation of the races has been a battle often fought on public school campuses. These racial confrontations, coupled with conflicts spawned by the rigidity of traditional schools, have signaled the urgent call for human relations programs to alleviate human problems. The background study included a review of relevant literature, interviews with public school officials, and discussions with state and regional educational administrators. The survey technique was used to collect data for the study. Personal interviews were held with public school officials from five representative districts. The remaining participants responded to mailed questionnaires. The following procedures were used to develop the survey questionnaire: (1) construction of the initial survey questionnaire, (2) selection of a jury panel to validate the questionnaire, (3) validation of the questionnaire, (4) construction of the final questionnaire, and (5) administration of the validated questionnaire.

My research interest in the upcoming paper is the increased need for promotion of schools. I. e. the individual school´s needs to be able to show its existence, in the huge flow and availability of information; schools and universities, study circles, streamed lectures on the Internet, public schools and private schools, different educational directions, et cetera. The schools’ needs to market itself, make good PR and sell their pedagogical idea, and that has become increasingly important.   My purpose is to clarify how music teachers, in the Swedish primary and secondary school, skills and competences are used in outreach activities within but also outside, the school premises. With outreach activities I mean here the kind of official events that have cultural, tradition-bearing moves and where music teachers often have an additional responsibility for implementation, such as Speech Days, Lucia celebrations, “Open School days”, PTA meetings, et cetera.   Research issues 1) What is the significance of outreach activities expressed by music teachers and principals?   2) Which motives are expressed by the two occupation categories when it comes to outreach activities arranged by the school and how they can be related to the current governing documents?   3) To what extent are these activities and music teacher's work with these integrated in music as a school subject?   Results Outreach music activities play a big role in getting students to develop and demonstrate the basic knowledge and the breadth to which they dedicated themselves through the school’s music classes. As a consequence of that all students have been able to assimilate basic music skills outreach activities has been important to show the excellence of the pupils which they are happy to show, both for their own lifelong and life-wide learning and the school's ability to do PR for it’s well-functioning music activities. This allows the school to continue the good pedagogical work when new students secure the economic basis for the future. If outreach activities are used to give students control over their learning in the right way, it can additionally help to ensure that students stimulates to take an active part in school development at various levels, locally, nationally and internationally.   Music Teachers' motives for carrying out outreach activities varied between unequivocally curriculum-related goals, didactic goals at the individual level as well as PR and marketing-related reasons, with strong emphasis on the curriculum. A concrete motive for music teachers in the study was that all outreach activities are considered as good opportunities to "jam" with students, to gain experience through music situations similar to those that you can meet as a professional musician in the future, such as "master-apprentice" meetings. The strongest motive was to conduct outreach activities in relation to the substance in the curriculum, such as solo singing, choir, accompaniment, melody playing and to reflect on and discuss the importance of music, different genres, sound engineering, et cetera. For a couple of the principals the promotion of the school was of greater importance than for the others. They simply had to be so well performing that they each fall semester can attract a new first year class with students. Several of the principals in the study made a connection between the schools’ outreach activities and its work with values.   There was an almost unanimous agreement that outreach music activities are an integral and very important part of school music education, both among music teachers and principals. However, there were a couple of principals and even music teachers, who argued that the very large outreach activities were not optimally timed opportunities for assessment. Especially the music teachers in the study were in this respect divided into half’s, where the majority on the contrary argued that outreach activities are very important formative and stimulating opportunities for assessment. Even in this respect, i. e. when it comes to how outreach activities can be integrated in music as a school subject, strong arguments can be made to have requirements of curriculum related issues like singing, ensemble playing, accompaniment, melody playing, sound engineering and really almost everything in the curricula.   A polarization or loyalty conflict between prioritizing curriculum-related goals or PR did not seem to be verifiable, empirical data rather told that the participants in this study saw it as two activities in symbiosis. In contrast, some of the experienced music teachers spoke about the importance of "peeling off" unnecessary and costly project, and instead prioritize things that create greater opportunities for the student's musical learning.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experience of white principals in understanding their white identity, privilege, and power as they worked to implement socially-just and culturally proficient schools. The findings offer insights into the following questions: 1) How do white school leaders view white identity and the impact, if any, it has on their leadership? 2) How do white school leaders relate to students of color, their parents, and the community? 3) In what ways do white school leaders engage in race talk and address issues of white identity, privilege, and power? 4) What challenges do white school leaders experience as they attempt to end racism in their schools? The study was set in a mostly white suburban school district in the Pacific Northwest. It involved three male and two female white principals who were previously engaged in equity training. Primary data sources included two individual interviews and two focus group sessions which were audiotaped and transcribed. Data analysis involved several coding cycles to identify themes related to the research questions. The analyses indicated the white principals engaged in a number of actions which demonstrated leadership focused on becoming culturally proficient. The knowledge and understanding principals gained in the equity training contributed to their understanding of white privilege and white identity. Their ability to name this understanding while interacting with parents and students of color helped to build relationships and created allies in their work. Due to their perceived lack of skill and knowledge related to implementing equity efforts around cultural competence, principals shared a hesitancy to lead staff into meaningful race talk and other work around white identity, privilege, and power. Challenges also arose as principals worked to manage competing district initiatives, limited staff training time, and the need for support. / Graduation date: 2013

[pt] Este trabalho procura contribuir para o debate sobre as relações entre escolas públicas, famílias de origem popular e vizinhança escolar, tendo como referência territórios pobres da cidade, notadamente o conjunto de favelas da Maré. A pesquisa aborda, especificamente,as relações no âmbito do Programa Escolas do Amanhã/ Bairro Educador (PEA/BE), política que se coloca na perspectiva, tanto das novas formas de educação prioritária e compensatória para escolas em territórios vulneráveis, como da reconfiguração dos espaços e tempos escolares e de uma visão ampliada dos espaços educacionais. Do ponto de vista metodológico, um estudo de abordagem qualitativa dessa experiência foi conduzido em escolas públicas municipais de Ensino Fundamental que se caracterizam por serem participantes e não participantes do PEA/BE na Maré. Com o objetivo de indagar a possível existência de diferenças nas relações entre escola-família-vizinhança em escolas que se distinguem basicamente por serem ou não participantes do PEA/BE, foram realizadas entrevistas com diferentes agentes educacionais, escolares, familiares e sociais envolvidos direta ou indiretamente no programa, buscando conhecer a percepção deles acerca dessa política. Particularmente, o Projeto Bairro Educador foi desenvolvido no âmbito do Programa Escolas do Amanhã da Secretaria Municipal de Educação da cidade do Rio de Janeiro (SME-RJ), com a finalidade de aproximar as escolas públicas localizadas em territórios marcados pela violência e que apresentam resultados abaixo da média da sua respectiva rede de ensino, das famílias e de suas vizinhanças, através do uso do território como ferramenta educativa e pedagógica. Os principais resultados da pesquisa permitem afirmar que o Programa Escolas de Amanhã/Bairro Educador não deixou um legado suficientemente consistente a ponto de marcar uma diferença substancial nas relações escolas-família-vizinhança entre as escolas que dele participaram. Uma das possíveis explicações para isso diz respeito à falta de alinhamento entre as orientações do PEA/BE e sua implementação, bem como aos problemas de externalidade, fragmentação e segmentação da coordenação político-pedagógica do BE e à falta de uma orientação mais enfática da SME-RJ acerca dos caminhos a percorrer para atingir os objetivos propostos. O trabalho se encerra com a apresentação de recomendações que pretendem contribuir para a orientação de políticas públicas que tenham como objetivo a aproximação entre escolas-famílias-vizinhança. / [en] This study aims on discussing the relations among public schools, low-income families, and the schools neighborhood, considering poor areas in Rio de Janeiro, specially a community called Maré. The research focuses on the relations within Escolas do Amanhã / Educator Neighborhood (PEA/BE in Portuguese), which considers the perspective of new priority and compensatory ways of education driven to vulnerable areas, as well as school space and time adjustments. A qualitative study of this experience has been conducted in order to analyze elementary and middle public schools in Maré that participate or not in PEA/BE. The objective has been to question if there are differences in the relations among school, family and neighborhood, considering schools which participate in the program and schools which do not. Different educational, school, family and social agents have been interviewed in order to comprehend the way they see this policy. Educator Neighborhood project, in particular, has been developed within Escolas do Amanhã program by the Education Municipal Office (SME-RJ in Portuguese), with the goal of integrating public schools placed in violent areas and with low results in relation to their education network, families and neighborhood, considering territory as an educational and pedagogical tool. The main results of the research show that Escolas do Amanhã / Educator Neighborhood program did not leave a consistent result in building better school, family and neighborhood relations among the schools that participated in the program. One of the possible reasons for it may be the lack of a guideline between PEA/BE and its implementation, as well as problems referring to its political-pedagogical coordination, such as its fragmentation and segmentation. This guideline could come from the Education Municipal Office, pointing to a path that leads to the program s objectives. Therefore, this thesis ends up with some recommendation about public policies that may contribute to closer relations among school, family and neighborhood.