The Georgia Department of Education requires students to earn 4 course credits in the area of mathematics in order to graduate from high school. Academic success for mathematics students in a school district in southern Georgia has been encumbered because teachers lack cultural competency in mathematics instruction, which has hindered minority students from developing reasoning, critical analysis, and problem-solving skills needed to earn these required math credits. The purpose of this project study was to examine teachers' perceptions of using culturally relevant teaching strategies to influence the academic performance of minority students in the mathematics classroom. The conceptual framework was Dewey's progressive education theory. Six high school math teachers were purposefully selected for face-to-face interviews. Interview transcripts were coded using the Coding Analysis Toolkit and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings showed that culturally competent mathematics instruction is important when teaching minority students; however, math teachers were not adequately prepared to teach minority students. Based on the findings, a professional development program was developed for secondary math teachers. Implications for positive social change include increasing math teachers' cultural awareness during instruction to help minority students increase academic proficiency in mathematics.

This study concerns itself with, "The Status of Industrial Arts in the State of Kentucky." This study is divided into the following three divisions: The distribution of students by grades, who are taking industrial arts. Important factors in the organization of industrial arts work. The type and scope of industrial arts subjects or activities being taught.

This Ethnographic Narrative is a research based look into the lives of socially disadvantaged students in a low-income area. It breaks down the assets and needs of each student individually and discusses how to better help them academically and socially based on their individual personalities and needs. The narrative also discusses the community in which these individual students live and attend school, it looks at research on the community to determine how each student is affected by the city that they live in. Finally the narrative concludes by looking at the teacher over the course of this past year and how this teacher developed in their profession and developed with each individual student. After extensive research and hands on experiences, my findings have pointed me in one direction: the more that a teacher gets to know their students outside of their academic skills, the more a teacher is going to be able to work with and mold their students. If students feel appreciated and respected, then they are willing to complete their work with ease. Teachers will have wonderful years in this profession when they truly know the students that they are working with.

The purpose of this ethnography is to examine my journey through my first full year teaching. The main subjects of this work are myself, along with my 10th grade World History students from Monte Vista High School. Through an examination of my personal history, as well as interviews with students and their parents, I have traced my effectiveness as a first-year teacher, through my ability to meet each student’s needs, as well as the development of relationships with each of my three focus students. Through personal anecdotes and the examination of assessment data, I have tracked my student’s progress throughout the year, noting both the successes and failures of my teaching practices.

In response to high profile violent incidents and crimes, many schools have developed plans that address school discipline to create a school climate and culture wherein everyone is valued and treated with respect. The problem that prompted this study is teachers are struggling with effectively implementation prevention program. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of teachers about school violence prevention programs. Guided by Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, this study examined the connection among school violence, environment, discipline and prevention programs; and it explored approaches to creating safe communities in schools. The research questions focused on teachers' perceptions of the implemented strategies, of the barriers to program success, and of supervising roles of high school administrators. The 9 participants were Grade 9-12 urban school teachers who had 3 to 5 years of full time teaching experience and who had 2 to 3 years of work experience at the targeted high school. This qualitative case study described and analyzed data from individual interviews, self-reported observations, and researcher observations. Emergent themes were identified from the data through open coding and findings were developed and validated. The key results were that teachers support a uniform program and security officers help reduce school violence; that program implementation can be strengthened by increased funding, community support and professional development. Implications for social change are that educators, parents, students and community members must work collaboratively to create a safe school environment and a culture of problem solving and resolution.

High schools have undertaken numerous approaches to reduce the number of first-time 9th grade students who do not move to 10th grade with their cohort. The purpose of this study was to determine if a summer program successfully transitioned 9th grade students from middle school to high school environments. Guided by the stage-environment fit conceptual framework, this study explored the effectiveness of a summer transition program at acclimating first time 9th grade students to physical, social, and academic environments. A mixed-method design was used in the study. A t test was used with a sample of approximately 400 archival 9th grader student responses to the Delaware School Climate Survey-Student. Statistical differences in familiarity with physical environments and perceptions of school climate were found between attendees and nonattendees, with attendees reporting better acclimation. A chi-square revealed greater course success for first-time 9th graders in the first marking period and lower 9th grader retention rate for attendees. Acclimation of 9th grade students as perceived by a sample of 10 teachers was explored through individual interviews and analyzed using the constant comparative method. Narratives from teacher interviews suggested acclimation to physical and social environments was greater for attendees. Study results led to development of a 1-day transition program aimed at utilizing effective transition program strategies with the entire upcoming 9th grade cohort. Long-term data collection and disaggregation is recommended to determine lasting effects of the program. Effective 9th grade transition programs may result in social change through increased promotion rates and higher graduation rates.

Formative assessment is supported by research as a process to enhance student learning. A vital aspect in the process is the role of feedback which, based on its use, can support or hinder student learning. The problem addressed in this study was based on the concern of a high school administrator that teachers in the school were not using formative feedback in a manner that supported student learning. The purpose of this instrumental qualitative case study was to explore and understand the assessment and feedback practices of mathematics teachers in a private high school setting. The conceptual framework for this study was a model influenced by Black and Wiliam's theory of formative assessment and by Hattie and Timperley's model of feedback in which effective feedback is the supporting structure of the formative assessment process for promotion of student learning. The research questions were designed to explore the beliefs and practices of 3 mathematics teachers regarding the purpose of assessment and feedback. Qualitative data were collected from archival documents, observations, and a series of semistructured interviews. Data were analyzed by using multicycle descriptive coding and development of themes. Findings included teachers' beliefs, practices and misconceptions about the assessment and feedback cycle in relation to student learning in their classrooms. A recurring theme was that they lacked training in formative assessment practice. A 3-day professional development workshop that integrated and grounded formative assessment research into the daily practice of teachers was developed as a project. Teachers might bring about positive social change as their students develop self-regulatory learning strategies and transfer them into community life.

In order to understand the intricate processes involved in second language teacher development, in the last decade studies in second language teacher education (SLTE) have addressed the need to explore pre-service teachers’ beliefs and emotions jointly as they occur in their contexts of teaching. SLTE researchers have referred to the importance of helping pre-service teachers verbalize their beliefs and try to understand and regulate their emotions as they can serve to explain what, how, and why pre-service teachers do what they do during their practicum experience. In addition, considering future teachers will be passing on their beliefs, values, and ways of behaving and feeling to future generations, SLTE should offer pre-service teachers with models of teaching that will help form ethical, reflective, and emotionally intelligent professionals capable of transforming society. The clamor for peace in today’s world and the globalized nature of the English language emphasize the need to embrace practices in SLTE intended to foster peace. In Argentina (the context of the present study) such practices carry particular relevance, as it is expected from the Ministry of Education that the teaching of foreign languages at primary and high school level serve as tools to promote societal peace. Given the importance of exploring pre-service teachers’ beliefs together with emotions, and on the importance of providing them with holistic approaches to teaching aimed at expanding peace, this study examines pre-service teachers’ beliefs and emotions about an innovative intervention involving the language of peace throughout their practicum semester in an Argentine setting. More specifically, through multiple case studies and narrative approaches, this study investigates four pre-service teachers’ beliefs and emotions regarding peace and the implementation of multidimensional peace language activities (MPLAs) before, during, and after their Practicum I course. In addition, it aims at comparing participants’ beliefs and emotions with their actions as reflected in their lesson plans and in-school teaching experience. Finally, it traces pre-service teachers’ transformation of beliefs and emotions throughout the course, and examines the ways in which reflection facilitates teacher development. Multiple sources were used for data collection, including semi-structured interviews, journal entries, field-notes from classroom observations, lesson plans, and narrative frames. The thematic and content analysis of the data revealed that in general participants believed the MPLA intervention in the practicum (a) gave participants meaningful English exposure, (b) changed their understanding of peace and enhanced their ability to teach peace in EFL classrooms, and (c) led to a more transformative practicum experience. By embodying multidimensional peace the participants were able to become conscious of their beliefs, emotions, and actions regarding the inclusion of MPLAs and understand their teaching practices better, thereby allowing themselves to develop as teachers and peacebuilders. However, it was noted that two pre-service teachers were not able to include as many MPLAs as they had desired, due to contextual factors and previous learning experiences, among other aspects. Limitations of the study are addressed, as well as research and pedagogical implications for the field of SLTE that relate to the need to incorporate holistic, experiential, and contemplative approaches intended to cultivate multidimensional peace.

Teachers bring parts of themselves, among them, gender, age, and race into the classroom. In addition to the routine stress of teaching, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have the added stress of managing the expression of their sexual orientation in the classroom. This study explores the ways in which my own identity as a lesbian influenced my beliefs about teaching, my “pre-active” curricular-instructional decision-making, and my “interactive” curricular-instructional decision-making (Jackson, 1966). A self-study methodology is used to explore these relationships. Data sources include journaling, lesson plan artifacts, student work samples, photographs of my classroom, an observation and critical conversation from a critical friend. An autobiographical sketch and statement of beliefs about teaching and learning also informs the study. Janna Jackson’s (2007) stages of coming out, along with Elliot Eisner’s (1985) explicit, implicit, and null curriculum provide the analytical frame. The results show that as I went through Janna Jackson’s (2007) phases of coming out, my beliefs about teaching and learning through the tools, resources, and classroom environment change to reflect that stage. For instance, once I was out in my classroom, there was more LGBT décor in my class. The findings also indicate my lesbian identity affects the explicit and null more than the implicit curricular-instructional decision-making during the “pre-active” stage of teaching. My lesbian identity affected the implicit and null curriculum more than the explicit curricular-instructional decision-making during the “interactive” stage of teaching. Overall, these findings suggest my lesbian identity and teacher identity are deeply entangled.

The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to explore the roles, responsibilities, and perceptions of writing coaches, a form of embedded professional development, which had the opportunity to assist teachers in deepening their pedagogical knowledge of writing instruction. Furthermore, this inquiry sought to describe middle school teachers' (N = 235) perceptions of how writing coaches may have impacted their beliefs and pedagogy with regard to writing instruction. At the time I conducted this case study, no extant literature existed to describe the roles, responsibilities, or perceptions of writing coaches, and this inquiry sought to fill that void. In an intrinsic case study, the researcher's own interests guide the inquiry. Qualitative data from interviews, observations, and archival data informed the inquiry. Furthermore, a non-experimental quantitative survey complemented the qualitative data. I analyzed qualitative data as I collected it through constant-comparative analysis beginning with open coding of individual cases, proceeding to axial coding across site cases, and finishing with selective coding across site cases, at which point I integrated relevant empirical research. I reported descriptive statistics for the non-experimental quantitative survey data. The findings of this inquiry do not generalize to other populations, but the results of data analysis may inform future study and practice. I uncovered teachers regarded the writing coaches in this inquiry positively, but did not explicitly communicate any change in beliefs or practice with regard to writing instruction. Furthermore, I discovered although writing coaches are deemed "coaches," they spend more of their time performing responsibilities which categorize them as teachers and administrators. A posteriori data trends revealed writing coaches faced many challenges: high-stakes testing, unclear roles and responsibilities, balance of their many roles and responsibilities, micromanagement, and inability to impact teacher practice. Lastly, I outline a model, which requires future testing under experimental conditions, to explain how the challenges writing coaches face may serve to lower their loci of control, perceptions of effectiveness, and job satisfaction. The themes I discovered through data analysis led me to make recommendations with regard to future research and practice. This inquiry described three writing coaches' roles, responsibilities, and perceptions, but future study, both qualitative and quantitative, is needed to more fully describe and explore the phenomenon. The model I developed through qualitative data collect and analysis would require testing in inquiries with an experimental design. I recommend future research in the causal cascade to discover how the efforts of writing coaches and other academic coaches may impact teacher pedagogy and practice and eventually student learning. Furthermore, I endorse future studies into academic coaches' loci of control and challenges. Although this study sought to explore the roles, perceptions, and perceived impact of writing coaches, it truly became a study of the challenges perceived by writing coaches and the factors which may contribute to job dissatisfaction and perceived ineffectiveness. For this reason, I make specific recommendations to support writing coaches in their attempts to perform their jobs excellently.