As environmental challenges are increasing in the current era of the Anthropocene, there is a growing need to understand what would instigate pro-environmental behaviour. One such factor that research has suggested is to (re)connect people with nature. This research aims to find out whether school pedagogy can have a role in this by investigating the relation between pupils’ human–nature connection (HNC) and the pedagogy of the school they attend. In order to do this, the study uses ACHUNAS, a recently developed framework to assess where and how children connect to nature. Two types of school took part in the research: one conventional school and two alternative schools, all rural schools. Based on semi-structured interviews and participant observations, the study found that there is indeed a relation between the pedagogical approach of the school and the HNC of the pupils. Alternative schools offered more recurring and more versatile nature experiences than the conventional school, and pupils in alternative schools had developed more abilities of HNC than their peers in conventional schools. Pupils in alternative schools stated that the school had changed their HNC, while in the conventional school half of the pupils stated that the school had made no impact on their HNC. On top of the findings related to the relation between school pedagogy and HNC, the study found two aspects of HNC that could be included in the ACHUNAS framework. / Tendo em vista que os desafios ambientais estão se tornando mais comuns no atual Antropoceno, há uma necessidade crescente de se entender os fatores que favorecem um comportamento sustentável. Um fator sugerido por várias pesquisas é a (re)conexão com a natureza. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo descobrir se a pedagogia escolar possui um papel neste processo, ao investigar a relação entre a conexão com a natureza de estudantes e a abordagem pedagógica utilizada pela escola em que frequentam. Para isto, esta pesquisa empregou o método “ACHUNAS”, desenvolvido recentemente para avaliar onde e como as crianças desenvolvem uma conexão com a natureza. Três escolas do campo participaram desta pesquisa: uma escola convencional e duas escolas alternativas. Utilizando os métodos de entrevistas semiestruturadas e observações participativas, esta pesquisa descobriu que há uma relação entre a abordagem pedagógica da escola e a conexão com a natureza dos seus estudantes. As escolas alternativas ofereceram experiências na natureza com maior frequência e variação comparadas à escola convencional. Os estudantes das escolas alternativas mostraram maiores habilidades de conexão com a natureza do que os estudantes da escola convencional. Os estudantes das escolas alternativas afirmaram que a escola mudou a conexão deles com a natureza, enquanto que a metade dos estudantes na escola convencional disseram que a escola não teve um impacto na conexão deles com a natureza. Além dos resultados relacionados à relação entre a pedagogia e a conexão com a natureza, esta pesquisa descobriu dois aspetos da conexão com a natureza que poderiam ser incluídos no ACHUNAS. / Concepções, práticas e conexão de professores e estudantes com a natureza em escolas rurais no norte de Mato Grosso

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This study is designed to reveal the existing status of public school music in the rural elementary schools of Coryell County, Texas. It is also intended to serve as a tool for the teachers in those schools as they formulate and initiate their music programs. This study also makes the following recommendations: Every rural school in the county should make a close study of the music set-up. Every rural school should initiate a music program that will measure up to acceptable criteria and will meet the needs of the school in order to give equal musical opportunities to all pupils. If there are no funds available for the employment of a music supervisor, all teachers who teach music should have training in public school music in order to be most efficient. It is expedient that all music teachers hold a college degree with a major or minor in music in order to meet the requirements made by the state and to become better qualified for teaching. All rural schools should be equipped with a piano, victrola, and a radio in order that a well rounded music program may be carried out. Music textbooks should be made available for each child in the school, so that all children have the advantages they afford.

This study used the capability approach as a lens to understand teacher quality from both the perspective of educational leaders and practicing teachers in a rural community in central Malawi. The overarching question of this research study was “How can the capability approach inform our understanding of teacher quality from both the perspective of educational leaders and practicing teachers?” The focus questions to guide this research were: What do national educational leaders value in a quality teacher? What do rural, Malawian, female teachers value in teaching? How do these teachers pursue and achieve what they value in teaching? This study included qualitative data collection and analysis of two specific contexts: the official context of educational leadership and educational policy in Malawi and the teacher context of daily life working in a rural school in Malawi. The official context was concerned with the larger field of educational policy that impacts education in rural Malawian communities. These data were collected through document review and semi-structured interviews with educational leaders at primary schools, secondary schools, school zone leaders, and teacher training college staff. Additional data about the official context were collected via review of documents regarding the official definition of quality teaching. The research site for investigating the teacher context was a rural community in the central region of Malawi. Data were collected through interviews and observation of female, primary school teachers from four school sites within a single school zone. The discussion and analysis of the data collected in both research contexts include the values of teacher participants, the ability of the teachers to achieve their valued functionings, common constraints experienced by teachers, as well as comparison of the valued functions of teachers to the valued teacher functions defined by official documents and educational leaders. The discussion and conclusions from this research include policy recommendations regarding teacher quality and thoughts on the further application of the capability approach to understanding teacher quality.

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Title II of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is intended to increase student academic achievement through strategies such as improving teacher quality and increasing the number of "highly qualified teachers" (HQTs) in the classroom. This Federal policy relies on educational research that demonstrates a connection between student achievement and teacher quality. Although NCLB considers each route that teachers may take to meet HQT requirements as equivalent, research demonstrates that some routes may foster higher student achievement than others; those teachers, who met HQT requirements through these routes, are referred to in this study as "research-based HQTs" (RB-HQTs). The quantitative phase of this mixed methodology explores how northern California secondary mathematics teachers in suburban, urban, and rural schools meet "highly qualified teacher" requirements. The subsequent qualitative phase explores the challenges and promising practices in retention and recruitment of RB-HQTs used by those mathematics departments identified as having a "common" or "distinguished" profile of each respective suburban, urban, or rural sub-sample. This study identifies and reports eight strategies used by mathematics departments that have demonstrated success in retention and recruitment of RB-HQTs. The eight identified strategies, when implemented individually or collectively, may increase the proportion of RB-HQTs and improve student academic achievement in each mathematics department across northern California secondary schools, be it suburban, urban, or rural.

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Using ethnographic research in the form of an outcomes assessment, this project aims to unpack and evaluate the experiences of students and significance of the key concepts shared during the Live Algoma-Improvement Science course/and associated projects during the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years. Through the use of evaluative techniques such as interviews, focus groups, and a survey, I endeavor to both strengthen and inform the work Live Algoma is doing and highlight to the community and other stakeholders the valuable impact of this initiative on the students. As part of the Improvement Science course, students from the Algoma School District were trained on key concepts such as failing forward, PDSA, and ways of being to empower them to better handle individual project management, life challenges, and goal setting. While this project was expansive in overall scope, this outcome evaluation sought to understand the retention and internalization by program participants of key concepts imparted from the Improvement Science course and related projects. The findings provide strategic and targeted insights into the success of the course and opportunities for refinements in future Improvement Science courses and school and community projects with Live Algoma and the Algoma School District.